Cydonia: Chapter Six: The Key of Isis

And Hermes mingles now with all men and gods. And even though he helps a few people he cheats an endless number of the race of mortal men in the darkness of night. --Homeric Hymn to Hermes The knowledge of "building" originated with the gods. The Sidonian hero Cadmus founded the city of Thebes at the location indicated by the goddess Pallas Athene. The palladium of the goddess fell from the sky and disclosed the proper location for building the city of Troy. The seven Vestal virgins kept the sacred flame of the goddess of the mystery religion set up by the founder of Rome, a twin son of Mars, foster child of a she- wolf. The seven flames of the goddess appeared on Samothrace, indicating the holy places in which to hold the ceremonies of the ancient Pelasgian mysteries. From the Pelasgian-Sidonian mystery schools the tradition of sacred building sites was transmitted throughout the Mediterranean. The knowledge of building came from the heavens at a time when the heavens "married" or mirrored the earth; the builder gods of myth fell from the heavens bringing that knowledge, and their symbols alluded to the fiery place of the builder-god's origins. The builder gods of the Egyptian Edfu texts were adamant about the proper location for building: in order to have the desired affect, the building must occur in the holy places. A successful undertaking--the building of city walls, temples and mystery [671] religions in the holy places--would bring about a "resurrection of the destroyed world of the gods." Monument building was a way to preserve the ancient knowledge of the gods; ruins of monuments indicated the holy places in which to rebuild, and the architecture hinted at the technology of the previous age. Scholars and initiates of the mystery schools have noted that the Giza monuments were built in an ancient "holy place," utilizing knowledge of the geometry of the earth which was not thought to have existed at the time, and technology that has not been surpassed in our modern age. The purpose of the Great Pyramid of Giza has been recorded in legend. According to Arab historian Abu' l Hassan Ma' sudi, two great pyramids were constructed 300 years before the Deluge in the reign of King Surid. The king caused the two great edifices to be built after he had a dream that a huge planet would fall to earth and destroy it. King Surid ordered his priests to [672] deposit the secrets of their sciences and wisdom in the two pyramids. A similar story is contained in the Medieval Alchemical writings of Ranulf Higdon's Polychronicon, 1350 A.D. and the "Masonic" Cooke Manuscript (ca. 1410). These writings explain how Lamech's son, Jabal, erected twin pillars, so that the sacred science would "neither burn nor sink in [673] water." The Jewish chronicler Flavius Josephus's Antiquities of the Jews stated that Seth, the son of Enoch, had inscribed pre-flood knowledge on two pillars, one of brick and the other of stone. …in case the pillar of brick should be destroyed by the Flood, the pillar of stone might remain, and exhibit those discoveries to mankind, and also inform them that there was another pillar of brick erected by them. [674] Josephus claimed that the pillar of stone existed in Egypt, which he called Siriac in his day. Enoch was the peculiar Biblical figure who is said to have "walked with God" and then later imparted the "knowledge from on high" to his son. The renowned traveler Ibn Battuta born in Tangier Morocco some time between 1304 and 1307, went on a pilgrimage to Mecca when he was twenty and continued [675] traveling, eventually covering about 75,000 miles in the Muslim world. Battuta learned from the Egyptians that "Enoch" was the architect of the Great pyramids, and that he built the pyramids knowing that a deluge would take place, "to contain books of science and knowledge and other matters worth [676] preserving from oblivion and ruin." Myth and legend recorded that the purpose of the Great Pyramid of Giza was to preserve through an [677] impending cataclysm the wisdom from before the Flood. Modern "pyramidologists" have pointed out that the numbers found in the physical architecture of the Pyramid have a counterpart in the geometry of earth. Researchers like Peter Tompkins have compiled mathematical correlations found in the Great Pyramid, and have commented on the "pyramid inch"--a standard of measurement which was embossed [678] in the actual wall of the structure. E. Raymond Capt noted that the Great Pyramid is located in the center of earth's landmass, as calculated in his book The Great Pyramid Decoded. These researchers have realized that the Great Pyramid of Giza is a significant tool to be used to uncover some hidden ancient knowledge. The antediluvians ascribed the pre-Flood knowledge to the interaction of humans with the gods of legend, or the Watchers of Hebrew tradition: the knowledge from the heavenly Watchers was recorded on [679] "tablets" or "pillars." Flavius Josephus explained one pillar as the Great Pyramid of Giza. The legendary mystery contained in the famous "Tablets of Thoth" (or Hermes) was also related to the pillars of heaven and earth. The myths preserving the union of heaven and earth--when the gods and their heavenly knowledge fell to earth--refer to two pillars. Mention of knowledge inscribed in pillars is found in the legend of the earliest civilization, Atlantis: Now the order of precedence among them and their mutual relations were regulated by the commands of Poseidon which the law had handed down. These were inscribed by the first kings on a pillar of orichalcum, which was situated in the middle of the island, at the temple of Poseidon, whither the kings were gathered together every fifth and every sixth year alternately, thus giving equal honour to the odd and to the even number. (Plato's Critias) The Great Pyramid was constructed long before the date agreed upon by mainstream Egyptologists. The acceptable textbook explanation of the Great Pyramid declares that the Pharaoh Khufu [Cheops in Greek] built the Great Pyramid in the 4th Dynasty 2613-2498 B.C. Many modern researchers, however, dispute this claim. Khufu himself left no record that he built the Great Pyramid, instead claiming only to have done repair work on the structure. The "Inventory Stele" found in the Isis Chapel at Giza in the 1850's by Auguste Mariette tells of Khufu's discoveries made while clearing away the sands from the Great Pyramid. This stele dates to about 1500 BC, but shows evidence of having been copied from a far [680] older stele of the fourth dynasty. In the early 1990s researcher Anthony West and geologist Robert Schoch, professor from Boston University, proposed that the erosion of the Giza plateau on which the Great Pyramid stands exhibited extreme water erosion. The amount of erosion in the plateau indicated the Great Pyramid was built during a time when the Saharah Desert did not exist, at least 10,000 years ago. [681] Remarkably, British Orientalist Sir Godfrey Higgins proposed the same theory 123 years earlier in his book Anacalypsis; an attempt to draw aside the Veil of the Saitic Isis, or an Inquiry into the Origin of Languages, Nations, and Religions. This massive historical work required 20 years of research and was first published 30 years after his death in 1863. Higgin wrote: I shall, in the first place, give an extract from the work of a learned priest of the name of Gab, of the Romish Church, [Gab's Finis Pyramidis] which contains a statement of several curious and unobserved facts […] But if this deposite of sand is not the effect of the winds, by what agency came it here? Not by any extraordinary overflowing of the Nile, from which a sediment might be left: for it is known, that river never rose to near the height of that plain of rock, nor are there any kind of shell- fish in the Nile: whereas shells and petrified oysters are found in the sands about the Pyramids. And it must be allowed, when this Pyramid of Giza was built, there were no such depths either of sands or of earth upon the rock, as in the time of Herodotus, from the absurdities that would follow such a supposition: since the builders must first have dug out their depth of sand equal in extent of twelve English acres: and when their work was completed, must be argued to have filled in, against the declining sides, to the level of the former surface, and thus have buried a considerable part of their own work. From these positions, it evidently appears, this Pyramid must have been erected by the Antediluvians before the universal deluge, called Noah's flood, and the description given of it in Holy Writ will account in a satisfactory manner for the lodgment of sand on the surface of that [682] extensive rock. Myth preserves the theme of antediluvian knowledge surviving encoded in megalithic architecture and in the symbols of the mystery schools. The symbolism, properly decoded, provided the key to the ancient knowledge. Many ancient documents--translated from texts that are older still--share the common theme that knowledge has been conveyed from heaven to the earth, symbolized by the union of the two. Among the ancient texts called the "Gothic Constitutions," are the intriguing Regius Manuscript (c.1390), a gift presented to the British Museum by King George II in 1757, and the Cooke Manuscript (c.1400 AD). Both contain descriptions of a "key" to understanding the knowledge of heaven and earth. [683] The work discovered in 1936, the Graham Manuscript (c.1726), provides a clear analogy of the uniting of heaven and earth. This manuscript describes the desire of the sons of Noah to recover their dead father's sacred knowledge after the Flood. In order to recover the Lost Knowledge of the union of heaven and earth, the brothers Shem, Ham and Japheth, undertook a macabre ritual. The brothers attempted to revive Noah by mirroring his dead body with their own living body: When they took a grip at a finger… it came away; so from joint to joint; so to the wrist; and so to the elbow. So they reared up the dead body and supported it, setting foot to foot, knee to knee, breast to breast, cheek to cheek, and hand to back, and cried out, "Help, Oh Father," as if they had said, "Oh [684] Father in Heaven, help us now, for our earthly father cannot. The mirroring ritual was intended to bring heavenly knowledge down to the earth. The symbolism of "mirroring" was echoed in myth by dualistic gods such as: Janus, Dionysus, Diana and her twin brother Apollo, Osiris and Set, Isis and Nephthys. The sky god Zeus and his dual aspect the sea god Poseidon are the best example of the preservation in myth of a "heavenly" truth. While Zeus was the head of the Olympian gods and the ruler of the heavens, his brother Poseidon represented not only the earthly ocean but the encircling ocean in the sky--encompassing the realm of his brother Zeus and absorbing him, becoming a far more powerful deity as the Ouroboros. Foundation myths populated with twins and gods who fell from heaven to the earth also echo that theme--the foundations of civilization are indicated by something in the heavens that has been brought down--or summoned--to the earth. The summoning of heavenly knowledge was not undertaken randomly, but according to the patterns already established, as reiterated in the famous Hermetic phrase "As above, so below." The mystic Alchemist Zosimus of Panopolis wrote in the third century that heaven must marry earth if heavenly knowledge lost to the Flood would be regenerated: Above, the celestial things, below, the terrestrial; by the male and the female the work is [685] accomplished. Join the male and the female and you will find what you are seeking. The Apocryphal Gospel of Thomas, a valuable resource in deciphering the tenets of the mystery school called "Gnosticism," was discovered in Nag Hammadi, Egypt in 1945. Interestingly, the Nag Hammadi manuscripts (c. 4th cent. AD) totaled 53 works in all, including not only the Gospel of Thomas but also a copy of Plato's Republic. Originally composed in Greek, they were translated in the 3 C. A.D. rd into Coptic. The Gospel of Thomas was a collection of extra canonical writings espousing the mysteries of Gnostic Dualism (knowledge of twos). Throughout this Gnostic resource the formula of mirroring or "twinning" the heavens upon the earth is repeated, in order that the lost knowledge might be revived. Perhaps the greatest clue to the secret of how heaven is connected to earth is found in the attributed name of the Gnostic text itself, Thomas (The Twin). When you make the two one, and when you make the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one and the same, so that the male not be male nor the female, female; and when you fashion eyes in the place of an eye, and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, and a likeness in place of a likeness; then will you enter the kingdom. (Gospel of Thomas, log. 22, 2. 17) Since the earliest times, knowledge of the location to build cities and temples was said to have been dispersed when heaven and earth were united, or aligned. A brother of a 20 century mystery school, th Manly P. Hall wrote: The ancients believed the earth to be surrounded by the sphere of the constellations, and they assigned to each country the star groups which were above that country's particular area of land. [686] The Greek astronomer Eudoxus described the motions of the heavenly bodies by means of the celestial globe, or sphere of heaven. He concluded that the stars were fixed to a sphere that rotated at a constant speed. The earliest complete description of the constellations themselves was given in Aratus of Soli's poem The Phenomena, (270 B.C). The Alexandrian astronomer Ptolemy (c. 137 A.D.) compiled the earliest complete catalogue of the stars, describing each star by its place in its constellation with a celestial latitude and longitude added. The concept of the fixed longitude in Ptolemy's map created a celestial benchmark from which all constellations could be measured--a mark of longitude in the heavens fixed orientation east to west. Today astronomers divide the sky above the Northern hemisphere in 360 degrees, misleadingly setting the 0 meridian at the first point of Aries, the so-called "celestial prime meridian." The 0 meridian is set there, astronomers claim, because the zodiacal sign Aries was the constellation in which the sun rose at the beginning of the New Year in the classical age of the Greek astronomers. The modern celestial prime meridian set according to a zodiacal age provides an imperfect benchmark; due to the Precession of the equinox, all 12 signs of the zodiac will have appeared as the backdrop of the rising New Year sun. In the beginning of civilization the celestial Prime Meridian was not set in Aries. The ancient "anchor" of the heavens with the earth, the location of the "pillar" uniting the two, was not assigned to the symbol in which the sun rose at the start of the New Year. It was assigned to the star that out-shines all others in the Northern Hemisphere. The Egyptians considered the star Sirius the companion of the brightest constellation in the Northern Hemisphere, Orion. Sirius in Canis Major (the big dog) and Orion were the two most important cosmological symbols in the ancient world. The Greek version of the Canopus Decree describes the rising of the star of Isis (to astron to tés Isios) as marking the beginning of the New Year; the hieratic and [687] hieroglyphic versions assigned the duty of New Year demarcation to Sothis, or Sirius. The Roman grammarian Censorinus (c. 2 C A.D.), wrote De Die Natali (On the Day of Birth), an essay discussing nd [688] ancient methods of computing time. Censorium recorded that temples erected to Isis were oriented to the exact spot where Sirius, also called Sothis, would rise. Sothis was the leader of 36 stars, called the Deccans, that followed each other at intervals of ten days throughout the year. By the helical rising of [689] these stars, the Egyptians kept track of their calendar, adding five days to complete the year. Diodorus Siculus described the connection of Isis with the star Sirius found inscribed on a stone memorial to Isis in the Arabian city Nysa: And in that place there stands also a stele of each of the gods bearing an inscription in hieroglyphs. On the stele of Isis it runs: " I am Isis, the queen of every land, she who was instructed of Hermes, and whatsoever laws I have established, these can no man make void… I am she who riseth in the [690] star that is in the Constellation of the Dog. Ancient authors preserved Egyptian traditions concerning Isis, Osiris and Horus, often working with mere fragments of the original legend. The most frequently recounted version, Plutarch's On Isis and Osiris, is significant for its influence on the modern mystery schools, which will be discussed in later chapters. Plutarch (46-120 A.D.), a priest of Pythian Apollo in Boeotia (founded by Cadmus the Sidonian), wrote his version of the legend, which was popular in his day. The story of Isis, Osiris and Horus began with the union of heaven and earth. According to Plutarch the goddess Rhea [Nut the heavens], the wife of Helios [Ra], was beloved by Kronos [Geb the earth]. When Helios discovered the adultery, he cursed his wife and declared that she should not be delivered of her child in any month or in any year. Then the god Thoth [in Greek Hermes], who also loved Nut, threw dice with Selene [the moon] and won from her the seventieth part of each day of the year, which, added together, made five whole [691] days. Osiris was born on the first of the new five days. He became king of Egypt, and devoted himself to civilizing and teaching his subjects. Having established civilization in Egypt, Osiris set out to instruct the other nations of the world. During his absence his wife Isis ruled. When Osiris returned, Typhon [Set] his twin brother plotted with seventy- two comrades to slay him. They secretly obtained the measure of the body of Osiris, and designed a chest which would just encase him. The chest was then filled with jewels and precious metals, and brought before Osiris in his banquet hall among his guests. Set/Typhon pronounced that anyone whom the chest fit exactly would win its contents. Every guest was eager to try but one by one they failed. Eventually Osiris was induced to lie down in the chest, which was immediately closed and sealed by Typhon and his fellow conspirators, who threw it into the Nile River. [692] Isis heard the news of Osiris's death, cut off a lock of hair, put on her widow's clothing, and then set out to find her husband's body. In the course of her wanderings she discovered that Osiris had fathered a child, Anubis, with her twin sister Nephthys. Anubis had been abandoned at birth, however, and Isis with the help of her gods, befriended the young god who grew up to be her loyal guard and consort. Soon after, Isis learned that the sea had carried the body of Osiris to Byblos in Lebanon, where it had come to rest in a tree that had grown around and enclosed the chest within its trunk. The Phoenician king of Byblos cut down the tree and made a pillar for the roof of his house. Isis went to Byblos where she was made nurse to one of the king's sons. Instead of nursing the child in the ordinary way, Isis wished to make the child immortal. Each night Isis put the child into the fire to consume his mortal parts, meanwhile changing herself into a swallow and fluttering about bemoaning her fate. When the Phoenician queen happened to see her son in flames, she put an end to the ritual of Isis, and deprived him of immortality. Isis then explained her plight to the Phoenician queen, and received from her the pillar containing the body of Osiris. Isis retrieved the body of Osiris and returned to Egypt. Then she hid the chest in a secret place. One night while hunting (tzidon), Typhon found the chest containing the body of Osiris and tore it into fourteen pieces and scattered the remains. When Isis heard of this she took a boat made of papyrus to gather the fragments of Osiris's body. After a tedious search, Isis had found thirteen pieces, but a Nile fish had eaten the phallus. Isis replaced this missing piece with an imitation made of wood, and buried the body. Wherever Isis found a part of Osiris, she erected an obelisk to remind her followers to continue searching for the "lost part of Osiris," the generative phallus that had been swallowed by a fish. According to Plutarch, the ancient story is a metaphor for the search for the lost knowledge: The yearning for the truth, especially for truth concerning the Gods, is a yearning for the Divine since the learning and the search involve the investigation of holy things and is more pious work than a devotion to purity and temple attendance. Moreover this search is especially pleasing to the wise and wisdom-loving Goddess whom you worship, whose very name seems to show that knowledge and understanding are her province. "Isis" [supposedly a derivative of "I know"] after all is a Greek word and so also is the name of her enemy "Typhon" who is puffed up [from tufî "I am puffed up"] with ignorance and lies. It is he who tears up and destroys the sacred text which the Goddess gathers up and [693] puts together again to give to the initiates. Plutarch described the Egyptian symbolism as non-literal, but containing hidden truths nonetheless: This doctrine [of the Egyptians] however conceals most of its chief tenets in myths and stories, which express only obscure images and suggestions of the truth. They make this clear by fittingly erecting sphinxes in front of their temples to show that their philosophy is an enigmatic sort of wisdom. The statue in Sais of Athena whom they identify with Isis had this inscription: "I am what has been, what is and what will be and no mortal has yet drawn back my robe." Most people believe that the proper name for Zeus among the Egyptians is "Amoun"… Manetho of Sebennytos however thinks that "hidden" and "hiding" are meant by this word. The wisest of the Greeks bear witness to this, Solon, Thales, Plato, Eudoxos, Pythagoras and, some say, Lykourgos, all of whom went to Egypt and spent time with the priests. They say that Eudoxos studied with Chonuphis of Memphis, Solon with Sonchis of Sais and Pythagoras with Oenuphis of Heliopolis. The Egyptians were impressed by Pythagoras and Pythagoras was so impressed by them that he imitated their symbolism and mystery teaching by mixing riddles in with his dogmas. Many of the Pythagorean precepts are equal in value to the so-called hieroglyphic writings…They portray Osiris, the Lord and King, symbolically by an eye and a scepter…They depict the heavens as a heart beneath a brazier of incense. When therefore you hear the stories which the Egyptians tell about the Gods, their wanderings, dismemberments and many similar experiences you should recall what I have just said and not believe that any of these things happened or was done in the manner recounted. For the Egyptians do not call Hermes a dog in earnest but they attribute to the most intellectual of their Gods the watchfulness and wakefulness of that animal as well as its wisdom and its ability to distinguish the friendly from the hostile by its knowledge of the one and its ignorance of the other. Nor do they believe that the sun rises from the lotus as a new-born baby but they portray the rising of the sun in this way to express enigmatically its [694] rekindling from the waters. Plato's Timaeus described the knowledge of ancient Athens of 9,000 years earlier as having been taught by the goddess : Then as to wisdom, do you observe how our law from the very first made a study of the whole order of things, extending even to prophecy and medicine which gives health, out of these divine elements deriving what was needful for human life, and adding every sort of knowledge which was akin to them. All this order and arrangement the goddess first imparted to you when establishing your city; and she chose the spot of earth in which you were born, because she saw that the happy temperament of the seasons in that land would produce the wisest of men. Wherefore the goddess, who was a lover both of war and of wisdom, selected and first of all settled that spot which was the most likely to produce men likest herself. And there you dwelt, having such laws as these and still better ones, [695] and excelled all mankind in all virtue, as became the children and disciples of the gods. The priests emphasized that both the Greeks and the Egyptians shared the same goddess of wisdom: For there was a time, Solon, before the great deluge of all, when the city which now is Athens was first in war and in every way the best governed of all cities, is said to have performed the noblest deeds and to have had the fairest constitution of any of which tradition tells, under the face of heaven. Solon marveled at his words, and earnestly requested the priests to inform him exactly and in order about these former citizens. You are welcome to hear about them, Solon, said the priest, both for your own sake and for that of your city, and above all, for the sake of the goddess who is the common patron and parent and educator of both our cities. She founded your city a thousand years before ours, receiving from the Earth and Hephaestus (the craftsman god who fell to earth) the seed of your race, and afterwards she founded ours, of which the constitution is recorded in our sacred [696] registers to be eight thousand years old. Although the name of the legendary goddess varied, she provided the continuity as the body of wisdom was carried from culture to culture. This body of knowledge was in existence from an age before a worldwide cataclysm scattered it abroad. An intriguing epithet of the patron of Athens, Pallas Athene, identifies her with Pallas the Greek Titan and with Pales, after whom the Palatine Hill and festival celebrating the founding of Rome was named. At the root of these gods is Phalia, a Greek form of the name Peleg, or Phalec, who was named "division": "for in his days was the earth divided (niphleghah) (Genesis 10:25)." This division was associated with the confusion of the languages and scattering of the world's population recorded in the account of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9). In Aramaic pelagh and Arabic phalaj mean "division" but in Hebrew pelegh is defined as "watercourse" (Strong's 06388). A "divisive watercourse" describes the cosmic clock of the Milky Way, the Ouroboral alignment that occurred during the suntelia of Babel, 4,468 B.C. As Isis was the Egyptian goddess associated with the scattering--and regathering--of the body of Osiris, so Athene Pallas was the Greek aspect of the goddess from the "time of the scattering." According to the Egyptian Hymn to Osiris and a Legend of the Origin of Horus, the goddess Isis was able to navigate and locate the pieces of Osiris' body, but also to resurrect and incarnate her brother as their son, Horus. Thy sister [Isis] acted as a protectress to thee. She drove [thy] enemies away, she averted seasons [of calamity from thee], she recited the word (or, formula) with the magical power of her mouth, [being] skilled of tongue and never halting for a word, being perfect in command and word. Isis the magician avenged her brother. She went about seeking for him untiringly. She flew round and round over this earth uttering wailing cries of grief, and she did not alight on the ground until she had found him. She made light [to come forth] from her feathers, she made air to come into being by means of her two wings, and she cried out the death cries for her brother. She made to rise up the helpless members of him whose heart was at rest, she drew from him his essence, and she made therefrom an heir. She suckled the child in solitariness and none knew where his place was, and he grew in strength. His hand is mighty (or, victorious) within the house of Keb, and the Company of the Gods rejoice greatly at the coming of Horus, the son of Osiris, whose heart is firmly stablished, the [697] triumphant one, the son of Isis, the flesh and bone of Osiris. This passage confirms the importance of the myth of Osiris and Isis in preserving the hidden pre- Flood knowledge. While both Osiris and Isis are symbols referring to greater truths in myths and the mystery schools, Isis was given primacy as the source by which the myths could be navigated and the truth revealed. For thousands of years, navigators of the Mediterranean used the Isis's star Sirius as a reference point for determining their location on the seas because of its great brightness. Osiris has long been associated with the most easily recognizable of the constellations in the night sky, Orion. The secret knowledge preserved in myth and the mystery schools refers to the union of the heavens and the earth, anchored at specific locations with respect to Isis/Sirius and Osiris/Orion. The stars of Orion, the representation in the heavens of Osiris, have a "mirror" on the earth, constructed at Giza. Researcher and engineer Robert Bauval realized that the three main pyramids on the Giza plateau were configured slightly askew in order to represent the three "belt stars" of Orion. Bauval theorized that the Giza sphinx and the Great Pyramid were built to align to the rising of the constellations of Leo and Orion as they would have [698] appeared before the sunrise on the spring equinox 10,500 years B.C. While the significance of Bauval's "Correlation Theory" is undeniable, this alone does not account for the pattern of megalithic structures built across the globe. While Hancock, Bauval and West have researched monuments that seem to be aligned to stars and constellations, some of the greatest megalithic structures in the world--such as those located in Peru and Bolivia of South America--do not seem to correspond to any significant motions of stars at any particular dates. Modern researcher and "archaeocryptographer" Carl Munck has pointed out that monuments seem to be built according to longitude with respect to Giza, but again many monuments do not fit into that simple explanation of the significance of the Great Pyramid. The pillars uniting the heavens and the earth --the marriage of the celestial with the terrestrial--are represented by a much larger system of monuments and stars. The key to decoding this pattern is found not in Osiris as represented at Giza, but in the star of the goddess Isis. Just as the constellation of Osiris has a correlating construct built upon the earth, so the mysteriously "veiled" Isis is represented on earth as well. Egyptian myth described Isis as the connection on the ground between the heavenly son Horus and the earthly underworld ruler Osiris. Long before the [699] Greeks called her Isis, her name in Egyptian was Ast, the Lady or Ruler of secret places. The sciences of reckoning time, movement and location on the earth were inextricably linked to Egyptian doctrine. Geometry, meaning measuring the earth, remained foremost in the symbolic transfer of sacred knowledge in Greek thought. The earth according to Plato reflected the heavenly patterns already established. Isis, the holder of the "body" of knowledge, maintained her primacy under various names among the mystery schools. Her consort Osiris represented the body of knowledge--with that one missing piece that was sought after--an almost complete body of knowledge composed of the written wisdom of the ages. The Syrians called the constellation Orion, associated with Osiris, Gabbara, and the [700] Arabians named it Al Jabbar--both meaning "the giant." The Arabian word for Orion, The Giant, has become the familiar word Algebra, the system of letters and symbols referring to particular quantitative relationships in mathematics. Sirius, the star of the goddess, was the key to finding the location of the literal connection between heaven and earth. Sirius is 31 degrees west of the constellation of Orion in the heavens. A mirror of Sirius upon the earth would appropriately lie 31 degrees west of the Orion's mirror, the pyramids of the Giza plateau. The area of the Sahara desert lies 31 degrees west of Egypt, a region seemingly barren of monuments, megaliths and cyclopean architecture. However there is an important construct residing exactly 31 degrees west of the Giza monuments. At this location on earth the mystery schools have agreed upon an imaginary line, which the nations use to measure time and space relative to any point on the surface of the earth. Just as the mirror of Osiris's constellation Orion was built at the corresponding longitude on earth, at Giza, so the mirror of Sirius has been located on the earth, and called by modern initiates of the mysteries the Prime Meridian. The Prime Meridian is the hidden location of the mirror of Isis upon the earth. The Prime Meridian and the Great Pyramid of Giza were the two pillars that symbolized the union of heaven and earth, supporting the one as it was "twinned" or "mirrored" by the other. The location of ancient megalithic monuments confirms that the understanding of the meridian system is ancient in the order of tens of thousands of years. The mystery schools have preserved the knowledge of the true mirroring of heaven upon the earth, anchored at Sirius (Prime Meridian) and Orion (Giza). The present day celestial prime meridian, supposedly borrowed from the Greeks, is an intentional diversion. The celestial sphere--the signs of the Zodiac and the stars--were symbolically superimposed on the sphere of the earth; from the beginning of civilization the star Sirius was the celestial prime meridian anchored at the earth's Prime Meridian. The meaning behind the myths of a celestial goddess who indicates the proper location to build --whether through the descent of her image, statue, or palladium, or through the guidance of her flame or consort animal--is clearly related to the star of the goddess, Sirius. The goddess guides navigation from the heavens and presides over the building of cities and temples upon her meridians on the earth. The redundancy of twins in foundation myths is explained by this heaven-to-earth connection at Sirius. The Twins of Gemini are the ruling sign of the true celestial prime meridian. That the ancients knew the twins of Gemini were the patrons of navigation--due to their association with Sirius--was recorded as early as Homer's Odyssey. The accounts of the travels of Paul the apostle (Acts 28:11) also refer to the twin patrons of navigation. Occult authority Albert Pike wrote the compendium of early 20 th century understanding of the mysteries called Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. In this work intended to teach modern initiates of the mystery schools, Pike wrote of the significance of Gemini in relation to the mysteries of Eleusis. The Priests of the Island of Samothrace promised favorable winds and prosperous voyages to those who were initiated. It was promised that the Kabiri and Castor and Pollux, the Dioscuri should [701] appear to them when the storm raged, and give them calm and smooth seas. Pike gleaned this information from records left by the Greek poets and historians writing of the mysteries of the Pelasgians. Apollonius of Rhodes (3 C B.C.) wrote in his Greek epic The Argonautica: rd They [the Argonauts] beached this ship at Samothrake … He [Orpheus] wished them, by holy initiation, to learn something of the secret rites, and so sail on with greater confidence across the formidable sea. Of the rites I say no more, pausing only to salute the isle itself and the Powers [the Kabeiroi] that dwell in it, to whom belong the mysteries of which we must not sing.--Argonautica 1.916f Long before the Romans, the earliest civilizations not only rendered Orion on the ground at Giza, and built monuments according to the prime meridian at Sirius, they fixed all the major constellations on the ground in a pattern around the earth. The knowledge that the heavenly constellations were mirrored upon the earth was preserved in the numbers and names reoccurring in myth and the rites of the mystery schools, and in the architectural representations built at physical locations around the globe. The constellations are represented on the earth relative to each other as they are found in the sky, with the Prime Meridian located at Sirius in the heavens and 0 degrees longitude upon the earth. This was the mystery that Apollonius said must not be sung. This was the marriage of heaven with earth that Zosimus described: "Above, the celestial things, below, the terrestrial." This was also the meaning behind the most ancient of the founding myths. It is the joining of Geb with Nut or Oranous with Gaia--the union between the god of heaven and the god of earth. The Sidonian Cadmus founded the Greek region of Boeotia, and gave to the Greeks their Pelasgian --that is Sidonian--mystery traditions, as well as their written language. The Sidonian Greeks of Boeotia [702] referred to the twins of the constellation Gemini as The Amphisians (on both sides). Boeotia was the center of a mystery school which honoured the twins as the "Boy Kings." Pausanias wrote of the twin youths revered in the ancient Pelasgian mysteries: …some said the Boy Kings were the Dioskouroi, (Gemini) and others, who pretend to have fuller [703] knowledge, hold them to be the Kabeiroi. The fiery craftsman or builder gods of the Sidonians were associated with the Amphisian twins of Gemini. Pausanias also explained that the ancient incarnation of the god of Mars, Enyalius of Crete, was worshipped in the temples of the Dioskouroi during the reign of King Agamemnon: "Not far from Therapne, is what is called Phoebaeum, in which is a temple of the Dioscuri. Here the youths sacrifice to [704] Enyalius (Ares)." Because of pivotal meaning of Gemini as the "pillars" between heaven and earth, Romans often [705] used their names in a common Latin oath: Mecastor (I swear by Castor) Edepol (I swear by Pollux). The qualities of Castor and Pollux mirrored those of the twin founders of Rome (Romulus & Remus) so well that it is difficult to separate them as entirely distinct. It was common practice in the ancient world to worship a monolateral system of gods and goddesses, assigning different names to the deity according to the various functions the deity fulfilled. Romulus was worshipped as both the founder of Rome and as the deified Mars Quirinus, having assumed the role of his own father, the Roman war god Mars. The Egyptian god Horus was also an incarnation of his father Osiris, embodying the concepts of "time" (hours) and "location" (horizon) with respect to his consort and mother Isis, the literal anchor of the heavens to the earth through her star Sirius. The Egyptian text The Legend of Ra and Isis described the god Ra, creator of heaven and earth, who was bitten by a serpent and healed by Isis when she learned his secret name: Behold, the goddess Isis lived in the form of a woman, who had the knowledge of words [of power]. Her heart turned away in disgust from the millions of men, and she chose for herself the millions of the gods, but esteemed more highly the millions of the spirits. Was it not possible to become even as was Ra in heaven and upon earth, and to make [herself] mistress of the earth, and a [mighty] goddess-thus she meditated in her heart-by the knowledge of the Name of the holy god? […] The holy god opened his mouth, [saying], I was going along the road … when I was bitten by a serpent which I did not see; And Isis said unto Ra, "O my divine father, tell me thy name, for he who is able to pronounce his name liveth." […] Ra said, "I will allow myself to be searched through by Isis, and my name shall come forth from my body and go into hers." And it came to pass that she said unto her son Horus, "The great god shall bind himself by an oath to give his two eyes." Thus was the great god made to yield up his name, and Isis, the great lady of enchantments, said, " …Verily the name hath been taken away from the great god. Let Ra live, and let the poison die; and if the poison live then Ra shall die. And similarly, a certain man, the son of a certain man, shall live and the poison shall die. These were the words which spake Isis, the great lady, the mistress of the gods, and she [706] had knowledge of Ra in his own name. The initiates among the ancient Greeks considered that the pattern of things on earth must have possessed the pattern of things in heaven. Timaeus explained this pattern to Socrates: Which of the patterns had the artificer in view when he made the world--the pattern of the unchangeable, or of that which is created? […] Every one will see that he must have looked to the eternal; for the world is the fairest of creations and he is the best of causes. And having been created in this way, the world has been framed in the likeness of that which is apprehended by reason and mind and is unchangeable, and must therefore of necessity, if this is admitted, be a copy of something. In the likeness of what animal did the Creator make the world? […] There is and ever will be one only-begotten and created heaven. Now to the animal [heaven] which was to comprehend all animals, that figure was suitable which comprehends within itself all other figures. […] Wherefore he made the world in the form of a globe, round as from a lathe, having its extremes in every direction equidistant from the centre, the most perfect and the most like itself of all figures; for he considered that the like is infinitely fairer than the unlike […] Such was the whole plan of the eternal God about the god that was to be, to whom for this reason he gave a body, smooth and even, having a surface in every direction equidistant from the centre, a body entire and perfect, and formed out of perfect bodies. And in the centre he put the soul, which he diffused throughout the body, making it also to be the exterior environment of it; and he made the universe a circle moving in a circle, one and solitary, yet by reason of its excellence able to converse with itself, and needing no other friendship or acquaintance. Having these purposes in view he created the world a blessed god. [707] Plato revealed the reasoning of mystery school initiates, those who seek knowledge from heaven. Philosophers did not limit themselves to the interpretation of the patterns of nature, but took every concept into account according to how it fit into the mirrored pattern of heaven revealed on earth, including the significance of place names and arrangement of countries, the manner of time and space, and such seemingly trivial things as the affairs of men in their thought and speech. Modern initiates of the mysteries still assess earthly occurrences according to the degree with which they replicate the higher patterns of the heavens. The sight in my opinion is the source of the greatest benefit to us, for had we never seen the stars, and the sun, and the heaven, none of the words which we have spoken about the universe would ever have been uttered. But now the sight of day and night, and the months and the revolutions of the years, have created number, and have given us a conception of time, and the power of inquiring about the nature of the universe; and from this source we have derived philosophy, than which no greater good ever was or will be given by the gods to mortal man. God invented and gave us sight to the end that we might behold the courses of intelligence in the heaven, and apply them to the courses of our own intelligence which are akin to them, the unperturbed to the perturbed; and that we, learning them and partaking of the natural truth of reason, might imitate the absolutely unerring courses of God and [708] regulate our own vagaries. Aristotle continued the tradition among Greek philosophers of teaching the science of "metaphysics"--those things that pertained to the nature of existence. Aristotle's Metaphysics was designed around the wisdom Plutarch had ascribed to the priests of Egypt. Aristotle had been educated by Plato in the academy of Athens. After his own student, Alexander the Great, left for Asia, Aristotle returned to Athens and founded the Lyceum in 335 B.C. Aristotle understood the Sirius anchor of heaven [709] to the earth, and named his Academy Lyceum meaning in Greek "district of the wolf." The Romans called the Canaanites in Latin Cananaei, or Canaorum. These words are related etymologically to the Latin word for female dog "Canarius." The rite called by the mystery schools the canarium (sacrificium) was a sacrifice of a russet-red female dog (at the time of the heat wave, for the [710] goods of the ground). The Latin adjective canîculâris meant "pertaining to the Dog Star": the time referred to as the "dog days" was related to the rising of Isis's star canicula, that is, Sirius. These Latin 44 words trace their origin to the Greek kuna or kunas meaning "the dog-star," called by Homer, "the hound of Orion." "Kuna " is Greek for "watchdog" and significantly "a guardian of the servants, agents or [711] watchers of the gods." The etymology of the Latin word for "dog" reveals its origin off the coast of Sidonia, among the rebuilt cities of Canaan after the Flood. The brightest star in the celestial sphere was called Canicula, the dog-star, commemorating the gift of the knowledge of the heavens given to the Sidonian Canaanites by the Nephilim, offspring of the Watchers. The philosophy espoused by Aristotle--that the patterns of heavenly things governed the patterns of earthly things--profoundly influenced Alexander. He believed that the gods determined his destiny, and that patterns could be discerned to determine the proper course of action. Legend records that Alexander dreamed he had caught a satyr the night before the siege of the city Tyre. His advisors told him it was a good omen, because the Greek word for "satyr" was an anagram for "Tyre." The city fell the next day. [712] During his campaign for Egypt, Alexander came to a holy place called Siwah, dedicated to the Egyptian god Amon-Ra, "the father of the pharaohs," who was depicted at this particular shrine with [713] ram's horns curving downwards around his ears. Originally, Siwah had been the location of the Libyan god who had the shape of a ram, corresponding to the Greek Aries. The Egyptian priests hailed Alexander as the son of Amon-Ra, and Alexander sometimes wore the horns of his divine father Ammon on public occasions. After his death, Alexander was depicted wearing the horns of a ram on his head, which can be see on coins of Lysimachus 290 BC. The Libyan god of the ram may have been related to Baal Hammon, a god venerated by the Sidonians, also called Ammon, or Hermon. Baal Hammon literally means "Lord" of Ham, the son of Noah and father of Canaan and Sidon. Baal Hammon, the Lord of Ham, was among the gods who [714] descended to earth from Mount Hermon. In the pattern-finding philosophy of Aristotle, anagrams and homophones were significant. The words "Aries" and "Ares" [or for that matter "arrows" and "Eros"] are the same to the ears, and unconscious mind, of the listener. The symbolic connection between the Ram of Aries and the Greek god of Mars, Ares, is seen further in the legend of Jason's hunt for the Golden Fleece. The Golden Fleece from the Ram of Zeus, embodiment of the symbol of the zodiac sign Aries, hung in the grove of the war god Ares. The sylvan grove was guarded by Ares's serpentine dragon who never slept, and administered by the mysterious King Aeetes, whose name is tellingly similar to Hades, from the root that means "invisible" (aeides). Astrologers have associated the zodiac sign of Aries the Ram with Ares the Greek god of Mars. Royal Astrologer to Queen Elizabeth, Dr. John Dee was one of the most influential occult philosophers of the 16 century. Born in London, 13 July 1527, Dee was the first to translate Euclid's th Elements into English. Ever the avid scholar (he possessed a library of over 4000 books) Dee taught his knowledge of mathematics to his student, Elizabeth. Dee was later commissioned by Queen Elizabeth to [715] establish the legal foundation for colonizing North America. In 1564 Dee published Monas hieroglyphia (The Hieroglyphic Monad) a book of hermeticism, cabala, and alchemy in which he explained the astrological symbol of Mars: The Sun has the supreme dignity, and we represent him by a circle having a visible centre. --THEOREM III The mystical sign of the Ram, composed of two semicircles connected by one common point, is very justly attributed to the place of the equinoctial nycthemeron, [where the Zodiac begins in Astrology] because the period of twenty-four hours divided by means of the equinox denotes most secret proportions. --THEOREM XI Now regard the mystical character of Mars! Is it not formed from the hieroglyphs of the Sun and [716] Aries, the magistery of the Elements partly intervening? --THEOREM XIII. The Mars astrological glyph commemorates the point in history--during Aries--when the Greeks achieved the godly knowledge associated with the planet Mars. The sun began the New Year in the 2,220 BC at dawn in the zodiac sign Aries, continuing to rise in Aries at each New Year for a span of 2,160 years, until c. 60 BC. Greek myth has preserved the date of the foundation of Thebes by the Sidonian King [717] Cadmus as 1313 B.C., when the year began near the center of the sign of Aries. The Age of Aries encompassed the period when Greek civilization--the arts and sciences--flourished due to the influence of Cadmus's Sidonian alphabet. The sign of Aries was still dominant by the time Alexander the Great conquered the "civilized world." The age in which the Greek philosophers and astronomers were initiated into the mysteries--when the Greeks became "illuminated"--was that of Aries the Ram. The symbols associated with the Ram, Mars, Aries and Ares have been used to illustrate and illuminate such occult concepts as those espoused by initiates like Dee. The Tower of Mars The previous alignment of the ouroboros and sign of the sunteleia had occurred during the zodiacal sign of the Taurus, portending one of the cyclic cataclysms that affected man's advancement. As Plato explained: Whereas just when you and other nations are beginning to be provided with letters and the other requisites of civilized life, after the usual interval, the stream from heaven, like a pestilence, comes pouring down, and leaves only those of you who are destitute of letters and education; and so you have to begin all over again like children…(The Timaeus) The approach of the Ouroboros as it neared alignment with the horizon was regarded with apprehension. Because the ancients had preserved the Flood Myths of the previous suntelia of 10,500 B.C. a monumental fear arose among the learned population of the earth. The Hebrew tradition described the efforts of those united in the effort to avoid the cataclysm they saw approaching as the aion neared: They said: Come, let us make a city and a tower, the top whereof may reach to heaven; and let us make our name famous before we be scattered abroad into all lands. (Genesis 11: 4) The builders of the Tower of Babel, according to some sources, were motivated by the fear of a [718] world conflagration. The Biblical account of the tower of Babel corresponds to the cataclysmic suntelia of c.4,468 B.C. For the duration of the building of the Tower of Babel, the Ouroboros aligned with the earth's horizon and the sign of the suntelia, indicated by the arrow of Sagittarius, was visible in its mouth. The Nephilim or Gibborim who still walked the earth alongside man 6,480 years after the Flood recalled the events when they had last viewed that sign in the heavens. Tales of the previous Ouroboral alignment motivated the world's civilization to unite, symbolized by the megalithic monument of the Tower of Babel. The pseudepigraphical Book of Jubilees 10:21 says that the builders worked for 43 years. The tower's height amounted to 5433 cubits and 2 palms, and (the extent of one wall was) thirteen stades (and of the other thirty stades) a structure one and a half miles high. Rabbinical sources explain that the purpose of the Tower was to secure a shelter for the city of Babel in case a catastrophe should occur yet again: The men who were before us God has destroyed with a deluge; if he shall again think fit to be wroth with us, and seek to destroy us even with a deluge, we shall all perish to a man. But come, let us prepare bricks and burn them with fire, that they may withstand the waters and building them together with asphalt, let us make a high tower the top of which shall reach to heaven, in order that being [719] delivered from the deluge we may find safety in the tower. Eupolemus, an early defender of Christianity, drew on both sources in asserting that: …the city of Babylon had been founded by those who saved themselves from the deluge: they were [720] giants, and they built the famous tower. The Book of Jubilees described the survival of "demons" after the Great Deluge who continued to do their will upon the earth: And in the third week of this jubilee the unclean demons began to lead astray the children of the sons of Noah, and to make to err and destroy them. And the chief of the spirits, Mastêmâ, came and said: "Lord, Creator, let some of them remain before me, and let them harken to my voice, and do all that I shall say unto them; for if some of them are not left to me, I shall not be able to execute the power of my will on the sons of men; for these are for corruption and leading astray before my judgment, for great is the wickedness of the sons of men." And He said: "Let the tenth part of them remain before [721] him, and let nine parts descend into the place of condemnation." The confusion of languages described in the account of the Tower of Babel mitigated the ever- increasing influence of the post-Flood Nephilim. Technology and "heavenly knowledge" could not be spread as easily if neighbors didn't understand each other. The scattering that the builders of the Tower hoped to avoid occurred nonetheless. The memory of the division of the languages and the scattering of the populations which corresponded to the Ouroboral alignment of c. 4,468 B.C is preserved in the Bible as the descendent of Noah named "Peleg" (divisive watercourse), and in Greek myth as Pallas Athene. Intriguingly, Pallas Athene, whose name refers to the confusion of the languages which necessitated the invention of written symbols to represent language, was the goddess who befriended the Sidonian Cadmus, the legendary hero who brought the Phoenician alphabet to the Greeks. Athene was associated in legend with the serpentine deities Cecrops, and her "son" Erichthonius who sprang from the earth of the Acropolis after it was fertilized by Hephaestus, the Greek god of metalworking. Both Pallas Athene and Hephaestus shared altars on the Acropolis, and both of them were gods of the "scattering." Hephaestus, the god who fell from heaven, comes from the Hebrew Hephaitz, meaning "the scattering or [722] dispersion." Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. (Genesis 11:9) Tubalcain, whose name means "brought forth of Cain," was the first to distribute the technology of the Watchers, the skills of metal smithing and weapon making. The Greeks preserved Cain's descendent Tubalcain in the myths of the Telchines, the magickal craftsman gods of the islands. Tubalcain was the prototype for the smith-god Hephaestus, the "god of the scattering," confirmed by the name of the Roman smith god Vulcan (Balcain). The name Tubalcain incorporates the name of Baal as Bel, "The Confounder," another reference to the aion in which the languages were confounded and the population [723] scattered. In the rabbinical concept of the seven earths, it is explained that generations of humanity were molded one out of another in successive catastrophes. This belief concludes that the generation that built the Tower of Babel had inhabited the fourth earth; but went on to the fifth earth when the men became oblivious of their origin and home. Those who built the Tower of Babel were told to forget their language --their generation was called "the people who lost their memory." The earth that these people inhabited was called "the fifth earth, that of oblivion." In the Hebrew Tractate Sanhedrin 109a it is said: …the place where the Tower once stood retains the peculiar quality of inducing a total loss of [724] memory in anyone who passes it. The Egyptians attributed the differences in language to the god Thoth: "the deity that made different [725] the tongue of one country from another." Proclus described Hermes as "responsible for distinguishing and interpreting things, recalling to memory the sources of the intellect" and that he "has a particular affinity for the uniquely human faculty of language: The faculty of language [corresponds to] Hermes." In Roman myth Mercury was the god of [726] speech and the interpreter of the gods. Macrobius wrote: "We know Mercury to have power over the [727] voice and over speech." The mystery schools throughout history have revered the god of speech and letters, in his various incarnations as Hermes, Thoth, Mercury, and Pymander. The Egyptians called Thoth the "scribe of the gods" and "lord of books." Egyptian texts call Thoth the "lord of divine words" and "mighty in speech." According to E. A. W. Budge: …from one aspect he is speech itself…Thoth could teach a man not only words of power, but also [728] the manner in which to utter them. […] The words, however…must be learned from Thoth. An Egyptian hymn assigns to Thoth control over man's powers of memory, invoking him as the deity [729] "that recalls all that had been forgotten." It is clear from the historical records that Thoth/Hermes/Mercury was not only considered responsible for teaching man the technology of sciences, he was also the inventor of letters. The heavenly knowledge of the gods, as well as the identity of the god who provided it, was passed through the invention of the first phonetic alphabet. Legend tells us that Cadmus--the hero who founded Thebes at the place Athena the goddess of wisdom had indicated, who had defeated the Dragon of Ares who guarded the gate of the sacred spring, the Sidonian brother of the princess whose great-grandson was King Cydon [730] of Crete--gave the written language to the Greeks. Hermes was called the "interpreter of the gods," passing along the knowledge that came from the Watchers who descended on Mount Hermon in language and symbols that man--when properly initiated--can understand. Hislop affirmed that Her-mes is an [731] Egyptian term for "son of Ham," a descendent of Cain. The Egyptian "scribe of the gods" and "lord [732] of sacred words" was Thoth, said to have written books of pre-Flood wisdom, most famously the Emerald Tablets in which was inscribed the maxim "As above, so below." As authors of books compiling the wisdom of the gods, Thoth and Hermes Trismegistus are interchangeable in the mystery [733] schools. Hebrew legends have preserved a tradition that Enoch possessed "heavenly tablets," upon which wonderful secrets were written. Enoch told his son, Methuselah, to faithfully preserve them for [734] future generations. This secret knowledge included information concerning the Flood and how to [735] prepare for it. The third-century founder of European alchemy, Pseudo-Democritus, claimed to have learned the tablets of Enoch from his dead Master, "Ostanes the Persian," who had died before passing his wonderful knowledge to his sons. When Democritus succeeded in resuscitating the shade of Ostanes, he learned that the lost pillars could still be found in a certain Temple. These he eventually located and opened, discovering a great mystery which taught that immortality was transferred between heaven and earth: " [736] when one nature unites with another"… Reminiscent of Sagittarius pointing at the mouth of the Ouroborus, the name of the shade that Democritus necromanced,Ostanes, is a Greek variation of oistus, [737] meaning "arrow." The ethereal "arrow man" Ostanes bestowed the knowledge of the location of the lost tablets, or "pillars." The Sumerian Kings List contained a myth very similar to the story of Enoch and his encounters with the Watchers. The Kings List was dated by its author in the reign of King Utukhegal of Erech (Uruk), [738] which places it around 2125 B.C. The Kings List recorded all the rulers of Earth over a time span of +400,000 years. All the early rulers in the list were described as gods--immortal beings in the same class as the Greek Titans--having earthly reigns of thousands of years. Demi-gods and the more recent reign of heroes were included in the List. After a Great Flood, the List describes the length of "human" king's life spans and reigns as considerably shorter in duration. One king mentioned who reigned immediately before the flood was called Enmeduranki, whose name meant "ruler whose powers connect [739] Heaven and Earth." The list described how Enmeduranki was taken, like Enoch of the Old Testament, into the company of the Watchers. Ancient human interaction with the Watchers is also preserved in the name of the land ruled by the Kings of Sumeria. Shumer means "Land of the Watchers" in [740] the Semitic language Akkadian. Shamash and Adad took him to the assembly of the gods… They gave him the Divine Tablet, the [741] kibdu secret of Heaven and Earth… They taught him how to make calculations with numbers. Like the philosophers Plato and Aristotle, medieval mystics believed that divine patterns were reflected in the earthly lives of men underneath the heavens. To that end, they studied the symbols, letters, words, anagrams and numbers that were the tools given to man by Thoth or Hermes, in order to discern those patterns. A group of Jewish mystics living in France and Spain during the 12th and 13th centuries popularized the study of Kaabalah (oral tradition) as an esoteric division of Judaism. They believed that letters and numbers were the building blocks of the universe--the powers used in the process of earth's creation. They believed that all mysteries in the universe could be derived from names, phrases and existing passages of scripture. The Kaabalists studied occult number theory in the Old Testament. Based on the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, each letter is arranged on interconnecting pathways of 10 points on a symbolic tree called the Sephiroth (Tree of Life). It was said that those who seek to follow the path of Wisdom--also known as "The Path of the Serpent"--symbolically move along the Tree's twenty-two interconnected pathways. The 5th point of the Tree of Wisdom was called Geburah, meaning: [742] Tower, Severity, Awe, Strength, and Fear. The Tower or Geburah was also considered a symbol for the planet Mars. Symbolism used by the mystery schools illuminated the writings of Italian poet Dante, who wrote of the connections between the Tower of Babel, Giants and Mars. Intriguingly, Dante identified Mars with Satan. Paradiso Canto IX:127-142 : Florence, the city founded by Mars, that Satan who first turned his back on his Maker, and from whose envy such great grief has come, coins and spreads that accursed lily flower, that has sent the sheep and lambs astray, since it has made a wolf of the shepherd. Dante wrote of a journey into hell, where he saw what at first appeared to be "towers," but eventually came to the realization that they were "giants." These giants were condemned to hell because of their rebellion against the gods. One giant Dante named was Nimrod, condemned for trying to build a tower to heaven. Tityos and Typhon are in hell for having insulted Jove. Dante also identifies these giants as, "agents of Mars," Virgil explains: Let me tell you that these objects you first thought were towers are in fact giants,--The terrifying giants, whom we can still hear. Threatened by Jove whenever he sends his thunder from heaven. I could now distinguish clearly The face of one of them, and see with wonder. When the rebellious Titans, or Giants, tried to attack Mount Olympus, home of the gods, Jove struck them down with thunderbolts. In Hell they are still afraid of his thunder. Nature did well when she stopped producing new Creatures like these, hoping to curtail The number of Mars' henchmen […] This is Nimrod, because of whose evil creation A single world language is no longer used. (Virgil said) Just leave him alone, don't waste your conversation--He's as ignorant of every other language As everyone is of his--forgot communication. Dante's Inferno Canto 31(21-22). Nimrod was preserved among the initiates, like Dante, as a giant and as the author of the Tower of Babel which resulted in the confusion of the languages. Nimrod, who was the son of Belus (Bel "The Confounder" according to Hislop) was a Gibborim, a mighty "hunter" or tzidon. Nimrod the Cydonian was a giant of the race of Nephilim who authored the plan for the tower. Nimrod has been associated in myth with Nergal, the Babylonian god of Mars. The Tower of Babel was a tower to Mars. When heaven and earth were aligned and anchored in ancient times by the knowledge of the Elder gods, the constellations above the earth designated the location for where cities should be built underneath them. However, the full understanding of the earliest myth is not completely symbolic. The same ancient literary works that hold the knowledge of heaven and earth in their pages also maintain that the origin for that knowledge was the gods themselves. The ancient Cabiri (Gibborim) who built Cyclopean walls and megalithic fortresses took many forms, but they all originated from the same place. They came down from heaven to the earth. According to ancient Sumerian myth, when Nergal the god of Mars was ejected from heaven he descended with 14 demons. Demons or daimones are spiritual guides who literally interfere and influence the daily lives of mankind. In On Isis and Osiris, Plutarch described DAIMONES as teachers of mankind and the superhuman intelligences found in myth. The opinion is better founded of those who believe that what has been recorded about Typhon, Osiris and Isis are the experiences neither of Gods nor of human beings but of great daimones. Plato, Pythagoras, Xenocrates and Chrysippos follow the earlier theological writers in describing the daimones as being more powerful than men and by nature far surpassing men in ability. Plutarch continues, delineating between virtuous daimones and those who were evil: They do not however possess the pure and unmixed divine nature but combine the nature of the soul with the body's openness to sensation so that they are exposed to pleasure and pain and to the whole range of experiences proper to these affective faculties that disturb some more than others. Among the daimones therefore there are differences of virtue and evil. The deeds of the Giants and the Titans celebrated among the Greeks, the sacrilegious activities of Kronos, the persistent opposition of the Pytho to Apollo, the fleeings of Dionysos and the wanderings of Demeter are fundamentally similar to the deeds of Osiris and Typhon and to the stories all may easily hear from the tellers of myth. The same explanation applies to the things which are kept hidden in the sacred mysteries and [743] which must not be spoken of by the initiates nor shown to the masses. Apuleius of Madauros (born c. 123 AD, d. c. 170) is best known as the author of the Metamorphoses, otherwise known as The Golden Ass. He was a poet, philosopher, and rhetorician from whom numerous works survive. In his work The Defense he wrote: I do, however, believe Plato: certain divine beings, intermediary in character and position, have been placed between the gods and human beings, and they guide the divinations and miracles of [744] magicians. The 19 century initiate of the mystery schools, H.P.Blavatsky wrote: th A long chain of influence extends from the highest spiritual guide who may belong to any man, down through vast numbers of spiritual chiefs, ending at last even in the mere teacher of our youth. Or, to restate it in modern reversion of thought, a chain extends up from our teacher or preceptors to the highest spiritual chief in whose ray or descending line one may happen to be. And it makes no difference whatever, in this occult relation, that neither pupil nor final guide may be aware, or admit, that this is the case. Theosophical library, Blavatsky, "Letters that have helped me." The Greek philosophers from Plato onward believed the "demons" were guides for illumined men. [745] The Neoplatonic term for spiritual illumination was Daimonion Photi (Greek) Socrates said he had a lifetime daimon that always warned him of danger and bad judgment, but never directed his actions. This explained the source of Socrates wisdom, as coming from his daimon. Roman orator Cicero said: Socrates was the first to bring philosophy down from the heavens. (Cicero Tusculan Disputations, V, 4, 10) Plato recorded that Socrates said: By the favor of the Gods I have, since my childhood, been attended by a semi- divine being whose voice, from time to time, dissuades me from some undertaking, but never directs me what I am to do. [746] Socrates implied that daimons are the children of divine and human parents, (i.e. demigods). Xenophon in the Apology for Socrates quotes him saying: This prophetic voice has been heard by me throughout my life; it is certainly more trustworthy than omens from the flight or the entrails of birds; I call it a God or a daimon. I have told my friends the [747] warnings I have received, and up to now the voice has never been wrong. In I Corinthians 10:20 Paul used the same word for disembodied spirit that Socrates used, daimon translated "devil" in the NT. Paul said that believers in Jesus Christ were not to have any interactions with "daimons" whatsoever. The Socratic Principle of listening to a personal guiding spirit daimon has long been a major part of the Gnostic, Masonic and Theosophic mystery schools, and continues even today. The 19 century theologian G.H.Pember wrote: th But he (Satan) is also called "the Prince of the Power of the Air" (Eph. 2:2). This principality would seem to be the same as "the heavenly places" (Eph. 6:12) which as Paul tells us, swarms with the spiritual hosts of wickedness. It is by no means necessary to restrict it to the eighty or a hundred miles of atmosphere supposed to surround earth…the kingdom of the air would include the immense [748] space in which the planets of our centre revolve. Neoplatonism was developed in the 3 C A.D. by the Hellenistic thinker Plotinus (c. 204-70 AD), rd born in Egypt and lived in Rome. The theories of Plotinus included laterdoctrines of Plato, especially those found in the Timaeus, based on the Egyptian wisdom given to ancient Athenian lawgiver Solon. Among noted Neoplatonists were: Plotinus, Porphyry, Theodorus of Asine, Iamblichus, Syrianus, Proclus, [749] Damascius, Simplicius, Olympiodorus. The Neoplatonists of the school of Iamblichus were called "theurgists," a term that still applies to the methodology of modern initiates in the mysteries. Theurgy was a method of individual communion with the gods, of bringing the wisdom of the gods down to earth--or bringing down the gods themselves. Iamblichus and his adepts performed ceremonial magic, evoking the simulacra or the images of the ancient heroes, gods, and daimonia (spiritual entities). In the rare cases when the presence of a tangible and visible spirit was required, the theurgist had to supply a portion of his own flesh and blood to the apparition--he had to perform the theopaea, or the "creation of gods." The Enneads was the major Neoplatonic work. It was collected and published after the death of Plotinus by his Phoenician student Porphyry. In Rome 253 A.D. Porphyry edited and arranged Plotinus's Enneads into six groups with nine [750] treatises in each of them. Theurgy was practiced with the understanding that a "design" for the universe had first to be learned in order for man to associate with the forces in it. The design followed laws of time and space. …the celestial soul- and our souls with it- springs directly next from the Creator, while the animal life of this earth is produced by an image which goes forth from that celestial soul and may be said to flow downwards from it […] The magician too draws on these patterns of power, and by ranging himself also into the pattern is able tranquilly to possess himself of these forces with whose nature and purpose he has become identified. […] All teems with symbol; the wise man is the man who in any one thing can read another, a process familiar to all of us in not a few examples of everyday experience. […] Even the Celestials, the Daimones, are not on their unreasoning side immune: there is nothing against ascribing acts of memory and experiences of sense to them, in supposing them to accept the traction of methods laid up in the natural order, and to give hearing to petitioners; this is especially true of those of them that are closest to this sphere, and in the degree of their concern about it…For everything that looks to another is under spell to that: what we look to, draws us magically. Only the self-intent go free of magic. Hence every action has magic as its source, and the entire life of the practical man is a bewitchment: we move to that only which has wrought a [751] fascination upon us. The "work" within the doctrine of the Enneads would involve the hand of man in an act of the gods. The reward for the Theurgist, then, was the understanding of the design of the gods and the wielding of power that flowed through him. Theurgy, or "Divine Work," was thought to influence the gods; the theurgist believed man could move the gods to impart divine mysteries, and even cause them to become manifest. Additionally the theurgist sought to ascend into the god's presence by using symbols, signs, words, sounds, godly materials called Seirai (Chords, Chains, "Processions") which united Orders of Being with Celestial Bodies, a "Great Chain of Being." The practice of theurgy would only convey influence from the gods if the symbols and rituals used were actually taught by the gods. This is why Plato said that "great [752] power of geometric equality [exists] amongst both gods and men." The Theurgic concepts suggest that the use of anagrams, symbols and numbers by Pythagoras and his followers expressed more than the mystery teachings of the Egyptians… the symbols were used to invoke Diamones. Images for CYDONIA" file with following caption: "Cydonia Crete Silver Drachma c. 350 B.C. Arthur S. Dewing Collection. Roman coin--The shepherd Faustus, Romulus and Remus, and the Sabine wolf. The "wolf mother" feeding Cydon, founder of Cydonia, on Crete and Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome. The wolf symbolizes the star Sirius, the anchor of heaven and earth.