The Secret Teachings, 8


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8

The Beasts as Time-cycles

149-172


p. 151 mythologic symbolism of eclipses

"Elmer ... Suhr, a professor of classical archaeology at the University of Rochester, attempted to unravel ... solar myths, namely those pertaining to eclipses, in a trilogy entitled The Mask, the Unicorn, and the Messiah."


pp. 151-2 Manners and Customs ...

p. 151

"John Gardner Wilkinson, a nineteenth

p. 152

century British scholar ... originally visited the Valley of the Nile in order to regain his health, but ... he remained for more than ten years, producing three profusely illustrated volumes, entitled The Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians. ... This ... pleased the public ..., for his observations were immensely popular in Victorian England."

John Gardner Wilkinson : The Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians. 3 Voll. London, 1879.


p. 153 folly of absurd creeds forced on commoners, while the ruling class holdeth its own occult religion in secret

"We may, perhaps, feel disposed to blame the Egyptian ... exclusiveness in the study of religion ... . ...

{We may, in other regions of the world other than the distant Orient, find blameworthy similar social-class distinctions in religious attitudes and doctrines.

Wilkinson writes, "The common people were taught a blind creed ...,

Indeed, throughout mediaeval Europe, the absurdity of believing a specific mortal human to be God was forced upon the downtrodden serfs,

which was contrary to the spirit of the religion they themselves professed. It was iniquitous ... .""

which absurdity was contrary to the spirit of the gargoyles which were placed atop cathedrals in order to denote that those gargoyles repraesented what were permitted to be worshipped by the ruling class solely. [written 17 Oct 2018]}


p. 154 secret wisdom must be concealed behind a veil of specious folly

"Cyril Aldred, one of the most distinguished Egyptologists of our time -- the Keeper of the Department of Art and Archaeology at the Royal Scottist Museum -- subscribes [1984] to this idea {i.e., doctrine}, ... {based} in large measure on {the authority of} classical authors such as Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, Strabo ..., who "thought {i.e., understood, were informed} that an esoteric wisdom must lie {i.e., be protected} behind the appearance of foolishness." Thus, says Aldred, "originated the myth {i.e., divinely-instituted truth} of the superior and mysterious wisdom of the ancient Egyptians , for is it not mentioned in Holy Writ that 'Moses was learned in the wisdom of the Egyptians' (Acts [of the Apostles] 7:22) ...?""

Aldred 1984 = Cyril Aldred : The Egyptians. Thames & Hudson.


p. 155, Fig. "TWIN LION GODS GUARD THE SUN".

"In the Ritual, the solar Atum {\JTM\, surely cognate with Latin \idem\ ('the same [scil., as one's own intrinsically-and-paradoxically mortal-combined-in-union-with-divine nature]')} is "lighted by the lion gods" as he comes forth "from the great place within the celestial abyss." Says the Osirified {\Osiris\ must be cognate with Strong's 615 \asiyr\ 'prisoner' (from 631 \asar\ 'prison') -- though, curiously, the only "prison" whereto Osiris is ever said to be confined is his coffin}, I have come like the sun from the House of the Lions." On the celestial charts, two lions served to mark the limits of the sun on its journey north and south. {These limits would be the solstices.}

Celsus says to the Christians in Rome,

"Put away ... your lion {Aria-el as Yalda-bahuwt (On the Origin of the World -- GB, p. 418); "Lion of the Tribe of Yhuwdah" (mentioned in Apokalupsis of Ioannes 5:5, with allusion to B-Re>s^iyt 49:9)},

{ought to be "Put forth your lion's paw : the "lion's-paw" (or "lion's head" F9 : A-E:AED) hieroglyph repraesenting the word \PH.\ 'strength', cognate with \fawh.ah\ 'fragrant emanation' (DMWA, p. 856b)}

your god-ass {ass is the animal-emblem of tribe Naptaliy 'of wrestling' (so that Naptaliy, instead of Ya<qob, may have wrestled the mal>ak at Pnuw->el/Pniy->el, mal>ak of the Countenance, regarded as supreme pair of deities [the long and the short of it] in the Zohar)} and

{praesumably, the ass ridden on Palm Sunday : the mode of its being obtained by the mere asking from its owner, is paralleled by the Taoist account, wherein it is obtained for Lao-dan's exit in passing the border-guard -- do note, furthermore, that ginger-plants (the most favored plant in all of China) have leaves resembling those of palm-trees}

your celestial door-keepers {\Petros\ could imply Strong's 6604 \Ptowr\ the city of Bil<am [cognate with Bodish \bla-ma\], the 'interpreter' (\patar\) of omens.},

{Vis.n.u is (according to Atharvan Veda) door-keeper in Svarga. This may have been the original Flamen ('blower' [\flare\ 'to blow' < *\bhla-\], i.e., practitioner of breath-control peculiar to yoga)}

in whose names ... you allow yourselves to be persecuted ... ."

GB = Barnstone & Meyer (transll.) : The Gnostic Bible. Shambhala, Boston, 2003.

A-E:AED http://www.ancient-egypt.co.uk/transliteration/ancient_egypt_dictionary.pdf

{The name (rider?) of ass-headed Tuphon, because that name may reflect *\Thuphon\, from proto-Indo-Germanic *\Dhubhon\, may be cognate with <ibriy \Dowb\ 'ursus/arktos'; and a bear is more capable of wrestling than is any other non-tropical-climate beast.}


p. 156 magnificence of the antient temples, each with an inner sanctum disclosing the deity as a brute

"Egyptian temples have been described as places of exceptional beauty. ... "The sanctuary shines with gold, silver, and amber," writes Wilkinson, quoting Clement of Alexandria, "and with a variety of glittering stones from India or Ethiopia, and the adytum is hung with curtains

of gold tissue. ... {This is "cloth of gold, for the high Altar" (DAMD, p. 6).} {"Cloth of gold" is the common term for sea-silk byssos (TTOM, p. 514b).}

{Byssos (NP-W, q.v.) is "the adhesive fibers of seashells clinging to the bottom of the sea, such as the large Mediterranean Pinna nobilis".}

We are now in the temple, approaching the inner sanctum, the holy of holies ... . ... But no sooner ... draw aside a portion of the veil ..., than you find ...

a cat {goddess BLS-t}, or a crocodile {god SBK}, or a native serpent ...

{Theriomorphic spirits (recruited by a spirit-guide) are commonly employed for shamanry as dream-ensconced spirit-helpers to assist a shaman in locating the strayed health of a medical patient.}

lying before you on a purple carpet.""

DAMD = Frederick George Lee (ed.) : Directorium Anglicanum : being a Manual of Directions for the Right Celebration of the Holy Communion. 2nd edn. London : Thomas Bosworth, 1865. https://books.google.com/books?id=__YCAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA6&lpg=PA6&dq=

TTOM = Salvatore Gaspa; Ce'cile Michel; Marie-Louise Nosch (edd.) : Textile Terminologies from the Orient to the Mediterranean and Europe, 1000 BC to 1000 AD. Zea Bks, Lincoln (NE), 2017. https://books.google.com/books?id=6M4xDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA514&lpg=PA514&dq=

NP-W = Brill´s New Pauly. https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/brill-s-new-pauly/byssos-e222160


p. 157 why deities must shew themselves, to mankind, as brutes

[quoted from Diodoros Sikelos : Bibliotheka Historika] "The gods, in the early ages of the world, being in fear of the numbers and wickedness of mankind, assumed the form of animals in order to avoid their cruelty and oppression."

{A more accurate explanation would be that because the deities are the animate, conscious guises of the aeternal, changeless principles of the universe (in regard to physics, chemistry, etc.), therefore in order to indicate their changeless nature to mortal humans, they appear as animals whose instincts are likewise unvarying.}


p. 158, fn. * Apsinthos ('wormwood')

"And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon a third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters, and the name of the star is called Wormwood. -- REVELATION 8:10-11."

{Reflected in the name of the Apsinthioi tribe of the Gallipoli paeninsula, this feature of the Apokalupsis of Ioannes must very definitely be of Thraikian provenience, a fact which is in close accord with the further fact that it is of the Montanist genre, Montanism being very much Phrugian (another Thraikian tribe).}


{The Black Stone of Makkah (Mecca) is likewise sometimes reputed to be a meteorite.} {Most helminthic infestations (cured by wormwood) are transmitted by promiscuous sexual activities (that is, when a prostitute's customer licketh the intestinal-worm-infected prostitute's anus). This herb, therefore, is largely ingested in connection with prostitution, which can be assumed to be suggested by the original authors of this apocalyse-book.}


p. 159 sextile-and-sexagenary signification of crocodile

"there is indeed a real source from which John {Ioannes, writing at the isle of PaTMos, the name whereof may have been selected as site-for-exile on account of the foreign sojourn by Yis`ra>eliy nationals (brought in by Yowsep) at PiyTHowM in the delta of the Nile} arrived at the number 666 for his mythical beast {or rather, reptile}. Wilkinson tells us that

in Egypt, the crocodile was ... {god of obstetrics, who (AEO"Sobek") "assisted Isis [LS-t] when she gave birth to Horus [H.R]. He also rescued the four mummiform sons of Horus [H.R] (... the human headed protector of the liver, ... the baboon headed protector of the lungs, ... the jackal headed protector of the stomach and ... the falcon headed protector of the intestines) by gathering them in a net when they rose from the waters in a lotus bloom." This net may represent the birth-caul, and the waters whence they rose the amniotic fluid.},

{The TL-MRJ name of the crocodile-god is \SBK\, understood by David H. Kelley to be cognate with Cipacti (a mythic animal sometimes aequated with the crocodile).} {Deities praesiding over internal organs of the body are particularly prominent in Taoist religion, wherein the praeternatural power of viewing them, and communicating with them, within one's body is much-sought for accomplishing various miraculous feats.}

and that, according to Iamblichus, "its number is sixty." ...

[Ploutarkhos] alone has given us the one and only key to the number 666. According to him, the Crocodile lays sixty eggs, is sixty days in hatching them and lives sixty years ... ."

{The sixty-year cycle (arrived at by multiplying the 12-year cycle of planet Jupiter by the 5-year cycle of the 5 internal organs of the body) is in contant use in Chinese kalendar-reckonings.}

Whether this is actually true ... is not important, but ...

{One pertinent fact, is that the Akkadian numeral system is taken to a base of (i.e., is reckoned in powers of) 60.}

for symbolic purposes, ... from them was derived the number 666 employed by St. John."

AEO"Sobek" https://www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/sobek.html


pp. 159-60 honors paid to the crocodile

p. 159

"Strabo, the Greek ... geographer (born 63 B.C.), who is credited with having traveled more extensively than any of his predecessors, ... has something to say about the crocodile. He reports that great respect was shown to the crocodile in the district {nomos} of Crocodilopolis, where "it was peculiarly sacred to


Sebek."

{This name was written \Soukhos\ in Hellenistic Aiguptos.}


Each of the Egyptian precincts, called nomes, was assigned to a particular star or group

p. 160

of stars, and the crocodile represented the polestar. ... Herodotus and Strabo both say that in some places "the animal was rendered so tame as to allow themselves to be touched with the hand."


Their ears were decked with earrings,

{Their external ears are almost absent.}


and their forefeet with bracelets; and [Herodotos, liber 2] "... They were kept in the famous Lake Moeris and were buried, according to Herodotus, in the underground chambers of the famous Labyrinth.""


pp. 160-1 "charade" [rebus]

p. 160

"the Egyptians discovered the principle of charade. This consisted of using pictures of this, "not to denote those things themselves but to indicate certain other entirely different things ..., the names of which chanced to have a similar sound."" (quoted from Gardiner [1957])

{This principle (more often called "rebus", whereas "charade" is more often employed to refer to pantomime) is as yet muchly utilized in Chinese and in Japanese choice of characters for writing of such words as employ phonetic similarities as a basis for written forms.}

p. 161

"{DH.WTJ}, ... or Thoth {Thouth} of the Greeks, was imaged as an ibis;

{PTH.} as a [scarab-]beetle; {H<PJ} as an ape;


{JNPW} or Anubis {Curiously, this Hellenistic rendition \Anoubis\ is borrowed directly from the unrelated Strong's 6036 \<anuwb\, passive particle of [probably not a verb meaning 'to clustre' (for, instead Strong's 811 is 'clustre'), despite the modern meaning 'clustred', of \staphylo-\ in microbiology)] Strong's 6025 \<enab\ 'grape', which ought to aequate with Homeric \staphyle\ 'plummet' : praesumably alluding to a soul's plummeting fall into Tartaros, which is why the plummet's constitution of molubde ('plumbum/lead') is the metal which in Hellenistic times became assigned to Kronos, though (according to Hesi-[h]odos, writing many centuries earlier), the true metal of Kronos is [not lead, but] gold (for, his is the world's "Golden Age"). And more authentically, Kronos went not to Tartaros but to the levin-stricken tower (figured in the card of Tarocchi) on the isle of Elusion : "on either side of death, to keep their hearts untarnished of all wrong, these travel along the road of Zeus to Kronos' (Cronus') tower. There round the Islands of the Blest (Nesoi Makaron), the winds of Okeanos (Oceanus) play, and golden blossoms" (Pindaros : Olympian Ode 2.57 sq -- Th"Elysion").}


{N.B. Strong's relating of his 4718 \staphule\ 'grape' to his 4735 \stephanos\ 'crown' is unlikely, for unlike \stephanos\ (cognate with Vaidik divine name \Stambha\), \staphule\ 'plummet of lead' must be cognate with the leaden \taphos\ 'tomb' (cf. \t.ab\ [DMWA, s.v., p. 642a] 'midriff of palm-frond', which could relate to Palm-Sunday, and thus to Atlantis-disclosing ass-rider Silenos, and to the 70 ass-riders known as Septuagint : S^apat.iym 12:14) : Dio-nusos is renowned for having "descended" [in effect, plummeted] into (GM @27.k) Tartaros in order rescue his own mother; much as Maudgalya-ayana ('Maudgalya's travel' -- for which purpose he was awarded a vimana : MBh, "Vana Parvan" 261 -- PE, s.v. "Mudgala III.1)") descended into Naraka in order rescue his own mother. But \Bromios\ (DG&RB&M, q.v.), "a surname of" Dio-nusos (so-titled because he, Bacchus, i.e., Iakkhos, was brought up as a child by the nymph Brome : L&Sh:LD, q.v.), is derived from \bromos\ 'oat (Avena sativa)', indicating that he was originally a god neither of grape nor of fig, but of oat instead. The notion that Dio-nusos is god of the grape must have been extracted (via fallacious etymologizing of \stephanos\) from the Corona Borealis gifted by Dio-nusos unto Ariadne. [16 Sept 2018] The son of Dio-nusos-&-Ariadne is (DCM, s.v. "Ceramus") Keramos, inventor of ceramics.}


as a jackal; and Seb {also named \GB\} as a goose.

It was the same with the goddesses. Tefnut was represented as a lioness,

{SRQ-t} as a scorpion, {JP-t} as a watercow {dugong/manatee},

{H.QL-t} as a frog, {H.T-H.R} as a fruit tree and Rannut as a serpent."

Gardiner 1957 = Alan Henderson Gardiner : Egyptian Grammar. 3rd rev. edn. Oxford Univ Pr.

Th"Elysion" http://www.theoi.com/Kosmos/Elysion.html

DG&RB&M = William Smith : Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. 1844. https://books.google.com/books?id=sbw_AQAAIAAJ&pg=PA506&lpg=PA506&dq=

\staphyle\ http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0073%3Aentry%3Dstafu%2Flh2


p. 164, Fig. the god JNPW (a name transliterated into Hellenic as "Anoubis")

"The jackal was a type of ... the conductor of souls, who led them up to the horizon ..., as the divine embalmer, chief of the mountain in which the dead were laid. ...

The custom of bringing a dog to the bedside of a dying person, as an escort and guide to the soul, was common with the Hindus and Persians."

{In the Maha-bharata, according the most antique account from Bharata concerning travel by souls of the dead to their destination : while souls of dead humans are walking thither by foot, they are accompanied by a pet hound which is the animal-guise of god Dharma (PE, s.v. "Dharmaputra 13)", p. 230b).}


pp. 164-5 symbolism of the Scarab : boring into the Earth, or flying into the Sky?

p. 164

"the sinking Sun could

{The very reverse! : "the solar beetle ... flies ... into the daytime sky." (That Which Is in the Netherworld, 12th hour -- AEBA, p. 41)}

p. 165

be imaged naturally enough by the scarab boring its way down through the earth ... ."

AEBA = Erik Hornung (transl. by David Lorton) : The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife. Cornell Univ Pr, Ithaca (NY), 1999.


p. 165 divine animals as symbolic of types of human activities

"The typical genetrix and Mother of life was imaged as a water-cow {dugonh/manatee};

the typical Virgin was a heifer; ...

the typical Provider was a goose;

the typical Chief or Leader was a lion;

the typical Artisan a beetle, the Sacarabaeus sacer, or sacred scarab."

{The typical artisan is doing handicrafts, working using the hands of the arm; there may be such an allusion in how (LI, s.v. "Dian Ce`acht", p. 169a) "Miach ... removed a beetle that had nested in the king's other arm".}


p. 165 no immortal recently incarnate

"The priests had told Herodotus [lib. 2, cap. 142] that "no god had taken the form of a man in some 341 generations of men," or some 11,340 years."


p. 167 opprobrious name

"Hesiod {Hesi-hodos 'repose road' : allude to in "Ye shall find repose for yourselves"} ... says that the Fathers called the Revolters by the opprobrious name Teitans ... ."


p. 168 eighth king as personification of the eighth hill

"The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman {city-goddess "Roma"} is seated; they are also {i.e., similarly as Roma is a goddess} seven kings {i.e., are seven hill-gods} ...; one is {that is Collis Capitolinus, the current seat of the government}, the other {across the river} has not yet come {but would come when there would come to be popes residing thereat} ... ." (A. of I. 17:9-11)

{Because the seven kings "are [identical with]" seven hills, then the eighth, that was and is not a "beast", must be the personification of the eighth hill, namely the Janiculum/Vaticanus (across the Albula/Tiberis from the other seven hills). As a beastly "king", this must be the Germanic cognate of \Vaticanus\, namely Old High German \Wuotan\, called in Old Norse \O`dinn\ : he is the king of Walhalla/Valho,l.}


pp. 170-1 primaeval darkness-and-night

p. 170

"From the Egyptians we learn that the first teacher of man was terror, and that the earliest pupil was fear. The teacher was ... the God of Darkness. He was the Black One, the shadow of the night.


Lurking in the shadows after nightfall were the "Jaws of Darkness," symbolized by the Serpent ... ."

{"The serpent hieroglyph had the meaning of "mouth" ... . The "jaws of darkness" ... were the mouth of the monster; and the "jaws of death"" (MGE&D, p. 334).} {Cf. "teeth pulled ... from the jaws of Death." (ZNH:M&M, pt. 2 "Hoodoo", cap. 7, sec. 2 "Ceremonial Dance", p. 241)}

p. 171

[quoted] "The Egyptians," says


Damascius {Damaskios, native of Damaskos in Suria, and NeoPlatonist author of a Philosophical History [thus-styled in the Souda, but otherwise called the Life of Isidoros], which was excerpted by Photios ("R.L. rev. P.A.:D:PhH")},

{This urbane name is derived from Strong's 1834 \Duwmes`eq\ or \Darmes`eq\, with \-MeS`eQ\ = \MuS`aQ\ (DMWA, p. 1068a) 'oakum' : cf. the "typing paper" "thrust into its throat" (ZNH:M&M, pt. 2 "Hoodoo", cap. 2, sec. 5 "Routine to Keep", p. 202); with "put a lighted straw in his mouth" (DDLE, p. 4).}


"celebrated unknown darkness as the one principle of the universe." ... And Aristotle tells us, "the theologians consider all things to be born from night." ...


The Anglo-Saxons also also, like Eastern nations, began their computations of time from night,

{"serpent Apophis ... typified ... the tip of its tail the sunset" (MGE&D, p. 334).}


and the year from the day corresponding with Christmas, which they called "Mother of Night;" and "the Otaheitans {Tahitians} refer the existence of their principle deities to a state of darkness, which they considered the origin of all things."

MGE&D = George St. Clair : Myths of Greece Explained and Dated : An Embalmed History from Uranus to Perseus ... . Williams & Norgate; London, Edinburgh, & Oxford, 1901. https://books.google.com/books?id=u6XhAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA334&lpg=PA334&dq=

"R.L. rev. P.A.:D:PhH" = Robert Lamberton : "Review of :- Polymnia Athanassiadi (ed.) : Damascius. The Philosophical History. Athens : Apamea Cultural Association, 1999." BRYN MAWR CLASSICAL REVIEW 2000. http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2000/2000-01-23.html

ZNH:M&M = Zora Neale Hurston : Mules and Men. 1935. (reprint : HarperPerennial, 1990)

DDLE = Gerald Massey : The Devil of Darkness in the Light of Evolution. https://cdn.website-editor.net/e4d6563c50794969b714ab70457d9761/files/uploaded/DevilOfDarkness_GMassey.pdf


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Gene Kieffer : The Secret Teachings : Unveiling the Luminous Sun Within. Bethel Publ, Greenwich (CT), 2000.