Michael Wynn's Occult Reference Library
THE ROMANS

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18276066 GRIMM JACOB TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY VOL 1

e not found in the other dialects, they may have sounded heathenish; though the as. could use feeder alwealda, beow. 630, and the idea of god as father became more familiar to the christians than to heathens. the ohg. altfatar= grandfather, 0. i. 3, 6. as. ealdfteder, beow. 743. 1883, i have nowhere seen applied to god. as the greeks coupled together zei? tran^p, esp. in the voc. zev ttcitep, and the romans jupiter, diespiter, dispiter, mars pater^ as well as atj/jl^ttjp, aajnatrjp, terra mater, so the lettons bestow on almost every goddess the epithet mahtc, mahviina^=mafer, matercula (biittner 244. bergmann 142, on which we shall have more to say hereafter. to all appearance, father goth, fadr is connected with fa]?s lord, as pater irary'jp is with ttotl, ttoctl, lith. pats. the as. meot

statue; gotli. manleika, ohg. manauhho, on. ukneski (see suppl; can the sloven, malik, idol, have sprung from manleika? images. 105 stated generally in cap. 9, ho asserts of a particular case in cap. 43, and we have no ground for disbelieving his assertion. the existence of real statues at that time in germany, at least in the parts best known to them, would hardly have escaped the researches of the romans. he knows of nothing but signa and fotvias, apparently carved and coloured, which were used in worship as symbols, and on certain occasions carried about; probably they contained some reference to the nature and attributes of the several deities. the model of a boat, signuni in modura liburnae figuratum (cap. 9, betokened the god of sailing, the formac aprorum (cap. 45) the god to whom

, ut injuriam dei sui vindicarent (acta bened. sec. 2, pp. 84-5. the place was called augusta (bourg d' angst, near the town of eu, and a church was built on the spot. i think i have now shown, that in ancient germany there were gods and statues. it will further be needful to consider, how antiquity went to work in identifying foreign names of gods with german, and conversely german with foreign. the romans in their descriptions cared a great deal more to make themselves partially understood by a free translation, than, by preserving barbarous vocables, to do a service to posterity. at the same time they did not go arbitrarily to work, but evidently with care. caesar's sol, luna and vulcan are perhaps what satisfies us least; but tacitus seems never to use the names of roman deities, excep

s never yet been satisfactorily explained: the early diffusion over half europe of the heathen nomenclature of the days of the week. these names are a piece of evidence favourable to german heathenism, and not to be disregarded. the matter seems to me to stand thus^ from egypt, through the alexandrians, the week of seven days (e^so/ia, which in western asia was very ancient, came into vogue among the romans, but the planetary nomenclature of the days of the week apparently not till later. under julius caesar occurs the earliest mention of 'dies saturni' in connection with the jewish sabbath, tibuu. 1, 3, 18. then tjxiov rjfiepa in justin mart, apolog. 1, 67 'epfiov and a^posctr^ rjfiepa in clem. alex, strom. 7, 12. the institution fully carried out, not long before dio cassius 37, 18, abou

with the absurdity of the langobardic legend related in 1, 8, whose unhistoric basis he lays bare, by pointing out that wodan at the time of the occurrence between the wandali and winili, had not ruled in germany, biit in greece; which is the main point here. the notion that mercury should be confined to greece, has wider bearings, and would shock the heathen faith not only of the germans but of the romans. the heathen gods were supposed to be omnij^resent, as may be seen by the mere fact that woden-hills were admitted to exist in various spots all over the country; so that the community of this god to germans, greeks and romans raised no difficulty- this appendix forms part of the third volume. in the meanwhile, readers may be glad to see for themselves the substance of these pedigrees

dominas edere et bibere de escis et potibus, quos in domibus inveniunt, nee tamen consumptionem aut imminutionem eas facere escarum et potuum, maxime si vasa escarum sint discooperta et vasa poculorum non obstructa eis in nocte relinquantur. si vero operta vel clausa inveniunt seu obstructa, inde nee comedunt nee bibunt, propter quod infaustas et infortunatas relinquunt, nee satietatem nee abun^ the romans also personified ahundantia as a superior being, but she only appears on coins, she had neither temples nor altars. herodias, diana, abundia. 287 dantiam eis praestantes' the like is repeated on p. 1068, but on p. 1066 we read' sunt et aliae luditicationes malignoruni spirituum, quas faciunt interdum in nemoribus et locis anioenis et frondosis arboribus, ubi ajiparcnt in similitudinc pu

guess, which shall be anything but far-fetched? the]\iid. dutch name for the third day of the week had the curious form disendach (p. 125, which being of course a corruption of tiscndach brings us at once to tise= zisa. it is a matter for further researches to demonstrate^ but 1 doavn in the riess between the rivers lefh and wertach, in the niiilst of siieves^ at a time suimosed to be before even the romans settled in the region, mikka. frouwa. 299 that three divinities, zio, zisa and isis, are assigned to the suevi, is ah'eady abundantly clear, 8. frikka (frigg. frouwa (freyja. our inquiry turns at length to the goddesses of the norse religious system, of whom unequivocal traces are forthcoming in the rest of teutondom. foremost of these are frigg tlie wife of osinn, and freyja the sister

office, the similar name and the black hue (kala niger, conf. caligo and kekalv6) make her exceedingly like halja. and halja is one of the oldest and commonest conceptions of our heathenism. 1 in the south of itollanfl, where the mouse falls into the sea, is a place named hdvoeisluis. i do not know it' any forms in old documents confirm tlie idea contained in the name, of hell-foot, foot of hell. the romans have a helium here: inter helium acflevum, ita appellantur ostia, in quae effusus rhenus, ah septentrione in lacus, ab occidente in amnem mosam se spar^it, medio inter haec ore modicum nonnne suo custodiens alveiim, plin. 4, 29. tac. also says 2, g: immense ore, conf. supra. 198 on unjjisdijr (see suppl. chapter xiv. condition" of gods. now that we have collected all that could be found

nd german, may surely be presupposed. the position of herculis silva and columnae does not indeed agree with that of the herminones, but the worship of such a hero was sure to spread far and not to be confined to the particular race to which he gave his name. in the german irman, irmin, it seems correct for the aspirate to be wanting, as in arminius; in cherusci it is indispensable, and therefore the romans never wa-ote herusci. if in this' hercules' we wish to see one of the gi-eat gods themselves, we must apparently exclude mercury and mars, from whom he is distinguished in cap. 9, i.e, wuotan and zio. and for supposing him to mean donar, i.e, jupiter (as zeuss does, p. 25, i hercules. ulysses. 365 see no other ground than tliat the norse thorr, like hercules, performs iuuuniurable heroi

A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO WITCHCRAFT AND MAGICK SPELLS

st. she is also linked with love, fertility and healing. ama-terasu omikami ama-terasu omikami is the ancient japanese sun goddess. her name means 'great august spirit shining in heaven' but she is also called shinmet 'divine radiance' and o-hiru-me-no-muchi 'great female possessor of noon. she is good for female-focused sun rituals and for ceremonial magick. helios the greek god helios, known to the romans as sol, was regarded as the sun itself. he ascended the heavens in a chariot drawn by winged snow-white horses to give light and in the evening descended into the ocean. homer wrote 'drawn in his swift chariot, he sheds light on gods and men alike; the formidable flash of his eyes pierces his golden helmet, sparkling rays glint from his breast and his brilliant helmet gives forth a dazz

and for healing the planet. gaia gaia is the all-embracing and all-nourishing goddess of the earth. it is said that she supplies in her bounty all the necessary plants to cure any disease and, in spite of human pollution, she constantly heals and renews the planet. she is also a goddess of marriage. she is the natural focus for all green rituals. tellus mater tellus mater was the earth mother of the romans, the alter ego of ceres, the grain mother, and guardian of the fertility of people, animals and crops. however, tellus mater is also the mother who receives the dead in her womb to comfort and restore and so, like gaia, she is a excellent goddess for all green magick and rituals for healing pollution or deforestation. wophe wophe, or white buffalo calf woman, is the sacred creator woman

lationships. rosemary is also a herb of remembrance, especially of love, and can bring about reconciliation. ruled by the sun. sage sage is a popular culinary herb with many medical applications and healing powers; according to tradition, it prolongs life and health. in medieval times it was said 'why should a man who has sage in his garden ever die. sage was called herba sacra('the holy herb) by the romans and was used by the ancient egyptians to cure male infertility and by the chinese to stimulate both yang and yin energies. it is especially good for strengthening the lungs and it boosts the immune system, helping to build up resistance to illness and to speed recovery in cases of debilitating or chronic conditions. sage eases mental exhaustion and increases the ability to concentrate

ee days. bicarmel mind: a way of thinking that uses both hemispheres of the mind, the logical and the intuitive, rather than the left (logical) hemisphere predominating as is normal in adults. book of shadows: a book of reference containing magical spells, herbs, flowers, incenses and moon phases, etc. caduceus: the staff of the classical messenger of the gods (hermes to the greeks and mercury to the romans, shaped like two snakes, entwined in a double circle. cardinal: principal, as in the four cardinal directions set round a circle- north, south, east, and west. also a term applied to the astrological signs of aries, cancer, libra and capricorn, because when the sun moved into these signs it marked the start of a new season. those born under a cardinal sign manifest this quality as a des

dimly. shamanism: possibly the oldest spiritual practice in the world, continued today in communities as far apart as india, australia, japan and china, siberia and mongolia, in africa, among the bedouins in the middle east and in north, central and south america. sky-clad: naked. sky gods: the powerful patriarchal gods of the classical and viking world, for example zeus of the greeks, jupiter of the romans, odin of the vikings and thunor of the anglo-saxons. they gained supremacy over the earth mother who appears as their wife-consort, full of human foibles. solstice: one of the main astronomical points of the year. the summer solstice (21 june, or 21 december in the southern hemisphere) marks the sun at its height and greatest power. the winter solstice (21 december or 21 june) is the sh

ALEISTER CROWLEY MEDITATION

ed by human sacrifice<jews in eastern europe which surprise the ignorant, are almost invariably excited by the disappearance of "christian" children, stolen, as the parents suppose, for the purposes of "ritual murder<blood-libel" myth was later recanted by crowley. the blood-libel was visited upon early christians by the romans and is visited today upon thelemites by christian fundamentalists> similarly the visions of joan of arc were entirely christian; but she, like all the others we have mentioned, found somewhere the force to do great things. of course, it may be said that there is a fallacy in the argument; it may be true that all these great people "saw god" but it does not follow that every one who "see

ALEISTER CROWLEY EQ I 5

ters, and a voice says "non haec piscis omnium (to interpret that, we must think of 'iota chi theta upsilon sigma, which does not conceal "iesous christos theon uios soter" as traditionally asserted, but is a mystery of the letter nun and the letter qoph, as may be seen by adding it up 'iota chi theta upsilon sigma is only connected with christianity because it was a hieroglyph of syphilis, which the romans supposed to have been brought from syria; and it seems to have been confounded with leprosy, which also they thought was caused by fish-eating. 50 one important meaning of 'iota chi theta upsilon sigma: it is formed of the initials of five egyptian deities and also of five greek deities: in both cases a magic formula of tremendous power is concealed. as to the holy table itself, i canno

ALEISTER CROWLEY EQUINOX EQ I 1 2

ne with the jaws; perhaps it is that this peculiar method of eating (25 minutes 25 for what could be done normally in 3) demands the whole attention. 1.30. drifted into a nap. well! we shall try what brother body really wants. 1.35. my attempt to go to sleep has made me supernaturally wakeful. i am as often before in the state described by paul (not my masseur; the other paul! in his epistle to the romans, cap. vii. v. 19. i shall rise and go forth. 1.55. i have a good mind to try violent excitement of the muladhara cakkr m; for the whole sushumna seems dead. this at the risk of being labelled a black magician by clergymen, christian scientists, and the "self-reliant" classes in general. 2.15. arrived (partly by cab) at the place. certain curious phenomena which i have noticed at odd ti

ALEISTER CROWLEY EQUINOX EQ I 6

f the knave escape. but will not your lordship sup with me to-night? bishop. thanks, good grand master. first torturer. my lord, i think i heard a sigh. physician. only a natural motion of the body, by your 101 leave, my lord, i venture to opine. her lip is bitten through. bishop. what wickedness! truly, my lords, satan hath great power in these latter days, spoken of by st paul in his epistle to the romans. force the mouth open["a torturer obeys" physician. pardon, my lord, if she utters no sound. she hath swallowed her tongue, a notorious devilry of arabian enchanters. by your leave, my lord, the tongue should be pulled forward. her soul would be lost (begging your lordship's pardon) should she choke now. bishop. rightly said. and on your head be it! redouble the thumbscrews["a torturer

ALICE A BAILEY10 FROM BETHLEHEM TO CALVARY

eks to prove this continuity "at the time of the life or recorded appearance of jesus of nazareth and for some centuries before, the mediterranean and neighbouring world had been the scene of a vast number of pagan- 109- from bethlehem to calvary copyright 1998 lucis trust creeds and rituals. there were temples without end dedicated to gods like apollo or dionysus among the greeks, hercules among the romans, mithra among the persians, adonis and arris in syria and phrygia, osiris and isis and horus in egypt, baal and astarte among the babylonians and carthaginians, and so forth. societies, large or small, united believers and the devout in the service or ceremonials connected with their respective deities, and in the creeds which they confessed concerning these deities. and an extraordinar

ALICE A BAILEY11 A TREATISE ON THE SEVEN RAYS VOLUME II ESOTERIC PSYCHOLOGY II

ich is the result of the development of the science of psycho-analysis. this is the problem of what is commonly called a "split personality. this division in the continuity of consciousness (for that is what it basically is) takes many forms and sometimes produces more than simply a duality. the great expression of the continuity of desire is voiced for us by paul, the initiate, in the epistle to the romans where he refers to the constant battle between the will-to-good and the will-to-evil, as it takes place within the periphery of consciousness of a human being. from certain angles this passage is prophetic, for the writer (perhaps unknowingly) was looking forward to that period in the evolution of mankind when the "battle of the opposites" would be waged in its full strength, both indiv

en the integration of the mind with the three lower aspects has been brought about, and some clear thought about them will be useful. 2. the diseases of mystics. these are concerned with those attitudes of mind, those complexities of idea and those "spiritual enterprises" which affect the mystically inclined or those who are aware of the spiritual dualism of which st. paul wrote in the epistle to the romans. he wrote as follows "for we know that the law is spiritual: but i am carnal, sold under sin. for that which i do i allow not: for what i would, that do i not; but what i hate, that do i. if then i do what i would not, i consent under the law that it is good. now then it is no more i that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. for i know that in me (that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good t

ALICE A BAILEY12 DISCIPLESHIP IN THE NEW AGE VOLUME I

not easy for men of your type? when they come, they come on the wings of blinding light. a study of st. paul, his revelation and his way of truth, his logical tenacity (no matter what its disastrous effects on christianity may have been) and his impersonality should give you much of encouragement, of warning, of truth and of necessity. you could, my brother, with ease have written the epistle to the romans. will you find out why? the work of this group of disciples with whom you are associated is growing and your balanced judgment and clear vision may be needed in time to come. give full measure of advice and aid, tempering all with a more vitally disclosed love. a "mental body as hard as nails" will some day have to be destroyed. why not begin preserving intact the principle of mind, thu

AN INTRO TO STUDY OF THE KABALAH

d his successor, ptolemy philadelphus, caused the hebrew scriptures to be revised and translated into greek by seventy-two scholars, about 277 b.c; this has been known for centuries as the septuagint version of the old testament. further jewish troubles followed, however, and jerusalem was again taken and pillaged by antiochus in 170 b.c. then followed the long wars of the maccabees; subsequently the romans dominated judea, then quarrelling with the jews the city was taken by pompey, and not long after was again plundered by the roman general crassus in 54 b.c. yet the jewish religion was preserved, and we find the religious feasts and festivals all in progress at the time of jesus; yet once more in a.d. 70, was the holy city taken, plundered and burnt, and that by titus, who became empero

omans dominated judea, then quarrelling with the jews the city was taken by pompey, and not long after was again plundered by the roman general crassus in 54 b.c. yet the jewish religion was preserved, and we find the religious feasts and festivals all in progress at the time of jesus; yet once more in a.d. 70, was the holy city taken, plundered and burnt, and that by titus, who became emperor of the romans in a.d. 79. through all these vicissitudes, the hebrew old testament survived, yet must almost unavoidably have had many alterations and additions made to its several treatises; the more esoteric doctrines which were handed down along the line of the priestly caste, and not incorporated with the torah offered to the people, may no doubt have been repeatedly varied by the influences of c

BLAVATSKY H P ANTHROPOGENESIS

tree of life on which the old man stands in the gnostic gems. the number of the root-races was recorded in the ancient greek temples by the seven vowels, of which five were framed in a panel in the initiation halls of the adyta. the egyptian glyph for it was a hand with five fingers spread, the fifth or little finger being only half-grown, and also five "n's- hieroglyphs standing for that letter. the romans used the five vowels a e i o v in their fanes; and this archaic symbol was adopted during the middle ages as a motto by the house of the hapsburgs. sic transit gloria[[vol. 2, page] 459 the "god" sub rosa. xvii. the "holy of holies" its degradation. the sanctum sanctorum of the ancients, i.e, that recess on the western side of the temple which was enclosed on three sides by blank walls

isplayed" this is demonstrated by the hindu wittoba- a form of vishnu- as said already. the figure of wittoba, even to the nailmarks on the feet* is that of jesus crucified, in all its details save the cross; and that man was meant is proved to us further by the fact of the initiate being reborn after his crucifixion on the tree of life. this "tree" has now become exoterically, through its use by the romans as an instrument of torture, and the ignorance of the early christian schemers, the tree of death! thus, one of the seven esoteric meanings implied in this mystery of crucifixion by the mystic inventors of the system- the original elaboration and adoption of which dates back to the very establishment of the mysteries- is discovered in the geometrical symbols containing the history of th

BOOK OF PLEASURE

my doctrine, they obtain tolerable satisfaction, whereas mine is complete. let him tarry here, who is not strong for the great work. in freedom he might be lost. so fledge your wings fearlessly, ye humble ones*(1) all means of locomotion, machinery, governments, institutions, and everything essentially modern, is vital symbolism of the workings of our mind, etc*(2) the symbol of justice known to the romans is not symbolic of divine, or our justice, at least not necessarily or usually. the vitality is not exactly like water-nor are we trees; more like ourselves, which might incidentally include trees somewhere unlearnt-much more obvious in our workings at present. others say knowledge only is eternal, it is the eternal illusion of learning-the ukase of learning what we already know. direct

CASSANDRA EASON A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO WITCHCRAFT AND MAGIC

st. she is also linked with love, fertility and healing. ama-terasu omikami ama-terasu omikami is the ancient japanese sun goddess. her name means 'great august spirit shining in heaven' but she is also called shinmet 'divine radiance' and o-hiru-me-no-muchi 'great female possessor of noon. she is good for female-focused sun rituals and for ceremonial magick. helios the greek god helios, known to the romans as sol, was regarded as the sun itself. he ascended the heavens in a chariot drawn by winged snow-white horses to give light and in the evening descended into the ocean. homer wrote 'drawn in his swift chariot, he sheds light on gods and men alike; the formidable flash of his eyes pierces his golden helmet, sparkling rays glint from his breast and his brilliant helmet gives forth a dazz

c p073- gaia gaia is the all-embracing and all-nourishing goddess of the earth. it is said that she supplies in her bounty all the necessary plants to cure any disease and, in spite of human pollution, she constantly heals and renews the planet. she is also a goddess of marriage. she is the natural focus for all green rituals. tellus mater seite 40 wicca01.txt tellus mater was the earth mother of the romans, the alter ego of ceres, the grain mother, and guardian of the fertility of people, animals and crops. however, tellus mater is also the mother who receives the dead in her womb to comfort and restore and so, like gaia, she is a excellent goddess for all green magick and rituals for healing pollution or deforestation. wophe wophe, or white buffalo calf woman, is the sacred creator woman

lationships. rosemary is also a herb of remembrance, especially of love, and can bring about reconciliation. ruled by the sun. sage sage is a popular culinary herb with many medical applications and healing powers; according to tradition, it prolongs life and health. in medieval times it was said 'why should a man who has sage in his garden ever die. sage was called herba sacra('the holy herb) by the romans and was used by the ancient egyptians to cure male infertility and by the chinese to stimulate both yang and yin energies. it is especially good for strengthening the lungs and it boosts the immune system, helping to build up resistance to illness and to speed recovery in cases of debilitating or chronic conditions. sage eases mental exhaustion and increases the ability to concentrate

ca01.txt bicarmel mind: a way of thinking that uses both hemispheres of the mind, the logical and the intuitive, rather than the left (logical) hemisphere predominating as is normal in adults. book of shadows: a book of reference containing magical spells, herbs, flowers, incenses and moon phases, etc. caduceus: the staff of the classical messenger of the gods (hermes to the greeks and mercury to the romans, shaped like two snakes, entwined in a double circle. cardinal: principal, as in the four cardinal directions set round a circle- north, south, east, and west. also a term applied to the astrological signs of aries, cancer, libra and capricorn, because when the sun moved into these signs it marked the start of a new season. those born under a cardinal sign manifest this quality as a des

ibly the oldest spiritual practice in the world, continued today in seite 180 wicca01.txt communities as far apart as india, australia, japan and china, siberia and mongolia, in africa, among the bedouins in the middle east and in north, central and south america. sky-clad: naked. sky gods: the powerful patriarchal gods of the classical and viking world, for example zeus of the greeks, jupiter of the romans, odin of the vikings and thunor of the anglo-saxons.they gained supremacy over the earth mother who appears as their wife-consort, full of human foibles. solstice: one of the main astronomical points of the year. the summer solstice (21 june, or 21 december in the southern hemisphere) marks the sun at its height and greatest power. the winter solstice (21 december or 21 june) is the sho

DAVID ICKE CHILDREN OF THE MATRIX

ought with them, they changed shape and the legendary founders of athens, cecrops and his son, were said to be half-human-half-serpent amphibians. the greek god, tython, was another halfman- half-serpent figure with mythological connections to sirius, and both isis and 36 children of the matrix osiris were portayed with fish or serpent tails in some effigies. poseidon of the greeks and neptune of the romans were symbols of the same theme. the anunnaki (annedoti) seem to be very connected to water and their bloodlines use code names to this day that often relate to being "of the water. the major bloodline families appear to locate either in very hot regions, like texas, arizona, nevada, and california, or, more often, in cold damp places where there is lots of water. the netherlands is a ma

was also a mesopotamian culture) that the sumerian empire was enormous. the incas of south america used this term "four quarters, also. in the indian epics, sargon's son, manja, was called "the royal eye of gopta and of the four ends of the earth" when he became emperor.3 in the indus valley clay seal records, sargon and manja or menes also called themselves and their dynasty gut or got("goth" to the romans) and used the titles bar or par which means "pharaoh, according to waddell.4 gut or got became "god, a term used by the later goths. all non-latin languages in europe are derived from the gothic, including english, and the ancient swedish language is still called "sueo-gothic".5 the former name for denmark was "goth-land" and a derivative was jut-land.6 gothic architecture, so beloved o

times within the mystery school and secret society networks. and the reptilian "gods" of atlantis and lemuria seeded these bloodlines. waddell shows in his work, makers of civilisation (luzac and company, 1929, that sargon's sumer-centred empire extended to the indus valley in the east, the british isles in the west, encompassing much in between, and was larger than that of alexander the great or the romans. the sumer empire included much of the world and it is from this same knowledge and information source that all the religions have emerged- the continuation of the knowledge and bloodlines of atlantis and lemuria. they may interpret this base information slightly differently and emphasise different strands, but the core from which they have come is the same: the atlantean, lemurian and

vilisation (w. w. norton and company, new york, 1965. to claim descent from "noah" is used by illuminati initiates to symbolise their genetic connection to the anunnaki bloodline. the sumerian version of the "noah" story relates his close connection to the anunnaki, especially enki. the franks called themselves the newmage or "the people of the covenant" and settled in germania (possibly named by the romans from a word meaning "genuine ones) with their centre in cologne. peoples of the former sumer empire moved into europe over many centuries by land. as they travelled they were known by different names in different regions. once more the changing names have obscured the fact that they were the same peoples from the former sumer empire and even further back to atlantis and lemuria. some of

ork is the secret society known as the order of the rose, which includes the former canadian prime ministers brian mulroney and pierre trudeau, both satanists.8 trudeau is famous for wearing a red rose in his lapel. some branches of freemasonry feature the rose and cross in their rituals. once again, the christian mother mary is associated with the rose because she is a symbol of goddess worship. the romans called the rose the "flower of venus" and 172 children of the matrix this was a term used for the goddess, including queen semeramis. the red rose was symbolic of female sexuality and the white rose or lily is the virgin goddess. christians associated mary with both the rose and the lily and they called her the "holy rose. this is the same title given to the indian great mother. the ros

lluminati's staggering obsession with symbolism, i feel there was far more to the sinking of the titanic (titania) than ever we have yet realised. these goddesses are fundamentally associated with the sea and the underworld- the victims of the titanic tragedy in 1912 went to both. i don't buy the "hit an iceberg" line myself. in southern russia, titania (known there as rhea) was "the red one" and the romans claimed her to be the mother of romulus and remus, the mythical founders of rome. titania's king in a midsummer night's dream is called oberon. he was based on a real-life character, an ancestor of the man who really put the "shakespeare" plays together- edward de vere of loxley, 17th earl of oxford. the american researcher brian desborough, among others, has established that the plays

from the high places, just as el and her derivatives were associated with mountains. hills overlooking springs were the most sacred places in britain for the goddess sul, places like glastonbury tor and bath. overlooking bath, for example, is solsbury hill, and salisbury in wiltshire is another important sun goddess site and the location of a famous cathedral much beloved of prince charles. when the romans came to britain they worshipped this goddess as sol minerva. her symbol was an owl- the symbol of the rituals at bohemian grove in northern california. the road system around the congress building in washington dc is also shaped unmistakably as an owl (see the biggest secret. the lion became the symbol of the "male" sun when the open became hidden, but once again the lion had more commo

"moses. and the sumerian edin, the "abode of the gods, became the garden of eden in the levite tales. the book of genesis is an edited version of the sumerian accounts and it is a mass of goddess symbolism. the "mana from heaven, which the moses-led israelites were supposed to have received from "god" or yhvh/jehovah, is actually a name for the goddess, mana, who, like el, ruled the underworld.8 the romans knew her as mana or mania. her ancestral spirits were called "manes, as in the mane of the lion, so associated with the serpent cult, and of the horse, so connected with the amazons or valkeries. from the names mana and mania we get the word to describe crazed behaviour. this is derived from worship of the moon goddess, as in moon-madness or "lunacy. mantra, the sanskrit term for projec

disciples or followers? jesus had them, so did horus, buddha, king arthur, mithra, dionysus, and so many other symbols of the sun. we also have the 12 sons of jacob, 12 tribes of israel, the 12 gods of the greeks, egyptians, and persians. this fixation with 12 derives once again from sun symbolism with their disciples and followers representing the months of the year and the signs of the zodiac. the romans openly symbolised the sun as a living man and the signs of the zodiac as his disciples. and the christian religion was created in rome. mark, luke, matthew, and john, the names carried by the gospels, represent the four cardinal signs of the zodiac. these are also symbolised in christian cathedrals as a man (aquarius, an ox (taurus, a lion (leo, and an eagle (scorpio, together called th

cteristics of various pagan gods and balder of the serpent cult. he also says that the pisos made changes and additions to some old testament texts and wrote most of the 14 old testament books known as the apocrypha. reuchlin contends that arius piso was the real name of the "hebrew" historian known as josephus. this would certainly explain why a "hebrew" like josephus, who claimed to have fought the romans, lived in rome for 30 years while he wrote books on jewish history and married into roman aristocracy. reuchlin says that "st paul" was manufactured in the same way as jesus and it's interesting that "paul's" hazardous sea journey was a repeat of what josephus said happened to him. paul was also portrayed as a hebrew who became a roman citizen and josephus said the same of himself. reuc

DAVID ICKE THE BIGGEST SECRET

led phrygiawhich became known as galatia (gaul-atia) and it was to these people that st paul wassupposed to have written in the new testaments letter to the galatians. thecimmerians or cimbri also settled in wales and to this day the name for that country inthe welsh language is cymru.the scythians, another aryan group, also moved north from the caucasus intoeurope where their name was changed by the romans to distinguish between them andother peoples. the sacred emblems of the scythians included the serpent, the ox(nimrod/taurus, fire (the sun, knowledge, and tho or theo, the god the egyptianscalled pan. the romans called the scythians the sarmatae and the germani from thelatin word germanus, meaning genuine. the scythians were known, therefore, as thegenuine people and of course from ger

god the egyptianscalled pan. the romans called the scythians the sarmatae and the germani from thelatin word germanus, meaning genuine. the scythians were known, therefore, as thegenuine people and of course from germani we get german and germany. the namechange is confirmed by the writings of the roman historians pliny and strabo. theanglo-saxons who invaded britain were also known as germani by the romans. theland called old saxony is modern day north germany and the netherlands. both theangles and the saxons came from the same genetic source -the white cimmerians andscythians from the caucasus and the middle/near east. it is the same with william theconqueror and his normans, the last people to invade britain in 1066 at the battle ofhastings. the terms norman and normandy originate from

prus and also greece and italy. it was thephoenicians who carried the knowledge which later emerged as the civilisations ofminoan crete, classic greece and roman italy. they were also the brains behindmuch of the egyptian culture in this period, before it was hijacked by the reptilians.the egyptians knew the phoenicians as the panag, panasa and fenkha. the greekscalled them the phoinik-as, and to the romans they were the phoenic-es.28 there is asimple reason why the egyptians depicted many of their gods with white skin andblue eyes in exactly the same way as other cultures all over the world did. this63advanced race, called the phoenicians, were white skinned and often had blue eyes -the same as the reptilian-human crossbreeds and the same, it would appear, as the racefrom mars. thus we ha

berian, gothic runes etc, were all really local variations of thestandard aryan hitto-sumerian writing of the aryan phoenician mariners, those ancientpioneer spreaders of the hittite civilisation along the shores of the mediterranean and outbeyond the pillars of hercules to the british isles.39official history asks us to believe that the people of britain were savages who werecivilised only after the romans came. this is not true and in fact the romans said theopposite. roman records say that the britons were generally civilised and their customs70much the same as the gauls. of course they were. they were the same people with thesame origins. the britons used gold money and there was trade with the europeancontinent, as british coins of the period found there have confirmed. it was only th

ns were generally civilised and their customs70much the same as the gauls. of course they were. they were the same people with thesame origins. the britons used gold money and there was trade with the europeancontinent, as british coins of the period found there have confirmed. it was only thepeople of the interior of britain, still uninfluenced by the phoenician culture closer tothe coasts, whom the romans regarded as uncivilised when they arrived. many of theroads regarded as roman were not built by the romans at all. they were pre-romanroads which they repaired. the romans admired the efficiency of the british armies,particularly their use of war chariots. you wont be surprised to know by now that thesefamous british chariots were the same as those used by the hittites or catti describe

anroads which they repaired. the romans admired the efficiency of the british armies,particularly their use of war chariots. you wont be surprised to know by now that thesefamous british chariots were the same as those used by the hittites or catti describedby the egyptian pharaoh ramses ii around 1,295 bc at the battle of kadesh, a hittite-phoenician port. in about 350 bc, three centuries before the romans arrived, theexplorer and scientist, pytheas, sailed around britain and mapped the land scientificallywith latitudes. pytheas was a native of phocca in asia minor, phocca deriving fromphoenicia, as did an adjoining port called phoenice.40 by this time the phoenicians hadorganised the tin trade, from their mines in cornwall in the west of england acrossgaul/france to marseilles, from wher

t. in the south west of england is the townof totnes in devon, a short distance inland from torbay, the oldest seaport in the area.here there is a stone called the brutus stone on which, the legend says, the formertrojan prince stood after he first landed. welsh records say that brutus was met by threetribes of britons who proclaimed him king. brutus founded a city he called caer troia- new troy. the romans would later call it londinium. london became the operationalcentre of the empire of the babylonian brotherhood, and it still is, along with paris andthe v atican. in the king arthur stories, london or new troy, is troynavant, kingarthurs eastern gateway city and king arthurs camelot apparently means martiancity or city of mars. artefacts discovered by the german archaeologist, heinrichs

an,egypt, sumer, the ancient peoples of europe and central-south america. the buddhistwheel of life is made of two superimposed crosses and birds with their wings open areused to symbolise the cross in endless logos, coats of arms and badges. one of the mostancient forms of the cross is the tau or tav cross which resembles the letter t. this wasthe cross on which political dissidents were hung by the romans, apparently. it was thesymbol of the druid god, hu, and it is still used today by the freemasons in their symbolof the t square. the egyptians crux ansata, the cross of life, added a circle loop to thetop. the crux ansata and the tau cross were found on statues and other artworkthroughout ancient central america. it was associated with water and the babyloniansused the cross as an emble

erms and practises. two of the dead sea scrolls, one in hebrew, the other in aramaic,contain what we would call horoscopes, the belief that the movement of the planetsaffects a persons character and destiny. the essenes practised astrology, the symbolismof which you find throughout the gospels and the old testament. the early christians,an offshoot of the essenes-therapeutae, did the same, as did the romans and all thegentile nations surrounding judea.35 the writer, philo, who lived at the alleged time ofjesus, said in his treatise on the contemplative life, that when the therapeutae prayedto god, they turned to the sun and they studied in order to discover the hidden (coded)meaning of sacred books. he wrote that they also meditated on the secrets of naturecontained in the books under the

of terrorist groups like the ira innorthern ireland.people were not crucified for theft which makes the story of the two thievescrucified with jesus another invention. it is a steal once again because the samestory was told about some of the pre-christian jesus figures. the punishment for thecrimes jesus was accused of in the gospels would have been stoning to death bythe judean authorities, not the romans.pontius pilatus, the roman procurator in this period, is supposed to have washed hishands and passed on responsibility for the death of jesus to the crowd. thewashing of hands to indicate innocence was the custom of the essene community.47the bible says that it was the roman custom at the time of the passover festival tooffer a prisoner for release, but this is simply not true. there wa

gave him command over the romanarmy in judea. he was involved in the judean revolt in 66 ad which vespasian wassent to judea to quell. emperor nero was assassinated in 68 ad by an agent of pisoaccording to reuchlin. this certainly makes sense if nero killed his father. with this,the piso clan threw their power and manipulation behind v espasian and he becameemperor of rome in 69 ad. a year later the romans destroyed jerusalem, stole thetemple treasures, including it is claimed the ark of the covenant, and apparently tookthem back to rome where they entered the secret society underground. thisunderground was nothing less than the babylonian brotherhood.reuchlin says that anus calpurnius piso then wrote three of the gospels in thefollowing order: the gospel of matthew (70-75 ad; the updated

ephus, and his granddaughters husband plinythe younger, do not mention jesus in their official writings is because at the time it106simply would not have been credible to do so. it was only with the passage of time asthe true origin of jesus was lost that the stories became accepted as fact. the officialhistory of josephus is that he was a judean descended from hasmonean royalty. hefought against the romans and although his friends committed suicide when the revoltwent pear-shaped, he gave himself up and was spared. more than that, we are told hewas housed in rome by the emperors for 30 years while he wrote books on jewishhistory and then married his granddaughter into the roman aristocracy. oh, do comeon. josephus was the roman aristocrat, anus calpurnius piso, and together with hissons a

created the myth calledchristianity. cynical lies like the turin shroud, which has been connected with theknights templar secret society, have been invented to perpetuate the propaganda. theforce which invented jesus and christianity is the same force which still controls theworld today. for instance, the roman college of architects was a forerunner of todaysfreemasons, only the name has changed. the romans used the same symbols of thesquare and compass and so on. a temple used by this college in pompeii was lost underthe eruptions of v esuvius in 71 ad and excavators have recovered from the temple ahexagram star of david, a skull and a black and white tracing board first used by thedionysian artificers.7 all these symbols are used by todays freemasons.the judean battle against rome contin

e tracing board first used by thedionysian artificers.7 all these symbols are used by todays freemasons.the judean battle against rome continued until the final defeat of the zealots in74 ad at masada, the flat-topped mountain stronghold overlooking the dead sea. itwas the last bastion of the essene community who had evacuated their base furtherdown the coast. as the judean zealots were routed by the romans, many membersof the nazarene secret society headed into jordan, mesopotamia, syria and turkey,as documented by julius africanus, who lived in turkey around 200 ad. joseph ofarimathea, the biblical uncle of jesus, is said to have travelled to france to spreadthe word. the vatican librarian, cardinal baronius, said that joseph first arrived inmarseilles in 35 ad and later went on to brita

en, cambra, in the late fourthcentury. they originated in scythia, north of the black sea in the caucasus mountains,from where the aryan and reptile-aryan race swept across europe. the sicambrianfranks called themselves the newmage- the people of the covenant; that is thecovenant of the anunnaki.the sicambrian franks later lived in an area west of the river danube and settled ingermania (named by the romans after the scythian genuine ones) and their centre wascologne. it was from the time of king meroveus, who was named guardian of thefranks in 448, that this line became known as the merovingians. these were the sorcererkings who were noted for their esoteric knowledge and magical powers which theyinherited from the underground bloodline streams of secret groups and initiations.francio, th

th the black and151white squares of a masonic temple. a feature of the sauniere-inspired decoration in thechurch is the rose and the cross. this is the symbol of the secret society called therosicrucians or rose croix and it goes back to ancient times. templar artefactsretrieved from paris and cyprus feature the rose and cross.28 the rose once again relatesto goddess worship and sexual symbolism. the romans knew the rose as the flower ofv enus (v enus= semiramis) and it was the badge of her sacred prostitutes. in thev enus sexual mysteries, anything sub rosa meaning under the rose, was not to berevealed to the uninitiated.29 mother mary, when used as a symbol for the goddessenergy, was referred to as the rose, rose-bush, rose-garland or mystic rose.30 thename rose may also come from eros

is also the home of the european union, na to, and, i am told, amassive computer centre where databases on all the people of the world are beingcompiled. it is known apparently as the beast and there are a number of these aroundthe world. an elite mind control operation called the janus group is also based in thena to headquarters. nimrod was eannus, the god with two faces, who was later knownto the romans as janus. the reason that belgium is a headquarters for satanism and somany brotherhood institutions is very simple. the brotherhood created belgium forjust this reason in 1831 and they imposed upon it a reptilian royal line, the house ofsaxe-coburg-gotha, the bloodline of the british royal family and, through its branch inprussia, the supporters of adam weishaupt, the founder of the ba

t of nimrod/baal. moloch demands thesacrifice of children and it was to this deity that the children of the babylonians,hebrews, canaanites, phoenicians and carthaginians, were sacrificially burned. thispicture provided visual support for the claims over many years that druid rituals werebeing performed at the grove with people in red robes marching in procession chantingto the great owl, moloch. the romans called the owl by the same word that meantwitch. the greeks said the owl was sacred to athene, the ancient mesopotamian eyegoddess, and her staring owl-like images have been found throughout the middleeast.27 the owl was also the totem of lilith, the symbol of the bloodline genes passedon through the female, and other versions of the triple goddess of the moon. the owlhas been symbolise

sreversing allows them to use their symbols in the public eye in a way that no-oneunderstands. sinn fein, the political wing of the provisional ira in northern ireland,has a dove as its symbol for this reason. it is this dove symbolism which gives us thefictitious name of christopher columbus who in fact used to sign his name colon. thename columbus was invented as yet more brotherhood symbolism. the romans usedto worship a deity they called venus columba, v enus the dove. v enus and dove areassociated with queen semiramis in babylon. the word dove in french today is stillcolombre. columba is also an aphrodite goddess which symbolises the negative,death and destruction, aspects of the female energy. hence we have british columbia,columbia pictures, columbia university, columbia broadcastin

they symbolise the sameentity, also, ninkharsag. diana was known as a moon goddess. one tribe of elitebloodlines who worshipped the goddess diana were called the sicambrian franks whocan be traced from troy (that name again, through asia minor, now turkey, thecaucasus mountains (again) and up into europe. they lived at one time in an area westof the river danube and settled in germania, named by the romans after the scythiangenuine ones with their centre in cologne. they also invaded parts of roman-occupiedgaul, the land which is now belgium and northern france, from where the noblefamilies of scotland were to come. it is from these sicambrian franks that we get thename france. at the time of king meroveus, who was named guardian of the franks in448, this people became known as the merovi

DEMONIC BIBLE

at the demonic bible is written. stop now at the horror of these words and cower in fear for your immortal soul, or read on and discover true and undefiled wisdom. for enlightenment speaks to the brave. introduction to the 2nd edition lucifer, the light-bearer the name lucifer comes from the latin words lux (light) and fer (to bear. lucifer means, literally, light-bearer and was the name given by the romans to the morning star venus when it appeared in the eastern sky in the hours before dawn. lucifer, the light-bearer, the morning star, personified enlightenment, wisdom, and beauty. the cult of lucifer was associated with the worship of venus or aphrodite, the goddess of love and passion, and involved sexual acts of which the early christians did not approve. the acceptance of christianit

DONALDTYSON CORONZON

tan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him (revelation 12:7-9. the serpent of genesis is identified as the devil or satan. moreover, the serpent is said to be a dragon. this is not as strange as might first appear. in past times, dragons and serpents were often confused together- a great snake such as a python was called a dragon by the romans, for example. dragons were sometimes called "worms" in ancient anglo-saxon literature. another important point to gather from the quote above is that the old serpent is identified with the leader of the angelic rebellion, lucifer, the light-bearer, second only to god in his glory. the bible has little to report about the fall of the angels. fortunately, the matter is treated in detail i

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francois 87 arnuphis (ca. 174 c.e) an egyptian general credited with magical powers. he is said to have saved the army of marcus aurelius from defeat by the quadi (a german tribe) when entangled in a pass which had been closed by the enemy. according to the writer dio cassius, the troops of aurelius were dying of thirst when arnuphis caused a miraculous storm that confounded the enemy and allowed the romans to quench their thirst and win the battle. their triumph was known as the miracle of the thundering legion, although christians ascribed the victory to their own prayers rather than to the aid of mercury and other gods invoked by arnuphis. aromatherapy term used for treatment of illness and maintenance of general physical health using essential oils distilled from plants. virtually unkn

n publication in 1968. it features information on activities of the society and features nontechnical rewrites of articles from the society s journal. the society is at 5 w. 73rd st. new york, ny 10023. the newsletter is also available online at http//www.aspr.com. ass many superstitions concern this familiar animal. the egyptians traced his image on the cakes they offered to typhon, god of evil. the romans regarded the meeting of an ass as an evil omen, but the animal was honored in arabia and judea, and it was in arabia that the ass of silenus spoke to his master. other talking asses were balaam s ass (numbers 22, which mahomet placed in his paradise with alborack; the ass of aasis, queen of sheba; and the ass on which jesus christ rode into jerusalem. some people have found something sa

in 334 b.c.e. chaldean astrology flowed into the mediterranean basin. alexander s conquests also introduced astrology into india, although the indians took the chaldean notions and developed them in a unique direction. in egyptian tradition the invention of astrology is attributed to thoth (called hermes trismegistus by the greek, the god of wisdom, learning, and literature. he is the mercury of the romans, the eloquent deliverer of the messages of the gods. in imperial rome astrology was held in great repute, especially under the reign of tiberius (14.37 c.e. augustus (27 b.c.e..14 c.e) had discouraged the practice of astrology by banishing its practitioners from rome, but his successors recalled them; and although occasional edicts in subsequent reigns restrained and even punished all w

, 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 abandoned. it was in

shed to become a sorceress sacrificed a live cock on a termite s nest, cutting the bird in two from the head to the tail and placing it on an altar, in front of which she danced and sang in the nude until the two halves of the bird came together again and it came to life and crowed. the name of the cock was pronounced by the ancient greeks as a cure for the diseases of animals, and it was said by the romans that locked doors could be opened with its tail feathers. the bird was pictured on amulets in early times and also figured as the symbol of abraxas, the principal deity of a gnostic sect. the cock was regarded as the guide of souls to the underworld, and in this respect was associated by the greeks with persephone and hermes. the slavs of pagan times sacrificed cocks to the dead and to

c drugs. garden city, n.y: doubleday, 1970. slack, charles w. timothy leary, the madness of the sixties and me. new york: peter h. wyden, 1974. zaehner, r. c. mysticism; sacred& profane. london: clarendon press, 1957. reprint, london: galaxy book; oxford university press, 1961. druidism druidism was the ancient magical religious faith found to be operating in gaul and later england and ireland as the romans pushed northward that has been revived as a twentiethcentury neo-pagan religion. the name derives from an old welsh term for oak, implying that they are the people who know the wisdom of the trees. julius caesar encountered the druids in gaul in the first century b.c.e. where, among other duties, they oversaw the human sacrifices that were then part of the celtic religion. from that tim

arms, by powers of pleasing. it is derived from the latin fascinare (enchant. a belief in the power of fascination appears to have been prevalent in most ages and countries. in ancient greece and rome there is the example of theocritus s wish that an old woman might be with him to avert this danger by spitting, and the complaint of menalcas (in virgil) that some evil eye had fascinated his lambs. the romans, with their usual passion for increasing the host of heaven, deified this power of evil, and enrolled a god, fascinus among their objects of worship. although he was a numen (presiding spirit, the celebration of his rites was entrusted to the vestal virgins, and his phallic attribute was suspended around the necks of children and from the triumphal chariots. lucretius, in of natural wit

few days. according to the same writer, the persians used to determine the sort of fascination under which the patient labored by binding a clean linen cloth around his head, letting it dry there, and analyzing any spots that arose on it. but the most curious fact stated by gutierrez is that the spanish children in his time wore amulets against fascination, somewhat resembling those in use among the romans. the son of gutierrez himself wore one of these; it was a cross of jet (agavache) and it was believed that it would split if regarded by evil eyes, thus transferring venom from the child to itself. the amulet worn by the gutierrez boy did split one day while a person was steadfastly looking at him; in justice to gutierrez it must be added that he attributed the occurrence to some accide

usion that the gypsy lore of hungary and south slavonia has a very original character as being, firstly, though derived from india, not aryan, but shamanic, that is, of an altaic, or tartar, or turanian stock. secondly, this was the old chaldean- accadian wisdom or sorcery. thirdly.and this deserves serious examination.it was also the old etruscan religion whose magic formulas were transmitted to the romans. the venetian witchcraft, as set forth by bernoni, is evidently of slavic-greek origin. that of the romagna is etruscan, agreeing very strangely and closely with the chaldean magic of lenormant, and marvelously like the gypsies. it does not, when carefully sifted, seem to be like that of the aryans. nor is it semitic. to what degree some idea of all this, and of gypsy connection with it

. jane lew, w. va: new age books, 1983. holly this name is probably a corruption of the word holy since this plant has been used from time immemorial as a protection against evil influence. it was hung around or planted near houses as a protection against lightning. its common use at christmas apparently originated in an ancient roman festival in which holly was dedicated to the god saturn. while the romans were holding this feast.which occurred about the time of the winter solstice.they decked the outsides of their houses with holly. at the same time the christians were quietly celebrating the birth of christ, and to avoid detection they outwardly followed the custom of their heathen neighbors and decked their houses with holly as well. in this way holly came to be connected with christma

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ive hundred years before the christian era. carried into asia minor by small colonies of magi, it was largely influenced by the religions with which it was brought into contact. for instance, chaldean astrology inspired much of the occult traditions surrounding the creed of the sun-god; the art of greece influenced the representation of mithra tauroctonous that graced the temples of the cult; and the romans gave it a wide geographical area and immense influence. according to plutarch, the rites originally reached rome through the agency of cilician privates conquered and taken there by pompey. another source, doubtless, was the large number of asiatic slaves employed in roman households. again the roman soldiery must have carried the mithraic cult as far north as the mountains of scotland

h the longest name; thus achilles triumphed over hector. according to caelius rhodiginus, the gothic king theodotus practiced an unusual version of onomancy recommended by a jew. the diviner advised the prince, on the eve of a war with rome, to enclose 30 hogs in three different sties, having previously given some roman and others gothic names. on an appointed day, when the sties were opened, all the romans were found alive, but with half their bristles fallen off; all the goths were dead. from this, the onomantist predicted that the gothic army would be destroyed by the romans, who would lose half their own force. the system uses the rationale of jewish gematria to assign numerical values to the letters of names. sources: waite, arthur edward. the occult sciences. n.p, 1891. reprint, seca

as ecological disasters and a world war wipe out a large percentage of humanity. oris currently resides in yalta. his work can be accessed on the internet at http:/members.xoom.com_xmcm/orisde/ english. sources: the channel oris. http//members.xoom.com_xmcm/ orisde/english. march 1, 2000. ornithomancy the ancient greek term for augury, the method of divination by the flight or song of birds. for the romans, it became a part of their national religion and had a distinct priesthood. the practice was also popular among the spanish people, the amoganenses. orton a spirit alluded to by the historian, jean froissart (1338.ca. 1410) as the familiar of the lord of corasse. according to legend a clerk whom his lordship had wronged had the spirit torment his superior, but through conversation the l

ly by buddhists and hindus, who ascribe it respectively to gautama, buddha, or the god siva. some believed eden represented the whole earth, which was of surprising beauty and fertility before the fall. a curious notion prevailed to a great extent among the various nations that the old world was under a curse and the earth became very barren. this view is reflected in the apostle paul s letter to the romans (8:22) where he refers to the whole of creation groaning in pain. eastern philosophies of paradise some eastern philosophies shared the idea that nature had been contaminated, and that the earth labored under some defilement. a sentiment that might have resulted from obscure traditions connected with the first human pair. the hebrew historian josephus stated that the sacred garden was w

ormed a foundation for thought and outlook upon the world, entered daily life, and directly affected many laws and customs. this ingrained tendency eventually developed into a broad polytheistic system, which led during bad times, especially in the later years of the empire, to a frenzied search for new gods, borrowed from various countries rome had conquered. in times of misfortune and disaster, the romans were always ready to utilize a non-roman deity if his or her favors promised more than those of their own deities. although there was a strong conservative element in the populous, and the custom of the elders was strongly upheld by the priestly fraternity, this usually gave way before the momentary impulses of the people. thus, as a rock shows its geological history by its differing st

y invoked. worship instructions designated the age and gender of all animal sacrifices; oxen were to be offered to jupiter and mars, and swine to juno, ceres the corn-goddess, and silvanus. at one shrine, a pregnant cow was sacrificed and the ashes of the unborn young were considered to be of special magical efficacy. even human sacrifice existed within historical times. after the battle of cann, the romans sought to divert misfortune by burying two greeks alive in the cattle-market, while in the time of julius c sar, two men were put to death with sacrificial solemnities by the pontiff and flamen of mars. again, in the time of cicero and horace, boys were killed for magical purposes. fire possessed great virtue and was held sacred in the worship of vesta, in early belief vesta being the f

op of monstrous specters rising from their tombs, shrieked along the city streets and up and down the fields. encyclopedia of occultism& parapsychology. 5th ed. rome (ancient religion& magic) 1321 beans were used in the funeral feasts. they were supposed to harbor the souls of the dead, and the bean-blossom to be inscribed with characters of mourning. dreams were considered of great importance by the romans and many historical instances of prophetic dreams may be found. they were thought to be like birds, the bronzecolored hawks; they were also thought to be the souls of human beings visiting others in their sleep or the souls of the dead returning to earth. in virgil much may be found on this subject. lucretius tried to find a scientific reason for dreams; cicero, although writing in a sl

y communicate telepathically to chosen individual channels or through spiritualist mediums. the most consistent space intelligences are those that communicate to the several contactee organizations such as the raelian movement, unarius-science of life, the aetherius society, and mark-age, inc. spain witchcraft modern spain emerged in the fifteenth century. the land had previously been occupied by the romans, visagoths, and the moors, who remained dominant beginning in the eighth century c.e. from early times, spain was regarded as a special abode of superstition and sorcery, malevolent magic, and, in the middle ages, as the home of witchcraft, much of that reputation deriving from the notoriety of the moorish alchemists. spain was a major point of dissemination of arab learning into christ

divine. the fame of veleda stood on the very highest elevation, for she foretold to the germans a prosperous issue, but to the legions their destruction! veleda dwelt upon a high tower, whence messengers were dispatched bearing her oracular counsels to those who sought them; but she herself was rarely seen, and none was allowed to approach her. cercalis is said to have secretly begged her to let the romans have better success in war. in the reign of the emperor vespasian she was honored as a goddess. veleda predicted the success of claudius civilis in the batavian revolt against rome (69.70 c.e) and the fall of the roman empire. velikovsky, immanuel (1895.1979) psychoanalyst and cosmologist who emerged as a major defender of catastrophism, the idea that the earth s history and prehistory

EVERBURNING LAMPS

neth with a bright light and wastes not. at the dissolution of the monasteries in britain, by order of henry viii, a tomb, in yorkshire, purporting to be that of constantius chlorus, father of the great constantine, was opened and ransacked, and a lamp burning was found in it: he died 300 a.d.-see camden "brittania (gough's edition, iii. p. 572) lazius, in his "comment. reipub. romae" writes that the romans under the empire possessed the secret of preserving lights in tombs by means of the oiliness of gold, resolved by their art into a fluid.-see lib. iii, cap. 18. an ancient roman tomb was discovered in spain, near cordova, near the site of the ancient castellum priscum; in this tomb was found a lamp. this lamp is described by mr. wetherell, of seville. see an essay by wray "athenaeum" au

FELDMAN DANIEL QABALAH THE MYSTICAL HERITAGE OF THE CHILDREN OF ABRAHAM

and receives their father s blessing while they stand before the ark of the torah) 1 this transliteration reflects the actual hebrew spelling of the word. it is often seen transliterated as kabbalah or cabala, however the word begins with a qof, and not a kaf, and only has one beyt, not two. 2 encyclopedia of judaica, keter publishing, jerusalem, 1971 ce. 3 the jews successfully revolted against the romans in 135 ce, sixty-five years after the destruction of the second temple. under the military leadership of shimeon bar kochba, they established an independent country that lasted approximately five years. they minted their own coins and established a nearly impregnable stronghold in the city of betar. rabbi akiba, who proclaimed bar kochba to be the messiah, was the spiritual leader of th

schneur. ma'amorim ketzarim inyonim, p.133, published in 1986. e "h 0 16 christianity assimilated december 25 as the birthday of master yeshuvah. before that, the indigenous peoples of western europe, whom the christians called pagans, had celebrated it as yule, and a number of other traditions as the birthday of solar saviors. the mithraists, for instance, regarded it as the birthday of mithra. the romans celebrated the date as dies natalis solis invictus, day of birth of the undefeated sun. the christian observance of the pentecost replaced the tradition of whitsunday, the holy day of the goddess frigg, the norse queen of heaven and consort of odin. easter absorbed the pesach of the jews, and was named after eostre or ostara, the pagan goddess of spring. 17 dimont, max. jews, god, and h

aditions, rochester, vermont, 1999. the reader is particularly referred to chapter nine: a synthesis of sacred science and quantum physics@ 1 the unquestionable authority of every letter, crownlet, and word of the torah comes from rabbi aqiba, a pivotal figure in the emergence of rabbinical judaism who was born 10-20 years after master yeshuvah. he supported the three and half year revolt against the romans initiated by the messianic pretender shimeon bar kochba, for which aqiva was martyred. 2 in 1975, dr. paolo matthiae discovered 20,000 clay cuneiform tablets at tell mardikh in northwestern syria. extensive evidence led to the conclusion that the site was the ruins of the ancient city of ebla. the tablets, dating back to the middle of the third millennium bce, were the city s royal arch

FRANCIS A YATES GIORDANO BRUNO AND THE HERMETIC TRADITION

he cannot have been the writer of the works ascribed to him. these do not contain the doctrines of an ancient egyptian but are made up partly from the writings of plato and the platonists and partly from christian sacred books.5 the pimander contains echoes of plato, particularly the titnaeus; of genesis; and of st. john's gospel.6 the powers in corpus hermeticum xiii recall st. paul's epistle to the romans.7 many of the hymns are from old liturgies, particularly those of st. john damascene, or from the psalms.8 the "regeneration" treatises are suggested by st. paul, justin martyr, cyril, gregory nazianzenus, and others.9 detailed proof that the hermetica cannot be of the antiquity supposed is brought forward by pointing out that they mention, for example, phidias, and the pythian games; a

FREEMASON BLUEBOOK

e by her nurse. as the branches grew up they encompassed the basket, till, arriving at the tile, they meet with an obstruction, and bent downward. callimachus, struck with the object, set about imitating the figure: the base of the capital he made to represent the basket; the abacus the tile; and the volutes the bending leaves. the composite is compounded of the other orders, and was contrived by the romans. its capital has the two rows of leaves of the corinthian, and the volutes of the ionic. its column has the quarterround, as the tuscan and doric order; is ten diameters high, and its cornice has dentals, or simple modillions. this pillar is generally found in buildings where strength, elegance and beauty are displayed. of the invention of order in architecture. the ancient and original

scan and doric order; is ten diameters high, and its cornice has dentals, or simple modillions. this pillar is generally found in buildings where strength, elegance and beauty are displayed. of the invention of order in architecture. the ancient and original orders of architecture, revered by masons, are no more than threethe doric, ionic, and corinthianwhich were invented by the greeks. to these the romans have added two: the tuscan, which they made plainer than the doric, and the composite, which was more ornamental, if not more beautiful, than the corinthian. the first three orders alone, however, show invention and particular character, and essentially differ from each other; the two others have nothing but what is borrowed, and differ only accidentally; the tuscan is maine masonic tex

tion and particular character, and essentially differ from each other; the two others have nothing but what is borrowed, and differ only accidentally; the tuscan is maine masonic text book file//c /grand lodge/bluebook/bluebook1.htm (19 of 76 [11/22/1999 11:51:55 am] the doric in its earliest state; and the composite is the corinthian, enriched with the ionic. to the greeks, therefore, and not to the romans, we are indebted for what is great, judicious and distinct in architecture. the five senses. hearing, seeing, feeling, smelling and tastjng. the first three, hearing, seeing and feeling, are deemed peculiarly essential to masons* hearing is that sense by which we distinguish sounds, and are capable of enjoying all the agreeable charms of music. by it we are enabled to enjoy the pleasure

FULLER J F C SECRET WISDOM OF THE QABALAH

of latter-day buddhists. nebo was the babylonian god of wisdom, and his planet was mercury. moses, the supposed originator of the qabalah, was buried on mount nebo. bo, bod, boden, and in china fo, are all gods of wisdom. amongst the buddhists and brahmins the day of wisdom is wednesday. amongst the scandinavians we have wo, wod, and woden; in egypt, thoth; in classical greece, hermes; and among the romans, mercury- all gods of wisdom, whose day is the fourth day of the week, wednesday, upon which god created glights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night h. 13 wisdom is not only the creator of the universe but also the mediator between the uncreated and the created- god and man. in the form of 'hokmah, the son of kether, wisdom renders comprehensive the abstract

GAMBLE ELIZA BURT THE GOD IDEA OF THE ANCIENTS OR SEX IN RELIGION

ing the generative processes, is shown by various passages in the avestas. in the khordah avesta, praise is offered to "the moon which contains the seed of cattle, to the only begotten bull, to the bull of many kinds" perhaps the most widely diffused and universally adored representation of the ancient female deity in egypt was the virgin neit or neith, the athene of the greeks and the minerva of the romans. her name signifies "i came from myself" this deity represents not only creative power, but abstract intelligence, wisdom or light. her temple at sais was the largest in egypt. it was open at the top and bore the following inscription "i am all that was and is and is to be; no mortal has lifted up my veil, and the fruit which i brought forth was the sun" she was called also muth, the un

remarking upon the vastness and antiquity of this old cushite race, rawlinson says that they founded most of the towns of western asia. the vast commercial system which formed a connecting link between the various countries of the globe, was created by this people, the great manufacturing skill and unrivalled maritime activity of the phoenicians which extended down to the time of the hellenes and the romans having been a result of the irgenius. it was doubtless during the supremacy of the ancient cushite race that a knowledge of astronomy was developed and that the arts of life were carried to a high degree of perfection. however, through the peculiar influences which were brought to bear upon human experience, this knowledge, which was bequeathed to their descendants or to the nations whi

female and male. according to one german tradition, tiw (zeus, which in its earliest conception was female, was the parent of the first man. this man begat three sons who became the fathers of the three deutsch tribes. ish (or ash) was the parent of the franks and allemans; ing was the progenitor of the swedes, angles, and saxons; and er, or erman, was the eponymous leader of the tribes called by the romans hermiones. the kosmogony of the chinese is similar in all respects to that of other countries. the first man, puoncu, was born from an egg. the chinese say that this egg-born puoncu, who is identical with brahm, noah, and adam, is not the great creator or god, but only the first man. their great god or tien is a unity which comprehends three, and their human triad--a triplicated being w

ina. on the evening of the fifteenth day of the first month in the year, every person is compelled to place before his door a lantern or light, such lights differing in size and expense according to the degree of wealth or poverty of those to whom they belong. light was the symbol of muth (perceptive wisdom. among the persians, the egyptians, the mexicans, the jews, the etruscans, the greeks, and the romans, fire was venerated as the essence of the deity; and, at the present time, in thibet, in china, in japan, and in portions of africa, it still forms an important part of worship. the hebrew writings show conclusively that not only the jews but all the surrounding nations were fire-worshippers, and that their sacrifices were not infrequently to the god of fire. of this forlong says "when

r ceres. as evidence of their purity we have the following "all the distinguished roman authors speak of these rites and in terms of profound respect. horace denounces the wretch who should attempt to reveal the secrets of these rites; virgil mentions these mysteries with great respect; and cicero alludes to them with a greater reverence than either of the poets we have named. both the greeks and the romans punished any insult offered to these mysteries with the most persevering vindictiveness. alcibiades was charged with insulting these religious rites, and although the proof of his offense was quite doubtful, yet he suffered for it for years in exile and misery, and it must be allowed that he was the most popular man of his age"[103 [103] chambers's edinburgh journal. in greece, the cele

e. the new sun which at the close of each cycle was believed by the more ancient people of the globe to "issue forth from the womb of nature to renew the world" now that the truths underlying nature-worship were lost, became a redeemer or mediator between earth and heaven, or between spirit and matter. it is stated that at the time of the appearance of christ not alone the jews, but the persians, the romans, the ancient irish, and in fact all the nations of the globe, were anxiously awaiting the event of another incarnation of the solar deity; and that maidens of all classes and conditions were in a state of eager expectation, the more pious, or at least the more ambitious among them, being in almost constant attendance at the temples and sacred shrines, whither they went to pay homage to

oatl, doubtless the same as the eastern goddess of nature, or wisdom. she was the "grain goddess" and "received offerings of fruit and flowers at her two great festivals. she also took care of the growth of corn. she was doubtless the same as the earth mother of the finns and esths, she who "undertakes the task of bringing forth the fruits" she is evidently the demeter of the greeks, the ceres of the romans, etc. she is also the goddess of wisdom, for she had "instructed the nations in the use of metals, in agriculture, and in the art of government" under this deity the "earth had teemed with fruits and flowers without the pains of culture. an ear of indian corn was as much as a single man could carry. the cotton, as it grew, took, of its own accord, the rich dies of human art. the air was

grew into the figure of a man with arms extended. it became the original "life giver" it was adam, the creator of the race. doubtless for ages adam represented the god-man-phallus-tree of life, or cross idea. he was the progenitor of the race. from this same idea sprang ancestor worship, or the deification of the past vital spark. the adoration paid to the lares and penates, the household gods of the romans, on the first of may, is an example of this worship, as is also the homage paid by the chinese to their progenitors. of religious emblems r. p. knight says that one of the most remarkable among them is a cross in the form of the letter t which was used as an emblem of creation and generation before the church adopted it as a sign of salvation. to this representation of male reproductive

h evidence to show that a dying figure on a cross was no new conception at the advent of christianity. crishna, whose history as we have seen is almost identical with that of christ, and ballaji, from whom the thorn-crowned figures of jesus have doubtless been copied, are illustrations of this mythical figure of a crucified savior in india. it seems altogether probable from the facts at hand that the romans worshipped a cross with a dying figure of a man upon it. minucius felix, a christian father, in defense of his religion, has the following passage "you certainly, who worship wooden gods, are the most likely people to adore wooden crosses, as being parts with the same substance as your deities. for what else are your ensigns, flags, and standards but crosses gilt and purified? your vict

nt a simple cross, but a cross with a man upon it. when a pure worshipper adores the true god with hands extended, he makes the figure of a cross. thus you see that the sign of the cross has either some foundation in nature, or in your own religion, and therefore not to be objected against christians" higgins says that it is proved as completely as it is possible to prove a fact of this kind that the romans had a crucified object of adoration, and that this could be no other than an incarnation of the god sol, represented in some way to have been crucified. an ancient medal found in cyprus has upon one of its sides the figure of a crucified man with the chaplet or rosary, the same as those now in use by romanists. from the style of workmanship it is thought that this medal must have been a

ddha, or the sun in taurus, was worshipped in the form of a bull. crishna, or the sun in aries, was adored under the figure of a ram with a man's head. the true significance of these figures was the fructifying sun or reproductive energy as manifested in animal life, and this meaning to those who worshipped them was identical with the carved figures on the caves of india, the lares and penates of the romans, and the stone pillars or crosses in the market-places and at the intersection of roads in brittany. eusebius says that at elephanta they adored a deity in the figure of a man in a sitting posture painted blue, having the head of a ram with the horns of a goat encircling a disk. the deity thus described is said to be of astronomical origin, denoting the power of the sun in aries. this f

GILBERT THE MAGICAL MASON

octrines of religion, philosophy and occult science, which their founder, christian rosenkreuz, had learned from the arabian sages, who were in their turn the inheritors of the culture of alexandria. this great city of egypt, a chief emporium of commerce and a centre of intellectual learning, flourished before the rise of the imperial power of rome, falling at length before the martial prowess of the romans, who, having conquered, took great pains to destroy the arts and sciences of the egypt they had overrun and subdued; for they seem to have had a wholesome fear of the magical arts, which, as tradition had informed them, flourished in the nile valley; which same tradition is also familiar to english people through our acquaintance with the book of genesis, whose reputed author was taught

d which burned with a bright light and wastes not. at the dissolution of the monasteries in britain, by order of henry viii, a tomb, in yorkshire, purporting to be that of constantius chlorus, father of the great constantine, was opened and ransacked, and a lamp burning was found in it: he died 300 a.d. see camdenbrittania(gough's edition, iii. p.572).lazius, in hiscomment.reipub.rome,writes that the romans under the empire possessed the secret of preserving lights in tombs by means of the oiliness of gold, resolved by their art into a fluid. see lib.iii.,cap. 18. an ancient roman tomb was discovered in spain, near cordova, near the site of the ancient catellum priseum; in this tomb was found a lamp. this lamp is described by mr wether255 ell, of seville. see an essay by wray,athent2um,aug

the jewish religion; indeed his successor, ptolemy philadephus, caused the hebrew scriptures to be revised and translated into greek by seventy-two scholars, about 277b.c.;this has been known for centuries as the septuagint version.furtherjewish troubles followed, however, and jerusalem was again taken and pillaged by antiochus in 170b.c.then followed the long wars of the maccabees; subsequently the romans dominated judea, then, quarrelling with the jews, the city was taken by pompey, and not long after again plundered by the roman general crassus (54b.c).yet the jewish religion was preserved, and we find the religious feasts and festivals allinprogress at the time of jesus; yet once more, ina.d.70, is the holy city taken, plundered, and burnt, and that by titus, who became emperor of the

hinkers divide manas, mind, into a higher and a lower, and speak of an antahkarana or thread soul uniting them; other compli255 cations are also heard of, such as the mysterious vehicle called the auric egg. ancient egyptian mythology alsoexhibitsa beliefin several indistinct principles, such as the ka, the ren or name, the ba or soul, the ab and sahu, all dwelling in the khat, the material body. the romans spoke of corpus the body, vita the life essence, animus or mens the mind, and anima the soul: the greeks recognised several principles, such as the psyche the soul, nous or phren the mind, thumos the life, eidolon the shadow, and soma the body. the jewish kabalistic rabbis also formulated a complex scheme of human principles; guph body, with the tzelem shadow; nephesh life, with the rua

were about to followinthe common life of the dreamer of his family.thethird was calledallegorikos,because in these dreams, future events were represented by symbols; one thing seen meaning another thing thus revealed.thegreeks referred dreams to zeus, to the god of the earth, and to the manes; also to hekate and to the moon.thegod of sleepwas called upnos, or as we now say, hypnos, the somnus of the romans. somnus and mors, sleep and death, were called the sons ofnox-night;they dwelled in subterranean darkness. dreams also were the sons of night; their abode, the cave of sleep, had two gates, one ofivory whence came forth false and flattering visions; the other of horn, through which issued true and noble dreams to good men. somnus had three sons who appeared in dreams, morpheus who appea

ents of the life, and also certain particulars of the character of the individual; a study of much interest.202themagical masonthere is a hint of such a scheme in job, xxxvii, 7, which was known to aristotle and practised by the emperor augustuscresar.sortilegium-lotsamong the ancient greeks and romans the divination bysortes,that is by casting lots, was in very common use. hermes, the mercury of the romans, was supposed to preside over this system of discovering the will of the gods. inkleromantela,dice, black and white pebbles or beans were used; they were thrown into a vessel, together with an olive leaf to appease hermes; this leaf was, after due prayers, first taken out, and then the fateful lot was drawn. stichomanteia this was another method in frequent use; it was a divination by v

trologer to the emperor frederic ii. johannes reuchlin, author ofthe mirific word of god,and pic de mirandola, the teachers of erasmus, the famous scholar who died in 1556, the very notable martin luther, the reformer who died 1546, and melanethon, were occultists and believed in the kabalistic magical learning taught by the hebrew rabbis. in england the practice of casting lots, thesortilegiumof the romans, was condemned by the tenth statute of king james the first as a felony, and by the twelfth statute of charlesii,was excepted from the list of general pardons on the ground of its being sorcery and subversiveofthechristian faith. at even so late a period as 1790 in this country, john wesley the founder of methodism and a most famous preacher is reputed to have said 'to give up the belie

the spiritual aspect the red stone is an emblem of christ.thefreemasons' system of the ballot seems to be a copy of the method of voting used in ancient greece, where small stones(psephoi),some black and some white in colour, were used for voting purposes in their law courts, and at election to several offices.thewhite stone then as now signified approval, and the black rejection. at a later date the romans also adopted this method of voting by stones. in medieval mystical writings we find many references to the smaragdine or emerald tablet of hermes, a slab of green stone upon which were engraved the foundation tenets of alchemy; for which see the latin work of athanasius kircher,oedipus aegyptiacus.reference may here be made also to certain stones used in divination by crystal-gazing; th

o some extent amplified by the most recent discoveries in the tombs and ruins of ancient egypt, and by the acquirement of the ability to decipher the funeral papyri and the inscriptions on the monuments of that wonderful land.thereligion of the ancient romans who succeededtothe dominion of the greeks, did not demand the cult of sacred mysteries in secret assemblies.theonly rites and ceremonies of the romans were the public festivals, like the bacchanalia, which soon degenerated into orgies. these were suppressed, and were followed by the more innocent liberalia, or holidays. in this essay, the ancient mysteries of egypt, commonly called those of osiris, isis and serapis, with the dionysiac, eleusinian and cabiric mysteries of greece, can alone be referred to at any length.thegerman author

ble of the temple of demeter, and was excluded from the sanctuary of the goddess. the mystes was obliged to await his admission into the greater mysteries and pass a whole year of unblemished conduct.itis probable that the theme of the lesser mysteries of eleusis was the story of the goddess demeter, and of her daughter persephone. demeter, whose name is a form of gemeter, 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 victors received a measure of barley as a reward.theeighth day was of a supplementary character, and was calledepidauria.on this day any initiate who had been unavoidably detained could be received. the custom is said to have originated from the late arrival of asklepios, who came from epidauros too late for the ceremonial of the sixth night. this asklepios was the famous physician, called by the romans l243sculapius, fabledtobe a son of apollo, by the princess coronis, of thessaly.theninth day was calledplemochoai,from the nature of the ceremony concluding the festival. two special cups, namedplemochoaiandkotuliskoi,were filled with consecrated wine, and their contents were scattered as a libation by the priests, one to the east- sacred to jupiter- and one to the west- sacred to pluto

31/ 2miles, the penalty being a fine of 1,000 drachmre. the wife of lycrugus was said to have been the first to incur the penalty. no person attending the festival could be arrested during its continuance for any previous offence, and no petition could be received at the mysteries.thedionysia,or mystic attic ceremonies in honour of dionysus, son of zeus and semele, a god who became the bacchus of the romans, were in their origin religious observ255 ances, but were at last degraded into mere popular holiday festivals of drink and immorality. they were held four times 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

rnal equinox, and that the symbolism referred to the sun in autumn and spring-time. the learned faber has a large volume on the kabeiri. herodotus tells us that cambyses, king of persia, unlawfully entered the temple of the kabeiri when in a fit of madness, defiled it, and burned the sacred images.theartemisiawere the festivals of the greek artemis, who became at a later date the goddess diana of the romans. she was fabled to be a daughter of zeus, the king of gods, by latona, and was a sister of apollo, who was often considered to represent the sun, and so diana was called the goddess of the moon. diana was deemed to be a chaste maiden goddess, and her nymphs were vowed to modesty and abstinence from sexual love. she was famous as devoted to hunting, and alsotomusic and the dance. she was

arose the dawning study of heavenly bodies affecting theearth;inegypt came the appreci255 ation of form and permanence shown in their buildings, their ideals of some sphere to follow death, by their ritual of the dead and the practice of preserving the corpse as a mummy: the semitic race developing the idea of divine unity: the greek race exhibiting recognition of material beauty in its statuary, the romans declaring the rights of individuals, a recognition of the self, by their formation of law. with these changes we recognise a gradual separation from our spiritual origin and a sinking into materialism, conferring immense benefits on menbuthindering their course of return to god.fromgod had come the order to the egos to descend and dwell on the earth, pass a material existence, submit to

GILBERT THE SORCERER AND HIS APPRENTICE

he priests alone, whereby they were able to expound as much as they thought desirable, or were allowed to teach, to the people. but the kabala was an absolute secret until afterthecoming of christ.itwas only in the second or third century that the kabala was compiled and made accessible: before that it was purely esoteric and secret. among the nations contacting with egypt were the phry255 gians, the romans, and the old hittites. there was a close connection between the hittites and the early egyptians. at one time the egyptian kings were proud to intermarry with the daughters of the kings of the hittites: and phrygia was the centre of the hittite kingdom. there the wisdom of egypt took root, and there in the original mysteries was the great mystery of revelation gradually expounded to the

GNOSTIC HANDBOOK

earlier israelites go? we know that ancient israel, whose capital was samaria, was taken captive by the assyrians in 721 bc and yet after this traditional history tells us that the ten tribes are lost- but is this really so? or has history also been twisted by scribes and politicians? we know that josephus writing in 70 ce states "the ten tribes did not return to palestine only two tribes service the romans after palestine became a roman province. according to second esdras (a book within the new testament apocrypha) the ten tribes moved a thousand miles west to southeast russia to become the people history knows as the scythians. in race and civilisation roger pearsons writes" nordic scythians overran palestine in the seventh century bc and the history of the sacae or scythians with their

GNOSTIC STUDIES THE GNOSTIC HANDBOOK II GNOSTIC THEURGY

and further degeneration in political and social structures caused such a lack of cohesion, that israel could be easily invaded and taken into captivity. captivity however did not mark the end of israel. it is an esoteric tradition that the ten lost tribes migrated to become the anglo-saxon celts. josephus writing in 70 ce states "the ten tribes did not return to palestine, only two tribes serve the romans after palestine became a roman province. the two tribes who returned to gnostic theurgy page 193 palestine became the forerunners of the essenes, while the ten lost tribes formed what we consider to be western civilisation. according to second esdras, we find the ten lost tribes moving a thousand miles west to southeast russia to become the people known as the scythians. those are the t

ystem and this led to claims of sexual excess against his followers by many church fathers. the same fathers, however, admit that valentinus lead a faultless life and that his erudition and education was superior to many of the supposed church academics. his secret gospel of truth is considered one of the major surviving gnostic texts. the paulicians there is only one thing that separates us from the romans (catholics. we say that there is a go who is a heavenly father and has no power in this world, but in the world to come and that there is another god, the creator, who has power over the present world; whereas the romans recognise the existence of one sole god, who is both heavenly father and creator of the world. historia, peter of sicily. the major emphasis in the teachings of the pau

GOLDEN DAWN RITUALS Z3

l to use the password then in being as an adjunct to the other names employed in magical ceremonies as bringing into operation the link with the solar light. notes on the opening exordium of z the great tho-oth is the highest aspect of the hermes of the most ancient egyptian mysteries, and corresponds almost to the great angel wrffm. it is the archangel of rtk in the briatic world. the mercury of the romans must not be confused with this great hermes* the doctrines of gnosticism and of valentinus approached those of the pure qabalah. in them we find speech and silence. across the abyss of silence comes the primal speech. the divine ones here referred to are the aeons in the atziluthic world. these formulae of knowledge are designed in terms cognizable to us in the lower world. hyha, implic

GRAHAM HANCOCK FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS

ts: great journeys of discovery; first-class mathematical and cartographic skills; sophisticated chronometers. it was not until harrison s chronometer became generally available in the 1770s that the third of these preconditions was fulfilled. this brilliant invention made it possible for cartographers to fix longitude precisely, something that the sumerians, the ancient egyptians, the greeks and the romans, and indeed all other known civilizations before the eighteenth century were supposedly unable to do. it is therefore surprising and unsettling to come across vastly older maps which give latitudes and longitudes with modern precision. precision instruments these inexplicably precise latitudes and longitudes are found in the same general category of documents that contain the advanced g

such obvious conveniences that it is difficult to comprehend how their invention could have been long delayed. yet neither ancient greece with its great mathematicians, nor ancient rome, had any inkling of either nought or place numeration. to write 1848 in roman numerals requires eleven letters: mdcccxlviii. yet the maya had a system of place-value notation very much like our own at a time when the romans were still using their clumsy method.15 isn t it a bit odd that this otherwise unremarkable central american tribe should, at such an early date, have stumbled upon an innovation which otto neugebauer, the historian of science, has described as one of the most fertile inventions of humanity .16 someone else s science? let us now consider the question of venus, a planet that was of immen

GRIMM JACOB TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY VOL 3

coverably lost to our mythology; i turn to the sources that remain to it, which are partly written memorials, partly the never resting sti*eam of living manners and story. the former may reach far back, but they present themselves piecemeal and disconnected, while the popular tradition of today hangs by threads which ultimately link it without a break to ancient times. of the priceless records of the romans, who let the first ray of history fall on their defeated but unsubdued enemy, i have spoken in the fourth and sixth chapters. if among gods and heroes only tuisco, mannus and alx are named in german, and the rest given in' romana interpretatio' on the other hand, the female names nerthus, veleda, tanfana, huldana (for hludana, aliruna, have kept their original form; and so have names of

in my opinion on the atrocity and folly of the witch-persecutions, but he would dispute the connection of witches with german mythology, and derive all our magic and demonology from the greeks and komans again. the resemblance of the medigeval notions to classical antiquity strikes him so forcibly, that he seems to think, either that germany and all barbarian europe till their early contact with the romans were without any magic or belief in ghosts, or that such belief suddenly died out. the walburgis-night, it seems, was suggested by roman lares praestites, even the practice of bidding for fiefs by floralia and averruncalia, and the cutting of henbane by the fruges excantare: why may not our es also come from id, our auge from oculus, our zehn from decem? at that rate wuotan might withou

n till the nose of one grew long, another's eyes red, and another's fingers thick, is told still more vividly in norway (a.sb. and moe, no. 13, and most vividly in scotland (chambers, p. 54-5. or the changeling's unfailing formula (pp. 469. 927, was that conveyed from denmark to scotland, from ireland to hesse? was the legend of the willow that has never heard a cock crow (p. 1243) handed over by the romans to the poles; and the myth of the thunder-bolt by the greek to the slav, by the slav to the german? did a little bird always pick up the legendary seed, and lug it over hill and dale to other lands? i believe myth to be the common property of many lands, that all its ways are not yet known, but that it is properest to that nation with whose gods it closely coalesces, as a word common to

lical names of cain, ehas, enoch, antichrist, herodias, there come into view the same old myths about moon-spots, giants' buildings, a god of thunder and of storm, the preface. xxxvll gracious (holde) night-dame and the buruing of the world. and what arrests our attention still more is, that to the virgin mary we apply a whole host of charming legends about holda and frouwa, uorns and valkyrs, as the romans did those about venus, juno and the parcae; nay, in the fairy-tale, dame holle and mary can usurp the place of gray-hatted wuotan. what a tender fragrance breathes in those tales of mary, and what has any other poetry to put by the side of them? to the kindly heathen traits is superadded for us that sense of superior sanctity which encompasses this lady. herbs and flowers are named afte

an's mead? the siiiglikj-matches also seem to have sprung out of the simplest nature of poetry itself. as the wise men of old questioned one another on their knowledge, as heroes proved on each' niebuhr in pref. to merobaudes says' qucm viorem coronandoriim poetanun cum poesi ipsa, cui semper aliquis hono.s mansit, etiam rudibus, quae secutae sunt, baeeulis perdurasse arbitror' but why go back to the romans for what seems to have been the usage of our own antiquity, when kings, judges, priests, heroes and minstrels wore garland and fillet, and even the people's poets used to elect a king of theu- own' au] ui ou on coruiie les biaus discour' rcuars 1g77. 910 poetey. other tlie prowess of their arms, so shehperds and poets sang for the prize of poetrj. osinn wishes to sound the wisdom (or^sp

ells exactly the same of the devil' you must not spin of a thursday evening, for the evil one would throw an empty spindle into your room, and call out. spin that full as well' ad. kuhn p. 379. of shapes of animals, some arc ascribed to the devil chiefly on the ground of their black colour (see suppl. 1 ii. 1, 592. thor threatens to lameloki, su. 130, and the liglitning-fiash has a maiming power^ the romans called pluto jupiter niyer, the black god. silius ital. 8, 116. 994 devil. sucli animal sliape was often not made complete^ but merely indicated by some addition to a configuration mainly human, much as the greeks and romans represented their satyrs, fauns or pan, and to dionysus, acteeon or lo simply added horns. the devil then approximates to those wood-sprites, skrats and pilosi trea

hare's heart in its place. child-devouring 'striges' in altd. bl. 1, 125. our present fairy-tales represent the witch as a woodwife, who feeds and fattens children for her own consumption (km. no. 15; if they escape, she goes after them in leagueboots (nos. 51. 56. 113. grimly the witch in the tale of frau trude throws a girl into the fire as a log of wood, and snugly warms herself thereby. that the romans believed in witches consuming particular parts of a man who still lived on, is proved by the following passages. pctronius cap. 134 'quae striges comederunt nervos tuos' cap. 63 'strigae puerum involaverunt' to this he appemls his well-known statement as to the weletahi or wihe, who were accused of eating their aged parents, ra. 488. that the national name volot, velet passed into that

nd hurricane proceed from those half-goddesses thorger&r and irpa, not as injurious to bewitching of crops. 1089 crops^ but perilous to armies ;i su. 175 makes a sorceress bear the very name el, procclla (see suppl. but sometimes the aim of sorcery is not so much to destroy the produce^ as to get possession of it^ to carry it off the field, either to one's own garner, or that of a favourite^ even the romans speak of this^ satas alio traducerc messes/ virg. eel. 8, 99' cantus vicinis fruges traducit ab agris/ tibull. i. 8, 19. people fancied, that when unholden walked through a vineyard and shoojc the vines, the grapes came out of the neighbour's plot into theirs (hartm. segenspr. 341. an old dalesman gave his granddaughter a staff, and told her to stick it in the corn at a certain spot in

once penetrate the ruder minds, there superstition or over-hellef grew rank. in low german they say bi-glove by-belief, in nethl. overgelof, bygelof, dan. overtro, icel. hiatril, all modelled on the latin superstitio, which itself is traceable to superstes (surviving, and denotes a persistence of individual men in views which the common sense of the majority has abandoned. a fortune-teller was to the romans' superstitiosus];iomo' and the swed. term vidsjcepelse seems primarily to mean a sort of magic, not superstition (p. loog; see suppl^ there are two kinds of superstition, an active and a passive^ one being more the augurium, sortileglmn, the other more the omen of the ancients" if, without man^s active participation, some startling sign be vouchsafed him by a higher power, he proo- uost

prises, supervenit (fr. survient; or even, taking it literally, what floats above us in the air, though that indeed would only apply to the flight of birds. hincmar de divortio lotharii (supra, p. 1099) says ^ad haec. pertinent, quas swperventas feminae in suis lanificiis vel textilibus operibus nominant' these the greeks called evohia avfi/soxa, and we have most of them in common with them, with the romans, nay with oriental nations. in view of the almost universal dis'usion of these' angange' it is hardly credible that they first came to the germans in the wake of latin literature: they rest on the older kinship of all european nations, and the very earliest observer of our kindred, tacitus, remarked this mode of divination among them' auspicia sortesque, ut qui maxime, observant. et ill

is laid on his planting of the right foot or the left. an instance in procop. de b. pers. 2, 5 p. 172 ought to be added. the observation of birds was even more minutely carried out than the encounter of quadrupeds, their free unhindered motion through the air being of itself enough to invest them with something marvellous and spirit-like. the greeks had a comprehensive olcovlatlkyj (suidas sub v, the romans reduced awspiaa and auguria to a system^ boh. ptaho-prawiti augurari, ptako-westec augur, pol. ptaszo-wieszczek. and heathens of the teuton race equally regarded birds as messengers of the gods and heralds of important tidings (pp. 672, 763 'what bird has brought that to your ears' means: who made you believe that, put it into your head 'a bird sang that to me: jag horde en fogel sa sju

ne, and illvi&ris-hraka ill weather. cento nov. ant. 32' segnor, je vit una cornacchia in uno cieppo di salice' or mi di, donna, verso qual parte teneva volta la coda' segnor, ella avea volta verso il cul^ conf. the charadrius or galadrot p. 853n. the ivoodpecher too was a sacred bird, p. 6 73-5; in lindenblatt's chi'on. p. 31 'ir speht hatte nicht recht geflogen' i.e. not from the right hand. to the romans the screeching parra (greenpecker? peewit) boded mischief' impios parrae recinentis omen ducat' ilor. od. iii. 27, 1 'picus et cornix est ab laeva, corvns, par7'a ab dextera/ plaut. as. ii. 1, 12. in sweden the flight of the lom (a sort of heron, says ihre) is presignificant. sup. k, 94. to see the magpie from the front is a good sign, from behind a bad, i, 158. when you hear the first

s for hegri, hregri, as. hragra, ohg. heigiro, hreigiro, e'pwsto, one large bird instead of another. when osinn swilled the drink he had longed for, and enjoyed the favour of the fair giantess, he was fettered in eagle's feathers, i.e. put on the form of an eagle. how like the myth of zeus, when, transformed into an eagle, he carries off ganymede, and makes him pour out nectar for him (see suppl^ the romans framed a system of augury of their own, not based on the flight of wildfowl, but on the domestic breed of poultry. the greeks practised an uxekrpvoixavreia by laying dogged him all day long to the single circumstance, that early in the morning a snake had crawled across ids path. 1 the description of this hall, and the impression its splendour must have made on the strangers, is wonderf

tque cineribus carhonihusqne extinctis (supra p. 621. cum jiluus colorum multiplicium, et herhis variis ac cocleolis, et serpentum particahs composita, cum carminibus incantata deprehendentes comperimus' these particoloured threads remind one of virgil's verse' terna tibi haec primum triplici diversa colore licia circumdo/ and' necte tribus nodis ternos, amarylli, colores (eel. 8, 73-7^ if it was the romans that taught our fathers the use of amulets, they must have done it very early, for what says boniface? epist. 51 (an. 742' dicunt quoque se vidisse ibidem mulieres pagano vitii phyladeria et ligaturas in brachiis et cruribus ligatas habere, et publice ad vendendum venales ad com- 1 among the lettons the bride on her way to church must throw a bunch of coloured threads and a coin into ev

boeotia, it was customary for patients, on recovery, to set up in the temple a metal model of the part of the body which had been affected. amongst ava6i]ixara an inscription mentions 7rp6ao)7rov, tit66, alsolov ^etp &c^ these votive offerings were afterwards melted down to make sacred vessels. the custom of votive tablets with limbs depicted on them may indeed have been imported into germany by the romans while yet heathens, unless we will admit that our fathers themselves had known them before. the passage from gregory given p. 81 says expressly 'membra, secundum quod unumquemque dolor attigisset, sculpehat in ligno' and further on, wisi enim in 60 barbari gentili superstitione, modo auri argentique dona, modo fercula ad potum vomitumque ebrii offerre, cultumque quo nihil insanius, isti

[14. the viscus was gathered at new moon, prima luna 24, 4 [6; the verbenaca' circa canis ortum, ita ut ne luna aut sol consjnciat' 25, 9 [59. unseen by man or heavenly body, silent and fasting, shall the collector approach the sacred herb. lihes of the valley are to be culled before sunrise, devil's-bit at midnight of st. john's eve, sup. i, 190. 1075. pliny 25, 3 [6] tells of a plant called by the romans herha britannica, because brought from the isles between germany and britain (ex oceani insulis extra terras positis 27, 1' florem vihones vocant, qui collectus i?riusquam tonitrua audiantur (is not that between lightning and thunder) et devoratus, secures a fulminibus in totum reddit. frisii, qua castra erant, nostris demonsti-avere illam; mirorque nominis causam, nisi forte confines o

uere faciunt, et radicitus erutam cum ligamine aliquo ad minimum digitum dextri 'pedis ligare; the object has been stated p. 593. the nudity of the person pulling it up answers to the above-mentioned laying aside of belt and shoes, but the right hand and right foot are at variance with the roman preference for left limbs. the whole cei'emony however seems to have been equally known in gaul, where the romans, as will appear by and by, found a herbritual ready organized. an as. herbal prescribes thus for sore eyes, wi"s eagena sare' cer sunnan tqygange o^^eliwene cer heo fullice gesigan ongiune (begin to sink, ga to j^eere ylcan wyrte proserpinacam, and bewrit hi abutan mid dnum gyldenum hringe, and ewe's (say) j^^t]?u hi to eagena leecedome niman wille (wilt take it for cure of eyes; asfter

intertriginem sentire' 24, 9 [38' intertrigines negat fieri cato absinthium ponticum seciim hahentibus' 26, 8 [58. yet if you fall, holding in your hand the nymphjea, you become epileptic (p. 654. but in many parts of germany herbs of power used to be suspended up in the loft, on the main rafter, or over door and gate ways, and left there all the year round, till they were replaced by fresh ones. the romans had a strange custom of laying a sieve in the road, and using the stalks of grass that grew up through it for medical purposes' cribro in limite adjecto, herbae intus exstantes decerptae adalligataeque gravidis partus accelerant' 24, 19 [109. the sieve was a sacred utensil (p. 1108-12: exstare is extra stare, prominere. this reminds me of our old weisthiimer, which determine the finenes

p. 375, is sure to have been hallowed above all stones. miolnir sounds remarkably like the slavic names for lightning, molniya, munya; this last the servian songs personify into miinya, and represent as sister to thunder (grom, and bride of the moon (miesets, masc, vuk 1, 151-4 new ed, which jumps with our personification of hammer (p. 181. 999. so much the more is molniya identical with miolnir. the romans too must have regarded the thunderbolt, silex, as a 'jovis lapis: lapidem sillcem tenebant juraturi per jovem,haec verba dicentes' si sciens fallo, tum me dispiter, salva urbe arceque, bonis ejiciat, nt ego hunc lapidem' those about to take an oath fetched out of the temple of juppiter feretrius a staff and' lapidem silicem quo foedus ferirent' exactly as covenants were hallowed by thor

cum saxo silice percussit. this is like our malediction' hammer strike thee' the finns in like manner called the thunderbolt ukon- idvi, stone of ukko the progenitor; the indians lura, inratia, tndra's tlninderstone (pott's etym. for. 2, 421) or vujnx, which means at once thunderbolt and diamond. as this makes it partake the nature of the brightest of stones, our fathers saw in it the hard flinty the romans the silex; myth and superstition alike accord to it the noblest powers' malleum aut silicem a'erium, 1222 herbs and stones. ubi puerpera decumbit, obvolvunt candido linteo contra infestationem fearum, albarum feminarunij strygum, lamiarum/ gisb. voetii sel. disput. tbeol, ultraj. 1651. 3, 121 (see suppl. as there is supposed to be a jjhilosopjier's stone (lapis sapientum, that imparts w

GRIMM TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY VOL 2 1883 COMPLETE

rogans morio. hans sachs occa sionally uses gauchberg 2 in the same sense, ii. 4, 110d (kempten ii. 4, 220a, extr. from goz 1, 52. yet originally in grauchsberg the bird himself may very well have been meant in a mystic sense which has fallen dark to us now (see suppl. 3 in other ways too the cuckoo stands in ill repute, he passes for an adulterer, who lays his eggs in other people s nests; hence the romans used cuculus in the sense of moechus (plauti asinaria, twice in last scene, and our goucli, goucheun formerly meant bastard (nib. 810, 1. aw. 1, 46, as the swiss gugsck still means an unbidden rival suitor. he even comes out as a fiendish being, or the fiend himself, in phrases everywhere known from of old: cuckoo knows, cuckoo take him, cuckoo sent him here and the like, in all of whic

78. but, beside the hoarded gold which the heroes carry off as prize, the adventure brings them other advantages: eating the dragon s heart gives one a knowledge of beasts language, and painting oneself with his blood hardens the skin against all injury. both features enter deeply into the legend of siegfried (see suppl. l nearly all of this has its counterpart in the beliefs of other nations. as the romans borrowed gigas from the greeks, so they did draco, for neither serpens nor vermis was adequate (like our slango and wurm) to express the idea. now spdicwv comes from sepxeiv to look, illumine, flash out &lt/&gt;ao? besop/ce expresses illuminating light, and this confirms me in my proposed explanation of our lint and linni. a fox after long burrowing struck upon the cave of a dra

t at once comes out with the poetic name iotunox iotunoxi (giant-ox; as that giant maiden took the ploughman with his oxen and plough for crawl ing beetles (p. 540, finn, sontiainen, sondiainen, dung-beetle from sonda, fimus, so conversely the real beetle might awaken the notion of a iotunox. to liken the small animal to the large was natural. our biggest beetle, the stately antlered stag-beetle, the romans called lucanus, nigid. in pliny 11, 28 (34, with which i suppose is connected the well-known luca los, lucanus or lucana bos, a name wrhich got shifted from the horned beast to a tusked one, the elephant (varro 7, 39. 40. 0. mull. p. 135. but we call the beetle hirsch (stag, fr. cerf volant, and even ox and goat, all of them horned beasts, pol. ielonek, 0. slav, elenetz (both stagling

r, ludegaar, and explains it, no doubt wrongly, as luikenaar (leodiensis. however, he tells the old story: t mannetjen in de niaan, dat gezegd werd een doornbosch op zijn rug te heben r en om dat hy t gestolen had, niet hooger ten hemel te rnogen opklimmeuy.maar daar ingebannen te zijn. exactly as in chaucer. solstice. sunset. 721 had it not seemed credible that such accounts may not have reached the romans from germany itself, but been spread among them by miscellaneous travellers tales. strabo 3, 1 (tsch. 1, 368) quotes from posidonius a very similar story of the noise made by the setting sun in the sea between spain and africa: yu-6/f &vvlv tov rjxiov ev rfj trapw/ceavitisi i^era tyo&lt;pov 7rapa7r\7 &lt;7/o&gt, tovavel ctl^ovtos tov 7re\dyovs kara arftecnv avrov sia to efju

so by transfer to mary maridrok, marirok (peter syv in the danske digtek. middelald. 1, 102, mariteen; here is plain connecting of a star-group with the system of heathen gods. the same three stars are to this day called by the common folk in up. germany the three mowers, because they stand in a row like mowers in a meadow: a homely 1 our mhg. poets adopt orion without translating it, ms. 1, 37a. the romans, ace. to varro and festus, called it jugula, it is not known why. waggoner. orion. 727 designation, like that of waggon, which arose in the childlike fancy of a pastoral people. ohg. glosses name orion pfluoc (aratrum, and in districts on the ehine he is called the rake (rastrum: he is a tool of the husbandman or the mower. the scotch pleucli, engl. plough, is said of charles s wain. so

ut of the ground, there is a golden dish, or a treasure lies buried; that gold coins or pennies drop out of the rainbow. when gold-pieces are picked up, they are called regenbogen-schwsselein(-dishes, patellae iridis, which the sun squanders in the rainbow. in bavaria they call the rainbow himmelring, sonnenring, and those coins himmelringschilsseln (schm. 2, 196. 3, 109: conf. supra p. 359 note. the romans thought the bow in rising drank water out of the ground: bibit arcus, pluet hodie/ plaut. curcul. 1, 2; purpureus pluvias cur bibit arcus aquas? propert. iii. 5, 32. tibull. i. 4, 44. yirg. georg. 1, 380. ov. met. 1, 271. one must not point ivith fingers at the rainbow, any more than at stars, braunschw. anz. 1754 -p. 1063. building on the rainbow means a bootless enterprise (note on fr

n times, chasing each other round the field, and bringing summer, they are the cause of flying summer, i.e. gossamer. l until we know the whole tradition more exactly, we cannot assign it its right place. lei and polel are usually likened to castor and pollux (linde i. 2, 1250b, to whom they bear at least this resemblance, that their names, even in old folk songs, make a simple interjection, 2 as the romans used the twin 1 hall. allg. iz. 1807. no. 256, p. 807. 2 pol. lelum, polelum; serv. lele, leljo,lelja (vuksub v; walach. lerum (conf. lirumlarum, verba effutitia. it seems to me hazardous to suppose them sons of lada as c. and p. were of leda. couf. supra p. 306. 784 summer and winter. demigods to swear by. fliegendersommer,flugsommer,sommcrflug, graswebe, are our names for the white th

pp. 23. 367 72, sigi (pp. 27. 371, we can easily find female beings to match them also. all these names belonged to the highest god, whose creative bounty blesses; others to his near kinsman the majestic god of war: wig (pugna, p. 203, conf. graff" 1, 740) and hadu (pp. 207. 223, to which many female names corre spond, hilta, etc,1 with yggr (p. 208) i have identified the pallor and pavor of the romans; omi, woma is better explained as elemental. what comes nearer to wig and hadu is death, daufius (p. 842, which likewise from a male becomes a female person; that death is immediately related to hunger is shewn in our language, goth, svults being mors, and on. sultr fames [germ, sterben, eng. starve, like tu/zo? hunger, xo^o? pesti lence; and personifications start up on every side: hun

HANDBOOK OF EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

ften difficult for the priests to know who was in charge of the country or for how long. from the second century bce onward there were frequent wars between rival members of the ptolemy family as well as rebellions by native egyptians. in the first century bce, one of the feuding ptolemies unwisely sought help from rome, the city that was becoming the greatest military power in the ancient world. the romans were eager for an excuse to get hold of the gold and the grain that egypt produced. the greek writer diodorus siculus (of sicily) visited northern egypt in the mid first century bce. in his description of the country he picked out elements introduction 39 of egyptian religion that he found bizarre, such as the reverential treatment of sacred animals. diodorus summarized the myth of osir

as souls tormented by tasks they can never complete, seem to be based on greek visions of the afterlife. in the third story, setna s son sa-osiris( son of osiris) turns out to be a reincarnation of a great magician of the past, a concept that may be more greek than egyptian. a battle against malevolent nubian sorcerers reflects contemporary fears of the powerful nubian kingdom to the south, which the romans never succeeded in conquering. a number of magical papyri of the roman period have survived, mainly from thebes. most of their spells are in greek, but four papyri of the third century ce contain elaborate spells in demotic.107 the demotic spells often utilize egyptian deities in their traditional mythical roles for dubious purposes. so, for example, the myth of the rape of the goddess

HP LOVECRAFT A DARK LORE

o place the fragmentary dream-glimpses in the chronological and spatial pattern. the glimpses themselves were at first merely strange rather than horrible. i would seem to be in an enormous vaulted chamber whose lofty stone aroinings were well-nigh lost in the shadows overhead. in whatever time or place the scene might be, the principle of the arch was known as fully and used as extensively as by the romans. there were colossal, round windows and high, arched doors, and pedestals or tables each as tall as the height of an ordinary room. vast shelves of dark wood lined the walls, holding what seemed to be volumes of immense size with strange hieroglyphs on their backs. the exposed stonework held curious carvings, always in curvilinear mathematical designs, and there were chiselled inscripti

HUEBNER LOUISE WITCHCRAFT FOR ALL WICCA 04

f you've got a case in court, for instance, it would be very good if you could get it on a wednesday. it's that kind of day. the days of the week are named after planets, in all languages. sunday is derived from the sun, and monday is moon day. in foreign countries, the same practice is followed: it's a global custom. the chinese god, tui, was a war god, and although our war god, mars, comes from the romans, we named tuesday after tui. the french use mardi in honour of mars. the spanish and french named wednesday after mercury, but we use the germanic "wodensday" woden was the counterpart of the god mercury. thursday is thor's day. thor was the god who was comparable to jupiter and although the french and spanish named their thursday after jupiter, we stick to thor. thor and jupiter were t

ISIS UNVEILED

s owes its origin, as an em- blem, to the realization by the earliest philosophy of an androgynous dualism in every manifestation in nature, which proceeds from the ab- stract ideal of a likewise androgynous deity; while the christian emblem is simply due to chance. had the mosaic law prevailed, jesus should have been lapidated^ the crucifix was an instrument of torture, and quite as common among the romans as it was unknown among semitic nations. it was called the' tree of infamy' it was only later that it was adopted as a christian symbol; but during the first two decades the apostles looked upon it with horror' it is certainly not the christian cross that john had in mind when speaking of the "signet of the living god" but the myatic tau the tetragrammaton, or mighty name which on the m

redress starves himself to death at the door of his judge; where the philosopher who thinks he has learned all which this world can teach him, and who longs f^ absorption into the deity, quietly steps into the ganges in order to arrive at the other shore of existence* in such a country even a voluntary crucifixion would have passed unnoticed. in judaea, and even among braver nations than the jews the romans and the greeks where every one clung more or less to life, and most people would have fought for it with desperation, the tragical end of the great reformer was calculated to produce a profound impresuon. the names of even such minor heroes as mutius scaevola, horatius cocles, the mother of the gracchi, and others, have descended to posterity; and, during our school-days, as well as lat

JENNINGS HARGRAVE ROSICRUCIANS RITES MYSTERIES

s, the emblems of the pelasgi; the story of prometheus, and the myth of his stealing the fire from heaven, wherewith to animate the man (or ensoul the visible world; the forges of the cyclops, and the monuments of sicily; the mysteries of the etrurians; the rites of the carthaginians; the torches borne, in all priestly demonstrative processions, at all times, in all countries; the vestal fires of the romans; the very word flamen, as indicative of the office of the officiating sacerdote; the 96 the rosicrucians. hidden fires of the ancient persians, and of the grimmer (at least in name) guebres; the whole mystic meaning of flames on altars, of the ever-burning tomb-lights of the earlier peoples, whether in the classic or in the barbarian lands; everything of this kind was intended to signif

of england with the prince frederick william of prussia. this is the teutonic perpetuation of the bacchic gloryings, of the saturnian rout and flame-brandishing, of the earliest and last rite. 112 the rosicrucians. the ring of light, glory, nimbus, aureole, or circle of rays, about the heads of sacred persons; the hand (magnetic and mesmeric) upon sceptres; the open hand borne in the standards of the romans; the dragon crest of maximin, of honorius, and of the barbarian leaders; the dragon of china and of japan; the dragon of wales; the mythic dragon trampled by st. george; the crowned serpent of the royal house of milan; the cairns, as we have already affirmed, and the runic monuments: the round towers of ireland (regarding which there hath been so much, and so diverse and vain speculatio

r mazes, or to the fateful charts in the letter-written skies. the astro- fig. 31. the letters s and z. 139 nomical stalls, or stables were the many sections into which the hosts of the starry sky were distributed by the chaldseans. the decumens (or tenths, into which the ecliptic was divided, had also another name, which was ashre, from the hebrew particle as, or ash, which means fiery, or fire. the romans displayed reverence for the ideas connected with these sacred stones. cambyses, in egypt, left the obelisks or single magic stories. the linghams in india were left untouched by the mohammedan conquerors. the modern romans have a phallus or lingha in front of almost all their churches. there is an obelisk, altered to suit christian ideas (and surmounted in most instances in modern times

KETAB E SIYAH

selves together and went with one mind and one voice to pontius pilate that was suzerain over judaea by the will of rome. arrayed in their robes they went before him and before him did they fall down, those that before knelt to but god now knew the kingship of caesar and took care to treat most humbly with that one he had appointed to speak and hear for him in the land. passing into the palace of the romans they looked about them and beheld high pillars of porphyry and images of marble, likenesses of the gods of that people and their proud monarchs that with the gods did number their own persons. upon the walls were mosaics of many things: bulls, porpoises and wondrous creatures, made bright with tiles of shining colours, blue, white, green, red and gold. it was as though heaven's arroganc

LEADBEATER CW GLIMPSES OF MASONIC HISTORY

the greek mysteries the eleusinian mysteries. the origin of the greek mysteries. the gods of greece. the officials. the lesser mysteries. the greater mysteries. the myths of the greater mysteries. the magic of the greater mysteries. the hidden mysteries. the school of pythagoras. the three degrees. other greek mysteries. chapter vi the mithraic mysteries zarathustra and mithraism. mithraism among the romans. the mithraic rites. the roman collegia. the work of king numa. the colleges and the legions. the introduction of the jewish form. the transition to the operatives. chapter vii craft masonry in mediaeval times evolutionary methods. the withdrawal of the mysteries. the christian mysteries. the repression of the mysteries. the crossing of traditions. the two lines of descent. the culdees

med part of the inner instruction that was associated with the ceremonies handed down among the operative builders from jewish sources. these were preserved under binding pledges of secrecy, and emerged in speculative masonry after the reformation, thus forming part of our present masonic system. 403. other greek mysteries 404. another line of tradition is that of the mysteries of dionysus (or as the romans called him, bacchus, which approached more closely to the egyptian scheme of initiation than the eleusinian rites. they were celebrated throughout greece and asia minor, but principally at athens; they were carried to rome, and afterwards formed a link in the chain of masonic descent. their central legend deals with the slaying of dionysus by the titans and his subsequent resurrection

r devotees a purity of life which was almost ascetic. 416. just as the mysteries of egypt and greece arose respectively from the incarnations of the world teacher as thoth and orpheus, so did the mithraic scheme arise from his incarnation as the first zarathustra about 29,700 b.c. in persia. it taught of mithra, captain of the hosts of the god of light and saviour of mankind. 417. mithraism among the romans 418. it is said that mithraism was first transmitted to the roman world during the first century b.c. by the cilician pirates captured by pompey; but, as we have already seen, it was before that time in the possession of the essene communities in palestine. for nearly two centuries it attained no great importance in rome, and it was not until the end of the first century a.d. that it be

ove their antiquity or religious character were permitted to remain in existence. they were finally abolished in a.d. 378. 439. the colleges and the legions 440. of these colleges of architects one was attached to every roman legion, building for it fortifications in time of war and in time of peace temples and houses. it was thus that the roman mysteries were brought to northern europe. wherever the romans settled, the collegia worked their rites, and in process of time native soldiers were initiated into their ranks, until the system became deeply-rooted in each roman colony. closely connected with these rites were those of mithra which, as we have seen, were also spread by the roman armies, although the two systems were always kept separate and distinct. 441. the organization of the col

had existed in europe from roman days which, under the influence of italian inspiration, regained their power and vitality. in france especially it is clear that the organization of the collegia was never fully destroyed and that the craft-guilds (corps d etat) of the middle ages were derived from them in unbroken continuity. 519. the true origin of the corporation is found in the social life of the romans, and amongst the vanquished gauls, who always formed the principal population in the cities, and faithfully preserved under their new masters the remembrance and traces of their ancient organization(*levasseur, histoire des classes ouvrieres en france, vol. i, p. 104, quoted gould i, p. 182) 520. roman civil architecture, industry, art- in one word, the whole roman tradition- was perpet

is clearly derived from england(*gould, concise history, pp. 18, 24) 534. the english guilds 535. three distinct lines of tradition contribute to the masonry of the english guilds. one line was preserved among the celts, as we have already seen, and became mingled in later times with streams from other sources. secondly, the roman collegia survived to some extent in england after the departure of the romans; the saxons found them there and did not interfere with them(*coote- cited in the cathedral builders, leader scott, p. 140) thirdly, there was the influx of continental builders, beginning in the time of s. augustine, but greatly augmented after the norman conquest under the patronage of archbishop lanfranc, the first norman archbishop of canterbury, a lombard by birth and a celebrated

LIBER DCCCLX JOHN ST

in tune with the jaws; perhaps it is that this peculiar method of eating (25 minutes for what could be done normally in 3) demands the whole attention. 1.30. drifted into a nap. well! we shall try what brother body really wants. 1.35. my attempt to go to sleep has made me supernaturally wakeful. i am.as often before.in the state described by paul (not my masseur; the other paul) in his epistle to the romans, cap. vii. v. 19.1 i shall rise and go forth. 1.55. i have a good mind to try violent excitement of the m.l.dh.ra-cakra; for the whole su.umn. seems dead. this at the risk of being labelled a black magician .by clergymen, christian scientists, and the .self-reliant. classes in general. 2.15. arrived (partly by cab) at the place.2 certain curious phenomena which i have noticed at odd tim

LIBER XCV THE WAKE WORLD

ry prince, when you spell it in full letter by letter. there are seventy-eight parts to it, which makes a perfect plan of the whole palace, so you can always find your way, if you remember to say t.a.r.o. then you remember i.n.r.i. was on the ring too. i.n.r.i. is short for l.v.x, which means the brilliance of the wide-wide-wake light, and that too is the name of my fairy prince only spelt short. the romans said it had sixty-five parts, which is five times thirteen, and seventy-eight is six times thirteen. to get into the wake world you must know your thirteen times table quite well. so if you take them both together that makes eleven times thirteen, and then you say .abrahadabra. which is a most mysterious word, because it has eleven letters in it. you remember the houses are numbered bot

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

ents. although caesar has something to say about the germanic gods, this notion refers especially to tacitus, germania, chapter 9, in which tacitus attempts a discussion of gods, cult, and divination. mercury, he says, receives the greatest worship, even human sacrifice. animals are sacrificed to hercules and mars, and a portion of the suebi sacrifice to isis (an egyptian goddess who was known to the romans, in what tacitus regards as a ritual of foreign origin because of the use of a ship. in the interpretatio germanica, we know the latin weekday names that were being translated, but here we are on less-certain ground. indeed, we cannot know the extent to which the interpretatio romana represents germanic peoples trying to equate their deities with roman ones and romans trying to figure o

LOGOMACHY OF ZOS

exhausted and there are no miracles beyond living matter. though flesh in its most radiant beauty is miraculous, it does not imply that nature has exhausted all possibilities of pleasuring in flesh. you are still inchoative, unfit for eternity, hence you face changes and changes. whether you behave as common stone or as precious jade, be expedient unto all men. hence in rome do not necessarily as the romans but adroitly be yourself. materialists state that "mind is the accidental product of matter, which is equivalent to saying that a chair. or any human-made object. accidentally produced man and the mind, and the reasoning that reified it. materialists have to swallow their own statements. they use their. 2' r^9 5' e..q (q. m h"d k .rxk5! s 3' separate existence lies in our reaction to th

MANLY P HALL THE SECRET TEACHINGS OF ALL AGES

, wherein three faces are united in one head. this is a legitimate method of for to those able to realize the sacred significance of the threefold head a great mystery is revealed. however, in the presence of such applications of symbology in christian art, it is scarcely proper to consider the philosophers of other faiths as benighted if, like the hindus, they have a three-faced brahma, or, like the romans, a two-faced janus. p. 20 always followed by the process of dissolution. according to spencer, however, disintegration took place only that reintegration might follow upon a higher level of being. the chief position in the italian school of philosophy should be awarded to giordano bruno, who, after enthusiastically accepting copernicus' theory that the sun is the center of the solar sys

er six, which are medical, by the pastophoroi (image-bearers--treating of the structure of the body, and of disease, and instruments, and medicines, and about the eyes, and the last about women. one of the greatest tragedies of the philosophic world was the loss of nearly all of the forty-two books of hermes mentioned in the foregoing. these books disappeared during the burning of alexandria, for the romans--and later the christians--realized that until these books were eliminated they could never bring the egyptians into subjection. the volumes which escaped the fire were buried in the desert and their location is now known to only a few initiates of the secret schools. the book of thoth while hermes still walked the earth with men, he entrusted to his chosen successors the sacred book of

parts of cairo and its environs. pyramid problems c. piazzi smyth asks "was the great pyramid, then, erected before the invention of hieroglyphics, and previous to the birth of the egyptian religion" time may yet prove that the upper chambers of the pyramid were a sealed mystery before the establishment of the egyptian empire. in the subterranean chamber, however, are markings which indicate that the romans gained admission there. in the light of the secret philosophy of the egyptian initiates, w. w. harmon, by a series of extremely complicated yet exact mathematical calculations; determines that the first ceremonial of the pyramid was performed 68,890 years ago on the occasion when the star vega for the first time sent its ray down the descending passage into the pit. the actual building

completely excavated by tahutmes iv as the result of a vision in which the god had appeared and declared himself oppressed by the weight of the sand about his body. the broken beard of the sphinx was discovered during excavations between the front paws. the steps leading up to the sphinx and also the temple and altar between the paws are much later additions, probably roman, for it is known that the romans reconstructed many egyptian antiquities. the shallow depression in the crown of the head, once thought to be the terminus of a closed up passageway leading from the sphinx to the great pyramid, was merely intended to help support a headdress now missing. metal rods have been driven into the sphinx in a vain effort to discover chambers or passages within its body. the major part of the s

hose who unveil her will be able to solve the mysteries of life, death, generation, and regeneration. mummification of the egyptian dead servius, commenting on virgil's neid, observes that "the wise egyptians took care to embalm their bodies, and deposit them in catacombs, in order that the soul might be preserved for a long time in connection with the body, and might not soon be alienated; while the romans, with an opposite design, committed the remains of their dead to the funeral pile, intending that the vital spark might immediately be restored to the general element, or return to its pristine nature (from prichard's an analysis of the egyptian mythology) no complete records are available which give the secret doctrine of the egyptians concerning the relationship existing between the s

is last effort the old sun god had torn down the house of the philistines (the spirits of darkness) and had cleared the way for the new sun who was born that day from the depths of the earth amidst the symbolic beasts of the lower world. concerning this season of celebration, an anonymous master of arts of balliol college, oxford, in his scholarly treatise, mankind their origin and destiny, says "the romans also had their solar festival, and their games of the circus in honor of the birth of the god of day. it took place the eighth day before the kalends of january--that is, on december 25. servius, in his commentary on verse 720 of the seventh book of the neid, in which virgil speaks of the new sun, says that, properly speaking, the sun is new on the 8th of the kalends of january-that is

sons should realize the special masonic significance of the phoenix, for the bird is described as using sprigs of acacia in the manufacture of its nest. the phoenix (which is the mythological persian roc) is also the name of a southern constellation, and therefore it has both an astronomical and an astrological significance. in all probability, the phoenix was the swan of the greeks, the eagle of the romans, and the peacock of the far east. to the ancient mystics the phoenix was a most appropriate symbol of the immortality of the human soul, for just as the phoenix was reborn out of its own dead self seven times seven, so again and again the spiritual nature of man rises triumphant from his dead physical body. medi val hermetists regarded the phoenix as a symbol of the accomplishment of al

on it consumed over thirty years. st. thomas aquinas, thinking the device to be a diabolical mechanism, destroyed it, thus frustrating the labor of a lifetime. in spite of this act, albertus magnus left to st. thomas aquinas his alchemical formul, including (according to legend) the secret of the philosopher's stone. on one occasion albertus magnus invited william ii, count of holland and king of the romans, to a garden party in midwinter. the ground was covered with snow, but albertus, had prepare a sumptuous banquet in the open grounds of his monastery at cologne. the guests were amazed at the imprudence of the philosopher, but as they sat down to eat albertus, uttered a few words, the snow disappeared, the garden was filled with flowers and singing birds, and the air was warm with the b

MARS COCIDIUS AND THE REDCAPS IN LANCASHIRE

klore. at the risk of being accused of wild speculation it is worth noting that cocidius (goch in modern welsh) means red and would have been rendered pock or poock in many of the british p celtic dialects (in which g s& c s at the beginning of words are commonly exchanged for by p s or b s. such a similarity in the name, appearance and function of the two deities would not have gone unnoticed by the romans for whom portents were very significant. this may go some way to explain the enthusiasm with which the roman soldiers appear to adopted mars cocidius s cult. i come from a traditional pagan family, from a district whose tutelary deity was mars cocidius (mars the red) and where the familiar spirits and the redcaps are still left offerings. as a warden& ranger i was for many years respons

commissioned more than ten years ago from a local stick-maker and a small fowlhook (or chickenhook) which is in fact my favourite. this was used daily for many years in my work, for catching ducks and as a means of protection on dark nights. i am also a practitioner of spae (a form of augury) and have always used these crooks in place of the more familiar stang, as do many pagans locally. so like the romans before me i took cognizance of the portents and have adopted laran as my personal lar and pay appropriate reverences not only to my own ancestors, but also to those of my benefactor the bronze s former owner, on his behalf. copyright rw parkinson september 2004 my traditional craft tools. branwen my pet carrion crow what follows below is un-edited material from other sources i fear it d

MASTERING WITCHCRAFT

r by the time of the roman invasion of britain within the first century a.d, the prytani had almost all retreated to the northernmost tip of the country, and were occupying the lands north of what is now perth and argyll in scotland. this may also account for the old witch belief of the north as being the holy direction. the northern abodes of the rulers of the picts, as the prytani were known by the romans, were often mysterious vitrified forts, towers whose outer stones had been fused together by great fires, making them practically impregnable to all attack. this is probably the origin of the witch's glass castle, which you will encounter later on. we know for a fact that glass castles such as these existed at craig phadrick at inverness, dun fionn, achterawe, and dundbhairdghal. by the

vous spirit said to be a reformation folklore version of the horned god. he was also known as robin artisson and robin goodfellow. hu. channel island version of the horned one, possibly derived from the welsh-celtic deity, hu gadarn. barabbas. hebrew bar abba meaning son of the father or divine son- reference to the incarnate god. mamilion. derivation unknown. dianus or janus. a twin-faced god of the romans, who guarded the threshold of the house and supervised all beginnings and endings. he is referred to by some witches as alpha and omega, the first and the last. another version of the horned one. janicot. a southern french diminutive of janus or dianus. the devil. literally "little god" derived from early aryan stem div or dev, meaning "holy" or "shining" lucifer "the light bearer" the

MICHAEL TSARION ATLANTIS ALIEN VISITATION AND GENETIC MANIPULATION

shed (p. 10)all legends speak of the isles of the blest, where the gods reside.hitlerit was understood that hitler would wire chamberlain today inviting him for a conference probablytomorrow at godesburg, on the rhine near boon. there by the hill of the gods which was a appendix b: book abstracts238atlantis, alien visitation, and genetic manipulation germanic place of sacrifice in the days before the romans came 2000 years ago, hitler intends toreceive chamberlain (from a news flash, september 20 1938 (p. 11)nephilim those who came downloreli the maids who sang in the rhine.phoeniciaphoenicia was in reality a small group of gods that ruled a semitic people. these gods, according toinscriptions styled themselves as the royal race.tara= tyre= tyronetara is believed to be the burial site of q

MORALS AND DOGMA

y and honor? in all ages, he who violates his plighted word has been held unspeakably base. the word of a mason, like the word of a knight in the times of chivalry, once given must be sacred; and the judgment of his brothers, upon him who violates his pledge, should be stern as the judgments of the roman censors against him who violated his oath. good faith is revered among masons as it was among the romans, who placed its statue in the capitol, next to that of jupiter maximus optimus; and we, like them, hold that calamity should always be chosen rather than baseness; and with the knights of old, that one should always die rather than be dishonored. be faithful, therefore, to the promises you make, to the pledges you give, and to the vows that you assume, since to break either is base and

rsors of gnosticism; and in their doctrines were ample oriental elements. these jews had had with the orient, at two different periods, intimate relations, familiarizing them with the doctrines of asia, and especially of chaldea and persia--their forced residence in central asia under the assyrians and persians; and their voluntary dispersion over the whole east, when subjects of the seleucid and the romans. living near two-thirds of a century, and many of them long afterward, in mesopotamia, the cradle of their race; speaking the same language, and their children reared with those of the chaldeans, assyrians, medes, and persians, and receiving from them their names (as the case of danayal, who was called b ltasatsar, proves, they necessarily adopted many of the doctrines of their conquero

y 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 deity; when sin and wrong, and pain and sorrow, remorse and mise

secration of men to the deity, by pledging them to virtue; and the assurance of those rewards which the justice of the gods reserves for initiates after death. this, above all else, made these ceremonies august, and inspired everywhere so great a respect for them, and so great a desire to be admitted to them. that originally caused the island to be styled _sacred. it was respected by all nations. the romans, when masters of the world, left it its liberty and laws. it was an asylum for the unfortunate, and a sanctuary inviolable. there men were absolved of the crime of homicide, if not committed in a temple. children of tender age were initiated there, and invested with the sacred robe, the purple cincture, and the crown of olive, and seated upon a throne, like other initiates. in the cerem

ittle assess, is the device of the flag of _issachar, whom jacob compares to an ass. capricorn, of old represented with the tail of a fish, and called by astronomers the son of neptune, is the device of _zebulon, of whom jacob says that he dwells on the shore of the sea. sagittarius, chasing the celestial wolf, is the emblem of _benjamin, whom jacob compares to a hunter: and in that constellation the romans placed the domicile of diana the huntress. virgo, the domicile of mercury, is borne on the flag of _naphtali, whose eloquence and agility jacob magnifies, both of which are attributes of the courier of the gods. and of _simeon_ and _levi_ he speaks as united, as are the two fishes that make the constellation pisces, which is their armorial emblem. plato, in his republic, followed the di

, reaching that point, he awakens all nature, and warms into life all the germs of vegetation; and therefore his most solemn feast among all nations, for many years before our era, was fixed at the time of his entrance into that sign. in egypt, it was called the feast of fire and light. it was the passover, when the paschal lamb was slain and eaten, among the jews, and neurouz among the persians. the romans preferred the place of _domicile_ to that of exaltation; and celebrated the feasts of the planets under the signs that were their _houses. the chaldeans, whom, and not the egyptians, the sab ans followed in this, preferred the places of exaltation. saturn, from the length of time required for his apparent revolution, was considered the most remote, and the moon the nearest planet. after

priests in the mysteries invoked _eve, by whom evil was brought into the world. the mystic winnowing-fan, encircled by serpents, was used in the feasts of bacchus. in the isiac mysteries a basilisc twined round the handle of the mystic vase. the ophites fed a serpent in a mysterious ark, from which they took him when they celebrated the mysteries, and allowed him to glide among the sacred bread. the romans kept serpents in the temples of bona dea and sculapius. in the mysteries of apollo, the pursuit of latona by the serpent python was represented. in the egyptian mysteries, the dragon typhon pursued isis. according to sanchoniathon, taaut, the interpreter of heaven to men, attributed something divine to the nature of the dragon and serpents, in which the ph nicians and egyptians followed

ntrary idea. there commenced the fatal knowledge of good and evil. everything double, false, opposed to the single and sole reality, was expressed by the binary number. it expressed also that state of contrariety in which nature exists, where everything is double; night and day, light and darkness, cold and heat, wet and dry, health and sickness, error and truth, one and the other sex, etc. hence the romans dedicated the second month in the year to pluto, the god of hell, and the second day of that month to the _man s_ of the dead. the number _one, with the chinese, signified unity, harmony, order, the good principle, or god _two, disorder, duplicity, falsehood. that people, in the earliest ages, based their whole philosophical system on the two primary figures or lines, one straight and u

cattle, in the framing and enforcing of revenue regulations, in the chicanery of the law, the objects of political envy, in the base trade of the lower literature, or in the heartless, hollow vanities of an eternal dissipation. every generation, in every country, will bequeath to those who succeed it splendid examples and great images of the dead, to be admired and imitated; there were such among the romans, under the basest emperors; such in england when the long parliament ruled; such in france during its saturnalia of irreligion and murder, and some such have made the annals of america illustrious. when things tend to that state and condition in which, in any country under the sun, the management of its affairs and the customs of its people shall require men to entertain a disbelief in

rough the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. for as many as are led by the spirit of god, they are the sons of god "the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh" he said, writing to the christians of galatia "and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would "that which i do, i do not willingly do" he wrote to the romans "for what i wish to do, that i do not do, but that which i hate i do. it is no more i that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. to will, is present with me; but how to perform that which is good, i find not. for, i do not do the good that i desire to do; and the evil that i do not wish to do, that i do. i find then a _law, that when i desire to do good, evil is present with me; for i del

MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS E

wild beasts tamed, of mighty rivers arrested in their course, and of mountains being moved by the sweet tones of his voice. the theory here advanced may possibly prove useful in the future, in suggesting to the reader the probable basis of many of the extraordinary accounts we meet with in the study of classical mythology. and now a few words will be necessary concerning the religious beliefs of the romans. when the greeks first settled in italy they found in the country they colonized a mythology belonging to the celtic inhabitants, which, according to the greek custom of paying reverence to all gods, known or unknown, they readily adopted, selecting and appropriating those divinities which had the greatest affinity to their own, and thus they formed a religious belief which naturally bo

wn, they readily adopted, selecting and appropriating those divinities which had the greatest affinity to their own, and thus they formed a religious belief which naturally bore the impress of its ancient greek source. as the primitive celts, however, were a less civilized people than the greeks, their mythology was of a more barbarous character, and this circumstance, combined with the fact that the romans were not gifted with the vivid imagination of their greek neighbours, leaves its mark on the roman mythology, which is far less fertile in fanciful conceits, and deficient in all those fairy-like stories and wonderfully poetic ideas which so strongly characterize that of the greeks. origin of the world..first dynasty. uranus and gaa (coelus and terra) the ancient greeks had several diff

ugh possessing no longer either influence or authority, his place being filled to a certain extent by his descendant and successor, zeus. cronus is often represented as an old man leaning on a scythe, with an hour-glass in his hand. the hour-glass symbolizes the fast-fleeting moments as they succeed each other unceasingly; the scythe is emblematical of time, which mows down all before it. saturn. the romans, according to their custom of identifying their deities with those of the greek gods whose attributes were similar to their own, declared cronus to be identical with their old agricultural divinity saturn. they believed that after his defeat in the [18]titanomachia and his banishment from his dominions by zeus, he took refuge with janus, king of italy, who received the exiled deity with

eus, as we have seen, often condescends to visit mankind, either as a mortal, or under various disguises, whereas jupiter always remains essentially the supreme god of heaven, and never appears upon earth. the most celebrated temple of jupiter was that on the capitoline hill in the city of rome, where he was worshipped under the names of jupiter-optimus-maximus, capitolinus, and tarpeius. page 38 the romans represented him seated on a throne of ivory, holding in his right hand a sheaf of thunderbolts, and in his left a sceptre, whilst an eagle stands beside his throne. hera (juno. hera, the eldest daughter of cronus and rhea, was born at samos, or, according to some accounts, at argos, and was reared by the sea-divinities oceanus and tethys, who were models of conjugal fidelity.[16] she wa

eus, on the acropolis, and is said to have possessed such marvellous vitality, that when the persians burned it after sacking the town it immediately burst forth into new shoots. the principal festival held in honour of this divinity was the panathenaa. the owl, cock, and serpent were the animals sacred to her, and her sacrifices were rams, bulls, and cows. page 48 page 49 minerva. the minerva of the romans was identified with the pallas-athene of the greeks. like her she presides over learning and all useful arts, and is the patroness of the feminine accomplishments of sewing, spinning, weaving &c. schools were under her especial care, and schoolboys, therefore, had holidays during her festivals (the greater quinquatria, when they always brought a gift to their master, called the minerval

hem to their new home, where it served as a connecting link between the young greek colony and the mother country. hestia is generally represented standing, and in accordance with the dignity and sanctity of her character, always appears fully draped. her countenance is distinguished by a serene gravity of expression [50] vesta. vesta occupies a distinguished place among the earlier divinities of the romans. her temple in rome, containing as it were the hearthstone of the nation, stood close beside the palace of numa pompilius. on her altar burned the never-ceasing fire, which was tended by her priestesses, the vestal virgins.[22] the temple of vesta was circular in form, and contained that sacred and highly prized treasure the palladium of troy.[23] the great festival in honour of vesta

hed to him, possessed the power of transforming herself into a variety of different animals. by this means she contrived to support her father, who sold her again and again each time she assumed a different form, and thus he dragged on a pitiful existence [58] ceres. the roman ceres is actually the greek demeter under another name, her attributes, worship, festivals &c, being precisely identical. the romans were indebted to sicily for this divinity, her worship having been introduced by the greek colonists who settled there. the cerealia, or festivals in honour of ceres, commenced on the 12th of april, and lasted several days. aphrodite (venus. aphrodite (from aphros, sea-foam, and dite, issued, the daughter of zeus and a sea-nymph called dione, was the goddess of love and beauty. dione, b

ourite plants were the myrtle, apple-tree, rose, and poppy. the worship of aphrodite is supposed to have been introduced into greece from central asia. there is no doubt that she was originally identical with the famous astarte, the ashtoreth of the bible, against whose idolatrous worship and infamous rites the prophets of old hurled forth their sublime and powerful anathemas. venus. the venus of the romans was identified with the aphrodite of the greeks. the worship of this divinity was only established in rome in comparatively later times. annual festivals, called veneralia, were held in her honour, and the month of april, when flowers and plants spring forth afresh, was sacred to her. she was worshipped as venus cloacina (or the purifier, and as venus myrtea (or the myrtle goddess, an e

hundred lacedamonians who fell at the battle of thermopyla. wolves and hawks were sacrificed to apollo, and the birds sacred to him were the hawk, raven, and swan. roman apollo. the worship of apollo never occupied the all-important position in rome which it held in greece, nor was it introduced till a comparatively late period. there was no sanctuary erected to this divinity until b.c. 430, when the romans, in order to avert a plague, built a temple in his honour; but we do not find the worship of apollo becoming in any way prominent until the time of augustus, who, having called upon this god for aid before the famous battle of actium, ascribed the victory which he [84]gained, to his influence, and accordingly erected a temple there, which he enriched with a portion of the spoil. augustu

ee, for which she still asked the same price as at first. tarquin, amazed at her inconsistency, now consulted the augurs, who blamed him for not having bought the nine books when they were first offered to him, and desired him to secure the remaining three, at whatever price they were to be had. he, accordingly, purchased the volumes, which were found to contain predictions of great importance to the romans. after the disposal of the books, the sibyl vanished, and was seen no more. the most beautiful and renowned of all the statues of apollo now in existence, is that known as the apollo belvedere, which was found in 1503 among the ruins of [85]ancient antium. it was purchased by pope julius ii, who removed it to the belvedere of the vatican, from whence it takes its name, and where it has

grees the attributes of that more ancient divinity helios, the sun-god, so, in like manner, she came to be identified in later times [97]with selene, the moon-goddess, in which character she is always represented as wearing on her forehead a glittering crescent, whilst a flowing veil, bespangled with stars, reaches to her feet, and a long robe completely envelops her. diana. page 105 the diana of the romans was identified with the greek artemis, with whom she shares that peculiar tripartite character, which so strongly marks the individuality of the greek goddess. in heaven she was luna (the moon, on earth diana (the huntress-goddess, and in the lower world proserpine; but, unlike the ephesian artemis, diana, in her character as proserpine, carries with her into the lower world no element

loponnesus, though universally revered throughout greece and in the south of italy. his sacrifices were generally black and white bulls, also wild boars and rams. his usual attributes are the trident, horse, and dolphin. in some parts of greece this divinity was identified with the sea-god nereus, for which reason the nereides, or daughters of nereus, are represented as accompanying him. neptune. the romans worshipped poseidon under the name of neptune, and invested him with all the attributes which belong to the greek divinity. the roman commanders never undertook any naval expedition without propitiating neptune by a sacrifice. his temple at rome was in the campus martius, and the festivals commemorated in his honour were called neptunalia. sea divinities. oceanus. page 117 oceanus was t

t of evil purposes. mars. the roman divinity most closely resembling the greek ares, and identified with him, was called mars, mamers, and marspiter or father mars. the earliest italian tribes, who were mostly engaged in the pursuit of husbandry, regarded this deity more especially as the god of spring, who vanquished the powers of winter, and encouraged the peaceful arts of agriculture. but with the romans, who were an page 126 essentially warlike nation, mars gradually loses his peaceful character, and, as god of war, attains, after jupiter, the highest position among the olympic gods. the romans looked upon him as their special protector, and declared him to have been the father of romulus and remus, the founders of their city. but although he was especially [115]worshipped in rome as g

ve been the father of romulus and remus, the founders of their city. but although he was especially [115]worshipped in rome as god of war, he still continued to preside over agriculture, and was also the protecting deity who watched over the welfare of the state. as the god who strode with warlike step to the battlefield, he was called gradivus (from gradus, a step, it being popularly believed by the romans that he himself marched before them to battle, and acted as their invisible protector. as the presiding deity over agriculture, he was styled sylvanus, whilst in his character as guardian of the state, he bore the name of quirinus.[45] the priests of mars were twelve in number, and were called salii, or the dancers, from the fact that sacred dances, in full armour, formed an important i

ich was accordingly propitiated by means of extraordinary sin-offerings and prayers. in rome a field, called the campus martius, was dedicated to mars. it was a large, open space, in which armies were collected page 127 and reviewed, general assemblies of [116]the people held, and the young nobility trained to martial exercises. the most celebrated and magnificent of the numerous temples built by the romans in honour of this deity was the one erected by augustus in the forum, to commemorate the overthrow of the murderers of casar. of all existing statues of mars the most renowned is that in the villa ludovisi at rome, in which he is represented as a powerful, muscular man in the full vigour of youth. the attitude is that of thoughtful repose, but the short, curly hair, dilated nostrils, an

the open palm of the deity she accompanies. sometimes she is represented engaged in inscribing the victory of a conqueror on his shield, her right foot being slightly raised and placed on a ball. a celebrated temple was erected to this divinity on the acropolis at athens, which is still to be seen, and is in excellent preservation. victoria. under the name of victoria, nike was highly honoured by the romans, with whom love of conquest was an all-absorbing characteristic. there were several sanctuaries in rome dedicated to her, the principal of which was on the capitol, where it was the custom of generals, after 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 ba

rtal tragedies and comedies. he was also a prophetic divinity, and possessed oracles, the principal of which was that on mount rhodope in thrace. the tiger, lynx, panther, dolphin, serpent, and ass were sacred to this god. his favourite plants were the vine, ivy, laurel, and asphodel. his 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

sheep, and the blood, instead of being sprinkled on the altars or received in vessels, as at other 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

es; 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 with the romans, who worshipped aides under the name of pluto, his other appellations being dis (from dives, rich) and orcus from the page 153 dominions over which he ruled. in rome there were no temples erected to this divinity. plutus. plutus, the son of demeter and a mortal called iasion, was the god of wealth, and is represented as being lame when he makes his appearance, and winged when he takes h

a wheel, to symbolize the rapidity with which she executes justice. as the avenger of evil she appears winged, bearing in her hand either a scourge or a sword, and seated in a chariot drawn by griffins [142] nemesis is frequently called adrastia, and also rhamnusia, from rhamnus in attica, the chief seat of her worship, which contained a celebrated statue of the goddess. nemesis was worshipped by the romans (who invoked her on the capitol, as a divinity who possessed the power of averting the pernicious consequences of envy. night and her children. death, sleep, and dreams. page 159 nyx (nox. nyx, the daughter of chaos, being the personification of night, was, according to the poetic ideas of the greeks, considered to be the mother of everything mysterious and inexplicable, such as death

NAGEL CARL AMAZING SECRETS OF OCCULT POWER

tnuts. taurus: grapes and sage. gemini: carrots and fennel. cancer: garlic and peppermint. leo: almonds and celery seed. virgo: apples and thyme. scorpio: ginger, mustard, and onions. sagittarius: sesame seed and nutmeg. capricorn: dates and wintergreen. aquarius: bananas and rye. pisces: mint and oranges. the word aphrodisiac is derived from aphrodite, the love goddess of the ancient greeks whom the romans called venus. of all the goddesses of ancient greece and rome, none was more widely venerated than the goddess of love was. every god -even zeus himself- wanted the beautiful, golden aphrodite as his wife, but she was too proud and rejected them all. one of her children was eros, the winged god of love. the black candle of love< the occult practitioners of ages past were the matchmakers

exual matters. the conjuration to summon the incubi and succubi works best if it is first worked three days before the new moon. aphrodisiac foods are ruled by the stars and exert a more potent effect if the correct foods are served to the person whose astrological sun sign agrees with the foods concerned. the word aphrodisiac is derived from aphrodite, the love goddess of the ancient greeks whom the romans called venus. sex backed by a definite thought or desire is a powerful magical force. you can make the irresistible combination of sex and magic work real wonders for you< the cabala is the secret teaching of the ancient hebrews concerning the inner meaning to the simplistic doctrines and philosophy of the old testament, and forms the basis of modern occult thought. one tradition surrou

NAUDON PAUL THE SECRET HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY

their professional occupations a celestial aura. thus were born the mysteries of the different trades.1 the cult of the ancient builders must have been of a distinct scope, for the noblest object of their labor was the construction of temples in which the gods were worshipped. in addition, human dwellings had religious significance. rituals were an indispensable part of their construction. among the romans the home was the temple of the lares gods. this was true for all ancient peoples and still survives in the traditional societies of the east "the dwelling was not an object, a 'machine to inhabit: it was the universe that man built in imitation of god's exemplary creation, the cosmogony."2 the home was not merely a geometrical space; it was an existential and sacred place. when trade as

a of builders who followed the legions on their campaigns. a collegium's divine protectors could be chosen by the order from almost anywhere. often a college chose a god whose attributions were related to the daily labor of its members (for example, sylvanus, god of woods, for the dendrophori, or wood carvers. in other cases it might choose a deceased emperor or even a foreign deity. we know that the romans often adopted the gods of other peoples. we can surmise what deity the roman tignarii, or carpenters, chose for themselves by looking at a stone discovered in 1725 in chichester, england, that bears the dedication (52 a.d) of a temple to minerva, goddess of wisdom, and neptune, god of the sea. the latter may well have been invoked both for the protection of the tignarii, who frequently

for the protection of the tignarii, who frequently had to cross the channel, and for the construction of boats.10 a similar inscription discovered in nice-cimiez shows the lapidarii making a vow to hercules, their tutelary deity* it is also likely that the worship of roman builders had experienced the influence of foreign peoples because of the itinerant nature of these artisans and the fact that the romans benefited from the architectural knowledge of the greeks, who in turn had been influenced by the persians, egyptians, and syrians. in fact, the influence of the syrians must have been considerable following their significant immigration into the roman empire, to rome particularly, during the later years of its existence "it was especially in the first century that the syrian exercised h

his death. as a testament to the collegiates' relationship and the charity it inspired, these colleagues are described as brothers (fratibus suis) in an inscription of the collegium of velabre from the time before christianity. at the death of one of its members, the collegium could be counted on to step in to ensure honorable obsequy and to oversee the fulfillment of the prescribed rites. among the romans, the sepulcher, intimately connected to the sacra gentilitia, or family rites, held great importance. people wanted assurance that they would not be tossed into one of the atrocious mass graves common to that era and that their college would see to their funeral arrangements.those who were buried together contracted a kind of intimate fraternity and kinship.13 the sacred character attac

places where legions established permanent camps, these camps eventually became the core of more or less important cities, including york (the former eboracum, which holds a prominent place in the history of freemasonry. this was one of the first communities in great britain to gain significance and to be promoted to the rank of a roman city. constant raiding from the mountains of scotland forced the romans to erect huge walls in the north of britain on three separate occasions. the first great wall was constructed by order of the general agricola in 90 a.d. the second was built under emperor hadrian in 120 a.d. finally, the third was built from the firth estuary to the river clyde around 140 a.d, during the time of anthony the pious. septimus severus undertook construction of another wall

ng a campaign against the picts. he was succeeded by his son, constantine i. putting an end to the persecution of christians, constantine declared himself their protector. after his victory over his rival, licinus, he himself converted to christianity, which he made the state religion. during the next century christianity spread throughout great britain and the scots and picts continued to harass the romans, who, finding themselves attacked from all sides, left this land at the beginning of the fifth century. at this same time, almost the whole of europe succumbed to the attacks of barbarians. 2 the collegia and the barbarian invasions what happened to the collegia, particularly the organization of builders, when the western empire collapsed under repeated waves of invasion? the fate of ro

of the monastic associations, which we will look at in chapter 3. the fate of the collegia in italy in 493 the ostrogoths became masters of all italy. they maintained roman laws there just as did the visigoths and the burgundians in their kingdoms. but when it came to the question of adaptation, the the collegia and the barbarian invasions 25 ostrogoths went even further. not only did they leave the romans their own laws, but also king theodoric subjected his barbarian subjects to the force of roman law at the beginning of the sixth century. this case of assimilation by barbarian conquerors remains unique. the reign of the ostrogoths was temporary. in 554, narses, justinian's lieutenant, succeeded in driving them out of italy. this liberation, however, was equally ephemeral. in 568, other

in their doctrine a familiar simplicity and loyalty to autochthonous traditions that made it understandable and accessible to all. their name seems to be the result of a merger of two latin words, colitores and dei, which together mean servants of god. these culdees would have infused their doctrine into the collegia that had been in existence from the time of carausius to the final departure of the romans. after the disappearance of the collegia following britain's invasions, these christians were forced to seek refuge in wales, the orkneys, scotland, and especially ireland, countries that had never the collegia and the barbarian invasions 29 experienced roman occupation and that medieval authors often referred to together as little scotland, scottia minor. the culdees were the source of

que church."4 the distinctive feature of gothic art is essentially the use of interecclesiastical and monastic associations 41 secting ribbed arches that support the vault like a kind of armature based at the tops of the supports. in the art of building, this feature constitutes the great discovery of the system of active stability resulting from the use of paired vaults, like that inaugurated by the romans, as opposed to the system of inert stability, which emerged from the use of heavy materials and monolithic beds without the lateral thrusts used by the greeks and egyptians. the discovery of this miraculous artifice was not at all the result of luck; it could have emerged only from profound causes, a kind of imperious necessity, and a series of trials and errors.5 in actuality there is

is lombard ribbed crossing is fairly contemporay with or appeared even a little earlier than the ribbed crossing found in the structures of northern france. but because the two styles are completely different, neither one can be regarded as the precursor to the other. perhaps they may be viewed as the results of similar research and trial and error. perhaps the crossed ribs had been envisioned by the romans and employed later by the lombards. although lombard builders knew of this style at the end of the eleventh century, however, and even exported it, it must be pointed out that its use remained a limited construction procedure for them. thus we cannot see in it the principle of a new architecture and get a sense of its power and prodigious future* the same could be said of armenian const

e venerable bede recorded in his historia ecclesiastica that nectan, king of the picts, who had converted to the roman rite, no longer wanted wooden churches like those built by celtic architects. he asked the abbot geolfrid (an anglo-saxon who 50 the origins of freemasonry from ancient times to the middle ages also followed the roman rite) to send him architects to build a church in the style of the romans. culdeen influence is much more noteworthy in ornamental art, mainly in sculpture, many examples of which have survived into the present. this art greatly contributed to the transmission of ancestral celtic symbolism to romanesque art, where its presence is quite visible. romanesque art brings us up to the eleventh century. but with respect to earlier centuries, there is little remainin

along with the rebirth of the studies of roman law, the royal role enjoyed by theology, which had ruled as sovereign over the world of ideas and provided society with it principal leaders, was strongly undermined. a new science was born that, rather than being fundamentally opposite to its theological predecessor, was instead independent of it. this was not the science of society such as the one the romans had let loose. despite the official resistance of the church, this science was a synthesis, a joining: the great renown of the roman empire, like the wisdom of greece or egypt, had never vanished from the memory of men. the church was the direct heir to rome and retained its dominance in this new world. but now next to the theologian stood the jurist, the philosopher, and the scholar. t

PHILIP NEIL MYTHS LEGENDS EXPLAINED

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-god ares. she was born from zeus head and is usually shown wearing armour. ares ares, the god of war (see p. 27) was the only son of zeus and hera. his mil

onse, poseidon sent a bull up from the waves to frighten hippolytus horses as he drove his chariot on the seashore. as planned, the horses panicked, hippolytus fell, became entangled in the reins, and was dragged to his death. artemis then revealed the truth to theseus and phaedra hanged herself in shame. shortly afterward, artemis persuaded asclepius (see p. 39) to bring hippolytus back to life; the romans said that in gratitude he instituted the cult of diana (artemis) at nemi. cercyon the minotaur 56 the minotaur the minotaur was the son of pasipha, the wife of king minos of crete, and a white bull belonging to the sea god poseidon (roman neptune. minos had deeply offended poseidon who, in revenge, caused pasipha to fall in love with the animal. the resulting offspring was the minotaur

ied to steal her away from her chosen husband. helen married king menelaus, and when she was abducted by the trojan prince paris (see pp. 62 63, her suitors kept their promise and laid siege to troy. after their death, the dioscuri acquired a semidivinity and were venerated as the twin or gemini constellation. they were especially important to the spartans, and later, in the fifth century bce, to the romans. heroic divinities, who in life had been involved in many battles and adventures, the romans believed that they helped them on the battlefield. columbines underfoot grow purple columbines representing resolution, or a desire to win. they may refer to zeus determination to make love to leda. the latin name for columbine is aquilegia, from the latin for eagle. it refers to the spur-shaped

ret of their marriage bed, which was carved from a living tree and so could not be moved. when odysseus died penelope married telegonus, his son by circe; and circe married telemachus. dido and aeneas 66 dido and aeneas aeneas, a trojan prince, was the son of venus (greek aphrodite) and a mortal called anchises. aphrodite told anchises that his son would one day found a great dynasty and, indeed, the romans regarded aeneas as the founder of their race. virgil s aeneid tells how he escaped from the sack of troy carrying his father on his back and how, after a long journey, during which his father died, he came to italy and founded a settlement on the site of rome. the most famous part of the story is his love affair with dido, queen of carthage. shipwrecked by juno (hera, who did not wish h

coins. his name means the horned one, and he is evidently a god with nearly as complicated a role as the greek dionysus (see pp. 58 59. he is predominantly a god of fertility and prosperity, but is also a god of the underworld. a coin found in hampshire seems to show him as a sun god, with a solar wheel between his horns. in northern britain he was called belatucadros, the fair shining one, whom the romans associated with the war god, mars. although there are no surviving stories about cernunnos, he may survive in folk belief as herne the hunter, the antler-horned spectral rider who leads the ghostly wild hunt across the sky. cross-legged posture cernunnos posture may show a near-eastern origin, or may simply reflect the habitual sitting posture of the celts who, according to classical au

RABBI AMIRAM MARKEL MARKEL THE KNOWLEDGE OF G D VOL 1

"clothing. these external letters are not connected to the inner essence of the torah, because if one were to rearrange them, he would not have changed the torah altogether. the torah would continue to be the torah. rather the book lying before him would not be the torah at all. it would be a different book written with the same letters, ordered differently. for this reason we are told that when the romans burned the torah scroll, the letters of the torah were not burned at all, but rather floated up to heaven. what was burned was merely the "clothing, the external letters which may be changed or exchanged. the essential letters of the torah itself remained intact. from this we understand that although letters which are "vessels" and the letters which are "clothing" look exactly alike, th

REGARDIE ISRAEL THE COMPLETE GOLDEN DAWN

es thereafter; its very frequency should make the student suspect its importance. few, however, take time out to apply basic qabalistic and magical principles to elucidate its meaning. so in order to convey some idea of elementary meanings, i have decided to show the student what can be done with these four english letters ln.r.1. they are, of course, the initials of a latin phrase once placed by the romans at the head of the cross representing the phrase "jesus of nazareth, king of the jews" several other theological meanings to these letters have been given at different periods in history by various groups of people and scholars. for example, the medieval alchemists suggested that i.n.r.i. meant "igne natura renovatur integra "the whole of nathre is renewed by fire" another example of ab

n adjunct to the other names employed in magical ceremonies as bringinginto operation the link with the solar light. notes on the' opening exordium of "z" the great tho-0th is the highest aspect of the hermes of the most ancient egyptian mysteries, and corresponds almost to the great angel metatron. it is the archangel of kether in the briatic world. the mercury of admission of the candidate 3 75 the romans must not be confused with this great hermes* the doctrines of gnosticism and of valentinus approached those of the pure qabalah. in them we find speech and silence. across the abyss of silence comes the primal speech. the divine ones here referred to are the aeons in the atziluthic world. these formulae of knowledge are designed in terms cognizable to us in the lower world. eheieh- impl

ROBERT KIRK WALKER BETWEEN WORLDS

such usage has already been carefully qualified at the opening of his text (page 21) where he describes the ancient practice of introduction 8 referring to that which is powerful and potentially dangerous by kindly names. not only did the gaels do this, as they still do to this day in isolated regions of scotland and ireland, but it was common in the classical world. the term good goddess used by the romans, for example, was often descriptive of the terrifying queen of the underworld, hecate, ruler of necromancy, death, poisons, cursing, and similar forces and activities. if we read kirk's material carefully, and try to avoid imposing any modern retrospective attitudes upon it (a difficult but not impossible task, he presents a clear and well-defined purpose to the reader. we may begin to

RUBY TABLET OF SET

ty of the assertion. quispel states that gnosticism had some greek origins and in the greek philosophic climate gnosticism developed and came to varied expressions. this is not to be taken as agreement with harnack that gnosticism is the acute hellenization of christianity. 1. philo, the man and his thought philo, an alexandrian jew, was born approximately 30 bc. this places him in the times that the romans controlled the hellenized world of alexander. philo is known to have written much. however the actual works extant today are said to be comparatively scarce. philo works predominantly with the idea of the platonic dualism. god is outside of time and space, and in his being unknowable. however, we must not forget that philo spoke of god, the revealed one, as immanent in his relation with

by the mingled essence of this magician and set, prince of darkness: move through the angles and come forth! hail, anpu-ap uat! invocation of names prince of darkness! master of the night! through countless ages, man has called thee by many different names, and in many tongues. classification: v2- c21.pd- 1 author: william p. van patten date: september 3, xxv subject: invocation reading list: to the romans, thou was lucifer, the bringer of light and lord of all enlightenment. you gave them sacred knowledge! yet in their own ignorance, they rejected it, and were left to rot in the abyss formed from their own hypocritical self deception. to i the black magician, you gave your light so that it could lovingly burn the scales of self deceit that blinded me, from my eyes. i, in turn, have accep

SATANGEL

grimorium verum. a subordinate spirit of lucifer. has power to cause all manner of prodigies visibility, both natural and supernatual. se irim, sahirim (hebrew sa ir, meaning hairy goats. demons in the shape of goats, to whom the children of israel offered sacrifice (leviticus 17:7. selene (greek. also called mene, moon, a tutelary deity of sorcerers and magickians, fused with hekate and artemis, the romans knew her as luna. later, she is identified as a queen of hell. serguthy (grimorium verum. a subordinate spirit of satanachia. has power over wives and virgins, when the occasion is favourable. seth (hebrew, transgression. the third child of adam and eve, after the desasterous relationship of cain and abel. a curious parallel exists between the tale of the two brothers in genesis, and th

SCHLAGER NEIL WORLD RELIGIONS REFERENCE LIBRARY

ol of the roman world religions: almanac 121 christianity empire, traditional jewish leaders maintained quite a bit of authority. the ruling body at the time was a group of seventy-one jewish elders called the sanhedron. the sanhedron felt threatened by jesus s teachings and by the popular opinion that he might be the messiah. they did not have the authority to eliminate jesus, but they knew that the romans did. the romans did not want any mass movements in palestine that might challenge their authority. visiting jerusalem for the jewish holy days of passover, jesus held a final meal with his followers and announced that he knew that one of them would betray him. this dinner became known as the last supper. jesus was betrayed by judas iscariot, one of his followers, and arrested by the san

that might challenge their authority. visiting jerusalem for the jewish holy days of passover, jesus held a final meal with his followers and announced that he knew that one of them would betray him. this dinner became known as the last supper. jesus was betrayed by judas iscariot, one of his followers, and arrested by the sanhedron. when jesus refused to defend himself, the sanhedron took him to the romans, charging him with sedition, that is, encouraging people to rebel against the government. again, refusing about christianity belief. christians believe that jesus christ is the son of god and that his crucifixion (death on the cross) and subsequent resurrection (rising from the dead) all make up for the sins of humankind. a belief in jesus and his suffering leads to salvation. followers

of twelve major deities. the greeks called this set of twelve gods and goddesses the olympian gods, because they supposedly lived on mount olympus in northern greece. they were led by zeus and his wife hera. the worship of these twelve deities was connected to the political life of the city-state, and all citizens were expected to participate in public worship as part of their duty to the state. the romans, who greatly admired greek culture, later identified their own deities with powers similar to the greek gods. many of the myths and other stories known about the greek gods actually have come through roman authors, who adapted the work of greek writers or created stories of their own to fit their conception of the greek deities. ancient greeks and romans were strongly affected by these

ross-section of athenian society and too many to bribe) finally condemned him to death; the method was by drinking a poison made from hemlock. socrates, a strong believer in the rule of law, took the poison. while socrates may have broken the laws of athens by teaching new ideas, his real crime was that one of his students betrayed the city during the peloponnesian war and caused its defeat. when the romans adopted greek religion, they took many of the gods and the myths and simply gave them new names. like the greeks, the romans believed in many gods, each with a different power: some controlled love, others dealt with crops and fertility, and others controlled storms. there were, however, differences in the two religions. the greeks believed that the gods and goddesses had come to give o

some controlled love, others dealt with crops and fertility, and others controlled storms. there were, however, differences in the two religions. the greeks believed that the gods and goddesses had come to give order to chaos. for greeks, balance was an important principle. they felt that the gods helped humans to establish a balance between the forces of nature and the forces of law and reason. the romans, however, were more interested in raw power than in balance. rome incorporated other foreign gods into its pantheon. among these were the goddess cybele from the city of pessinus in asia minor, and mithra, the ancient persian god of light and wisdom. mithra offered the promise of individual salvation through the belief in the immortality of the soul. a mystery cult, mithraism, grew up a

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 gave many of them different names. the roman gods were, in the same order, jupiter, juno, venus, mars, minerva, diana, mercury, apollo, vulcan, neptune, vesta, ceres, pluto, and bacchus (in parts of the roman empire, the emperor was also worshipped as a god) these gods, along with many minor deities who came to earth to do the bidding of the gods, controlled th

hese gods, along with many minor deities who came to earth to do the bidding of the gods, controlled the fate of humankind. zeus also appeared in human form, or even in animal form at times, to father children by mortal women. some of his sons became the heroes of greek legend. 222 world religions: almanac greco-roman religion and philosophy protecting and serving the gods for both the greeks and the romans, worship of the olympian gods was both a civic responsibility and a personal choice. although the gods could be approached by individuals petitioning for divine favor, it was much more important that the city or citystate as a whole benefit from the goodwill of the gods. each city-state had its own protecting god or goddess. for example, athens had athena as its patron goddess. one of t

er, 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 develop a separate myth about the creation of the world itself, they did attach great importance to the founding of rome. in addition to virgil s story of the founding of rome, the aeneid, there is a second major myth that explains the founding of the city. romulus and remus were two brothers, sons of the god of warfare, mars. they were separated from their mother as infants. th

lies more information about the relationships between the gods and goddesses. also, in his works and days, he provides a history of what he called the five ages of humans, from the golden age, ruled by the god chronos, to the silver age of zeus, the warlike bronze age, the heroic age of the trojan war, and ending with hesiod s own time, the iron age. virgil and ovid provided a similar service for the romans. in his aeneid, virgil transforms the sometimes bickering and petty couple zeus and hera into the thundering and all-powerful roman god jupiter and the angry juno. ovid, in his fifteen-volume metamorphoses, supplies a 228 world religions: almanac greco-roman religion and philosophy history of the world, from creation to ovid s own age. in doing so, he uses various greek myths to create

n and philosophy sacred symbols there is no one powerful symbol that represents either greek or roman religion. instead, various gods and goddesses have symbols attaching to them. athena, the patroness of athens, carried a shield, or aegis, representing her role as a divine protector of the city. the arrow was the symbol for the greek gods apollo and artemis, as well as for eros, god of love; for the romans the arrow was the symbol of cupid, god of love. the arrow was also used on roman coins to represent the god mithra. the lightning bolt was a symbol for zeus and his roman equivalent, jupiter. it would be thrown by these sky gods to punish, water, or fertilize the earth or its creatures. the greeks also adapted the egyptian sphinx, the lion with a person s head. the sign or symbol of the

s roman equivalent, jupiter. it would be thrown by these sky gods to punish, water, or fertilize the earth or its creatures. the greeks also adapted the egyptian sphinx, the lion with a person s head. the sign or symbol of the sun was also worshipped by the greeks and romans as a life-giving source. this could be simply a circle or a stylized sun with rays. the frog was a symbol for fertility for the romans, often representing venus, their version of the greek goddess aphrodite. worship the major form of worship for both greeks and roman was sacrifice and prayer. the greeks felt that all human actions could be influenced by the gods, and it was important for humans to show their reverence or respect for the gods through their actions. they made daily sacrifices to their family or house god

o avoid the bad luck that was supposed to come if she tripped over the threshold. when someone died in a house, the corpse was removed feet-first to discourage the ghost from returning. at the roman religious festival of the parentalia, in february, the members of a family would make offerings of flowers, corn meal, and wine on the graves of their family s dead. funerals were major ceremonies for the romans, with hired mourners and large tombstones erected. sad songs were sung and played on instruments as the body was put into the ground. later in roman history, however, these funerals were held only at night so as to discourage too many people from attending. the souls of the dead were called lares, and the romans believed that they watched over and protected the household. greco-romanism

f the temple. in 63 bce jerusalem and the surrounding nation of palestine fell under the domination of the roman empire (c. 31 bce 476 ce, which persecuted the jews and forced them to pay high taxes. to persecute someone is to mistreat them because of differences. this mistreatment often includes violence. at about the beginning of the common era a jewish group called the zealots formed to oppose the romans. in 66 ce the zealots launched a revolt, known as the great revolt, which 346 world religions: almanac judaism words to know ark of the covenant: a cabinet in which the ten commandments were kept in the first temple of jerusalem. ashkenazic: term used to refer to jews of france, germany, and eastern europe. bar mitzvah: the coming-of-age ceremony for boys. bat mitzvah: the coming-of-age

they believed in promoting their culture and interests above all others. they zealously (fiercely) opposed domination by the roman empire and launched a revolt to roman rule in 70 ce. the zealots are most famous for holding out against roman legions at their stronghold at masada, where they ultimately committed mass suicide rather than surrender. the zealots and essenes were nearly all killed by the romans. the sadducees lost their influence with the roman destruction of the temple. the only group to survive this period was the pharisees. for many of the following centuries there was no significant division in judaism. there were minor differences in culture and ritual between the ashkenazic jews of eastern europe, france, and germany and the sephardic jews of spain, north africa, and the

ot be readily available. zoroastrianism s influences one of the fascinations of historical religious studies is the religious activity that took place in asia and the middle east in the centuries before and after the start of the common era. during these centuries the countries of the middle east and surrounding areas successively fell under the rule of various empires, including the persians and the romans. as a result, religions tended to intermix. the official religion of empires frequently changed, and one religion could exercise a marked influence on the thought and development of another. such is the case with zoroastrianism. scholars continue to debate the influences that zoroastrianism had. one factor that sustains the debate is the uncertainty about dates. conventionally, zoroastr

hing for only three years. in that time, he gathered twelve followers, who were known as his disciples, and attracted the attention of much of the population in his home region of palestine. in addition to preaching about universal love and everlasting life, christians believe jesus performed many miracles during his lifetime. ultimately, he was crucified, or killed by being nailed to a cross, by the romans, who occupied palestine and were afraid of the power jesus was gaining over the population. three days after his death, jesus was said to have risen from the dead and later he returned to heaven. his disciples spread the word jesus christ. getty images. 187 about his life and miraculous resurrection. these teachings formed the core of the christian religion, which would become the large

am come to send peace on earth; i am come not to send peace, but a sword. indeed, in the words recorded in the gospels, jesus often seems to contradict himself, making the job of a biographer even more difficult. jesus lived during an era of political unrest. palestine, which was supposedly the promised land that god had given to the children of israel, had been invaded by the greeks and then by the romans. in 63 bce the romans made certain areas of palestine, such as judea and galilee, semiindependent kingdoms whose rulers answered to rome. by the time jesus was an adolescent, however, the entire region had become a province of rome and had lost all its independence. the jewish people of palestine, however, often rebelled against roman rule. from the activities of shepherds recorded in t

alilee, and from there went out to advocate love and forgiveness. jesus taught by using parables, or stories with moral lessons. accounts claim that he healed the sick, restored the ability to walk to the lame, and cured those with the dreaded skin disease of leprosy. jesus had no intention of becoming the warrior messiah of jewish tradition. he did not want to gather armies around him and defeat the romans. rather, he wanted to improve society by changing the ways individuals dealt with one another and establishing a community built on love and trust. before long, the radical preachings of jesus began to anger the romans who occupied palestine. the pharisees, a jewish religious group that insisted on the strict observance of jewish law, were also growing alarmed. they felt that jesus was

an angry mob of ephesians. final years paul eventually arrived back in jerusalem, bringing money that he had gathered on his travels for victims of a food shortage in the region. outside the jewish temple, he was recognized and nearly beaten to death by a 306 world religions: biographies saint paul mob of people who believed that he had made the temple unclean by entering with a greek companion. the romans rescued paul from the mob, only to imprison him, and for two years he remained in custody awaiting trial. he insisted that as a roman citizen he had the right to be tried in rome. after a new governor took office, the governor agreed and ordered paul sent back to rome. paul s journey to rome by ship was unpleasant. the voyage was made difficult by uncooperative winds, and the ship float

origins, but a well-regarded theory is that wicca evolved from ancient celtic worship of the goddess of fertility and the god of the hunt. as celtic society spread across northern europe and the british isles, the celts carried wiccan practices with them. the religion largely died out as a result of persecution (treating people unfairly, and often with violence, because of extreme differences) by the romans, the saxons, and the norman french. later, the christian church tried to forcefully eliminate wicca during the burning times, when accused witches were handed over to local authorities who saw to their deaths by hanging, drowning, or, though less common, burning at the stake. this took place roughly between the fifteenth through the eighteenth centuries. neo-pagan groups, including wicc

SIR EDWARD BULWER LYTTON ZANONI A ROSICRUCIAN TALE

phet, it passed, and left his countenance elevated by an expression of resignation and calm "madame" said he, after a long pause "during the siege of jerusalem, we are told by its historian that a man, for seven successive days, went round the ramparts, exclaiming 'woe to thee, jerusalem, woe to myself "well, cazotte, well "and on the seventh day, while he thus spoke, a stone from the machines of the romans dashed him into atoms" with these words, cazotte rose; and the guests, awed in spite of themselves, shortly afterwards broke up and retired. chapter 1.vii. qui donc t'a donne la mission s'annoncer au peuple que la divinite n'existe pas? quel avantage trouves-tu a persuader a l'homme qu'une force aveugle preside a ses destinees et frappe au hasard le crime et la vertu? robespierre "disco

SOLOMON

is name "and he answered me "ask me not, for thou canst not learn from me. however, he will come to thee by any command, and will tell thee openly" 29. i said to him "tell me by what angel thou art frustrated" and he answered "by the holy and precious name of the almighty god, called by the hebrews by a row of numbers, of which the sum is 644, and among the greeks it is emmanuel [1. and if one of the romans adjure me by the great name of the power ele th, i disappear at once [1. the text must be faulty, for the word emmanuel is the hebrew. the sum 644 is got by adding together the greek numbers] 30. i solomon was astounded when i heard this; and i ordered him to saw up theban [1] marbles. and when he began to saw the marbles, the other demons cried out with a loud voice, howling because of

SPENSER THE CULT OF THE ALL SEEING EYE 1960

e meant ancient. she married her brother osiris, and was pregnant by him even before she had left her mother's womb, according to plutarch's account. she and her brother-husband comprehended all nature and all the gods of the heathens. she was the venus of cyprus, the minerva of athens, the cybele of the phrygians, the ceres of eleusis, the proserpine of sicily, the diana of crete, the bellona of the romans &c. and she was the moon and osiris the sun.43 osiris received the same adoration as anubis, bacchus, dionysius, jupiter and pan. in other words, debauched revelries or saturnalias (from saturn, his father) were held in his honor "he visited the greater part of the kingdoms of asia and europe, where he enlightened the minds of man by introducing among them the worship of the gods, and a

TEXE MARRS CODEX MAGICA SECRET SIGNS MYSTERIOUS SYMBOLS AND HIDDEN CODES OF THE ILLUMINATI

s of the hell-fire club that "what happens here, stays here."8 rome also had the mystery goddess angerona. her statue showed angerona as a beautiful woman holding a finger to her mouth "the emblem of secrecy and mystery."9 angerona watched over the sexual promiscuity goings-on at various orgies connected with the festivals of the solstices and the changing of the seasons. the mystery religions of the romans and other peoples especially needed the utmost secrecy because, during the higher initiations, the unspoken names of the hidden or unknown god, or gods, was often revealed. as the christians gained in numbers and influence, they began to properly understand that these names were actually synonyms for satan, lucifer, the devil. great effort was therefore taken by pagans to obscure or pre

rmany in the mythology of the primitive world, the serpent is universally the symbol of the sun..the serpent was universally represented by the sun symbol, the circle or disk. bishop alexander hislop the two babylons t h e sun has ever been at the center of false religion. the ancient mystery religions venerated the sun, the solar disk, as deity. the greeks honored apollo as the child of the sun. the romans paid homage to mithra the sun god. these pagan philosophies form the basis for the worship of the 460 codex magica illuminati and indicate the importance of the sun as symbol of satanic deity. englishman john yarker, a well-known nineteenth century masonic magician and occultist, in his notes on the scientific and religious mysteries of antiquity, makes mention of the fact that the high

THE BOOK OF PLEASURE

my doctrine, they obtain tolerable satisfaction, whereas mine is complete. let him tarry here, who is not strong for the great work. in freedom he might be lost. so fledge your wings fearlessly, ye humble ones! 1: all means of locomotion, machinery, governments, institutions, and everything essentially modern, is vital symbolism of the workings of our mind, etc. 2: the symbol of justice known to the romans is not symbolic of divine, or our justice, at least not necessarily or usually. the vitality is not exactly like water-nor are we trees; more like ourselves, which might incidentally include trees somewhere unlearnt-much more obvious in our workings at present. others say knowledge only is eternal, it is the eternal illusion of learning-the ukase of learning what we already know. direct

THE GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE UNUSUAL UNEXPLAINED VOL 1

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 religious phenomena 201 the city of jerusalem contains some of the most venerated sites in the muslim, christian, and jewish religions. to name only a few, the muslims built the dome of the rock over the place from which muhammad ascended to heaven; the jews revere the wailing wall, all that remains of the great temple of solomon destroyed by the romans; and the christians flock to the church of the holy sepulchre, built around the tomb from which jesus rose from the dead. because of the extreme emotionality and religious fervor which exists around such sacred sites, a bizarre psychological condition known as jerusalem fever plagues certain visitors to the city, causing them to believe that they are on a mission from god and that they

ho presided over the temples and cults of isis and osiris. each pharaoh received his initiation name from the temple, and the priests were honored with the roles of counselors and advisors to the throne. some have even referred to the rule of ancient egypt as government of the initiates. although the ancient egyptians never appeared to produce a philosophical system in the manner of the greeks or the romans, the mysteries produced a remarkable number of 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 258 mystery religions and cults theearliest, legible human records, known as the pyramid texts of egypt (c. 3000 b.c.e, contained many prayers which were used as magical formulas and spells. systematized theologies that dealt with the essential questio

starte among the hebrews. most scholars agree that among the first images of the black madonna and her son were representations of isis and horus. the black madonna may also refer to mary magdalene, who, in the traditions of many christian sects, such as the gnostics, was the wife of jesus (c. 6 b.c.e. c. 30 c.e) in this interpretation of the events that occurred after jesus death at the hands of the romans, mary brought the cup used at the last supper the holy grail from palestine to southern france, where it would eventually be guarded by the knights templar. there is also a belief that mary arrived in france carrying within her womb a child fathered by jesus of nazareth, who then became the progenitor for the royal family of france. for those who hold such beliefs, the holy grail is but

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ny early peoples harbored the superstitious belief that it was best to sow seed at the full of the moon. others maintained that it was best to gather in the harvest when the moon was full. still others regarded the crescent moon as a fortunate omen. even today in south africa, many people consider it unlucky to begin a journey or undertake a work of importance during the last quarter of the moon. the romans marked their lucky days with a piece of chalk, their unlucky days with charcoal. from this custom of marking unlucky days with charcoal started the phrase black-letter day. today, black-letter days are generally ones remembered with regret because of some unfortunate occurrence connected with them. blue monday is an old phrase still in general usage. in early days those whose business c

middle ages, coral amulets were worn as protection from evil wrought by witchcraft. for centuries, opals have been thought to be lucky gems and to possess supernatural powers. the sapphire has also been a symbol of good luck since the most ancient of times. the greeks believed that to wear the sapphire was to invite the favor of the gods. the diamond was also considered lucky, particularly among the romans. in many arabian countries the favorite good-luck amulet is turquoise, which is often engraved with the name of allah or a verse from the koran. while certain people believe that pearls bring bad luck, the romans and greeks wore pearls to win the favor of the goddess venus. asians generally esteem pearls to have medicinal properties and believe that to wear them greatly improves the cle

till has some nails remaining in it. some old accounts advise that one toss the horseshoe over the left shoulder and spit after it to increase the good luck that will soon arrive. the last letter in the greek alphabet, omega, is shaped like a horseshoe, and perhaps the ancient greeks used reverse psychology when they tacked a symbol of the end on their walls to protect themselves from the plague. the romans must have thought the horseshoe was an able defender against the terrible disease, for they followed the greek custom of placing a horseshoe on their walls. the u-shaped image of the horseshoe was undoubtedly revered even before humans domesticated horses and shod their hooves. many prehistoric stone monuments and structures, such as stonehenge, are set in a horseshoe shape, quite likel

ky omen, others as unlucky. the greeks, romans, and egyptians considered the sneeze a kind of internal oracle that warned them in times of danger and foretold future good or evil. sneezing to the right was considered lucky; to the left, unlucky. an old flemish belief maintained that a sneeze during conversation proved the truth of a remark. such a superstition was also prevalent among the greeks, the romans, and the egyptians. the custom of uttering a benediction, a god bless you, after the sneeze is universal, and each country has its own particular superstition concerning it. the romans believed that the sneeze expelled evil spirits; therefore, the act of sneezing was considered an effort on the part of the person to rid his or her system of evil spirits, and those present at the time wo

and abundance. however, rice was not always the grain used to throw after departing newlyweds. among some early peoples wheat symbolized productivity, so grains of wheat were used in the marriage rites to symbolize fruitfulness and plenty for the couple. the ancient greeks poured flour and sweetmeats over the bride and groom to represent a wish for an abundance of all that is sweet and desirable. the romans began the custom of throwing, rather than pouring, sweet meats at the fleeing couple. some authorities state that people began throwing rice after newlyweds for the purpose of giving food to the evil spirits that were always present at any festive gathering of humans. it was to appease these spirits and keep them from doing injury to the bridal pair that the custom of rice-throwing was

r lives, such as births, marriages, holidays, and victories in warfare. during the days when the roman empire flourished, the feasts in rome surpassed any others, because the wealthy had the food products that enabled them to dine in lavish style, and what delicacies they might have lacked, they sent for, sending their representatives throughout the known world to obtain choice fruits and viands. the romans were noted for their hospitality. nothing was too rich or too costly for the entertainment of their guests. the ancient israelites gave great feasts on special occasions, but their hospitality extended to strangers and to the poor as well as to important guests and to friends who would be likely to reciprocate. when the holy one loves a man, states the zohar, genesis 104a, he sends him

red, and they ate while reclining on couches, using their fingers in primitive fashion. water was provided several times during the course of the meal for washing the hands. the highest in rank had their hands washed first; the lowest, last. 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 216 superstitions, strange customs, taboos, and urban legends among the romans there was usually a place of honor at the dining table. the highest in rank sat at the head, the next in rank at the upper end, and the third highest in social position sat at the lower end. all guests washed their hands at the table before eating, a ceremonial washing that began with the highest in rank and ended with the lowest. wealthy romans rarely invited guests to their homes for

ree to seven courses. the host and hostess gave each guest an exact list of the courses and all the individual dishes of the feast, and then they led their guests into the dining hall. as they were being seated, servants draped the members of the dinner party with a wreath of flowers and offered them a goblet of wine. after a period of roman history when chairs or stools were used around a table, the romans adopted the dining couch. generally, three couches were at a table, with one side left open to receive the service. four people could dine comfortably from one couch. they were low, without backs, and covered with rich fabrics. the host and his wife sat at the head table with the guest of honor. the rest of the guests took places at the other tables according to rank. in many of the old

outh to unsuspecting diners. hand washing and bathing. it is known that among the early greeks it was considered ill-mannered to attempt to recline at the dinner table before visiting with the other guests and washing one s hands. servants brought in vessels of water so that the custom of hand washing could be observed by all the guests, and not until they had done so were they permitted to dine. the romans washed their hands before and after dinner. small basins were provided for guests for this purpose, and it was a common practice to drop a flower into the water to make it fragrant. this custom has survived today in many homes and restaurants in which a finger bowl with a flower petal in the water is brought to guests between courses of the meal or after they have finished eating. egypt

THE GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE UNUSUAL UNEXPLAINED VOL

pyrus discovered in the tomb of the anonymous magician contains the oldest known copy of the inscription from the legendary emerald tablet, 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

aspects of life, many librans live to a ripe old age, having the ability to recuperate from illness more quickly than those born under other signs. 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 122 prophecy and divination astrological chart (corbis corporation) scorpio, the scorpion, october 24 to november 22, is a water sign. diana, the moon-goddess of the romans, commanded scorpio to kill the hunter orion when eos, goddess of the dawn, fell in love with him. after his death, jupiter set the scorpion and orion, still armed with his armor and sword, in the stars. scorpios are definitely possessed of a passionate nature, and they are highly successful in winning the affections of those whom they desire. scorpio people do not tolerate contradiction

f mind. sagittarians are often able to retain their physical youth into advanced maturity, and they are relatively free of health problems as well. capricorn, the goat, december 22 to january 20, is an earth sign. capricorn was named first in honor of the ancient babylonian god, ea, a part-goat, part fish entity, who emerged from the sea to bring learning and culture to the valley of mesopotamia. the romans transformed ea to pan, a half-goat, half-human god who ruled the woodlands and the fields. capricorns are individuals of deeply rooted habits who tend to become industrious and economical individuals with great powers of endurance. although generally kind, capricorn people tend to be somewhat moody, often brooding over imagined slights and injuries. capricorns are liable to feel sorry f

arch 2002, a red heifer was born in israel that some jewish traditionalists, as well as christian and muslim fundamentalists, believe could bring about the end of the world in 2005. according to ancient jewish teachings, it was only the ashes of a flawless red heifer that could purify worshippers who went into the temple in jerusalem. the first temple was destroyed by nebuchadnezzar in 586 b.c.e; the romans demolished the second temple in 70c.e. without a flawless red heifer to sacrifice to purify the temple mount, the third temple could not be rebuilt and the messiah could not come. fundamentalist christians shared the excitement of the birth because they believe that after jesus christ (c. 6 b.c.e..c. 30 c.e) has returned and defeated the forces of evil at the battle of armageddon, he wi

and power group of young women performing the maypole dance (corbis corporation) louis lucas, invented plate glass that, backed with the proper alloy, formed a mirror that for the first time gave both sexes a true reflection of their appearance. one of the most common of modern superstitions is that to break a mirror invites death, or seven years of bad luck. this old folk belief originated with the romans about the first century c.e. they believed that the health of a person changed every seven years, and as the mirror reflected the health or the appearance of the person, to break a mirror would be to shatter one fs health for a period of seven years. among highly superstitious people the breaking of the mirror came to be looked upon as a death omen. somehow this superstitious belief has

nificent mosque built over the sacred rock where abraham prepared to sacrifice his son isaac to the lord and where the prophet muhammad (c. 570.632) is believed to have ascended to paradise. for the jews, jerusalem is the site of king david fs (d. 932 b.c.e) ancient capital of judea and a massive wall, called the gwailing wall, h which is all that remains of the great temple that was destroyed by the romans in 70 c.e. christian pilgrims revere the city as the place where jesus (c. 6 b.c.e. c. 30 c.e) was crucified and is believed to have risen from the dead, and for more than 1,600 years they have visited the most revered of all christian holy places, the church of the holy sepulchre, which was built over what was believed to be christ fs tomb. t h e g a l e e n c y c l o p e d i a o f t h

c.e, jerusalem had been restored to its former glory. in 70, a series of jewish revolts against rome brought the imperial army to the walls of jerusalem on the day of passover. after a five-month siege, the city walls were brought down, the temple of herod destroyed, and jerusalem was left in ruins and desolate. in 135, barcocheba, a self-proclaimed messiah of the jews, led another revolt against the romans. he managed to gain control of the city and set about rebuilding the temple, but his ambitious project was short-lived when the roman army arrived in force and squelched the rebellion with great loss of life for the jews. the conquerors decreed that no jews could enter jerusalem on pain of death, and a temple to jupiter, father of the roman gods, was built where the temple had stood. in

cted by members of eastern mediterranean cultures, from which modern languages, histories, and other forms of culture emerged. in the second half of the twentieth century, however, advanced techniques for dating ancient objects showed that stonehenge actually preceded the rise of mycenean cuture. the most popular modern theory connects stonehenge with celtic culture that thrived in britain before the romans came. a priestly caste among the celts called the druids were believed to have supervised construction of stonehenge and other stone circles in the region. druids were keepers of lore and leaders of ceremonial rites among celts. they have been associated with magic powers, human sacrifice, and various mystical rites, but many of those attributes were bestowed on them by non-celtic histo

THE GOD OF THE WITCHES

, strike the exorcists themselves, and rend the sacred vestments.[1] he therefore concluded thatthey were mortal and had souls like men. the evidence appears fairly conclusive that the deep-seated dreadof the cross does not refer to the christian symbol but dates back to a period several centuries beforechristianity.the roman religion took no hold on great britain and was little regarded in gaul. the romans called thebritish and gaulish deities by roman names, but the religion was not romanised, and no roman god wasever completely established in the west of europe. the old deities continued in full force unaffected byforeign influence. the temple built on the summit of the puy de dome was dedicated to a god called by theromans mercurius, to his worshippers he was known as dumus; cernunnos

eece, in the countries which have no written record, the belief in a homed deityprevailed in the iron-age and probably even earlier.a few rock carvings in scandinavia show that the horned god was known there also in the bronze age. it wasonly when rome started on her career of conquest that any written record was made of the gods of westerneurope, and those records prove that a horned deity, whom the romans called cernunnos, was one of thegreatest gods, perhaps even the supreme deity, of gaul. the name given to him by the romans means simplythe horned. in the north of gaul his importance is shown on the altar found under the cathedral of notredame at paris. the date of the altar is well within the christian era; on three sides are figures of minor godsrepresented as small beings, on the fo

he principal temple of the new faith.cernunnos is recorded in writing and in sculpture in the south of gaul, in that very part where the palaeolithicpainting of him still survives. it is highly improbable that the cult of the horned god should have died out insouth-western europe in neolithic times and have remained unknown through the bronze and iron ages,only to be revived before the arrival of the romans. it is more logical to suppose that the worship continuedthrough the unrecorded centuries, and lasted on as one of the principal gaulish cults till within the christianera. such a cult must have had a strong hold on the worshippers, and among the illiterate, and in the lessaccessible parts of the country it would linger for many centuries after a new religion had been acceptedelsewhere

e indian deity cannot yet be read, but thetraditional name still survives; in greece and in crete the record is later than in egypt and babylonia. inwestern europe, however, it was not till the roman domination that any written records were made;therefore it is only by tradition and an occasional roman inscription that the names of the homed god areknown to us. the great gaulish god was called by the romans cernunnos, which in english parlance washerne, or more colloquially "old hornie. in northern europe the ancient neck or nick, meaning a spirit,had such hold on the affections of the people that the church was forced to accept him, and he was canonisedas st. nicholas, who in cornwall still retains his horns. our puck is the welsh boucca, which derives eitherdirectly from the slavic bog "

THE HOLY BIBLE KING JAMES VERSION

n many of the jews which came to mary, and had seen the things which jesus page 619 john did, believed on him. 11:46 but some of them went their ways to the pharisees, and told them what things jesus had done. 11:47 then gathered the chief priests and the pharisees a council, and said, what do we? for this man doeth many miracles. 11:48 if we let him thus alone, all [men] will believe on him: and the romans shall come and take away both our place and nation. 11:49 and one of them [named] caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, ye know nothing at all, 11:50 nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. 11:51 and this spake he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that j

king agrippa and bernice came unto caesarea to salute festus. 25:14 and when they had been there many days, festus declared paul s cause unto the king, saying, there is a certain man left in bonds by felix: 25:15 about whom, when i was at jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the jews informed [me] desiring [to have] judgment against him. 25:16 to whom i answered, it is not the manner of the romans to deliver any man to die, before that he which is accused have the accusers face to face, and have licence to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him. 25:17 therefore, when they were come hither, without any delay on the morrow i sat on the judgment seat, and commanded the man to be brought forth. 25:18 against whom when the accusers stood up, they brought none accusat

aptain of the guard: but paul was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him. 28:17 and it came to pass, that after three days paul called the chief of the jews together: and when they were come together, he said unto them, men [and] brethren, though i have committed nothing against the people, or customs of our fathers, yet was i delivered prisoner from jerusalem into the hands of the romans. 28:18 who, when they had examined me, would have let [me] go, because there was no cause of death in me. 28:19 but when the jews spake against [it] i was constrained to appeal unto caesar; not that i had ought to accuse my nation of. 28:20 for this cause therefore have i called for you, to see [you] and to speak with [you] because that for the hope of israel i am bound with this chain

it. 28:29 and when he had said these words, the jews departed, and had great reasoning among themselves. 28:30 and paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, 28:31 preaching the kingdom of god, and teaching those things which concern the lord jesus christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him. page 647 romans the epistle of paul the apostle to the romans 1:1 paul, a servant of jesus christ, called [to be] an apostle, separated unto the gospel of god, 1:2 (which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures) 1:3 concerning his son jesus christ our lord, which was made of the seed of david according to the flesh; 1:4 and declared [to be] the son of god with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection fro

TURNER ROBERT ARBETEL OF MAGICK

chused rather to live among gods, until the judgement, before the transitory good of this world; and his heart is so blinde, that he understandeth nothing of the god of heaven and earth, or thinketh more, but enjoyeth the delights of things immortal, to his own eternal destruction. and he may be easier called up, then the angel of plotinus in the temple of isis. aphorism 32. in like manner also, the romans were taught by the sibyls books; and by that means made themselves the lords of the world, as histories witness. but the lords of the prince of a kingdom do bestow the lesser magistracies. he therefore that desireth to have a lesser office, or dignity, let him magically call a noble of the prince, and his desire shall be fulfilled. aphorism 33. but he who coveteth contemptible dignities

TWO ESSAYS ON THE WORSHIP OF PRIAPUS

3 see plate viii. 4 georgic. lib. ii, v. 324. of priapus 73 ears of corn, as being the goddess of fertility as well as destruction. 1 she is, in fact, a personification of the heat or fire that pervades the earth, which is at once the cause and effect of fertility and destruction, for it is at once the cause and effect of fermentation, from which both proceed. the libitina, or goddess of death of the romans, was the same as the persiphoneia of the greeks; and yet, as plutarch observes, the most learned of that people allowed her to be the same as venus, the goddess of generation.2 in the gallery at florence is a collossal image of the organ of generation, mounted on the back parts of a lion, and hung round with various animals. by this is represented the co-operation of the creating and de

statue they adorned with rays, like that of the greek apollo. on a celtiberian or runic medal found in spain, of barbarous workmanship, is a head surrounded by obeliscs or rays, which i take to be of this deity.5 the hairs appear erect, to imitate flames, as they do on many of the greek medals; and on the reverse is a bearded head, with a sort of pyramidal cap on, exactly resembling that by which the romans conferred freedom on their slaves, and which was therefore called the cap of liberty.6 on other celtiberian medals is a figure on horseback, carrying a spear in his hand, and having the same sort of cap on his head, with the word helman written 1 sat. lib. i, c. 18. 2 thucyd. lib. vii. 3 homer, il. s, v. 472. 4 sat. lib. i, c. 19. 5 plate x fig. 2, engraven from one belonging to me. i h

ly possible to separate them. he appears however, like all the other gods, to have been originally a personified attribute of the sun. the eleventh of the orphic hymns2 is addressed to him as the strength and power of the sun; and macrobius says that he was thought to be the strength and virtue of the gods, by which they destroyed the giants; and that, according to varro, the mars and hercules of the romans were the same deity, and worshipped with the same rites.3 according to varro then, whose authority is perhaps the greatest that can be cited, hercules was the destroying attribute represented in a human form, instead of that of a lion, tiger, or hippopotamus. hence the terrible picture drawn of him by homer, which always appeared to me to have been taken from 1 homer, odyss. o, ver. 414

he creator, and all their faculties directed to imitate him in the exertion of his great characteristic attribute. to heighten this enthusiasm, the male and female saints of antiquity used to lie promiscuously together in the temples, and honour god by a liberal display and general communication of his bounties.4 herodotus, indeed, excepts the greeks and egyptians, and dionysius of halicarnassus, the romans, from this general custom of other nations; but to the testimony of the former we may oppose the thousand sacred prostitutes kept at each of the temples of corinth and 1 priap. carm. 34. ed sciappii. 2 see plate iii, fig. 3. 3 ver. 613. 4 herodot. lib. ii. of priapus 105 eryx;1 and to that of the latter the express words of juvenal, who, though he lived an age, later, lived when the sam

exist, concluding that all expressions of gratitude and submission must be pleasing to the gods. atheism was, indeed, punished at athens, as the obscene ceremonies of the bacchanalians were at rome; but both as civil crimes against the state; the one tending to weaken the bands of society by destroying the sanctity of oaths, and the other to subvert that decency and gravity of manners, upon which the romans so much prided themselves. the introduction of strange gods, without permission from the magistrate, was also prohibited in both cities; but the restriction extended no farther than the walls, there being no other parts of the roman empire, except judea, in which any kind of impiety or extravagance might not have been maintained with impunity, provided it was maintained merely as a spec

ission from the magistrate, was also prohibited in both cities; but the restriction extended no farther than the walls, there being no other parts of the roman empire, except judea, in which any kind of impiety or extravagance might not have been maintained with impunity, provided it was maintained merely as a speculative opinion, and not employed as an engine of faction, ambition, or oppression. the romans even carried their condescension so far as to enforce the observance of a dogmatical religion, where they found it before established; as appears from the conduct of their magistrates in judea, relative to christ and his apostles; and 1 hesiod. erga kai 'hmer, ver. 252. murioi &c, are always used as indefinites by the ancient greek poets. 2 see homer, odyss. e, ver. 445& seq. the greeks

l crimes laid to their charge, or for withdrawing their allegiance from the state, and joining in a federative union dangerous by its constitution, and rendered still more dangerous by the intolerant principles of its members, who often tumultuously interrupted the public worship, and continually railed against the national religion (with which both the civil government and military discipline of the romans were inseparably connected, as the certain means of eternal damnation. to break this union, was the great object of roman policy during a long course of years; but the violent means employed only tended to cement it closer. some of the christians themselves indeed, who were addicted to platonism, took a safer method to dissolve it; but they were too few in number to succeed. this was by

ill in existence. 126 on the worship of the over the building, and the individual who looked upon the figure believed himself safe, during that day at least, from evil influences of various descriptions. they are found, we believe, in some other roman stations, in a similar position to that of the phallus at housesteads. although the worship of which we are treating prevailed so extensively among the romans and throughout the roman provinces, it was far from being peculiar to them, for the same superstition formed part of the religion of the teutonic race, and was carried with that race wherever it settled. the teutonic god, who answered to the roman priapus, was called, in anglo-saxon, fr a, in old norse, freyr, and, in old german, fro. among the swedes, the principal seat of his worship

tained its hold on the north, in describing the forms under which the gods were there represented, tells us that the third of the gods at upsala was fricco [another form of the name, who bestowed on mortals peace and pleasure, and who was represented with an immense priapus, and he adds that, at the celebration of marriages, they offered sacrifice to fricco.1 this god, indeed, like the priapus of the romans, presided over generation and fertility, either of animal life or of the produce of the earth, and was invoked accordingly. ihre, in his glossarium sueco-gothicum, mentions objects of antiquity dug up in the north of europe, which clearly prove the prevalence of phallic rites. to this deity, or to his female representative of the same name, the teutonic venus, friga, the fifth day of th

at the christmas festivities. the former were fires kindled at the period of the summer solstice, and were certainly in their origin religious observances. the boar was intimately connected with the worship of frea.1 from our want of a more intimate knowledge of this part of teutonic paganism, we are unable to decide whether some of the superstitious practices of the middle ages were derived from the romans or from the peoples who established themselves in the provinces after the overthrow of the western empire; but in italy and in gaul (the southern parts especially, where the roman institutions and sentiments continued with more persistence to hold their influence, it was the phallic worship of the romans which, gradually modified in its forms, was thus preserved, and, though the records

idental and imperfect, yet we can distinctly trace its existence to a very late period. thus, we have clear evidence that the phallus, in its simple form, was worshipped by the medi val christians, and that the forms of christian prayer 1 see grimm s deutsche mythologie, p. 139, first edition. 128 on the worship of the and invocation were actually addressed to it. one name of the male organ among the romans was fascinum; it was under this name that it was suspended round the necks of women and children, and under this name especially it was supposed to possess magical influences which not only acted upon others, but defended those who were under its protection from magical or other evil influences from without. hence are derived the words to fascinate and fascination. the word is used by h

enerative powers, represented by their organs, continued to exist in western europe to such a point as to engage the attention of ecclesiastical synods. during the previous century facts occurred in our own island illustrating still more curiously the continuous existence of the worship of priapus, and that under circumstances which remind us altogether of the details of the phallic worship under the romans. it will be remembered that one great object of this worship was to obtain fertility either in animals or in the ground, for priapus was the god of the horticulturist and the agriculturist. st. augustine, declaiming against the open obscenities of the roman festival of the liberalia, informs us that an enormous phallus was carried in a 1 d. burchardi decreturum libri, lib. x. c. 49. 2 m

nce to coarser obscenities. he was cited before his bishop, defended himself upon the common usage of the country, and was allowed to retain his benefice; but he must have been rather a worldly priest, after the style of the middle ages, for a year afterwards he was killed in a vulgar brawl.1 the practice of placing the figure of a phallus on the walls of buildings, derived, as we have seen, from the romans, prevailed also in the middle ages, and the buildings especially placed under the influence of this symbol were churches. it was believed to be 1 insuper hoc tempore apud inverchethin, in hebdomeda pasch (march 29 april 5, sacerdos parochialis, nomine johannes, priapi prophana parans, congregatis ex villa puellulis, cogebat eas, choreis factis, libero patri circuire; ut ille feminas in

even completing the sacrifice. this ceremony is represented in 142 on the worship of the a bas-relief in marble, an engraving of which is given in the mus e secret of the antiquities of herculaneum and pompeii; its object was to conciliate the favour of the god, and to avert sterility. it is described by the early christian writers, such as lactantius and arnobius, as a very common practice among the romans; and it still prevails to a great extent over most part of the east, from india to japan and the islands of the pacific. in a public square in batavia, there is a cannon taken from the natives and placed there as a trophy by the dutch government. it presents the peculiarity that the touch-hole is made on a phallic hand, the thumb placed in the position which is called the fig, and which

some antiquaries imagined to have been built on the site of a temple dedicated to that deity. it appears from these writers that, at certain times, the women of antwerp decorated the phalli of these figures with garlands. the use of priapic figures as amulets, to be carried on the person as preservatives against the evil eye and other noxious influences, which we have spoken of as so common among the romans, was certainly continued through the middle ages, and, as we shall see presently, has not entirely disappeared. it was natural enough to believe that if this figure were salutary when merely looked upon, it must be much more so when carried constantly on the person. the romans gave the name fascinum, in old french fesne, to the phallic amulet, as well as to the same figure under other c

fingers doubled up, while in the other the whole hand was closed, but the thumb was passed between the first and middle fingers. the first of these forms appears to have been the more ancient, and is understood to have been intended to represent, by the extended middle finger, the membrum virile, and by the bent fingers on each side the testicles. hence the middle finger of the hand was called by the romans, digitus impudicus, or infamis. it was called by the greeks katap gwn, which had somewhat the same meaning as the latin word, except that it had reference especially to degrading practices, which were then less concealed than in modern times. to show the hand in this form was expressed in greek by the word skimal zein, and was considered as a most contemptuous insult, because it was und

ing practices, which were then less concealed than in modern times. to show the hand in this form was expressed in greek by the word skimal zein, and was considered as a most contemptuous insult, because it was understood to intimate that the person to whom it was addressed was addicted to unnatural vice. this was the meaning also given to it 1 plate xxxvi, figs. 1 and 2. generative powers 149 by the romans, as we learn from the first lines of an epigram of martial: rideto, multum, qui te, sextille, cin dum dixerit, et digitum porrigito medium. martial, ep. ii, 28. nevertheless, this gesture of the hand was looked upon at an early period as an amulet against magical influences, and, formed of different materials, it was carried on the person in the same manner as the phallus. it is not an

amulet against magical influences, and, formed of different materials, it was carried on the person in the same manner as the phallus. it is not an uncommon object among roman antiquities, and was adopted by the gnostics as one of their symbolical images. the second of these forms of the phallic hand, the intention of which is easily seen (the thumb forming the phallus, was also well known among the romans, and is found made of various material, such as bronze, coral, lapis lazuli, and chrystal, of a size which was evidently intended to be suspended to the neck or to some other part of the person. in the mus e secret at naples, there are examples of such amulets, in the shape of two arms joined at the elbow, one terminating in the head of a phallus, the other having a hand arranged in the

a, out of which arose the italian fica (now replaced by fico, the spanish higa, and the french figue. florio, who gives the word fica, a fig, says that it was also used in the sense of a woman's quaint, so that it may perhaps be classed with one or two other fruits, such as the pomegranate and the apricot, to which a similar erotic meaning was given.1 the form, under 1 see before, page 136. among the romans, the fig was considered as a fruit consecrated to priapus, on account, it is said, of its productiveness. 150 on the worship of the this name, was preserved through the middle ages, especially in the south of europe, where roman traditions were strongest, both as an amulet and as an insulting gesture. the italian called this gesture fare la fica, to make or do the fig to any one; the sp

an make the amulet with his own fingers. so profound is the belief of its efficacy in italy, that it is commonly believed and reported there that, at the battle of solferino, the king of italy held his hand in his pocket with this arrangement of the fingers as a protection against the shots of the enemy. there were personages connected with the worship of priapus who appear to have been common to the romans under and before the empire, and to the foreign races who settled upon its ruins. the teutonic race believed in a spiritual being who inhabited the woods, and who was called in old german scrat. his character was more general than that of a mere habitant of the woods, for it answered to the english hobgoblin, or to the irish 152 on the worship of the cluricaune. the scrat was the spirit

TYSON DONALD NEW MILLENNIUM MAGIC

an might have a guardian in the form of a black-haired man with dark skin from her own culture. the reason for this oppo- sition is that the guardian represents the spiritual spouse of an incarnate soul. communion with the guardian is the alchemical union of opposites between mor- tal and immortal, between flesh and spirit. the similarity between the guardian angel and the winged god, hermes (for the romans, mercury, will at once be apparent. the guardian is a personal her- mes; hermes is an abstraction of all the guardians: for in truth there is only one guardian, who is diversified in several billion human consciousnesses. all angelic visitations, such as the one that came to the shepherds at the birth of jesus, are vis- itations of the guardian in different guises. each man and woman co

TYSON DONALD SOUL FLIGHT

slated into english from an unnamed french source, or sources. 1. parsley, water of aconite, poplar leaves, and soot. 2. water parsnip, sweet flag, cinquefoil, bat's blood, deadly nightshade, and oil. 3. baby's fat, juice of water parsnip, aconite, cinquefoil, deadly nightshade, and t.he active ingredient of the first formula is aconite, which is derived from a root and was a poison well-known to the romans. it is an alkaloid that causes irregularity and stopping of the heart. a. j. clark, who wrote the appendix to murray's book, points out that the parsley (du persil in the french text) may actually have been hemlock, which he says closely resembles parsley. hemlock, a poison used in classical times, produces paralysis of'the body that is sometimes accompanied by delirium. the second form

ble. the muttering of wizards was a way of saying something without actually voicing it aloud for everyone to hear. it works quite well when you wish to repeat a mantra where others who are sleeping in nearby rooms might be disturbed were it spoken in a normal voice. it was also used in religion. shortly before the temple at jerusalem chapter fifteen: training for soul flight 271 was destroyed by the romans in ad 70, the jewish high priests adopted the practice of speaking the name of god in such a manner that it could not be heard by the worshippers in the temple-in this way the power of the name was released by vocalizing it, but its sacredness was not diminished by revealing it to those who were not priests. symbol visualization a useful way to develop a talent for astral perception is

TYSON DONALD THE MAGICAL WORKBOOK

: tattwa awareness 27 most persons have some notion concerning the qualities of the four lower elements, but no understanding of the fifth element, spirit or aether, that underlies and pervades the lower four. it is the essence of universal mind, and may be conceived as a subtle fire borne upon the breath and stored up in the blood of living things. it is the pneuma of the greeks, the spiritus of the romans, and the chi of the chinese. it is the ether that was supposed by primitive science to pervade all of space between the stars and act as a conducting medium for light. due to its universal nature, it was assigned both white (all colors) and black (no colors. the rainbow, which also embodies all colors, is appropriate to represent it. when imagining the black egg against the black backgr

e god of rebirth, having died and been restored to life. lux is a latin word meaning light; iao is a gnostic name of god that is probably related to yahweh. the latin letters i. n. r i. refer to the crucifurion of christ-they are the first letters of the words iesus nazarenus rex iudaeorum (jesus of nazareth, king of the jews, and are supposed to have been written on a placard affured to jesus by the romans at the time of his execution. the hebrew letters yod-nun-resh-yod are merely their transliterations. the enochian words exarp, hcoma, nanta, bitom appear on a small magic square used by the golden dawn in its version of enochian magic-a subject far too complex to describe here. in the golden dawn, harp is attributed to elemental air and the quarter of the east. hcoma is attributed to wa

TYSON DONALD THE POWER OF THE WORD

lem, then turned it upon them and sealed them beneath the sea in a prison of brass. prophets and exorcists used its fabled might to restore the dead to life, to rule storms and calm the seas, to turn back the course of the sun, and to drive demons out of those possessed. so revered was the name by the ancient jewish priests that they forbade anyone to speak it. after the fall of herod's temple to the romans in a.d. 70, its true pronunciation was lost to the general jewish population, but esoteric sects and solitary magicians continued to rely upon its potency as the foundation of all their works. in the middle ages, ba'alai shem, or masters of the name, employed tetragrammaton to heal the sick and banish evil spirits. one such ba'al shem was the great jewish magician rabbi loew of prague

elieve it was connected with a growing social gulf between the priest class and the people. the priests reserved the name exclusively as the supreme emblem of their authority, in very much the same way that the catholic church of the middle ages bitterly resisted the translation of the bible into the common tongues of europe. knowledge is power. several generations before the fall of jerusalem to the romans in a.d. 70, the priests had ceased to speak the name openly even within the confines of the temple. under the veil of holiness, they adopted the duplicitous device of whispering it in so low a voice that it was drowned out amid the chants and other sounds of ritual. with the seizing of the temple, the public use of the name in religious ceremonies ceased altogether, but it continued to

g. with this in mind, it is easier to grasp how the v can be distinct from the i and yet at the same time embody the i within himself; and how the second h can be both the product of the first h and also hold the first h latent within herself. this binary system was not entirely unfamiliar to the western world in ancient times. it appears in the symbols of geomantic divination, which was known to the romans and early europeans. in the geomantic figures, two dots stand for the feminine and one dot for the opposite masculine. using this system, the letters of tetragrammaton would be represented in the following manner: each geomantic symbol is composed of one of these letter sets in combination either with itself or with one of the other three sets. there are thus sixteen distinct geomantic

WHO ARE THE DRACONIANS

lso the home of the european union, nato, and, i am told, a massive computer centre where databases on all the people of the world are being compiled. it is known apparently as 'the beast' and there are a number of these around the world. an elite mind control operation called the janus group is also based in the nato headquarters. nimrod was eannus, the god with two faces, who was later known to the romans as janus. black magic rituals are going on all over the world and i have spoken with victims in country after country in england i met a brave woman, then aged 40. the story she told me of her experiences mirrored those of so many others. she was born in darlington in the 1950s, and soon after she was sold by her satanic father to two other satanists. she knew them only as thomas and he

WICCA EIGHT SABBATS OF WITCHCRAFT

ristians. perhaps even more so, as the christians were rather late in laying claim to it, and tried more than once to reject it. there had been a tradition in the west that mary bore the child jesus on the twenty-fifth day, but no one could seem to decide on the month. finally, in 320 c.e, the catholic fathers in rome decided to make it december, in an effort to co-opt the mithraic celebration of the romans and the yule celebrations of the celts and saxons. there was never much pretense that the date they finally chose was historically accurate. shepherds just don't 'tend their flocks by night' in the high pastures in the dead of winter! but if one wishes to use the new testament as historical evidence, this reference may point to sometime in the spring as the time of jesus's birth. this i

WICCA WITCHCRAFT TODAY

eive some instruction. it is all very simple and direct* among the most common charges against witches is that they denied or repudiated the christian religion. all i can say is, i and my friends have never seen or heard of such denial or repudiation. my opinion is that in the early days everyone was of the old faith and regularly worshipped the old gods before they were initiated. to people like the romans and romano-britons it would only be worshipping their own gods who had become identified with celtic ones, so there would be nothing to repudiate. possibly during the persecution times if unknown people turned up at a big religious meeting they would be questioned to see if they were spies and might be asked to deny christianity, as a sort of test. they would never initiate anyone, take

his deputy. in this connection it should be noted that there are certain rites where a man must be the leader, but if a man of requisite rank is not available, a chief priestess belts a sword on and is thought of as a man for the occasion. but although woman can on occasion take man's place, man can never take woman's place. this may derive from the time of the associations of druidesses of whom the romans spoke as witches. whether these were true druidesses i do not know. it seems to have been a separate religious organisation, possibly under the rule of the chief druid, much in the same way that there was a priest or someone who might turn up at a witches' meeting and be acknowledged chief who came to be called 'the devil' in mediaeval times. i think the use of the witches' circle, in m

wledged chief who came to be called 'the devil' in mediaeval times. i think the use of the witches' circle, in magic, may have come from the druid, or rather the pre-druid, people, who built stonehenge and avebury and who made use of it to concentrate the powers generated. it is a direct descendant of the circles used in the prehistoric cave magic, though of course it may have come from the east. the romans suppressed the druids in the areas they effectively occupied, but i think it possible that a women's section may have carried on even there, perhaps in secret; or maybe they were tolerated and some romans and greeks who belonged to the various mysteries, particularly that of mithras, finding similar organisations, became members, so the goddesses became identified with their classical g

ese knights were suspected of being followers of an old religion. however, a number of false charges were brought at the same time, firstly because of a misunderstanding of the import of some rites, but mainly because, if the real truth were known, much public opinion would have been in their favour. charges are made at times because of a misunderstanding of certain ceremonies, etc. for instance, the romans accused the early christians of being cannibals, because it was said that at their meetings they ate the body and drank the blood of their god! and during the first world war the turkish police raided the english church at jerusalem, tore up the altar and dug up all the floor, because they had heard that the priest in charge had recently made two canons at the altar- canon had only one

it was not to get away from your wife because, if i'm not mistaken, you took your wife and your daughters and your grandmother and your mother-in-law, and they all kept the secret; and this went on for about a thousand years. when the mysteries came to rome it is true that the local criminals infiltrated into them and there was trouble; these being removed the cult went on happily. unfortunately the romans were gross feeders and heavy drinkers, and commonly drank undiluted wine contrary to the usual mediterranean tradition. but by and large, the mysteries seem to have had a good effect, though not the same as they had in greece. probably the reason was that owing to early excesses and the coming of christianity, the true secrets were communicated to only a very few. at least that is what

WILLIAM WESCOTT NUMBERS THEIR OCCULT POWER AND MYSTIC VIRTUES

rs were given to the greater gods, and even ones to the inferior and terrestrial deities. the number one is represented in the roman and arabic systems, by an upright simple line, but in many old systems whose numerals were their letters, we find that almost universally the letter a, from being chosen to commence the set of letters, had the task of representing the monad. in numeration, note that the romans began with lines, i, ii, iii, iiii, and then followed the acute angle v for 5, then for ten this was doubled x, for fifty the angle was laid down and became l, for a hundred, two fifties, one inverted became c, for five hundred c and l became d. hermias, the christian philosopher, author of ridicule of the gentile philosophers, quotes from the pythagoreans. 35. the monad is the beginnin

ld, health and disease, truth and error, male and female, 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 we

to receive the sacraments; and to adhere to the customs of the church. st. paul said he preferred to speak 5 words in a language understood by his hearers than 10,000 in an unknown tongue. in arranging a horoscope some astrologers use only 5 aspects of the planets the conjunction, the opposition, sextile, trine and square; and the evil or good fortune of the person seems to depend on them. among the romans a display of 5 wax candles indicated that a marriage was being celebrated; and special prayers were also made on such occasions to these 5 deities, jupiter, juno, venus, pitho and diana. see rabelais, 3. 20. numbers--th eir occu lt power an d mys tic vir tu es by w. wyn n wes tcott one of the two main divisions of flowering plants is characterized by a predominance of the numbers 4 and

aughters of zeus and mnemosyne (memory, and were calliope, poetry; clio, history; melpomene, tragedy; euterpe, music; erato, love, inspiration and pantomime; terpsichore, dancing; urania, astronomy; thalia, comedy and polyhymnia, eloquence. the novensiles are the nine sabine gods: viz. hercules, romulus, aesculapius, bacchus, aeneas, vesta, santa, fortuna and fides. the sabines became merged with the romans about 266 b.c. 90. the nine gods of the etruscans were juno, minerva, tinia, vulcan, mars, saturn, hercules, summanus and vedius; the etruscans also became united with the romans. note in macaulay s poem of horatius, lars porsena of clusium by the nine gods he swore, in 596 b.c. lars porsena led the etruscans; they were then most powerful; from the estrucans the romans took much of thei

numbers--th eir occu lt power an d mys tic vir tu es by w. wyn n wes tcott it is by nines that eastern presents are given, when they would extend their magnificence to the greatest degree, as mentioned in comte de caylus, oriental tales. 1743. barrett s magus notes also 9 precious stones, 9 orders of devils, 9 choirs of angels he copies from john heydon. note in this connection, the nundinals of the romans, who marked the days by letters into parcels of 8 days, and on every 9th day the people left their pursuits and went to the towns to market. hence, the jocular latin saying, tres mulieres nundinas faciunt. these nundinals are a type of our dominical letters, a set of seven marking out the 8th days. the romans also held a purification ceremony on male infants on the 9th day of life, henc

taking of the herds of geryon; leo, the slaying of the nemaean lion; virgo, the victory over the amazon queen; libra, the death of the erymanthean boar; scorpio, the death of the lernaean hydra; sagittarius, the shooting of the five stymphalian birds; capricornus, taking of the hind alive to mycenae; aquarius, cleaning the stables of augeas; pisces, the capture of the horses of diomedes. janus of the romans is the god of the 12 months and is drawn with 12 altars beneath his feet. he is the same as assyrian ain, ion, jan; on of eastern nations (dunlop s vestiges, 31. john heydon gives the following statements- prosperous numbers are 1 2 3 4 7 9 11 13 14. very good 16 17 19 20 22 23 10 26 27. indifferent 5 6 8 12 15 18 21. very bad 24 25 28 29 30# numbers--th eir occu lt power an d mys tic v

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