 |
Heavenly Bodies |
 |
| Posted on Wednesday, February 07 @ 15:23:10 CST by Angel |
 By Philip Gardiner
The Bible says that 'Christ is all and in all'. Did the early Christians and Gnostics understand man's relationship with the hidden forces of the larger universe?
The questions of whether early man understood and utilised the effects of cyclic patterns, electromagnetic forces and the closeness of his nature with plants and animals may be answered in the signs of the reverence he paid to these elements; his worship and ritualistic behaviour surrounding some of these basic and fundamental parts of the 'supernature'.
Cyclic patterns and rhythms dominate our lives, from the day to night patterns to the seasonal changes and their effects upon us. If we look at a few of the cycles, which have become important to man we can see how we are affected by them.
Day/night cycles are different in other parts of the world. Some have longer nights and shorter days, for example, and their nature has adapted accordingly. Seasonal Affective Disorder is purely the result of long nights and weeks. On the equator, where the sun is stronger and is out for longer periods, SAD does not exist and is indeed refuted.
In certain parts of the world we have four seasons. Elsewhere, the seasons are different. Tropical regions have two seasons: wet and dry. Monsoon areas have three: cold, hot and rainy. In Polar Regions, the temperature change from summer to winter is abrupt.
Man, animal and plant life have adapted remarkably well to the different seasons they experience. We have seen previously how the pineal gland actually measures the seasons and length of day. This is how we adapt to the various seasons around the globe. Many species, including some types of bird, can accurately predict the weather to help them plan migratory patterns. The Orange Ladybird insect in the UK has never been wrong in its long-term winter predictions.
The moon plays an important part in all the religions of the world. Lunar cycles and human experience are intrinsically linked. The tidal flow of the world's oceans corresponds to the waxing and waning of the moon, as does the menstrual cycle, which has had a profound effect upon our early and later religious beliefs.
Menstruation occurs only during the fertile years and had symbolic meaning amongst early cultures. The menstrual blood of women is considered with awe and fear and may have much to do with the use of Red Ochre by ancient man. This blood is also derided and called unclean (even today, the women of Judaism go through a purification bath seven days after the end of the menstruation), a poisoning of woman for her sins by the great gods, although this appeared to be a much later addition as a result of the subtle battle of the religious sexes.
Menstruating women were often kept away from the other members of their tribe or village. This may be why the witches’ Sabbat took place specifically on the day when the moon took rest, and was associated with evil. Ishtar, one of the Moon-Goddess's titles, was said to be menstruating on this day. The menstruating woman is also seen as a symbol of fertility, and in some African cultures she is led around the home of one who wishes to become pregnant and asked to touch everything. The onset of menstruation marks the move from child to woman and was celebrated with Earth Goddess or Mother Goddess rituals and, much later, possibly within the taking of blood in the Eucharist.
The Sabbat (Heart-rest of the moon), the moon's day of rest, the seventh day, was later taken over by the Hebrews who turned it into their day of rest and laid waste to the maternal, lunar religions, and inaugurated their paternal 'sun god'. Christians took this further, moving the day of rest to the Mithraic Sun-day; the original moon day being Monday. 1
The sidereal lunar month is 27.32 days and the synodic lunar month is 29.53 days. Both have different paths and different meanings dependent upon your culture. In the sidereal lunar year there are thirteen months per year. This is a matriarchal structure and is more than 3,000 years old. Originally, there were thirteen signs of the zodiac in this period, the thirteenth being Ophiucus – the serpent.
The instillation of a twelve-month period seems to have been an attempt by the patriarchal cultures to gain dominance, and thus we now have twelve months per year. It must be noted that twelve is a symbolically relevant number and should be watched for. The elimination of the thirteen month period has come down to us today with the persecution of the witches coven, which has thirteen members, the number thirteen being considered unlucky, but more importantly the fact that Jesus had twelve disciples, therefore making up thirteen in total, the hidden number of Mother Earth.
The moon is tied up in many of our early cultures. The names of its associated deity vary due to locality, language and ethnic differences, but are all essentially of the same goddess. Aphrodite, Astarte, Badb, Brigit, Ch'ang O, Demeter, Hecate, Inanna, Isis, Ishtar, Maja Jotma, Tsuki-Yomi. Some of these names have been carried on, kept alive behind the scenes by the secret cults whilst they were subtly battling or even creating the front lines of the new or growing male-oriented popular gods such as Mithras and Yahweh.
The terms 'lunatic' ('moon-struck') and 'mental' are both taken from the moon, under the impression that such effects are brought on by the lunar periods, usually the full moon. It is not surprising that the moon was denounced as the 'mad' moon when we consider the patriarchal and matriarchal battles, which were being fought across the continents. The idea was put forward that the electrical energy of the body became drained at this time of the month, and caused the person to lose his or her faculties. Two hundred years ago, Lunacy was covered by English law. Kleptomania, arson and dangerous driving have been shown scientifically to increase at times of the full moon, so there may be some scientific reason for this matriarchal lost battle.
The Jewish Passover is celebrated on the lunar calendar; the Christian Easter (Eoster was the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring) is calculated from the full moon after the vernal equinox. The full moon at the autumn equinox is celebrated as the harvest moon. The Jews had many moon festivals, such as New Moon and Full Moon (see Num. 28,11:14). The eclipse of the moon is considered by many cultures to be the union of the Sun God and Moon Goddess. This belief harks back to a time when the known world shared a common Priesthood (see Secrets of the Serpent book).
500,000 births were measured in New York in 1948/57. The results showed that more births occurred during a waning moon and the maximum after a full moon. In the North Sea coast of Germany, most births occur at high tides as the moon passes overhead. More children are born in the Northern Hemisphere in May and June than in November and December, and vice versa in the Southern Hemisphere. Size of offspring has also been mapped and shows a noticeable pattern dependent upon time of year. In the 1960's, Eugen Jonas understood the lunar aspect of ovulation and successfully increased the effectiveness of contraception to ninety-eight per cent. When he was presented with the birth charts of 250 newborn children he successfully identified the sex of eighty-seven per cent of the babies from planetary information alone.
Frank Brown of North-Western University, Illinois, found that oysters in his laboratory, a thousand miles from their Connecticut shore, opened at the same time as their home shores' high tide, which in turn is related to the moon's orbital pattern. Brown also proved that potatoes, rats and fiddler crabs are all governed by lunar periods. Within laboratories, the metabolisms of various creatures fluctuated in response to lunar patterns and geomagnetic factors. Now, years later, research is proving that all known sea creatures, when taken from their natural homes, still obey the same lunar cycles. At the time, many scientists thought Brown to be dealing with the paranormal sciences and ignored his research.
The Sun - the Shining One, great light of the world - is venerated all over the globe as the light of life, the giver of heat and the most important cyclic symbol of all time. Our ancestors knew that it meant life or death. It was essential for the sun to return every day, for its strength to be renewed again each Easter. We say the sun is wise, and therefore in mystery plays around the world, light equates to wisdom. The strength of the sun gave rise to its being considered the most powerful of the deities. In the early developed civilisations the sun is always there. In Egyptian culture he is Ra, Re or Amun-Re. The scarab beetle is often used to portray the sun in some aspects, a symbol of self-regeneration and the early ideas of reincarnation. The sun is generally male and outwits the lunar female goddess as well as mating with her.
We sacrifice, dance (almost always, significantly, in circles), travel hundreds of miles and sing to the great light. We even give it human names such as Apollo, and include him in dramas. This, of course, hides a deeper and more symbolic understanding that the initiated, the ancient serpent worshipping Priesthood of the sun knew how to decipher. The cyclic pattern and life-giving nature of the sun is key to the secrets of the ancient serpent cults.
The movements of the sun have inspired tales of where the sun god goes and why he comes back, of battles fought and death overcome. This last idea of overcoming death gives us the first hints at how man has used the sun god fables and mysteries to hide the secret ideas of how we ourselves could be reincarnated. Thousands of years of begging the sun to return each day and be reborn each spring led ancient man to develop his own re-birth rituals and ideas of how to accomplish it. We copy the external and make it internal, in the same way we manifest the internal externally.
Everyday we rise with the sun. Our bodies release hormones, which waken, revive and regenerate us. In summer, our endocrine glands release more hormones that bring a sense of well-being. By late afternoon we feel more relaxed as the sun's strength wanes. The secret police of many countries often choose this time of day to arrest people, as they are more easily subdued. If we today understand how to utilise the power of the sun with the regenerative effects of holidays and by the dealings of the secret police, what did our ancient and less complicated ancestor do?
Sunspot activity affects our biorhythms directly in ways we do not totally understand. Evidence shows that it can be an irritant to our bodily functions and mental attitude. The Foundation for the Study of Cycles has produced some interesting results with their long-term research, including some of the following. There is a 3.86 year cycle in lemming suicides and North American lumber pine growth; an 11.1 year cycle of sun spot activity and serious upsurge in war and unrest (the next large one being 2011). The Black Death and the Great Plague coincided with this solar turbulence. There is also an increase in traffic accidents every 11.1 years, a rise and fall in hemlines, and an increase of volcanic and earthquake activity.
The stars, the myriad shining ones, also have an effect on us. Michel Gauquelin, a French psychologist, placed the hypothesis that we are affected by the position of the planets at our time of birth firmly on the doorstep of science. He showed that the position of the stars had some indication as to what line of work one may enter later in life. This was not related to the practice of astrology or the horoscopes in the daily newspapers, but a serious, scientific data analysis. The psychologist, Hans Eysenck said, 'How ever much it may go against the grain, I think we must admit that there is something here that requires explanation'. His results, however, showed tendencies within the higher professionals and the same response was not achieved with unskilled workers.
The study of the stars goes back thousands of years. Some say 4,000 BC Sumeria was the first to do so. Others put this even earlier and say that ancient man was studying the stars 32,000 years ago. 2 Their evidence is an engraved antler from Abri Blanchard, France, with a strange pattern of notches or calendrical phases of the moon.
With all the evidence on patterns, rhythms and electromagnetism that affect our bodies, it is no wonder that modern science has taken another look at the ancient art of astrology, which has been neglected due to the widespread misuse of generic horoscopes.
Natal astrology deals with planetary positions at the time of our birth. Astrometerorology concerns the prediction of major earthquakes, climatic changes and volcanic eruptions. There is much evidence to suggest that certain animals, which can predict such occurrences, are born at a specific time of year that corresponds to certain astrological predictions. Cosmobiology is the study of the balance between cyclic behaviour, biological patterns, radiation and gravitational effects upon us.
Ancient peoples must have understood the precise mappings of these newly named sciences when they too predicted such things by the stars. It may be that ancient man was using both his 'hidden powers', and the tools of the earth around him. It may also be that the ideas and symbolism of Alchemy were just a few more steps along this path.
The Indian sage, Parasar, circa. 3000 BC, used Natal Astrology in his work. Megalithic structures have many astrological and Earth alignments. The Pyramids map the stars, obeying the Hermetic lore of 'as above so below'. Ziggurats, temples, floor paintings, carvings and forty-mile long lines etched into the ground all convey the ancient and global belief in astrological predictions.
The very earliest almanacs contained weather forecasts based upon astrological predictions. In the countries of Arabia, the position of the stars was consistent with the weather. The ancient priesthood would have appeared to be in the know all the time, and therefore would appear holy and godlike; it was little wonder that they became incorporated into the symbolic format and titles of the stars.
The term 'zodiac' has a meaning pertaining to animals, possibly 'animal map' or 'circle of animals'. This is seen more precisely in the ancient Chinese chart where every star sign has an animal name. The zodiac is belt of the gods, which lies nine degrees either side of the ecliptic plane, and contains the orbits of the moon and the major planets. The sun originally traversed these minor gods on a regular path and the various signs of the zodiac were blessed with his arrival. That the word ‘zodiac’ pertains to animals explains why it contains animal symbols, such as the ram and fish. These ancient anthropomorphic beliefs were included into the sky, in the same way that pagan gods were taken on as saints by the Christian church. Later on, the saints received their own stars and were painted with them in ecclesiastical fervour. In some of the world's zodiacs, such as the Chinese version, there is a tree at the centre.
The Babylonians, and especially people in the Middle East, studied the stars mathematically and attempted, even as long as 5,000 years ago, to scientifically log the reactions and effects of the stars. They produced a calendar and perfect measures of time, essential for a people without clocks. Carl Jung suggested that the zodiac was an archetypal component of the psyche of mankind and he linked it with the theory of the collective unconscious.
The patterns and rhythms of the stars, with their gravitational and radiation activity have enormous effects upon our universe. But could they also affect us individually and collectively? The cosmic radiation hitting and passing through our planet is millions of years old. It comes in cycles, as does the solar wind. The cycles increase and decrease, but nevertheless there is a pattern. Our species has been on this planet, and life has been part of the vast universe long enough for there to be some marked and observable effect.
There are a vast number of other cycles in which we are involved, such as urinary cycles, sexual cycles, stock market crashes, epidemics and a host of other minor cycles. A study of history will show how generations experience the same mistakes, and successes, all in a cyclic pattern.
The Buddhist Wheel of Life reflects the understanding the ancients had of this cyclic life of ours. It depicts, amongst others, creatures of passion, stupidity and hatred, and shows how we endlessly repeat the same things. The Wheel culminates in the twelve links in the chain of causation on the search for truth.
We should be on the look out for common threads; links between civilisations and time. The web that man has spread across the many thousands of years is complex and cluttered. Historians would have us believe that various human achievements sprang up spontaneously and simultaneously across the continents. Mathematically, this is in error. There are too many coincidences, too many simultaneous eruptions of human culture and achievement, from the buildings that share a common purpose as solar and astral temples to the emergence of the ancient cross as a symbol (something directly linked to the sun – see The Cross of Thoth DVD from Crichton Miller or the book, The Golden Thread of Time).
In 1957, Tom Lethbridge wrote a book called 'Gogmagog'. He claimed that Druidism and Brahmanism were linked and shared a common origin. Lethbridge believed that their ancient religion was somehow related to and existed for the Earth Goddess, also associated with the Moon Goddess and often cross-linked. This is true in that She was one of the deities worshipped by the ancient priesthood, to whom the Brahmins and Druids were related. The Earth/Moon Goddess, or Mother, had many names, Gaia or Ge, Isis, Astarte and eventually culminating in the Virgin Mary (Mother of God), and leading to the cult of the Black Virgin, which itself seems to be related more to Mary Magdalene than the Mother of God.
Lethbridge was so upset by the reaction to his hypothesis that he 'retired' to Devon and took up dowsing, itself uniquely linked to the ancient serpent worshipping culture. Unfortunately, the effect of this was to fuel his adversaries’ opinions of him, even though he discovered some remarkable facts, which to this day are highly regarded by dowsers. He showed that different substances or items produce different swing rates of the pendulum. The pendulum is well known for being the most accurate dowsing implement and in Lethbridge's case this proved to be true. He found that the age of items gave a different rate, as did the surrounding emotions. A pebble thrown violently reacted differently from one thrown in a less aggressive manner. Work carried out by other dowsers has shown that while the rates differ between dowsers, the principle remains the same. This difference may be due to the rate at which the dowser absorbs the emitted energy, but it is hard to understand why the rates are uniformly different. If there had been a pattern of irregular rates this would be sufficient evidence to ignore the practice; as it is, we have evidence enough to require further investigation.
Although some of the conclusions drawn by Lethbridge are open to debate, we are left wondering whether there is any evidence for humans being able to pick up energy. As we have seen, electromagnetism is in all things and we are open to its power, as are animals. The theory is that we transfer this energy to the implements used. This may explain why some dowsers have different rates, but still keep the same proportions as Lethbridge's work. In the Vietnam War and World War 1, dowsers were used to help the Army find unexploded shells and locate mines. Modern oil companies use the skills of the dowsers to locate oil.
There is much evidence to show that ancient man practised dowsing, or radiesthesia, in one form or another. In the Tassili-n-Ajjer caves in the Sahara of South-Eastern Algeria, there are ancient pictoglyphs, approximately 8,000 years old, which show what appears to be dowsing. Thoth, the Egyptian god of wisdom and writing, and the Greek Daedalus, both closely associated, are credited with its invention.
The Chinese, the masters of Feng Shui, have also been credited with the invention of dowsing from the 3rd millennium BC. In the Bible we find that Moses (the patriarch who, according to Acts, had all the knowledge of Egypt) was adept at finding water with his rod. The writers of the Bible vehemently opposed the tradition of dowsing, mainly due to the fact that just about any lay-person can dowse, therefore could take the secret knowledge away from the priesthood and reduce their power.
Later, the Inquisition of the Catholic church found it necessary to stamp out dowsing once again, whilst many Abbots continued the practice in secret and even wrote extensively on the subject, albeit symbolically. What would be the reaction of the church if they were to find out that their own prophets, including the Saviour, practised divination? As we shall see later, they simply ignore the fact.
Among the other forms of divination to look out for is Bath-Kol: divination by means of the heavenly, divine voice. By interpreting this sound, the ancient Jewish prophets could announce the Will of God to the people. If ever there was a tool to keep the sacredness of God within the elite then this is it. This practice appears to be worldwide in all cultures but is carried out only by the initiated few. We can assume (based on our own beliefs) that this may mean a sound within our selves, but the archaeological evidence suggests actual sounds were produced using certain tools.
Necromancy, the art of raising spirits from the dead to discover answers, is another form of divination that has strong links with the Bible. The Witch of Endor, in 1 Samuel 28, summoned the spirit of Samuel for Saul to question. Saul paid the price for this sin, but this demonstrates the existence of this ancient practice, which stretches back to beliefs in the underworld or place of the ancestors; a belief and a divination practised all over the globe.
Astrology is a form of divination relating to the stars. This too was practised globally at the same time as necromancy.
The interpretation of dreams, Oneiromancy, is a worldwide custom and one which also appears within the pages of the Bible, as well as many other holy book from just about every other religion and culture from our ancient past. Sometimes the dreamer would choose a specific location and take an hallucinogenic substance to bring on a dream, which only the priest could interpret. In the Bible, the one with the ability to interpret the dream was the chosen one of God - the Shining One, a special person or priest. The Carl Jung of the day! Interpretations of our unconscious world is now common, but this reveals that it was an ancient practice – and purely psychological with added religious meaning.
Scrying is the method of using a crystal or shining ball, mirror, or, more correctly and more ancient, a shining stone. Only a priest, or latterly clairvoyant, could read the message received. This art goes back to and even further than the Egyptians. Gypsies still use the crystal ball today. Hebrew tradition has it that Adam received wisdom from a shining stone, and Nostradamus used a bowl of water, as did Zeus.
Geomancy is the ancient from of reading messages from the earth. The word comes from the Greek word for Mother Earth, Ge or Gaia, and mancy or magos meaning knowledge. Ancient Greek, Latin and Arab writers tell us about Geomancy. This divination technique is also global and is referred to in the Bible, in some remarkable places. That such a paternal religion should be involved in a maternal belief is startling. The timescale of the spread of Geomancy across the globe is much debated. There is, however, no doubt that it was universally used.
In Geomancy, the earth is drawn upon by hand or with sticks and a response read. Special codes or symbols are used, which are known only by the initiated. The symbols are usually lines, dots or stars. The final symbol is probably the one we should remember as this includes the symbol of the fish, although not in modern Geomancy techniques. The Arabs used random marks and read these. In other parts of the world, earth was thrown into the air and the shapes it formed as it fell on the ground it were interpreted.
In China, the most complex form of Geomancy was Feng Shui (literally, 'wind and water'), the interpretation of the Earth energies and the use of this reading to discover where best to place tombs or temples. The Chinese use a similar technique on humans in acupuncture, a very popular and reportedly effective alternative medicine.
The Chinese called the powers of the Earth, 'Yin' (female, negative) and 'Yang' (male, positive). As we know, everything, including energy, matter, and magnetism, has a positive and a negative, so once again, our ancestors were there before us. Modern day dowsing has shown that sites such as Stonehenge, Glastonbury, Newgrange, the pyramids of Egypt and the ziggurats of South America are all situated on these so-called ancient energy lines. This is yet another example of the global aspect of these ancient beliefs, which spread through cultures without altering the ethnicity of the population, but fitting in with it.
There are subtle hints, missed by orthodox history, which are beginning to reveal the patterns of an antiquated hierarchy of special priests. Once we are alerted to their existence, it becomes obvious that they were there all along.
There are many belief systems in the world, but they all come from one basic and undeniable core, invented and evolved separately by the original serpent solar worshippers.
For more see Secrets of the Serpent: In Search of the Sacred Past book and DVD available from www.reality-entertainment.com/books.htm
Listen to Philip Gardiner on Secrets of the Serpent here
Notes
1. Woman's Mysteries. Esther Harding. Rider. 1971
2. Human Antiquity. Feder and Park. Mayfield Publishing. 1993
|
 |
 |
| |
| Article Rating |
Average Score: 5
Votes: 1
|
|
Home
Shopping
News and Content
Personal
Fun
Link To Us
