|
|
Post by paul on Sept 24, 2010 10:41:00 GMT 9.5
I don't know of any Essene symbols that include crossings. I suspect the Mithraic traditions are more important in this case  This is quite an interesting image. We can see the lion-headed initiator holding the keys to the mysteries - looking rather like truncated square. And there is what becomes the cable tow wrapped 7 times around (cf 18th). The 7th turn finishes with the serpent head on the head of the initiator. The wings indicate that the initiator arrives by air - is a god The long staff perhaps becomes a deacons wand. At the base of the picture are hammer and tongs - perhaps an artificer in metals Also a caduceus staff, a rooster and what could be a misshaped pine cone but is probably an omphalos www.utexas.edu/courses/introtogreece/lect16/img8omphalos.html - a precursor of the Tree of Life The omphalos - being almost spherical is covered by a network - perhaps of fruit (pomegranates?)  Here is an early form of the Tree of Life  This last image shows the sun, moon and 7 stars - just as a modern EA TB. Coincidence? |
|
|
|
Post by LorrB on Sept 24, 2010 13:30:48 GMT 9.5
 MITHRA BORN FROM THE ROCK. Bas-relief found in the crypt of St. Clements at Rome. The plot thickens. |
|
|
|
Post by LorrB on Sept 24, 2010 13:38:31 GMT 9.5
I discovered a title for the image you posted Paul...
MITHRAIC KRONOS (ÆON OR ZERVAN AKARANA) REPRESENTING BOUNDLESS TIME.
The wings would indicated this freedom obviously, but it makes me wonder why the leonine figure seems like it is bound.
The only thing I can think of is that when 'the serpent power' is raised throughout the body, it sets the soul free. Mystery traditions tell us that the pineal gland is involved with this setting free, and there is something that looks like a pine cone at the base of the image. The Caduceus, which represents the energies/force that I am referring to is also there.
|
|
|
|
Post by LorrB on Sept 24, 2010 13:41:24 GMT 9.5
If some piece of good fortune should one day unearth for us a Mithraic missal, we should be able to study there these ancient usages and to participate in imagination in the celebration of the services. Deprived as we are of this indispensable guide, we are excluded utterly from the sanctuary and know the esoteric discipline of the Mysteries only from a few indiscretions. A text of St. Jerome, confirmed by a series of inscriptions, informs us that there were seven degrees of initiation and that the mystic (ìύóôçò, sacratus) successively assumed the names of Raven (corax), Occult (cryphius), Soldier Lion (leo), Persian (Perses), Runner of the Sun (heliodromus), and Father (pater). These strange appellations were not empty epithets with no practical bearing. On certain occasions the celebrants donned garbs suited to the title that had been accorded them. On the bas-reliefs we see them carrying the counterfeit heads of animals, of soldiers, and of Persians. (See Fig. 38, p. 159) "Some flap their wings like birds, imitating the cry of crows; others growl like lions," says a Christian writer of the fourth century; 1 "in such manner are they that are called wise basely travestied."
.....
These initiates, comparable to the Christian catechumens, were the Servants (ὑðçñåôïῦíôåò). To enter this order it was sufficient to have been admitted to the Ravens, doubtless so called because mythology made the raven the servitor of the Sun. Only the mystics that had received the Leontics became Participants (ìåôÝ÷ïíôåò), and it is for this reason that the grade of Leo is mentioned more frequently in the inscriptions than any other. Finally, at the summit of the hierarchy were placed the Fathers, who appear to have presided over the sacred ceremonies (pater sacrorum) and to have commanded the other classes of the faithful. The head of the Fathers themselves bore the name of Pater Patrum, sometimes transformed into Pater patratus, in order to introduce an official sacerdotal title into a sect which had become Roman. These grandmasters of the adepts retained until their death the general direction of the cult. The reverence and affection which were entertained for these venerable dignitaries are indicated by their name of Father, and the mystics placed under their authority were called brethren by one another, because the fellow-initiates (consacranei) were expected to cherish mutual affection. www.sacred-texts.com/cla/mom/mom07.htm |
|
|
|
Post by paul on Sept 24, 2010 13:47:36 GMT 9.5
I rather think that the Mithraic mysteries were for men only.
On the other hand the mysteries of the widow Isis admitted both males and females
|
|
|
|
Post by paul on Sept 24, 2010 13:50:06 GMT 9.5
>but it makes me wonder why the leonine figure seems like it is bound.
Being bound is perhaps a projection from the cable tow.
Masonry combines several meanings in many of its practices - each accruing from new groups entering the stream
|
|
|
|
Post by LorrB on Sept 24, 2010 14:57:32 GMT 9.5
You don't think it has anything to do with Ida, Pingala and Sushumna?
|
|
|
|
Post by paul on Sept 24, 2010 15:08:31 GMT 9.5
You don't think it has anything to do with Ida, Pingala and Sushumna? I think there are trans-human issues   |
|
|
|
Post by paul on Sept 24, 2010 15:10:55 GMT 9.5
|
|
|
|
Post by paul on Sept 25, 2010 11:40:37 GMT 9.5
|
|
|
|
Post by LorrB on Sept 27, 2010 9:18:17 GMT 9.5
|
|
|
|
Post by LorrB on Sept 27, 2010 9:24:36 GMT 9.5
The Cosmic Serpent? I think I will start a new thread on this. I had a giant ah-ha moment over the weekend and it is tied to the cosmic serpent. For me, this is the Serpent that holds the key. |
|
|
|
Post by paul on Sept 27, 2010 9:32:12 GMT 9.5
I found that image by accident.
Perhaps it reflects the artist's experience of intelligent energy flows undulating throughout the inner and outer worlds.
|
|
|
|
Post by LorrB on Sept 27, 2010 9:36:23 GMT 9.5
Key to the key, in case you had trouble opening the file
THE KEY OF THE MYSTERIES
(La Clef des Grands Mysteres)
According to ENOCH, ABRAHAM, HERMES TRISMEGISTES AND SOLOMON
By ELIPHAS LEVI
(Translated with an introduction by Aleister Crowley)
This is an elaborate symbol in the form of a barrel key. The shank is vertical and to the bottom. Three flat bits extend to the right, with three projections at the upper edge of each. There is a large circular ring at top. Down the shank, from top: "R" inverted, Sun, Moon, Mercury, circle (probably for Mars), Venus, Jupiter and Saturn. Above the top bit: "DEUS", on that bit "rouge". Above the middle bit: "HOMO", on that bit "blanc". Above the bottom bit: "TORA", on that bit "bleu". The ring has a "T" above the top, "A" to right and "O" to left (with the "R" on the shank, "TORA").
Outside at the upper left, a cup, upper right a Pantacle, lower right a dagger and lower left a wand. On the ring itself, the numbers from 1 to 20 arch over the top half, left to right and the Alphabet in capital letters on the lower half from left to right. Inside, the ring is quartered by horizontal and vertical diameters. The left upper quadrant has the sign of Aquarius, upper right the eagle head of Scorpio, lower right the sign of Leo and lower left the bull's head of Taurus. In the center there is a hexagram made up of two triangles, one apex to bottom and the other to top. The outer three triangular points of the inverted triangle are shaded. In the heptagon formed in the center is HB:Yod-Heh-Vau-Heh}
"Religion says: --- 'Believe and you will understand.' Science comes to say to you: --- 'Understand and you will believe.'
"At that moment the whole of science will change front; the spirit, so long dethroned and forgotten, will take its ancient place; it will be demonstrated that the old traditions are all true, that the whole of paganism is only a system of corrupted and misplaced truths, that it is sufficient to cleanse them, so to say, and to put them back again in their place, to see them shine with all their rays. In a word, all ideas will change, and since on all sides a multitude of the elect cry in concert, 'Come, Lord, come!' why should you blame the men who throw themselves forward into that majestic future, and pride themselves on having foreseen it?"
(J. De Maistre, "Soirees de St. Petersbourg.")
|
|
|
|
Post by paul on Sept 27, 2010 10:34:31 GMT 9.5
I am not sure the keys to the mysteries held by the lion-headed initiator are symbolic of knowledge.
There may be literal aspects. For example, Moses is said to have known how to open a hidden area of the Great Pyramid to obtain technological devices such as his staff (vril stick?)
|
|
|
|
Post by LorrB on Sept 27, 2010 12:50:26 GMT 9.5
|
|
|
|
Post by LorrB on Sept 27, 2010 13:48:38 GMT 9.5
|
|
|
|
Post by Henka on Sept 29, 2010 2:19:25 GMT 9.5
For example, Moses is said to have known how to open a hidden area of the Great Pyramid to obtain technological devices such as his staff (vril stick?) Who said? |
|
|
|
Post by paul on Sept 29, 2010 5:45:31 GMT 9.5
Perhaps it is a statement best determined by appeal to authority.
If only Masonry were a science we could distinguish the Unreal from the Real using the working tools in a moral sense!
'Lead me from the unreal to the real! Lead me from darkness to light! Lead me from death to immortality!' Upanishads
|
|
|
|
Post by LorrB on Sept 29, 2010 9:12:30 GMT 9.5
For example, Moses is said to have known how to open a hidden area of the Great Pyramid to obtain technological devices such as his staff (vril stick?) Who said? Moses and Aaron in the Secret Chamber... do photos lie ;D  |
|
