Michael Wynn's Occult Reference Library
HADES

Return to Occult Library Index

18276066 GRIMM JACOB TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY VOL 1

g, its meaning heightened no doubt by composition with' hell; hdllric(jel vectis infernalis, hell-bar, a hell-brand, devil or the devil's own; a shrewish old hag is styled hollriegel or the devil's grandmother; and hugo von langenstein (martina 4) already used this hcucrigd as a term of abuse. now hell was imagined as being tightly bolted and barred; when christ, says fundgr. 1, 178, went down to hades in the strength of a lion, he made' die grintcl brechen. lastly, we may even connect the ohg. drcmil (pessulus, graff 5, 531) with the on. trami or tremill, which mean both cacodaemon and also, it seems, clathri, cancelli' tramar gneypa j?ik skulo' stem. 85; and in tlie swedish song of torkar, troutram is an epitliet of the devil who stole the hanmier. as this is the thrymr of the edda, one

er halls, ssem (jb 44a 9j.a_ gjj_ 4- er platter is named hungr, her knife sultr, synonymous terms to denote her insatiable greed. the dead go down to her, fara til hdjar, strictly those only that have died of sickness or old age, not those fallen in fight, who people valhalla, her personality has pretty well disappeared in such phrases as i hcl sla, drepa, berja i hel, to smite into hell, send to hades; i hclju vera, be in hades, be dead, fornald. sog. 1, 233. out of this has arisen in the modern dialects an altogether impersonal and distorted term, swed. ihjdl, dan. ihiel, to death^ these languages now express the notion of the nether world only by a compound, swed. helvcte, dan. jiclvede, i.e, the on. hclviti (supplicium infernale, oiig. hellmvizi, mhg. hellewize. one who is drawing his

of men, and feasting on heavenly fare. and hence the idea of death is not always nor as a matter of course kept at a distance from them; kronos used to kill his new born children, no doubt before nectar and ambrosia had been given them^ and zeus alone could be saved from him by being brought up secretly. another way in which the mortality of certain gods is expressed is, that they fall a prey to hades, whose meaning borders on that of death, e.g, persephone. if a belief in the eternity of the gods is the dominant one among the greeks, and only scattered hints are introduced of their final overthrow; with our ancestors on the contrary, the thought of the gods being immortal seems to retire into the background. the edda never calls them eylifir or odausligir, and their death is spoken of wi

frey's shoemaker (81) and messenger, beyggvir and beyla are also called liis servants (59. these services do no detriment to their own divine nature. beside hermes, the goddess iris goes on errands for the greek gods (see suppl. among the gods themselves there is a difference of rani: three sons of kronos have the world divided among them, the sky is allotted to zeus, the sea to poseidon, hell to hades, and the earth they are supposed to share between them (h. 15, 193. these three tower above all the rest, like har, lafnhar and thrisi in tlie norse religion, the triad spoken of on p. 162. this is not the same thing as' wuotan, donar, ziu' if only because the last two are not brothers but sons of "vvuotan, although these pass for the three mightiest gods. then, together with this triad, we

3 8 INITIATION CEREMONY

filleth up the many recesses of the bosom of the world. the channels being intermixed therein she performeth the works of incorruptible fire. hereunto is the speech of axiokersa. heg: places theoricus in a seat in the west between himself and hiereus and facing hierophant, takes pyramid from him. hiero: stoop not down into the darkly splendid world, wherein continually lies a faithless depth, and hades wrapped in clouds, delighting in unintelligible images, precipitous, winding, a black ever rolling abyss ever espousing a body unluminous, formless and void. nature persuadeth us that there are pure demons, and that even the evil germs of matter may alike become useful and good. but these are mysteries which are evoked in the profound abyss of the mind. such a fire existeth extending through

A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO WITCHCRAFT AND MAGICK SPELLS

ictured dancing on shiva whose body she trampled on, destroyed and then danced on once more to restore him to life. kali is invoked to remove fear and, it is said, to bring bliss to her devotees, and so she brings protection and regeneration after sorrow. persephone persephone is the greek maiden goddess of transformation, daughter of demeter and goddess of spring and flowers. she was abducted by hades, god of the underworld, and became queen of the underworld for the winter months, returning to the earth as the light-bringer in spring and so representing the cycle of death and rebirth. she is especially powerful in rituals by or for young women, especially those who have suffered loss or abuse, and also for mother-daughter relationships. she is sometimes regarded as a symbol of grain. pro

chic attack. it is a colour for keeping secrets and for smoothing down potential conflict and keeping one's counsel when to do otherwise would be unwise. grey candles are best used on wednesday when mercury cannot be seen and on saturday. black another colour of saturn and also the kings of the underworld- the roman pluto, the bestower of the hidden wealth that lay within the earth, and the greek hades, who abducted persephone (proserpine, thus causing winter. black is the colour not only of death, but also of regeneration. this belief goes back to ancient egypt when the annual flooding of the nile carried with it black silt, which brought new life to the land each year. in magick, black is the colour of endings that carry within them seeds of new beginnings. it can be used for banishing n

ALEISTER CROWLEY AD MEIORUM CTHULHI GLORIAM

and identified as the vanquisher of death, for she descended into the underworld and defeated her sister, the goddess of the abyss, queen ereshkigal (possibly another name for tiamat. interestingly enough, the myth has many parallels with the christian concept of christ's death and resurrection, among which the crucifixion (inanna was impaled on a stake as a corpse, the three days in the sumerian hades, and the eventual resurrection are outstanding examples of how sumerian mythology previewed the christian religion by perhaps as many as three thousand years- a fact that beautifully illustrates the cosmic and eternal nature of this myth. therefore, the goddess of the witches has two distinct forms: the ancient one, goddess of the dragon-like telluric power which is raised in magickal ritual

book. i have traveled among the stars, and trembled before the gods. i have, at last, found the formulae by which i passed the gate arzir, and passed into the forbidden realms of the foul igigi. i have raised demons, and the dead. i have summoned the ghosts of my ancestors to real and visible appearance on the tops of temples built to reach the stars, and built to touch the nethermost cavities of hades. i have wrestled with the black magician, azag-thoth, in vain, and fled to the earth by calling upon inanna and her brother marduk, lord of the double-headed axe. i have raised armies against the lands of the east, by summoning the hordes of fiends i have made subject unto me, and so doing found ngaa, the god of the heathens, who breathes flame and roars like a thousand thunders. i have foun

ALEISTER CROWLEY MAGICK IN THEORY AND PRACTICE

(tejas) yama (as god of: beshunt, horus, tarpesheth: last judgment: 32 :sebek, mako :brahama :32 "bis :satem, ahapshi, nephthys:(prithivi: ameshet :31 "bis :asar:(akasa: 310& 311 table i: xxxiv: xxxv :key scale: some greek gods: some roman gods: 0 :pan: 1 :zeus, iacchus :jupiter: 2 :athena, uranus :janus: 3 :cybele, demeter, rhea, here :juno, cybele, saturn, hecate: 4 :poseidon :jupiter: 5 :ares, hades :mars: 6 :iacchus, apollo, adonis :apollo: 7 :aphrodite, nike :venus: 8 :hermes :mercury: 9 :zeus (as air, diana of :diana (as moon: ephesus (as phallic stone: 10 :persephone (adonis, psyche :ceres :11 :zeus :jupiter: 12 :hermes :mercury: 13 :artemis, hecate :diana: 14 :aphrodite :venus: 15 :athena :mars, minerva: 16:(here :venus: 17 :castor& pollux, apollo the :casto& pollux (janus: diviner

sing the fire of: vulcan: 20:(attis:(attis) ceres, adonis: 21 :zeus :jupiter (pluto: 22 :themis, minos, aeacus, and :vulcan: rhadamanthus :23 :poseidon :neptune: 24 :ares :mars: 25 :apollo, artemis (hunters :diana (as archer: 26 :pan, priapus (erect hermes :pan, vesta, bacchus, priapus: and bacchus: 27 :ares :mars: 28:(athena, ganymede :juno: 29 :poseidon :neptune: 30 :helios, apollo :apollo :31 :hades :vulcan, pluto: 32:(athena :saturn :32 "bis:(demeter :ceres :31 "bis :iacchus:(liber: 312 table i: xxxviii: xxxix :key scale: animals, real and: plants, real and: imaginary: imaginary: 0: 1 :god :almond in flower: 2 :man :amaranth: 3 :woman :cypress, opium poppy: 4 :unicorn :olive, shamrock: 5 :basilisk :oak, nux vomica, nettle: 6 :phoenix, lion, child :acacia, bay, laurel, vine: 7 :lynx :ro

man differeth essentially from every other man, albeit in essence he is identical, let also these ceremonies assert their identity by their diversity. for this reason do we leave much herein to the right ingenium of the philosophus. 13 "concerning the life of the devotee- first let his way of life be such as is pleasing to the particular deity. thus to invoke neptune, let him go a-fishing; but if hades, let him not approach the water that is hateful to him. 392 14 "further, concerning the life of the devotee- let him cut away from his life any act, word or thought, that is hateful to the particular deity; as, unchastity in the case of artemis, evasions in the case of ares. besides this, he should avoid all harshness or unkindness of any kind in thought, word, or deed, seeing that above the

ALEISTER CROWLEY THE OLD AND NEW COMMENTARIES TO LIBER AL

posed of old to impregnate the vulture, which therefore was chosen to symbolize the mother-goddess. he is the wandering knight or prince of fairy tales who marries the king's daughter. this legend is derived from certain customs among exogamic tribes, for which see "the golden bough. thus one europa, semele and others claimed that zeus- air<<zeus obtained air for his kingdom in the partition with hades, who took fire, and poseidon, who took water. shu is the egyptian god of the firmament. there is a great difficulty here, etymologically. zeus is connected with iao, abrasax, and the dental sibilant gods of the great mysteries, with the south and hadit, ada, set, saturn, adonai, attis, adonis; he is even the "jesus, slain with the lance, whose blood is collected in a cup. yet he is also to b

ALEISTER CROWLEY THE SWORD OF SONG

hildren, for them that understand not easily our high mysteries; for in thy pen is, as it were, a river of clear water; without vagueness, without ambiguity, 1 aum! the sacred word. 2 qy. j (the cart) becomes o (a wheel. the commentators who have suspected the horrid blasphemy implied by the explanation becomes k, the wheel of fortune, are certainly in error. 3 demeter and persephone. 4 ch= j; h= hades. see the tarot cards, and classical mythology, for the symbols. ambrosii magi hortus rosarum 121 sedes profunda paimonis. oculi nox secreta. portae silentium partitio. without show of learning, without needless darkening of counsel and word, dost thou ever reveal the sacred heights of our mystic mountain. for, as for him that understandeth not thy writing, and that easily and well, be ye wel

ALEISTER CROWLEY EQUINOX EQ I 1 2

ception" but what odds? once the right thought comes it will transcend any and all conceptions. the objection is as silly as the objection to illustrating geometry by diagrams, on the ground that printed lines are thick and so on. this is the imbecility of the "protestant" objection to images. what fools these mortals be! the greeks, too, after exhausting all their sublimest thoughts of zeus and hades and poseidon, found that they could not find a fitting image of the all, the supreme so they just carved a goat-man, saying: let this represent pan! also in the holiest place of the most secret temple there is an empty shrine. but whoso goes there in the first instance thinks; there is no god. he who goes there at the end, when he has adored all the other deities, knoweth that no god. 126 s

ALEISTER CROWLEY EQUINOX EQ I 2 2

cure; in fact, even at the time, people could not define with anything like accuracy what the kabiri really were. the student will find more concerning these semi-mythical beings in strabo, diodorus and varro. d llinger says "this much is undoubted on the joint testimony of strabo and mnaseas; the gods whose initiation people received here (samothrace) were axieros "i.e, demeter; axiokersos "i.e, hades; and axiokersa "i.e, persephone- d llinger "the gentile and the jew" eng. edition, 1906, vol. i, pp. 172-186. 12 hence "odic" force; and "obi" or "obeah" witchcraft. illustration on page 271 approximated below_ hb:shin hb:taw hb:qof_ air_ tablet/ of air/ pan) tacle_ seals/ throne. lamps of east_ incense) black white banner of east_ salt salt_ spirit 7 heavens of assiah tablet_ of earth lamp

ALEISTER CROWLEY EQUINOX EQ I 2

as not generated for your sake. the wide aerial flight of birds gives not true knowledge, nor the dissection of the entrails of victims; they are all mere toys, the basis of mercenary fraud; flee from these if you would enter the sacred paradise of piety, where virtue, wisdom, and equity are assembled "stoop not down unto the darkly splendid world; wherein continually lieth a faithless depth, and hades wrapped in clouds, delighting in unintelligible images, precipitous, winding, a black ever-rolling abyss; ever espousing a body unluminous, formless and void "stoop not down, for a precipice lieth beneath the earth, reached by a descending ladder which hath seven steps, and therein is established the throne of an evil and fatal force "stay not on the precipice with the dross of matter, for t

ALEISTER CROWLEY EQUINOX EQ I 3 2

bes with his chain the banishing pentagram of earth, saying] i exorcise thee, creature of earth, by and in the divine names adonai ha aretz, adonai melekh namen, and in the name of aurial, great archangel of earth, that every evil and impure spirit now depart hence immediately [circumambulates, saying] stoop not down unto the darkly splendid world, wherein lieth continually a faithless depth, and hades wrapt in gloom, delighting in unintelligible images, precipitous, winding, a black ever-rolling abyss, ever espousing a body unluminous, formless and void [making invoking pentagram] 9 see tablet of spirit. 10 see tablet of fire. 11 see tablet of spirit. 12 see tablet of air. creature of earth, in the names of nanta emor dial hectega,13 i consecrate thee to the service of the magic of light

ALEISTER CROWLEY EQUINOX EQ I 3

orks of this man who became a god. yet let us at least note three points_ that the tenth labour was to slay geryon, the "three-"headed and "three-"bodied monster of gades; that the eleventh was to obtain apples from the garden of the hesperides, where lived the "three" daughters of hesperus; and that the last was to bring upon earth the "three-"headed dog cerberus, and so 143 unguard the gates of hades. similar is the adept's last labour, to destroy the terrors of hell and to bring upon earth the supernal triad and formulate the hb:shin 3 in hb:heh hb:vau hb:shin hb:heh hb:yod. one idea must possess us, and all our energies must be focused upon it. a man who would be rich must worship wealth and understand poverty; a man who would be strong must worship strength and understand weakness; an

ALICE BAILEY THE LABOURS OF HERCULES

applications to life what is death scorpio, the sign of magic the constellations and the stars labor ix killing the stymphalian birds the myth interpretation of the labor silence two gates, three constellations the chrysalis symbol the spirit of truth the spirit of right three gifts three constellations- 3- the labours of hercules details of the story labor x the slaying of cerberus, guardian of hades the myth prologue interpretations of the labor in capricorn meanings of the sign constellations the climbing of the mountain preparation for the descent into hades the symbol of cerberus epilogue labor xi cleansing the augean stables the myth the energies of aquarius hallmarks of the initiate decanates, rulers and constellations the lawgivers interpretation of the test labor xii the capture

ow to what i refer. the problem is clear: i am a sagittarian and so are you. we are living with the- 97- the labours of hercules emblem of sagittarius in front of us all the time. we are trying to bring harmony into our lives, trying to lead the "altar" life, seeking to contact the serpent of wisdom. begin with thought and speech, and begin today [169] labor x the slaying of cerberus, guardian of hades (capricorn, december 22nd- january 20th) the myth "the light of life must now shine forth within a world of dark" the great presiding one declared. the teacher understood "the son of man who is also the son of god must pass through gate the tenth. he said "within this very hour hercules shall venture forth" when hercules stood face to face with him who was his guide, the latter spoke "a thou

d vainly in the desolation, and were swallowed by the wind. the vision faded. hercules stood, as before, at the side of his guide "the shackled one whom you have seen is called prometheus" the teacher said "for ages has he suffered thus, and [170] yet he cannot die, being immortal. from heaven he stole the fire; for this he has been punished. the place of his abode is known as hell, the domain of hades. unto prometheus, o hercules, you are asked to be a savior. go down into the depths, and there upon the outer planes release him from his suffering" having heard and understood, the son of man who was also a son of god, embarked upon this quest, and passed through gate the tenth. downward, ever downward, did he travel into the binding worlds of form. the atmosphere grew stifling, the darknes

athena, and the strengthening words of hermes. at length he came to that dark, envenomed river called the styx, a river that the souls of the deceased must cross. an obolus or penny had to be paid to charon, the ferryman, that he might take them to the other side. the somber visitor from earth affrighted charon, and forgetting the fee, he ferried the stranger across. hercules at last had entered hades, a dim and misty region where the shades, or better said, the shells of those departed flitted by. when hercules perceived medusa, her hair entwined with hissing snakes, he seized his sword, and thrust at her, but struck naught save empty air. through labyrinthine paths he threaded his way until he came to the court of the king who ruled the underworld, hades. the latter, grim and stern, wit

with hissing snakes, he seized his sword, and thrust at her, but struck naught save empty air. through labyrinthine paths he threaded his way until he came to the court of the king who ruled the underworld, hades. the latter, grim and stern, with threatening- 98- the labours of hercules mien, sat stiffly on his jet black throne as hercules approached "what seek you, a living mortal, in my realms" hades demanded. hercules said "i seek to free prometheus [171 "the path is guarded by the monster cerberus, a dog with three great heads, each of which has serpents coiled about it" hades replied "if you can conquer him with your bare hands, a feat no one has yet performed, you may unbind the suffering prometheus" satisfied with this response, hercules proceeded. soon he saw the triple-headed dog

as the hindus name it. that is the second great ascension. the final ascension is that which marks the emancipation of the initiate of very high degree who becomes consciously a world savior. but it is the second initiation, the raising up of the lower psychic nature, on which we have to work so that every desire, mood and every emotion is lifted up into "heaven. preparation for the descent into hades there were three things that hercules had to do before starting down into hell. the order in which they came is interesting [177] first he had to purify himself. hercules, the son of god who had triumphed, been transfigured, was going down into hell to work and the word came to purify himself. he thought he was so pure. how he underwent the process of purification we are not told, but i have

labours of hercules problem. always for the initiate service comes first; the letting go of what he has set himself to do if there is need to help. that is the story of the initiate always, because it is based on group consciousness. the symbol of cerberus the three-headed dog cerberus with a terrific bark, with snakes growing out all over his body and with snakes for a tail, was the guardian of hades. the three heads symbolize sensation [178] desire and good intentions. it is love of sensation that drives humanity hither and thither to satisfy hunger in the economic world or to satisfy desire for happiness in the world of pleasure. the violent impacts of sensation are sought to keep the mind occupied. the central head was grasped by hercules first because it was the most important, since

hought. in aries he captured the man-eating mares and bent them to his use. now he slays the man-eating birds of stymphalus and puts an end to all tendencies to use thought destructively. in capricorn (december 23- january 20, the goat, he becomes an initiate and appears before the world as a savior, a liberated son of god, able to work in hell, on earth, or in heaven. he carries cerberus up from hades, and through the symbolism of the three-headed dog portrays the elevation of the personality, the triple matter aspect, into heaven. thus he demonstrates that he has undergone the necessary development and experienced the strengthening tests which will enable him successfully to pass through the experience of the third initiation, that of the transfiguration. the next two signs, aquarius and

APOCRYPHON OF JOHN

e second one is harmas, who is the eye of envy. the third one is kalila-oumbri. the fourth one is yabel. the fifth one is adonaiou, who is called sabaoth. the sixth one is cain, whom the generations of men call the sun. the seventh is abel. the eighth is abrisene. the ninth is yobel. the tenth is armoupieel. the eleventh is melceir-adonein. the twelfth is belias, it is he who is over the depth of hades. and he placed seven kings- each corresponding to the firmaments of heaven- over the seven heavens, and five over the depth of the abyss, that they may reign. and he shared his fire with them, but he did not send forth from the power of the light which he had taken from his mother, for he is ignorant darkness "and when the light had mixed with the darkness, it caused the darkness to shine. a

pl) what is the mystery of their life, which is the plan which they made together, which is the likeness of their spirit. the root of this (tree) is bitter and its branches are death, its shadow is hate and deception is in its leaves, and its blossom is the ointment of evil, and its fruit is death and desire is its seed, and it sprouts in darkness. the dwelling place of those who taste from it is hades, and the darkness is their place of rest "but what they call the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which is the epinoia of the light, they stayed in front of it in order that he (adam) might not look up to his fullness and recognize the nakedness of his shamefulness. but it was i who brought about that they ate" the apocryphon of john http//www.pseudepigrapha.com/apocrypha_nt/apocjn.html 9

http//www.pseudepigrapha.com/apocrypha_nt/apocjn.html 12 of 12 8/16/2006 5:17 pm foundations of chaos shook. and i hid myself from them because of their wickedness, and they did not recognize me "again i returned for the second time, and i went about. i came forth from those who belong to the light, which is i, the remembrance of the pronoia. i entered into the midst of darkness and the inside of hades, since i was seeking (to accomplish) my task. and the foundations of chaos shook, that they might fall down upon those who are in chaos and might destroy them. and again i ran up to my root of light, lest they be destroyed before the time "still for a third time i went- i am the light which exists in the light, i am the remembrance of the pronoia- that i might enter into the midst of darknes

eeking (to accomplish) my task. and the foundations of chaos shook, that they might fall down upon those who are in chaos and might destroy them. and again i ran up to my root of light, lest they be destroyed before the time "still for a third time i went- i am the light which exists in the light, i am the remembrance of the pronoia- that i might enter into the midst of darkness and the inside of hades. and i filled my face with the light of the completion of their aeon. and i entered into the midst of their prison, which is the prison of the body. and i said 'he who hears, let him get up from the deep sleep' and he wept and shed tears. bitter tears he wiped from himself and he said 'who is it that calls my name, and from where has this hope come to me, while i am in the chains of the pris

and i said 'i am the pronoia of the pure light; i am the thinking of the virginal spirit, who raised you up to the honored place. arise and remember that it is you who hearkened, and follow your root, which is i, the merciful one, and guard yourself against the angels of poverty and the demons of chaos and all those who ensnare you, and beware of the deep sleep and the enclosure of the inside of hades "and i raised him up, and sealed him in the light of the water with five seals, in order that death might not have power over him from this time on "and behold, now i shall go up to the perfect aeon. i have completed everything for you in your hearing. and i have said everything to you that you might write them down and give them secretly to your fellow spirits, for this is the mystery of th

BLAVATSKY H P ANTHROPOGENESIS

e their progeny; so that progeny was absorbed in its descendants, the "sweat-born" these were the second humanity- composed of the most heterogeneous gigantic semi-human monsters- the first attempts of material nature at building human bodies. the everblooming lands of the second continent (greenland, among others) were transformed, in order, from edens with their eternal spring, into hyperborean hades. this transformation was due to the displacement of the great waters of the globe, to oceans changing their beds; and the bulk of the second race perished in this first great throe of the evolution and consolidation of the globe during the human period. of such great cataclysms there have already been four* and we may expect a fifth for ourselves in due course of time- a few words about "del

e weight and measure and number are, in sepher jezirah, the attributes of the sephiroth (the three sephrim, or figures, ciphers) covering the whole collective number of 10; and that the sephiroth are the collective adam kadmon, the "heavenly man" or the logos. thus satan and the anointed were identified in ancient thought. therefore, 33 "satan is the minister of god, lord of the seven mansions of hades. the seven or saptaloka of the earth with the hindus; for hades, or the limbo of illusion, of which theology makes a region bordering on hell, is simply our globe, the earth, and thus satan is called- 33. the angel of the manifest worlds" it is "satan who is the god of our planet and the only god" and this without any allusive metaphor to its wickedness and depravity. for he is one with the

but spirits, to have rebelled against brahma; for which siva hurled him down to patala. but, as philosophy goes hand in hand with allegorical fiction in hindu myths, the devil is made to repent, and is afforded the opportunity to progress: he is a sinful man esoterically, and can by yoga devotion, and adeptship, reach his status of one with the deity, once more. hercules, the sun-god, descends to hades (the cave of initiation) to deliver the victims from their tortures, etc, etc. the christian church alone creates eternal torment for the devil and the damned, that she has invented[[vol. 2, page] 238 the secret doctrine. believers in the pope's infallibility, but will hardly satisfy the philosophical mind. yet the truth, although known to most of the higher kabalists, has never been told by

the grecian fanes their rites became mostly phallic, therefore to the profane, obscene. in the latter case they were 3 and 4, or 7- the male and female principles (the crux ansata; this division showing why some classical writers held that they were only three, while others named four. and these were- the kabiri- axieros (in his female aspect, demeter; axio-kersa (persephone; axiokersos (pluto or hades; and kadmos or kadmilos (hermes- not the ithyphallic hermes mentioned by herodotus (ii. 51) but "he of the sacred legend" explained only during the samothracian mysteries. this identification, due, according to the scholiast apollon (rh. i. 217, to an indiscretion of mnaseas, is none at all, as names alone do not reveal much. there were still others again who maintained, being as right in th

d the rod, are phallic symbols of jupiter and other gods who transformed themselves into snakes for purposes of seducing goddesses- but only in the unclean fancies of profane symbologists. the serpent has ever been the symbol of the adept, and of his powers of immortality and divine knowledge. mercury in his psychopompic character, conducting and guiding with the caduceus the souls of the dead to hades and even raising the dead to life with it, is simply a very transparent allegory. it shows the dual power of the secret wisdom: the black and the white magic. it shows this personified wisdom guiding the soul after death, and its power to call to life that which is dead- a very deep metaphor if one thinks over its meaning. every people of antiquity reverenced this symbol, with the exception

to the esoteric division of man's principles symbolised by the divine wheat. the legend which inscribes the third registrar of the papyrus (chap. cx. of the "book of the dead) states "this is the region of the manes (disembodied men) seven cubits high- to wit: those just translated and supposed to be still sevenfold with all their principles, even the body represented astrally in the kama-loka or hades, before their separation" and, there is wheat three cubits high for mummies in a state of perfection (i.e, those already separated, whose three higher principles are in devachan "who are permitted to glean it" this region (devachan) is called "the land of the re-birth of gods" and shown to be inhabited by scheo, tefnant, and seb. the "region for the manes seven cubits high (for the yet imper

d. they may, in our ignorance of the truth, be indirectly cursed for pandora's gift: but to find themselves proclaimed and declared by the mouth of the clergy, the evil ones, is too heavy a karma for "him "who dared alone- when zeus "ardently desired" to quench the entire human race- to save "that mortal race" from perdition, or, as the suffering titan is made to say "from sinking blasted down to hades' gloom. for this by the dire tortures i am bent, grievous to suffer, piteous to behold, i who did mortals pity" the chorus remarking very pertinently "vast boon was this thou gavest unto mortals" prometheus answers "yea, and besides 'twas i that gave them fire. chorus: have now these short-lived creatures flame-eyed fire? prom: ay, and by it full many arts will learn" but, with the arts, the

ry becomes very suggestive (see closing pages of this sub-section[[vol. 2, page] 415 christ connected with epaphos. ville amongst others- into a clear prophecy. io "is the mother of god" we are told, and "dark epaphos- christ. but, the latter has not dethroned his father, except metaphorically, if one has to regard jehovah as that "father; nor has the christian saviour hurled his father down into hades. prometheus says, in verse 930, that zeus will be humbled yet; as for himself. such marriage he prepares which from his throne of power to nothingness shall hurl him down; so shall be all fulfilled his father kronos' curse. then let him sit confiding in his lofty thunder-peals, and wielding with both hands the fiery bolt; for these shall not avail, but fail he shall, a fall disgraceful, not

ishing into thin air. of these, however, more anon: we must return to our direct subject. the race which jupiter so ardently desired "to quench, and plant a new one in its stead (aesch* 241, suffered mental, not physical misery. the first boon prometheus gave to mortals, as he tells the "chorus" was to hinder them "from foreseeing death (256; he "saved the mortal race from sinking blasted down to hades' gloom (244; and then only "besides" that, he gave them fire (260. this shows plainly the dual character, at any rate of the promethean myth, if orientalists will not accept the existence of the seven keys taught in occultism. this relates to the first opening of man's spiritual perceptions, not to his first seeing or discovering fire. for fire was never "discovered" but existed on earth sin

" by mouth; the logos, or verbum. now, mercury, besides being born on mount cyllene among shepherds, is the patron of the[[footnote(s* by very few though, for the creators of the material universe were always considered as subordinate gods to the most high deity* lydus i, c. ledrenus, i. c[[vol. 2, page] 542 the secret doctrine. latter. a psychopompic genius, he conducted the souls of the dead to hades and brought them back, an office attributed to jesus, after his death and resurrection. the symbols of hermes-mercury (dii termini) were placed along and at the turning points of highways (as crosses are now placed in italy) and they were cruciform* every seventh day the priests anointed these termini with oil, and once a year hung them with garlands, hence they were the anointed. mercury, w

m (in egypt) of a svastika without the four additional prolongations (thus[[diagram, not[[diagram) plunged in a deep sleep (the "sleep of siloam" it is called to this day among the initiates in asia minor, in syria, and even higher egypt. he was allowed to remain in this state for three days and three nights, during which time his spiritual ego was said to confabulate with the "gods" descend into hades, amenti, or patala (according to the country, and do works of charity to the invisible beings, whether souls of men or elemental spirits; his body remaining all the time in a temple crypt or subterranean cave. in egypt it was placed in the sarcophagus in the king's chamber of the pyramid of cheops, and carried during the night of the approaching third day to the entrance of a gallery, where

* these islands were "found strewn with fossils of horses, sheep, oxen, etc, among gigantic bones of elephants, mammoths, rhinoceroses" etc. if there was no man on earth at that period "how came horses and sheep to be found in company with the huge antediluvians" asks a master in a letter("esoteric buddhism" 67. the reply is given above in the text[[vol. 2, page] 774 the secret doctrine. the dark hades of the greeks and the cold realm of shades where the scandinavian hel, the goddess-queen of the country of the dead "holds sway deep down in helheim and niflheim" yet, it was the birth-place of apollo, who was the brightest of gods, in heaven- astronomically- as he was the most enlightened of the divine kings who ruled over the early nations, in his human meaning. the latter fact is borne ou

ich they cannot cross; and it is in that damp region, where eternal darkness reigns, that the three brothers languish. the iliad (viii, 13) makes of it the tartaros. when the gods and titans rebelled in their turn against zeus- the deity of the fourth race- the father of the gods bethought himself of the imprisoned giants in order to conquer the gods and titans, and to precipitate the latter into hades; or, in clearer words, to have lemuria hurled amid thunder and lightning to the bottom of the seas, so as to make room for atlantis, which was to be submerged and perish in its turn* the geological upheaval and deluge of thessaly was a repetition on a small scale of the great cataclysm; and, remaining impressed on the memory of the greeks, was merged by them into, and confused with, the gene

BLAVATSKY H P COSMOGENESIS

t does not belong to this plane: it is but the ray of light eternal which shines upon and through the darkness of matter- when the latter is willing. 4. the soul (collectively, as the upper triad) lives on three planes, besides its fourth, the terrestrial sphere; and it exists eternally on the highest of the three. 5. these dwellings are: earth for the physical man, or the animal soul; kama-loka (hades, the limbo) for the disembodied man, or his shell; devachan for the higher triad. 6. correct. 7. the astral through kama (desire) is ever drawing manas down into the sphere of material passions and desires. but if the better man[[second column continued on next page[[vol. 1, page] 245 occultists and kabalists differ[[first column continued from previous page] conquered in accordance with the

BLUE EQUINOX

e) 44. thou strivest ever; even in thy yielding thou strivest to yield.and lo! thou yieldest not. liber lxv 69 45. go thou unto the outermost places and subdue all things. 46. subdue thy fear and thy disgust. then.yield! 47. there was a maiden that strayed among the corn, and sighed; then grew a new birth, a narcissus, and therein she forgot her sighing and her loneliness. 48. even instantly rode hades heavily upon her, and ravished her away. 49 (then the scribe knew the narcissus in his heart; but because it came not to his lips, therefore was he shamed and spake no more) 50. adonai spake yet again with v.v.v.v.v. and said: the earth is ripe for vintage; let us eat of her grapes and be drunken thereon. 51. and v.v.v.v.v. answered and said: o my lord, my dove, my excellent one, how shall t

CASSANDRA EASON A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO WITCHCRAFT AND MAGIC

ictured dancing on shiva whose body she trampled on, destroyed and then danced on once more to restore him to life. kali is invoked to remove fear and, it is said, to bring bliss to her devotees, and so she brings protection and regeneration after sorrow. persephone persephone is the greek maiden goddess of transformation, daughter of demeter and goddess of spring and flowers. she was abducted by hades, god of the underworld, and became queen of the underworld for the winter months, returning to the earth as the light-bringer in spring and so representing the cycle of death and rebirth. she is especially powerful in rituals by or for young women, especially those who have suffered loss or abuse, and also for mother-daughter relationships. she is sometimes regarded as a symbol of grain. pro

chic attack. it is a colour for keeping secrets and for smoothing down potential conflict and keeping one's counsel when to do otherwise would be unwise. grey candles are best used on wednesday when mercury cannot be seen and on saturday. black another colour of saturn and also the kings of the underworld- the roman pluto, the bestower of the hidden wealth that lay within the earth, and the greek hades, who abducted persephone (proserpine, thus causing winter. black is the colour not only of death, but also of regeneration. this belief goes back to ancient egypt when the annual flooding of the nile carried with it black silt, which brought new life to the land each year. in magick, black is the colour of endings that carry within them seeds of new beginnings. it can be used for banishing n

DEITUS

tal spheres: earth, air, fire, and water. there are also the four great watchtowers: north, east, south, and west. above the earth are the seven planetary spheres: the moon, mercury, venus, the sun, mars, jupiter, and saturn. beyond the planetary spheres are the fixed stars and the primum mobil, the twelve signs of the zodiac, and the heavenly spheres. beneath the earth lies the land of the dead (hades, the tartaran abode (hell, and the realm of the abominations of chaos. all spirits, demons, angels, and other beings of an archetypal nature are said to reside in one of the archetypal spheres. there are, for example, many ranks or orders of angels such as seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominions, powers, virtues, archangels, etc. each angelic choir is said to reside in a particular heavenly s

DEMONIC BIBLE

er styx* i enter the underworld. i behold the underworld (dip forefinger of left hand in "unholy water; mark inverted cross upon forehead (place forefinger in flame of candle; mark inverted cross upon forehead) i am baptized in the river styx and in the flames of hell *recite three times. invocation of the lord of the underworld i call upon the lord of the underworld, the lord of the dead. pluto, hades, anubis, samhein, kutha, lord of the underworld, lord of the dead, come forth and manifest thyself. lord of the underworld, i invoke thee. lord of the underworld, i summon thee. lord of the underworld, i conjure thee. come forth, lord of the underworld, and manifest thyself within this body, this temple which i have prepared. come forth, lord of the underworld, and manifest thyself. for i ha

vil incarnate. i am satan; i am lucifer; i am belial; and i am leviatan. come forth, lord of the underworld, and manifest thyself. come forth, lord of the underworld, and manifest thyself. invocation of the queen of the underworld i have called upon the lord of the underworld, the lord of the dead. and by calling upon the lord of the underworld i have become the lord of the dead. i am pluto; i am hades; i am anubis; i am samhein; i am kutha. i sit upon the throne of the underworld as lord of the underworld and lord of the dead. i take the queen of the underworld, the queen of the dead as my wife and as my lover. hela, persephone, proserpine, ereshkigal, queen of the underworld, queen of the dead come forth and manifest thyself. queen of the underworld, i invoke thee. queen of the underworl

DIABOLUS

nted a zoroastrian statement of ahriman- it is not the case that i am unable to do anything good myself, but that i do not wish it; and to make this thing certain, i have produced the peacock. offerings to ahriman (arimanius) were made by magi who sought to make beneficial sacrifices to darkness. according to plutarch12 magicians would ground up in a mortar a rare herb called omomi while invoking hades and darkness, the very essence of the adversary. they would then mix the blood of a wolf with the ground up herb and toss it in an area where the sun did not reach. this was conducted as a means of appeasing darkness, as report ably the magi would also perform white light rituals to ohrmazd as well. a modern form of practice of summoning darkness is practiced by certain luciferian covens in

e second one is harmas, who is the eye of envy. the third one is kalila-oumbri. the fourth one is yabel. the fifth one is adonaiou, who is called sabaoth. the sixth one is cain, whom the generations of men call the sun. the seventh is abel. the eighth is abrisene. the ninth is yobel. the tenth is armoupieel. the eleventh is melceir-adonein. the twelfth is belias, it is he who is over the depth of hades. and he placed seven kings- each corresponding to the firmaments of heaven- over the seven heavens, and five over the depth of the abyss, that they may reign. and he shared his fire with them, but he did not send forth from the power of the light which he had taken from his mother, for he is ignorant darkness. the apocryphon of john it must be considered that darkness cannot be considered co

DONALDTYSON EVILEYE

but his heart is not with thee. the morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words" the greek poet apollonius of rhodes, who lived in alexandria, egypt, at the end of the first century, wrote of how the sorceress medea destroyed the giant talos with nothing more than the malice of her gaze "then, with incantations, she invoked the spirits of death, the swift hounds of hades who feed on souls and haunt the lower air to pounce on living men. she sank to her knees and called upon them, three times in song, three times with spoken prayers. she steeled herself with their malignity and bewitched the eyes of talos with the evil in her own. she flung at him the full force of her malevolence, and in an ecstasy of rage she plied him with images of death" the roman histor

EGYPTIAN BOOK OF THE DEAD PAPYRUS OF ANI MALESTROM

out to them by the decree of ra and his company of gods. the chief instruments of punishment employed by the gods were fire and beasts which devoured the souls and bodies of the enemies [1. see below, p. 258. 2. naville, todtenbuch, bd. i, bl. 49. 3. lepsius, todtenbuch, bl. 17. 4. naville, todtenbuch, bd. i, bl. 184. 5. see maspero, les hypog es royaux de th bes, p. 76. 6. see lef bure, book of hades (records of the past, vol. x, p. 84] p. cxxxi traditions about hell preserved in coptic times. of ra; and we may see from the literature of the copts, or egyptians who had embraced christianity, how long the belief in a hell of fire and torturing fiends survived. thus in the life of abba shenuti,[1] a man is told that the" executioners of amenti will not show compassion upon thy wretched sol

h had seven heads, and all their bodies were covered as it were with scorpions. here also were serpents, the very sight of which terrified the beholder, and to one of them which had teeth like iron stakes was the wretched man given to be devoured; for five days in each week the serpent crushed him with his teeth, but on the saturday and sunday there was respite. another picture of the torments of hades is given in the martyrdom of macarius of antioch, wherein the saint, having restored to life a man who had been dead six hours, learned that when he was about to die he was surrounded by fiends, some of whom had the faces of dragons, others of lions, others of crocodiles, and others of bears. they tore his soul from his body with great violence, and they fled with it over a mighty river of f

place where the sun set, but subsequently the name was applied to the cemeteries and tombs which were usually built or hewn in the stony plateaus and mountains on the western bank of the nile. some believe that amenta was, at first, the name of a small district, without either funereal or mythological signification. the christian egyptians or copts used the word amend to translate the greek word hades, to which they attributed all the ideas which their heathen ancestors had associated with the amenta of the book of the dead. annu, the heliopolis of the greeks (herodotus, ii, 3, 7, 8, 9, 59, 93; strabo, xvii, i, 27 ff, and the capital of the thirteenth nome of lower egypt [1. see am lineau, la g ographie de l' gypte, l' poque copte, p. 155. 2. see brugsch, dict. g og, p. 227. 3. see masper

ELLIS LOW TWELVE 1907

arizona and northwestern sonora. lawton thereupon changed his original plan and took up the direct pursuit. lawton's command consisted of thirty-five men of troop b, my own fourth cavalry, twenty indian scouts, twenty men of company d, eighth infantry, and two packtrains. we left fort huachuca early in may, and pressed the pursuit with the utmost vigor in our power. it was as hot as the hinges of hades. never have i experienced such weather as we suffered during the following weeks. in june, fresh detachments of infantry and scouts took the places of those that were worn out, and before the close of the following month we had travelled fourteen hundred miles and the hostiles were driven southeast of oposura. if we had no rest ourselves, neither had the apaches. three different times we bur

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF OCCULTISM AND PARAPSYCHOLOGY VOL 1

occultism& parapsychology. 5th ed. abduction, ufo 3 aben-ragel an arabian astrologer born at cordova at the beginning of the fifth century. his book of horoscopes was translated into latin and published at venice in 1485, under the title de judiciis seu fatis stellarum. aben-ragel s predictions were known for their remarkable accuracy. abigor according to johan weyer, abigor is the grand duke of hades. he is shown in the form of a handsome knight bearing a lance, standard, or scepter. he is a demon of the superior order and responds readily to questions concerning war. he can foretell the future and instructs leaders on how to make themselves respected by their soldiers. sixty infernal regions are under his command. sources: weyer, johannes. witches, devils, and doctors in the renaissance

must be at her command in order for her to accomplish her magic feats. she seems to be like the scottish cailleach bheur, a nature hag. agapis according to ancient tradition, this was a yellow stone said to promote love or charity; it also cured stings and venomous bites when dipped in water and rubbed over the wound. agares according to johan weyer, agares is grand duke of the eastern region of hades. he is shown in the form of a benevolent lord mounted on a crocodile and carrying a hawk on his fist. the army he protects in battle is indeed fortunate, for he disperses their enemies and puts new courage into the hearts of the cowards who fly before superior numbers. he distributes place and power, titles and prelacies, teaches all languages, and has other equally remarkable powers. thirty

ties. new york: citadel press, 1962. alary, francois a visionary who had printed at rouen in 1701, prophetie. sur la naissance miraculeuse de louis le grand (the prophecy of count bombaste [chevalier de la rose-croix, nephew of paracelsus, published in 1609 on the birth of louis the great. alastor a cruel demon, who, according to johan weyer, filled the post of chief executioner to the monarch of hades. the conception of him somewhat resembles that of nemesis. zoroaster is said to have called him the executioner. others identify him with the destroying angel. evil genies were formerly called alastors. plutarch says that cicero, who bore a grudge against augustus, conceived the plan of committing suicide on the emperor s hearth, and thus becoming his alastor. sources: weyer, johannes. witch

year in a wood, where the candidate pretended to die. the initiates surrounded the neophyte and chanted funeral songs. he was then brought to the temple erected for the purpose and anointed with palm oil. after 40 days of probation, he was said to have obtained a new soul, was greeted with hymns of joy, and conducted home. alocer according to johan weyer, alocer is a powerful demon, grand duke of hades. he appears in the shape of a knight mounted on an enormous horse. his face has leonine characteristics; he has a ruddy complexion and burning eyes, and speaks with much gravity. he is said to give family happiness to those whom he takes under his protection and to teach astronomy and liberal arts. thirty-six legions are controlled by him. sources: weyer, johannes. witches, devils, and docto

of ephesus, and the name amaranth derives from amarynthos, a hunter of artemis and king of euboea. there are many species of amaranth, some with poetic folk names such as prince s feather and love-lies-bleeding. the amazing randi stage name of professional conjuring magician james randi (or randall zwinge, who is the self-appointed archenemy of psychics and the paranormal. amduscias grand duke of hades. according to johan weyer, amduscias has the form of a unicorn, but when evoked, appears in human shape. he gives concerts, at the command of men, where one hears the sound of all kinds of musical instruments but can see nothing. it is said that the trees themselves bend to his voice. he commands 29 legions. sources: weyer, johannes. witches, devils, and doctors in the renaissance: johann we

s of light energy similar to the meridians described in chinese medicine. sources: amorah quan yin. pleiadian perspectives on the human evolution. santa fe, n. mex: bear& co, 1996. the pleiadian workbook: awakening your divine ka. santa fe, n. mex: bear& co, 1996. amorc see ancient and mystical order of the rosae crucis amoymon according to an ancient grimoire, amoymon is one of the four kings of hades, of which the eastern part falls to his share. he may be invoked in the morning from nine o clock till midday and in the evening from three o clock till six. he has been identified with amaimon (or amaymon. asmodeus is his lieutenant and first prince of his dominions. amphiaraus a famous soothsayer of classical mythology, son of oicles and hypermnestra. he hid himself so that he might not ha

asmodeus is his lieutenant and first prince of his dominions. amphiaraus a famous soothsayer of classical mythology, son of oicles and hypermnestra. he hid himself so that he might not have to go to the war of thebes, because he had foreseen that he should die there. this indeed happened, but he came to life again. a temple was raised to him in attica, near a sacred fountain by which he had left hades. he healed the sick by showing them in a dream the remedies they must use. he also founded many oracles. after they sacrificed, those who consulted the oracle slept under a sheep skin and dreamed a dream, which usually found plenty of interpreters after the event. amphiaraus was an adept in the art of explaining dreams. some prophecies in verse, which are no longer extant, were attributed to

asic magical training. sources: budge, e. a. w. amulets and talismans. new hyde park, n.y: university books, 1961. lippman, deborah, and paul colin. how to make amulets, charms, and talismans. new york: m. evans, 1974. pavitt, william t, and kate pavitt. the book of talismans, amulets, and zodiacal gems. detroit: gale research, 1972. amy according to an ancient grimoire, amy is grand president of hades and one of the princes of the infernal monarchy. he appears there enveloped with flame, but on earth, he is in human form. he teaches the secrets of astrology and liberal arts. he reveals to those who possess his favor the hiding place of treasures guarded by demons. thirty-six of the infernal legions are under his command. the fallen angels acknowledge his orders, and he hopes that, at the

his prohibition, asking if it is the stomach and not the mind with which one dreams. sources: cunningham, scott. cunningham s encyclopedia of magical herbs. st. paul, minn: llewellyn publications, 1985. bearded demon the demon who teaches the secret of the philosophers stone. he is not well known. the demon barbu is not to be confused with barbatos, a great and powerful demon said to be a duke in hades, although not a philosopher; nor with barbas, who is interested in mechanics. it is said that the bearded demon is so called on account of his remarkable beard. beare, charles albert (ca. 1931) famous british fake medium, who demonstrated claimed clairvoyance and trumpet and psychometry phenomena. in 1920 he joined the spiritualist organization the temple of light and promoted himself as a m

liss. this he imagined he could in great part accomplish by the recitation of various magical formula and spells, which would ward off the evil influences opposed to him. to this end every important egyptian of means had buried with him a papyrus of the book of the dead, containing at least all the chapters necessary for encountering the formidable adversaries at the gates of amenti, the egyptian hades. these chapters would assist him in making replies during his ceremony of justification. first among these spells were the words of power. the egyptians believed that to discover the secret name of a god was to gain complete ascendancy over him. sympathetic magic was in vogue in egyptian burial practice, which explains the presence, in tombs of people of means, of paintings of tables laden w

younger with hermes, who was also known as cadmilus. their worship was later amalgamated with that of demeter and ceres, with the result that two sets of cabiri came into being.dionysus and demeter, and cadmilus and ceres. a greek writer of the second century b.c.e. states that they were four in number.axisros, axiokersa, axiokersos, and casmilus, corresponding, he states, to demeter, persephone, hades, and hermes. the romans identified the cabiri with the penates, the roman gods of the household. a festival of these deities was held annually in lemnos and lasted nine days, during which all domestic and other fires were extinguished and sacred fire was brought from delos. from this fact it has been judged that the cabiri may have been volcanic demons, although this view has largely been ab

was regarded as evil. it is said that the cacodaemons were the rebellious angels who were expelled from heaven for their crimes. they tried in vain to obtain settlement in various parts of the universe, with their final abode believed to be all the space between earth and the stars. there they abide, hated by all the elements and finding their pleasure in revenge and injury. their king was called hades by the greeks, typhon by the egyptians, and ahrimanes by the persians and chaldeans. sources: kendrick, tertius t. c. the kako-daemon or the cavern of anti-paros. london, 1825. cactomite a marvelous stone believed by ancient peoples to possess occult properties. anyone wearing it was supposed to be assured of victory in battle. caddy, eileen (1917) and peter caddy (1917.1994) peter and eilee

us religious systems, the gods were pictured in quite human terms, possessing both admirable and detestable attributes at the same time. very few of them were seen as evil like the devils in christianity or islam. in egypt and babylon, figures like apepi and tiawath, although clearly in the line of evolution toward a satanic personality, were by no means rulers of the infernal regions. again, the hades of the greeks is merely a ruler of the ghosts of the dead, not an enemy of olympus or of mankind. it is strange that in mexico, mictlantecutli, lord of hell, is a much more directly satanic figure than any european or asiatic ruler of the realms of the dead. but in some mythologies, there are frequent allusions to monsters that may quite easily have colored the modern concept of satan. such

chanted philter turned her lovers into swine. the serpent-staff of hermes gave, by its touch, life or death, sleep or waking; medusa s head turned its beholders into stone; hermes gave perseus wings that he might fly and pluto a helmet which conferred invisibility. prometheus molded a man of clay and to give it life stole celestial fire from heaven; odysseus, to peer into the future, descended to hades in search of tiresias the soothsayer; archilles was made invulnerable by the waters of the styx. dedicated by immemorial belief, there were places where the visible spirits of the dead might be evoked and where men in curiosity, longing, or remorse strove to call back those who had passed beyond mortal ken. in march, when the spring blossoms appeared and covered the trees, the festival of th

n, but they undoubtedly symbolized the myth of demeter, corn-goddess, and were held in spring and september. prior to initiation, a long period of purification and preparation was enforced. during this time the higher meaning of the myth was ingrained. the original meaning became exalted by the genius of the greeks into an intimate allegory of the soul of man, its birth, life, death, descent into hades, and subsequent release therefrom. after this came the central point of the mysteries, the viewing of certain holy and secret symbols; next, a crowning of garlands, signifying the happiness that arises from friendship with the divine. the festival also embodied a scenic representation of the story of demeter, the greece encyclopedia of occultism& parapsychology. 5th ed. 664 rape of persephon

the sabbat. she was also identified with diana or herodias. she was referred to as habonde in the thirteenth-century poem le roman de la rose. in his work tableau de l inconstance des mauvais anges (description of the inconstancy of evil angels, 1612, the demonologist pierre de lancre refers to habondia rather sweepingly as queen of the fairies, witches, harpies, furies; and ghosts of the wicked. hades greek god of the underworld and of wealth, also identified with pluto. hades abducted persephone (daughter of the corn goddess demeter) and made her his wife. in his intimidating character as lord of death, hades was mysterious and terrifying, but in his benign aspect he was the generous god of wealth. his attention could be secured by striking the ground, and he could be propitiated by an o

fied with pluto. hades abducted persephone (daughter of the corn goddess demeter) and made her his wife. in his intimidating character as lord of death, hades was mysterious and terrifying, but in his benign aspect he was the generous god of wealth. his attention could be secured by striking the ground, and he could be propitiated by an offering of a black-fleeced sheep. entrance to the domain of hades was through the groves of persephone, where the gates were guarded by the great dog cerberus, who admitted visitors without difficulty but would not let them leave. after passing through the gate, one had several rivers to cross, including lethe, the river of forgetfulness. for a small fee, the ferryman charon would take the traveler across. in later history, the domain of hades became synon

es of persephone, where the gates were guarded by the great dog cerberus, who admitted visitors without difficulty but would not let them leave. after passing through the gate, one had several rivers to cross, including lethe, the river of forgetfulness. for a small fee, the ferryman charon would take the traveler across. in later history, the domain of hades became synonymous with hell, although hades domain was not referred to as a place of torment. hades base hades base is a flying saucer contactee and channeling group that originated in 1988 in sedona, arizona, where russ hatfield was introduced to the ashtar command. he attended a channeling session one evening at which korton, described as in charge of communication for the command, spoke through a trance channel named roger pinion

hades base is a flying saucer contactee and channeling group that originated in 1988 in sedona, arizona, where russ hatfield was introduced to the ashtar command. he attended a channeling session one evening at which korton, described as in charge of communication for the command, spoke through a trance channel named roger pinion. as the evening progressed, a second entity, omal, the commander of hades base, a part of the command, also spoke. omal addressed some of his words to hatfield, whom he explained was a communicator. fascinated, over the next months hatfield attended a number of sessions with pinion. then pinion moved on to new zealand, and hatfield moved to lake tahoe, nevada. five years later, hatfield met mark crocker, who confided the ability he possessed to consciously leave h

s to hatfield, whom he explained was a communicator. fascinated, over the next months hatfield attended a number of sessions with pinion. then pinion moved on to new zealand, and hatfield moved to lake tahoe, nevada. five years later, hatfield met mark crocker, who confided the ability he possessed to consciously leave his body in astral travel. on one of his astral flights he attempted to locate hades base. crocker claimed that while following a spacecraft to mars, he met two female entities known as tia and kiri, later learned to be his twin souls. hatfield also said that he perfected the ability to travel astrally and also met his twin, an entity named karra. the two, crocker and hatfield finally established contact with omal, who agreed to begin channeling through crocker. they began w

he met two female entities known as tia and kiri, later learned to be his twin souls. hatfield also said that he perfected the ability to travel astrally and also met his twin, an entity named karra. the two, crocker and hatfield finally established contact with omal, who agreed to begin channeling through crocker. they began weekly channeling sessions that soon included a variety of beings from hades base, an underground location on mars. the channeling described not only the hades base operation in great detail, but the whole ashtar command. among its tasks is the protection of earth from hostile extraterrestrials who wish to study and experiment on earthlings (the source of abduction stories. according to hades base, the ashtar command has as its overall purpose the development of plan

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF OCCULTISM AND PARAPSYCHOLOGY VOL 2

agicians of the golden dawn. london: routledge& kegan paul, 1972. lytton, bulwar. the coming race. london: george routledge& sons, 1877. complete works. new york: thomas y. crowell, n h maa-kheru according to egyptologist gaston maspero, maa-kheru is the egyptian name of the true intonation with which the dead must recite those magic incantations that would give them power in amenti, the egyptian hades (see also egypt) mabinogion a collection of ancient welsh legends translated into english by lady charlotte guest (1812.1895) and published 1838.49. the title is the plural form of the welsh maginogi, originally indicating stories of a hero s childhood, but is here used in the wider sense of hero tale. the stories in this collection are from various manuscript sources, originally part of the

logical history states that some of the elder gods were regarded as magicians, and the hero-twins, xblanque and hun-ahpu, whom they sent to earth to rid it of the titan vukubcakix, were undoubtedly possessed of magical powers. as boys, the twins were equipped with magical tools that enabled them to get through an enormous amount of work in a single day. when they descended into xibalba (the kiche hades) for the purpose of avenging their father and uncle, they took full advantage of their magical propensities in combating the inhabitants of that drear abode. xibalba itself possessed sorcerers, for within its borders were xulu and pacaw, who assisted the hero-gods in many of their necromantic practices. regarding divination, the maya possessed a caste of augurs, called cocomes, or the listen

us requiring statistical analysis or special methods of detection. in contrast, macro-pk effects are paranormal movements sufficiently large or impressive to be observed by the naked eye. the microprosopus one of the four magical elements in the kabala, probably representing one of the four simple elements.air, water, earth, or fire. the word means creator of the little world. mictlan the mexican hades (see also hell; mexico and central america) midday demons it was the belief of ancient peoples that certain demons became visible especially toward midday to those with whom they had a pact. they appeared in the form of men or of beasts, and would allow themselves be enclosed in a symbolic character, a figure, a vial, or in the interior of a hollow ring (see also demonology) the midiwiwin a

gods took the place of the old totemic deities. the corn appears as a living thing. it is growth, and within it resides a spirit. therefore the deity that evolves from this concept is more likely to be of animistic than of totemistic origin. the neophyte was then made one with the deity by partaking of holy food or drink. this recalls the story of persephone, who, upon reaching the dark shores of hades, partook of the food of the dead.thus rendering it impossible for her to return. once the human soul eats or drinks in hades, it may not return to earth. this belief is universal, and it is highly probable that it was symbolized in the eleusinian mysteries. m. foucart ingeniously put forward the theory that the object of the eleusinian mysteries was much the same as that of the egyptian book

wis: for my god and my country, inc, 1971, 1978. swan, henry. my work at necedah. 4 vols. necedah, wis: for my god and my country, inc, 1959. necromancy divination by means of the spirits of the dead, from the greek nekrosh (dead, and manteia (divination. it is through its italian form nigromancia that it came to be known as the black art. with the greeks it originally signified the descent into hades in order to consult the dead rather than summoning the dead into the mortal sphere again. the art is of almost universal usage. considerable difference of opinion exists among modern adepts as to the exact methods to be properly pursued in the necromantic art, and it must be borne in mind that necromancy, which in the middle ages was included in the practice of sorcery (malevolent magic, usu

al vehicle of vitality is observed by other people. crookall also cited instances of the condition of consciousness in which one sees a double of oneself (see also vardo. gr. again, while much astral travel is supposedly in the world of everyday life, one sometimes moves into regions of otherworldly beauty or depression, characterized by crookall as paradise condition (the finer area of earth) or hades condition (a kind of purgatorial area. here one sometimes encounters friends and relatives who have died, or even angelic or demonic beings. return to the physical body is often accompanied by violent loud repercussion effects. sometimes the transition to ouspensky, p(eter) d(emianovitch) encyclopedia of occultism& parapsychology. 5th ed. 1160 and from the physical body appears to be assiste

fected by gradual refinement of the spiritual body under the effect of the spirit. an impressive conception of after-death states was disclosed in geraldine cummins s the road to immortality (1932, a book said to be dictated by the spirit of f. w. h. myers. according to the chapter the chart of existence, the journey of the soul takes place through the following stages: 1. the plane of matter. 2. hades or the intermediate state. 3. the plane of illusion. 4. the plane of color. 5. the plane of flame. 6. the plane of light. 7. out yonder, timelessness. between each plane or new chapter in experience, there is existence in hades or in an intermediate state when the soul reviews his past experiences and makes his choice, deciding whether he will go up or down the ladder of consciousness. altho

ise unknown planets, the existence of different as yet undiscovered planets was proposed. such speculation was encouraged by the discovery of uranus and neptune and heralded the discovery of pluto (1930) and chiron (1977, a comet originally believed to be a planet. uranian astrology was unique in suggesting the existence of no less than eight hypothetical planets that were given the names cupido, hades, zeus, kronos, apollon, admetos, vulcanos, and poseidon. each of these planets was assigned its particular role in the chart. uranian astrology enjoyed its greatest success in germanspeaking countries during the first half of the twentieth century. it also gave birth to cosmobiology, an astrological system started by reinhold ebertin, one of witte s students. it has had little success outsid

would be discovered in 1930 and named pluto. after the war, witte gathered a group of astrologers, especially friedrich sieggrun (1877.1951, to assist in developing his insights. the results were an innovative system of astrology that came to be known as uranian astrology or the hamburg school, after witte s hometown. as the system developed, witte postulated first three additional planets, named hades, zeus, and kronos, and then four additional imaginary planets. criticism of the additional planets, unknown to anyone except witte and his associates, was balanced by the good reports of satisfied clients. witte also introduced the idea of midpoints, another imaginary addition to the horoscope. as the name implies, a midpoint is a point halfway between any two planets in the chart. the combi

lausanne, switzerland: bridel, 1910. stevenson, ian. unlearned language: new studies in xenoglossy. charlottesville: university of virginia press, 1984. xenoglossy: a review and report of a case. charlottesville: university of virginia press, 1974. wood, f. h. after thirty centuries. london: rider, 1935. this egyptian miracle. london: rider, 1940. rev. ed. london: j. m. watkins, 1955. xibalba the hades of the kiche (or quiche) indians of central america (see mexico and central america) xylomancy divination by means of wood, practiced particularly in slavonia. it was the art of reading omens from the position of small pieces of dry wood found in one s path. presages of future events were also drawn from the arrangement of logs in the fireplace and from the manner in which they burned. xibal

FAUST

begotten! woe to us, woe! woe! all is covered and hid roundabout in the mist. we can see each other no more! what befalls? do we move? float we only, footing uncertainly on the ground? see st thou naught? wings not haply e en hermes ahead? gleams not his golden wand waving, commanding us backward again to the unenjoyable, grey-glimmering, with impalpable phantoms teeming, over-crowded, ever empty hades? yes, tis growing darker swiftly; lifts the mist but leaves no sunlight, darkly-greyish, brown as walls are. walls encounter our free vision. standing stark against our seeing. is it a court? is it a dungeon? horrible in any case! sisters, alas, we are imprisoned, prisoned as we ever were. the inner court of the castle surrounded by rich, fantastic buildings of the middle ages. leader of the

t and swell his tribe with jealousness; and talent? though i can t bestow it, i can at least bestow the dress. she sits down in the proscenium at the foot of a column. panthalis now hasten, maidens! from the sorcery we re free, from the mad tyranny of the thessalian hag, freed from the wildering, jangling tones that dazed us all, the car confounding and still worse the inner sense. hence, down to hades! where our queen has hastened on, with solemn steps descending. let her footsteps be directly followed by the steps of faithful maids. her shall we find beside the throne of the inscrutable. chorus. everywhere indeed do queens ever like to be, and in hades too do they stand supreme; proudly with their peers are they allied, with persephone most intimate. we, however, in the background of dee

n shall we have there? bat-like to squeak and twitter in whispers undelighting, spectral. panthalis who hath not won a name nor wills a noble deed, belongs but to the elements, so fare thy way! hotly i wish to join my queen. not merit alone, faithfulness too preserves our personality. exit. all back to the light of day are we now restored, truly persons no more. we feel it, we know it too, but to hades we go back never; for ever-living nature lays claim to us spirits, we to her lay claim that is valid. a part of the chorus. in these thousand branches quivering whisper, in their murmuring swaying, toying gently, we ll entice up from the roots the vital currents to the twigs; and now with leafage, now with blooms in great profusion we ll adorn the fluttering tresses freely for an airy growth

GILBERT THE MAGICAL MASON

rials of life, teaching the control of the passions, and the necessity for truth and virtue. strabo,a.d.20, wrote:'thesecret celebration of the mysteries preserves the sanctity of the divinity, and at the same time imitates its powers, which are hidden from our senses in our common lives' sophocles, 400b.c.,wrote'ohthrice blessed are the mortals who contemplating the mysteries have descended into hades, for such will therebea future happy existence; other men will find death only suffering' pindar, 450b.c.,wrote 'happy is he who has seen these things in the mysteries before leaving this world, for he realises the end and the beginning oflife, as they are ordained by zeus' according to plato, aboutb.c.350, the sacred mysteries of greece were intended to lead men more directly back to the pr

hreshold of persephone, i returned fromit,being carried through all the elements. at midnight i saw the sun shining with a splendid light, and i manifestly drew near to the gods beneath above, and near at hand. i adored them.'276themagical masonit has also been held that virgil in the sixth book of l243.neid is referring to some details concerning the sacred mysteries in the visit of l243.neas to hades. a small volume, calledcrata repoa,describing initiation into the egyptian mysteries, was published in 1770, anony255 mously.itprofessed to give details of a series of degrees of the ancient egyptian mysteries as follows:1.pasrophoros or novice. 2. neocoros or craftsman. 3. melanophoros or master. 4. christophoros or judge. s. balahatos or philosopher. 6. knephu or astronomer. 7. prophetos

, or earth mother, was by the romans later called ceres. she was fabled as the daughter of kronos and rhea, having as sisters hestia (vesta) andjuno,and brothers zeus (jupiter, neptune, and pluto. demeter was goddess of earth and agriculture and the bestower of harvests. demeter by jupiter had a daughter persephone (proserpine) who became very notable, was kore, the maiden. she was carried off to hades by pluto and became the queen of the underworld. according to the fable, pluto, whose reign in hades was more undisputed even than that of jupiter on olympus, was in the habit of roving over the earth in search of the souls of men who die, when he met the maiden playing alone in the fields among the flowersin the vale of enna. having obtained the permission of zeus (jupiter) her father, he p

a year. while the eleusinia were representations of the story of proserpine and ceres, of human life and death, and of animal and vegetative life, the dionysia were at their origin also symbolic. they were instituted by orpheus, fabled to be a son of the muse, calliope. he was the earliest and most famous greek poet before homer. he married eurydice, who died, and he sought her return, even from hades; and she was permitted to leave with him; but he looked back to seeifshe were indeedanessayon the ancient mysteries 283following him back to earth and she disappeared. orpheus is said to have been a theosophic teacher as well as a poet, and that pythagoras carried on his philosophy and teachings. according to thomas taylor- the platonist- the dionysiac legend was as follows:thetitans, childr

and, of course, it has come to be applied to certain liquids of alcoholic type. st paul, in his epistle to the corinthians, associates the wordspiritwith a body or vehicle. he says there is a natural body and there is a spiritual body, and that the material body is sown, and a spiritual body is raisedup,apparently as a vehicle to carryupthe immortal soul to another sphere of being- to purgatory, hades, the judgement, to heaven or hell. here we have a resemblance in christian teaching to the ideal constantly found in indian religions that the immaterial principles of a man have each a more or less tenuous sheath of matter for each plane of existence to act as a vehicle orvahan.theold testament of the hebrews does not show any complex analysis of man as the crown of creation. in genesisi,27

GNOSTIC HANDBOOK

as they have returned to it! the grave or the state of being dead (without consciousness) is used to represent the lack of awareness the reincarnating soul has of the earth sphere. time and time again this term is used to refer to cessation of activity and not in reference to an eternal fire or to any" spiritual realm. hell- first it stands for the hebrew sheol of the old testament and the greek hades of the septuagint and the new testament. sheol in old testament times referred simply to the abode of the dead and suggested no moral distinctions, the word hell as understood today, is not a happy translation. colliers encyclopaedia, 1986 vol. 12 pg 28. the term hades is the new testament equivalent of the hebrew sheol and therefore has the same meaning- the grave or in esoteric terms, the

t is such an apt description of the how we experience the darker aspects of our world, into which we are forced to reincarnate- criminals, carcasses of animals and every kind of filth. when we die, the body is eaten by animals or burnt by sulphur, or in more modern terms, cremated or buried and our soul then again must return. this sort of eternal re-occurance, hell on earth is the iconography of hades, sheol and gehenna, it is the real meaning of hell. the gnostic handbook page 84 while we may see the world as a form of the divine and should avoid unnecessary dualism in regards to our bodies and matter. in the end we must also accept that the world is a temporal schoolhouse and one that includes a lot of pain and suffering in its teaching method! hell, then, is not some eternal location t

GNOSTIC STUDIES THE GNOSTIC HANDBOOK II GNOSTIC THEURGY

of life: gnostic theurgy page 167 binah, tiphareth, chesed and hod. these are attributed to the following tarot trumps: geburah- binah: chariot. geburah -chesed: lust. geburah- tiphareth: justice or adjustment. geburah- hod: hanged man. geburah is also related to the following correspondences. egyptian god: horus and nepthys colours (emperor scale of colour) bright scarlet. greek: thor, aries and hades. stone: ruby plants: nettle, oak. perfume: tobacco. believe it or not, here he has all the information required to create his ritual. on the altar will be the five of swords, the major working will be to travel through this card and come back with a sense of power. he will place the tarot trumps of the related four centres in each elemental corner. he will wear a black robe with a bright sca

GOLDEN DAWN MEDITATION WITH THE ARCHANGEL AURIEL

d in hebrew. the temple is to be arranged in accordance with the zelator hall (as in the second part of the initiation ceremony) relax and perform the fourfould breath go to the northeast and say "hekas, hekas, este bebeloi" with the black end of the wand, perform the lbrp (say the following invocation) stoop not down into that darkly splendid world wherein continually lieth a faithless depth and hades wrapped in gloom, delighting in unintelligible images, precipitous, winding, a black ever-rolling abyss, ever espousing a body unluminous, formless and void. go clockwise to the east. with the white end of the wand, trace the lesser invoking pentagram. thrust the wand through the center of the figure and vibrate "agla" do this also in the south, west, and finally in the north; drawing the sa

GOLDEN DAWN RITUALS B

top portion of the pentagram is symbolized by the scepter of hermes, the letter c, and the rays which issue forth from the five corner angles of the pentagram. the scepter of zeus, or jupiter, is emblematic of the left side, while the scepter of neptune and poseidon is emblematic of the right side of the pentagram. beyond the bottom two feet of the pentagram are the scepter of pluto, dis, orphaus hades in the o angle, and the scepter of demeter or ceres in the l angle. the letters of the pentagrammaton are drawn in their appropriate colors over the white rays which issue forth from the five corner angles. study the diagram well and let the z.a.m. construct his own full color diagram on a black background. this way, each corridor of the pentagram may be explored by methods of traveling and

GOLDEN DAWN RITUALS K

air pentagram, and repeats "oro ibah aozpi. in the names and letters of the great eastern quadrangle, i invoke ye, ye angels of the watchtower of the east (replaces the dagger on the head of the man. takes the chain, goes to the north, raises it on high, shakes thrice, circumambulates with sol and says "stoop not down into the darkly splendid world wherein lieth continually a faithless depth, and hades wrapped in gloom, delighting in unintelligible images, precipitous, winding a black, ever-rolling abyss, ever espousing a body unluminous, formless, and void (reaches north and facing it, shakes chain thrice and draws the invoking earth pentagram, saying "emor dial hectega. in the names and letters of the great northern quadrangle, i invoke ye, ye angels of the watchtower of the north (repla

GRERALD SCHUELER AN ADVANCED GUIDE TO ENOCHIAN MAGICK

of the great eastern quadrangle, 90 1 invoke you, angels of the watchtower of the east. then vibrate the great holy name of this watchtower. feel the angels of the watchtower of air rising up from within you. step 5. take your pentagram and turn to the watchtower of earth in the north. shake the pentagram three times and say, i stoop clown into a world of darkness wherein lies unknown depths and hades shroud in gloom, delighting in senseless images; a black ever-rolling abyss, a voice both mute and void. stand facing the watchtower of earth. trace the pentagram of earth before you. trace the enochian letter x) within it. face the letter and say, mor-dial-hktga (moh-ar dee-ah-leh heh-keh-teh-gah) in the names and letters of the great northern quadrangle, i invoke you, angels of the watchto

GRIMM JACOB TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY VOL 3

to sleep in their beds full many an anxious man. in greek mythology orpheus and amphion bear mastery in song. when amphion sang, the stones obeyed his lyre, and fitted themselves into a wall. rocks and trees followed after orpheus, wild beasts grew tame to him, even the argo he lured from dry land into the wave, and dragons he lulled to sleep (entswebete. as hermosr, like him, made the descent to hades [to fetch balder back, and as it is for this same balder that all beings mourn, we may fairly suppose that hermo^r too had worked upon them by music and song, though nothing of the kind is recorded in the edda (see suppl. now if poetry was a joint possession of men and gods, if by hero-minstrels. 909 gods it had been invented and imparted, it necessarily follows that antiquity would regard i

making' visitations have spindles, and they sing at their spinning: the wise women and divine mothers of our antiquity may be regarded as teachers of song, story and spindle. chapter xxxi. spectres. a preceding chapter has treated of souls in their state of separation from the body and passage to another dwelling-place: these are the souls that have found their rest, that have been taken up into hades or heaven. thenceforward they sustain only a more general connexion with earth and the living; their memory is hallowed by festivals, and in early times probably by sacrifices^ distinct from these are such spirits as have not become partakers, or not completely, of blessedness and peace, but hover betwixt heaven and earth, and in some cases even return to their old home. these souls that app

GRIMM TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY VOL 2 1883 COMPLETE

h) the giantess, then erebus (corresp. to niflheim) and night; but gaia by herself brought forth uranus (sky) and seas and mountains, then other children by uranus, the last of them kronus the father of zeus and ancestor of all the gods. as the edda has a buri and borr before 03inn, so do uranus and kronus here come before zeus; with zeus and 03inn begins the race of gods proper, and poseidon and hades complete the fra ternal trio, like vili and ye. the enmity of gods and titans is therefore that of ases and giants; at the same time, there is just as much resemblance in the expulsion of the titans from heaven (theog. 813) to the fall of the rebel angels into the bottomless pit; so that to the giant element in the titans we may add a daemonic. when the works and days makes the well-known* f

9. 30) or hellawizi(-torment 10, 28, and only filium gehennae by hella sun (23, 15, where the older version recently discovered is more exact: qualu sunu, son of torment. when the creed says that christ f nr8ar steig zi helliu (descendit ad inferna, it never meant the abode of souls in torment. in the heliand 72, 4 a sick man is said to be fiisid an helsid, near dying, equipped for his journey to hades, without any by-thought of pain or punishment. that as. poetry still remembered the original (personal) conception of hel, was proved on p. 314, but i will add one more passage from beow. 357: helle gemundon, meto$ ne cuison/ helaru venerabantur, deum verum ignorabant (pagani. so then, from the 4th cent, to the 10th, halja, jiella was simply hades or the deathkingdom, the notion of torment b

um ignorabant (pagani. so then, from the 4th cent, to the 10th, halja, jiella was simply hades or the deathkingdom, the notion of torment being expressed by another word or at any rate a compound; and with this agrees the probability 1 a dead man is called nifl-farinn, seem. 249. the progenitor of the nibelungs was prob. nebel (fornald. sog. 2, 9. 11, nasnll for nefill: a race of heroes doomed to hades and early death. nibelunge: spirits of the death-kingdom, lachmann on nib. 342. 2 from gehenna comes, we know, the fr. gehene, gene, i.e. supplice, though in a very mitigated sense now. hell. nifl-heim. 801 that as late as widekind of corvei (1, 23) saxon poets, chanting a victory of saxons over franks, used this very word hello, for the dwelling-place of the dead: ut a mimis declamaretur, u

death-way, the broad road travelled by the corpse. my oldest example i draw from a record of 890, ritz 1, 19: helvius sive strata publica/ later instances occur in weisth. 3, 87. 106, in tross s rec. of the feme p. 61, and in john of soest (fichard s arch. 1, 89. 3 1 trad. corbeiens. pp. 465. 604 makes a regular hexameter of it: tantus ubi infernus, caesos qui devoret omnes? this overcrowding of hades with the dead reminds one of calderon s fanatic fear, lest heaven stand empty, with all the world running to the other house after luther: que vive dios, que ha de tener en cielo pocos que aposentar, si considero que estan ya aposentado con lutero (sitio de breda, jorn. primera. 2 lat. gedichte des x. xl jh. p. 335, conf. 344. 3 also in lower hesse: hellweg by wettesingen and oberlistingen (

e goddess hel s dominion cannot begin at the hel-grindr/ but must extend to those f dank dales and deep/ the dense forests of the latin poem. yet i have nothing to say against putting it in this way: that the dark valleys, like the murky erebos of the greeks, are an intermediate tract, which one must cross to reach the abode of aides, of halja. out of our halja the goddess, as out of the personal hades, the roman orcus (orig. uragus, urgus, and in the mid. ages still regarded as a monster and alive, pp. 314, 486) there was gradually evolved the local notion of a dwellingplace of the dead. the departed were first imagined living with her, and afterwards in her (it. in the approaches dwelt or hovered the dark elves (see suppl. niflheimr then, the mist-world, was a cold underground region cov

d 103, 9. erebi fornax, walther 867. nay, 0. and other ohg. writers make the simple beh (pix) stand for hell 3: in dem beche, 1 csedmon still pictures the witehus (house of torment) as deop, dreama leas, sinnihte beseald. striking images occur in a doc. of the llth cent (zeitschr. f. d. a. 3 445: swevilstank, genibele, todes scategruobe, wallente stredema, etc. 2 so all the greek heroes sink into hades house under the earth. but it is hard to distinguish from it tartarus, which lies lower down the abyss, and where the subjugated giants sit imprisoned. this denoted therefore, at least in the later times, a part of the underworld where the wicked dwelt for their punishment, which answers to the christian hell. but that the roots of earth and sea from above grow down into tartarus (hes. theog

icture of hell 3 (see suppl. that the heathen mist-world lying far to the north was not filled with fire, comes out most clearly from its opposite, a flameworld in the south (p. 558, which the edda calls muspell or muspells-heimr. this is bright and hot, glowing and burning, 4 1 wallach. iad (hiatus, iadul hell. 2 as evening is the mouth of night. 3 here we may sum up what living men have reached hades and come back: of the greeks, orpheus in search of eurydice; odysseus; aeneas. of norsemen, hermdftr when dispatched after baldr, and hadding (saxo gram. p. 16. medieval legends of brandanus and tundalus; that of tanhauser and others like it shall come in the next chap. monkish dreams, visions of princes who see their ancestors in hell, are coll. in d.s. nos. 461. 527. 530. 554; of the same

ng) with pal s, pa, p&lt? 5ios (patdios) easy, and petct easily, seems obvious. homer s gods are /seta living in ease. trans. 822 time and woeld. dead, but of picked heroes: the greeks too made the highest blessedness wait upon the warrior s valour. neither were all heroes even admitted there, menelaos was as son-in-law of zeus, od. 4, 569; others even more renowned were housed with aides, in hades. achilles paces the flowery mead, the acr&lt/&gt;o8eao \i/jl(t)v of the underworld, whither hermes conducts the souls of the slain suitors, od. 11, 539. 24, 13. lucian de luctu 5. philops. 24. this( ea of the blest is no less known to our native song and story. children falling into wells pass through green meadows to the house of friendly holla. flore 24, 22: swer im selber den tot

then imagination, like the promise of the messiah to the jews.1 the world s destruction and its renewal succeed each other in rotation; and the interpenetration of the notions of time and space, world and creation, with which i started, has been proved. further, as the time-phenomena of the day and the year were conceived of as persons, so were the space-phenomena of the world and its end (halja, hades, surtr. 1 martin hammerich om eagnaroks-mythen, copenh. 1836, argues plausibly that the twilight of the gods and the new kingdom of heaven are the expression of a spiritual monotheism opposed, though as yet imperfectly, to the prevailing odinic paganism. but then there are renovated gods brought on the scene a giinli too, though fewer than in asgars, and there is nothing to shew their subord

nction we noticed above, p. 827. in the nialss. cap. 1 60, old flosi, weary of life, is even said to have taken a battered boat, and thrown himself on the mercy of the sea-waves: bar a skip ok let i haf, ok hefir til]?ess skips aldri spurt siftan/ never heard of since. the greeks believed that charon ferried the souls in a narrow two- oared boat over the styx, acheron or cocytus to the kingdom of hades. for this he charged a fare, ra iropofjuia, therefore they placed an obolos (the danaka) in the mouth of the dead. 2 this custom of putting a small coin in the mouth of a corpse occurs among germans_tqojj3uperst. i, 207 where a modern and 1 cento novelle antiche 81: la clamigella di scalot; the navicella sanza vela, sanza remi e sanza neuno sopra sagliente is carried down to camalot, to the

ouls to the underworld, tyvxaycoyos ^u^otto/atto, ve/cpoirofjitros. these maids are osin s messengers, as herines is herald of the gods, nay hermes is o&inn himself, to whom the souls belong. thus the god s relation to the dead is an additional proof of the iden tity between wuotan and mercury. a distinction appears in the fact that hermes, like the etruscan gharun (0. miiller 2, 100, conducts to hades, but not, as far as i know, to elysium; valkyrs, on the contrary, to yalholl, and not to hel. further, the function of guardian-spirit is wanting to hermes. this idea of a protecting spirit finds expression more in the personified thanatos (death) of the greek people s faith. he is pictured as a genius, with hand on cheek in deep thought, or 1 it is only in a dream-vision that she appears: p

en, smeortan (dolere. ohg. smerza is fern, mhg. smerze niasc, but never personified. nahwe answers to the goth. masc. ndus, pi. naveis, funus (conf. on. ndr, ndinn p. 453, as odvaros too can mean a corpse. 5 bat this grk. word has the same root as the goth, ddufius, ohg. tod 1 one would suppose from this passage, that death took only the corpse of the fallen to himself, that the soul flew away to hades, for it is said of her in v. 235 2 0. miiller s archaol, ed. 2, pp. 604. 696. for the horse s head, conf. boeckh s corp. inscr. no. 800. harm. oxon. p. 2, no. 63-7. e. kochette s monum. ined. 1, 126. pausan. vii. 25, 7. gerhard s antike bildw. p. 407. 3 hor. od. i. 4, 13: pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas regumque turres. 4 constant use will soften down the meaning of the hars

l. 3 equally celebrated, but gayer in tone, is the tale of death and player jack (spielhansel, no. 82; conf. 3, 135 148, who by a spell binds death to a tree, so that nobody dies in the world for seven years. welcker (append, to schwenk p. 323-4) has pointed out a parallel story in pherekydes, how death is set on by zeus to attack sisyphos, who binds him in strong chains, and then no one can die; hades himself comes and sets death free, and delivers sisyphos into his hands. our german fable inter weaves the devil into the plot. once the devil was put in possession of hell, he had to take his place beside death, as the alliteration death and devil! couples them together. so welnas, wels, originally the death-god of the lithuanians and lettons, got converted into the devil. according to the

terben solden/ d. bore those in mind that there should die, or, as lachmann in terprets it, desired them for his band (conf. p. 848. these investigations will hardly have left it doubtful, that the heathen death is one of a secondary order of gods; hence too he coincides more especially with the semi-divine valkyrs and norns, he is dependent on osinn and hel; of the grecian gods, it is hermes and hades, persephone and the ferryman charon that come nearest to him. but his nature is also not unrelated to that of elves, homesprites and genii. chap. xxiv. has explained how he got mixed up with one of the time-gods, winter; no wonder therefore that he now and then reminds us of kronos. in our heldenbuch, death figures as a false god, whom the heathen belligan serves above all other gods, and wh

HAMIL THE ROSICRUCIAN SEER

dox church of england, i should have become a rationalist at once. notwithstandingjung, whosetheoryofpneumatology*i conceive to be the best in our language, has the following for the 35th and 37th theorems of hisbriefsummary.35.thesouls of all such as have only led a decent civil life, and who, though not vicious,arestill no true christians, must undergo a long-purificationinthe 'waste and desert hades, by enduring the deprivation of all that is dear to them,and of every enjoyment, whilst longing most painfully after that earthly life whichhasfor ever fled, and thus be gradually prepared for thelowestdegree of bliss. 37.thesouls of true christians, that have trodden the path of sanctification, and who expired in the exercise of true faith in jesus christ, in the grace of his atonement, and

f clifton,butbelongs todrcollyerofphiladelphia, and forms the chief feature in hispsychographyorembo4ymentofthought,and also in his lectures, which he delivered at bristol and mostotherlarge towns in england.206therosicrucianseerstate; endued, also, with a prodigious amount of varied knowledge, which he brought, by his peculiar idiosyncracy, to bear in support of dogmas founded on the doctrine of hades, the possibility of a communion with the souls of the departed and the spirit world, particularly the ministry of guardian angels-doctrines which appeared novel to the great body of the protestant faith, though strictly scriptural and strenuously asserted by the ancient fathers and numerous modem author255 ities of the church of england.theclaims of mahomet ]acobbehmen, or swedenborg, to a d

hagnet's logic than his facts; and the two examples selected are of little value while others are omitted which seem perfectly to establish his book as 'a step farther towards the unknown.'thecelestialtelegraphappears to me to prove more forcibly than any other work on animal magnetism, with the exception ofi.hernrichjung's(called stilling)theoryofpneumatology,the existence of guardian angels, of hades, and the materiality of the human soul, but to be as far removed from swedenborgian255ism(by which term i mean a belief in thedoarinesand doxology of the new]erusalemchurch,and particularly articles xxi.,xxii.,andxxiii*)as from behemenism, mahometanism, buddhism, or polytheism, all, there is little doubt, equally indebted to the hitherto occult but ever existent law of nature which we now te

pirits, orothers,-everrapped for the gratification of mortal. no person ever yet left the earth in so pure a state that he could leave without one thought or regret the things that he left behind.itis impossible that they could do so.theless regret they have at leaving it, and the less their thoughts are fixed on worldly things, the more rapidly they lose consciousness of it in the atmosphere and hades, but none (of those who attain hades) through that are doomed to any punishment, further than their own thoughts.thesoul, for the first time after being disembodied on earth, will take a material shape. it will have the appearance of the human body, withallgrossness,alldeformity removed.itwillbe spiritual,-angelical,-light, even as air,-swift as thought-s-trans255parent,-andyet have a humanf

HEAVEN HELL

1-181, paris, 1893. the text chosen by him for elucidation was that published by m. g. lef bure in his edition of the tomb of seti i, and this he supplemented with extracts from other versions of the work given on sarcophagi, papyri, etc. the "summary" or short form of am-tuat, was first published in a complete form, with variant readings, by m. g. j quier (see his le livre de ce qu'il y a dans l'hades, paris, 1894. in prof. maspero's work mentioned above he also discussed and analysed the earlier sections of the book of gates, of which m. e. lef bure published a translation of the texts, as found on the sarcophagus of seti i, in the records of the past, vol. x, pp. 79-134, london, 1878, and vol. xii, pp. 1-35, london, 1881. in preparing the present edition of the two great books of the ot

y only fills 119 short columns, and the great popularity of the work is attested by the fact that the priests of amen were induced to compress all the most important portions of am-tuat into so small a compass. similar in many details, but widely different from the book am-tuat in point of fundamental doctrine, is the great funeral work to which the names "book of the lower hemisphere" 2 "book of hades "livre de l'enfer" have been given. a glance at the pictures which accompany the texts of this book is sufficient to show that it deals with the passage of the sun-god through the other world during the hours of the night, but, as m. maspero pointed out long ago, it is wrong to p. 85 call the region through which the god passes by the name of "lower hemisphere" for it suggests that it is bel

ufficient to show that it deals with the passage of the sun-god through the other world during the hours of the night, but, as m. maspero pointed out long ago, it is wrong to p. 85 call the region through which the god passes by the name of "lower hemisphere" for it suggests that it is below the surface of our earth, which is not the case. there is much to be said also against the titles "book of hades" and "book of hell" and as among the prominent characteristics which distinguish it from the book am-tuat is a series of gates, it will be convenient and more correct to call it the "book of gates" the form in which we first know this work is, clearly, not older than the xviiith or xixth dynasty, but many parts of it are very much more ancient. as the book am-tuat was composed with the view

ed spirits is unique. the tuat is not the "lower hemisphere" because it is not under the ground, and though for want of a better word i have frequently used "underworld" when speaking of p. 88 the tuat, it is unsatisfactory, for unless it is specially defined to mean the place of departed spirits in general, it produces a wrong impression in the mind. again, the word tuat must not be rendered by "hades" or "hell" or "sheol" or "jehannum" for each of these words has a limited and special meaning. on the other hand, the tuat possessed the characteristics of all these names, for it was an "unseen" place, and it contained abysmal depths of darkness, and there were pits of fire in it wherein the damned, i.e, the enemies of osiris and ra, were consumed, and certain parts of it were the homes of

que gyptologique, tom. ii, p. 1 ff, paris, 1893. 82:3 see lef bure, op. cit, tom. iii, fasc. 1, p. 48 ff. 82:4 see e. de roug, notice sommaire des monuments gyptiens expos s dans les galeries du mus e du louvre, paris, 1876, p. 51. 83:1 see e. de roug, notice sommaire, p. 52. it contains the figures of the eleven divisions, with very few inscriptions; see j quier, le livre de ce qu'il y a dans l'hades, p. 25. 83:2 see e. de roug, notice sommaire, p. 52. this sarcophagus is made of basalt, is beautifully cut, and was brought to france by champollion. see also sharpe, egyptian inscriptions, vol. ii, plates 1-24. 83:3 see sch fer in j quier, op. cit, p. 26, notes 3 and 4. 83:4 see catalogue des manuscrits gyptiens, paris, 1881, p. 15. 83:5 see pierret, tudes gyptologiques, tom. ii, p. 103-14

HELENA BLAVATSKY THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

ein, resembled that given to death, teleutan. the athenians also heretofore called the deceased sacred to demeter. as for the other death, it is in the moon or region of persephone. here you have our doctrine, which shows man a septenary during life; a quintile just after death, in kamaloka; and a threefold ego, spirit-soul, and consciousness in devachan. this separation, first in "the meadows of hades" as plutarch calls the kamaloka, then in devachan, was part and parcel of the performances during the sacred mysteries, when the candidates for initiation enacted the whole drama of death, and the resurrection as a glorified spirit, by which name we mean consciousness. this is what plutarch means when he says: and as with the one, the terrestrial, so with the other celestial hermes doth dwel

he earth and moon (kamaloka. for those that have been unjust and dissolute suffer then the punishment due to their offenses; but the good and virtuous are there detained till they are purified, and have, by expiation, purged out of them all the infections they might have contracted from the contagion of the body, as if from foul health, living in the mildest part of the air, called the meadows of hades, where they must remain for a certain prefixed and appointed time. and then, as if they were returning from a wandering pilgrimage or long exile into their country, they have a taste of joy, such as they principally receive who are initiated into sacred mysteries, mixed with trouble, admiration, and each one's proper and peculiar hope. this is nirvanic bliss, and no theosophist could describ

three principles leave him forever; i.e, body, life, and the vehicle of the latter, the astral body or the double of the living man. and then, his four principles-the central or middle principle, the animal soul or kamarupa, with what it has assimilated from the lower manas, and the higher triad find themselves in kamaloka. the latter is an astral locality, the limbus of scholastic theology, the hades of the ancients, and, strictly speaking, a locality only in a relative sense. it has neither a definite area nor boundary, but exists within subjective space; i.e, is beyond our sensuous perceptions. still it exists, and it is there that the astral eidolons of all the beings that have lived, animals included, await their second death. for the animals it comes with the disintegration and the

nality with itself and the high glimmering ray of the divine buddhi, is thwarted; if this ray is allowed to be more and more shut out from the ever-thickening crust of physical brain, the spiritual ego or manas, once freed from the body, remains severed entirely from the ethereal relic of the personality; and the latter, or kamarupa, following its earthly attractions, is drawn into and remains in hades, which we call the kamaloka. these are "the withered branches" mentioned by jesus as being cut off from the vine. annihilation, however, is never instantaneous, and may require centuries sometimes for its accomplishment. but there the personality remains along with the remnants of other more fortunate personal egos, and becomes with them a shell and an elementary. as said in isis unveiled, i

has become a familiar metaphor in european literature. gyges was a lydian, who, after murdering the king candaules, married his widow. plato tells us that gyges descending once into a chasm of the earth, discovered a brazen horse, within whose opened side was the skeleton of a man of gigantic stature, who had a brazen ring on his finger. this ring when placed on his own finger made him invisible. hades (gr, or aides, the "invisible" the land of shadows; one of whose regions was tartarus, a place of complete darkness, as was also the region of profound dreamless sleep in amenti. judging by the allegorical description of the punishments inflicted therein, the place was purely karmic. neither hades nor amenti were the hell still preached by some retrograde priests and clergymen; and whether r

ansformed under the guiding will of the adept and seer into steady pictures, the truthful representation of that which he wills to come within the focus of his perception. hell a term which the anglo-saxon race has evidently derived from the name of the scandinavian goddess, hela, just as the word ad, in russian and other slavonian tongues expressing the same conception, is derived from the greek hades, the only difference between the scandinavian cold hell, and the hot hell of the christians, being found in their respective temperatures. but even the idea of these overheated regions is not original with the europeans, many people having entertained the conception of an underworld climate; as well we may, if we localize our hell in the center of the earth. all exoteric religions-the creeds

eightiest proofs of the real existence of jesus, the christ. kamaloka (sans) the semi-material plane, to us subjective and invisible, where the disembodied "personalities" the astral forms called kamarupa, remain until they fade out from it by the complete exhaustion of the effects of the mental impulses that created these eidolons of the lower animal passions and desires (see kamarupa) it is the hades of the ancient greeks and the amenti of the egyptians-the land of silent shadows. kamarupa (sans) metaphysically and in our esoteric philosophy it is the subjective form created through the mental and physical desires and thoughts in connection with things of matter, by all sentient beings: a form which survives the death of its body. after that death, three of the seven principles-or, let u

ISIS UNVEILED

y google the hells op vabiods natioiffi ii respectable personage; and loke [the scandinavian, though a mischiev- ous person, was not a fiend. ilie german goddess. hell, too like proserpina had once seen better days. thus, when the germans were indoctrinated with the idea of a real devil, the semitic satan or diabolus, they treated him in the moat good-humored manner" the same may be said of hell. hades was quite a different place from our region of 'eternal damnation' and might be termed rather an inter- mediate state of purification. neither does the scandinavian hd or hela imply either a state or a place of punishment; for when frigga, the grief-stricken mother of balder, the white god, who died and found himself in the dark abodes of the shadows (hades, sent hermod, a son of thor, in qu

ocal ipiritua- mta to witness a formal bumins of ?piritualiitic books. we bud the account in a dkpet called tht retdation, published at alicante, which senubly adds that the pw- icrmance was "a caricature of the memorablb epoch of the inquiiition" digitizecoy google 80 isis unveiled buddha* au come from the same root. jesus says "upon uus pelra i will build my church, and the gates [or rulers] of hades shall not prevail against it; meaning by petra the rock-temple, and metaphorically, the christian mysteries; the adversaries to which were the old myatery-goda of the underworld, who were worshiped in the rites of lus, adonis, atys, sabazius, dionysus, and the eleusinia. no apoaue peter was ever at rome; but the pope, seizing the scepter of the ponufex maximum, the keys fa janus and cybele

of the kingdom of god* for the apostles, and 'parables' for the multitude *we speak wisdom' says paul 'among them that are perfect [or ia- itiated" in the eleusinian and other mysteries the participants were always divided into two classes, the neophytet and the perfed. the former were sometimes admitted to the prelinunary initiation: the dramatic performance of ceres, or the soul, descending to hades* but it was 312. sdd, tlusont^ae man, p. li. 313. l^e egyptian th apeutae. piititvit, p. s15. 314. matt. liii, 10-13. 315. p. 47 (4th ed. 316. t1)i deacent to hades signified the ineritable fate of each mui to be united for s time wit

mperishable fruit of sanctity" this is precisely the substratum of the pagan thought, which, among other meanings, by the rites of the resurrection of osiris, adonis, bac- chus, and other slaughtered sun-gods, symbolized the resurrection of all nature in spring, the germination of seeds that bad been dead and sleep- ing during winter, and so were allegorically said to be kept in the under- world (hades. they are typified by the three days passed in hell before their resurrection by hercules, christos and others. this derivation, or rather h^ety, as it is called in christianity, is simply the br&hmanic doctrine in all its archaic purity. vishnu, the second personage of the hindq trinity, is also the logos, for he is made subsequently to incarnate himself in krishna. and lakhmi (or lakskmi)

g between the earth and moon. for those that have been unjust and dissolute suffer there the punishment due to their offences; but the good and virtuous are there detained till they are purified, and have by expiation purged out of them all the infections they mi^ht have contracted from the contagion of the body, as if from foul health, living in the mildest part of the air, called the meadows of hades, where they must remain for a certain prefixed and appointed time. and then, as if they were returning from a wandering pilgrimage or long exile into their country, uiey have a taste of joy such as they principally re- ceive who are initiated into sacred mysteries, mixed with trouble, ad- miration, and each one's proper and peculiar hope' the daimonion of socrates was this mus, mind, spirit

LEADBEATER CW GLIMPSES OF MASONIC HISTORY

benefit very greatly all who had the privilege of being initiated into them. in classical and post-classical times many of the greatest men have borne witness to their worth. a few quotations- samples of many- will be sufficient to show this. sophocles, the great tragic poet, says of them: 313. thrice-happy are those mortals who after the contemplation of the mysteries go down into the realms of hades; for there they alone will possess true life: for the rest there is naught but suffering(*sophocles fr. 348, quoted foucart: les mysteres d eleusis, p. 362) 314. plato says through the mouth of socrates in that wonderful death-scene in the phaedo: 315. i fancy that those men who established the mysteries were not unenlightened, but in reality had a hidden meaning when they said long ago, tha

ary to insist, that death in no way changes the real man, but that his disposition and his mode of thought remain exactly what they were before. 355. the myths of the exoteric religion of the country were taken up and studied in the eleusinian mysteries, as in the mysteries of egypt. among those relating to the life after death was that of tantalus, who was condemned to suffer perpetual thirst in hades: water surrounded him on all sides, but receded from him whenever he attempted to drink; over his head hung branches of fruit which receded in like manner when he stretched out his hand to touch them. this was interpreted to mean that everyone who dies full of sensual desire of any kind finds himself after death still full of desire, but unable to gratify it. 356. another story was that of s

LEWIS JAMES SATANISM TODAY AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION FOLKLORE AND POPULAR CULTURE

almanac with biographies of 100 prominent angels in legend and folklore, and much more. murfreesboro, tn:mamre, 1993. the beyond a 1981 film about the old theme of the portal to the underworld where the dead go. the belief in a passage from the earth to the underworld goes back at least as far as the ancient greeks, who believed there was a specific place, lake avernus, where the dead passed into hades. in this film, the portal to the underworld is located under an old, run-down southern mansion. when the spirits become disturbed, they terrorize the hotel guests. other movies about the entrance to the underworld are: amityville 3d, the amityville horror, highway to hell, the gate, the sentinel, the devil s daughter, and many animated cartoons. alice in wonderland also depicts a portal to a

76. ellis, bill. raising the devil: satanism, new religions, and the media. lexington: university press of kentucky, 2000. kagan, daniel, and ian summers.mute evidence. new york: bantam books, 1984. stewart, james r. cattle mutilations: an episode of collective delusion. the zetetic 1, no. 2 (spring/summer 1977. cerberus in greek mythology, cerberus was the guardian or watchdog of the underworld, hades. the offspring of typhon and echidna (who also parented the hydra and the chimaera, he was described as having three heads (though hesiod attributes him with fifty heads, a snake s tail, and a row of snake s heads sprouting from his neck. he greeted the newly dead with eagerness, but ate anyone who tried to escape. cerberus was said to have been charmed by orpheus, who was the only mortal he

on and echidna (who also parented the hydra and the chimaera, he was described as having three heads (though hesiod attributes him with fifty heads, a snake s tail, and a row of snake s heads sprouting from his neck. he greeted the newly dead with eagerness, but ate anyone who tried to escape. cerberus was said to have been charmed by orpheus, who was the only mortal he willingly allowed to enter hades. in another story he was defeated in a struggle with hercules, who forced him to come with him to the surface world (this was the twelfth labor of hercules. it was also said that anyone who chanced to look at cerberus turned to stone, and that, upon falling to the ground, the animal s spittle would give birth to the poisonous aconite plant. both cerberus and charon, the ferryman of the under

n falling to the ground, the animal s spittle would give birth to the poisonous aconite plant. both cerberus and charon, the ferryman of the underworld, are threshold guardians, a type of mythological figure that is widespread in world culture. threshold guardians allow only those who are appropriately qualified to pass from one realm to the other. thus cerberus allowed only the dead to pass into hades, and he prevented the departed from returning to the realm of the living. see also hades for further reading: grant,michael, and john hazel. who s who in classical mythology. new york: oxford university press, 1993. tripp, edward. the meridian handbook of classical mythology. new york: new american library, 1970. ceremony in this 1997 film a rebellious angel is banished from heaven, and impr

lothes and ornaments. at the end of the journey, the goddess died and the vegetation on earth immediately wilted. when sprinkled with the water of life, the goddess came back to life, thus regenerating the earth. a mythical hero of the ancient greek world was orpheus, poet and musician whose wife, eurydice, died from the bite of a snake. orpheus s art was so powerful that he enchanted the king of hades and convinced him to release his wife, although his violation of the condition that he not look at her until they were completely back in the world resulted in the loss of eurydice. the theme of the failure of the hero to complete his task in the underworld realm of the departed represents the effort of the human imagination to come to grips with the unavoidable fate of death. in the greek w

hat he not look at her until they were completely back in the world resulted in the loss of eurydice. the theme of the failure of the hero to complete his task in the underworld realm of the departed represents the effort of the human imagination to come to grips with the unavoidable fate of death. in the greek world, a somewhat related myth is the story of persephone. persephone was kidnapped by hades. her mother demeter, goddess of grain, mourned the loss of her daughter, which resulted in the death of vegetation and humankind s starvation. the gods eventually agreed that persephone should be returned to her mother. in the meanwhile, however, hades had made persephone eat the fruit of the dead (seeds of pomegranate, symbol of fertility and blood, and thus bound her to the realm of the de

ed in the death of vegetation and humankind s starvation. the gods eventually agreed that persephone should be returned to her mother. in the meanwhile, however, hades had made persephone eat the fruit of the dead (seeds of pomegranate, symbol of fertility and blood, and thus bound her to the realm of the dead. the final agreement was that, for half of the year, persephone was the ruling queen of hades, and for the other half, she was with her mother demeter. although this myth was originally interpreted as explaining the vegetation cycle, various elements indicate the characteristics of a process of female initiation: her descent to the underworld that ended with her marriage to hades (she became queen of hades) could symbolize her death as virgin and the achievement of a new status from

e. the gods were, in other words, not much more than strong human beings, possessing magical powers and immortality. humanity, for its part, was created out of clay to serve the gods. unlike judaism, christianity, or islam, this creation did not include the fashioning of an immortal soul. hence the afterlife was conceived of as a pale shadow of earthly life,much like the jewish sheol or the greek hades. mesopotamians, like many of the other traditional peoples of the world, imagined the universe as a three-tiered cosmos of heaven (above the earth, earth, and hell (beneath the earth. heaven was reserved for deities, most of whom resided there. living human beings occupied the middle world. the spirits of the dead resided beneath the earth. the chief deity of the mesopotamian underworld was

icated process, and varies according to the person and the purposes for which it is made.at present, there are numerous websites from which one can purchase gris-gris bags for specific purposes. see also vodoun for further reading: hinnells, john r, ed. a new dictionary of religions, 2nd ed. london: blackwell, 1997. rigaud,milo. secrets of voodoo. 1953. san francisco, ca: city lights books, 1985. hades in the contemporary period hades has become interchangeable with hell. however, the name originally referred to the greek god of the underworld and king of the dead. later hades became, by extension, the name of the land of the dead itself. hades was the son of rhea and chronos. after defeating the titans (the older gods, hades and his brothers, zeus and poseidon, divided the world among the

changeable with hell. however, the name originally referred to the greek god of the underworld and king of the dead. later hades became, by extension, the name of the land of the dead itself. hades was the son of rhea and chronos. after defeating the titans (the older gods, hades and his brothers, zeus and poseidon, divided the world among themselves. poseidon received the seas, zeus the sky, and hades the underworld. hades was considered so unfortunate that even the mention of his name was regarded as unlucky, and mythological tales about the god of the underworld are scant. the foundation for greek classical religion was set in the homeric poems, the iliad and the odyssey, which themselves were the inheritors of older heritages from the mycenean-minoan culture. the chief deity was the mo

and thus a key element in the cult of the dead. at argos she was known as hera (the lady, at eleusis she was known as demeter (mother earth, at sparta she was orthia, and at ephesus she was artemis. the epic poem, the iliad, dating to about 800 b.c.e. and traditionally assigned to the authorship of homer, signals the ascendancy of the olympian gods brought by the hellenic people. homer s view of hades is reflected in his later work, the odyssey, where odysseus needed to seek advice from a seer in the land of the dead. to do this, he sailed into the far west (in several cultures this is where the sun dies daily, thus the location of the land of the dead) and upon reaching land made a sacrifice of sheep covered with honey, milk, water, and wine. the sacrifice brought forth a number of ghost

land of the dead) and upon reaching land made a sacrifice of sheep covered with honey, milk, water, and wine. the sacrifice brought forth a number of ghosts, or shades of the dead, who were able to converse with odysseus only after drinking the blood of the sheep. homer had the ghost of achilles tell odysseus that he would rather be a peasant serf on earth than a king among the dead. the house of hades was pictured as a large cavern under the earth somewhere or in the far west beyond the river oceanus. it was not a happy place, but shrouded in mist and darkness, and figures move about as in a dream. hades was separated from the land of the living by five rivers lethe (the river of forgetfulness, styx, phlegethon, acheron, and cocytus. the entrance was guarded by cerberus, a terrifying hell

ted from the land of the living by five rivers lethe (the river of forgetfulness, styx, phlegethon, acheron, and cocytus. the entrance was guarded by cerberus, a terrifying hellhound with three heads and serpents around each neck. the psyche (or life essence, shade, or ghost) of the deceased would leave the dead body and travel to that place to lead a pallid, weak, melancholy existence. h 101 102 hades charon ferries the spirits of the departed across the river styx and into the realm of the dead. the offspring of nyx (night) and erebus (darkness, charon was portrayed as a squalid, grumpy old man with a bad temper. he required payment of one obol before he would transport the soul to the other side, and the ancient greeks accordingly buried their dead with an obol coin in their mouths so t

oin in their mouths so that they would be able to pay charon s fare. the iliad offers the belief that the gods did not punish or reward souls at death, but the mythology is not consistent about this, because mention is occasionally made of the elysian fields, or isles of the blessed, a wonderful, pleasurable place where certain special people get to go. some of the shades particularly suffered in hades, not so much because of a judgment on their life, but because they were not properly buried or nourished by sacrificial food offerings. in the story of tantalos in the odyssey, every time he reached for fruit, ravenously hungry, the wind would blow the fruit away. every time, desperately thirsty, he sought water, it would evaporate. homeric mythology was adapted by the mystery religions and

rituals so as to provide a personal dimension to religion not available in the traditional practices and beliefs. the two most important mystery religions were the orphic and eleusinian mysteries. in greek mythology, orpheus was the son of calliope, a muse, and his singing to the lyre could charm animals and even rocks and trees. when his wife eurydice died he was permitted to lead her back from hades, provided he did not turn to look at her until they had arrived safely in the upper world.he did look at her, however, and she had to return to hades. because orpheus was one of the few figures in greek mythology to visit hades and return safely, he became symbolic for many of the possibility of new life after death. the actual number of orphic devotees was rather small, but they had an impa

he became symbolic for many of the possibility of new life after death. the actual number of orphic devotees was rather small, but they had an impact on greek philosophy and culture far beyond their numbers. a similar impact, out of a much larger devotee base, came from the eleusinian mysteries. the myth of this cult focused on demeter, the vegetation deity. her daughter, kore, was carried off by hades, ruler of the dead.demeter, not knowing where kore was, searched through many lands for her, growing ever more despondent. she finally arrived at eleusis, on the attica coast not far from athens, and refused to allow anything to flower or bear fruit. the devastation produced by the barren landscape was so terrible that the gods persuaded zeus to retrieve kore from the underworld. hermes was

, not knowing where kore was, searched through many lands for her, growing ever more despondent. she finally arrived at eleusis, on the attica coast not far from athens, and refused to allow anything to flower or bear fruit. the devastation produced by the barren landscape was so terrible that the gods persuaded zeus to retrieve kore from the underworld. hermes was sent to accomplish the task and hades relented, but not before persuading kore to eat a pomegranate, symbolic of marriage and a promise of return. this trickery forced zeus into a compromise, by which kore would have to spend one-third (or one-half, depending on the source) of each year in the underworld, the part of the year when demeter is once again sorrowful and nothing grows. thus did kore, a fertility figure by relation to

omegranate, symbolic of marriage and a promise of return. this trickery forced zeus into a compromise, by which kore would have to spend one-third (or one-half, depending on the source) of each year in the underworld, the part of the year when demeter is once again sorrowful and nothing grows. thus did kore, a fertility figure by relation to demeter, become identified with persephone, the wife of hades and a figure of death. three platonic dialogues the gorgias, phaedo, and republic include a mythical account of what happens after death. plato does not merely repeat standard stories, but artfully mixes together elements from the cultural heritage, the tragedies, and mystery religions. the myth in the gorgias describes the judgment of a soul after death. the soul has been freed from the an

e sense of being malformed or wounded by authoring unjust actions. the judges have only to examine the marks on the soul to determine the appropriate judgment. the wicked are set on the road to tartarus to be rehabilitated or eternally punished. the good are sent to the isles of the blessed, and are pictured as having lived philosophic lives. in homeric mythology, tartarus was a region underneath hades where rebellious deities, particularly the titans, were sent for punishment. in this dialogue, it has been transformed into a general place of punishment. in the afterlife myth in the phaedo, the judgment of the dead is supposed to take place at the acherusian lake. the incurable evil ones will spend an eternity of punishment in tartarus. the curable evil may spend only a year there. if thos

t and a marriage of love between yahweh and his chosen people. the ancient hebrews emphasized the importance of the present life. like both the ancient greeks and mesopotamians, existence 138 judaism and hebrew scriptures after death in sheol (the realm of the dead, when it was mentioned at all, was conceived of less as an actual hell and more as a pale shadow of earthly life, much like the greek hades. also like the greek hades, the hebrews originally made no distinction between the treatment of the just and the unjust after death. instead, rewards and punishments were meted out in the present life, and in the covenant contract yahweh promised to do just that. one of the few stories in hebrew scriptures (the old testament) that mentions sheol is the tale of the so-called witch of endor. k

n chinese mahayana buddhism, the judge of the dead (yen-lo wang, along with other divinities of chinese origin, determine the fate of the dead. in japanese buddhism one also finds a judge of the dead, known as enma. in chinese taoism a judgment of the dead occurs in which the soul is assigned to one of many hells or paradises found on the chinese mythological landscape. in the ancient greek world hades was an underworld kingdom that hosted the shadows of the dead while the elysian fields were accessible only to the righteous. in the homeric poems minos is mentioned as a regulator rather than properly a judge of the dead. with the development of pythagorean doctrine, a true afterlife judgment was conceived in pythagoras s notion of reincarnation. orphism introduced the afterlife judgment of

LIBER 777

asa] breathing r table i (continued) 9 xxiv. certain of the hindu and buddhist results. xxv- xxxii. xxxiii. some scandinavian gods. xxxiv. some greek gods. 0 nerodha-samapatti, nirvikalpa-samadhi, shiva darshana. pan. z1z1 unity with brahma, atma darshana wotan zeus, iacchus 2. odin athena, uranus[[hermes] 3. frigga cybele, demeter, rhea, her[[psych, kronos] 4. wotan poseidon[[zeus] 5. thor ares, hades 6 vishvarupa-darshana. iacchus, apollo, adonis[[dionysus, bacchus] 7. freya aphrodit, nik 8. odin, loki hermes 9. zeus (as d, diana of epheus (as phallic stone[[and[[eros] 1010 vision of the higher self, the various dhyanas or jhanas. persephone [adonis, psych 11 vaya-bhawana valkyries zeus 12. hermes 13 vision of chandra. artemis, hekat 14 success in bhaktioga freya aphrodit 15. athena 16 s

er[[eros] 18. apollo the charioteer 19. demeter [borne by lions] 20 [attis] 21. zeus 22. themis, minos, aeacus and rhadamanthus 23 apo-bhawana. poseidon 24. ares[[apollo the pythean, thanatos] 25. apollo, artemis (hunters) 26. pan, priapus [erect hermes and bacchus] 27. tuisco ares[[athena] 28 [athena] ganymede 29. poseidon[[hermes psychopompos] 30 vision of surya. helios, apollo 31 agni-bhawana. hades 32 [athena] 32 bis prithiva-bhawana [demeter[[gaia] 31 bis vision of the higher self, prana-yama. we have insufficient knowledge of the attributions of assyrian, syrian, mongolian, tibetan, mexican, zend, south sea, west african &c. iacchus table of correspondences 10 xxxv. some roman gods. xxxvi. selection of christian gods (10; apostles (12; evangelists (4) and churches of asia (7. xxxvii

LIBER ASTARTE

an differeth essentially from every other man, albeit in essence he is identical, let also these ceremonies assert their identity by their diversity. for this reason do we leave much herein to the right ingenium of the philosophus. 13. concerning the life of the devotee. first, let his way of life be such as is pleasing to the particular deity. thus to invoke neptune, let him go a-fishing; but if hades, let him not approach the water that is hateful to him. 14. further, concerning the life of the devotee. let him cut away from his life any act, word, or thought, that is hateful to the particular deity; as, unchastity in the case of artemis, evasions in the case of ares. besides this, he should avoid all harshness or unkindness of any kind in thought, word, or deed, seeing that above the pa

LIBER CORDIS CINCTI SERPENTE

. then a voice) 44. thou strivest ever; even in thy yielding thou strivest to yield.and lo! thou yieldest not. 45. go thou unto the outermost places and subdue all things. 46. subdue thy fear and thy disgust. then.yield! 47. there was a maiden that strayed among the corn, and sighed; then grew a new birth, a narcissus, and therein she forgot her sighing and her loneliness. 48. even instantly rode hades heavily upon her, and ravished her away. 49 (then the scribe knew the narcissus in his heart; but because it came not to his lips, therefore was he shamed and spake no more) 50. adonai spake yet again with v.v.v.v.v. and said: the earth is ripe for vintage; let us eat of her grapes and be drunken thereon. 51. and v.v.v.v.v. answered and said: o my lord, my dove, my excellent one, how shall t

LIBER DCCCLX JOHN ST

med the apex thereof whose name is ecstasy. this also is sealed by that secret word; for that word containeth all. into this prepared pyramid of divine light there cometh a certain darkling wight, who knoweth not either his own nature, or his origin or destiny, or even the name of that 1 [death is represented by the hiereus, and life by the hegemon; they are identified with the greek god-forms of hades and demeter, with hermes and iacchus for invisible stations. t.s] liber dccclx 32 which he desireth. before he can enter the pyramid, therefore, four ordeals are required of him. so, bound and blinded, he stumbles forward, and passes through the wrath of the four great princes of the evil of the world, whose terror is about him on every side. yet since he has followed the voice of the office

nception..but what odds? once the right thought comes it will transcend any and all conceptions. the objection is as silly as the objection to illustrating geometry by diagrams, on the ground that printed lines are thick.and so on. this is the imbecility of the .protestant. objection to images. what fools these mortals be! the greeks, too, after exhausting all their sublimest thoughts of zeus and hades and poseidon, found that they could not find a fitting image of the all, the supreme.so they just carved a goat-man, saying: let this represent pan! also in the holiest place of the most secret temple there is an empty shrine. but whoso goes there in the first instance thinks; there is no god. he who goes there at the end, when he has adored all the other deities, knoweth that no god. so als

LIBER LIBERI VEL LAPIDIS LAZULI

radiating its night upon all. 30. it shall swallow up that lesser darkness. 31. but in that profound who shall answer: what is? 32. not i. 33. not thou, o god! 34. come, let us no more reason together; let us enjoy! let us be ourselves, silent, unique, apart. 35. o lonely woods of the world! in what recesses will ye hide our love? 36. the forest of the spears of the most high is called night, and hades, and the day of wrath; but i am his captain, and i bear his cup. 37. fear me not with my spearmen! they shall slay the demons with their petty prongs. ye shall be free. 38. ah, slaves! ye will not.ye know not how to will. 39. yet the music of my spears shall be a song of freedom. 40. a great bird shall sweep from the abyss of joy, and bear ye away to be my cup-bearers. 41. come, o my god, in

LIBER LXVII THE SWORD OF SONG

ildren, for them that understand not easily our high mysteries; for in thy pen is, as it were, a river of clear water; without vagueness, without ambiguity, 1 aum! the sacred word. 2 qy. j (the cart) becomes o (a wheel. the commentators who have suspected the horrid blasphemy implied by the explanation .becomes k, the wheel of fortune. are certainly in error. 3 demeter and persephone. 4 ch= j; h= hades. see the tarot cards, and classical mythology, for the symbols. mirabilia. i. signum. ii. signum. iii. signum alia signa. pater jubet: scientiam scribe. ambrosii magi hortis rosarum 89 without show of learning, without needless darkening of counsel and word, dost thou ever reveal the sacred heights of our mystic mountain. for, as for him that understandeth not thy writing, and that easily an

LINDOW JOHN NORSE MYTHOLOGY A GUIDE TO THE GODS HEROES RITUALS AND BELIEFS

en he does so, we can surmise that he derives from a warrior god of considerable importance. dies mercurii bore the name of mercury, who was associated with travel and commerce (whence our words gmercantile h and gmerchandise h. mercury carried forward a number of the traits of the greek hermes, who was known for his cunning, taste for theft, invention of the lyre, and accompanying of the dead to hades. this set of characteristics fits odin strikingly: he relies on cunning and treachery; he is the thief of the mead of poetry and is deeply associated with that craft (cf. the lyre of hermes; he is associated with the dead (the einherjar) and visits the abode of the dead (in baldrs draumar. mercury was associated with commerce, to be sure, but he was also changeable (whence our word gmercuria

MANLY P HALL THE SECRET TEACHINGS OF ALL AGES

ums up their purpose as follows "the lesser mysteries were designed by the ancient theologists, their founders, to signify occultly the condition of the unpurified soul invested with an earthy body, and enveloped in a material and physical nature" the legend used in the lesser rites is that of the abduction of the goddess persephone, the daughter of ceres, by pluto, the lord of the underworld, or hades. while persephone is picking flowers in a beautiful meadow, the earth suddenly opens and the gloomy lord of death, riding in a magnificent chariot, emerges from its somber depths and, grasping her in his arms, carries the screaming and struggling goddess to his subterranean palace, where he forces her to become his queen. it is doubtful whether many of the initiates themselves understood the

because he can never gratify the desire, he will continue in endless agony. dante's inferno is symbolically descriptive of the sufferings of those who never freed their spiritual natures from the cravings, habits, viewpoints, and limitations of their plutonic personalities. those who made no endeavor to improve themselves (whose souls have slept) during their physical lives, passed at death into hades, where, lying in rows, they slept through all eternity as they had slept through life. to the eleusinian philosophers, birch into the physical world was death in the fullest sense of the word, and the only true birth was that of the spiritual soul of man rising out of the womb of his own fleshly nature "the soul is dead that slumbers" says longfellow, and in this he strikes the keynote of th

for this reason many of the eleusinian click to enlarge the rape of persephone. from thomassin's recucil des figures, groupes, themes, fontaines, vases et autres ornements. pluto, the lord of the underworld, represents the body intelligence of man; and the rape of persephone is symbolic of the divine nature assaulted and defiled by the animal soul and dragged downward into the somber darkness of hades, which is here used as a synonym for the material, or objective, sphere of consciousness. in his disquisitions upon the painted greek vases, james christie presents meursius' version of the occurrences taking place during the nine days required for the enactment of the greater eleusinian rites. the first day was that of general meeting, during which those to be initiated were questioned conc

h they could not speak, but warning their disciples that a great sorrow comes to all who take their own lives. this, in substance, constitutes the esoteric doctrine given to the initiates of the lesser mysteries. as the degree dealt largely with the miseries of those who failed to make the best use of their philosophic opportunities, the chambers of initiation were subterranean and the horrors of hades were vividly depicted in a complicated ritualistic drama. after passing successfully through the tortuous passageways, with their trials and dangers, the candidate received the honorary title of mystes. this meant one who saw through a veil or had a clouded vision. it also signified that the candidate had been brought up to the veil, which would be torn away in the higher degree. the modern

mysteries. ceres appeared before pluto, god of the souls of the dead, and pleaded with him to allow persephone to return to her home. this the god at first refused to do, because persephone had eaten of the pomegranate, the fruit of mortality. at last, however, he compromised and agreed to permit persephone to live in the upper world half of the year if she would stay with him in the darkness of hades for the remaining half. the greeks believed that persephone was a manifestation of the solar energy, which in the winter months lived under the earth with pluto, but in the summer returned again with the goddess of productiveness. there is a legend that the flowers loved persephone and that every year when she left for the dark realms of pluto, the plants and shrubs would die of grief. while

s of his material nature into the light of understanding. when thus freed from the shackles of clay and crystallized concepts, the initiate was liberated not only for the period of his life but for all eternity, for never thereafter was he divested of those soul qualities which after death were his vehicles for manifestation and expression in the so-called heaven world. in contrast to the idea of hades as a state of darkness below, the gods were said to inhabit the tops of mountains, a well-known example being mount olympus, where the twelve deities of the greek pantheon were said to dwell together. in his initiatory wanderings the neophyte therefore entered chambers of ever-increasing brilliancy to portray the ascent of the spirit from the lower worlds into the realms of bliss. as the cli

on. at alternate intervals of five and six years a pilgrimage was made to this temple that equal honor might be conferred upon both the odd and the even numbers. here, with appropriate sacrifice, each king renewed his click to enlarge the scheme of the universe according to the greeks and romans. from cartari's imagini degli dei degli antichi. by ascending successively through the fiery sphere of hades, the spheres of water, earth, and air, and the heavens of the moon, the plane of mercury is reached. above mercury are the planes of venus, the sun, mars, jupiter, and saturn, the latter containing the symbols of the zodiacal constellations. above the arch of the heavens (saturn) is the dwelling place of the different powers controlling the universe. the supreme council of the gods is compos

d is mud. over the bolts on the door of the house of irkalla is scattered dust, and the keepers of the house are covered with feathers like birds. ishtar demands that the keepers open the gates, declaring that if they do not she will shatter the doorposts and strike the hinges and raise up dead devourers of the living. the guardians of the gates beg her to be patient while they go to the queen of hades from whom they secure permission to admit ishtar, but only in the same manner as all others came to this dreary house. ishtar thereupon descends through the seven gates which lead downward into the depths of the underworld. at the first gate the great crown is removed from her head, at the second gate the earrings from her ears, at the third gate the necklace from her neck, at the fourth gat

from her breast, at the fifth gate the girdle from her waist, at the sixth gate the bracelets from her hands and feet, and at the seventh gate the covering cloak of her body. ishtar remonstrates as each successive article of apparel is taken from her, bur the guardian tells her that this is the experience of all who enter the somber domain of death. enraged upon beholding ishtar, the mistress of hades inflicts upon her all manner of disease and imprisons her in the underworld. as ishtar represents the spirit of fertility, her loss prevents the ripening of the crops and the maturing of all life upon the earth. in this respect the story parallels the legend of persephone. the gods, realizing that the loss of ishtar is disorganizing all nature, send a messenger to the underworld and demand h

manner of disease and imprisons her in the underworld. as ishtar represents the spirit of fertility, her loss prevents the ripening of the crops and the maturing of all life upon the earth. in this respect the story parallels the legend of persephone. the gods, realizing that the loss of ishtar is disorganizing all nature, send a messenger to the underworld and demand her release. the mistress of hades is forced to comply, and the water of life is poured over ishtar. thus cured of the infirmities inflicted on her, she retraces her way upward through the seven gates, at each of which she is reinvested with the article of apparel which the guardians had removed (see the chaldean account of genesis) no record exists that ishtar secured the water of life which would have wrought the resurrecti

of apparel which the guardians had removed (see the chaldean account of genesis) no record exists that ishtar secured the water of life which would have wrought the resurrection of tammuz. the myth of ishtar symbolizes the descent of the human spirit through the seven worlds, or spheres of the sacred planets, until finally, deprived of its spiritual adornments, it incarnates in the physical body- hades--where the mistress of that body heaps every form of sorrow and misery upon the imprisoned consciousness. the waters of life--the secret doctrine--cure the diseases of ignorance; and the spirit, ascending again to its divine source, regains its god-given adornments as it passes upward through the rings of the planets. another mystery ritual among the babylonians and assyrians was that of mer

form as the ideal symbol of both the secret doctrine and those institutions established for its dissemination. both pyramids and mounds are antitypes of the holy mountain, or high place of god, which was believed to stand in the "midst" of the earth. john p. lundy relates the great pyramid to the fabled olympus, further assuming that its subterranean passages correspond to the tortuous byways of hades. the square base of the pyramid is a constant reminder that the house of wisdom is firmly founded upon nature and her immutable laws "the gnostics" writes albert pike "claimed that the whole edifice of their science rested on a square whose angles were: sigh, silence; buqov, profundity; nouv, intelligence; and alhqeia truth (see morals and dogma) the sides of the great pyramid face the four

e winter solstice of philosophy; spiritual understanding to the summer solstice. from this point of view, initiation into the mysteries becomes the vernal equinox of the spirit, at which time the chiram in man crosses from the realm of mortality into that of eternal life. the autumnal equinox is analogous to the mythological fall of man, at which time the human spirit descended into the realms of hades by being immersed in the illusion of terrestrial existence. in an essay on the beautiful, plotinus describes the refining effect of beauty upon the unfolding consciousness of man. commissioned to decorate the everlasting house, chiram abiff is the embodiment of the beautifying principle. beauty is essential to the natural unfoldment of the human soul. the mysteries held that man, in part at

of jerusalem. as god is the pervading principle of three worlds, in each of which he manifests as an active principle, so the spirit of man, partaking of the nature of divinity, dwells upon three planes of being: the supreme, the superior, and the inferior spheres of the pythagoreans. at the gate of the inferior sphere (the underworld, or dwelling place of mortal creatures) stands the guardian of hades--the three--headed dog cerberus, who is analogous to the three murderers of the hiramic legend. according to this symbolic interpretation of the triune spirit, chiram is the third, or incarnating, part- the master builder who through all ages erects living temples of flesh and blood as shrines of the most high. chiram comes forth as a flower and is cut down; he dies at the gates of matter; h

MASTERING WITCHCRAFT

ly consecrated high priest and wizard, or high priestess and queen of the sabbat, whichever the case may be. in the second ritual, instead of the progress of the aspirant through the four elements, the myth of the goddess is implied, where the witch goddess andred, aradia, habondia, or whatever other name you may care to know her by, descends into the world of the dead somewhat like persephone in hades or ishtar in the realm of ereshkigal, and receives the scourge and fivefold kiss of the horned god of death and subsequent conferment of power. sometimes this myth itself is enacted during the initiation rite, in the manner of a mystery, but this is a supernumerary addition, the myth itself being implicit in the entire initiation ceremony. as you can see, both rituals have many things in com

e sun and moon have to be effectively magically "drawn down" the high priestess is likewise saluted by the coven with the horned hand, but as our lady of the moon. the gesture of the magister, arms crossed upon the breast, is of course none other than the sign of death and rebirth used in your necromancy ritual. it signifies many things. primarily it is the sign of osiris, seen as synonymous with hades, dis, and the horned one as god of death. it also represents the skull and crossbones itself, and finally the erect phallus flanked by twin testes below. the gesture of the high priestess is the mirror image of the magister's. it represents both the lunar crescent, the womb of space, and the horns of hathor, all of which are symbols pertaining to isis, the great egyptian mother goddess and c

MATHERS MACGREGOR THE GREATER KEY OF SOLOMON VOL 1

the sixth, the moon the seventh, and saturn returns in the rule over the eighth, and the others in their turn, the planets always keeping the same relative order. note that each experiment of magical operation should be performed under the planet, and usually in the hour, which refers to the same. for example: in the days and hours of saturn thou canst perform experiments to summon the souls from hades, but only of those who have died a natural death. similarly on these days and hours thou canst operate to bring either good or bad fortune to buildings; to have familiar spirits attend thee in sleep; to cause good or ill success to business, possessions, goods, seeds, fruits, and similar things, in order to acquire learning; to bring destruction and to give death, and to sow hatred and disco

ldst take care punctually to observe all the instructions contained in this chapter, if thou desirest to succeed, seeing that the truth of magical science dependeth thereon. the hours of saturn, of mars, and of the moon are alike good for communicating and speaking with spirits; as those of mercury are for recovering thefts by the means of spirits. the hours of mars serve for summoning souls from hades, especially of those slain in battle. the hours of the sun, of jupiter, and of venus, are adapted for preparing any operations whatsoever of love, of kindness, and of invisibility, as is hereafter more fully shown, to which must be added other things of a similar nature which are contained in our work. the hours of saturn and mars and also the days on which the moon is conjunct with them, or

MATHERS MACGREGOR THE GREATER KEY OF SOLOMON PENTACLES

them be confounded who persecute me, and let me not be confounded; let them fear, and not i" figure 53. the fifth pentacle of the moon. it serveth to have answers in sleep. its angel iachadiel serveth unto destruction and loss, as well as unto the destruction of enemies. thou mayest also call upon him by abdon and dal against all phantoms of the night, and to summon the souls of the departed from hades. editor s note. the divine names ihvh and elohim, a mystical character of the moon, and the names of the angels iachadiel and azarel. the versicle is from psalm lxviii. 1 "let god arise, and let his enemies be scattered; let them also who hate him flee before him" figure 54. the sixth and last pentacle of the moon. this is wonderfully good, and serveth excellently to excite and cause heavy r

MEANING OF MASONRY

s myths was that of demeter and her daughter persephone, annually performed with great ceremony and elaboration at the eleusinia, and of which it may be useful to speak briefly. it told how the maiden persephone strayed away from arcadla (heaven) and her mother demeter, to pluck flowers in the meads of enna, and how the soil there opened and caused her to fall through into the lower dark world of hades ruled over by pluto. the despair of her mother at the loss reached zeus, the chief of the gods, with the result that he relieved the position by ordaining that, if the girl had not eaten of the fruit of hades, she should forthwith be restored to her mother for ever, but that if she had so eaten she must abide a third of each year with pluto and return to demeter for the other two thirds. it

ent mysteries taught, the soul t hat never even begins this work in this world will not be able to begin it hereafter, but will remain suspended in the more tenuous planes of this planet until such time as it is once again indrawn into the vortex of generation by the ever-turning wheel of life. to quote plato again "those who instituted the mysteries for us taught us that whosoever descended into hades (the after-death state) uninitiated and without being a partaker in the mysteries, will be plunged into mire and darkness, but whoever arrived there purified and initiated will dwell with the gods" this teaching is reproduced in masonry in the reference to the master-mason being" admitted to the assembly of the just made perfect: the implication being that those who have not reached that pro

MICHAEL FORD WITCHMOON

propel her towards the goddess incarnation of the witch cult and many lines of sorcery. the moon is represented as a significant feminine force, based and connected with the element water. hecate is rumored to be of thracian origin although her base was within the roman and greek pantheons. though daughter of two light based deities, perses and asteria, hecate dwelled in the underworld along with hades and persephone. her individual powers were discovered through the shadows deep within her own being. residing with her as well was thanatos (god of death, hypnos (god of sleep) and morpheus (god of dreams. hecate is known as the goddess of witches, being that of sorcery and the cunning craft. the aspects of hecate within roman and greek culture show hecate mostly in a dark or hidden aspect

MICHAEL TSARION ATLANTIS ALIEN VISITATION AND GENETIC MANIPULATION

agas, we read:beneath the feet of the father of the gods olympus shook as he moved, the earth groaned;and from the lightening of his bolt, as well as from the eyes and breath of his antagonist, firewas bursting over the dark sea. the ocean boiled; towering waves beat upon all promonto-atlantis, alien visitation, and genetic manipulation41 the world falls dead ries of the coast; the ground quaked; hades, lord of the dead, trembled; and even zeus him-self, for a time, was unstrung.and let us not neglect the accounts from egypt, later bastion of the sons of the ser-pents. from the egyptian ipuwer papyrus of 1780 bc, we read: the land- to its whole extent confusion and terrible noise. for nine days there was no exitfrom the palace and no one could see the face of his fellow. towns were destroy

e theflood a significant admission (p. 27-28)the saturnian cultthe flood, or more justly the great catastrophe, destroyed the cult of saturn, which became discreditedto many, including the egyptians, depicted to them as malignant devil in the shape of an immense celes-tial serpent with a hundred voices who spat lightening. he is the old serpent of revelation who wascast into the bottomless pit of hades for a thousand years (p. 30)abrahamreally abram or son of the ram, the high ram, relating to ammon. leader of the israelites, the cultof saturn.terah means terrorabraham son of terah, meant that he was a terrorist, a man of magical skill, possessed of impressiveweaponry, that could intimidate the peoples with whom he came into contact. these powerful weaponsare often described in the bible m

MICHAEL WYNN THE SOUL TRAVELERS

ation, frequently suggesting that it was the serpent who was true father of cain, rather than adam (the first human. occultists will also freely refer to satan as ahriman (angra mainyu. ahriman is an ancient persian god who, according to legend, is wholly wicked and at war with his righteous brother ahura mazda. this ahriman resides in a gloomy underworld, and leads many demons. and then you have hades, from greek mythology. hades is the ruler of the underworld, and the brother of zeus. after a conflict where hades, poseidon, and zeus team up to defeat the titans (the older gods, these younger gods divided creation into three; zeus would rule heaven, poseidon would rule the sea, and hades would rule the underworld, which was the land of the dead. although the greek traditions do not mentio

of the underworld, and the brother of zeus. after a conflict where hades, poseidon, and zeus team up to defeat the titans (the older gods, these younger gods divided creation into three; zeus would rule heaven, poseidon would rule the sea, and hades would rule the underworld, which was the land of the dead. although the greek traditions do not mention a conflict between the two brothers zeus and hades, satanists do. i suspect that this is just another god and his evil brother story. satanists also refer to satan as azazel. azazel, according to jewish lore and the bible, is a fallen angel or demon who is described as an outcast. he, like the egyptian god set, is associated with the desert. although azazel was mentioned in the bible, his most famous appearance was in the book of enoch. the

e of villains and heroes appears to have been inverted; as though retold through the eyes of a modern day satanist. in greek mythology, zeus is the tyrant lord of mount olympus, who is promiscuous, jealous, and a rapist. whereas prometheus, who is azazel and lucifer, is the creator and champion of mankind, highly intelligent, and can easily deceive zeus. i can t believe it s not fiction: zeus and hades heracles (2001) clash of the titans (2010) hidden history [1.6] mythology isn t the only vector by which we can reconstruct history. evidence of a more temporal form exists for those whose tastes are more technical. this evidence involves the manner in which ancient civilizations rose and fell; it also involves what (how much) ancient man knew, and when he came to know it. ancient man, predi

imensions are not perfectly straight and do not exist as perfect 90-degree angles; here the x,y,z, and time dimensions are curved and warped. if someone were to directly gaze upon the beings that exist in the infernal realms they may be struck with an ache in the mind, because their very shape is unnatural to our senses. sometimes one will find the underworld divided into two realms. the first is hades, which is the land of the dead, and then there s hell (gehinnom. hades, also called sheol, is considered the land of the dead where all people, both righteous and unrighteous, go when they die. whereas hell is a place specifically for unrighteous entities to experience torment and imprisonment. and unlike popular conception, neither is said to be currently burning and aflame. in the bible fo

eol, is considered the land of the dead where all people, both righteous and unrighteous, go when they die. whereas hell is a place specifically for unrighteous entities to experience torment and imprisonment. and unlike popular conception, neither is said to be currently burning and aflame. in the bible for instance, it is stated that only after all beings are judged (judgment day, both hell and hades will then be cast in to a lake of fire (revelation 20:14, and all those unsaved will undergo a second death and remain forever tormented in the lake of fire. currently, however, members of the occult (and the bible as well) speak of both places as being timeless, limitless, cold, dark, and chaotic. dreamscape [2.3] occultists tend to get a kick out of the way the average person interprets th

demons. in babylonian legend, tiamat was called the monster of chaos, and waged war against the gods. finally marduk defeated tiamat, split her in two, and used her flesh to create the world. this battle between the angels and the older gods goes unmentioned in the biblical genesis account, but remains in the greek tradition. according to greek mythology zeus, along with his brothers poseidon and hades, defeated the older gods, called the titans, and banished them to tartarus (the greek underworld. these titans, who were the offspring of gaia (tiamat, once ruled the earth; their brutish nature corrupting and spoiling the planet. this race even attempted to make slaves and sport out of the angelic race, but jehovah and satan cast down the titans. it is also worth mentioning that prometheus

cult, is that the ancient ones are chained in darkness, and that there is a certain celestial radiation arriving from space that is utterly toxic to these titans. there is a day coming, however, when the rays of the stars will no longer be toxic to the old ones, and this day will be marked by some kind of rare astronomical event. after this event in the sky, the wicked god azag-thoth, also called hades and pluto, will free and lead the titans out of their prison. the black magicians also have a long list of titles for lilith, and have much reverence for her because she is among those who give them the dark gift of transformation. among these titles are: queen of the qliphoth, queen of the underworld, queen of the dead, queen of the vampires, queen of the sabbat, queen of hell, queen of the

h, is the greek triple goddess. she is the goddess of the crossroads, who is frequently depicted with three heads; one of a dog, one of a snake, and one of a horse. this goddess is often associated with witchcraft and childbirth, and was accompanied by an owl during her travels. she is known as the virgin goddess, and is also reported to have a following of ghosts and lives in the underworld with hades, lord of the underworld. another goddess related to lilith is the egyptian goddess isis. isis was the wife of osiris, and was responsible for osiris first resurrection. isis is skilled at magic, and especially intelligent. isis, like hecate, is a goddess of childbirth. it appears isis, the widow of noble osiris, is now the harlot, bride of set (satan. sekhmet, an egyptian goddess who was amo

semiramis is said to be a harlot, a home wrecker, and a powerful sorceress. this personage is associated with the dove and, proper to the virgin, was credited with the invention of the chastity belt. semiramis became the--michael wynn's "the soul travelers" 79 patroness of babylon when she restored the city to its ancient glory. i can t believe it s not fiction: tiamat queen of the damned (2002) hades [5.5] hades is the lord of the underworld. although greek mythology does not depict hades as a villain, modern satanists( and a little common sense) have confirmed to me that he is god s greatest enemy today. in rome, he was known as pluto and the hebrews knew him as mot. in the lovecraft mythos he is azag-thoth, and to many occults he is called coronzon; just like hades, who is considered b

o me that he is god s greatest enemy today. in rome, he was known as pluto and the hebrews knew him as mot. in the lovecraft mythos he is azag-thoth, and to many occults he is called coronzon; just like hades, who is considered both a character and a location, coronzon is also considered a character and a location. the egyptians call this demon apep. the greeks and christians know the location of hades as sheol, or the land of the dead, but the hebrews knew it as da ath, and the author h.p. lovecraft called it yog-sothoth. hades is an incredibly powerful being, and is always described as formless. he is known as the guardian of the underworld and is said to hold the key to the qliphoth. this guardian of the abyss is considered mentally unstable and evil even by the worst magicians. this sp

photh. this guardian of the abyss is considered mentally unstable and evil even by the worst magicians. this spirit is regarded as a devouring demon who seeks to steal the life-force and sanity from all who cross his path. this entity s reputation for inducing insanity is legendary, for he is truly the embodiment of dispersion and chaos. his greed for collecting and retaining souls is insatiable. hades is often depicted as more intelligent than his brother zeus. this god waits in the abyss for the magician who seeks union with his guardian angel, so that in order to be transformed, the magician must master choronzon. the abode of coronzon is a dark place where those long dead gesture and stumble aimlessly; a place where hope is not to be found. hades sided with zeus and the other olympians

gician who seeks union with his guardian angel, so that in order to be transformed, the magician must master choronzon. the abode of coronzon is a dark place where those long dead gesture and stumble aimlessly; a place where hope is not to be found. hades sided with zeus and the other olympians in the war against the titans. in the night before a major battle between the olympians and the titans, hades put on his helmet of darkness that made him invisible, after which he crept into the enemy camp, and destroyed the titan s weapons. hades has a wife named persephone who dwells with him in the underworld. with the titans defeated, the three brothers zeus, poseidon, and hades divided creation between each other. zeus ruled the heavens, poseidon the seas, and hades would rule the underworld. a

on his helmet of darkness that made him invisible, after which he crept into the enemy camp, and destroyed the titan s weapons. hades has a wife named persephone who dwells with him in the underworld. with the titans defeated, the three brothers zeus, poseidon, and hades divided creation between each other. zeus ruled the heavens, poseidon the seas, and hades would rule the underworld. and there hades rules today, upon a black throne. even the worst magicians will recommend against invoking or evoking hades, and even--michael wynn's "the soul travelers" 80 the skillful emphasize extreme caution; hades is simply too chaotic and too powerful. his words are deceitful, and full of evasion and misdirection. while evocated in ritual, he will seize upon the weaknesses of the sorcerer and instill

re deceitful, and full of evasion and misdirection. while evocated in ritual, he will seize upon the weaknesses of the sorcerer and instill madness in those who summoned him. he is sometimes titled the blind, idiot, or mad god, but this is not wholly accurate, because this being is no fool. after being condemned by god to rule the underworld, his growing madness has brought him from bad to worse. hades, whose number is 333, is considered to be the biggest obstacle for the sorcerer who wishes to cross the abyss, because he guards the point between two universes. this spirit is hot-tempered, he reacts hastily and violently to the slightest provocation. john dee, the noted 16th century magician who was a spy for queen elizabeth i and the original 007, along with his partner sir edward kelly r

inst the kingdom of the father, and befouled his beard; and i have prevailed against the kingdom of the son, and torn off his phallus; but against the kingdom of the holy ghost shall i strive and not prevail. as stated earlier, satanists make numerous references to a devilish force stealing the creative power of the most high god, and this has given birth to much phallic symbolism. subservient to hades are many lesser demons, some of which are merely empty shells with little intellect. for the novelist h.p. lovecraft, hades went by the name azag-thoth, the mad blind god. azag-thoth is presented as the leader of the demons and resides at the center of the universe in a dark underworld called the igigi. azag-thoth is described as the embodiment of chaos, extremely powerful, and rendered sigh

nd seker by the egyptians, samael by the hebrews, and ahriman by the persians. satan is the god who carries away the soul. a well-known symbol, that of the all-seeing eye, is related to satan and has been called the eye of set. satan is a god of the setting sun and is therefore often symbolized by a black sun, or a sun that is in total eclipse. perhaps it was a time before the merger of satan and hades, but once these two beings competed for the souls of the nephilim who had died in the flood. satan send ishtar to the gates of the underworld, demanding the souls of those nephilim from hades. lucifer, who is also called azazel and prometheus, absorbed the essence of satan; think of lucifer as an avatar of satan, and it must be remembered that lucifer is satan only because of the merger. upo

and using contactees and abductees to spread the messages which founded the new age movement. no surprise there, since these messages from aliens always seem to support humanism and world government. these grays appear to be a mass-produced, genetically engineered servant. asmodeus [5.7] asmodeus is an arch-demon and servant of lucifer. by some accounts asmodeus is lucifer, and he took satan (or hades) into his own essence. asmodeus is further associated with samael, who is also associated with lucifer. asmodeus is a powerful, high-ranking demon, and one of the lords of the qliphoth. he is a demon of lust whose duty it is to estrange newly weds--michael wynn's "the soul travelers" 84 it is said that king solomon once had power over asmodeus, and forced him to help build solomon s temple

, and has been called the earthly devil. cain is apparently the avatar by which satan visit s the realm of the flesh. cain also represents humanity perfected, as he is both angel and demon. cain is said to be the first born child of witch s blood, and it is he who bestows the mark of the beast. belial [5.10] belial is yet another character who is spoke of as another aspect of satan who rules over hades, other times belial is spoke of as a separate entity from satan. in some accounts, belial was with azazel when he fell from heaven, and was given guardianship over the gates of hell. in other accounts, he fell from heaven before the fall of azazel. he is the ruling prince of sheol, and is perhaps another name for hades. according to the qaballah, he is god s worst enemy. this demon is capabl

MICHAEL W FORD NOX UMBRA

dess hecate. as anubis is the jackal headed lord of the dead, he presides in the west. charles pace (hamara't) mentions in the "book of tahuti" that west is the direction of water, as well as darkness. according to his hermetic teachings, anubis is also death and a god form of necromantic power. anpu is also a gateway to amethes- amenta- amentet. this 'underworld' is the equivalent to the grecian hades. this is the meeting place of spirits, where the dead gather. the word hell derives from the angelo-saxon 'helan, meaning to 'cover' or conceal. the hebrew equivalent of hades-amentet is sheol, which is said to come from the root-word "to ask" and "demand. the primary inhabitants of sheol are "the congregation of the dead -prov. 21:16 anubis is the son of set and nephthys. this mortuary god

MORALS AND DOGMA

hiram, the grief of the jews at the fall of jerusalem, the misery of the templars at the ruin of their order and the death of de molay, or the world's agony and pangs of woe at the death of the redeemer, it is the right of each to do so. the third apartment represents the consequences of sin and vice and the hell made of the human heart, by its fiery passions. if any see in it also a type of the hades of the greeks, the gehenna of the hebrews, the tartarus of the romans, or the hell of the christians, or only of the agonies of remorse and the tortures of an upbraiding conscience, it is the right of each to do so. the fourth apartment represents the universe, freed from the insolent dominion and tyranny of the principle of evil, and brilliant with the true light that flows from the supreme

ich he was slightly wounded. being crowned with olive, anointed with balsam of benzoin, and otherwise prepared, he was purified with fire and water, and went through seven stages of initiation. the symbol of these stages was a high ladder with seven rounds or steps. in them, he went through many fearful trials, in which darkness displayed a principal part. he saw a representation of the wicked in hades; and finally emerged from darkness into light. received in a place representing elysium, in the brilliant assembly of the initiated, where the archimagus presided, robed in blue, he assumed the obligations of secrecy, and was entrusted with the sacred words, of which the ineffable name of god was the chief. then all the incidents of his initiation were explained to him: he was taught that th

he sun as invoked by the eleans [greek??e, ushered into the world amidst lightning and thunder, the mighty hunter of the zodiac, zagreus the golden or ruddy-faced. the mysteries taught the doctrine of divine unity; and that power whose oneness is a seeming mystery, but really a truism, was dionusos, the god of nature, or of that, moisture, which is the life of nature, who prepares in darkness, in hades or iasion, the return of life and vegetation, or is himself the light and change evolving their varieties. in the egean islands he was butes, dardanus, himeros or imbros; in crete he appears as iasius or even zeus, whose orgiastic worship, remaining unveiled by the usual forms of mystery, betrayed to profane curiosity the symbols which, if irreverently contemplated, were sure to be misunders

ous influences of nature. with the phenomena of agriculture, supposed to be the invention of osiris, the egyptians connected the highest truths of their religion. the soul of man was as the seed hidden in the ground, and the mortal framework, similarly consigned to its dark resting-place, awaited its restoration to life's unfailing source. osiris was not only benefactor of the living; he was also hades, serapis, and rhadamanthus, the monarch of the dead. death, therefore, in egyptian opinion, was only another name for _renovation, since its god is the same power who incessantly renews vitality in nature. every corpse duly embalmed was called "osiris" and in the grave was supposed to be united, or at least brought into approximation, to the divinity. for when god became incarnate for man's

lchre of zeus was shown in crete. hippolytus was associated in divine honors with apollo, and after he had been torn to pieces like osiris, was restored to life by the p onian herbs of diana, and kept darkling in the secret grove of egeria. zeus deserted olympus to visit the ethiopians; apollo underwent servitude to admetus; theseus, peirithous, hercules, and other heroes, descended for a time to hades; a dying nature-god was exhibited in the mysteries, the attic women fasted, sitting on the ground, during the thesmophoria, and the b otians lamented the descent of cora-proserpine to the shades. but the death of the deity, as understood by the orientals, was not inconsistent with his immortality. the temporary decline of the sons of light is but an episode in their endless continuity; and a

son [hercules, or exempt him from the calamities incidental to humanity. the theban progeny of jove had his share of pain and trial. by vanquishing earthly difficulties he proved his affinity with heaven. his life was a continuous struggle. he fainted before typhon in the desert; and in the commencement of the autumnal season (cum long redit hora noctis, descended under the guidance of minerva to hades. he died; but first applied for initiation to eumolpus, in order to foreshadow that state of religious preparation which should precede the momentous change. even in hades he rescued theseus and removed the stone of ascalaphus, reanimated the bloodless spirits, and dragged into the light of day the monster cerberus, justly reputed invincible because an emblem of time itself; he burst the cha

MOTTA MARCELO THE COMMENTARIES OF AL

old to impregnate the vulture, which therefore was chosen to symbolize the mother-goddess. he is the wandering knight of fairy tales who marries the kings daughter. this legend is derived from certain customs among exogamic tribes, for which see the golden bough. thus, once europa, semele and others claimed that zeus--air [inserted footnote* zeus obtained air for his kingdom in the partition with hades, who took fire, and poseidon, who took water. shu is the egyptian god of the firmament. there is a great difficulty here, etymologically. zeus is connected with iao, abrasax, and the dental sibilant gods of the great mysteries, with the south and hadit, adad, set, saturn, adonai, attis, adonis; he is even the "jesus, slain with the lance, whose blood is collected in a cup. yet he is also to

MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS E

hree kingdoms, in heaven, on earth (in which of course the sea was included, and under the earth. zeus held his court on the top of mount olympus, whose summit was beyond the clouds; the dominions of aides were the gloomy unknown regions below the earth; and poseidon reigned over the sea. it will be seen that the realm of each of these gods was enveloped in mystery. olympus was shrouded in mists, hades was wrapt in gloomy darkness, and the sea was, and indeed still is, a source of wonder and deep interest. hence we see that what to other nations were merely strange phenomena, served this poetical and imaginative people as a foundation upon which to build the wonderful stories of their mythology. the division of the world being now satisfactorily arranged, it would seem that all things ough

o evil, and doing no wrong. the earth brought forth fruits and flowers without toil or labour in plentiful luxuriance, and war was unknown. this delightful and god-like existence lasted for hundreds of years, and when at length life on earth was ended, death laid his hand so gently upon them that they passed painlessly away in a happy dream, and continued their existence as ministering spirits in hades, watching over and [23]protecting those they had loved and left behind on earth. the men of the silver age[7] were a long time growing up, and during their childhood, which lasted a hundred years, they suffered from ill-health and extreme debility. when page 23 they at last became men they lived but a short time, for they would not abstain from mutual injury, nor pay the service due to the g

ing those they had loved and left behind on earth. the men of the silver age[7] were a long time growing up, and during their childhood, which lasted a hundred years, they suffered from ill-health and extreme debility. when page 23 they at last became men they lived but a short time, for they would not abstain from mutual injury, nor pay the service due to the gods, and were therefore banished to hades. there, unlike the beings of the golden age, they exercised no beneficent supervision over the dear ones left behind, but wandered about as restless spirits, always sighing for the lost pleasures they had enjoyed in life. the men of the brazen age were quite a different race of beings, being as strong and powerful as those of the silver age were weak and enervated. everything which surrounde

fact only happy when fighting and quarrelling with each other. hitherto themis, the goddess of justice, had been living among mankind, but becoming disheartened at their evil doings, she abandoned the earth, and winged her flight back to heaven. at last the gods became so tired of their evil deeds and continual dissensions, that they removed them from the face of the earth, and sent them down to hades to share the fate of their predecessors. we now come to the men of the iron age. the earth, no longer teeming with fruitfulness, only yielded her increase after much toil and labour. the goddess of justice having abandoned mankind, no influence remained sufficiently powerful to preserve them from every kind of wickedness and sin. this condition grew worse as time went on, until at last zeus

d of the wound, and her sorrowing husband filled the groves and valleys with his piteous and unceasing lamentations. his longing to behold her once more became at last so unconquerable, that he determined to brave the horrors of the lower world, in order to entreat aides to restore to him his beloved wife. armed only with his golden lyre, the gift of apollo, he descended into the gloomy depths of hades, where his heavenly music arrested for a while the torments of the unhappy sufferers. the stone of sisyphus remained motionless; tantalus forgot his perpetual thirst; the wheel of ixion ceased to revolve; and even the furies shed tears, and withheld for a time their persecutions. undismayed at the scenes of horror and suffering which met his view on every side, he pursued his way until he ar

et strains, they listened to his [82]melancholy story, and consented to release eurydice on condition that he should not look upon her until they reached the upper world. orpheus gladly promised to comply with this injunction, and, followed by eurydice, ascended the steep and gloomy path which led to the realms of life and light. all went well until he was just about to pass the extreme limits of hades, when, forgetting for the moment the hard condition, he turned to convince himself that his beloved wife was really behind him. the glance was fatal, and destroyed all his hopes of happiness; for, as he yearningly stretched out his arms to embrace her, she was caught back, and vanished from his sight for ever. the grief of orpheus at this second loss was even more intense than before, and he

fter success had attended their arms, to erect statues of the goddess in commemoration of their victories. the most magnificent of these statues, was that raised by augustus after the battle of actium. a festival was celebrated in honour of nike on the 12th of april. hermes (mercury. page 129 hermes was the swift-footed messenger, and trusted ambassador of all the gods, and conductor of shades to hades. he presided over the rearing and education of [118]the young, and encouraged gymnastic exercises and athletic pursuits, for which reason, all gymnasiums and wrestling schools throughout greece were adorned with his statues. he is said to have invented the alphabet, and to have taught the art of interpreting foreign languages, and his versatility, sagacity, and cunning were so extraordinary

he staff, remained ever after permanently attached to it. the wand itself typified power; the serpents, wisdom; and the wings, despatch.all qualities characteristic of a trustworthy ambassador. the young god was now presented by his father with a winged silver cap (petasus, and also with silver wings for his feet (talaria, and was forthwith appointed herald of the gods, and conductor of shades to hades, which office had hitherto been filled by aides. as messenger of the gods, we find him employed on all occasions requiring special skill, tact, or despatch. thus he conducts hera, athene, and aphrodite to paris, leads priam to achilles to demand the body of hector [122]binds prometheus to mount caucasus, secures ixion to the eternally revolving wheel, destroys argus, the hundred-eyed guardia

sacrifices consisted of goats, probably on account of their being destructive to vineyards. bacchus or liber. the romans had a divinity called liber who presided over vegetation, and was, on this account, identified with the greek dionysus, and worshipped under the name of bacchus. the festival of liber, called the liberalia, was celebrated on the 17th of march. aides (pluto. aides, aidoneus, or hades, was the son of cronus and rhea, and the youngest brother of zeus and poseidon. he was the ruler of that subterranean region called erebus, which was inhabited by the shades or spirits of the dead, and also by those dethroned and exiled deities who had been vanquished by zeus and his allies. aides, the grim and gloomy monarch of this lower world, was the [131]successor of erebus, that ancien

in to inculcate the doctrine of the future reward and punishment of good and bad deeds. aides, who had hitherto been regarded as the dread page 147 enemy of mankind, who delights in his grim office, and keeps the shades imprisoned in his dominions after withdrawing them from the joys of existence, now receives them with hospitality and friendship, and hermes replaces him as conductor of shades to hades. under this new aspect aides usurps the functions of a totally different divinity called plutus (the god of riches, and is henceforth regarded as the giver of wealth to mankind, in the shape of those precious metals which lie concealed in the bowels of the earth. the later poets mention various entrances to erebus, which were for the most part caves and fissures. there was one in the mountai

on of souls, it was supposed that after the shades had inhabited elysium for a thousand years they were destined to animate other bodies on [134]earth, and before leaving elysium they drank of the river lethe, in order that they might enter upon their new career without any remembrance of the past. the guilty souls, after leaving the presence of minos, were conducted to the great judgment-hall of hades, whose massive walls of solid adamant were surrounded by the river phlegethon, the waves of which rolled flames of fire, and lit up, with their lurid glare, these awful realms. in the interior sat the dread judge rhadamanthus, who declared to each comer the precise torments which awaited him in tartarus. the wretched sinners were then seized by the furies, who scourged them with their whips

the dread judge rhadamanthus, who declared to each comer the precise torments which awaited him in tartarus. the wretched sinners were then seized by the furies, who scourged them with their whips, and dragged them along to the great gate, which closed the opening to tartarus, into whose awful depths they were hurled, to suffer endless torture. tartarus was a vast and gloomy expanse, as far below hades as the earth is distant from the skies. there the titans, fallen from their high estate, dragged out a dreary and monotonous existence; there also were otus and ephialtes, those giant sons of poseidon, who, page 149 with impious hands, had attempted to scale olympus and dethrone its mighty ruler. principal among the sufferers in this abode of gloom were tityus, tantalus, sisyphus, ixion, and

ther sacrifices, was permitted to run down into a trench, dug for this purpose. the officiating priests wore black robes, and were crowned with cypress. the narcissus, maiden-hair, and cypress were sacred to this divinity. pluto. before the introduction into rome of the religion and literature of greece, the romans had no belief in a realm of future happiness or misery, corresponding to the greek hades; hence they had no god of the lower world identical with aides. they supposed that there was, in the centre of the earth, a vast, gloomy, and impenetrably dark cavity called orcus, which formed a place of eternal rest for the dead. but with the introduction of greek mythology, the roman orcus became the greek hades, and [137]all the greek notions with regard to a future state now obtained wi

ible imprecations, which the defeated deity called down upon the head of his rebellious son. according to other accounts they were the daughters of night. their place of abode was the lower world, where they were employed by aides and persephone to chastise and torment those shades who, during their earthly career, had committed crimes, and had not been reconciled to the gods before descending to hades. but their sphere of action was not confined to the realm of shades, for they appeared upon earth as the avenging deities who relentlessly pursued and punished murderers, perjurers, those who had failed in duty to their parents, in hospitality to strangers, or in the respect due to old age. nothing escaped the piercing glance of these terrible divinities, from whom flight was unavailing, for

onducted by hermes, he commenced his descent into the awful gulf, where myriads of shades soon began to appear, all of whom fled in terror at his approach, meleager and medusa alone excepted. about to strike the latter with his sword, hermes interfered and stayed his hand, reminding him that she was but a shadow, and that consequently no weapon could avail against her. arrived before the gates of hades he found theseus and pirithous, who had been fixed to an enchanted rock by aides for their presumption in endeavouring to carry off persephone. when they saw heracles they implored him to set them free. the hero succeeded in delivering theseus, but when he endeavoured to liberate pirithous, the earth shook so violently beneath him that he was compelled to relinquish his task. proceeding furt

was destined to play so important a part in the history of greece, had already spread far and wide. theseus and pirithous forcibly abducted her, and then having cast lots for her, she fell to theseus, who placed her under the charge of his mother athra. pirithous now requested theseus to assist him in his ambitious scheme of descending to the lower world and carrying off persephone, the queen of hades. though fully alive to the perils of page 301 the undertaking theseus would not forsake his friend, and together they sought the gloomy realm of shades. but aides had been forewarned of their approach, and scarcely had the two friends set foot within his dominions when, by his orders, they were seized, bound with chains, and secured to an enchanted rock at the entrance of hades. here the two

th induced to free himself from her toils. circe had become so attached to the gallant hero that it cost her a great effort to part with him, but having vowed not to exercise her magic spells against him she was powerless to detain him further. the goddess now warned him that his future would be beset with many dangers, and commanded him to consult the blind old seer tiresias,[52] in the realm of hades, concerning his future destiny. she then loaded his ship with provisions for the voyage, and reluctantly bade him farewell [314] the realm of shades..though somewhat appalled at the prospect of seeking the weird and gloomy realms inhabited by the spirits of the dead, odysseus nevertheless obeyed the command of the goddess, who gave him full directions with regard to his course, and also cert

anxiety and fatigue, had fallen asleep, eurylochus persuaded the hungry men to break their vows and kill some of the sacred oxen. dreadful was the anger of helios, who caused the hides of the slaughtered animals to creep and the joints on the spits to bellow like living cattle, and threatened that unless zeus punished the impious crew he would withdraw his light from the heavens and shine only in hades. anxious to appease the enraged deity zeus assured him that his cause should be avenged. when, therefore, after feasting for seven days odysseus and his companions again set sail, the ruler of olympus caused a terrible storm to overtake them, during which the ship was struck with lightning and went to pieces. all the crew were drowned except odysseus, who, clinging to a mast, floated about i

PHILIP NEIL MYTHS LEGENDS EXPLAINED

mashya and mashyoi, then the rest of humanity. all the metal in the mountains of the world will melt, and each man and woman will pass through the stream of molten metal and emerge purified. to the good, the stream will feel like a bath of warm milk; to the evil, it will be agony, as their sins are burned away. the new world will be immortal and everlasting, and free of taint. gods of olympus 22 hades hades (see pp. 28 29, zeus brother, was the god of the underworld. he was married to persephone (see above. cronos and rhea this couple may depict zeus parents, cronos and rhea, who were banished to tartarus in the underworld. cronos, whose name means time, castrated his father uranus with a sickle. t he gods of the ancient greeks lived at the top of mount olympus, the highest peak in greece

hindered mortals according to their whims. presided over by zeus (roman jupiter, ruler of heaven and earth, there were many gods and immortals of whom 12 are usually regarded as the most important: aphrodite (venus, apollo (apollo, ares (mars, artemis (diana, athena (minerva, demeter (ceres, dionysus (bacchus, hephaestus (vulcan, hera (juno, hermes (mercury, hestia (vesta, and poseidon (neptune. hades (pluto, zeus brother, ruled the underworld. these olympian gods succeeded earlier generations of gods. gaia (mother earth) was the first goddess, and bore the race of titans by her son uranus. the titans, led by cronos (saturn, seized power from uranus; and in turn were defeated by their own children, led by cronos son zeus. after the defeat of the titans, zeus and his brothers poseidon and

foam after cronos cast his father s genitals into the sea. she had power over everyone except hestia, athena, and artemis. poseidon poseidon was the god of the sea. he is shown here astride a fish, carrying his three-pronged trident. poseidon is particularly noted for his persecution of the hero odysseus (see pp. 64 65. persephone persephone was the daughter of demeter and zeus. she was seized by hades to be his bride in the underworld (see pp. 28 29. hestia hestia, zeus sister, was goddess of the hearth and a sworn virgin. she was more important to the romans than the greeks and was venerated as vesta, and served by the vestal virgins. gods of olympus athena athena, zeus daughter by the nymph metis, was goddess of war and wisdom. her approach was very different from that of the brutal war

children of gaia and uranus (the earth and the sky. uranus hated his children and hid them in mother earth, causing her great pain. in revenge, she made cronos a sickle and encouraged him to kill his father. when he had done so, he then married his sister rhea, but fearful that his own children might rise against him, he swallowed them as soon as they were born: first hestia, then demeter, hera, hades, and poseidon. however, when her sixth child, zeus, was due, rhea gave birth to him at the dead of night, and entrusted him to the care of her mother gaia. she gave cronos a stone to swallow in the baby s stead. when zeus was grown, he asked to be made cronos cup-bearer. he mixed his father a powerful emetic, causing him to vomit up both the stone and the five older children. zeus then led h

leaves the room. ares, although he was the god of war, was not the god of victory, and on several occasions suffered humiliation in battle, as he does in this story of love. ares, god of war ares loved to stir up trouble, often in league with eris, the goddess of strife (see p. 63. he was a bully and a braggart and, apart from aphrodite, no one, not even his parents zeus and hera, cared for him. hades, however, appreciated the steady stream of young men who entered the underworld thanks to ares warmongering. aphrodite, goddess of love aphrodite was only interested in making love. on the one occasion when aphrodite worked at a loom, athena, goddess of arts and crafts, protested most vigorously at this invasion of her own domain. aphrodite humbly apologized, and has never done a day s work

istence of temple prostitutes in her temple in corinth reflects the custom in the temples of ishtar. herodotus points out that the babylonian custom of every woman prostituting herself once in the temple of the goddess was also to be found in cyprus. the rape of persephone 28 the rape of persephone persephone (roman proserpine, the daughter of zeus (jupiter) and demeter (ceres, was carried off by hades (pluto) to be his queen in the underworld. devastated, demeter, the earth goddess, refused to fulfil her duties until she was returned to her. but persephone had eaten a pomegranate seed while she was away, which bound her to hades. zeus agreed to a compromise: persephone would spend four (some sources say six) months on earth with her mother and the rest of the year in the underworld. this

hen she returns, demeter works with renewed vigor. the myths of persephone are complex because in their inner meanings they go to the heart of ancient greek religion. in one version of her story, zeus himself falls in love with her, and seduces her by taking the form of a snake and enveloping her in his coils the resulting child is dionysus (bacchus. in the more common version, she is abducted by hades but a hades who reveals many features of dionysus in his archaic role as lord of the underworld (see p. 59. hades and persephone hades was sometimes called pluto, which derives from the greek word for riches. the recipent of buried treasure, he was, therefore, considered the god of agricultural wealth. as such, he exerted influence over crops and cultivation hence his marriage to the earth g

underworld (see p. 59. hades and persephone hades was sometimes called pluto, which derives from the greek word for riches. the recipent of buried treasure, he was, therefore, considered the god of agricultural wealth. as such, he exerted influence over crops and cultivation hence his marriage to the earth goddess daughter (in earlier times persephone and demeter may have been a single divinity) hades in love hades carries persephone away. according to ovid s roman version of the story, aphrodite (venus) instructed eros (cupid) to pierce the underworld god with an arrow of desire for his niece, in order to demonstrate her power over the other gods. royal trident hades struck the ground with his trident to open up a way to the underworld, where he took persephone to be his queen. weeping w

des carries persephone away. according to ovid s roman version of the story, aphrodite (venus) instructed eros (cupid) to pierce the underworld god with an arrow of desire for his niece, in order to demonstrate her power over the other gods. royal trident hades struck the ground with his trident to open up a way to the underworld, where he took persephone to be his queen. weeping water nymph when hades seized persephone, the nymph cyane rose from the lake and rebuked him but he ignored her. desolate, cyane wept so much that her blood turned to water, and she dissolved. when persephone s grieving mother demeter came looking for her, all the mute cyane could do was bear up persephone s lost girdle on the surface of the water. cerberus hades galloped over the fields, guarded by cerberus, the

e s grieving mother demeter came looking for her, all the mute cyane could do was bear up persephone s lost girdle on the surface of the water. cerberus hades galloped over the fields, guarded by cerberus, the three-headed watchdog of the underworld, breathing venomous fire. pure maiden persephone, first known as core, the maiden, was pure and beautiful. persephone means bringer of destruction as hades queen, no one could die unless she cut a hair from their heads. persephone the island of sicily the story is set in sicily, where the maiden core is wandering innocently through the meadows picking flowers- usually said to be poppies, which were sacred to demeter, although violets and lilies are also mentioned. the rape of persephone 29 persephone was stolen away from the island of sicily. t

he story is set in sicily, where the maiden core is wandering innocently through the meadows picking flowers- usually said to be poppies, which were sacred to demeter, although violets and lilies are also mentioned. the rape of persephone 29 persephone was stolen away from the island of sicily. the earth giant typhoeus was imprisoned beneath the island and his struggles were creating earthquakes. hades was concerned in case the earth gaped open and let in daylight, which would frighten the dead. black horses hades black horses drew his fiery chariot towards the chasm of the underworld. they were among his most prized possessions, along with his helmet of invisibility, which he once lent to perseus (see pp. 46 47. demeter is shown on this greek blackfigure amphora, together with her daughte

earlier religions, the snake had similar connotations as an attribute of persephone s mother, demeter, the earth/grain goddess. the artist may also be referring here to the story of zeus taking the form of a snake and enveloping persephone in his coils. the rape of pers eph one by christoph schwartz (or shwarz (1545 92) the painting shows the early part of the story of persephone, when her uncle, hades, whisks her into his infernal chariot and carries her off to be his queen in the underworld. he ignores the pleas of the water nymph cyane, who sees what is happening and tries to stop him. chariot snake ornament the story of demeter t he daughter of cronos (saturn) and rhea (ops, demeter was sometimes portrayed with a horse s head. one of the olympians, she left olympus in despair when pers

hey seem to have had a three-fold revelation: the assurance that persephone had given birth in fire to a divine child, the aeon; a beatific vision of the maiden herself; and the display of an ear of wheat, with its promise of new life. the mysteries were observed for 2,000 years; they came to an end when alaric, king of the goths, sacked eleusis in 396 ce. orpheus and eurydice 30 lord of the dead hades was made ruler of the dead when he and his brothers zeus and poseidon drew lots for the lordship of the sky, the sea, and the underworld. the earth was left as common territory, though hades rarely ventured there except when absolutely necessary as he did when he seized persephone to be his bride (see pp. 28 29. orpheus and eurydice orpheus was married to the nymph eurydice, whom he loved de

nderworld persephone, the dreaded queen of the underworld, was the mother of the god of the orphic mysteries, dionysus zagreus, who was fathered by zeus in the form of a serpent. this may be the reason why she took pity on orpheus, the poet who had sung dionysus praises. orpheus in th e underworld reclaiming eurydice, or the music by jean restout ii (1692 1768) this painting shows orpheus begging hades (pluto) and his wife persephone, rulers of the underworld, to return his wife eurydice to him because he cannot live without her. he is singing and playing his lyre in an attempt to soften their hearts. the usually merciless hades signals to his wife persephone that he has relented. the muses the nine muses were the daughters of zeus and the titaness mnemosyne (memory. they were regarded as

from her injured foot. when she was returning to the upper world, this caused her to lag behind orpheus, making him doubt that she was still with him and glance back. orpheus singing the singing of orpheus even eased the torments of the damned. according to ovid, the ghosts ceased from their rounds of fruitless labor and constant torment, and listened to his plea in tears. even the furies cried. hades and persephone were so moved that they could not refuse him. guide of souls the god hermes (mercury) has a role in the underworld as the psychopompos, or guide of souls. here, he leads eurydice down to her new home. unusually, he is shown with wings, rather than winged sandals. orpheus was torn apart by maenads, the wild women in the retinue of dionysus (see pp. 58 59, because he would not j

pheus was revered as a great poet and musician the son of the muse calliope and the son or pupil of apollo. orpheus charmed all the nymphs with his music, but was indifferent to them until he met the lovely eurydice, whom he married. he invited the marriage god hymen to the wedding, but hymen was in low spirits; his torch sputtered and smoked and would not stay alight. the underworld, also called hades after its ruler, was the land of the dead. hermes took the souls of the dead to the river styx where they paid charon, the ferryman, to row them across. cerberus the three-headed watchdog prevented escape. hades had several entrances to the upper world and could also be reached by sea, as odysseus did (see pp. 64 -65. the majority of ghosts conceived of literally as shadows of their former s

to rescue his unborn child from her womb. apollo then entrusted the child, asclepius, to cheiron (see box, who educated him, and he grew up to be the god of health and medicine. athena (minerva, also helped him by giving him two vials of blood from the medusa blood from her left side raised the dead; blood from the right caused death. when asclepius raised hippolytus, theseus dead son (see p. 57, hades (pluto) the god of the underworld complained to zeus, who felled asclepius with a thunderbolt. apollo retaliated and killed the cyclopes (see p. 64) who had made the thunderbolt. zeus later restored asclepius to life. cheiron cheiron was the greatest of the centaurs, who were half-man, half-horse. he was the son of cronos (roman saturn, see p. 23) and the nymph philyra, to whom cronos had ap

ainting shows perseus about to rescue andromeda from the sea monster. the sea is raging, and the angry sea nymphs look on in dismay. andromeda s distraught parents and the crowds on the city walls pray to the heavens and beseech perseus to succeed. magical gifts perseus received help in his quest from the stygian nymphs. they lent him three magical items left in their care: hermes winged sandals, hades helmet of invisibility, and a bag in which to put the gorgon s head. perseus and andromeda 47 chained maiden andromeda was chained to a rock on the phoenician coast as the final sacrifice to the monster. she was the daughter of cepheus, king of joppa, and his wife cassiopeia. boastful mother cassiopeia had boasted that she and her daughter were more beautiful than the sea nymphs, thus bringi

blamed it on king laius murderer, and oedipus gradually realized that he was the killer. the revelation of his birth soon followed. aghast, jocasta hanged herself and oedipus put out his own eyes. at the end of his life, oedipus is depicted by sophocles as a blind beggar, wandering from place to place, pursued by the furies (see p. 26. he died at colonus, welcomed to the underworld in the end by hades (pluto) himself, and granted a beatific inner vision of persephone (proserpine) akin to that experienced by the initiates at eleusis (see p. 29. oedipus and the sph inx by jean-auguste- dominique ingres (1780 1867) this painting shows oedipus considering the answer that he should give to the sphinx s riddle. he is surrounded by the bones of the unfortunates who have given the wrong answer. b

us, the hero seized his legs and the outlaw met the same doom as his victims. shortly after his wife phaedra died (see below, theseus and his widowed friend pirithous, king of the lapiths and a son of zeus, decided to marry again but only daughters of zeus would do. first they kidnapped helen of sparta (see p. 62) for theseus, and then they visited the underworld to abduct persephone (proserpine. hades, persephone s husband, welcomed them courteously and asked them to sit. they did so, but when they tried to stand up, they found themselves welded to their seats, unable to move without ripping their flesh. they sat in agony for four years until hercules arrived to capture cerberus. recognizing his cousin suffering in mute torment, he wrenched theseus free. but when he tried to free pirithou

and the sailor-dolphins. temple of dionysus the island of naxos (dia) was especially sacred to dionysus, and one ancient source tells us that he was angered when theseus and ariadne enjoyed sexual relations in his temple there. mistress of the labyrinth t he marriage of dionysus and ariadne reflects archaic mythic patterns from minoan culture, in which dionysus, taking the roles of both zeus and hades, was the chief god and often appeared as a bull. pasipha s bull lover (see p. 56, and the minotaur, the offspring of this union, can also both be seen as manifestations of this god. ariadne, as mistress of the labyrinth (which represents the underworld) is the minoan persephone (see pp. 28-29. this interpretation explains the stories in which dionysus is the son of persephone, and also why d

REGARDIE ISRAEL THE COMPLETE GOLDEN DAWN

s ritual 171 immortal and is mistress of life, and filleth up the many recesses of the bosom of the world, the channels being intermixed, wherein she performeth the works of incorruptible fire" hereunto is the speech of axiokersa. hegemon places theoricus in the seat in the west facing hierophant. hiero stoop not down unto the darkly splendid world wherein continually lieth a faithless depth, and hades wrapped in clouds delighting in unintelligible images, precipitous, winding, a black ever-rolling abyss, ever espousing a body, unluminous, formless and void. nature persuadeth us that there are pure daemons and that even the evil germs of matter may alike become useful and good. but these are mysteries which are evolved in the profound abyss of the mind. such a fire existeth extending throu

d with dagger, makes invokingair pentagram, and repeats: or0 ibah aozpi. in the names and letters of the great eastern quadrangle, i invoke ye, ye angels of the watch tower of the east. replaces dagger on aquarius. takes chain, goes to north, raises it on high, shakes thrice, circumambulates place with: stoop not down into the darkly splendid world wherein lieth continually a faithless depth, and hades wrapped in gloom, delighting in unintelligible images, precipitous, winding- a black, everrolling abyss, ever espousing a body, formless, unlurninous and void. reaches north and facing it, shakes chain thrice and describes the invoking earth pentagram, saying: emor dial i-iectega. in the names and letters of the great northern quadrangle, i invoke ye, ye angels of the watch tower of the nort

with dagger, and make 1nvokingairpentagram with aquarius in centre, and say: oro ibah aozpi. in the names and letters of the great eastern quadrangle, i invoke ye, ye angels of the watch-tower of the east. replace dagger. take pantacle, go north, face north, circumambulate, after shaking pantacle thrice. stoop not down into the darkly splendid world wherein continually lieth a faithless depth and hades wrapped in gloom, delighting in unintelligible images, precipitous, winding; a black ever-rolling abyss ever espousing a body unluminous, formless and void. reaching north, shake pantacle, make earth pentagram, with taurus in centre, and say: emor dial hedega. in the names and letters of the great northern quadrangle, i invoke ye, ye angels of the watch-tower of the north <197> replace panta

reaching east, strike forward with dagger, and make invoking air pentagram, saying: oro lbah aozpi. in the names and letters of the great eastern quadrangle, i invoke ye, ye angels of the watch-tower of the east. replace dagger. take pentacle, go north, shake thrice, and circumambulate with sol, saying: stoop not down into the darkly splendid world wherein lieth continually a faithless depth and hades wrapped in gloom, delighting in unintelligible images, precipitous, winding; a black, ever-rolling abyss, ever espousing a body, unluminous, formless and void. reaching the noyth. shake pentacle thrice and with it make lnvoking earth 435 436 the gomen dawn: volume i11 book six pentagram, saying: emor dial hectega. in the names and letters of the great northern quadrangle i invoke ye, ye ange

ROBERT KIRK WALKER BETWEEN WORLDS

buss patrum et infantum [which] though misapplied, yet are not chimeras or altogether groundless. for, ab origine, it is [likely that these concepts are] nothing but some pale and faint discoveries of the secret republic of ours [as] here treated on, that are described with additional fictions of monks [who are] doting and crazyheads [for] our creed says that our saviour descended to the house of hades, to the invisible place and people. and many divines suppose that the deity appeared in a visible shape seen by adam in the cool of the day, speaking to him with an audible voice, and [that] jesus, probably by the ministry of invisible attendants, conveyed more meat [that is, substance] of the same kind to the five thousand that were fed by him with a very few leaves and fishes, for a new cr

RUBY TABLET OF SET

ct it would say: let no one ignorant of the recollective basis of knowledge leave here. the chimaera: harking back to what you said concerning plato's exposure to pythagorean concepts, it is quite appropriate. mathematical consistency was plato's "foot in the door" so to speak, where the forms were concerned. yet, in view of relativity, does not that door slam shut upon us? the sphinx: that's the hades of it; it doesn't. or rather it does, but another one opens simultaneously. the chimaera: do you mean that relativity provides access to another form similar to mathematical consistency, upon which a modern plato could base a theory of the forms? the sphinx: no, not really. but what relativity has done has been to turn the meno inside out. look here: socrates proves the immortality of the so

ted spirits is unique. the tuat is not the 'lower hemisphere' because it is not under the ground, and, though for want of a better word i have frequently used 'underworld' when speaking of the tuat, it is unsatisfactory; for, unless it is specifically defined to mean the place of departed spirits in general, it produces a wrong impression in the mind. again, the word tuat must not be rendered by 'hades' or 'hell' or 'sheol' or 'jehannum, for each of these words has a limited and special meaning. on the other hand, the tuat possessed the characteristics of all of these names, for it was an 'unseen' place, and it contained abysmal depths of darkness, and there were pits of fire in it wherein the enemies of the gods were consumed, and certain parts of it were the homes of monsters in various

id refine the search to a previously unknown state of sophistication which allowed for the disposal of useless lumber through subtle, experienced, and complex approaches. it is the quest of always becoming, a task which is one of the significant keys to living for as long as the self-sufficient psyche wills "let us enquire" said socrates "whether the souls of dead men really exist in the house of hades or not. well, there is the very ancient legend which we remember, that they are continually arriving there from this world, and further that they come back here and are born again from the dead. if that is true, and the living are born again from the dead, must not our souls exist there? for they could not be born again if they did not exist; and this would be sufficient proof that it is tru

SATANGEL

troyed with their dwelling places, they will be punished eternally. those who have blasphemed the way out of righteousness will be hung up by their tongues. spread under them is unquenchable fire so they cannot escape it. according to the sibylline oracles uri-el is the angel who on the day of judgement will break the monstrous bars framed of unyielding and unbroken adamant of the brazen gates of hades, and cast them down straightaway. in the prayer of joseph jacob wrestles with a dark angel usually identified as uri-el, and the two merge to become one entity. in the midrash aggada exodus uri-el manifests in the form of a fiery serpent and attacks moses for failing to uphold tradition in the circumcision of his son. uri-el was officially de-sainted in 745 a.d. when a church council, pope z

SATANIC BIBLE

- hebrew synonym for satan melek taus- yezidi devil mephistopheles (greek) he who shuns the light, q. v. faust metztli- aztec goddess of the night mictian- aztec god of death midgard- son of loki, depicted as a serpent milcom- ammonite devil moloch- phoenician and canaanite devil mormo (greek) king of the ghouls, consort of hecate naamah- hebrew female devil of seduction nergal- babylonian god of hades nihasa- american indian devil nija- polish god of the underworld o-yama- japanese name for satan pan- greek god of lust, later relegated to devildom pluto- greek god of the underworld proserpine- greek queen of the underworld pwcca- welsh name for satan rimmon- syrian devil worshipped at damascus sabazios- phrygian origin, identified with dionysos, snake worship saitan- enochian equivalent o

without such a wholesale fear religionists would have had nothing with which to wield power over their followers. the teutonic goddess of the dead and daughter of loki was named hel, a pagan god of torture and punishment. another "l" was added when the books of the old testament were formulated. the prophets who wrote the bible did not know the word "hell; they used the hebrew sheol and the greek hades, which meant the grave; also the greek tartaros, which was the abode of fallen angels, the underworld (inside the earth, and gehenna, which was a valley near jerusalem where moloch reigned and garbage was dumped and burned. it is from this that the christian church has evolved the idea of "fire and brimstone" in hell. the protestant hell and the catholic hell are places of eternal punishment

SCHLAGER NEIL WORLD RELIGIONS REFERENCE LIBRARY

omise of individual salvation through the belief in the immortality of the soul. a mystery cult, mithraism, grew up around this imported god. basic beliefs: greco-roman religion greek religion was dominated by the olympian gods, who made their home on mount olympus in northern greece. even though most sources say there were twelve gods living on mount olympus, there are fourteen gods listed next. hades did not live on olympus, although most myths about him associate him with the olympian gods, and dionysius was a later addition to the pantheon: plotinus s idea of emanation, his belief that people wanted to return to the divine mind, can be seen in the christian story of the fall, when adam and eve were tempted into sin and were forced out of the garden of eden. public domain. 220 world rel

kes. hestia was the goddess of the home and hearth. in that role, she served as the protectress of order within the family. although she was worshipped in households throughout greece, the center of her cult was at delphi, where her sacred hearth was kept. demeter was the goddess of agriculture and, some critics say, may have been a version of the earth mother worshipped by prehistoric europeans. hades was the god of the underworld. dionysius was the god of wine, fruit, fertility, and ecstasy( joy. dionysius s myth is much more complex than that of the other olympians. as a child, the story goes, he was torn apart by wild women and spent three years in the underworld. the worship of dionysius played a significant role in the development of greek drama. the romans adopted this pantheon and

to receive messages from the gods in order to determine what they should do in the future. one of the most famous of the oracles was at the temple of apollo at delphi, which is located in central greece. the greeks believed in a soul, which they called psyche, but beliefs varied as to whether it survived after death. the traditional belief was that both good and bad souls went to the underworld, hades, escorted there by the god hermes. there, those who were evil were punished in a place called tartaros, while good souls lived in elysium, a place of eternal happiness and sunlight in a portion of hades. others believed that the soul resided in the grave; still others felt that it left the body at death and floated in the sky. creation both romans and greeks used myths to explain the creatio

from chaos and brought order to the universe. the earth goddess, gaia, and the sky god, uranus, had children, including rhea and chronos. uranus, however, was afraid of his children s power, and he kept them locked in a cave until finally chronos challenged him and reestablished order in the universe. rhea and chronos then repeated the pattern: they had zeus, hestia, hera, demeter, poseidon, and hades. chronos, like his father before him, was afraid of his children and swallowed them as they were born. his mother hid the infant zeus, who later killed his father, cut his brothers and sisters out of the corpse, and then became king of all the gods, creating order from the madness of chronos s actions. world religions: almanac 223 greco-roman religion and philosophy though the romans did not

he new members and make them pure, accepting occult or magical knowledge, and acting out a sacred drama. many of these mystery cults celebrated a cycle of death and rebirth. the eleusinian mysteries, held at the sacred site of eleusis near athens, for example, reenacted for believers the myth of the goddess demeter and her daughter persephone. the story tells that persephone was so beautiful that hades himself kidnapped her and carried her off to be queen of the underworld. demeter, mourning for her daughter, caused all growing things to fade. this so alarmed the rest of the gods that they ordered hades to release persephone to her mother. hades could not do so lawfully, however, because persephone had eaten a tiny amount of food while she was in the underworld, tying her to it. the compro

. demeter, mourning for her daughter, caused all growing things to fade. this so alarmed the rest of the gods that they ordered hades to release persephone to her mother. hades could not do so lawfully, however, because persephone had eaten a tiny amount of food while she was in the underworld, tying her to it. the compromise worked out was that persephone had to spend six months of the year with hades in the underworld and six months with her mother. on one level this is a story about the seasons and fertility, but on another it is a story of death and resurrection, or rising from the dead. historians believe that initiates to the mystery cults were given a chance to symbolically die and were then brought symbolically back to life. 224 world religions: almanac greco-roman religion and phi

exported to japan by immigrants. in the eighth century early shinto absorbed many influences from china, including other religions, such as buddhism and daoism. izanagi and izanami are regarded in the kojiki as having introduced death to the world. in giving birth to the fire god, izanami is severely burned and dies. she leaves her husband, izanagi, lonely in the world, so he searches for her in hades, or the land of the dead, where she is horribly deformed. the shinto concept of death, however, is that one s spirit goes to a realm that is little different from this life. the afterlife is seen as neither a heaven nor a hell. in contrast to such religions as islam and christianity, shinto places most of its emphasis on happiness in this life. there is little emphasis on preparing for a lif

their divine mission, he and his heavenly spouse had lived an ideal life of mutual love and cooperation. it is only natural, therefore, that her death should have dealt him a truly mortal blow. in a fit of uncontrollable grief, he stood sobbing at the head of the bier. meanwhile izanami, for whom her divine husband pined so bitterly, had quitted this world for good and all and gone to the land of hades. izanagi s visit to the land of hades. unable any longer to bear his grief, he resolved to go down to the nether regions in order to seek for izanami and bring her back, at all costs, to the world. he started on his long and dubious journey. far ahead of him, he espied a large castle. that, no doubt, he mused in delight, may be where she resides. summoning up all his courage, he approached t

mortal: powerful, severe. bier: a stand on which a coffin is placed. quitted: left. dubious: uncertain. espied: caught sight of. mused: thought. summoning up: calling upon. warily: cautiously. world religions: primary sources 19 tales from the kojiki the goddess sympathized with him most deeply, but answered with tender grief: alas! thou hast come too late. i have already eaten of the furnace of hades. having once eaten the things of this land, it is impossible for me to come back to the world. so saying, she lowered her head in deep despair. nay, i must entreat thee to come back. canst not thou find some means by which this can be accomplished? exclaimed her husband, drawing nearer to her. after some reflection, she replied: thou hast come a very, very long way for my sake. how much i ap

nay, i must entreat thee to come back. canst not thou find some means by which this can be accomplished? exclaimed her husband, drawing nearer to her. after some reflection, she replied: thou hast come a very, very long way for my sake. how much i appreciate thy devotion! i wish, with all my heart, to go back with thee, but before i can do so, i must first obtain the permission of the deities of hades. wait here till my return, but remember that thou must not on any account look inside the castle in the meantime. i swear i will do as thou biddest, quoth izanagi, but tarry not in thy quest. with implicit confidence in her husband s pledge, the goddess disappeared into the castle. izanagi observed strictly her injunction. he remained where he stood, and waited impatiently for his wife s ret

. she, who had been so dazzlingly beautiful, was now become naught but a rotting corpse, in an advanced stage of decomposition. the sound he made awakened izanami from her death-like slumber. for sooth! she cried: he must have seen me in this revolting state. he has put me to shame and has broken his solemn vow. unfaithful wretch! i ll make him suffer, for his perfidy. then turning to the hags of hades, who attended her, she commanded them to give chase to him. at her word, an army of female demons ran after the deity. what happened next. izanagi, pursued by the demons and by izanami herself, fled. the two stood face to face at the entrance to the underworld, where they agreed to divorce. they decided that izanagi would rule the realm of the living and that izanami would rule that of the d

e gods and the roles they play in human affairs as they were conceived by the ancient greeks. greek religion was polytheistic, meaning that the people believed in more than one god. chief among the greek gods is zeus, son of cronus, the king of the titans. on reaching adulthood, zeus leads a revolt against the titans and takes away the throne from cronus with the help of his brothers poseidon and hades. from his position on mount olympus, zeus observes the affairs of humans. he sees everything, governs all human actions, rewards good conduct and punishes evil, dispenses justice, and protects cities and homes. nonetheless, zeus recognizes that humans play a part in determining their own fates. in greek myth, numerous lesser gods and goddesses have their own spheres of influence and often qu

SIR EDWARD BULWER LYTTON ZANONI A ROSICRUCIAN TALE

s and fantastic which did not please the taste of the dilettanti of naples. he was fond of unfamiliar subjects into which he introduced airs and symphonies that excited a kind of terror in those who listened. the names of his pieces will probably suggest their nature. i find, for instance, among his mss, these titles "the feast of the harpies "the witches at benevento "the descent of orpheus into hades "the evil eye "the eumenides" and many others that evince a powerful imagination delighting in the fearful and supernatural, but often relieved by an airy and delicate fancy with passages of exquisite grace and beauty. it is true that in the selection of his subjects from ancient fable, gaetano pisani was much more faithful than his contemporaries to the remote origin and the early genius of

anta innocenza al petto ignudo "ger. lib" c. viii. xli (better defence than shield or breastplate is holy innocence to the naked breast) and they buried the musician and his barbiton together, in the same coffin. that famous steiner primeval titan of the great tyrolese race often hast thou sought to scale the heavens, and therefore must thou, like the meaner children of men, descend to the dismal hades! harder fate for thee than thy mortal master. for thy soul sleeps with thee in the coffin. and the music that belongs to his, separate from the instrument, ascends on high, to be heard often by a daughter's pious ears when the heaven is serene and the earth sad. for there is a sense of hearing that the vulgar know not. and the voices of the dead breathe soft and frequent to those who can uni

rses, and took mules and a guide. as the sky grew darker and more dark, the mountain fire burned with an intense lustre. in various streaks and streamlets, the fountain of flame rolled down the dark summit, and the englishmen began to feel increase upon them, as they ascended, that sensation of solemnity and awe which makes the very atmosphere that surrounds the giant of the plains of the antique hades. it was night, when, leaving the mules, they ascended on foot, accompanied by their guide, and a peasant who bore a rude torch. the guide was a conversable, garrulous fellow, like most of his country and his calling; and mervale, who possessed a sociable temper, loved to amuse or to instruct himself on every incidental occasion "ah, excellency" said the guide "your countrymen have a strong p

s his eyes strained involuntarily through the vapour, he fancied (for he could not be sure that it was not the trick of his imagination) that he saw dim, spectre-like, but gigantic forms floating through the mist; or was it not rather the mist itself that formed its vapours fantastically into those moving, impalpable, and bodiless apparitions? a great painter of antiquity is said, in a picture of hades, to have represented the monsters that glide through the ghostly river of the dead, so artfully, that the eye perceived at once that the river itself was but a spectre, and the bloodless things that tenanted it had no life, their forms blending with the dead waters till, as the eye continued to gaze, it ceased to discern them from the preternatural element they were supposed to inhabit. such

ds, i drew close to thee, and whispered "verily, no prophet like the poet! this scene of fabled horror comes to me as a dream, shadowing forth some likeness in my own remoter future" as i enter this slaughterhouse that scene returns to me, and i hearken to the voice of cassandra ringing in my ears. a solemn and warning dread gathers round me, as if i too were come to find a grave, and "the net of hades" had already entangled me in its web! what dark treasure-houses of vicissitude and woe are our memories become! what our lives, but the chronicles of unrelenting death! it seems to me as yesterday when i stood in the streets of this city of the gaul, as they shone with plumed chivalry, and the air rustled with silken braveries. young louis, the monarch and the lover, was victor of the tourna

SPENSER THE CULT OF THE ALL SEEING EYE 1960

sephirotic tree of life representing jehovah from the triads of the chaldean-babylonian pantheon (see sephirolh, part 1. the egyptian pantheon was even more ancient, dating from the 27th to the 30th centuries b.c. or even earlier, according to some sources. the sungods of egypt were nine in number. the chief among them was osiris, whose worship was universal. he was "the great deity of amenti or hades [hell" rawlinson described osiris' role as the judge of the dead "it was the universal belief that, immediately after death, the soul descended into the lower world and was conducted to the hall of truth, where it was judged in the presence of osiris and the forty-two demons, the 'lords of truth' and judges of the dead."54 (one of the divine names of the tetragrammaton consisted of 42 letter

STEINER RUDOLF CHRISTIANITY AS MYSTICAL FACT

idual, but no new ones have arisen. for such a one the universe and fellow human beings have ceased to exist. this is in fact not merely a possibility, but a stage that every seeker for higher knowledge must experience. one comes to a point in understanding where the spirit reveals all of life to be death. one is then no longer in the world, but under it, in the underworld. one has descended into hades.5 it will be well for such a person not to go under, and if a new world comes into being either the seeker vanishes from sight, or emerges once more, transfigured, and looks out upon a new sun and a new earth. out of the fire of the spirit the universe has been reborn. birth and rebirth in testimony of what happened to them in the mysteries we have the accounts of the initiates themselves. m

the seeker vanishes from sight, or emerges once more, transfigured, and looks out upon a new sun and a new earth. out of the fire of the spirit the universe has been reborn. birth and rebirth in testimony of what happened to them in the mysteries we have the accounts of the initiates themselves. menippus relates how he traveled to babylon in order to be taken the mysteries and mysteriosophy 7 to hades and brought back again by the followers of zoroaster. 6 he says that in the course of his wanderings he crossed the great water, and that he passed through fire and ice. we hear that the mystai were struck with terror by a drawn sword, that blood was caused to flow. such words are made intelligible by a knowledge of the stages leading from lower to higher cognition. it does indeed feel as th

feel his very presence. i was then in a condition between sleeping and waking. my spirit was so light that no one except an initiate could comprehend or speak of it.7 this new existence is no longer subjected to the laws of lower life. it is untouched by growth and decay. discussions about the eternal are endless, but unless the words draw their meaning from those who have actually descended into hades, they are mere sound and fury, signifying nothing. for the initiates have a new perspective on life and death, which for the first time entitles them to speak of immortality. they know that all talk of it except 8 christianity as mystical fact on the basis of the initiates knowledge is uncomprehending, and will ascribe immortality to something that is still bound up with coming-to-be and pas

vokes this content of feeling. the acknowledgment of eternal becoming is worthless if it does not lift us above our attachment to transitoriness. heraclitus indicates a renunciation of the sensual urge toward transitory enjoyments when he says: how can we claim that in ordinary life we are? we know that from the vantage point of the eternal we are yet we are not. or according to another fragment: hades and dionysus are one.26 dionysus, god of the joy of life, of sprouting and growing, celebrated in the dionysiac festivals, is for herclitus the same as hades, god of death and destruction. the right perspective on the deficiencies and excellences of existence is granted only to those who see death in life and life in death, and in both the eternal that transcends both life and death. the def

here is an important study of the theme in french: j.e. m nard, le descensus ad inferos in the ex orbe religionum ii (supplements to numen series (leiden, 1970. he traces the pattern on into early christian sources. 6. lucian of samosata, menippus in hell, 6 9. menippus, known through lucian s satires, was a historical figure of the third century b.c. the passage describing his descent into hell (hades) is translated in marvin meyer, the ancient mysteries: a sourcebook, harpersan francisco, 1987, pp. 202 204. notes 213 7. aristides, sacred orations, b 31. 8. plato, phaedo, 69 c. 9. sophocles, fragment 719 (dindorf. that sophocles alludes to a formula of the mysteries is confirmed by an inscription from eleusis, together with parallels in the homeric hymn to demeter, pindar, and so on. 10

THE GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE UNUSUAL UNEXPLAINED VOL 1

to be eliminated from doctrinal teachings, so they envision a beautiful place high above the earth where only true believers in jesus may reign with him. hell, in traditional christian thought, is a place of eternal torment for those who have been damned after the last judgment. it is generally pictured as a barren pit filled with flames, the images developed out of the hebrew sheol and the greek hades as the final resting places for the dead. roman catholic christianity continues to depict hell as a state of unending punishment for the unrepentant, but over five centuries ago, the councils of florence (1439) and trent (1545 63) defined the concept of purgatory, an intermediate state after death during which the souls have opportunities to expiate certain of their sins. devoted members of

ces of the sacred plays all fueled the imagination and stirred deep emotions. the initiates left the celebration of the mystery feeling that they were now superior to the problems that the uninitiated faced concerning life, death, and immortality. not only did the initiates believe that their communion with the patron god or goddess would continue after death, but that they would eventually leave hades to be born again in another life experience. m delving deeper cotterell, arthur, ed. encyclopedia of world mythology. london: dempsey parr, 1999. ferm, vergilius, ed. ancient religions. new york: the philosophical library, 1950. t h e g a l e e n c y c l o p e d i a o f t h e u n u s u a l a n d u n e x p l a i n e d 32 afterlife mysteries the rites of dionysus often featured animal sacrific

. t h e g a l e e n c y c l o p e d i a o f t h e u n u s u a l a n d u n e x p l a i n e d afterlife mysteries 33 the eleusinian rites were held at a fixed time in the early fall after the seeds had been entrusted to the fields, and were conducted by a hereditary priesthood called the eumolpedie. the eleusinian drama reenacted the myth of the rape, abduction, and marriage of kore (persephone) by hades, god of the underworld, and her separation from her mother, demeter, the goddess of grain and vegetation. when, in her despair, demeter refuses to allow the earth to bear fruit and brings about a time of blight and starvation that threatens to extinguish both humans and the gods, zeus recalls persephone from hades. filled with joy at the reunion with her daughter, demeter once again allows t

tation. when, in her despair, demeter refuses to allow the earth to bear fruit and brings about a time of blight and starvation that threatens to extinguish both humans and the gods, zeus recalls persephone from hades. filled with joy at the reunion with her daughter, demeter once again allows the earth to bear fruit. persephone, however, will now divide the days of each year between her husband, hades, in the underworld, and her mother, ensuring a bountiful harvest. essentially, the rites imitated the agricultural cycles of planting the seed, nurturing its growth, and harvesting the grain, which, on the symbolical level, represented the birth of the soul, its journey through life, and its death. as the seed of the harvest is planted again and the agricultural cycle is perpetuated, so is t

s of rebirth as an evolving of the soul ever higher with each incarnation, the orphic concept introduces the aspect of the soul being gradually purged or purified through the sufferings incurred during each physical rebirth. as the soul inhabits the body, it is really doing penance for previous incarnations, a process which gradually purifies the soul. between lifetimes, when the soul descends to hades, it can enjoy a brief period of freedom that can be pleasant or unpleasant. then it must return to the cycle of births and deaths. how many lifespans must the soul endure before the process of purification is completed and its final release is obtained? plato (c. 428 348 b.c.e) envisioned three periods of a thousand years each as a possible answer. according to orphic teachings, the only way

, death, and resurrection of dionysus zagreus. in addition, records suggest that a horned bull was sacrificed and the initiates partook of a sacramental feast of its raw flesh as a holy act that brought them in closer union with the god. once this had been accomplished, the initiates were given secret formulas which would enable them to avoid the snares awaiting the unwary soul as it descended to hades and would ensure them a blissful stay while they awaited a sign that their participation in the great circle of necessity had ended. m delving deeper ferm, vergilious, ed. ancient religions. new york: philosophical library, 1950. gaster, dr. theodor h, ed. the new golden bough. new york: criterion books, 1959. pythagoras (c. 590 c.520 b.c.e) pythagoras, one of the greatest philosophers and m

ances of the sacred plays, all fueled the imagination and stirred deep emotions. the initiates left the celebration of the mystery knowing that they were now superior to the problems that the uninitiated faced concerning life, death, and immortality. not only did the initiates know that their communion with the patron god or goddess would continue after death, but that they would eventually leave hades to be born again in another life experience. the early mystery schools of the greeks centered around a kind of play or ritual reenactment of the life of such gods as osiris, dionysus, demeter divinities most often associated with the underworld, the realm of the dead, the powers of darkness, and the process of rebirth. because of the importance of the regenerative process, the rites of the m

tions or revelations of the same divinity. descended into hell, the underworld, and braved its challenges and subdued the demons of the pit. the disciples of the orphic/dionysus schools were promised the celestial fire of zeus, the light retrieved by orpheus, that enabled their souls to triumph over death. these things would all be enacted in the mystery play that depicted orpheus descending into hades and observing persephone, the queen of the dead, being awakened by dionysus and being reborn in his arms, thus perpetuating the cycle of rebirth and death, past and future, blending into a timeless immortality. while other schools of reincarnation see the process of rebirth as an evolving of the soul ever higher with each incarnation, the orphic concept introduces the aspect of the soul bein

ss of rebirth as an evolving of the soul ever higher with each incarnation, the orphic concept introduces the aspect of the soul being gradually purged or purified through the sufferings incurred during each physical rebirth. as the soul inhabits the body, it is really doing penance for previous incarnations, a process that gradually purifies the soul. between lifetimes, when the soul descends to hades, it can enjoy a brief period of freedom that can be pleasant or unpleasant. then it must return to the cycle of births and deaths. how many lifespans must the soul endure before the process of purification is completed and its final release is obtained? plato envisioned three periods of a thousand years each as a possible answer. according to orphic teachings, the only way out of the wheel o

e, death, and resurrection of dionysus zagreus. in addition, records suggest that a horned bull was sacrificed and the initiates partook of a sacramental feast of its raw flesh as a holy act that brought them in closer union with the god. once this had been accomplished, the initiates were given secret formulas that would enable them to avoid the snares awaiting the unwary soul as it descended to hades and would ensure them a blissful stay while they awaited a sign that their participation in the great circle of necessity had ended. m delving deeper brandon, s. g. f. religion in ancient history. new york: charles scribner s sons, 1969. crim, keith, ed. the perennial dictionary of world religions. san francisco: harper collins, 1989. ferm, vergilious, ed. ancient religions. new york: philos

d to partake of food and drink. for the next several days, the initiates fasted and participated in cleansing rituals and prayers. on the evening of the last day of the celebration of the mystery, the candidates gathered in the most secret area of the sacred grove to attend the rape of persephone. the eleusinian drama reenacted the myth of the rape, abduction, and marriage of persephone (kore) by hades, god of the underworld, and her separation from her mother, demeter (ceres, the goddess of grain and vegetation. when, in her despair, demeter refuses to allow the earth to bear fruit and causes a time of blight and starvation that threatens to bring about the extinction of both humans and the gods, zeus recalls persephone from hades. filled with joy at the reunion with her daughter, demeter

etation. when, in her despair, demeter refuses to allow the earth to bear fruit and causes a time of blight and starvation that threatens to bring about the extinction of both humans and the gods, zeus recalls persephone from hades. filled with joy at the reunion with her daughter, demeter once again allows the earth to bear fruit. persephone, however, will now divide her time between her husband hades in the underworld and her mother on earth, ensuring a bountiful harvest. essentially, the rites imitated the agricultural cycles of planting the seed, nurturing its growth, and harvesting the grain, which, on the symbolical level, represented the birth of the soul, its journey through life, and its death. as the seed of the harvest is planted again and the agricultural cycle is perpetuated

THE GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE UNUSUAL UNEXPLAINED VOL 3

trength that it could hand boards to a servant who was doing some repair work in the house. this was witnessed by a roomful of people, but mompesson soon forbade his servant such familiarities with their invisible tormenter. when the thing began to leave behind offensive, sulphurous fumes, the mompessons took this as sufficient evidence that their unwelcome guest had come directly from the pit of hades. a reverend cragg was summoned to conduct a prayer meeting in the house. the drummer maintained a reverent t h e g a l e e n c y c l o p e d i a o f t h e u n u s u a l a n d u n e x p l a i n e d ghosts and phantoms 45 the tedworth drummer poltergeists (1662 1663 (fortean picture library) silence during the minister s prayers, but upon the last amen, it began to move chairs about the room

THE GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE UNUSUAL UNEXPLAINED VOL

t, which is itself a description of the seven stages of gold-making. hermes, who is called trismegistus, gthree times the greatest, h was a deity of a group of greeks who once founded a colony in egypt. this transplanted god drew his name from hermes (mercury to the romans, the messenger of the greek hierarchy of deities and the god who conducted the souls of the dead to the underworld kingdom of hades. the egyptians identified hermes trismegistus with thoth, who, in their pantheon of gods, was the divine inventor of writing and the spoken word. these same greek colonists developed an interest in the old egyptian religion, then went on to combine elements of their hellenistic beliefs, add fragments of judaism and other eastern belief constructs, and set about creating a synthesis of the va

THE GOLDEN ESSENCE

, the victim of dark forces- and the alchemist had to find a way to discover, rescue, or raise the child from that state. again, mythology resoundingly backs this pattern- the forces of chaos always threaten the divine child, killing, stealing, or imprisoning him outside of time; through some means, the child is plunged into the unformed world, as was the baby dionysos plunged into dark chaos and hades when the titans attacked him, and as was the young son or child from celtic myths, the mabon or oengus, kidnapped or stolen away to imprisonment in the otherworld, before heroes could release him. this whole pattern was of the child being taken before being rescued from its timeless state, or of the child being found and rising again into perfection and bringing completion to the entire cycl

king of the underworld and death) where she passes through the various terrors of the underworld (and her own fear of being taken from the world above) before she bears a divine child, who is later responsible for lifting her (and through her, all of the souls of the underworld and this world) to the blessed, realized state. such is the pattern that we observe in the greek myths of demeter, kore, hades, and brimos or dionysos-iakkos, the glorious child that kore bore to hades, and who was part of the revelations of the mysteries of eleusis. this pattern is deep and important- it can be stated in more succinct terms: the soul or being is born of the great mother and father, and due to the attracting and fated power of love and desire, falls into the great entrapment of life and death- and h

THE MIDDLE PILLAR

s, primitive urges, inferior dreams, and complexes. this is the personal unconscious which is the storehouse of hidden memories, repressed psychic content, and the shadow personality. this part of the psyche is accessed by working with hypnosis, trance, and imagery. archetypes of the lower unconscious include all underworld deities, such as the sumerian goddess ereshkigal and the greek divinities hades and persephone. if we were to add anything to assagioli's model it would be the body, or manifest psyche, which must be considered in a holistic psychology. mind and body are interrelated extensions of one another. just as physical discomfort can affect the mind, the mind, through focused visualization, can affect the body. archetypes of the manifest psyche include all earth deities, such as

THE NECRONOMICON SIMON VERSION

and identified as the vanquisher of death, for she descended into the underworld and defeated her sister, the goddess of the abyss, queen ereshkigal (possibly another name for tiamat. interestingly enough, the myth has many parallels with the christian concept of christ's death and resurrection, among which the crucifixion (inanna was impaled on a stake as a corpse, the three days in the sumerian hades, and the eventual resurrection are outstanding examples of how sumerian mythology previewed the christian religion by perhaps as many as three thousand years- a fact that beautifully illustrates the cosmic and eternal nature of this myth. therefore, the goddess of the witches has two distinct forms: the ancient one, goddess of the dragon-like telluric power which is raised in magickal ritual

book. i have traveled among the stars, and trembled before the gods. i have, at last, found the formulae by which i passed the gate arzir, and passed into the forbidden realms of the foul igigi. i have raised demons, and the dead. i have summoned the ghosts of my ancestors to real and visible appearance on the tops of temples built to reach the stars, and built to touch the nethermost cavities of hades. i have wrestled with the black magician, azag-thoth, in vain, and fled to the earth by calling upon inanna and her brother marduk, lord of the double-headed axe. i have raised armies against the lands of the east, by summoning the hordes of fiends i have made subject unto me, and so doing found ngaa, the god of the heathens, who breathes flame and roars like a thousand thunders. i have foun

THE SHADOWED ONES

is the essence of the adversary who is two who may be sought by light or shadow. azazel may be known in various forms as shaitan the adversary, set, ahriman a shadow form of this fallen angel, lucifer and azal ucel. seek the daemon by invocation and instinct, seek his essence by the will itself. belial a watcher who fell with azazel, who was given lordship of the gates of the hidden place, called hades or hell by some. in this inferno and darkened place does the spirit test itself, and is either illuminated and empowered by fire or consumed by it. those who are like azazel emerge as gods and goddesses, yet who find a new fear are torn apart and devoured by the serpents and demons which would bend to the will of the daring. belial grants the power of will to the knowledge of worldly power

of the circle -of the watchers and their times- let the initiate seek in the circle of azazel the angelick watchers, those who shower witch blood in the eyes of the brave and faithful bodies of man and woman. by noon when the sun is in its height does one seek shaitan called iblis in the south with the blade of cain do summon with thy heart the adversary who shall be met in the mirrored adobe of hades, of darkness and shadow gleam by midnight let the sun envenom your spirit, naked in spirit you are left to cloth yourself in serpent skin, to see as the eye of the adversary before all. let the angelick red dragon ascend through your spine and open your senses about you. by the south east does shamsiel carry forth the weapons of the sun and the very pretense of azazel let the fires which env

emple. she who beget cain and gave humanity the gift of the watchers in flesh hearken unto the very circle of being. by the north does ahriman hear thy calls, who is your shadow possibility and strength bearing passion of the earth. let the ahriman dragon whose color is black stir your eyes from the sun to the moon and the darkness of night. it is the cold winds which open the path of arezura and hades, when wolves and serpents gather unto you. let the ahrimanic dragon coil as the serpents of shaitan, just as zohak shall you be blessed by the kiss of the devil-prince who is your initiator of dreams and death. by the north west point of the circle can you call now forth azrael who is a gatherer of ghosts and shades of the dead. listen to the twilight call of the boneways of the gateway. in

THE BOOK OF GATES

heads of gazelle 1 or oxen. in the space between the spear-head ornaments and the side of the tuat is written. the transliteration of these characters appears to be ser her tuat sath then; the meaning of the first three p. 161 words is tolerably clear, i.e "osiris, governor of the tuat" but the signification of the last signs is doubtful. m. lef bure translates the inscription "osiris, master of hades, earth, and tanen" osiris, who wears the double crown of the south and north, and holds in his right hand the symbol of "life" and in his left a sceptre, is seated on a chair of state, which is set on the top of a platform with nine steps. on each stop stands a god, and the nine gods are described as the "company which is with sar, i.e, osiris" on the topmost step is a balance, in which the

e balance-bearer does homage; the blessed spirits in amenti follow after him; the morning, star disperses the thick darkness; there is good will above, justice below. the god reposes himself, he gives bread to the blessed, who throng, towards him" the translation by m. lef bure reads "the bearer of the hatchet and the bearer of the scales protect the inhabitant of amenti [who] takes his repose in hades, and traverses the darkness and the shadows. happiness is above, and justice below. the god reposes and sheds light produced by truth which he has produced" p. 165 the upper part of the space between the roof and the platform on which osiris sits is occupied by two short inscriptions, which are full of difficulty. the meaning of these texts has puzzled several workers, and even the order in

THE SECRET RITUALS OF THE OTO

ich you have just passed, is in every essential the lesser or infernal rite of the slain god, whose name is john, or some sound similar, as jonah, dionysus, janus, dianus, nu, anu, oannes, on, noah, and many others. this god of water is of the north, because the sun touches his northern limit as he enters the watery sign cancer, and turns towards the south, represented by the goat-gods, set, had, hades, adad, odin, adonis, adonii, atys, etc, who are of the earthly sign capricornus, the southern limit of the sun s journey. as the end of summer is in libra, the cardinal sign of air, the gods of water partake also of the airy nature, and similarly, the earthy gods have their natures intermixed with fire, since the end of winter announces the fiery sign of aries, whose mysteries are those of s

h mortals. as, romulus and remus begotten of the god mars upon a vestal virgin, hercules of jove, buddha of vishnu in the form of a white elephant with six tusks, jesus of jehovah upon a virgin, and many another. even true gods were born of mortal mothers, as dionysius of semele. also they recount many loves of heaven for earth, diana for endymion, zeus for leda, danae, europa, and the rest; even hades issued from his gloomy kingdom to ravish the maid persephone. there are also loves of gods for nymphs, bacchus for the ariadne, zeus for io, pan for syrinx; there is no end of these. and satyrs, fawns, centaurs, dryads, a thousand gracious tribes, leap lightly and lustfully through their legends. again we have the loves of fairies for mankind, and the commerce of the beni elohim with the dau

TYSON DONALD SOUL FLIGHT

n, where they encountered two others who had ascended in the flesh. chapter four: religious bilocation 53 thus he went into paradise holding our forefather adam by the hand, and he handed him over and all the righteous to michael the archangel. and as they were entering the gate of paradise, two old men met them. the holy fathers asked them "who are you, who have not seen death nor gone down into hades, but dwell in paradise with your bodies and souls" one of them answered "i am enoch, who pleased god and was removed here by him. and this is elijah the tishbite. we shall live until the end of the there is no way to know if the author of the gospel of nicodemus related an astral vision of christ in hell, or merely invented a charming fable. that is also true of all written accounts of desce

VOX SABBATUM

) the black flame, those being athoth, who is called the reaper, the second is harmas, who is an eye of envy, kalila-oumbri is the third, yabel, the fifth being adonaiou, who is also sabaoth, cain is the sixth, who is called the sun, seventh is abel, the eight is abrisene, the ninth yobel and armoupieel. the eleventh of the fallen angels are melceir- adonein and the twelfth is belias, who is over hades. in the gnostic text of the apocryphon of john lucifer is the darkness which gained a light, and found himself as a god. his word is i am god and there is no other god beside me, he was one of the most powerful archons under the throne of light. the archon samael-lucifer was said to have a multitude of faces, being able to change form among the angels as he so desired. the luciferian sabbat

s my religion is sorcery, that which is created from the self thus of self-love vox sabbatum the witches sabbat 27 my forms are many, human or a beautiful angel, crowned and winged in emerald, luminous as the peacock, as wise as the serpent. i may take the form of the serpent with a lions head, for i am the dragon and beast, who creates and destroys. on my left hand is belias, my shadow form over hades, on my right hand is cain, called elohim, my flesh born son of earth behind me is az lilith, my bride and druj spawning goddess, my inspiration of art! in front of me is aeshema, called the dev of the wounding spear, known as asmodeus, my will made flesh around me is the coiling and crooked dragon called leviathan! from my eyes comes lightening, and fire is started from my sight. as lighteni

he sorcerer, who has become both as lucifer and ahriman, surrounded with the crooked dragon leviathan, may that image haunt your dreams, these words carry on nightwings the desire of the sabbat so is will be become! vox sabbatum by michael w. ford 2003 artwork by elda isela ford 2003 other art by various illustrators. cover sabbat, witch offering navel cord and daemon initiator pg. 16 belial from hades, based from medieval painting. pg. 22 lucifer ahriman leviathan, self-transformation michael ford* p.o. box 926344* houston, tx 77292* 26some deeper aspects of masonic symbolism by bro. aurthur edward waite part i the subject which i am about to approach is one having certain obvious difficulties, because it is outside the usual horizon of masonic literature, and requires, therefore, to be p

WILLIAM WESCOTT NUMBERS THEIR OCCULT POWER AND MYSTIC VIRTUES

male, which man having fallen from his high estate, from spirit to matter, cannot avoid associating himself with. two is a number of mourning and death, misfortunes are apt to follow; turn to our history of england, see the unhappiness of kings numbered the second of each name--william ii, edward ii, and richard ii. of england were all murdered. the romans dedicated the 2nd month to pluto, god of hades, and on the 2nd day of it they offered sacrifices to the manes. pope john xix. instituted the fete des trepasses (all souls day) on november 2nd, the second month of autumn. the two talmuds of the jews, among other quaint notions, have the following ideas of the number two. numbers--th eir occu lt power an d mys tic vir tu es by w. wyn n wes tcott it is not every man who deserves to have two

Return to Occult Library Index



Related Matches
abode abyss adonis ahriman air ancient angel angels aphrodite apollo artemis azazel birth black blood brother brothers cain cerberus chaos child children christian consciousness darkness dead death deity deities demeter demon demons descent devil dionysus divine doctrine earth east egypt egyptian eternal evil existence eye fallen father fear fire five flesh form forms fruit gate gates ghosts god gods goddess greek greeks guardian hades heaven heavens hebrew hecate hell hercules hermes human immortality initiates initiation invoke ishtar jesus judgment jupiter king kingdom knowledge legend living london lord lucifer magical mars matter mercury mind modern moon mortal mother mysteries mystery myth mythology nature north odysseus order orpheus osiris pan pentagram people persephone physical plane planets plato pluto poseidon power prometheus punishment queen realm realms rebirth religion religions resurrection rhea rites ritual roman romans sacred satan saturn sea secret serpent set seven shades shadow sheol snake soul souls south spirit spirits spiritual state stone sun symbol tartarus temple thousand three titans tuat underworld universe void war water west world zeus


http://www.hollywoodinsiders.net
MWLibCreator Ver.2 By:Michael Wynn