let the sleeping giant lie

You don't get far into the first book of the Bible, Genesis, when you are confronted with a strange story of giants who roamed the earth in antiquity. Not only that but it is written that they mated with the daughters of humans and had children.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Giant

Here is the passage from Genesis chapter 6, verse 4 in the King James Version:

4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

and here is a translation from the New Century Version:

4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days and also later. That was when the sons of God had sexual relations with the daughters of human beings. These women gave birth to children, who became famous and were the mighty warriors of long ago.

The giants were called the Nephilim and they were mighty warriors of old. It is difficult to explain this in a literal sense without a serious leap of faith on the part of the reader though many have tried due to this desire to accept the Bible as a literal account of creation and history of the Jews. I think this story is explainable if we take it as myth and also accept the fact that these myths were borrowed and adapted from other cultures of the old world. Let's get a better handle on the topic before we start making some connections.

From Clarke's Commentary on the Bible we can can glean this information about the meaning of Nephilim and the meaning behind the terms mighty men or mighty warriors:

There were giants in the earth - נפלים nephilim, from נפל naphal, "he fell." 

The same became mighty men - men of renown - גברים gibborim, which we render mighty men, signifies properly conquerors, heroes, from גבר gabar, "he prevailed, was victorious."

The non canonical pseudepigraphic text of the Old Testament called the Book of Enoch mentions the Nephilim and elaborates on the story a little more in detail. Their leader, Semjaza, leads the descent of the fallen angels to earth to consummate with the comely daughters of the earth.

Book of Enoch Chapter 6 1 And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto 2 them beautiful and comely daughters. And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: 'Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men 3 and beget us children.' And Semjaza, who was their leader, said unto them: 'I fear ye will not 4 indeed agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin.' And they all answered him and said: 'Let us all swear an oath, and all bind ourselves by mutual imprecations 5 not to abandon this plan but to do this thing.' Then sware they all together and bound themselves 6 by mutual imprecations upon it. And they were in all two hundred; who descended in the days of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon, and they called it Mount Hermon, because they had sworn 7 and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it

The punishment from the Lord for their great sin was to bind them to the valleys of the earth for seventy generations.

Chapter 10

And the Lord said unto Michael: 'Go, bind Semjaza and his associates who have united themselves with women so as to have defiled themselves ¹² with them in all their uncleanness. And when their sons have slain one another, and they have seen the destruction of their beloved ones, bind them fast for seventy generations in the valleys of the earth, till the day of their judgement and of their consummation, till the judgement that is ¹³ for ever and ever is consummated. In those days they shall be led off to the abyss of fire: and ¹⁴ to the torment and the prison in which they shall be confined for ever. And whosoever shall be condemned and destroyed will from thenceforth be bound together with them to the end of all ¹⁵ generations. 

Later on it is revealed that these fallen angels who lusted after the daughters of men were cast down into Tartarus.

Chapter 19 1 And Uriel said to me: 'Here shall stand the angels who have connected themselves with women, and their spirits assuming many different forms are defiling mankind and shall lead them astray into sacrificing to demons as gods, (here shall they stand,) till the day of the great judgement in 2 which they shall be judged till they are made an end of. And the women also of the angels who 3 went astray shall become sirens.' And I, Enoch, alone saw the vision, the ends of all things: and no man shall see as I have seen. Chapter 20 1,2 And these are the names of the holy angels who watch. Uriel, one of the holy angels, who is 3 over the world and over Tartarus. Raphael, one of the holy angels, who is over the spirits of men. 4,5 Raguel, one of the holy angels who takes vengeance on the world of the luminaries. Michael, one 6 of the holy angels, to wit, he that is set over the best part of mankind and over chaos. Saraqael, 7 one of the holy angels, who is set over the spirits, who sin in the spirit. Gabriel, one of the holy 8 angels, who is over Paradise and the serpents and the Cherubim. Remiel, one of the holy angels, whom God set over those who rise. Chapter 21 1,2 And I proceeded to where things were chaotic. And I saw there something horrible: I saw neither 3 a heaven above nor a firmly founded earth, but a place chaotic and horrible. And there I saw 4 seven stars of the heaven bound together in it, like great mountains and burning with fire. Then 5 I said: 'For what sin are they bound, and on what account have they been cast in hither?' Then said Uriel, one of the holy angels, who was with me, and was chief over them, and said: 'Enoch, why 6 dost thou ask, and why art thou eager for the truth? These are of the number of the stars of heaven, which have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and are bound here till ten thousand years, 7 the time entailed by their sins, are consummated.' And from thence I went to another place, which was still more horrible than the former, and I saw a horrible thing: a great fire there which burnt and blazed, and the place was cleft as far as the abyss, being full of great descending columns of 8 fire: neither its extent or magnitude could I see, nor could I conjecture. Then I said: 'How 9 fearful is the place and how terrible to look upon!' Then Uriel answered me, one of the holy angels who was with me, and said unto me: 'Enoch, why hast thou such fear and affright?' And 10 I answered: 'Because of this fearful place, and because of the spectacle of the pain.' And he said unto me: 'This place is the prison of the angels, and here they will be imprisoned for ever.'

If you remember my previous blog I told you to keep Tartarus in the back of your mind. Here's the link:

Cronus was eventually overthrown by his son Zeus and sent to Tartarus.  A little side trip to Tartarus now.  Tartarus is an abyss below the underworld where the sinners were sent.  Keep this point in mind.

It is a fate that mirrors the episode from the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve eat from the tree of knowledge and now are cognizant of good and evil. Adam, because of eating the fruit of the forbidden, becomes the first of the fallen who will now die because of his transgressions. Having this knowledge is actually a good thing; not having this knowledge makes you an ignorant beast. It is as if God has this knowledge that he likes to not willingly share but will let you take it if you dare and then punish you for it. This concept is then mirrored again in Genesis 6:4 when the sons of God come to the earth and mate with the daughters of men. It is alluding again to this knowledge that is being acquired by the human race on earth that God gets all pissy about sharing.

In Peake's Commentary on the Bible, page 260,  we get this regarding the Nephilim:

The name is of uncertain origin, but n'philia is the Aramaic name of Orion, the giant of the sky.

This would make the Nephilim properly the sons of the Nephilia, Nephilia being a name for Orion. Well you know I'm all over this.

Genesis 6:4 is making references to mighty giants that fell from the sky. Clarke's commentary on the Bible gave us the Hebrew word "gibborim" for mighty men. Now where have we heard that word before? You may recall I wrote a two part blog about the giant in the sky awhile back:

http://fessell810.blogspot.ca/2011/02/equations-giants-and-kareem-abdul.html

http://fessell810.blogspot.ca/2011/03/equations-giants-and-kareem-abdul.html

I'll clip out some relevant passages, though I really do recommend you read both articles:

The constellation Orion which dominates our winter sky is a giant. You can't miss it in its nightly voyage across the southern night sky as he rises in the east and eventually sets in the west. Many ancient cultures referred to Orion as a giant. To the Jews Orion was known as Gibbor, the giant who they considered Nimrod the great hunter, and this Nimrod was bound to the sky for rebellion against Yahweh. The Syrians referred to Orion as Gabbara the giant and the Arabians knew Orion as Al Jabbar the giant. 

Algebra comes from the Arabic Al Jebr, refers to bone setting, and is etymologically correlative to Al Jabbar. Those familiar with the ancient Egyptian story of Osiris and Isis will remember Osiris being hacked to pieces by his brother Set and then re-assembled by the love of his wife Isis. How this all interestingly enough adds up is Osiris is equated many times in the Pyramid texts to Orion.  or example text 820 states  “Behold Osiris has come as Orion.”

The action of Al Jabbar refers to the setting of broken bones while the thing it refers to is a giant in the sky and that giant is Orion.

Osiris as Orion is a mighty giant who does fall from the sky in late May and is imprisoned in matter for seventy days until he rises again in the night sky.

The Book of Enoch 10:12 is alluding to just that when the punishment for these "fallen angels" is described as thus:

bind them fast for seventy generations in the valleys of the earth...

Seven and seventy appear frequently in the Bible and antiquity to represent either latent creation, i.e. God creating the visible universe and then resting on the seventh day as described in the opening of Genesis or the binding and swearing of a sacred oath. An oath in the Old Testament is referred to as to "seven oneself" such as when Abraham's servant binds himself to Abraham in Genesis 24 before going off in search of a wife for Isaac. Since I'm on a roll right now I'd like to mention the Hebrew word for bind which is 'asir'. Of course Osiris' proper Egyptian name is 'asar', with the vowels in both languages just there to help us moderns with a guide to approximate pronunciation. I don't know or can't prove any connection here but I thought it was interesting to point it out since Osiris is bound into matter in a state of rest for this sacred amount of time before rising again as his mighty warrior son Horus.

Okay I just let the cat out of the bag - The mighty men being referred to are the son(s) of Osiris and Isis known as Horus. I wrote a blog about the connection of Orion to both Osiris and Horus which I knew at the time would spare me having to explain it now :) Here is the link which I trust you'll read because you have made it this far into my exposition:

http://fessell810.blogspot.ca/2012/04/fighting-for-truth.html

The mighty warriors of old is referring to Horus the Striker, the son of Isis and Osiris.

Isis is the metaphorical womb in the material world that receives the seed of the great fallen giant angel Osiris allowing for the eventual birth of a man of renown if you can rouse this Osiris long enough to engender that new life.

In ancient Egyptian mythology Osiris becomes the lord of this underworld to judge the souls of the departed.

This underworld, or subconscious realm, is where our true self resides and is something you have to get in touch with in order to become your greater self. Mythology describes the Titan Cronus being sent to Tartarus and the Book of Enoch tells of the punishment of these fallen angels is a trip to this Tartarus as well. This the underworld realm of Osiris in which he presides over and judges your soul. I wrote a blog  that showed the similarities between the biblical character of Abel and the ancient Egyptian figure of Osiris and how Abel became the judge of your soul in the pseudepigraphic text of the Old Testament called the Testament of Abraham. It's good stuff, you can read it here:

http://fessell810.blogspot.ca/2011/08/iconoclastic-cain-and-abel.html

Okay now that you've read it you can now start tying all this mythology together in your head and realize it is not the domain of one religion but encompasses and is central to the myths of the civilizations of the old world. But what is the essence these stories are trying to convey? It is that the scattered soul of the great god that contains the knowledge of life, which the ancient Egyptians called ba, comes to incarnate in matter and allows the creature called man to become greater than just simple carnal beasts. This ba soul we need to awaken and tame the beast with so we can engender that new life within us that is full of goodness and wisdom but also is strong enough to keep that beast at bay with his mighty sword. The ancient Egyptians represented this great hero with a hawk, not a dove.  Stay strong and fight your enemies!

In closing I'd just like to quickly tackle a name given for the leader of the fallen angels in the Book of Enoch. That name is Semjaza. It has been explained that the first part 'Sem' means name and 'azaz' means to rebel. Seems plausible. I'd like to throw out one more explanation that takes into account the jaza part without dropping the j or y (remembering that a 'j' in ancient lexicons is represented as a 'y'). The belt of Orion was known in Arabic as Al Jauzah and the sacred plateau of the three great pyramids in Egypt that represent Orion's belt is called today Al Jizah or what we English call Giza. It seems to me possible that the name Semjaza is alluding to the origination of the fallen angels being metaphorically from the constellation of Orion. I can't prove it but hey it seems as good an explanation as any I've heard. If you do investigate this further you'll find correlations between Semjaza and Azazel and the attempts to connect it to Satan. The conflating of Semjaza and Azazel as the same concept is misleading as they are two distinct entities. I'd be tempted to designate them as representatives of the ba and ka from ancient Egypt such as what I wrote in this blog entry that will give you a good idea of the relationship between the ba and the ka. At any rate this is getting beyond the scope of what I'm trying to tackle right now. If you do want to read more about these myths from a biblical perspective here is a website that retells some of them. Scroll down until you find "The Star Maiden".

I love how Istahar tricks Shemhazai into revealing God's hidden name. If you've read the ancient Egyptian story of Isis tricking Re into revealing his true secret name you'll get a chuckle out of this.

Alright, well this Sunday sermon is enough for you chew on for now. Be forewarned though as I'm about to rain on Abraham and Sarah's parade now that I've armed you with enough background into the myths of the ancient world.

i need some time

Sometimes it is hard to keep track of time or we just lose track of time. Interesting that the same thing applies to the god of time. We have lost track of him and because of it mythology has been thrown into confusion. If we could track down and harness this time, then things will become clearer and orderly.

So, who is the god of time? From Greek sources we get the god of time being Chronos and from this we have the modern words such as chronicle, chronology, and chronic. Chronos means an indeterminable portion of time. He can be depicted with wings and also in the pose of Father Time as a wise old man with a long, grey beard. Also, Chronos was imagined as an ethereal god with three heads - a man, a bull and a lion - but serpentine in form. A common alternative name for Chronos was Aeon, eternal time, and this Aeon would be depicted in Greco-Roman mosaics as a man turning a Zodiac Wheel. In this form, he was a youthful god.

Confusing this line of mythology is another Greek Titan god named Cronus who also had a connection to time. This Titan overthrew his father Uranus after castrating him and ruled over earth's Golden Age. ronus was eventually overthrown by his son Zeus and sent to Tartarus. A little side trip to Tartarus now. Tartarus is an abyss below the underworld where the sinners were sent. Keep this point in mind.
From Cicero, De Natura Deorum 2. 24 (trans. Rackham) (Roman rhetorician C1st B.C.) :

"[Khronos and the Titan Kronos are identical in this passage :] By Saturnus [Kronos] again they denoted that being who maintains the course and revolution of the seasons and periods of time, the deity so designated in Greek, for Saturnus’ Greek name is Kronos, which is the same as khronos, a space of time."
http://www.theoi.com/Protogenos/Khronos.html

At some point in the classical world there was a conflagration of these two deities with this amalgamation further confusing the concept behind the personification of time. To even further muddy the waters would be the Roman name for the the time god which was in latin Saturnus which we know today as Saturn. Saturnus was an agricultural god that reigned over harvest time. He ruled over the Golden Age and was also connected to the concept of justice. During the time of the winter solstice the Romans would partake in a great seven day festival known as the Saturnalia. More on the Saturnalia later. If that didn't confuse enough we have today the planet Saturn. Saturn was named after the Roman god of time, Saturnus. It is important to remember that the planet Saturn was named after, not because of, the god of time. That concept already existed and was applied to a planet afterwards. You will find numerous well intentioned references in books and on the internet that conflate the mythology of Saturnus with the dim, slow moving planet we call Saturn. You will be told that Saturday was named by the Romans after the planet Saturn - not true - they named it after their god of time, Saturnus. Get this planet out of your head and you can start to make sense of and unravel the whole huge edifice.

Now, time to switch gears. As Plutarch tells us, the story of Osiris and Isis in ancient Egypt is a story of the love of these two as they ruled over an age where all was good and pure in the world. They educated man in the use of agriculture and tamed the barbarian so that mankind could enjoy civilization. This Golden Age or as the ancient Egyptians called it, Zep Tepi (The First Time), ended upon the death of Osiris at the hands of his jealous brother Set.

Isis revives Osiris long enough to be impregnated by his seed and from this union she gives birth to Horus. Among other allusions to the dying and resurrected god man Osiris, the ancient Egyptians would see this aspect of Osiris in the the cyclical vegetation cycle where a seed (Osiris) is buried in the earth (Isis) at the end of the previous threshing season and from this is born the fruit in the following growing season. Inside the tomb of Tutankhamun was found seeded dirt or corn mummies in the shape of Osiris that would germinate in the darkness to help with Tutankhamun's resurrection.

"...Effigies made of vegetable mould and stuffed with corn were buried in graves or placed between the legs of mummies. In a representation at Philae we see the dead body of Osiris with stalks of corn springing from it, watered by a priest. There is an inscription: 'This is the form of him whom one may not name, Osiris of the mysteries, who springs from the returning waters.' A religion then of the earth and its fertility; but at the same time, a promise of resurrection for the dead."
John Ferguson, An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Mysticism and the Mystery Religions

The foregoing survey of the myth and ritual of Osiris may suffice to prove that in one of his aspects the god was a personification of the corn, which may be said to die and come to life again every year. Through all the pomp and glamour with which in later times the priests had invested his worship, the conception of him as the corn-god comes clearly out in the festival of his death and resurrection, which was celebrated in the month of Khoiak and at a later period in the month of Athyr. That festival appears to have been essentially a festival of sowing, which properly fell at the time when the husbandman actually committed the seed to the earth. On that occasion an effigy of the corn-god, moulded of earth and corn, was buried with funeral rites in the ground in order that, dying there, he might come to life again with the new crops. The ceremony was, in fact, a charm to ensure the growth of the corn by sympathetic magic, and we may conjecture that as such it was practised in a simple form by every Egyptian farmer on his fields long before it was adopted and transfigured by the priests in the stately ritual of the temple.
The Golden Bough, Sir James George Frazier, pages 377-378.

From the representations we have of the more public Mysteries, it can be concluded that their fundamental theme is that of the permanence of life, even in face of the death inherent in every creature: there is no ultimate death, but only changes of state throughout an ever-renewing genesis from seed to the fruit which is the new seed. When the king himself cut the sheaves with his golden sickle in the harvest season it represented the death of Osiris. The threshing evokes his dismemberment by Seth, while the sowing is his entombment, and at the same time the posthumous fecundation of Isis (the earth) by Osiris (the grain).
Egyptian Mysteries - New light on ancient knowledge, Lucie Lamy, page 86.

Keep in mind that by corn what is meant in modern day parlance is grain.

A symbol of the latent reconstituted Osiris is the Djed pillar.

Osiris as the Djed pillar speaks of the permanence of the soul. It can be torn asunder, scattered but not destroyed. It is eternal. The fourfold nature of the pillar also symbolizes Osiris' dominion over the four corners of the earth. As we can see, Osiris is an agricultural deity as well as a symbol of permanence all in addition to his celestial role as Orion.

From the book Gods and Men in Egypt, we can get a better understanding of Osiris' role as a time god:

 
But we know otherwise that the theologians made an immense effort to make of Re and Osiris two indissociable aspects of the divine, representing the course of the sun in its diurnal and nocturnal aspects, symbolizing yesterday and tomorrow. Neheh and djet are thus con-substantially associated. This double aspect is summarized with great concision in two complex but extremely evocative signs that were used in the Ptolemaic texts. The sun disk, appearing in the horizon and containing a falcon, an image of the sun god, represents neheh, while a serpent wrapped around a mummy, or better still, around Osiris himself, served to write djet, the prototype of the ouroboros. Time, in its form of neheh and djet, time that cannot be quantified, which is counted indefinitely in millions and millions, nevertheless had a beginning and undoubtedly an end.
Gods and Men in Egypt, by Françoise Dunand and Christiane Zivie-Coche, page 70.

Once again, we see the concept of the serpent associated with the time god, this time with Osiris and his role as an eternal god of time.

In the Pyramid Texts, Osiris is described as a time god:

Utterance 577
1520a. To say: Osiris dawns, pure, mighty; high, lord of truth
1520b. on the first of the year; lord of the year.

Okay, let's start making some connections: from Richard Hinckley Allen's book, Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning we get this from his chapter on the constellation of Orion:

 
Saturnus has been another title, but its connection here I cannot learn, although I hazard the guess that as this divinity was the sun-god of the Phoenicians, his name might naturally be used for Uruanna-Orion, the sun-god of the Akkadians.
Richard Hinckley Allen, Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning (New York: Dover Publications, 1963), page 308.

...Cronos had a Latin counterpart, Saturn, whose name probably came from that of an Etruscan god but is traditionally supposed to come from the verb 'serere', to sow. This folk etymology is worth taking seriously, simply because those who took over the worship of Saturn did so. It then becomes clear that we inherit the notion of time as both reaper and sower, which makes Cronos the god of harvest.
Hamlet's Mill, Santillana and von Dechend, page 332.

Saturnus was so named because the completed act of sowing in latin is "satus." Eusebius of Caesarea, known as the "Father of Church History" has claimed that El, which is used as a name for God in the Old Testament, was also the name for Saturn or the Greek Cronus. This he got from reading Philo of Byblos, a Greek writer who gives an account of this El in a tract called Sanchuniathon. In this account, the Phoenician El is the son of the sky and earth, which is the parentage of Egypt's Osiris with the difference here being the sky is male and the earth female. Osiris' mother was the sky goddess Nut and his father the earth god Geb. El attacks his father sky with a sickle and castrates him to in order to force the sky and earth to remain apart so life could flourish. To appease his father sky, El offers his only begotten son as a burnt offering and circumcises himself.

Many ancient sources do compare Saturnus to the sun. In Babylonian astrological texts Saturnus is referred to as shamash - the sun. In Chaldean astronomy Saturnus was called alap-shamas - the star of the sun. Phaenon was a word used by the Greeks for Saturnus which means "the shining one". These appellations have confused scholars for years because they have never made the connection of Saturnus to Orion but held to the beliefs it referred to the planet Saturn. Staring them right in the face is the Roman festival called the Saturnalia, a seven day festival for Saturnus that ended with the birth of the new sun at the winter solstice. This false dichotomy spawned many incorrect assumptions that at some point in our ancient past the planet Saturn must have been as bright as the sun. It is strange to me that no one has ever bothered to look into the ancient Egyptian texts that clearly state that Osiris is the nocturnal sun.

 
The body of Osiris also played an important role in some of the New Kingdom Underworld Books. In the darkest hour of the night, the soul of the sun god Ra reached the cave where the body lay and became one with the soul of Osiris. This allowed Osiris and all the dead to awake and live again.
Egyptian Mythology, Geraldine Pinch, page 179.

A complex and particularly important relationship existed between Osiris and the sun god Re. Although Osiris was incorporated into the Heliopolitan theological system at a relatively early date, the god continued to grow in importance and by New Kingdom times his stature as an independent god was considerable; as is seen in titles which were applied to him such as 'lord of the universe', 'ruler of eternity' and 'king of the gods'. Osiris' position became, in fact, comparable to that of the sun god himself. He came to be regarded not only as the counterpart of Re in the netherworld, but also in some cases as the sun god's own body - so that Osiris and Re came to be considered as representing the body and soul, respectively, of a single great god. The solar cycle was thus imagined as the ba of Re descending into the underworld to unite with Osiris as his own corpse.
The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt, Richard H. Wilkinson, page 120.

As I have mentioned many times before, Orion is the constellation that represents Osiris. Richard Hinckley Allen claims Saturnus is an appellation for Orion but he does not know why. If he was still alive I would personally tell him.

Alright, now that we have made the connection of Osiris to Cronus to Saturnus to El and by inference Orion, I'd like to add in a few more bits of knowledge that will give you pause for thought. The god of time's day is Saturday and it is the seventh day of the week. Here is Cronos as Saturday:

http://www.theoi.com/Gallery/Z50.1G.html

Saturnus always had a snake wrapped around its body seven times and sometimes you see the signs of the zodiac in the spaces between the snakes coils. Orion's belt in antiquity was known as the L or Ell.
Seamen have called it the Golden Yard-arm; tradesmen, the L, or Ell, the Ell and Yard, the Yard-stick, and the Yard-wand…
Richard Hinckley Allen, Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning (New York: Dover Publications, 1963), page 316.

It has been said dead men don't lie but also it seems the stars don't lie either. The ancient semitic Phoenicians called their great god El and we know this was Orion. We find Orion in the bible as Nimrod:

 
Later on the Jews called Orion Gibbōr, the Giant, considered as Nimrod bound to the sky for rebellion against Jehovah.
Richard Hinckley Allen, Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning (New York: Dover Publications, 1963), page 309.

The belt of the giant in the sky, el Jabbar, is replicated on the Gizah plateau as the three great pyramids. The celestial Orion as Osiris.

Next blog will start looking for this time god in unexpected places.

to be greater

i am the rising sun

dancing on reflections.

celestial rendezvous

for lights loving embrace.

beautiful mind

indebted to you.

temple choir sings

the stolen harmony.

arcane rhythm,

unremitting promenade.

staccato reflection,

nirvana ambition.

clocks everywhere.

youthful ignorance.

can't miss my appointment

with time eternal.

soulful reoccurrence,

written on walls of light.

to be greater than the gods

is my destiny.

mirror illusion

spiritual birth

in a corporeal world.

necessary consciousness

for healing wisdom.

oh mirror illusion

whom do i want to see?

revelation is cheap,

like feelings in verse.

pillars of sand,

shards of glass,

heart of stone,

half life of my soul.

see me fall down;

this wicked game.

fiery red lady

won't give up on me.

incorruptible eternity,

breathing fire.

pouring out life

into my forever cup.

you've always been there,

anonymous omnipotence.

nature is your greatness;

Egypt captured your essence.

fish catches a jonah

I wrote this for a friend and thought I'd post this as well:

After trying to flee from God, Jonah is cast in the sea and swallowed by a big fish. While inside the belly of the fish he prays to God and repents. He is then vomited out of the mouth of the big fish.

The key passages for understanding the esoteric part of the story are here:

JONAH 1

17 Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

JONAH 2

5 The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.

6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.

7 When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.

The three days are three nights are an allusion to the moon when it disappears from the sky for three days and nights prior to the advent of a new moon. This is important because in essence it is describing the need for your soul to descend into matter or the "waters" in order to be cleansed and then resurrected. The ancients observed this behavior with the moon that would disappear into the waters on the horizon only to be reborn and grow into a shining light existent in the darkness of night. The darkness of night being a metaphor for material existence, i.e. not much light. In the New Testament it is the Easter story where Jesus is crucified and left for dead as Jonah was and then resurrected after the three days.

In Jonah 2:7 Jonah says "my soul fainted within me" which is describing your soul incarnating into matter and lying dormant until you awake it from its sleep of death. A few years ago I stumbled across an explanation of death in ancient scripture that works for trying to decipher the texts. Death is referring to your soul, not your material existence. Your soul "dies" in matter and needs you to resurrect it. The ancient Egyptians referred to death as going to the West - exactly where the sun, moon, and stars set. Your soul comes to the material plane via the west. I should also add that the ancient Egyptians considered death and birth to be synonymous and death of your soul would mean birth of your material into matter. Death of your material self allows your soul to be reborn and freed of its material bonds.

the journey

ancient light hero,

awaits a silent abyss.

dark tides submerging

my jester heart.

thought without words,

mirrors the great beyond.

distant sorrow

alters perception.

majestic trees rising,

seed a hero's journey.

pillars of truth,

cresting an age long gone.

the end foreshadows

the lost beginning.

sleeping cap visions,

rouse ambient sojourner.

butterfly caverns open

to the lighthouse siren.

river of matter,

ambivalent ferryman.

mother of my heart

smiles knowingly.

lady in red,

i drink in your beauty.

four legged friends

chasing swollen clouds.

a sunflower society,

dancing upon rays of light.

love lights the cave

of mother nature's bosom.

the winding journey,

crashes into rock cliffs.

cool winter nights,

altered destiny.

attic moon smiles,

on the vast ocean depths.

light is a lion

born of a virgin.

coming forth

to a new beginning.

atheist

falling snowflake

on a simulated existence.

nature is foreign

to your desolate soul.

playground hubris,

victorious over myth.

senses are reality;

can you ignore your heart?

you debate mere children,

proud in your reason.

intellectual laziness,

pyrrhic victory.

opening to light,

may make you think.

Darwin freed us from religion,

not the journey.

fighting for truth

Picking up from the last blog where we took a look at Osiris and his relationship to the constellation Orion, we now try to find the warlike Orion in ancient Egypt. The pharaoh of Egypt often was depicted in the folded arm pose of Osiris, but was also known as the living Horus and often depicted in a smiting pose. Could it be the old Hermetic saying about ancient Egypt "so as above, so below" is true in this case as well? The story of the murdered Osiris and his reconstitution by his sister-wife Isis I have detailed before. Isis is impregnated by the resurrected Osiris and from this union is born the baby Horus. The son of Osiris, Horus, grows up and fights Set for the kingship and the right to sit on his father's throne. This would be the "below" part of the equation. However, if it is true that what has taken place on earth must have taken place in the heavens, then we should be able to find this story in our night time sky. We know of Osiris and his association to Orion as well as Isis and her association to the beautiful shining star Sirius. So, in theory, we should be able to find Horus and Set close by, presumably fighting.

We find many iconic examples of the pharaoh in ancient Egypt in a smiting pose, often with Horus nearby or even Horus as a falcon wearing the double crown depicted with an upraised arm. Here is a facsimile from the Royal Ontario Museum of the famous Narmer palette depicting Narmer about to strike his enemies. The name Narmer means "striker" and is most likely an abbreviation for "Horus the Striker."

Writing: Theory and History of the Technology of Civilization, by Barry B. Powell, page 28.

Approaching the Temple of Horus at Edfu you can't help but notice the huge reliefs of a pharaoh from the Ptolemaic era striking his enemies on both pylons which flank the entrance. Looking on is Horus the Elder, known in greek as Haroeris. In hieroglyphics his name would be transliterated as Heru-ur or Har-wer depending on whether you transliterate the quail chick as a u or a w.

Here is Horus the falcon on the battle axe which the pharaoh is using to strike his enemies.

Below is from inside the temple from a scene where Horus is harpooning Set who has manifested as a hippopotamus.

Ptolemy XII is shown in the smiting pose of Narmer at the Temple of Isis at Philae. Notice the pharaoh offering to the seated Horus in the upper register of the pylon.

And one more: the pharaoh Den of the 1st Egyptian dynasty, striking his enemies with Horus and Wepwawet looking on.

It's established that the martial pharaoh is usually represented on the monuments in a striking position in the presence of Horus and not Osiris. So, then who is this Horus the Elder? Instructive is the ancient Egyptian name for Horus - Heru. The u tells us of the plurality of this ancient god. Horus the Elder is the grown up Horus and he is represented with the head of a hawk. This is the mature Horus who is able to avenge his father's death at the hands of Set. Horus the Elder is the great god of light, the ur or wer part being the ancient god of light known as "the great one." The younger Horus, who is depicted as a human baby is the enlightened soul within you who is the result of Isis' impregnation by the seed of the ba soul Osiris. This baby is hidden amongst the reeds of the marshes of lower Egypt - a metaphor for his birth into the material plane of existence. So is this Horus the Elder the upright Orion who is in a striking pose?

Orion first appears in the east at nightfall in late fall and he rises on his side with the three stars of his belt pointing upwards. The imagery here is unmistakable if you have been to the Osiris chapel in the temple of Seti I at Abydos.

I always thought it was strange that his son Horus was present in this scene but it starts to make sense if the imagery of Osiris rising in the night time sky becomes his son Horus when upright and ready to strike. Is there evidence from the ancient texts that Orion could be Horus as well?

In the Triumph of Horus, which are texts taken from the walls of the Edfu Temple, Horus is described by the narrator as "…Him with the upraised arm."

In Plutarch's essay on Isis and Osiris he describes Orion as thus:

In regard not only to these gods, but in regard to the other gods, save only those whose existence had no beginning and shall have no end, the priest say that their bodies, after they have done with their labours, have been placed in the keeping of the priests and are cherished there, but that their souls shine as the stars in the firmament, and the soul of Isis is called by the Greeks the Dog-star, but by the Egyptians Sothis, and the soul of Horus is called Orion, and the soul of Typhon the Bear.

In the Pyramid Texts of Unas, Utterance 301, line 449, we read that Horus has the arm ready to fight:

Unas knows him, he knows his name:
Everlastingness (nHH) is his name, Everlastingness,
the Lord of the Year is his name, he with the arm ready to fight,
Horus over the Milky Way (sHdw) of heaven, who makes Re alive every day.
http://www.pyramidtextsonline.com/anteeast.html

Orion in his striking pose is Osiris come as Horus to do battle with Set. We should be able to find this Set close by, right? We will leave that question for the time being.

Another way the ancient Egyptian would describe this triad in the heavens was that Isis could be referred to as Sopdet in her form as Sirius and Osiris would be referred to as Sahu in his form of Orion. Horus in his form of Orion and the son of these two would be called Sopdu.

Sopdu was the scorching heat of the sun in the summer which hints at Horus as powerful light providing the sun with its energy. Shortly after Sirius would rise in its yearly cycle, the hot scorching summer days would be upon the lands due to the birth of Sopdu. Sopdu was considered to be war-like because of this destructive heat. Sopdu would be depicted with a long axe in recognition of his war-like qualities.

One last thing - the ancient Egyptians considered light to be the great principle of intelligence and wisdom which was the fountainhead of the universe, though students of the land will be told they worshipped the sun. The sun to them is the living enclosure which contained this light. In this aspect, the encapsulating form is called Aten. Together, the light and sun disk is Re. Shu is the light out of the disk. The great one of light come forth is Horus and it is his story that is the story of the light which comes to incarnate in matter, specifically you and I. We are all Horus; we are all a part of this great light.

processed faith

mirror ball sages,

offering spiritual candy.

the struggling seeker,

striding backwards into yesterday.

my ransacked self,

never tasting completeness.

disappearing reflection,

reciprocal depression.

material celebration

in a carnival of despair.

misprinted self,

where is home?

echoes of Egypt,

permeate my soul.

your greatness retreated;

why did you leave?

akhet

on pearls of light,

so burns my soul.

the paths of time,

meet me halfway.

golden dawn,

giving birth.

the gift of self,

from selfless goddess.

tree top nests,

leaping fishes,

river of gemstones,

all grasping first light.

i am the flower,

born of light.

forged in a furnace

of Hathor's love.

War! What is it good for?

Time to go deeper into the mysteries of ancient Egypt. The most mysterious of all is Osiris, and the meaning of his death, dismembering, remembering, and eventual consignment to the underworld. I have written extensively about Osiris over the course of the last year and now armed with this knowledge, it is time to go even further into the hidden impact Osiris has had on civilization. It's best to take this knowledge a step at a time, so let's start with Osiris and his relationship to Orion.

Orion the great hunter

I have previously described Osiris' connection to the giant in the sky Orion, and the sacred site of Giza.

Pyramid Text 437: 

"The Netherworld has grasped your hand at the place where Orion is, 

the Bull of the Sky has given you his hand....."

Pyramid Text 610:

"May a stairway to the Netherworld be set up for you to the place where Orion is, 

may the Bull of the Sky take your hand..."

Pyramid Text 820:

“Behold Osiris has come as Orion”

The ancient Egyptians described the great incorruptible and mummified spiritual body as the Sahu. The hero Heru (Horus to the Greeks) upon material death becomes an akh (after successfully passing judgment), which is a great glowing spiritual body of transfigured wisdom and intelligence. The akh joins the all encompassing great Sahu.

Osiris in his astral boat

from the Temple of Hathor at Denderah

Another way of describing the Sahu in modern terms is by drawing a parallel to the Christian religion. You experience material birth with a latent soul. At some point, you are hopefully born again (the soul reawakens from the sleep of death) just like the preachers on late night TV stress. Then you fight the Devil, hopefully win, and are transfigured like Jesus. Upon material death you are judged, and if all goes well, you go to heaven and join the body of Christ. If the decision goes against you, you go to Hell where the Devil is. But you just fought the Devil here on earth? Where does this guy live? Earth or Hell? Anyway, you figure out where you go, I have wandered off topic.

The Sahu is personified by the constellation of Orion in the night sky. Orion is the great Osiris (Asar to the ancient Egyptians). Orion disappears from the night sky in late spring for seventy days and the ancient Egyptians' process of mummification mimicked this disappearance in the length of the embalming practice. Osiris as the personification of the ba soul needed to be remembered and reconstituted after being assassinated by Set upon his appearance in this material place of existence. The remembering of whom you really are allows you to engender a new life which is born again as the son Horus. Horus still has to fight off Set and win in order to become transfigured into an akh and rejoin his father Osiris, the great Sahu, in the constellation of Orion.

Alright, let's start investigating Orion. A good place to start is always the Online Etymology Dictionary.

Orion
late 14th century, from Greek Oarion, of unknown origin, though some speculate on Akkadian Uru-anna "the Light of Heaven." Another Greek name for the constellation was Kandaon, a title of Ares, god of war, and it is represented in most cultures as a giant (e.g. Old Irish Caomai "the Armed King," Old Norse Orwandil, Old Saxon Ebuðrung).

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=orion&searchmode=none

Orion, when dominating the southern night sky, undeniably lights up the heavens. I've come across many examples of prefixes and suffixes such as ur, ar, and or relating to a great light while an can refer to a spirit or the heavens.

The other title, Kandaon, which refers to a giant and is a title of Ares, is quite interesting. Ares is the god of war and the association makes for a peculiar moniker for the constellation that the ancient Egyptians considered to be the peaceful Osiris. At the same time, the ancient Hungarians considered their forefather to be Orion, who as Nimrod the great hunter and warrior, was a descendant of Ham - who is a son of Noah.

At this point in our investigation I'm going to veer a little off course and onto a road called observation. Do yourself a favour and one night find out what time Orion is going to rise in the south-eastern night sky after sunset. He rises on his side with the three stars of his belt erect. As the stars of the constellation move in procession, Orion stands up in the night sky as this giant who strikes a smiting pose. If you investigate the mythology of ancient civilizations, then this warrior pose is found. The iconography of the cycle of Orion is unmistakable. He is not only a dying and resurrected god-man but also a mighty warrior.

Osiris on his side from

the temple of Seti I at Abydos

A replica of the Narmer palette

showing the Pharaoh in the striking pose.

The name for Orion in Old Irish is Caomai. Check out this parallel:

cemetery
late 14th century, from Old French cimetiere "graveyard" (12th century), from Late Latin coemeterium, from Greek koimeterion "sleeping place, dormitory," from koimao "to put to sleep," keimai "I lie down," from Proto-Indo-European base *kei- "to lie, rest" (confer Goth haims "village," Old English ham "home, house, dwelling"); see home. Early Christian writers were the first to use it for "burial ground," though the Greek word also were anciently used of the sleep of death. An Old English word for this was licburg.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=cemetery&searchmode=none

There are many cognate relationships between Caomai and words for where the dead go to rest in peace. I've stressed before the mythology of Osiris where as the ba he is our immortal soul which is in the throes of the sleep of death. Sometimes, it is difficult see through the fog of death and what I mean by that is that there is a material death and a spiritual death. We are all familiar with material death, but not so familiar by what is meant by spiritual death. Tracing the history of the word cemetery, we find interesting parallels with words for the constellation of Orion and his spiritual death in matter.

I have touched previously on the relationship of the following stars of Orion - Rigel and Betelgeuse, and their relationship to the sacred plateau of Giza. More pertinent to the discussion is the bright star in the left shoulder of Orion (we view it as the upper right star of the constellation) called Bellatrix. Bellum is a word for war and looking up the word Bellatrix at dictionary.com we get this:

Origin:
< Medieval Latin, Latin bellātrīx martial, waging war, equivalent to bellā ( re ) to wage war, (verbal derivative of bellum war) + -trīx -trix; apparently by association with bellātor a name for Orion ( Latin: warrior), though precise connection with this star unexplained.

Bellatrix. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Bellatrix (accessed: February 19, 2012).

From the Online Etymology Dictionary we get this word history:

Bellatrix
bright star in the left shoulder of Orion, from Latin bellatrix "a female warrior," frequently used as an adjective, "warlike, skilled in war," feminine of bellator "to wage war," from bellum "war." The Latin name, from the Alfonsine Tables (mid-13th century), very loosely translates the Arabic name for the star, Al Najid "the conqueror."
In astrology it was the natal star of all destined to great civil or military honors, and rendered women born under its influence lucky and loquacious; or as old Thomas Hood said, "Women born under this constellation shall have mighty tongues." [Allen]

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=bellatrix&searchmode=none

In keeping with the martial theme, the right leg of Orion (bottom left of the constellation from our point of view) is Saiph, from Saif al Jabbar, which means "sword of the giant."

A few more connections before I finish this blog entry. The name for Orion relates to urine in the Greek language. Greek mythology describes the origin of Orion as the result of a meeting between Hyrieus of Boeotia and the gods Zeus, Poseidon, and Hermes. Hyrieus at the time did not know they were gods but entertained them with great hospitality anyway. When the gods revealed themselves and thanked Hyrieus, they granted him a wish. Hyrieus wished for a son to which the three gods engendered by either urinating or ejaculating into a bull's hide and burying it into the ground. The child Ourion was born nine months later. Clouding this story is that I'm unsure if two thousand years ago urine referred to the waste product from the kidneys or seminal fluid or both. It seems to be a term used for fluid that is secreted. Here's the history of the word:

urine
early 14th century., from Old French urine (12th century), from Latin urina "urine," from Proto-Indo-European *ur- (confer Greek ouron "urine"), variant of base *awer- "to moisten, flow" (confer Sanskrit var "water," Avestan var "rain," Lithuanian jures "sea," Old English wær, Old Norse ver "sea," Old Norse ur "drizzling rain." Urinate is a 1590s back-formation from urination (early 15th century).

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=urine&searchmode=none

The letter 'u' can be pronounced as a 'w' in many archaic languages enabling the connection to the word for war bellum becoming more commonly referred to as war.

war
late Old English (c. 1050), wyrre, werre, from Old North French werre "war" (French guerre), from Frankish *werra, from Proto Germanic *werso (confer Old Saxon werran, Old High German werran, German verwirren "to confuse, perplex"). Cognates suggest the original sense was "to bring into confusion." There was no common Germanic word for "war" at the dawn of historical times. Old English had many poetic words for "war" (guð, heaðo, hild, wig, all common in personal names), but the usual one to translate Latin bellum was gewin "struggle, strife" (related to win). Spanish, Portugeuse, Italian guerra are from the same source; Romanic peoples turned to Germanic for a word to avoid Latin bellum because its form tended to merge with bello- "beautiful." The verb meaning "to make war on" is recorded from mid-12th century.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=war&searchmode=none

So, this lays the groundwork for the blog entries to follow. There seems to be a couple of aspects to Osiris as Orion. There is the peaceful Osiris, but also the warlike one. Can we find the warlike Orion in ancient Egypt?

Entrance to Horus' temple at Edfu