Cydonia: Chapter One: The Secret Chronicles of Mars

The Roman people profess that their Father and the Father of their Empire was none other than Mars. --Livy's Early History of Rome We are the Martians. --Richard Hoagland, author of The Monuments of Mars The Land of Mu, Atlantis, Arcadia, the Golden Age, the Golden Fleece, the Holy Grail, the Philosopher's Stone: these are all legends of a quintessential "something" that was sought after, lost but still possible to restore. Myth speaks of a former time and place, of fabulous deeds by men of renown, and of an object of wisdom that was highly prized but dangerous to procure. A tree with golden fruit is the symbol of that lost quintessence; the "god" of the fruit tree is the bestower of lost knowledge. In Celtic myth the immortal Arthur of the shining city Camelot, along with his supernatural sister Morgan of the fairies, will return at some future time from the isle of Avalon, the "Isle of Apples." Avalon is an island that manifests in this reality at certain points in time, only to fade into history again. Arthur is called the "once and future king," and he abides on the island that wanders through time. The Greek "Apple Man" Apollo was the god of wisdom and divination, bestowing the knowledge of music, medicine and future events. Phoebus (the shining one) Apollo was born with his twin sister Artemis, goddess of the moon, on the wandering floating island called Asteria (a star) or Ortygia (quail island). The ethereal island of Apollo's birth was appropriately renamed Delos (manifest, visible) at the advent of the god of wisdom. In myth we see the shining god and his female aspect having originated on an island, possessing the powers of future intervention in the affairs of men. Often the location of the primordial apple-god is not an island, but a garden; often the power of the apple-god is manifest in the form of a serpent-god. Apollo's knowledge of future events was dispersed through the Pythian Priestesses at Delphi, where the young apple-god had defeated and absorbed the characteristics of the serpent Python. One of the labors of the hero Hercules was to find the hidden Garden of the Hesperides (the Daughters of King Atlas of the Isle of Atlantis), to defeat the dragon guarding the garden, and retrieve the Golden Apples. The Bible describes the original serpent and the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden. It was there that the subtle serpent offered Eve the wisdom of the apple. The golden apple of myth, the symbol of hidden knowledge, is more appropriately depicted as a quince--the golden fruit referred to by its scientific name Pyrus Cydonia. The legend of a place of origin--an island or garden that is not always visible or accessible --indicates that this is not only a place but also a place in time. The "time of origin" was once a concrete concept, alluded to in myth as an island in the midst of the chaotic primeval waters. This place in time is also portrayed in myth as the garden--an island-of-vegetation cultivated according to a plan, surrounded by the wilderness of nature. The location of the hidden garden, like that of an island that wanders, is obscured but preserved in myth. A city, like a garden, is the result of the manipulation of nature according to a plan, an island-of- architecture in the midst of the chaos of nature. The Bible describes Cain, the first murderer, as the first to cultivate crops, and the first to build a city after the expulsion from the Garden of Eden. And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment [is] greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, [that] every one that findeth me shall slay me. And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch. Genesis 4:13--17 This passage concerning the first city-builder Cain presents one of the riddles this book hopes to answer. Adam, Eve and Cain were not the only beings on the earth at that time. Cain feared someone who was not a member of his family would "findeth and slay" him. The mark on Cain was to prevent outsiders from doing him harm. God sentenced Cain to wander the earth as a "vagabond," and it was from those other non-Adamic beings that he took a wife--from other families outside of Adam's household, in keeping with the law against incest. When Cain left his father and mother, he went out and built a city. It is interesting to note that the first act of a civilized culture--the founding of a city--is often preserved in myth alongside an account of a conflict between brothers. Extra-Biblical legends of Cain, the first human city-builder, hint that he is actually a demi-god, fathered by a fallen angel. This echoes the most prominent theme related to the origins of a city: "The God of the City Who Fell from the Heavens." After quieting the crowd, the town clerk said, "Men of Ephesus, what man is there after all who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of the image [422] which fell down from heaven? Acts 19:35 NASB The Greek New Testament describes Paul's encounter with the Ephesians, a culture in Asia Minor. The citizens of Ephesus believed that a deity had descended to their city from the sky. This fallen "image" became the god of the city and the consort of Artemis (one of the many incarnations of the virgin/mother/warrior goddess). So ardent were the Ephesians in their reverence for this "fallen one" that Paul's preaching caused a riot in the streets. A patron "god of the city," not having fallen from heaven to the earth empty handed, brought to the loyal citizenry the foundations of that city's architectural and intellectual pursuits. Contemporaries of the Ephesians, the Athenians held a similar reverence for their patron Athena, the goddess of war and wisdom. The city of Athens was originally named after the serpentine god of the city Cecrops--the founder of Athens who still leaves his name upon his temple mound the Acropolis. In myth, after being supplanted as the patron of the city, Cecrops returned from the earth of the Acropolis as the young serpent god Erichthonius, who was then adopted by Athena as her consort city god. Homer recorded the Greek legend of Athena's descent from the celestial realm: Like a blazing star which the lord of heaven shoots forth, bright and scattering sparks all around, to be a portent for sailors or for some great army of men, so Pallas Athena shot down to earth and leapt into the throng. Iliad 4:73-79 And even as crook-witted Chronus' son sendeth a star--a sign to mariners or some broad host of men--a brilliant star, wherefrom springs many a spark, like unto that Pallas Athena darted down to earth. Iliad 4:75ff. The initial appearance of Athena as she came from heaven to earth was likened to a shooting "star," a meteorite. The Egyptian creation myth also refers to a fallen stone from heaven. The legendary benben stone--literally "the Stone which flowed out"--was said to be a meteorite upon an obelisk revered in the [423] Het-Benben temple of Heliopolis. According to the Egyptian historian Rundle Clark, the Egyptians believed the benben stone played an essential role in the foundation of the world. An early creation myth held that the vital essence hike was brought to earth from The Isle of Fire. This place of origin of the gods was associated with what the Egyptian Book of the Dead called Neter-khert (Island or Mountain of God). The Phoenix was the chief messenger from the heavenly land of the gods, and the benben stone was considered the part of heaven [424] associated with regeneration. The Egyptian creation story was found among the many ancient inscriptions called the Pyramid Texts. Referred to collectively as the 759 Utterances, these inscriptions were chiseled upon the walls of ten pyramids situated at the necropolis of Saqqara, dating to the 1 and 2 Dynasties of the Old Kingdom st nd (2705-2213 BC). Utterance 600 The Nesiamsu Papyrus refers to the location of the benben stone: O Atum-Khoprer, you became high on the height, you rose up as the bnbn-stone in the Mansion of the Phoenix. The regenerative qualities of the benben stone combined with its origins in some heavenly "fiery" domain indicate that this stone was a prototype for the bird of resurrection, the Phoenix. The word phoenix in Egyptian and Greek refers to the color red. The benben stone fell from a heavenly "Mansion of [425] the Phoenix," literally the "Mansion of the Red." The name Phœcnicia was a Greek transliteration of the word they inherited from the sea traders off the East Coast of the Mediterranean. Although it is said this land was called Phœcnicia because of the plentitude of palm trees--from phoinix, (the date-palm)-- this conception belies the truth behind the name. The Greek word phoînos (blood red) is the root of [426] Phœcnicia, the "Land of the Red." The citizens of this land were called Phoenikes (of the red) by [427] the Greeks; intriguingly both Homer and Plato refer to the Phonecians as "Sidonians." The city of Sidon has been called "the mother of Phoenician cities," and the Bible calls the city of Tyre the "daughter of Sidon" in Isaiah 23:12. The famous Sidonian city of Tyre (The Stone), revered a god who had fallen like a stone from heaven. Melkart (King of the City) was worshipped in Tyre as the consort of the goddess Astarte. According to the legendary Phoenician writer Sanchuniathon, the god Melkart came to be the god of the city after he was found by Astarte as "a star falling through the air, which she took up and consecrated in the holy island Tyre." The name "Mel-kart" is a combination of the Semitic root words Malak (Angel) and Qiryah (City). [428] The Sidonians and the Hebrews shared common Semitic root words in their languages. The Hebrews who invaded the land of Canaan used the same alphabet as their Sidonian neighbors. In Hebrew Melkart can be translated "the angel of the city." The word kart or cart is seen in the Greek name of [429] Carthage, sometimes called Cart-hada or Cart-hago, meaning "place of the city." The Greeks borrowed the letters of the Sidonians to write their language. The first two letters in the Semitic Hebrew and Sidonian are aleph and bet. The same two letters in Greek are alpha and beta. The culture of the Phoenicians--the Sidonians--has been praised in historic records as the most civilized in the ancient world. The cities of Tyre and Sidon were considered the pinnacle of sophistication, the template for urban aspirations of subsequent civilizations, especially the Greek and Roman. The founding gods of old taught technology and a civilizing influence, established laws, and built cities and temples according to a plan brought to earth from their former dwelling place in the heavens. The Sidonian myths of the origins of cities and their gods were connected to a previous time and place that had passed away due to a cataclysm. Heavenly objects that fell to earth, like the Egyptian benben stone meteorite, were seen to be the physical remains of the destroyed world, and were revered as pieces of the "lost age of the gods." Later chapters will discuss a celestial cataclysm, an exploded planet, which is the origin of the heavenly stones, and the gods, that fell to the earth. Ancient man correctly identified these fallen stones with the former dwelling place of the gods. The Black Stone of Kaaba is another heavenly stone that fell to earth. The actual stone was set up in a shrine in the Mosque at Mecca. According to legend, the Kaaba stone was given to Adam by the angel Gabriel while in the Garden of Eden. The Muslim Kaaba stone of myth was a considered a piece of the original paradise. The Kaaba is venerated with a ritual seven-fold circumambulation. This rite, still performed by Islamic pilgrims, is said to be a mirror of a place in the heavens around which the angels continued to circumambulate (tawaf)--to revolve like the planets in the solar system. According to Islamic author Ibn Abbas, "Muhammad said, 'Indeed the Islamic teachings of the origin of Adam say that the paradise in which he lived and was subsequently expelled was not even on the earth.' "Qur'anic scripture Surah Al-A'raf, verse 11-27 reads: Allah said: "Go down, some of you are the enemy of others. The Earth will be your dwelling-place and your means of livelihood for a fixed term." He further said: "Therein you shall live and therein you shall die, and therefrom you shall be raised to life." The Roman historian Livy (59 B.C.-17 A.D.) was even more specific than Islamic scholars, naming the "mansion" or "paradise" from whence the founding gods of civilization had come. The Roman people profess that their Father and the Father of their Empire was none other than Mars. [430] The common thread within most ancient creation stories was the union of the celestial and terrestrial, at a particular time of unparalleled upheaval and change. The "marriage of heaven and earth" gave birth to the worldwide legends of the gods who descended from the heavens. The Mouth of the Ouroboros Old Sages by the Figure of the Snake Encircled thus, did oft expression make Of Annual- Revolutions; and of things, Which wheele about in everlasting-rings; There ending, where they first of all begun… These Roundells, help to shew the Mystery of that immense and blest Eternitie, From [431] whence the CREATURE sprung, and into whom It shall again, with full perfection come. The earliest civilizations recognized a correlation between the cycles of sun, moon and stars and the seasons of crop cultivation necessary for a civilization's survival. Ancient man knew that the heavens followed a fixed plan that repeated in discernible patterns. Plato wrote of the planets as mechanisms of a cosmic clock, and the Hebrew authors of the Old Testament wrote similar descriptions of the meaning of the heavens and their movements: The sun and moon and five other stars, which are called the planets, were created in order to distinguish and preserve the numbers of time. (Plato's Timaeus) And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years. (Genesis 1:14 KJV) Plato lends his name to the major cyclical movement of the sky called the Platonic Year, or "Precession of the Equinox." At the present time the North Pole points to the star Polaris in the constellation Ursa Minor. 12,000 years ago the North Star was Vega in the constellation Lyra. 6,000 years ago the North Star was Thuban in Draco. The pole of the earth is inclined off perpendicular 23 degrees, tracing a very slow circle in the heavens. Because of this arrangement the "Pole Star" and the positions of the constellations relative to the seasons constantly move. The constellations of the zodiac move with respect to the occurrence of the spring equinox, but only by one degree of 360 in seventy two years. The time of the spring and fall equinox moves continually through the constellations; one complete precession of the equinox is known as the "Platonic year," occurring every 25,920 years. Although the Greek astronomer Hipparchus (2 century BC) was said to have discovered the precession of the equinoxes, nd evidence suggests that knowledge of celestial cycles is far more ancient. Now this has the form of a myth, but really signifies a declination of the bodies moving in the heavens around the earth, and a great conflagration of things upon the earth, which recurs after long intervals… (Plato's Timaeus) The ancients chronicled heavenly "signs and seasons" which have come down to us disguised as mere myth. Priests and astrologers of antiquity carefully guarded the secret of the most important heavenly cycles; beyond the knowledge of the skies that could be learned through a lifetime of observation, there was a secret knowledge of the heavens that could not be documented unless preserved and handed down through generations. The greatest heavenly cycle was ancient. Though visible in the heavens for nearly 1,000 years, the mechanism of this cycle caused its appearance to be manifest at 6,480 year intervals. This cycle has been alluded to in myth in various guises, such as "the island that wanders through time and space." The Greek's referred to this greatest heavenly cycle as an Aiôn, the source of the time keeping concept of an "eon." The Greek defined the cycle of the Aiôn (life span) as the cosmic period between the creation and destruction of an age. The Greeks used a symbol--the Ouroboros, a serpent biting its own tail--to represent the Aion. The Ouroboros serpent symbol was said to be of Egyptian origin, very similar to a [432] symbol transliterated from hieroglyphs as Uerounus. The Liddell-Scott-Jones Lexicon of Classical Greek defines Ouroboros as "devouring its tail" from the word ouraios (of the tail) and boros (to devour). The serpent biting his tail was an appropriate symbol for the concept of the Aion (life span), the rise and fall of history between the cataclysmic destruction of one age and the rebuilding of cities and the [433] foundation of new civilizations. The Greek Ouranos (father heaven) shared many traits with the Egyptian primordial snake god Uerounus (from Egyptian hieroglyphs). Interestingly, the names share the Chaldean root Ur (fire), and both deities are connected to the idea of the earliest times in earth's history. The root of the Greek Ouranos is related to Ourea meaning "to make water" and to the Hebrew root Or meaning, "to be or become light." Words with the roots Ur and Or have connotations of both water and light, and an [434] association with time--the dawn, the coming of the light. The symbol of the ouroboros embodies the concepts of a serpent of light, a serpent from the dawn of time, a serpent of heaven, a fiery serpent that is also a sea serpent. The "lifespan" of the ages, the Aion, is appropriately depicted as the Ouroboros, the serpent of light living in the heavenly river of the Milky Way. Uerounus is depicted in the Egyptian stone zodiac of Dendera as the primordial serpent with his tail [435] in his mouth, encircling Harpocrates (Young Horus) poised on top of the scales of Libra. In the Egyptian papyrus of Dama Heroub, the young Egyptian god Horus is surrounded by the Ouroboros resting on top of the dual-headed lion Routi, the god of the future and the past. [See the illustration at the end of this chapter] In Greek myth the Milky Way was deified as Oceanos, the celestial river that flowed in a circle around the earth. Oceanos was depicted in Greek art as a huge serpentine-fish creature holding its tail in its mouth and encircling the earth. Spelled alternately Oceanus/Okeanos, this celestial river deity was associated with the early Greek titan Ophion (Native Serpent). Oceanos is called the oldest of the Titans, an orphic god who ruled the world with his mother Eurynome, before the reign of Chronos. Oceanos was also, according to the ancient Greeks, the inventor of the arts and magic, and later associated with Poseidon. Like the encircling world river Oceanos, Poseidon was also called by the ancient Greeks the [436] [437] "Earth Encircler." Homer's Iliad refers to Poseidon as "He who circles the earth" and "earth [438] shaker." Poseidon ruled not only the waters of earth but also the waters of heaven. The Milky Way was especially connected to him. The Greeks considered Poseidon responsible for earthquakes because he "held up the earth in his celestial waters." The depiction of earth as a disk surrounded by the river Okeanos in ancient cosmology demonstrated the historical foundation of all things. This is why the [439] Greeks called Poseidon the "Earth-Embracer." Early chroniclers of Greek myth like Hesiod and Homer referred to Poseidon as: [440] Oceanos, whose stream bends back in a circle. Poseidon finished speaking. Then, the shaker and encircler of the earth touched both men with his [441] staff, infusing them with power, strengthening their legs and upper arms. [442] Oceanos the completely encircling river. But Poseidon, who encircles and shakes the earth, roused the Argives, once he'd moved up from the [443] sea. Scholars throughout the ages have described the Ouroboros as distinct from the other gods, the original self-propagating self-sufficient heavenly mechanism. Draco interfecit se ipsum, maritat se ipsum, impraegnat se ipsum. (The Serpent slays, weds, and [444] impregnates itself.) Plato's concept of the original workings of the universe was as a perpetually running circular machine. Plato described the Ouroboros in his work Timæus : There was no surrounding air to be breathed, nor was it in need of any organ by which to supply itself with food or to get rid of it when digested. Nothing went out from or came into it anywhere, for there was nothing. Of design it was made thus, its own waste providing its own food, acting and being acted upon entirely with and by itself, because its designer considered that a being which was [445] sufficient unto itself would be far more excellent than one which depended upon anything. The Latin writer and philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero (1 century BC) ascribed the origin of the st [446] Ouroboros to the Phoenicians, in his work, De Natura Deorum. The Roman historian Macrobius also described the Ouroboros as a Phoenician, that is, Sidonian symbol: …the Phoenicians have represented it in their temples as a dragon curled in a circle and devouring its tail, to denote the way in which the world feeds on itself and returns on itself. Macrobius Saturnalia The "Earth-encircling" Greek gods Okeanos and Poseidon, as well as the Egyptian Uerounus, were closely related to a heavenly creature of ancient Hebrew literature called Leviathan. Liweyathan is a [447] combination of the words levi (joined) and tan (long serpent). According to ancient Hebrew esotericism Leviathan represents cyclic time as the great serpent of the waters of the galaxy. Leviathan is also associated with the various forces in the heavens manifested by electricity in lightning or thunderbolts. The Book of Job in the Hebrew Old Testament describes Leviathan as a great sea monster. Leviathan, like the Ouroboros, represents the Milky Way. The clearest example of the connection between Leviathan and the Ouroboros symbol of the Milky Way is found in the Hebrew esoteric writings ascribed to Rabbi Simon ben Jochai, (A.D. 160) called the [448] Zohar. In Mathers's translation Siphra' Di-Tseni`uthah (Book of Mystery or Silence) Leviathan is described: His [Leviathan's] tail is in his head… He watcheth and he is concealed. There are swellings in his scales. His crest keepeth its own place. The serpent which rusheth forth with three hundred and [449] seventy leaps, he holdeth his tail in his mouth between his teeth. MacGregor comments on this passage: Here is the origin of the well-known symbol of a serpent holding his tail in his mouth, like a circle… He is, so to speak, not only the executor of judgment, but also the destroyer; destruction as opposed to creation, death as opposed to life. The Aion, the cycle of time beginning and ending with cataclysm, is aptly represented by the Ouroborus, the Leviathan. The encircling serpent of the Milky Way somehow measures the cycles of time, displaying a "sign in the heavens" that portends judgment. The Hebrew Job was asked how he could understand the fullness of God's plan, if Job couldn't even contend with Leviathan: Shall not [one] be cast down even at the sight of him? None [is so] fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me? Who hath prevented me, that I should repay [him? whatsoever is] under the whole heaven is mine. I will not conceal his parts, nor his power, nor his comely proportion. Who can discover the face of his garment? [or] who can come [to him] with his double [450] bridle? Who can open the doors of his face? Job 41:9-14 KJV The clothing of the high priest of Israel was designed to represent the heavens and the Leviathan. Jewish historian Flavius Josephus wrote: The high priest's girdle was loosely woven so that you would think it was the skin of a snake… and the girdle which was around the high priest represented the ocean. Jewish Antiquities III.154,185. Philo wrote concerning the same subject: Now such was the raiment of the high priest; and both it and its parts have a meaning which must not be passed over in silence. For the whole is in fact a representation and copy of the cosmos, and the parts are representations of its several portions." Philo, Life of Moses II.117. The Apocryphal Acts of Thomas characterized Leviathan as a dragon who lives beyond "the waters of the Abyss," that he is "king of the worms of the Earth, whose tail lies in his mouth. This is the serpent that led astray through passions the angels from on high; this is the serpent that lead astray the first Adam and expelled him from Paradise." Also found in this work is the description of one of the sons of Leviathan, who states that he is, "the offspring of the serpent-nature and a corruptor's son. I am the son of he who … sits on the throne and has dominion over the creation beneath the heavens… who encircles the sphere … who is around the ocean, whose tale is in his mouth." The Acts of Thomas, Third Act: [451] Concerning the servant. If one looks closely at the Milky Way, following the trail of stars in a complete circle, an actual well-defined serpent-like "head" can be seen biting its "tail" in the sign Sagittarius. This serpentine form is the reason the Milky Way is called Leviathan, the Ouroboros, the fiery serpent of light in the milky sea. Sagittarius is important in reckoning the cataclysmic Aion cycle of time, pointing out as he does the place where the Ouroborus serpent is "connected" (Leviathan or Levi-tan). Sagittarius resides on one of the two places the Milky Way intersects the ecliptic, the circuit of the heavens across the signs of the zodiac traveled by the sun and planets in their orbits as viewed from the earth. The ecliptic, the path of the planets, crosses the Milky Way between Gemini and Taurus, and between Sagittarius and Scorpio, with the two most prominent signs on the ecliptic being Sagittarius and Gemini. Not only does the arrow-wielding Sagittarius point to the mouth of the serpent of the Milky Way, but also for a few days a year--at 6,480 year intervals--he points to the illusion of the sun rising from the mouth of the Ouroboros. The arrow of Sagittarius delineates the union of the serpent's head and tail; the celestial archer indicates the proper place to "Divide the Ouroborus." While the sun "rises in Sagittarius" and emerges from the serpent's mouth yearly, the demarcation of the beginning and ending of the cosmic cycle of an Aion occurs every 1/4 of a Platonic year of 25,920 years. The sign of the passing away of one th Aion and the beginning of the next "life span" occurs only when the sun rises in the mouth of Ouroboros during a solstice or an equinox. When the sun rises in the mouth of the Ouroboros, it is necessarily in the sign of Sagittarius, during one of the four "cardinal points" of the year. During this event there is a phenomenon visible in the night sky that has been commemorated in myth as the "primordial island, mountain or mound" rising from an "ocean of stars." The entire Milky Way surrounds the horizon in 360 degrees, creating the illusion of the earth as an island in the midst of the milky sea. This image is also comparable to the celestial serpent Ouroboros encircling the earth as it swims in a sea of stars. This illusion of the earth embraced by the Ouroboros during these quarterly precessional alignments is visible for about 1,000 years, but occurs only for that relatively short period of time every 6,480 years. On the morning of the summer solstice, June 21 12,960 years ago, the sun appeared to rise out of the st mouth of the Ouroboros with Sagittarius looking on. This "sign in the heavens" was visible to the ancient cultures flourishing on the earth 6,480 years ago, occurring at that time during the equinox, September 21 .st The time is now that the Ouroboros is again encircling the earth; the arrow of Sagittarius points to the rising sun in the mouth of the ouroborus on the morning of the winter solstice. The Milky Way was the symbolic primordial sea from which the earth was born, or more accurately, from which one age died and another was born. The time cycle of the Aion--divided at the mouth of the Ouroboros--will have taken place 5 times during the course of one Platonic year of 25,920 years. The Greeks called the conjunction of these ages the Sunteleia, marking the end of one age and the beginning of another. Sunteleia is a compound word combining sun (soon) meaning "union" with telos, [452] which means, "that by which a thing is finished or closed." Within the cycle of the five Sunteleia divisions during a Platonic Year, the first and the final will have occurred during the same quarter of the [453] precessional circuit. Oxford educated English esotericist George Wither (1588--1667) evidently understood the Ouroboral cycle of five Sunteleia when he wrote: Five Termes, there be, which five I doe apply To all, that was, and is, and shall be done. The first, and last, is that ETERNITIE, Which, neither shall have End, nor, was begunne…TIME entred, when, BEGINNING had an Ending, And, is a Progresse, all the workes of Nature, Within the circuit of it, comprehending, Ev'n till the period, of the Outward-creature. END, is the fourth, of those five Termes I meane; (As briefe, as was Beginning) and, ordayned, To set the last of moments, to that [454] Scaene, After usurping the powers of the previous deities: Okeanos, Ouranos, Chronus (all manifestations of the ouroboros), Poseidon in turn became the deified representation of the Milky Way and the aion. Poseidon was frequently depicted in the art of the Greeks with a "trident," which is the symbol of the 23 rd Greek letter Psi. The earth orbits the sun tilted at an angle of, on average, 23 degrees. Because the earth's axis of rotation is not perpendicular to its plane of orbit, the earth receives more sunlight in one hemisphere and less in the other alternating every 6 months. This variation of sunlight of the earth's hemispheres causes the seasons to change. During one Platonic year the earth's obliquity will vary by only +or- 1.8 degrees between the 3° range of 21.5° and 24.5°. The earth's current angle of obliquity is 23.5° Poseidon, the "Earth Embracer," was aptly associated with the 23 letter--the axis of the earth he embraced was tilted rd 23-degrees during the age of the Greeks, providing the celestial mechanism that made the Ouroboral alignment possible. The 23-degree tilt of the earth causes the death and birth of seasons, and the death and birth of aions. The name Poseidon may be derived from the Greek phrase, Apo-Sidon "From [455] Sidon." Poseidon is spelled in Greek and apo Sidon is--the difference of only the letter alpha Poseidon was literally a Sidonian god. The myth of the trident-baring Poseidon, the god who encircled the earth as a serpent and presided over the birth and death of the ages, had a counterpart in the apple-man Apollo, the god of the tripod and divination of the future, embodiment of the serpent at the omphalos of the earth. Other pantheons contain counterparts for Poseidon as well. The Hindu fire god Agni is associated with the symbols of the trident, flames, and a bottle of water. Agni is the messenger between heaven and earth, and it is interesting to note that Agni is depicted as a red being with two faces. Perhaps not unrelated, the god Poseidon had a son called Agenor. The Hindu Shiva is another intriguing deity wielding the trident and associated with "fire" and "red." The symbols of Shiva are the cobra, trident and phallus, and he is often pictured as a dancer clothed in red. The Ramayana describes the time when the great Ganges River existed only in the heavens. Shiva assisted the descent of the celestial river, bringing it down from the heavens to the earth in his serpentine hair. Shiva had a "son," the two-natured hybrid Ganesh, the god of doorways and beginnings. Shiva is associated with the "destruction of the old to make room for the new." Often pictured upon a ring of fire, Shiva dances the ages into and out of existence. The word shiva is an Indo-European root meaning "seven," and is symbolic of the number of days in a week. According to the texts of the Old Testament in the book of Genesis, God rested after the work of creation on the seventh day; after a cycle in which creation took place, the 7th increment represented finality. In Judaism the number "7" is connected with the end of a creation; a Shiva is a Jewish ceremony [456] marking the period of seven days mourning after a person's death. The Hindu Vishnu "The Preserver" is another serpentine "time god," depicted resting on the bed of the coiled sleeping serpent, Seshanag. From the Puranas we learn that Vishnu descends from heaven and is incarnated among men as an avatar, when the "end of an Age" occurs and "time has lost its strength." Garuda Purana (1.13) As the Mastya avatar, Vishnu became a fish who warned King Manu of the impending Global Flood. Vishnu instructed Manu to gather the Seven Sages, animals and seeds, and to board a huge boat which he then tied to his body using the royal serpent Vasuki, taking the passengers to Mt. Himavan in order to survive the cataclysm into the next yuga (eon). After the flood, it was necessary to rebuild and recultivate, and Vishnu in his incarnation as a fish- man provided the means by which humans could start over after the cataclysm. Other cultures preserved records of rebuilding with technology brought by a hybrid god. The most famous fish-man was Oannes, who appeared at a time humans were living "a somewhat wretched existence" and taught them "letters, sciences and arts …to construct cities, to found temples, to compile laws and explained to them the [457] principles of geometrical knowledge." The name "Dagan" appears frequently in the Assyrian records from earlier dates in place of Uana- [458] Adapa or Oannes. The constellation Pisces the fishes is called in Hebrew Dagim. The earliest records of the Hebrews in the time of the judges of Israel describe a Canaanite and Philistine fish-god [459] called Dagon. It was in the temple of Dagon that the Hebrew judge Samson pulled down the pillars of the edifice revenging himself against the Philistines. Interestingly, Samson is often depicted wearing his lion's pelt as he destroys the pillars of Dagon, an image virtually identical to the avatar of Vishnu called Narasimha. Vishnu as Narasimha--half lion, half man--emerges from a broken pillar, during evening time, neither night nor day. A popular depiction of Vishnu resting atop the sleeping serpent is reminiscent of the ouroboros itself, encircling the youthful time-god Horus (hours) resting on top of the dual-headed Routi, lion-god of the future and past in Egyptian myth. Again we are reminded of the two-headed deity Janus, the Roman god who presides over doorways and arches, the dualistic god of war and peace, the past and future, after whom the month of January was named. These deities associated with entryways, arches, pillars and doorways are also "time gods"--their dualistic nature refers to a transitional place in time, or a place of endings and new beginnings. Dual-aspect gods commemorate in myth that transitional period in time described in Plato's Timaeus, when the former age passes away and the new age begins--the Aion marked by the dual-aspect of Sagittarius as he points his arrow at the sign of the suntelia in the mouth of the ouroboros. The hybrid deities of myth associated with pillars and entryways allude to the four cardinal points of the zodiac as the vernal equinox proceeds through the Great Year of Plato. The Ouroboros, that is, Leviathan, is the connection that binds the creatures of the zodiac together: The whole world, as well as the "Great Sea" which compasses it, rests on four pillars, and these [460] pillars rest on one of the fins of Leviathan. During the course of the Great Year, four distinct zodiacal "ages" will have seen the sign of the suntelia (the fifth age is the same as the first, in a complete Platonic Year). The cardinal points of the zodiac are the four signs of the previous suntelias: Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius. The four creatures of these constellations comprise the hybrid gods of myth, and commemorate those cataclysmic times of transition between the aions. Plato describes the cardinal points of the zodiac--the "four pillars"-- forming a cross in the great circle in the heavens: This entire compound he divided lengthways into two parts, which he joined to one another at the centre like the letter X, and bent them into a circular form, connecting them with themselves and each other at the point opposite to their original meeting-point; and, comprehending them in a uniform [461] revolution upon the same axis, he made the one the outer and the other the inner circle. In antiquity the four cardinal points of the heavens were symbolically portrayed as a creature called a cherubim. This creature was considered not only a reference to the mechanics of the heavens but also a representation of the deities inhabiting the celestial realm. Similar Akkadian or Assyrian beings karibu (one who intercedes) were arbitrators who presented the prayers of earthly men to the gods in the heavens. In the Old Testament cherubim were described as the foundation of the throne of God, and these beings were depicted on the Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 25:18). Cherubim were incorporated into the [462] design of Solomon's temple at Jerusalem. Two cherubim supported the throne of the Sidonian King [463] Hiram. An image reproduced in the Westminster Historical Atlas to the Bible, shows a Canaanite ruler seated on a throne, "supported by winged lions with human heads." These are explained in the atlas [464] as "composite beings which the Israelites called cherubim." Cherubim were placed at the gateway to the Garden of Eden, to guard the tree of the fruit of eternal life. The hybrid beings known in Semitic tradition as cherubim were made from the four creatures residing at the four cardinal points of the zodiac: the face of a human, the foreparts of a lion, the wings of an eagle, and the hind parts of a bull. These were the parts of the cherubim described by the Hebrew prophet Ezekiel. Ivory panels unearthed at Samaria dating from the ninth century BC depict a composite animal having a human face, lion paws, ox hind end and two elaborate wings. This is believed to be the [465] oldest known depiction of the classic "Biblical" cherubim ever found. As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle. (Eze 1:10 KJV) Cherubim were beings whose physical appearance reflected their duty of messenger between heaven and earth, hybrid creatures embodying a celestial union. While the cherubim referred to the four cardinal zodiacal signs of the year in which the sunteleia sign of the changing aion had occurred, more significant was the hybrid sphinx, which signified the transitional zodiacal ages of the sunteleia. The symbol of the sphinx--from the Greek root meaning "to bind together"--is a hybrid creature combining the constellations Leo and Virgo. Images of the mythical sphinx were placed at entryways to temples, and at the thresholds of doorways. The most common depiction of the sphinx is the creature posing the riddle to Oedipus: the subject of the sphinx's riddle--the life span of mankind--discloses the link between the sphinx and the ouroboros, symbol of the aion. The sign of the suntelia of 10,948 B.C. occurred while the Milky Way aligned with the horizon of the earth, and the sun rose in the mouth of the ouroborus during the Autumn Equinox, September 21 during the age between Leo and Virgo. It was st-- during that transition from the age of Virgo to Leo, embodied by the sphinx, that the "Great Flood" of legend occurred. The memory of the catastrophic Ouroborol alignment 12,500 years ago has been preserved in myth as The Flood. The Egyptians and the Sumerians described the first land after the deluge as a primordial mound that rose out of the cosmic sea. The ancient Greeks commemorated the floods of Deucalion and Ogyges, and the Hebrews that of Noah. The time referred to in myth as The Flood was the time demarked by the Ouroboral cosmic clock. To the ancient observers of this cataclysm, the earth-embracing serpent in the heavens was seen to encircle the earth within the milky sea. Then [during the great Deluge that flooded the entire earth] the whole frame of the universe would have been unframed, then all-breeding Aion would have dissolved the whole structure of the unsown generations of mankind: but by the divine ordination of Zeus, Poseidon Seabluehair with earthsplitting trident split the midmost peak of the Thessalian mountain, and dug a cleft through it by which the water ran sparkling down. Earth shook off the stormy flood which traveled so high, and showed herself risen again. Dionysiaca 6.371 The cosmic waters aligned to surround the earth while at the same time the world was actually destroyed by a flood; this heavenly portent and the earth's destruction by water occurred at the same time. The earth's geologic record corroborates the age in which the cataclysm of the Aion occurred. The late [466] Pleistocene mass extinction occurred globally during the Ouroboral alignment around 10,500 BC. O Solon, Solon, you Hellenes are never anything but children, and there is not an old man among you. Solon in return asked him what he meant. I mean to say, he replied, that in mind you are all young; there is no old opinion handed down among you by ancient tradition, nor any science which is hoary with age. And I will tell you why. There have been, and will be again, many destructions of mankind arising out of many causes; the greatest have been brought about by the agencies of fire and [467] water, and other lesser ones by innumerable other causes. Ancient knowledge of the cycles of destruction of the earth was explained by an Egyptian priest to the early Greek lawmaker Solon in Plato's work, Timaeus. The Egyptian priest pointed out that after every cycle of destruction on earth the survivors had to start again "as children," learning tradition and science anew. The environment of the Egyptian's was such that they were able to better preserve the knowledge of the time before the cataclysm, and provided continuity afterwards. Solon's education continues: There is a story, which even you have preserved, that once upon a time Paethon, the son of Helios, having yoked the steeds in his father's chariot, because he was not able to drive them in the path of his father, burnt up all that was upon the earth, and was himself destroyed by a thunderbolt. Now this has the form of a myth, but really signifies a declination of the bodies moving in the heavens around the earth, and a great conflagration of things upon the earth, which recurs after long intervals; at such times those who live upon the mountains and in dry and lofty places are more liable to destruction than those who dwell by rivers or on the seashore. And from this calamity the Nile, who is our never- failing saviour, delivers and preserves us. When, on the other hand, the gods purge the earth with a deluge of water, the survivors in your country are herdsmen and shepherds who dwell on the mountains, but those who, like you, live in cities are carried by the rivers into the sea. Whereas in this land, neither then nor at any other time, does the water come down from above on the fields, having always a tendency to come up from below; for which reason the traditions preserved here are the most ancient. The fact is, that wherever the extremity of winter frost or of summer does not prevent, mankind exist, sometimes in greater, sometimes in lesser numbers. And whatever happened either in your country or in ours, or in any other region of which we are informed-if there were any actions noble or great or in any other way remarkable, they have all been [468] written down by us of old, and are preserved in our temples. Plato's Timaeus. At this point the Egyptian priest described the cataclysm coming down as a "stream from heaven," wiping out the records of what came before, leaving a small remnant of survivors to rebuild civilization. The Egyptian priest mentioned that the race before the cataclysm was noble and learned, yet the Greeks remembered little from what came before and it was the Egyptians themselves who possessed the most accurate and ancient records of the aion "before": 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, and know nothing of what happened in ancient times, either among us or among yourselves. As for those genealogies of yours which you just now recounted to us, Solon, they are no better than the tales of children. In the first place you remember a single deluge only, but there were many previous ones; in the next place, you do not know that there formerly dwelt in your land the fairest and noblest race of men which ever lived, and that you and your whole city are descended from a small seed or remnant of them which survived. And this was unknown to you, because, for many generations, the survivors of that destruction died, leaving no [469] written word. (Plato's Timaeus) Fossils found concentrated around the northern latitudes of the earth in thick deposits of frozen plant and animal debris called "muck beds" provide evidence of a global cataclysm near the end of the geologic period called the Pleistocene (roughly 12,000 years ago). Many archipelagos near Siberia are virtually composed of a frozen mix of bones, mud and trees; the ice fields containing these remains stretch [470] for hundred of miles in every direction. On Kotelnoi Island, in the Arctic Circle above Siberia, where "neither shrubs, nor trees, nor bushes [471] exist," the remains of elephants, buffaloes, horses and rhinoceroses are packed into the shores. On theYukon River at Palisades Alaska," a well-known paleontological site exists nicknamed "the boneyard" by the locals. A 200-foot thick deposit of Pleistocene remains make up the banks of the Yukon River at this area. The numbers of the ancient animal carcasses that can be found there are staggering. They lie in frozen tangled masses, interspersed with uprooted trees; ancient animal skin, ligament, hair, and flesh can still be seen in the "muck." The trees have been torn apart twisted and splintered, the animals dismembered and transported under amazingly violent conditions. The evidence suggests an enormous tidal wave raged over the land, tumbling animals and vegetation with its mass, eventually subsiding leaving the remains at the northern latitudes where it was then quick-frozen. The event that produced the muck beds of the north is estimated to have occurred sometime around 12,000 years ago, marking the end of the Pleistocene. At that time, humans were flourishing with the same physical and mental capacity as [472] modern man. Spear points have been found encased in the frozen matrix dating from the period. At that time the North American continent was host to many large mammals, mammoths, mastodons, camels, horses, giant ground sloths and beavers the size of today's black bears, saber-toothed cats, savage short- faced bears, cheetahs, lions and dire wolves. Scores of other large species roamed the continent as well. They all vanished about 12,000 years ago in a geological eye blink. Twenty- seven different mammalian [473] genera were destroyed completely from North America. During this time, ancient man observed the sun rise in the mouth of the Ouroboros; the Milky Way aligned with the earth's horizon during the Autumn Equinox. The geologist Sir Henry Howorth observed first hand the Pleistocene fossil beds in Siberia. His book The Mammoth and the Flood (1887) submitted a theory of the fossil deposits mode of transport: The most obvious cause we can appeal to as occasionally producing mortality on a wide scale among animals is a murrain or pestilence, but what murrain or pestilence is so completely unbiased in its actions as to sweep away all forms of terrestrial life, even the very carriers of it--the rodents --including the fowls of the air, the beasts of the field, elephants, tigers, rhinoceroses, frogs, mice, bison and snakes, landsnails, and every conceivable form of life, and this not in one corner only but, as far as we know, over the whole of the two great continents irrespective of latitude or longitude…. The fact of the bones occurring in great caches or deposits in which various species are mixed pell- mell is very important, and it is a fact undenied by geologists that whenever we find such a locality in which animals have suffered together in a violent and instantaneous destruction, the bones are invariably mixed and, as it were, "deposited" in a manner which could hardly be explained otherwise than by postulating the action of great tidal waves carrying fishes and all before them, [474] depositing them far inland with no respect to order. Plato described a series of cataclysms that periodically wiped out the records of human history; causing humans to forget all they had learned up to that point, and to start again "as children." The Ouroboros appropriately symbolized the aion time cycle, since the cycles of the Milky Way's descent from the heavens and the alignment of the "tail- biting snake"--during the suntelia indicated by Sagittarius --coincided with some cataclysmic event that ended the normal progression of a civilization. The Hebrew understanding of the ages of the earth described by the Zohar (2 century AD) echoed the nd writings of Plato. In the Siphra' Di-Tseni`uthah (Book of Mystery or Silence), an age ruled by Seven Kings was destroyed in the time before Adam: And the second earth came not into the computation. (That is, the kingdom of the restored world, Or otherwise, when in Genesis iv. 2 it is said in another way, "And the earth," that earth is not to be understood of which mention hath been first made; since by the first is to be understood the kingdom of the restored world, and by the second the kingdom of the destroyed world) And it hath proceeded out of that which hath undergone the curse, as it is written in Genesis v., 29, "From the earth which the Lord hath cursed." (The meaning is: That the kingdom of the restored world was formed from the kingdom of the destroyed world, wherein seven kings had died and their possessions had been broken up. Or, the explanation of the world, of which mention is made elsewhere, proceedeth from [475] the kingdom of the destroyed world.) This text explains there existed a pre-Adamic race; intelligent beings flourished and built civilizations before the creation of Adam. The Zohar, however, is not the only source for the belief that beings as advanced or superior to modern man existed on earth prior to Adam. The Hebrew prophet Jeremiah wrote: I beheld the earth, and, lo, [it was] without form, and void; and the heavens, and they [had] no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, [there was] no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place [was] a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, [and] by his fierce anger. For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end. For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken [it], I have purposed [it], and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it. (Jer 4:23-28 KJV) The first sentence of Jeremiah is remarkably similar to the very first words of the Old Testament: And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness [was] upon the face of the deep. (Genesis 1:2) The Hebrew words used in both passages for "the earth was without form and void" are the same. [476] The verb tohu, translated "was," means "to lay waste." Scholars have often cited these two passages in the Old Testament as referring to an epoch of destruction before the creation of Adam. Nechunya ben HaKanah (1 C A.D.) believed that the earth was 15.3 billion years old. Nechunya's theory st was based on a long- standing system of calculation of times purportedly imbedded in the Hebrew writings of Moses. According to the Midrash Sod Haibbur, a scholarly guide to the Torah, God himself gave Moses precise rules for measuring times and seasons, a skill which the priestly caste of Israel had [477] zealously maintained. According to the pre-Adamic view of Bible chronology, after the cataclysm which Jeremiah described, God separated the waters from the land, dispersed the clouds shrouding the earth and created the first post destruction day. Christian theologian G.H Pember 's Earth's Earliest Ages (1876) declared: When rightly understood the Bible is found to have left an interval of undefined magnitude between creation and the Post-tertiary period, and men may bridge it as they can with their discoveries [478] without fear of impugning the revelations of God. Pember realized that the fossil record contradicted the popular belief of his contemporaries that the world was quite young: God created the heavens and the earth perfect and beautiful in their beginning, and at some subsequent period, how remote we cannot tell, the earth had passed into a state of utter desolation, and was void of all life…for as the fossil remains clearly show, not only were disease and death inseparable companions of sin, then prevalent among living creatures of the earth, but even ferocity and slaughter… they must have had a sin stained history of their own, a history which ended in the ruin of themselves and their habitation. And since a lord and vice regent was set over the animal kingdom of our world… so we should naturally conclude that superior beings inhabited and ruled [479] that former world, and, like Adam, transgressed the laws of their creator. In the Hebrew language, the word yom (day) does not necessarily refer to a 24-hour period; it also can refer to an era of time. Judaism has a long tradition of not interpreting the creation narrative of Genesis 1 literally. Rambam [Maimonides], for example, warns at the beginning of his Mishneh Torah that the literal reading of the opening of Genesis is for the masses and the non-literal reading was metaphysical, not scientific. Tiferes Yisrael, Rabbi Meir Simchah of Dvinsk, 19th C, cited an opinion of the tannaim (mishnaic period rabbis) that God created worlds and destroyed them several times previous [480] to the present earth. In Gen 1:1, God created the universe ex nihilo (matter out of nothing). Then, before verse 2, these other worlds or epochs rose and fell. At the destruction of the last epoch there was "chaos and emptiness" in verse 2, from which our world emerged. Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan quotes Rabbi' Yitzchak of Akko, a student of Maimonides, concluding from the Zohar that the first creation was 15.8 billion years ago. According to the master Kabbalist, Rabbi' Yitzchak of Akko, when counting the years of these cycles, [of pre-adamic worlds] one must not use an ordinary physical year, but rather, a divine year (Otzar Chaim 86b). The Midrash says that each divine day is a thousand years, basing this on the verse, "A thousand years in Your sight are as but yesterday," Psalm 90:4 (Bereshit Rabbah 8:2, Zohar 2: 145b, Sanhedrin 97a). Since each year contains 365.25 days, a divine year would be 365,250 years long. According to this, each cycle of seven thousand divine years would consist of 2,556,750,000 earthly years. This figure of 2.5 billion years is very close to the scientific estimate as to the length of time that life has existed on earth. If we assume that the seventh cycle began with the Biblical account of creation, then this would have occurred when the universe was 15,340,500,000 years old. This is very close to the scientific estimate that the expansion of the [481] universe began some 15 billion years ago." Bereshit Midrash Rabbah 3:7 Rabbi Judah b. R. Simon said: "'Let there be evening' is not written here, but 'And there was evening'; hence we know that a time-order existed before this." Rabbi Abahu said: "This proves that the Holy One, blessed be He, went on creating worlds and destroying them until He created this one, and declared, 'This one pleases Me; those did not please Me.'" Rabbi Pinchas said: "This is R. Abahu's reason: 'And God saw everything that He had made, and, [482] behold, it was very good' (Genesis 1:31). This pleases Me, but those did not please Me. Modern historians attribute the beginning of civilization--the building of cities and invention of written records--to about 6,000 years ago. This corresponds to the last Milky Way alignment with the horizon; the last time the sign of the suntelia occurred in the mouth of the ouroborus. As Plato's Egyptian priest reminded Solon, ancient records of the earliest civilizations relate antiquity on the order of tens of thousands of years greater. Hebrew lunar calendar with circular Leviathan in center. Sagittarius is shown aligned with Leviathan's mouth. Leviathan, Jewish New Year post card, 1915. Alain Roth, artist. The Hebrew word for "Leviathan" is written on the bottom of the card. A modern depiction of Leviathan. Leviathan, Jewish text illustration, Ulm, Germany, 1238 A.D. The Milkyway with the "mouth" of Leviathan in the center. Egyptian papyrus of Dama Heroub. The mouth of Ouroboros is at galactic central point. Sagittarius at the mouth of Ouroboros-Leviathan. The Milkyway as it appears with its mouth swallowing its tail near Sagittarius. Alchemical illustrations of the tree of knowledge from Alciato's book of Emblems. In each image the illuminating angel is depicted as either a serpent or the god "Eros." The astrological origin of the Cherubim symbol. An anatomically correct "Ox" tail bends down at its tip. Ezekiel's cherubim, page from The Winchester Bible, ca. 1160. Eagle as spirit ascending from Prima Materia [Hermaphroditisches Sonn-und Mondskind 1752]. Extraction of the spirit of Mercurius from Prima Materia [Reusner, Pandora 1588]. The Egyptian hieroglyph of the Phoenix is in the form of a Heron--a bird that inhabited the Nile River the earthly analogue to the Milkyway. All later forms of the Phoenix maintain a "vestige" of the Heron head plumage in the form of a knob at the back of the head. The "eagle" symbol of the 1/4 part of the cherubim is interchangeable with the Phoenix in the th mystery schools. John the Baptist and John the revelator begin and end the story of the gospel. This cave painting from Lascaux, France dates from 15,000 B.C. The Pleiades star cluster incorporated into the modern zodiac symbol Taurus can be seen directly above the neck of the Lascauz bull. The circular zodiac from the temple of Hathor at Dendera, Egypt was made in 100 B.C. Researcher Schwaller de Lubicz developed the theory that it indicates dates from antiquity as remote as 4,380 B.C.