“The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men.” (Lord Acton)
“None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free.” (Goethe)
“We have got to look at thought, both individually and collectively, and that in this process we will come upon some more subtle quality of the mind that will begin to awaken and that can spread. This subtle quality will show up collectively in a sense of impersonal fellowship that generates trust and in the intellect as thinking together in a way that is free of the general pressure toward self-deception that we now feel. This can be the germ of a radically new kind of culture” (Bohm 1991)
This chapter deals with some issues apparent in oversimplification and binary logic of interpretations of ancient cosmology and directives for the future. For this reason Nietzsche is of interest as he is perhaps the first to expose the hypocrisy, but in his attempts to subvert the system offers the other extreme of the same binary logic process. Nietzsche was deeply influenced by the alchemical and occult investigations of the ancients, and it is through this view that aspects of the preceding mindset which influenced the Greeks so deeply, can reveal the cosmological underpinnings of the earlier culture. It will be shown that the ancient Greek interest in a preceding cosmology suffered through the dimensional differences of mindsets, as they had already formed a more simplified cosmology than that which preceded them. Plato was one of the first to write in great detail about the former cosmologies, which is dealt with in chapter five. In this chapter I reveal the primary topological structure of the Phrygian cosmology, a culture whose fame is first noted in the confrontation experienced by Alexander the Great when faced with the puzzle of the Phrygian or Gordian Knot. It will be shown that the complexity related to cutting this knot is an inherent feature of the cosmological underpinnings of the preceding culture, and that from this event a most curious shape known as the Phrygian cap, the Symbolising cap, the Cap of fortune, and the Cap of freedom, has survived through history down to the contemporary world, being transformed from freedom to liberty as the Liberty Cap. It is also revealed that complex instructions for the making of this symbolising cap were well known and reiterated in the work of Lewis Carroll, an author famous for his interest in metaphysics and connected mathematics.
The notion of the eternal return is a figure of cyclic and circular patterns of life and experience, and figures as one of the most prevalent conceptions of the nature of reality present in all cultures. Some reasons for this are relatively obvious, and connected to the basic correspondence between the cycles of the days and nights, of seasonal change, of the waxing and waning moon, of life growth death and rebirth.
The spiral is introduced as identifying the duration over time that cycles occur. The eternal return is seen as a motive of repetition that is extended through the linear progress of time of aging and of development. In this sense the spiral invokes the idea of feedback into a system whereby the accumulation of experience and of information incurred by the cycle itself contributes upon its return to the place of origin, thereby changing the system, changing the cycle, and raising the pattern from a mere loop of repetition to an ever increasing and decreasing spiralisation of relatively linear movement forward in time.
In looking back to the ancient cosmologies, the reading of this conceptualisation of process has been restricted to a merely temporalised interpretation, which in itself reveals a significant assumption concerning the closed loop of the cyclic pattern.
Puech (1957) suggests it is assumed to be an “ideal of intelligibility”:
“Dominated by an ideal of intelligibility which finds authentic and full being only in that which is in itself and remains identical with itself, in the eternal and immutable, the Greeks regarded movement and change as inferior degrees of reality, in which, at best, identity can be apprehended in the form of permanence and perpetuity, hence of recurrence. …..Consequently both the entire cosmic process and the time of our world of generation and decay develop in a circle or according to an indefinite succession of cycles, in the course of which the same reality is made, unmade, and remade, in conformity with an immutable law and determinate alterations. The same sum of being is preserved; nothing is created and nothing lost; moreover, certain thinkers of dying antiquity-Pythagoreans, Stoics, Platonists- went so far as to maintain that within each of these cycles of time, of these aiones, these aeva, the same situations recur that have already occurred in the preceding cycles and will occur in subsequent cycles- and so ad infinitum.
No event is unique, nothing is enacted but once (for example the condemnation of Socrates); every event has been enacted, is enacted, and will be enacted perpetually; the same individuals have appeared, appear, and will appear at every turn of the circle. Cosmic time is repetition and anakuklosis, eternal return.” (Puech 1957)
The intelligibility of the ideal of eternal return discussed by Puech, identifies major complexities, or more precisely oversimplifications in the reading of foundational studies of Western thought. Nietzsche, like Puech, interprets this ancient concept of eternal return as perpetual replay, an archetypal process where the perpetual recurrence of events throws the focus of reality into the ontological plane, where the Will to Become the Superman is the objective. He exalts the need to explore the depravities of the lower moral ground, seeing the struggle of hardship and suffering to be the means through which the will is strengthened. His is a reaction to the flaws that he so astutely sees in the hypocrisy and safe aristocratic falsity of moral virtue that is superficial and false. Yet his solution is not forged out of a higher order complexity, but out of a pendulum extreme, a reaction that seeks to invert and subvert, and in doing so reinstates an entirely new yet equally flawed totalitarian system, based on covert actions, secrecy and an elite new superpower of highly trained supermen.
“His Will to Life has to be increased to the unconditioned Will to Power, to over-power: He believes that danger, severity, violence, peril in the streets and in the heart, inequality of rights, secrecy, stoicism, seductive art, and devilry of every kind- in short, the opposites of all gregarious desiderata- are necessary for the evaluation of man.”
“Such a morality with opposite designs, which would rear man upwards instead of to comfort and mediocrity; such a morality, with the intention of producing a ruling caste.” (Nietzsche: ‘The Will to Powe’r from Beardsley 1960)
He cites the prevailing moral law as requiring
“the future lords of the earth- must, in order to be taught at all, introduce itself as if it were in some way correlated to the prevailing moral and must come forward under the latter’s words and forms. But seeing that, to this end, a host of transitionary and deceptive measures must be discovered, and that the life of a single individual stands for almost nothing compared to the accomplishment of such lengthy tasks and aims, the first thing that must be done is to rear a new kind of man in whom the duration of the necessary will and the necessary instincts is guaranteed for many generations…to prepare a transvaluation of values for a particularly strong kind of man, most highly gifted in intellect and will, and to this end slowly and cautiously liberate in him a whole host of slandered instincts hitherto held in check.” (Ibid.)
The world becomes a psycho-drama in which the individual is expendable in order to achieve the transformation that is intended. The superhuman is one who has mastered the physical domain, whose mind is capable of over-riding extreme tortures and assaults against the body. The superman ideal is concerned with the strength of psychological and mental faculties gained through suffering and hardship.
It is curious to note here the potential in humans to overcome the physical constraints of the body through mental discipline as noted with Buddhist monks or practitioners of Chi Gong, and a variety of martial arts. Twin Dragons Martial & Internal Research Institute of Arts is one of many institutes that explore extraordinary human potential as does the Falon Dufa movement (‘Falun Gong’ was, written by Falun Dafa's founder, Li Hongzhi). In Nietzsche’s philosophy it is difficult to see beyond the ‘Dionysian’ orgiastic indulgence that is based on primal needs and a ‘gross’ as opposed to ‘subtle’ action. As with the Eastern practices that focus on mental control over the physical body, ‘torture’ can be ‘utilised’ as a means to explore and increase ones power of thought and control, that is of mind over matter. The prison for a Buddhist monk can be a monastery, the endurance of physical pain can be transcended, however, such a path has its gross limitations if maintained through projection and externalisation onto and over another.
The intent to develop mental power and control through inflicting suffering on others walks the path that descends to toward the lower extremes of moral depravity can hardly realise the fruits of a higher order expression of the more subtle life and love oriented compassionate ascent toward virtue.
To seek higher order ideals through lower order explorations is a false assumption that is inherent in the rationalisations of the western philosophy. The complexities that reveal this paradoxical thought are cast in a misleading swinging between two extremes, both though of lower order constructs. Freud’s pleasure/pain principle reveals this unitary relationship of extremes. In the extreme of such a space that harbours the indulgence of sadomasochistic tortures to procure sexually gratification, one can certainly reach climactic states through the pain/pleasure threshold, but it is through a descent into a lower form of sensible expression which, although is capable of reaching a point of similarity that is, a point of pleasure and ecstasy, can never be devoid of the physicality of the sadism or masochism. The horrors and psychological imagery inherent in the atrocity itself cannot be obliterated by any means other than dissociation and therefore fragmentation which has shown to lead to multiple personas which in the extreme can manifest as distinct personalities. Such fragmentation requires switching from persona to persona in order to cope with given situations that are difficult to bear.
The descent into the gross aspect of matter and of the physical body, is a restrictive domain which compresses down to a point of rupture. If seen as the opposite of its antithesis, that is the subtle or the etheric, that gross space of matter is compressed, and although it has infinite potential, it is a constricted infinity that moves toward the space of rupture, and of catastrophe. It is the infinite space which moves towards zero, as compared to the infinitude of the subtle and etheric realms that opens outward, into a lightness of being, a delicate space of potentiality that is not constrained by the impact of rupture and release. Fractal geometry, the geometry of singularities, and the nature of infinities and their relationship with zero, reveals the importance of such considerations, as the point of catastrophe is the point of destruction that draws everything into it. It can be likened to the tip of a tornado, though this is a somewhat limited metaphor, it is useful in describing the force and implosion potential into the infinitely small and compressed space of gross climax.
It is as if one indulges in the mirror of life, that is: not in the reflection, but in the inversion of life, exploring depravity, death, torture and mutilation with the intent of reaching some “catastrophe” point of climactic orgasm, a death - indeed a petite mort.
The failure in the West to appreciate the antithesis of such a system, is the failure to realise love, compassion and fellowship. The isolation of the self through fragmentation, or through developing a will to power, separates the individual from the masses. Interaction, meta-relationships, and meta-contextualisation are lost, and the ultimate hope of transcendence thwarted.
Essentially the back reflection of the Western mindset, limited or blocked to the subtle realms and unaware of the dynamics of each of the extreme spaces available in a linear analogue of a spiral configuration, is unable to read the ancient’s work without the assumption that they must be unevolved, less capable and less sophisticated than the contemporary mind.
The history of philosophy as I have maintained is directly influenced by the Hermetic texts, Platonic texts and Egyptian papyrus that resurfaced in the Renaissance, and were available to the ancient Greeks in Alexandria. I have also pointed to gross misunderstanding or misreading of certain texts, specifically the ‘Divine Pymander’ which is the central text of the ‘Corpus Hermeticum’. There are numerous complexities apparent in approaching this field, and as has been the case, most occult ideals are either consumed indiscriminately or rejected indiscriminately.
It is undeniable that the fraternity of Freemasons was throughout the past, as it is now, a powerful influence that exists as a foundation stone of the dominant paradigm’s cosmological outlook. That its influence has constrained the advancement of science is extraordinary in the light of the delicacy of thought found in the ‘Divine Pymander’ and particularly in Plato’s ‘Timaeus’ which reveals a sophisticated and detailed attempt to describe the cosmology that preceded the Greeks and which is treated in detail in chapter five.
The very intelligibility of the system of circularity described in the more recent interpretations of Plato’s cosmology and of other ancient Greeks, casts the Rota as a two dimensional circle, the end joining with the beginning, and the perpetuation of the cycle maintaining a continuous recreation of the same elements. This common reading is undeniably superficial, and assumes that Plato himself was obscuring an inherently simple structure.
If it was the case that the cosmology of the ancients was such a simplified construct, then a simple description, that is, a statement such as “it is like a circle”, “it is like a snake eating its tail”, which has been the way that Nietzsche and others have assumed to it to be, would have been made, and the need for detailed and confusing descriptions would have been averted.
Interpretations of alchemical studies have been oversimplified to the extent that they have been completely misunderstood. It is also apparent that the complex work of Jung, who tried to flesh out the complexities, has been similarly negated to the detriment of the contemporary world.
In order to approach the complexities inherent in the former cosmological constructs, I will progress on a way which initially may seem indirect, but if the reader perseveres, s/he will see that the branching of knowledge was planted in soil that was already far removed from the detailed and sophisticated science of the preceding cultures.
As with most reconstructions of the ancient past, it is difficult sorting out material that is written through the filter of a cosmological ontology at odds to the culture in question. It is well known that translations and misinterpretations are common, in fact the assumption that literate records are more reliable than an oral tradition is quite unfounded. Generally such an assumption considers, rather simplistically, that an oral tradition is prone to change over time. In order to illustrate this the common example of Chinese whispers is invoked, a game that reveals a rapid transformation of information over a short time and between a few people. This is however an example of the way in which a “Flatlander” argues against a system of being that he has no cognitive access to. In conversation with Dr. Dianne Bell we discussed such a problem. Her anthropological research reveals that there is an extraordinary preservation of information, noting that contemporary ceremonial songs still performed today are strikingly similar to the original recordings made by Elkin and others so long ago. She was able to recognise particular songs from these recordings, which is very revealing, considering that she is not a native, that it is not her native tongue, and that the recordings are relatively primitive. We discussed reasons why it may be that an oral tradition, mistakenly assumed as preserving no truth, could preserve information so consistently, and arrived at the conclusion that due to a matrix of expression, that is the collective use of dance, rhythm, song, and symbolic imagery woven into ceremonial ground paintings, the information was encoded in such a manner that it was fixed and easily transferred with strong preservative potential. In a similar way, the nature of children’s songs and chants have been passed down through generations, some being highly complex, and many when studied over time, are only altered through additional or substitutive phrases determined by fashion.
In an examination of ‘Oral Memory in Australian Aboriginal Performance ’ Udo Will of the Ohio State University confirms that
“the concrete rhythmic structure as a consequence of song language and the more abstract features of text lines, like number of syllable and syllable duration pattern, is crucial for understanding the role of rhythmic-textual units in the transmission of an oral tradition. The specific rhythm of a text line is produced through a series of physical, bodily actions, the singing of the sequence of line words. Additional constraints for text lines exist at the level of number of syllables per line and pattern of syllable duration. Text lines are generally repeated immediately and memory is greatly aided through these repeated actions. Furthermore, line repetition occurs at least twice for each line in a small song.” (Will 2004)
It is the meta-contextualisation of information constrained by a matrix of formulaic constructs which “clearly indicates the effectiveness of (such) mechanisms in terms of accuracy of transmission” and “are obviously enhanced by additional factors… such as social aspects of performances and ceremonial context on recall” (ibid.).
In the Vedic scriptures many of the chants concern specific mathematical details. The 16 basic Sutras are found to be “ ‘word formulas’ which solve numerous mathematical problems by using an advanced and highly intelligent system of mental one line arithmetic used by the Hindus more than 2,000 years” (Jain 2003). When such a chant is learnt, the knowledge is etched into the mind of the student in similar ways that children learn the common calendar “thirty days has September …”. It is often the case that reliance on such a rhyme to adulthood is evident in the need to recite the lines until the information is revealed in order to recall whether or not a month is 30 or 31 days long. Memory and transmission formulated through poetic meter encapsulates information in a way that is holistically contextualised. The ability for educated people from the more classically oriented traditions to recall extensive and complex poetry was common place and the caution that books will signal the death of memory, ascribed to Socrates, is significant as nowadays few students are required or encouraged to memorise information to such an extent.
The idea of “Chinese whispers” is certainly applicable to the succession of knowledge that has occurred through literate cultures and in numerous ways. Some of the difficulties that researchers face when dealing with both ancient texts and transcriptions of oral information copied into manuscripts, concerns the misrepresentation of concepts, mistranslations and the succession of copied manuscripts which have been edited or added by the author/scribe, often revealing a multitude of complexities. An article on “mouvance” by Dr. Bella Millet concerning the research project called “Wessex Parallel Webtext” which “aims to link research and teaching by producing scholarly editions freely available on the World Wide Web for student use”, notes some of these issues (Millet 2006). Millet suggests a form of multidimensional editing that transcends Cerquiglini’s multidimensional approach which considers no text as ‘privileged’ (and therefore requires simultaneous access to all manuscript evidence and requires years of grinding labour even for short works) to a process which chooses a single manuscript as representative of the textual tradition edited in light of the tradition as a whole (ibid.).
These issues concern the primary problems faced by editors in making ancient texts available for research, and are compounded when transdisciplinary research is negotiated in terms of synthesising conceptually relevant issues concerning meaning and context of mythological narratives, genealogies of gods and the meaning of symbolic ideographs.
Further, if one is approaching ancient material from the perspective of a contemporary cosmological construct, interpretation is necessarily coloured by the cultural filters through which one perceives the information. To reject the whole of any thesis is to reduce one’s critical capacity to that of binary logic. There is as much truth in some of the elements of Darwinian evolutionary theory as there is with some of the elements of Intelligent Design, yet each opposing camp generally dismisses the other without considering the intellectual environment of the author, the different cosmological orientation, epistemology and ontological basis through which the work has been negotiated. The longevity of ideas, their resistance to extinction if you like, is a necessary identification of there being certain truths which strike a chord in the heart of whoever upholds such a view. Having been so conditioned through an epistemology of binary logic, it is extremely difficult not to fall into the habitual problem of comparative judgement, collapsing and reducing the subject in hand with dismissal. For the purposes of this thesis, the breadth of the fields that I negotiate, and the purpose for which this thesis has been forged, I am aware that any shortfalls will be due to such a fault in my own analysis.
With respect to the problems brought to light in the previous chapters, looking into the past or into different cultures worldview presents great difficulties. The extent to which meaning is revealed by an author of revelatory transmission to the audience and even to herself, depends entirely on the cognitive ability of the viewer. Given that, in light of this current project, the human as transceiver of information is engaged in an inflow of information, an epiphany, a “guided transmission” such as is the case with channelled information or automatic writing and noted in numerous cases of scientific revelation where the scientist may spend years anchoring the revelation through hypothesis. This means that the receiver is open to information external to him or herself. The Zeitgeist, or the notion of a collective unconscious, or for that matter a collective consciousness, a group mind or a noo-sphere, although often and in my view mistakenly considered emergent, concurs with such a description. The notion of emergence is one that is glued to the conceptual framework of linear evolution, Einsteinian physics and reductionist empiricism, and hence is a construct formed out of a reduced epistemological framework.
A number of scientists and mathematicians have reported such occasions. According to the story Hamilton told, on October 16th, 1843 Hamilton was out walking along the Royal Canal in Dublin with his wife when the solution in the form of the equation
i2 = j2 = k2 = ijk = − 1 suddenly occurred to him and he promptly carved this equation into the side of the nearby Broom Bridge. The Indian mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan simply stated highly original mathematical theorems, none of which have been proven to be false. Friedrich Kekule wrote that he discovered the ring shape of the benzene molecule and solved the problem of how carbon atoms could bond to up to four other atoms at the same time, after dreaming of a snake biting its own tail. And Nikola Tesla, one of the most extraordinary inventors of all time, wrote in his autobiography that he could envision in great detail his inventions before setting about to construct them.
The concept of “perennial philosophy” concerns the acceptance of this higherdimensional reality a priori, and such ideas run throughout the course of the entire history of ideas. However, as Loemker writes:
“The problem of clarifying a conception of a perennial philosophy thus itself reflects thought about the entire history of philosophy, with respect to the question of the place of this history in the philosophic task itself.” (Loemker 2006)
The following are a collection of quotes that exemplify the essence of the perennial philosophy:
“but possess yourself of It by the very elimination of [individual] being, and you hold a marvel! Thrusting forward to This, attaining, and resting in Its content, seek to grasp It more and more, understanding It by that intuitive thrust alone, but knowing its greatness by the beings that follow upon It and exist by Its power.” (Plotinus: Lycopolis, aujourd'hui Assiout, Égypte, v. 205 — Campanie, 270;, Enneads, 30:3: 10; from Turnbull: ‘Porphyry, Life of Plotinus’ 1936; p. 116)
“Natural knowledge is that which the soul can acquire through the use of its natural faculties and powers when investigating creation and the cause of creation -- in so far, of course, as this is possible for a soul bound to matter… Supranatural knowledge, on the other hand, is that which enters the intellect in a manner transcending its own means and power; that is to say, the intelligible objects that constitute such knowledge surpass the capacity of an intellect joined to a body, so that a knowledge of them pertains naturally only to an intellect which is free from the body. Such knowledge is infused by God alone when He finds an intellect purified of all material attachment and inspired by divine love.” ( ‘Philokalia’ (Ist-4th centuries A. D.), Vol. 2: Christianity, Orthodoxy St. Theodoros, the Great Ascetic in Theoretikon’, pp. 39-40)
“Transcendental Intelligence rises when the intellectual-mind reaches its limit and, if things are to be realized in their true and essence nature, its processes of mentation, which are based on particularized ideas, discriminations and judgments, must be transcended by an appeal to some higher faculty of cognition, if there be such a higher faculty. There is such a faculty in the intuitive-mind (Manas), which as we have seen is the link between the intellectual-mind and Universal Mind. While it is not an individualized organ like the intellectual-mind, it has that which is much better direct dependence upon Universal Mind. While intuition, does not give information that can be analyzed and discriminated, it gives that which is far superior, self-realization through identification.”
(Lankavatara Sutra, (milieu Ve siècle), Buddhism, Mahayana Ch. VII, p.315, in Dwight Goddard: ‘A Buddhist Bible’)
“My learning is different from that of others in the fact that with me every word comes spontaneously. Although I have uttered tens of thousands of words, they all are expressions of what is within me, and nothing more has been added. Recently someone has commented of me that aside from [Mencius'] saying,’First build up the nobler part of your nature’ (1) I had nothing clever. When I heard this, I said, ‘Very true indeed.’ “ (Complete Work of Lu Hsiang-shan (Hsiang-shan ch’uan-chi), 34:5a, in Wing-Tsit Chan: ‘ Chinese Philosoph’, chapter 33)
The perennial philosophy is a philosophical perspective that unifies the profound essence of the spiritual traditions from the East and West, as well as indigenous worldviews, all of which are so often rejected as mystical or superstitious or worse as primitive and savage. In S. M. Malik’s psychology detailed in ‘The Conquest of Cosmophobia’ (1972) such sentiments litter its pages as the linear perception of evolutionary theory in all simplicity which locates the savage as a primary (infant) human condition engaged in trivial forms of magic and superstition and far less intellectually capable than the civilised (adult) human. His notion of “cosmophobia” is used to “designate both contemporary civilisation, notably the institutions of religion and marriage, as well as clinical paranoia and psychopathy”. “Post cosmophobia” is a concept used to designate “future of civilisation after outgrowing contemporary cosmophobic institutions”. Malik’s equation runs like this:
Savagery = precosmophobia; civilisation=cosmophobia; schizophrenia =precosmophobia; therefore, savagery = schizophrenia.
What is most revealing about this rationalisation is that its “reason” is indicative of an oversimplification which fails to see the higher rendering of spiritual constructs, and reduces the psychology of the numinous, intuitive and revelatory potential to a purely schizophrenic state.
This is diametrically opposed to the renderings of some of the recent physics which overtly aligns its ontological underpinnings with Eastern metaphysics, spiritual traditions and perennial philosophy of the West, and indigenous worldviews, as exemplified in David Bohm’s talks with Krishnamurti (Peat 1996), David Peat’s analysis of ‘Black Foot physics’ (1996) and George Johnson’s analysis of the Tewa pueblo of San Ildefonso (1996). From the perspective of this “new” ontology the schizophrenic mind is located in the civilised culture’s lack of coherence, and in the psychopathology of maintaining high moral virtues in civil service and service to the State on one hand and committing acts of moral atrocity to any enemy of the state on the other. This form of psychopathology is inherent in any totalising agency of power and hierarchy, and is deeply analysed in ‘Political Ponerolog’y by Andrzej M Lobaczewski (2006), which concerns a new branch of science: ponerology - the science of the nature of evil adjusted for political purposes, a study of the founders and supporters of evil regimes to determine what common factor is at play in the rise and propagation of man’s inhumanity to man.
If we consider that the aetiology of such ideals comes from a cultural cosmology that precedes the Greeks, built upon knowledge inaccessible to the Greeks themselves, it may be possible to renegotiate what has become a relatively superficial rendering of highly complex systems of thought. Many theorists, amongst them Samuel Sambursky (1987), consider that early Greek concepts are “based entirely on intuition”. This assumption, however, does not take into consideration the extensive influence from the Eastern cultures that Alexander the Great had conquered. At the time of Alexander’s triumphs the political situation in Greece was not necessarily democratic or peaceful, and as the death of Socrates foretells, the freedom of speech that had been cultivated through public forums, had degenerated to a far more self conscious and fearful society.
Like the legendary Gilgamesh, the great king of Uruk, Alexander was intent on achieving great deeds through which he would be immortalised forever. This saw him conquering all that was before him, developing some of the most sophisticated battle strategies, some still in use today. He ‘liberated’ the Egyptians from the Persians in 332 B.C., and was considered the son of their God Amon (Popovic 2006). His Oath, taken during a symposium in the presence of 9000 officers and elitists of all races: Hellenes, Persians, Medons and others, reveals his quest for there to be a universal humanity under his rule. Alexander’s objective was to achieve a universal humanity, not unlike the quest presented by Hobbes in 17th Century.
“It is my wish now that wars are coming to an end that you should all be happy in peace. From now on, let all mortals live as one people, in fellowship, for the good of all. See the whole world as your homeland, with laws common to all, where the best will govern regardless of their race. Unlike the narrowminded, I make no distinction between Greeks and Barbarians. The origin of citizens, or the race into which they were born, is of no concern to me. I have only one criterion by which to distinguish them, virtue.”
“For me, any good foreigner is a Greek and any bad Greek is worse that a Barbarian. If disputes ever occur among you, you will not resort to weapons but will solve them in peace. If need be, I shall arbitrate between you. See God not as an autocratic despot, but as the common father of all and thus your conduct will be like the lives of brothers within the same family. I, on my part, see you all as equal, whether you are white or dark-skinned. And I should like you not simply to be subjects of my commonwealth, but members of it, partners of it. To the best of my ability, I shall strive to do what I have promised. Keep as a symbol of love this oath which we have taken tonight with our libations.” (Alexander 324 BC)
His rhetorics reveals an elitism and racial prejudice even thought it is couched in language that supposes the opposite. It is the double speak of the forked tongue. While-ever there is a sovereign rule, while-ever a social system is based on the possession of land of nations, and while-ever the destruction of the native language is instigated, thereby crushing the victims thoroughly through the decimation of their central identity, there is totalitarian tendencies. Whilst he was a great leader, a great strategist, a great warrior, his rule was an intellectually refined and politically manipulative machine, which instrumented the total assimilation of the invaded peoples, stripped of their identity through the imposition of the Greek language (Hall 1989). He was/is the archetypal superman, mythically emulated as the most powerful war strategist and hero of the past.
His actions though, as legend has it, reveals a mind ill equipped to deal with the complexities of paradox. It is said, that in the year 333 as he passed through Phrygia, a land noted as being difficult to get to, which may be the reason for it remaining so long in a state of virtual preservation. Alexander came upon a cart tied with an elaborate knot that had no beginning or end. Gordias had driven into Phrygia with his family in an ox cart at a time when Phrygia was without a King. The oracles had revealed that the next person to enter the kingdom in an ox cart would be the king. Gordia took up his position and tying his cart to a post, dedicating it to Sabazios. Whoever could undo this knot would become heir to the land of Phrygia. Alexander is said to have simply cut the Gordian knot with his sword. But as Plutach notes,
“most authors tell the story that Alexander finding himself unable to untie the knot, the ends of which were secretly twisted round and folded up within it, cut it asunder with his sword. But Aristobulus tells us it was easy for him to undo it, by only pulling the pin out of the pole, to which the yoke was tied, and afterwards drawing off the yoke itself from below.” (Plutach 75 A.C.)
Whatever the case may be, this prophetic act saw him become the ruler of Asia. With this single blow to the Gordian knot, the gross transformation of a highly refined culture was at hand. The Gordian knot was a knot that had no beginning or end. It was a puzzle that raised the epistemological and ontological ground into higher dimensions. Cutting through such a knot or pulling it out by its pin, was synonymous with reducing the nondual duality of this cosmology to a binary gross statement of power and authority.
Sabazios is the nomadic horseman in the sky and as consort to the great mother Cybele, or Kybele, assumed to be the father god of the Phrygians, and the precedent of Zeus. There is also a connection with Judaism as it is thought that the Jewish Yahveh Sabaoth descends from an early Jewish cult of Jupiter Sabazios (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabazios). The words Sabazios and Sabaoth are so similar, that it is likely that such a transition occurred through the subsuming of a former culture. Many scholars assume that the transformations in religious constructs were a gradual development, but the “barbarians” were the largest source of slavery, and as we will see in the chapters that follow, their spiritual systems were twisted. It is a common fact that when one culture overpowers another, targeting the belief system is often the means through which subversion occurs. Similarly, the Christian date for Jesus’ birthday has more to do with the festivities that focussed on the winter solstice than any truth. The solstice festivals thought to have developed around 4,000 years ago in Mesopotamia, were supposedly developed as a 12-day festival of renewal, around the time when the sun offered the shortest days. These Mesopotamian festivals were apparently designed to help the god Marduk tame the monsters of chaos for one more year (http://www.candlegrove.com/solstice.html).
The “monsters of chaos” refers to Tiamat, the Earth Goddess of the former culture, who was ripped apart and her body pieces used to form the various landforms, in order for the new male god to take his place as creator (Shlain 1998). This is a likely example of another usurpation and quite violent in its imagery, of a former cosmology, and, as we will see, the cycles of catastrophic ruptures are most likely the means through which the female as overarching creatrix was dethroned and patriarchal control assumed. Whilst numerous mythologists assume the nomadic horseman as identified with the iconic hero battling the chthonic serpent (and hence has been linked to Saint George and Saint Michael), it is more likely that the wandering winged horse with rider signifies the blazing eternally returning and destructive comet, and hence the identity of the thundering war lord, Zeus. The ‘zios” (dues=god) element in his name is further reason for the assumption that the Greeks associated Zeus with the Phrygian Sabazios, who until Roman times is depicted as a nomadic horseman god, wielding his characteristic rod of power.
If one looks at the imagery in the mosaic floor of the only remaining temple of Mithras, there are some important clues to the preceding culture of the Phrygians.
The following images and text are from http://www.ostia-antica.org/regio5/9/9-1.htm.
The following text is written by the research group Internet Group Ostia (IGA) and the images are by Eric Taylor:
Regio V - Insula IX - Mitreo di Felicissimus (V,IX,1)
“The Mithraeum of Felicissimus was installed in a building from the second century AD, with modifications dated to the third. The shrine was probably installed in the second half of the third century. At the west end of the latericium south wall is a semicircular wall-niche, starting at 0.70 from the floor, 1.00 wide, and 0.80 deep. A door in the west wall was blocked when the mithraeum was built. In the north wall are three openings, two of which were blocked with vittatum, while the third became the entrance of the mithraeum. Along the sidewalls are podia, the preserved height of which is 0.20. An altar or niche must have been set against the back wall, but has disappeared.
Between the podia, and between the door and the niche is a black-and-white floor mosaic, with depictions in panels created by black bands.”
“Behind the door is a small well (diam. 0.40). It is in a panel with depictions of a krater, symbol of the water, an altar with a burning fire, and two caps with a star, symbols of the Dioscures, who represent the two celestial hemispheres. In the panel near the back wall is an inscription with the name of the person who financed the shrine: FELICISSIMVS EX VOTO F(ecit)
Below the inscription is a krater flanked by branches, symbols of nature that is flourishing again through the blood of the bull that is killed by Mithras. In the remaining seven panels between the podia are references to the planets and grades of initiation. In the first panel, near the entrance of the shrine, are a caduceus, a reference to the planet Mercurius, a raven, a reference to the grade corax, the herald of the sun. Between the caduceus and the bird is a small vessel. The left part of the second panel has disappeared. A diadem with a moon-crescent is a reference to the planet Venus. Below is a lamp, belonging to the grade nymphus. In the third panel is a helmet, symbol of the planet Mars. Above it is a lance, attribute of the grade miles. To the left is a bag, another reference to the miles.
In the fourth panel is a bolt of lightning, symbol of the planet Jupiter. To the left is an object looking like a spade, but perhaps a simpulum or ladle. It is a reference to the carrying of fire and the grade leo. In the centre is a sistrum, perhaps a reference to the Magna Mater, who is often seen with lions. In the fifth panel is a moon crescent, symbol of the moon, Luna. Below is Hesperos, the evening star. To the left is a hamatus ensis or falcatus ensis, a sword, the symbol of the grade Perses. Below the star is a pruning knife, also belonging to this grade. In the sixth panel is a crown with ribbons and seven rays, symbol of the sun, Sol. The grade that is under the protection of Sol is the Heliodromus. To the "runner of the sun" refers the object to the right, a whip for the golden and fiery horses. The torch to the left symbolizes Phosphoros, the morning star. In the seventh panel is a pruning knife, attribute of the planet Saturnus. The Phrygian cap to the left belongs to the highest grade, pater, the head of the Mithraic community. To the left are a patera and a magical object, a rabdos, an ebany stick, used to promote the initiates to a higher grade. Through the seven planetary spheres, through the seven grades of initiation the faithful came closer to Mithras and Sol. Some could reach the eighth sphere, of endless light. From literary sources we know that the initiates wore masks and special clothes.”
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The inscription of Felicissimus, with a krater flanked by branches. | Patera, rabdos, Phrygian cap, pruning knife. |
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Torch, crown with rays and ribbons, whip. | Sword, moon crescent,
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Spade, sistrum, and bolt of lightning. | Bag, helmet, and lance. |
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Diadem with moon crescent and lamp. | Raven, small vessel and caduceus. |
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Two caps with a star and a krater, near the entrance. | Detail of the altar in front of the niche. |
Not only are there important references to Phrygian symbolism; this temple also encapsulates significant history concerning the Masons. It is well known that the Rosicrucians linked Mithraic symbolism to Masonic material (Jennings 1884), and if Robert Lomas and Christopher Knight are correct in their hypothesis concerning the Hiram Key (1997) which extends Masonic ritual to the time of the death of Seqenenre Tao and consequent birth of the new kingdom in Egypt, then this mosaic floor may hold non-trivial keys to the usurpation of the Phrygian culture and twisting of its cosmological symbols in the hands of a fascist elite, a veritable root of ponerology.
Much research is required to flesh out the truth that lies behind this temple floor. Whilst the interpretation above is based on a significant knowledge base, the symbol assumed to be a lightening bolt is unconvincing, and the correspondence between the helmet and the cap grouped with a spear, may be more suggestive of the twist from a peaceful culture to that of a warring dictatorship. These conjectures will become clearer as the reader passes through following chapters.
Phrygia was a very ancient land, thought to have existed from 1,200 to 700 BC. It is important to note that worshipped Earth Goddess Cybele was a deity whose provenance recedes into antiquity to about 7,000 BC or perhaps further. She was the Earth Goddess, the Sky Daughter, the wife of Saturn and the Mother of Jupiter. She was considered the Mother of all Gods and Men, and symbolised the rhythms of life, death and rebirth; as such she was the divine mother (Chevalier and Gheerbrant 1996). As the major female deity of the time she had a counterpart in the sky god, her consort who was nomadic. Anyone exploring myth and symbolism will find that this is a subject which is extremely interconnected, partly due to the numerous invasions and tactics of warring parties, usurpation of the feminine and patriarchal heritage. Many mythologists are in the awkward position of tracking into the past, from an eternally recurring motif of destruction, subverting the truths of the previous culture, and supplanting a twisted construct indicative of a complete lack of respect towards the terrorised culture.
The various wars between goddesses and gods may be seen as political and social control operators, that are a part of an assimilation process whereby the overlay of a new dominant culture assumes the former culture’s cosmologies as best it can, twists the essential details for its own purpose, and in the process of enforcing a new national language, subverts the culture from within. There is usually no respect for the former beliefs, nor much respect for the beliefs that are overlaid. They become in essence a religious construct benign and useful as a tool for indoctrination and social control. These tactics can be recognised with every wave of patriarchal usurpation of the Goddess, which Leonard Shlain reveals is undeniably associated with the domination of an alphabetic language structure (Shlain, 1998). Comparing the pictographic depictions of matriarchal cultures with patriarchal alphabetic constructs, and examining writings of lamentations of the past written in early alphabets, we find a shift from creative, non defensive poetics and love of life orientation, to offensive, warring, taxing, officious documentation of profound profanity (ibid.).
In Robert Lomas and Christopher Knight’s book ‘Urials Machine the Prehistoric Technology that Survived the Flood’ (2000) we are told that instead of an apparently sudden emergence of an ancient but civilised world in what is called the cradle of civilisation, there is proof of a much older civilisation. This civilisation was an advanced people that had almost been wiped out in a global catastrophe so terrible that its traces still survive today in the universal myth of the Flood. They cite written evidence in the Dead Sea Scrolls that confirm the most arcane part of ancient Masonic tradition, the Book of Enoch (See http://reluctant-messenger.com/enoch.htm for online book), and suggest that this provides the key to our understanding of the fate of our true ancestors. They also offer evidence that our planet was hit by several mountain sized lumps of comets, creating a series of giant waves that ripped across the globe, and that this ancient civilisation was able to build a series of sophisticated calendar machines which could measure the diameter of the planet and accurately predict comet impacts years in advance (Lomas and Knight 2000).
If Robert Lomas and Christopher Knight are correct about the correspondence of early Neolithic science with the cataclysmic knowledge of comets, the nomadic sky god may well be associated with the potential disasters that numerous cultures had already survived. Archaic and modern scholars alike make a gross assumption that the earlier populations were of a less evolved intelligence. Lomas and Knight certainly question this hypothesis in favour of a highly sophisticated science. What they fail to reveal, however, is the feminine and matriarchal, orat least Goddess worshiping aetiology. The dating of the return of the comet corresponds with uprisings of patriarchal dominance and shift from Earth Goddess to the Sky God having the major influence and object of worship. The memory of such destructive events and the consequent psychological effect generates a new archetype that reduces the “eternal return” into an inversion, whereby the patriarch imposes his will through fascist tendencies and aspirations to posses the totality of the planet, and control its entire people in a manner that the Sovereign State assumes authority over. This psychology is one that has lost all faith in the Oracle, or in the transcendent-immanent intelligence of life. It is possible that due to the catastrophe and the presumed failure of the Goddess to prevent such a thing, the patriarch steps in and takes over, subverting the authority of the gods, emancipating men from their influence and control, and denying any higher order intelligence as source of truth. In a sense it is a rational and even reasonable reaction. Prior to this time, everything was honoured and considered sacred, every aspect of everything was deified. For such a natural disaster to occur, the blame, projection and consequent reduction of the power of the feminine was the primary objective at the foundation of the building of civilisation, which was constructed in a time of deep psychological insecurity. We can see through this new reading of the myths, Gilgameshes’s tirade against nature (Sanders 1960) and Marduk ripping apart the Goddess Tiamat as a grand and brutal statement against her authority (Shlain 2000).
Also Alexander rages against the natural world trying to control everything in a manner that whilst emancipated from the gods, insecurely maintains a certain level of connection with the gods, albeit for political purposes of solace. With this reduction of the former cosmology, mankind still notes the synchronicities and reads the wrath of peace of the god as certain responses to the realm of human action, and even though there has been a great rupture, still raw in the human psyche the experience of dispossession fuels a rage and terror against all that is able to be projected upon. It is not difficult to see through the psychological parameters of the situation. His anger and frustration against the female Earth Goddess turn evil chthonic serpent, and against the position that woman are thought to have held, which however was less dominating that many would have us believe (Eisler 1987). This mortal Sun King, perpetuates an eternal cycle of destruction, under the assumption that he can BE God and wielding his intelligence and mental dexterity, wages war upon the father Sebazios (oedipal) and ‘fucks’ (destroys) the mother (Cybele), matter–earth.
The etymology of the word ‘fuck’ is of extreme importance when considering the inversion of such a space as the act of making love, and indeed the true act of creation, in conception. This word has been subverted to a purely physical exploitation and rape of the feminine, of the earth, of the virgin, of Sophia, of wisdom and of philosophy itself : as Boethius (480 -525) says in his ‘Consolations of Philosoph’y, one of the most important philosophical texts written through the Dark Ages. It was written while he waited for his execution, and written as the divine light of Philosophy herself spoke to him in consolation of his lack of intellectual prostitution:
“Thinkest thou that now , for the first time in an evil age, Wisdom hath been assailed by peril? Did I not often in the days of old, before my servant Plato lived, wage stern warfare with the rashness of folly? In his lifetime, too, Socrates, his master, won with my aid the victory of an unjust death. And when, one after the other, the Epicurean herd, the Stoic, and the rest, each of them as far as in them lay, went about to seize the heritage he left, and were dragging me off protesting and resisting, as their booty, they tore in pieces the garment which I had woven with my own hands, and clutching the torn pieces, went off, believing that the whole of me had passed into their possession. And some of them, because some traces of my vesture were seen upon them, were destroyed through the mistake of the lewd multitude, who falsely deemed them to be my disciples. It may be thou knowest not of the banishment of Anaxagoras, of the poison draught of Socrates, nor of Zeno’s torturing, because these things happened in a distant country; yet mightest thou have learnt the fate of Arrius, Seneca, of Soranus, whose stories are neither old nor unknown to fame. These men were brought to destruction for no other reason than that, settled as they were with my principles, their lives were a manifest contrast to the ways of the wicked.” (Boethius 480-525)
It may be stated as abhorrent and indicative of the mentalised concrete attitude of contemporary philosophers, that Alain de Botton could call his excursion into Western philosophy ‘Consolations of Philosophy' without reference, other than the title, to such a profound text as is Boethius, which reveals already the dire state that civilisation itself was in and had been in since its inception.
The importance of Phrygia for Alexander was that it became his primary source for slaves (Phrygia 2006). However, the importance of Phrygia for the future struggles of the new patriarch’s determination for civilisation is phenomenal. Its culture, science, spirituality and - of primary importance - its cosmology, would inform the philosopher’s of ancient Greece. Its social policies and attitudes toward the higher ideals of human freedom, reveals a stark contrast to the Oath of Alexander. And held within the history and symbolism of the Phrygian Cap, is a truly rich comprehension of freedom and compassion which has been inverted/perverted through fascist tendencies, doctrines of necessity, and sovereign rule (ibid.).
The impact that Alexander had on Phrygia was enormous. Its symbols, myths and rituals were subsumed and transformed into symbols of power and liberty as opposed to freedom. As we shall see, the cap is a central motive of the Phrygian cosmology, and its significance will be revealed throughout the following pages. The use of such a motive as an icon of war and liberty is ultimately a ‘gross’ inversion of its deeper meaning. Interestingly, the symbolic transformation of its meaning is extremely similar to the symbolic transformation that occurred at the hands of Hitler, concerning the Swastika, itself a symbol of eternal return, of cycles, of regeneration, of process, wholeness and interconnection.
“There is nothing new under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9-14 NIV)
| ostia.antica.org Patera, rabdos, Phrygian cap, pruning knife. Photo: Eric Taylor It is difficult to not consider these icons as a reference to the roots of the divinatory tarot whose suits are swords, cups, wands, and coins. Is it possible that the paring knife become the sword, the phrygian cap the coins, the rod- wands and the vessel the cup. |
| chnm.gmu.edu An ancient coin with the Phrygian cap, radiating light, and the words ‘service du conseil 500’. The Phrygian cap became synonymous with republican liberty: liberty denotes the liberation from enemy or rebel forces- little remains of the symbolic association to unity collectivity, freedom and fortune. |
| cmonedam.com.mx
Obverse: Mexican National Coat of Arms with the eagle facing the front; in the perimeter the inscription "REPÚBLICA MEXICANA" (MEXICAN REPUBLIC), the coining date and a rim of dots (1869)
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| cmonedam.com.mx Reverse: Radiant Phrygian cap with the word "LIBERTAD" (FREEDOM) inscribed and the design that represents the three governmental powers: balance, "LEY" (LAW) inscribed and a sword; "50" and the word "CENTAVOS" (CENTS), the mint mark, the assayer's initial letter "C", the coin's fineness and a rim of dots. |
| chnm.gmu.edu “Attribute of the bishop, it symbolizes the clergy. It was used more than the mitre or the cross, emblem of the lower clergy.” |
| rottonsplane.ru Psilocybe semilanceata , named Blue Leg, Liberty Cap, Magic Mushroom, Pixie Cap, Witch's Hat Re: Allegros Mushroom and the Cross (MCP) |
| rainfall.com Translation of Marianne wearing a Phrygian cap and holding a shield and sword. This style of depictinglLiberty figures is an ironic twist showing a female as liberty justice as opposed to the symbol of freedom. |
| diggerhistory.info - allied forces “With the storm of war brewing behind her, a personification of America sleeps. She wears a Phrygian cap, a symbol of liberty since Roman times. This poster tells all of America to wake up and do their part for the war effort.” |
| townhall.com "They had made England feared and respected throughout the world. He forgave the protector his many crimes against the republic because of the glory he brought to England, and continually sought out the records of his life, his work, and the survivors of his family.”
townhall.com “Hollis was a one-man promoter and propagandist for liberty and radical Whiggism. He was a one-man Liberty Fund: he published beautiful books with the intent of spreading the ideas which they held. Hollis understood that people liked to hold beautiful books in their hands; the "feast of reason" would be enjoyed all the more if it were artfully presented.” |
| townhall.com “many Liberty Prints which Hollis sponsored: John Milton, Andrew Marvell, Algernon Sidney, Edmund Ludlow, and John Locke.” Eminent philosopher, statesman, plotter, economist, and physician, it is hard to find any area of 18th century thought on which Locke was not a significant influence. 1st Earl of Shaftesbury was his most important friend. “ |
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“As author of the Essay Concerning Human Understanding and the Two Treatises, he made his place in the philosophical and political pantheons. Large portions of the interpretation of the American political experience and ideology revolve around the interpretation of John Locke's ideas and the impact that he had or didn't have on the American Founding Fathers. He was a close friend of Newton, Montagu, Somers, and Boyle he was involved with the Bank of England, recoinage, and the Royal Society.” |
| cubana.cu - Cuban flag “The escutcheon is crowned by a Phrygian cap and exhibits the solitary star, representing the independent and sovereign character of the island. Its red colour represents the blood shed in the struggle. The escutcheon is bordered, by an evergreen oak branch, representing strength, and by a laurel branch, representing victory.” It is interesting to note that the staff upon which the cap is placed is the fasces, the bundle of sticks symbolising the collective under the rule of the fascist dictator. This NeoRoman icon of dictatorial power is emblazoned throughout Masonic symbolism in the west, it features on the throne of Lincoln in the clutches of the eagles claws, and reveals the very basis upon which the current globalising forces rest. |
| crwflags.com “I was up at the Senate Armed Services Committee today and can confirm that the actual flag in use is blue with yellow fringe, with the "liberty cap" seal in color.” |
| arizonacap.com “Extremism in the defence of liberty is no vice. Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” (Barry Goldwater) binary logic breeds a gross confusion of conceptual ideas. Justice, liberty, vice and virtue, the split between right hand deeds and the deeds of the left or sinister hand is born out of the separation and identification of the state and its enemy. |
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arizonacap.com “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” (John Adams)
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arizonacap.com “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” (Thomas Jefferson) |
| arizonacap.com “Free nations have a duty to defend our people by uniting against the violent …America and our allies accept that responsibility.” ( G.W. Bush) |
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army.mil The Phrygian cap supported on the point of an unsheathed sword and the motto, "This We'll Defend", on a scroll held by the rattlesnake, is a symbol depicted on some American colonial flags and signifies the Army's constant readiness to defend and preserve the United States. |
| army.mil Reminiscent of the sky god Sabazios? This emblem concerns the mustang corps. “His service not only protects our country, but helps to protect oppressed people like the Iraqis, who haven’t known freedom in decades. The sacrifices that you and your loved one make are what make our country great. Thank you and God bless.” (John W. Allen LTC, Armor Commanding) |
The table above shows the Phrygian cap which initially was offered as a cap of freedom to visitors from other nations as a sign of inclusion. The first image reveals its early depiction with a pruning knife. It very quickly became transformed to a symbol of ‘freedom’ through liberty, courage, strength and heroism. It is a symbol that has been used by numerous cultures, most of which belong to the English speaking world; and all belong to the Western tradition of materialist cosmology and binary dichotomies.
This shift from freedom to liberty, is a foundation stone that informed the Age of Reason, and has its roots in the ancient Greek world of Alexander’s empire. Liberty justice is a rule of moral virtue and service to a Sovereign State that is divinely ordained. Alexander’s self-proclamation as Sun King was just that. He signifies the original Man God.
The religious morals upheld through the birth of civilisation and on through history to the contemporary era, have been a superficialisation of a preceding culture’s deep spirituality. It has been passed down as a foundation stone of civilisation, and informs all institutionalisations of the sacred. The doctrine of necessity, and the justification of ill deeds, the consequent sacrifice of individual freedom or indeed life, for the liberty of the state is the fundamental operator of the game of civilisation itself. The moral virtues and codes of conduct are part of a new system where man himself is emancipated, or more likely disillusioned and chosen to relinquish the very concept of an overarching power or intelligence in the natural world, or of the Gods, as he is now operating as the divine ruler, where his own wilful acts are seen to be inspired and informed by God. It is interesting to note that the reality of divine intelligence or intelligence in nature has never been fully rejected, however, through its reduction directed into a abusive and destructive relationship with the material world; it is through synchronicity that the meaning fields of a human and divine relationship is maintained. “Strike me down with thunder God if I am wrong! No thunder? I must be right!” The battle is won; the victor has God on his side. The plans to put terrorist’s commands in action are not thwarted, so therefore it must be Allah’s will.
I have no intention of belittling the notion of synchronicity, nor of intelligent design,
on the contrary, my intention is to point out the oversimplification that has occurred through ‘gross’ reduction to binary codes.
The thunder claps as I say something; it must be profound.
In a system that is driven by constructs that are totalising, that is, a system that assumes the dominant mindset is universal, the evolutionary outcome of humanity under the influence of ‘selfish’ or ‘evil’ genes and memes (Dawkins 1976, Bloom 1997) fails to notice that there is no unified, coherent or universal appraisal of such a mindset. All cultures are lumped together without differentiation of the formative influence of the worldview. For the dominant materialist ‘civilisation’ such postulations are ‘true’. If seen as a sub-totality, informed by the cosmological constructs that is its cultural ‘memes’, then the evolution of this sub-totality may be appreciated for what it is. The constant replay of cycles of ‘evil’; acts of justified atrocity in service to a god, or to the state, or to the ruling class, with the counter balance of acts of superficial philanthropic ‘good’ and civil service, is the balance that is necessary to redeem the heart through the final judgement of the private self.
Ultimately, the scales of Justice are necessarily empty on both sides to allow for the weight of one’s left hand deeds to be compared to the weight of one’s right hand deeds. It is a twisted convenience to contrive the scales of justice in one hand of a female ‘liberty’ and in the other her sword as if she was the perpetrator of all these deeds, again the Eve syndrome with a slightly more covert twist, as the original formulation of such an archetype was conceived through a completely different mindset. The scales of justice that one would meet at death, the final personal judgement of the heart and soul, were not empty on both sides. The heart would be weighed against the feather.
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Left: “Liberty- Justice”. With sword in hand and empty scales of justice, the separate hands of service to an ancient impostor god/ruler, the acts of evil and acts of good are weighed. "A nation's foreign and domestic policies and actions should be derived from the same standards of ethics, honesty and morality which are characteristic of the individual citizens of the nation.” (President Jimmy Carter) |
Right: In the ancient world, the weight of the heart was judged against the weight of a feather. M’AAT the Egyptian Goddess of Truth, a major symbolic archetype that figures in Masonic Ritual (Lomas and Knight) is now discarded in favour of Liberty Justice. |
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This is significant, offering further evidence to suggest that Lomas was quite right in assuming that the Masons, at least in Protestant England and Scotland, make no assumptions that the symbolism in their rituals stand for anything but a curious and imaginary, untenable and irrational ideal.
The Phrygian cap was a true symbol of freedom, but after the usurpation of the feminine and inversion of the true archetypal significance follows a distorted history from sacrificial rites of fire worshipers, to libertarian conservative military significance. This post-patriarchal history is documented in Hargrave Jenning’s book ‘The Rosicrucians’, first published in 1887 and reprinted in 1966. The following text draws heavily from this work:
“The Phrygian Cap, in itself a significant hieroglyph, the classic Mithraic cap, the sacrificial cap, or bonnet conique, all deducing from a common symbolic ancestor, became subject to a succession of changes. The Mithraic of Phrygian cap is the origin of all priestly mitre in all faiths. It was worn by the priest in sacrifice. When worn by a male its comb was set jutting forward, when worn by a female, it bore the same prominent part in reverse, on the nape of the neck, as in the instance of the Amazon’s helmet, displayed in sculptures that depicted Pahhas-Athena as in the figures of Minerva. The peak, pic, orpoint (the term ‘cocked hat’ is a case in point) all refer to the same idea. This point had a sanctifying meaning afterwards attributed to it, when it was called the christa, crista, or creat, which signifies a triumphal top, or tuft.
The ‘Grenadier Cap’ and the loose black Hussar Cap, derive remotely from the same sacred, Mithraic, or emblematic bonnet, or high pyramidal cap. It is this instance, changes to black, because it is devoted to the illustration of the ‘fire-workers” (grenadiers), who, among modern military, succeed the Vulcanists, Cyclopes, classic ‘smiths’, or servants of Vulcan, or Mulciber, the artful worker among the metals in the fire, or amidst the forces of nature. This idea will be found by reference to the high cap among the Persians, or Fire-Worshippers; and to the black among the Bohemians and in the East.
All travellers in Eastern lands will remember that the tops of the minarets reminded them or the high-pointed black caps of the Persians. The Phrygian Cap is a most recondite antiquarian form; the symbol comes from the highest antiquity. It is displayed on the head of the figure sacrificing in the celebrated sculpture, called the Mithraic Sacrifice” (or the Mythical Sacrifice), in the British Museum.”
The previous reference to the fire sacrifice is most revealing and it can be seen by cross translation, that is through Latin to English and then back from English to Latin, that the meaning of these words becomes more understandable. This cross referencing has been revealing as the subtle differences with a one way translation are potentially missed.
Concerning the words AGNUS DEI it is assumed to simply mean ‘Lamb of God’. However, it is a direct reference to fire sacrifice as the word AGNUS refers to the Sanskrit “agni”, hence connected to “agnus” (fire). The Latin AGNUS simply interprets as “lamb”. Reduced to lamb, the significance of the fire sacrifice is reduced with a substitution of the meaning “agnus” = “fire” to “agnus”=”lamb”. The lamb was the most common sacrifice killed in the temples as an offering to God, a practice notably abhorrent to Jesus himself.
This can hardly be a trivial substitution as there is a significant correlation to the word “God” himself being identified with fire. It is not the fire of light, but of wrath and fierce burning.
It is difficult to separate the potential of this substitution as a Roman inflexion concerning the Judaic God Yahweh, the rite of fire sacrifice and the projection of the death sacrifice for God, from the responsibility of Pontius Pilate to the high priests of the Jewish faith.
Warren Carter, Professor of New Testament at Saint Paul School of Theology in
Kansas City, points out that it is a common mistake made by scholars to diminish the power and authority held by Roman governors, and hence project the blame of Jesus’ crucifixion on the Jewish priests of the time. He notes that the Apostle’s Creed, a prayer spoken by all Catholics, states that Jesus “suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried”. Roman governors had incredibly powerful and strategic roles in the Roman imperial system. “When this information is brought into the interpretive process, Pilate emerges as a powerful figure who played a central role in Jesus’ death. His use of the death penalty against a troublesome provincial indicates that he is not politically neutral, that political dynamics pervade the scenes, and that he is not weak or coerced” (Carter 2004).
The institutionalization of Christianity at the hands of the Romans requires sensitive research to flesh out the formative influences of the Church itself, as the arguments to this day rage concerning intelligent design, religious constructs of all faiths, and the role that politics and economics, including the role the construct of civilisation itself has, to play in the power that the head of Church and State maintains.
Judaic God and hence the Catholic God seems to have serious correspondents to the Fire God, and refers to the usurpation of the feminine and the most foundational of religious reforms that instated the mantel of divine authority to the wandering nomadic male consort or partner to Cybele, which may have direct correlations with the fiery eternally returning wrathful initiator of the ‘end of days’ that is the comet that Lomas and Knight speak of. This line of thought will become plain as we move through the following sections.
The actual words AGNUS DEI would be more appropriately translated as FIRE GOD rather than Lamb of God, as we see from the following lists a little further on.
Whilst some may not see the significance in these translations, it is important to note the implications of this ‘reform’ in reference to the Phrygian Cap and its earlier meanings of freedom as opposed to liberation, of its association with a knife or blade and hence sword of liberty, which in earlier pictures of the Mithraic temple mosaics is actually a paring knife as opposed to a sword, and the direct correspondence with Fire worshippers, as Jennings notes in the earlier quote at the end of the last section. He also tells us, as does Blavatsky and numerous others, that this is the more ‘gross’ comprehension of working with the light (Jennings 1887) .
The Phrygian Cap was known in the 1800’s as the Symbolising Cap (Jennings 1887). As the word ‘symbol’ means pulling together, and ‘diabol’ as its opposite means pulling apart, this raises a curious issue to the identity of the FIRE GOD, the worshipping of FIRE as a dissipative and entropic fragmenting and transmuting potential, an idea that I raise now for the reader to keep in mind as we continue. As the primary symbols from Phrygia correspond so deeply with Rosicrucian, alchemical, and esoteric literature, as well as with military insignia, flags, liberty/justice and numerous civilising icons of power and strength, it is important to dwell in this space for a moment. It is also justification for producing within this text such a detailed account of the meanings of the words that follow.
From the Notre Dam Latin to English Translation Dictionary, and there are similar results from other dictionaries, when we reverse the translation from English to Latin an interesting revelation occurs. The translation of the word LAMB:
agna -ae f. [a ewe lamb].
agnellus -i m. [a little lamb].
agninus -a -um [of a lamb]; f. as subst. , [lamb's flesh].
agnus -i m. [lamb].
lambo lambere lambi [to lick]; of rivers , [to wash].
The translation of the word GOD:
DEI means: deicio -icere -ieci -iectum [to throw, cast, hurl down]; with reflex., [to rush down]; of upright things, [to throw to the ground, fell]; of persons, [to kill, bring down]. In gen., [to fling away or aside]; naut., deici, [to be thrown off course]; milit., [to dislodge];[to eject, dispossess; to shift] a person from an opinion, attitude; [to disappoint]. Hence partic. deiectus -a -um, [low-lying; dispirited, dejected].
The relationship of this word as a prefix reveals similar meanings:
deiectio -onis f. [throwing down; eviction from property].
deiectus (1) -a -um -partic. from deicio; q.v.
deiectus (2) -us m. [a throwing down; a declivity , steep slope].
deiero -are [to swear].
dein see deinde.
deinceps [one after the other , successively].
deinde and abbrev. dein: of space ,[from that place]; of time, [thereafter, thereupon, then, afterwards]; in enumerations, [next, and then].
deiungo -ere [to disconnect].
In the following translation of the English word GOD to the Latin, we can see clearly that most references to the feminine, that is to the GODDESS, have positive connotations, such as festivities, the sea, emotions, happiness, poetry, agriculture, bread cereals, hunting, virgin, open air, good fortune, night, moon, flora, seasons, magic, enchantment, rainbows, births and deaths, music, literature, arts, science, weaving, spinning, abundance, help, protection, muse, wisdom, marriage, fate, honour, love, resources. Bellona as goddess of war, is the only reference to battles.
To the masculine GOD, the meanings are associated with war, medicine, law, sun and sky, desire, power, ambition, avarice, wealth, devotion, curse, the lower world, nobility, faithful, servant, calamity, doom, misfortune, marriage, agriculture, death, inferno, shepherds, sea, emotions, vows, contracts.
GOD:
abomino -are and abominor -ari dep. (1) [to deprecate]: 'quod abominor' , [god forbid]. (2)
[to hate, detest].
Aesculapius -i m. [the god of medicine]. Hence subst. Aesculapium -i , n. [a temple of
Aesculapius].
Anubis -bis or -bidis m. [an Egyptian god].
Apollo -inis m. [Apollo , god of the sun, born at Delos]; 'ad Apollinis' (sc. sedem), [to the
temple of Apollo]. Adj. Apollinaris -e, and Apollineus -a -um.
Ares -is m. [the Greek god of war , Latin Mars].
Bacchus -i m. [the god of wine]; meton. , [the vine, or wine, or the Bacchic cry (Io Bacche)].
Adj. Baccheus, Bacchicus, Bacchius -a -um.
caeles -itis [heavenly]; as subst. , [a dweller in heaven, god].
caelicola -ae adj. [dwelling in heaven]; as subst. [a god].
cupido -inis f. and poet. m. , [longing, desire]. Esp. [desire for power, ambition, avarice];
[physical desire, love]. Personified, Cupido -inis, m. [Cupid, god of love]; plur.
Dis Ditis m. [a name of Pluto , god of the Lower World].
Erebus -i m. [a god of the lower world]; hence [the lower world]. Adj. Erebeus -a -um.
Hermes or Herma -ae m. [the god Hermes , identified with the Roman Mercury].
Iuppiter Iovis m. [Jupiter , the Roman supreme god]; 'sub Iove', [in the open air].
Mars Martis m. (old form , Mavors), [Mars, god of agriculture and of war]. Transf., [war,
battle, fight]. Adj. Martius and poet. Mavortius -a -um, [of Mars]; 'Martius
(mensis)', [the month of March]; [warlike]. Adj. Martialis -e, [of Mars]; m. as
subst. [a priest of Mars or soldier of the Legio Martia].
Mercurius -i m. [Mercury , messenger of the gods]; adj. Mercurialis -e, [of Mercury]; m.
pl. as subst. [a corporation of traders at Rome].
Morpheus -eos m. [god of dreams].
Neptunus -i m. [Neptune , god of the sea];
