Blessing

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

In a wonderful book which I have been reading called Awakening to the Spirit World: The Shamanic Path of Direct Revelation, by Sandra Ingerman and Hank Wesselman, there is a discussion of the concept of "blessing" which is worth careful study.

The authors write:

Blessing is the act of recognizing that Spirit is coming through what we are witnessing or experiencing. [. . .] Yet the physical plane appears to most as a camouflage universe where Spirit does not appear to exist.

Shamanically speaking, many of us respond to the physical world by assuming a deep hypnosis, a deep sleep where we no longer recognize that Spirit is present. Not only do we go to sleep, but large parts of the world may temporarily go to sleep as well. So it is our job to wake up and to awaken all that is around us. This act of waking up could be called "blessing the world." 25-26.

This is a fascinating and compelling definition of the concept of blessing. As discussed in this previous post, Lakota holy man Black Elk articulated the view of the material world in which we find ourselves as "something like a shadow" which is projected from the unseen world, the world of spirit, the world to which Crazy Horse journeyed in his powerful vision, the world which is actually "the real world which is behind this one" (behind the material world to which we are normally attuned).

The definition of blessing cited above articulates the same vision, saying that this physical world which normally occupies our attention acts as a kind of "camouflage" that hides that "real world behind this one" which Black Elk described. Blessing, from this perspective, then becomes a kind of peeling away that camouflage, an awakening to the world of Spirit that actually does infuse this one (and is in fact the source of this one, according to Black Elk), and ultimately a kind of recognizing and then releasing or enabling or allowing the power of that other realm to shine through the camouflage of this one. 

According to the authors of Awakening to the Spirit World, this act of awakening is a central part of our mission -- "our job" as they put it -- during our sojourn in this incarnate existence. "Each human," they explain, "comes with that capacity, with that ability, and with the responsibility to bless" (26). It is not something that may only be done by certain designated intermediaries: it is everyone's responsibility and privilege to awaken to that hidden reality and then to participate in the act of helping to awaken "all that is around us."

Note that this assertion appears to directly parallel the concept of the "raising of the Djed-column" that we have seen in numerous previous posts to be an essential purpose -- perhaps even the essential purpose -- of our incarnation in this earthly existence of "spirit crossed with matter," according to the world's ancient sacred traditions. Posts such as "The shamanic foundation of the world's ancient wisdom," "Scarab, Ankh, and Djed," and "The name of the Ankh, continued: Kundalini around the world" all examine evidence that a central feature of the ancient mythologies and metaphor-systems was the concept of the divine spark being "cast down" into the animal matter during incarnation (symbolized by the horizontal cross-bar on the symbol of the Cross and the Ankh, as well as by the Djed-column of Osiris laid low in death and stretched out horizontally in his sarcophagus or upon his death-bed), and the necessity of our remembering and recognizing that slumbering, forgotten spark of divine spirit which resides in each man and woman, and having remembered it to participate in the "raising of the Djed-column" and the elevation of this inner spiritual nature again.

The implication of the definition of blessing cited above is that we have this responsibility not just individually and within ourselves and our own lives, but we have a responsibility to also help those around us and even our surrounding natural world to also remember the hidden, fiery spirit that is slumbering within, and to help that to stream forth. As Black Elk informs us, the spirit world is no less real just because we cannot see it with our ordinary senses: in fact, the spirit world is the real world, and the source of the one that we can see. And so, this act of calling it forth, or awakening it in the world around us described as the act of blessing by Sandra Ingerman and Hank Wesselman is not just an imaginary or "feel-good" exercise: it is very real. 

The element of Spirit is already there, waiting to be acknowledged and called forth -- and in doing so to bless the material world that depends upon the spiritual.

Adding further confirmation to the importance of this concept is the evidence that Dr. Jeremy Naydler has found which suggests that the pharaohs of ancient Egypt deliberately made contact with the spirit world during their Sed festival rites, and that they did so in order to bless the kingdom. 

In his examination of this phenomenon in Shamanic Wisdom in the Pyramid Texts: The Mystical Tradition of Ancient Egypt, Dr. Naydler writes:

In the ancient Egyptian social order, there was one person who had a particularly important role in relation to the dead, and that was the king. His primary function was to keep the visible and invisible worlds linked together. The king had to live as much in relation to the spirit world as he did in relation to the visible world. He was, as god-man, the mediator between the worlds. For the king to properly fulfill his function, it was essential that the veil or barrier between the worlds did not exist for him, for his responsibilities included precisely those aspects of the well-being of the country that were dependent on the beneficent flow of vitalizing energies from the spirit realm into the realm of the living. 84.

And again:

The king was thus engaged in a ritual communion with the spirits of the land of Egypt. The underlying purpose of this was to reach across to the more subtle spirit world that upholds and vitalizes the physical world, in order to ensure a beneficent connection with it and an unhampered flow of energies from it into the physical. 85.

The clear connection to the concept being articulated by the authors of Awakening to the Spirit World should be evident from the above passages. And, while Dr. Naydler finds evidence that this activity of recognizing the hidden spirit world and inviting its energies to flow into the visible world was the privilege and prerogative of the king in ancient Egypt, the evidence in the posts linked above clearly suggest that the ancient wisdom from cultures around the world contain the message that each and every one of us can and should be engaged in the act of recognizing the spiritual "spark" within and in the act of raising it, raising the Djed-column that has been "cast down." By implication, it follows that each of us may have the responsibility to call forth the same response in the world around us (blessing).

In fact, the frequent repetition of the utterance "Amen" in the scriptures of the New Testament, a phrase which this previous post asserts has directly to do with the recognition of the "hidden divine," seems to support this conclusion as well. That post asserts, based on some strong clues (including the association of the identical hand-gesture with both phrases) that the "Amen" and the greeting "Namaste" have to do with the exact same concept: the recognition of the hidden spark of divinity. The fact that when "Namaste" is said to another, it means recognizing the life force, the divine force of creation, in the other person and also within oneself and within all of nature, indicates that saying "Namaste" to another is a form of blessing, as defined above!

Thus, we find ancient traditions encouraging the frequent blessing of others (that is, verbally recognizing the invisible Spirit within them, and "calling it out" to shine forth). So, saying "Namaste" (or the related "Amen") is an acknowledgement and an invocation of the hidden Spirit -- and this acknowledgement and invocation -- this blessing -- is by no means restricted to the king or the pharaoh. By this, we can see that we all have the privilege and the responsibility to participate in the same work that Dr. Naydler describes the pharaoh as doing during the Sed festival rites: ensuring a beneficent connection with the invisible world, and encouraging an unhampered flow of energies from the invisible world into the physical world.

This responsibility is one we should take very seriously. It should also cause us to be careful with what we say, and to avoid cursing instead of blessing. How many times during the day does something in the physical world elicit some version of the word "Damn" from our lips or in our thoughts? It is a terrible habit that is so easy to fall into (and which seems to be encouraged in so many songs, movies, and shows). It is if anything the opposite of blessing.

This is a concept that is so important to think about carefully, and the practice of our responsibility (and privilege!) to bless others and the world around us one that we should take seriously. Thanks to Sandra Ingerman, Hank Wesselman, and the other contributors to Awakening to the Spirit World for articulating this concept of daily blessing!

Below is a "tweet" from Sandra Ingerman which she wrote on the very same subject within the past twenty-four hours:

The practice of shamanism teaches how to bless all of life. Using the power of words bless yourself, the earth, and all in the web of life.

— Sandra Ingerman (@sandraingerman) September 17, 2014

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

Ambrose and Theodosius

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

At the death of the Roman Emperor Theodosius I (AD 347 - 394), the formal panegyric was given by Ambrose, the Archbishop of Milan (AD 340 - 397), and amidst all the eulogy's praise of the departed emperor, Ambrose makes reference to the penitence of Theodosius, weaving this incident quite effortlessly and eloquently into a very beautiful metaphor within a larger theme of humanity's need for mercy and therefore the need to be merciful and forgiving to one another.

The reference itself refers to an incident that took place in AD 390, in which citizens of the region of Thessalonika revolted, apparently in anger at the presence of Gothic soldiers in the service of the empire stationed in their midst.  It is worth pointing out that the stationing of military forces among the citizenry is one of the hallmarks of tyrannical states, and the use of foreign-born troops to do it is another pattern in history, as they are less likely to feel an affinity with or sympathy for the local populace. 

Note that both of these specific grievances were part of those listed by the authors and signatories of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 against the King of Great Britain to support their argument that he showed "a history of repeated injuries and usurpations" with the "direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States":

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States [. . .]

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

We don't have a similar statement from the Thessalonikans who revolted, but we can image that they were similarly outraged by the behavior of the foreign "mercenaries" stationed among them by the Empire (these happened to be Goths), and the impunity with which those mercenaries were allowed to behave and the violations of natural law which they perpetrated -- hence the revolt.

Contemporary historians of the time tell us that Theodosius reacted to their revolt by authorizing the Goth commander to slaughter a stadium full of the Thessalonikans, cutting down innocent and guilty alike, as if they were stalks of wheat at harvest time.

Ambrose apparently criticized Theodosius for this ruthless slaughter, barring the emperor from entering church or taking communion for several months, and ordering him to do penance for several months before he could enter again and receive the host (the painting above, from around 1620 or 1621, depicts Ambrose on the right as we look at it, wearing a gold mitre on his head and gold-and-blue robes, barring the entrance to the Milan Cathedral from the hopeful but disappointed Theodosius, who is on the left as we look at the painting, wearing the royal purple, which looks more like what we would probably call crimson today).

Ambrose makes reference to this penance of the emperor in the official panegyric, which can be read in an English translation online here (beginning on page 307 of that 1953 text, which is actually page 335 of the "e-text" linked, since the e-text includes some front matter in its page count that comes before the pagination count began in the 1953 print book itself).  There, on page 319 in the original book's pagination, or page 347 in the e-text reader linked above, Ambrose says of Theodosius:

And so because Theodosius, the emperor, showed himself humble and, when sin had stolen upon him, asked for pardon, his soul has turned to its rest, as Scripture has it, saying 'Turn my soul unto thy rest, for the Lord hath been bountiful unto thee.'

The scriptural reference is to Psalm 116:7. The paragraph itself is numbered 28 in the text of Ambrose's speech.

Let's just pause to note that this is actually a fairly astonishing situation. The absolute ruler of the entire Roman Empire, Theodosius I, who is basically the supreme authority and seemingly answers to no one, is apparently being refused entrance to the Mass by the Archbishop of Milan (it is important to know that Milan, located in northern Italy, was then the western seat of the empire, after Constantine earlier moved the center of political power east to Constantinople, a fact which plays a part in the theory discussed below). Not only that, but the emperor is being ordered to repent, humble himself, and do penance by the Archbishop, and the emperor does so for several months before being reinstated to the privilege of taking communion. 

The fact that this incident is mentioned in the official eulogy of the emperor by Ambrose is a pretty good indication that it actually happened: if it did not, there would have been plenty of people who could have said so at the time. And so, we can see here an indication that the emperor himself was answerable to the most powerful bishops in some matters, who were obviously seen as representatives of an even higher power.

We might also note that the relatives of those several thousands who were slaughtered in Thessalonika were probably not particularly satisfied at this evidence of the accountability of Theodosius for his war crime -- a few months of being barred from taking communion, and all was forgiven.

In fact, this incident -- and the larger significance of the reign of Theodosius and his actions as emperor -- along with other important pieces of evidence preserved in that eulogy written by Ambrose, provides remarkable support for the revolutionary theory presented by Flavio Barbiero in The Secret Society of Moses: The Mosaic Bloodline and a Conspiracy Spanning Three Millennia (2010). In the analysis of Flavio Barbiero, the hierarchical Christianity that Ambrose represented was part of an incredible conspiracy to take over the Roman Empire from the inside, launched centuries earlier by survivors of the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem and the Roman campaign to suppress revolt in Judea, led by the generals Vespasian and his son Titus in AD 67 - 70 (the main years of the First Jewish-Roman War). 

According to Barbiero's analysis, and backed up by a compelling chain of evidence, the culminating actions of that three-hundred-year-long conspiracy took place with the installation of Constantine as emperor in AD 312, and the finishing touches on the victory were overseen by the ruthless Theodosius I, who became emperor in AD 392. For more details on this theory of ancient history, which I believe to be very convincing, see previous posts such as this one and this one, as well as this online explanation of some important aspects of the theory that Flavio Barbiero wrote for the Graham Hancock website, and of course see his book itself, which is filled with historical detail and a complete blow-by-blow of the entire takeover and its aftermath. 

You may also wish to see The Undying Stars, in which I discuss this theory in the context of the evidence that the ancient history of the human race is far different from what we have been taught -- that there is evidence of advanced scientific, technological, spiritual, and shamanic knowledge in humanity's ancient past, at least some of which endured in "the West" right up until the takeover that Barbiero talks about, but which was deliberately and systematically stamped out in the West after this literalistic hierarchical Christian takeover -- a suppression which may have continued in the following centuries and even right up to this day! (Note that my incorporation of his theory into my own analysis should not be interpreted as an indication that Flavio Barbiero supports any of my analysis in any way). 

The actions taken by Theodosius during his reign can be seen as powerful confirmation of the theory of Flavio Barbiero, many of which are discussed in Barbiero's book. The relationship between Ambrose and Theodosius can also be seen as confirmation of the larger pattern Barbiero describes.

Some of the metaphors and anecdotes used by Ambrose in the panegyric at the death of the emperor, I believe, can additionally be seen as startling confirmation of my placement of the revolutionary theory of Flavio Barbiero within the larger context of the deliberate subversion of the ancient esoteric system that connects the scriptures that became the Old and New Testaments with the ancient wisdom of the rest of the world's cultures -- with an especially close tie to the expression of the ancient wisdom in Egypt. These additional metaphors and anecdotes from the eulogy delivered by Ambrose are not part of Flavio Barbiero's analysis.

According to the theory of Flavio Barbiero, the reason that the generals who put down the rebellion in Judea in AD 67 to 70 were able to become emperors and found the Flavian dynasty (first Vespasian and then his son Titus upon the death of Vespasian) was the financial assistance they received from a vanquished leader of the rebels, who gave them access to the vast hidden treasures of the Temple of Jerusalem itself. This leader and those he selected to come with him were spared from the summary execution that Vespasian and Titus meted out to most of the rebel leaders, and brought back to Rome to enjoy privileged status for the rest of their lives.

Barbiero finds evidence that these leaders, who possessed deep experience running a religious system, decided to set about building a "spiritual Temple" to replace the one that had been burned down by the Romans, and to use it to advance their fortunes in their new setting. They succeeded to a degree that is absolutely astonishing.

Using the twin devices of literalist Christianity (the public and open religious system which they co-opted upon or shortly following their arrival in Rome) and the secret society of Sol Invictus Mithras (the secret and exclusive underground society which they created and operated behind the scenes), they created a mechanism for passing on their vision and accomplishing their goals many generations after the original group which had been brought from Judea to Rome passed from the scene.

The secret society of Mithraism became influential in the Praetorian Guard, then among the imperial bureaucracy, the important imperial checkpoints over commerce such as the customs service, and finally and most importantly over the officers of the Roman Army stationed in various provinces and along the far-flung frontiers of the empire. 

All the while, the leaders of the Mithraic system operated in utmost secrecy, protected by strict oaths of secrecy sworn to by all those invited into the society. The old aristocratic families of the empire perceived that something was going on that was a major threat to their control, but they never identified the real nerve center of that threat -- instead, they concentrated on the public face of the two-pronged attack, which was the fledgling literalist Christian religion. Safe from persecution, the leaders of the Mithraic conspiracy could maneuver their pieces on the political chessboard with steady and unwavering focus over the years.

One of their first major victories was the accession to the throne of the murderous Commodus, who reigned from AD 177 to 192, and whom Flavio Barbiero believes to have been the first emperor to have actually been an initiate into the Mithraic society (more discussion of the significance of Commodus, and some of the evidence to support this conclusion, is found in this previous post). 

There were many significant setbacks after the reign of Commodus, but in general the interruptions (usually by generals who stormed into power with the support of their legions, only in most cases to be quickly assassinated by members of the Praetorian Guard or other agents of the secret society) were fairly brief (albeit violent and tumultuous), and a new emperor whom they controlled would eventually be maneuvered into the throne by the society of Sol Invictus. Each time, the network's grip over the levers of power increased, and it looked as though their careful campaign was succeeding famously.

This pattern was seriously disrupted in AD 284, upon the accession to the throne of Diocletian (who was born in AD 244 and died in AD 311), who was in fact an initiate of the cult of Mithras. However, Diocletian instituted a cunning (if unwieldy) strategy to ensure that he did not end up being eliminated by the secret society behind the throne if he crossed their will (as had happened to so many of his predecessors). He created what has come to be referred to as "the Tetrarchy," splitting up power with an ally, Marcus Aurelius Maximian, and determining that each of the two co-emperors (Diocletian and Maximian) would name a "caesar" who would be the successor to each when they decided to retire, and who would have certain authority and powers even before that time. 

It was a terribly way to run things (just imagine a major corporation with four CEOs at the same time, or even two CEOs plus two "sub-CEOs" with nearly as much power as the CEOs), but by dividing the empire up this way and having it run by an alliance of four, it helped to ensure that the secret society of Sol Invictus Mithras could not bring in a new power-hungry general from another part of the empire to overthrow the existing emperor when he did something they didn't like, as had happened so many times before.

According to Flavio Barbiero, this was the turning point which determined a change in the strategy by the "power behind the throne" -- from now on, they would rule through the public mechanism that they had created, literalist Christianity, instead of the secret society of Mithras.

And that is why, after a violent power struggle that ensued after Diocletian and Maximian left office, the emperor who took control decided to proclaim openly that he was now a Christian, and that Christianity would henceforth be officially tolerated in the empire. That emperor was Constantine I, who ruled from AD 312 until his death in AD 337.

One of the important moves which Constantine made, and one which adds credence to this theory of Flavio Barbiero, was his decision to move the seat of the emperor to Constantinople and out of Rome. The "power behind the throne" (which had been hidden in the society of Mithras, and which was now identical with the upper reaches of the hierarchy of the Christian church) could thus operate out of Rome without interference from the emperor or from pesky usurpers marching in from other parts of the empire to try to seize the throne. 

However, Constantine did not declare Christianity to be the sole religion of the Roman Empire: far from it. His reign was only the first decisive move in the "endgame" of this centuries-long chess-match for control of the Roman world. The "checkmate" would come during the reign of Theodosius I, who was born about ten years after the end of Constantine's reign and who came to power in AD 392. It was Theodosius who administered what Flavio Barbiero calls "the fatal blow to paganism and what little still remained of the ancient Roman senatorial aristocracy" of the Roman Empire (216).

Theodosius ordered in AD 380 that all Christians must profess their faith in the bishop of Rome, thus outlawing alternative dogmas besides the one promulgated by the hierarchical structure controlled by the descendants of those long-ago transplants from Judea. 

He outlawed paganism outright in AD 392, decreeing the death penalty for anyone practicing augury or some of the other practices of the traditional Roman pagan rites. 

He closed the ancient Oracle at Delphi in AD 390, and ended the Eleusinian Mysteries in AD 392, as well as (according to some scholars) the Olympic games after that same year. 

Prior to his death, Theodosius issued decrees that the rule would be split between his two sons (who were quite young at the time of his death), one ruling in the east and the other in the west. It was a decision that would eventually lead to the breakup of the empire: Theodosius I was the last to rule a united empire, and eventually the trappings of the western empire would evaporate completely, and western Europe would be run by a variety of different kings and nobles and -- exercising tremendous control over their actions -- the hierarchy of the Christian religion centered in Rome.

In light of this theory, we can see that Ambrose and Theodosius were actually close allies in the final execution of a long-reaching plan. We can also see that Ambrose, as a high-ranking member of the hierarchy that represented the "power behind the throne" was actually in some ways the superior of the emperor himself -- and his ability to impose sanctions on Theodosius may be an indication of exactly that.

All of the actions above from the life of Theodosius certainly can be interpreted as strong supporting evidence for Flavio Barbiero's theory (among many other pieces of supporting evidence from the preceding centuries, which are recounted in detail in Flavio Barbiero's book).

But there is another incredible piece of evidence hidden in the speech of Ambrose given at the death of Theodosius which also tends to confirm this revolutionary alternative view of Roman history, and to tie it into the larger theory that I expound (and which, as I said, is not part of Flavio Barbiero's theory and should not be taken as an assertion that he supports this wider theory).

In The Undying Stars, and in many of the blog posts including this one containing an index of links to over fifty such myths from around the world, I argue that virtually all of the world's sacred traditions and scriptures appear to be based upon a common esoteric system of sophisticated celestial metaphor. 

As I explain in this previous post entitled "The Cobra Kai sucker-punch (and why we keep falling for it, over and over and over)," I believe that these esoteric ancient myths are actually designed to convey a worldview which is best described as shamanic (and in fact, as what I would call "shamanic-holographic"). This worldview included the belief in an unseen world which actually contains the "source code" for this ordinary, material world which is in fact only a projection of the "real world that is behind this one." 

It also included techniques for making contact with and actually traveling to that unseen realm, in order to gain information or make changes to the "source code" there, which could have tremendous impact on events back here in "the ordinary world." 

If my theory is correct, then the high-ranking priests who escaped the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem and the wars of Judea during the time of Vespasian and Titus may well have understood that worldview, and may even have known how to use that knowledge to help them in their plans. They created a literalist, hierarchical religion which suppressed this shamanic ancient knowledge, but they themselves may have known the esoteric secrets and continued to pass them down within their inner circle.

In the eloquent speech of the Archbishop Ambrose given at the death of his fellow-worker Theodosius the emperor, I believe we can see amazing confirmation of this possibility.

In paragraph 40 of his speech (just one paragraph after Ambrose has invoked a literalist vision of heaven and declared that Theodosius and his predecessor Gratian are both enjoying everlasting light and the company of all the saints, as well as a literalist vision of hell and declared that Theodosius' enemies "Maximus and Eugenius are in hell" to "teach by their wicked example how wicked it is for men to take up arms against their princes," thus showing how useful these literalist interpretations are for supporting the divine right of the ruler), Ambrose takes up the example of Constantine's mother Helena, whom he introduces as "great Helena of holy memory, who was inspired by the Spirit of God" (found on page 325 of the original pagination of the 1953 text linked above). 

Specifically, Ambrose at this part of his panegyric, tells us that once Constantine had killed the last of his enemies and become the sole emperor (Ambrose puts it more tactfully, saying that she was "solicitous for her son to whom the sovereignty of the Roman world had fallen," as if Constantine was just innocently eating lunch one day and the rule of the entire empire happened to fall into his lap), Helena "hastened to Jerusalem and explored the scene of the Lord's Passion" to see if she could find any relics from the Crucifixion with which to aid her son in his new job (paragraph 41, on page 325 of the original pagination of the 1953 text linked above).

As Ambrose explains, it turns out that she did find "three fork-shaped gibbets thrown together, covered by debris and hidden by the Enemy [that is to say, by the Devil, whom she addresses rhetorically in the preceding paragraph, declaring that she will find proof of the resurrection in spite of the Devil's attempts to conceal it]" (paragraph 45, on page 327 of the original pagination of the 1953 text linked above).

One of these "fork-shaped gibbets," Ambrose tells us, was "the Cross of salvation," which Helena was able to recognize by the fact that "on the middle gibbet a title had been displayed, 'Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews'" (paragraph 45, on page 327 of the original pagination). In paragraph 47 Ambrose tells us in addition that:

She sought the nails with which the Lord was crucified, and found them. From one nail she ordered a bridle to be made, from the other she wove a diadem. page 328 of the original text linked above.

Ambrose, who displays the allegorical virtuosity for which he is noted by historians, then expounds further upon this decision to make one nail into a crown and the other into a bridle:

On the head, a crown; in the hands, reins. A crown made from the Cross, that faith might shine forth; reins likewise from the Cross, that authority might govern, and that there might be just rule, not unjust legislation. May the princes also consider that this has been granted to them by Christ's generosity, that in imitation of the Lord it may be said of the Roman emperor: 'Thou has set on his head a crown of precious stones.'

[. . .]

But I ask: Why was the holy relic upon the bridle if not to curb the insolence of emperors, to check the wantonness of tyrants, who as horses neigh after lust that they may be allowed to commit adultery unpunished? What infamy do we not find in the Neros, the Caligulas, and the rest, for whom there was nothing holy upon the bridle?

What else, then, did Helena accomplish by her desire to guide the reins than to seem to say to all emperors through the Holy Spirit: 'Do not become like the horse and mule,' and with the bridle and bit to restrain the jaws of those who did not realize that they were kings to rule those subject to them? Paragraphs 48 - 51, pages 328 - 330 in the original pagination of the 1953 text.

Now, this is truly remarkable, to anyone who understands the ancient system of celestial allegory -- as Ambrose here indicates that he thoroughly and masterfully did.

We have discussed in a series of previous posts, beginning with "Scarab, Ankh, and Djed," that the Cross of the New Testament clearly parallels the "Djed-column raised up," which also closely parallels the sacrifice of Odin upon the World-Tree, and the Vajra-Thunderbolt of the Vedas, and many other important images around the world. 

All of those posts discuss the fact that this sacred symbol of profound significance is also closely connected to the "vertical pillar" of the zodiac wheel, which runs from the winter solstice at the "bottom of the year" straight up to the summer solstice at the "top of the year" (for more on that "pillar" see this year's summer solstice post).

Ambrose has just told us that, upon finding the True Cross, Helena the mother of Constantine took two of the original nails, and made one into a crown and the other into a bridle. The choice to incorporate one nail into a crown is pretty obvious for the "top of the column," which represents both the dome of heaven and also the "dome of heaven" at the top of each human being, the head (microcosm and macrocosm). But how could the other nail's incorporation into a horse-bridle have anything to do with the bottom of the zodiac-Djed-column? 

Have a looking at the zodiac wheel below and see if there are any zodiac signs at the bottom which could help explain this choice:

If you said Sagittarius (who at the bottom of the wheel just before winter solstice, peeking out below and partially obscured by the yellow label that says "The Djed raised up"), then I would agree. Sagittarius is an archer, but he is also a horseman (often a centaur). He is indicated in many myths within the system of celestial metaphor by "horse" imagery. It is almost a certainty that Ambrose is indicating an understanding of this ancient system, with this story about Helena and the discovery of the Djed-column / True Cross, and the fashioning of one nail into a crown for the head, and of the other into a bridle for a horse. 

But we don't actually have to guess about whether or not Ambrose understood this esoteric system: he provides breath-taking confirmation of the fact in paragraph 46, when he declares:

She discovered, then, the title. She adored the King, not the wood, indeed, because this is an error of the Gentiles and a vanity of the wicked. But she adored Him who hung on the tree, whose name was inscribed in the title; Him, I say, who, as a scarabaeus, cried out to His Father to forgive the sins of His persecutors. 327 - 328 of the original pagination.

What was that metaphor? It is certainly not one which, I would venture to say, most modern Christians are accustomed to hearing their preachers use regarding Christ upon the Cross. But it is one which, the footnote tells us, Ambrose used quite a lot. It is the metaphor of Christ on the Cross as a scarab!

And here we see that Ambrose undoubtedly understood the ancient system of celestial metaphor, and what is more that he understood it to the degree that he could employ metaphors common to ancient Egypt when referring to the top of the Djed-pillar! We have seen, in more than one of the previous posts linked above, that the scarab beetle with its upraised arms was connected directly to the sign of Cancer the Crab (at the top of the zodiac wheel, beginning at the point of summer solstice). 

The scarab was also esoterically connected to the crown of the skull, as shown in the image below which can be found in previous posts on this subject as well:

This should suffice to explain why the first nail was made into a crown, while the other went into a bridle -- one is connected to the sign of Cancer and the other to the sign of Sagittarius, two signs at either end of the Djed-column or the "solstice pillar," of which the True Cross is yet another manifestation (and which, we might add, is a central image in many shamanic rituals around the globe).

This deep familiarity with these symbols by Ambrose should also suffice to convince most readers that Ambrose knew full well that there was no physical Cross or nails to be found -- any more than one could "find" the vertical pillar that connects the winter and summer solstices and fashion some kind of crown or bridle out of it (he almost certainly would also have known that both "heaven" and "hell" were zodiac metaphors and not literal eternal destinations for the departed soul). But it should demonstrate conclusively that he was a master of the ancient esoteric system of celestial metaphor -- and that we can assume this knowledge had been passed down to him from his predecessors stretching back through the centuries, no doubt to generations long before the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem.

Together, Ambrose and Theodosius offer powerful evidence which supports the revolutionary alternative theory published by Flavio Barbiero. 

Additionally, pieces of evidence such as the silencing of the Oracle at Delphi and the Mysteries of Eleusis by Theodosius, as well as the clear hints Ambrose drops indicating his masterful understanding of the esoteric system, provide powerful confirmation of the wider theory that this ancient successful conspiracy to take over the Roman Empire was also part of something far bigger: a conspiracy to smash the ancient shamanic-holographic wisdom bequeathed to humanity, and to keep it within a small group who could then use it to "rule the school" (in the "Cobra Kai metaphor") while giving everyone else a literalistic interpretation which they themselves knew to be false.

The shamanic journey described in the Pyramid Texts

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

The previous post, entitled "The Cobra Kai sucker-punch (and why we keep falling for it, over and over and over)," presented the argument that the ancient wisdom encoded in all the world's sacred mythologies taught that this universe contains both the apparently material and ordinary reality with which we are all familiar, and an unseen realm which is actually the "seed realm" from which the apparently material and ordinary reality is projected, much like a hologram is projected from the holographic film.

Using an analogy from the original Karate Kid film (1984), that post argued that the ability to tap into that unseen realm, and even to journey there in order to bring back information or to effect changes which impact the ordinary realm, is analogous to a form of "karate" or "kung fu" that was secretly taught within the esoteric myths of the world's sacred traditions (just like the karate that Daniel-San learns in the movie was "hidden" inside of ordinary-looking motions such as "wax the car" or "paint the fence"). 

The post then argued that this ancient knowledge of travel to the other realm was deliberately stamped out in "the West" by a group that wanted to keep the system of "karate" to themselves (although it did survive in other parts of the world for many centuries, including in the shamanic cultures found in parts of the globe that the Roman Empire and the later Western European nations descended from the Western Empire did not conquer).

One extremely important body of evidence which supports the above interpretation of world history can be found in the Pyramid Texts of ancient Egypt. The Pyramid Texts are found inscribed within pyramids left by the kings and queens at the end of the Fifth Dynasty and into the Sixth Dynasty (in the pyramid of the final Fifth Dynasty King, Unas, who reigned from 2375 BC to 2345 BC) and those of his successors in the Sixth Dynasty (Teti, Pepi I, Merenre, and Pepi II and Pepi II's wives Neith, Ipwet, and Oudjebten), probably ending in 2184 BC.

These texts are in fact the oldest known examples of extended writing (longer than brief prayers or simple tomb inscriptions) from the human race.

As discussed in previous posts (including this one and this one) and at length in The Undying Stars book, Egyptian scholar Dr. Jeremy Naydler has presented thorough arguments which demonstrate that these pyramids -- and the texts that they contain -- were not primarily funerary structures (as they are almost universally taught to be) but rather sacred enclosures in which the king as part of his Sed Festival rites would lie inside a stone sarcophagus and undergo a shamanic out-of-body journey to the other realm on behalf of the entire kingdom. His book is entitled Shamanic Wisdom in the Pyramid Texts: The Mystical Tradition of Ancient Egypt.

Below is an image from within the sarcophagus chamber of the Pyramid of Unas:

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

This thesis, if correct, has profound significance for humanity. First, it would demonstrate that the very oldest extended scriptures that we currently possess are shamanic in nature. Second, it would demonstrate that "Western civilization" possesses a shamanic heritage, despite later efforts to suppress the shamanic worldview in "the West." And third, it raises the possibility that the incredible accomplishments of ancient Egypt were aided in some way by deliberate, regularly-scheduled trips to the unseen realm. There are many other implications as well, of course, but these three are some very significant ramifications of the assertion that the Pyramid Texts contain clear evidence of shamanic travel.

The Pyramid Texts as they are arranged in the Unas Pyramid can be viewed in their entirety online at this excellent website, The Pyramid Texts Online. They can be quite daunting at first, but if examined in conjunction with the helpful "guide" of Jeremy Naydler's book (linked above), the process of becoming more familiar with their contents can be greatly facilitated.

Below are just a few selected "utterances" from the Pyramid Texts which provide very clear support to the assertion that these texts were used in conjunction with deliberate shamanic travel by the king. All selections can be found in the Pyramid Texts Online site. At the end I will provide a brief commentary, but really these texts speak for themselves.

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Utterance 253

275:

To say the words: "He is purified, who has purified himself in the Fields of Rushes.

Re has purified himself in the Fields of Rushes.

He is purified, who has purified himself in the Fields of Rushes.

This Unas has purified himself in the Fields of Rushes.

The hand of Unas is in the hand of Re.

Nut, take his hand!

Shu, lift him up! Shu, lift him up!"

Utterance 302

458:

To say the words: "Serene is the sky, Soped lives, for it is Unas indeed who is the living [star], the son of Sothis.

The Two Enneads have purified [themselves] for him as Meskhetiu [Great Bear], the Imperishable Stars.

The House of Unas which is in the sky will not perish,

the throne of Unas which is on earth will not be destroyed.

459: The humans hide themselves, the gods fly up,

Sothis has let Unas fly towards Heaven amongst his brothers the gods.

Nut the Great has uncovered her arms for Unas.

[. . .]

461: He [Unas] ascends towards heaven near you, Re,

while his face [is like that of] hawks, his wings [are like those] of apd-geese,

his talons the fangs of He-of-the-Dju-ef-nome.

463: Upuaut has let Unas fly to heaven amongst his brothers, the gods.

Unas has moved his arms like a smn-goose, he has beaten his wings like a kite.

He flies up, he who flies up, O men!

Unas flies up away from you!"

Utterance 304

468:

To say the words: "Hail to you, daughter of Anubis, she who stands at the windows of the sky,

you friend of Thoth, she who stands at the two side rails of the ladder!

Open the way for Unas that he may pass!

Utterance 305

472: To say the words: "The ladder is tied together by Re before Osiris.

The ladder is tied together by Horus before his father Osiris, when he goes to his soul.

One of them is on this side,

one of them is on that side,

while Unas is between them.

473: Are you then a god whose places are pure?

[I] come from a pure place!

Stand [here] Unas, says Horus.

Sit [here] Unas, says Seth.

Take this arm, says Re.

474: The spirit belongs to heaven, the body to earth.

[. . .]

Utterance 247

259: Unas there! O Unas, see!

Unas there! O Unas, look!

Unas there! O Unas, hear!

Unas there! O Unas, be there!

Unas there! O Unas, arise on your side!

Do as I order, [you] who hate sleep, you who are tired!

Get up, you who are in Nedit!

Your fine bread is made in Buto.

Receive your power in Heliopolis!

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The texts were selected to indicate aspects of the shamanic journey -- aspects which are common to the methods of embarking upon shamanic journeying taught today by shamanic teachers and practitioners, many of whom learned their techniques from shamanic teachers from traditional shamanic cultures in places as widely dispersed as Mongolia, Siberia, North America, South America, or Australia.

The selections above begin with Utterance 253, in which an actual spoken formula is recited. One can almost hear the "singsong tone" that might have been used, based upon the repetition of certain phrases, and based upon the common "chant-tone" which has survived in many widely-separated cultures on our planet to this very day, and which was remarked upon and illustrated in videos that can be found within this previous post.

Note that in the final lines of the utterance, the speaker is describing Unas as taking the hand of the god Re (or Ra) and the goddess Nut, and of being "raised up" by the god Shu (whose upraised arms are described in this previous post). It is difficult to deny that this sounds very much like the start of a shamanic journey (those familiar with modern techniques and teachings of shamanic travel may have personal experience to draw upon to support this connection, and Dr. Naydler provides plenty of more academic evidence which also supports the same conclusion about this and other texts).

In the next utterances cited, Unas is described as flying up to the region of the sky in which dwell the Imperishable Stars (also known as the Undying Stars). He is also described as transforming into a bird, or taking on the features of a bird, which is a common shamanic motif (one of the most common and widespread, in fact -- see discussions here, here and here). Elsewhere in the Pyramid Texts, Unas is described on his journey as transforming into a falcon, a hawk, a powerful bull, a crocodile, a serpent, and other animals, and as taking on aspects of various gods and goddesses. These are all elements which can be present in shamanic travel.

In Utterance 304, the Pyramid Texts describe the daughter of Anubis, who stands "at the windows of the sky." Dr. Naydler points out:

In the text, the word for "opening" or "window" is peter, which as a verb means "to see," implying some kind of aperture in the sky that opens onto the spirit realm. Shamanic accounts of passing through such apertures relate that they open for just an instant, and only the initiate is able to go through them into the Otherworld. 272.

Travel through such an "opening" or "window" is a very common feature of shamanic accounts, as well as of the accounts given by those who have undergone Near-Death Experiences (some of which are discussed in previous posts such as this one, this one, and this one). 

It is also intriguing to wonder if the name of the New Testament apostle Peter, who is given the keys to the kingdom of heaven, might not be related to this Egyptian concept of the "window" through which one can see the Otherworld, as Dr. Naydler says. Of course, we are told in the New Testament that the name comes from the word for "rock" (Latin petrus), and this certainly seems likely, but the connection to the Egyptian word, in the name of the apostle who is traditionally described as "guarding the gates," is most remarkable (the celestial or zodiacal reason that Peter is the one who guards the gates to the kingdom of heaven is discussed in this previous post).

In any case, it is difficult to deny that this "window of the sky" has strong analogs in shamanic travel. 

Next comes Utterance 305, in which Unas is described as climbing what Naydler describes as "the celestial ladder," a concept he relates to the Djed pillar -- one of the most important symbols of ancient Egyptian myth, and one that we have seen has undeniable connections to the shamanic worldview (see for instance this previous post). 

Previous posts including that one (and others linked in that post) demonstrate that the Djed symbology embodies both the "earthly" situation of the individual in his or her incarnate state (the "Djed cast down") and also the "heavenly" component in each man or woman, which he or she must remember, recognize, and seek to elevate during this earthly sojourn (the "Djed raised up"). In light of that fact, it is most significant that this same utterance that talks about the "heavenly ladder" also includes the line at 474 which declares "the spirit belongs to heaven, the body to earth." 

Dr. Naydler presents analysis to argue that both Utterance 305 and the following Utterance 306 teach "a linking of heaven and earth" (274), a concept which we recently saw to be embodied in the ancient symbol of the vesica piscis (as well as in the widespread symbol of the Cross).

The final selection cited above is Utterance 247 (note that these numbers are not necessarily in chronological order: the order that the walls of each pyramid should be read is debated among scholars, and the texts themselves do not always appear in the same order in different pyramids or in later writings or inscriptions). There, we see what could be interpreted as a very obvious "call to return" from the shamanic state of ecstasy. 

This is indeed how Dr. Naydler interprets these lines, and the repetition of commands for Unas to come back to his body, to see, to hear, to "be there," to turn onto his side -- all suggest that the priests who have been in attendance, and who probably assisted in the king's achieving the state of shamanic trance (using whichever of the many known techniques for achieving travel to the unseen realm -- or perhaps a technique that is now unknown), are calling Unas back from his voyage.

These descriptions of what appears to be a deliberate journey to the seed realm, the realm of the gods, are incredible, and their importance to our understanding of human history cannot be over-emphasized.

There is abundant evidence from around the world that such journeys to the unseen realm can and do create real impact on the ordinary realm. If so, then we can begin to understand why certain people would want to take away this knowledge from the rest of humanity, and keep it all to themselves.

But the evidence of what was once known cannot be suppressed forever. It is there, in plain sight, in the oldest scriptures left anywhere on the planet. It is also preserved in the other sacred traditions of the world's cultures, including the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as well as the myths of the ancient Greeks and the Norse, and nearly everywhere else around the globe. These texts are waiting there patiently for us to recognize them for what they are.  

If you are in the habit of contacting the other realm, perhaps you will find ways to employ some of these ancient aspects of what may well be the oldest extended description of shamanic travel known to humanity.

The name of the Ankh, continued: Kundalini around the world

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

The foregoing series of posts has been exploring the evidence which suggests that the concept of "raising the Djed" is absolutely central to the ancient wisdom which was apparently given to humanity from some pre-historic source and which manifests itself in the world's sacred scriptures and traditions, from the earliest "historical" civilizations of Egypt and Sumer and Vedic India, ancient China, and around the globe to the lands of the Norse, the Americas, Africa, Australia, the islands of the Pacific, and the vast lands of Asia.

We have seen evidence that the raising of the Djed-column has a celestial component, in the cycles of the heavenly bodies of the sun, moon, stars and planets -- especially in the annual sun-cycle and the "Cross" that is created by the equinoxes (where the Djed is "cast down") and the solstices (where the Djed is "raised up"). 

And we have seen evidence which suggests that the same raising of the Djed-column has an individual component, in which each and every one of us has the opportunity to recognize (or even remember) the spiritual, celestial, and in fact divine nature inside ourselves and to raise it up within this material incarnation that we find ourselves in during our earthly sojourn. In doing so, we are connecting with the vertical component of the Cross discussed above, and transforming and transcending the horizontal, material, and animal portion of our human experience, according to the ancient wisdom texts and traditions. 

We have seen that this process of "raising the Djed" was also symbolized by the ancient Egyptians using the Scarab and especially the Ankh, and that the name of the Ankh and the linguistic sound of the N-K has found its way into a myriad of words which are associated with the process of raising our consciousness and restoring our cast-down inner divine nature, including the word Yoga (a derivation of yonga) and the English words king and queen.  

Alvin Boyd Kuhn has demonstrated, in texts referred to in that previous post, that the N-K sound at times shows up as the K-N sound, and sometimes as the N-G sound or the G-N sound.

In light of that fact, it may be instructive to examine still further manifestations of this all-important "sound of the Ankh," and see that they are in almost every case illustrative of the concept of the "raising of the Djed" that the ancient wisdom tells us is so central to our human existence.

Pictured above, for example, is a shrine in a temple in southern India, showing the intertwined and ascending serpents associated with the kundalini, the dormant, primordial, and divine life-force-energy in each of us, described as a serpent coiled at the base of the spine (notice from the quotations in the Norse Eddas found in this related previous post that the World-Tree Yggdrasil is always described as having a serpent or serpents at its base) which should and can be elevated through deliberate practice.

Obviously, the word itself begins with the K-N sound, which Alvin Boyd Kuhn would argue to be a connection to the name of the Ankh and to the concept of the hidden divine force inside each incarnate man and woman.  There is no doubt that the concept of kundalini is closely related to the concepts we have been discussing with the Scarab, Ankh, and Djed in previous posts, and it is hard to deny that the name of kundalini is closely related as well.

Here is a link to an interesting web page tracing the concept of the serpent-force of the kundalini through various world cultures.   

What other manifestations of the "name of the Ankh" can we find around the world which may be similarly instructive to our understanding of this absolutely central ancient teaching? Let's have a look!

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

The ancient civilizations of South and Central America share a legend of a benevolent civilizing figure who was described using many different names by the Maya, the Inca, the Aztecs, and other cultures of the Americas, but whose characteristics were largely similar across many different legends from many different peoples, as Graham Hancock documented extensively in Fingerprints of the Gods, and as Thor Heyerdahl documented in previous texts including American Indians in the Pacific.  

Among the names of this divine figure are Conn, Kon-Tiki,Kukulcan, and Quetzlcoatl. The first three clearly contain the "Ankh-sound" in its K-N form. While the fourth does not, its meaning of "Feathered Serpent" (the serpent which can fly, or ascend into the heavens) is clearly related to the concept we have been discussing, and to the upwards motion of the kundalini mentioned previously.

The pyramid of Chichen-Itza (also called the Pyramid of Kukulcan) is well-known for its annual serpent-shadow manifestation, which appears each year on the equinoxes. The equinoxes, of course, create the horizontal line in which the Djed-column is cast-down, and so it is appropriate that the serpent in this case is seen coming down to earth on those days. Note that linguistically, the word Chichen in Chichen-Itza contains the K-N sound in its second syllable (chen), the K-sound in this case being "palatized" to the "ch-sound" (palatization is a linguistic term for the softening of the K-sound into a "ch-sound," as happened in English with the word kirk, that became church in southern parts of the British Isles, when the k-sounds of kirk were palatized into the "ch-sounds" of church).

Along the same lines, the sound found in the sacred name of the Ankh is also found among the Native peoples of North America in the holy name of the Great Spirit, which among different nations has been spoken as Wakhan Tankh, Wakan Tanka, and

Omahank-Numakshi. The names of numerous Native American peoples contain this same sacred sound, among them the name of the Kansa or Kanza tribe, the Mohicans, the Mohawk (whose name for their people is the Kaniankenhaka), and many others too numerous to list within the scope of this short essay but which may be found through study by those interested in the subject.

It has already been noted in the previous post about the "name of the Ankh" that the name of the Inca comes from the title given to the kings of that people: he was known as theInka.

The previous point about the "Feathered Serpent" of Kukulcan or Quetzlcoatl being conceptually (as well as linguistically) related to the kundalini serpent should point us to another "winged serpent," and one who is also a "fire serpent" (Alvin Boyd Kuhn has much to say about the "fire serpent" and about the element of fire, to which he devotes an entire chapter in his masterful 1940 text Lost Light). The "Feathered Serpent" or "Fire Serpent" I am thinking of here is the Phoenix, which traditionally starts out life as a worm or serpent found inside the ashes of the previous Phoenix, and which then grows into the fiery bird that flies upwards and away -- an upwards-rising serpent which is clearly related to the upward-rising motion of the kundalini.

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

It is certainly possible to argue that the N-K-S sound at the end of the word Phoenix is related to the N-K sound of the Ankh, despite being commonly spelled -nix. Note also that Chinese legend describes a very important "fire bird" named Feng-huang, also called the "vermillion bird" (more discussion of Phoenix-birds around the world can be found here). That name clearly contains the N-G sound twice.

Along these same lines, we can suspect that the -nx sound at the end of the word Sphinx is, like the -nix sound in the name of the Phoenix, associated with the N-K sound of the Ankh.

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

The Sphinx was also a mythological creature, like the Phoenix, and is found in many myths in addition to being embodied in the famous Giza Sphinx shown above. In some legends, the Sphinx is also depicted as having wings, and in the myth of Oedipus the Sphinx is depicted asking the "Riddle of the Sphinx," which relates to the lifetime of a man, and hence to the incarnation we are discussing in the general topic of the casting down of the Djed-column and the act of raising it up (in the episode of the Riddle of the Sphinx, she gives the answer in terms of the ages of a man, although it could also of course apply to a woman; in any case, it is interesting that like the Phoenix, the Sphinx in mythology is often female, although sometimes male as well -- we might conclude from this that the message was intended to apply equally to all incarnate men and women).

The monument of the Sphinx at Giza faces due east, looking towards the point of the rising sun on the day of the equinox. In Keeper of Genesis: A Quest for the Hidden Legacy of Mankind, originally published in 1996, Robert Bauval and Graham Hancock articulate their now-famous thesis that the monuments of the Giza Plateau reflect and model the celestial landmarks, specifically the belt of the constellation Orion and the outline of the constellation Leo (see especially pages 58 through 82). 

If so, then they are clearly associated with the "raising up" of the Djed-column (the "Backbone of Osiris"). The Sphinx, who looks towards the rising sun across the north-south watercourse of the River Nile, may also be associated with that "raising up" motion -- and there is reason to believe that the Nile itself was esoterically associated with the kundalini-serpent and the human backbone as well (I articulate some of the mythological evidence for this association in pages 137-147 of The Undying Stars).  And certainly the presence of the N-K sound in the Nile-facing Sphinx upon the Giza Plateau would seem to argue for the validity of this connection.

The connection of the Nile River to the rising "serpent force" is further established by the name of the sacred Nile's counterpart in India -- the sacred

River Ganges (Ganga).  

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

The sacred nature of the Ganges to Hindu tradition needs no embellishment here -- it is well attested and continues to play a central role to this day. Clearly, the nameGanga can be argued to contain "the name of the Ankh," and the restorative role that the river plays according to sacred tradition would argue that this alleged linguistic connection is not spurious.

It is notable to examine the evidence that there are very profound parallels between the sacred traditions of India and those of ancient Egypt, including the reverence for the Ganges and the Nile but also between the deities Osiris and Vishnu, both of whom are described as being "cast down" (and dismembered) and then subsequently "raised up" (a connection which I explore in this previous post).

Interestingly enough, there is new evidence that the worship of Vishnu is extremely ancient -- including this very significant discovery of Vishnu sculptures in the region of what is modern-day Vietnam, which Graham Hancock posted as an article on his website. 

While that article is noteworthy on several important levels, one point that should not be missed that is very pertinent to the present discussion is the linguistic connection that the article itself makes between the name of the Ganga in India and the name of the mighty

Mekong River in Vietnam. The article calls the Mekong Ma Ganga, which is also the name given to the Ganges in India in the river's role as "Mother Ganga." There is certainly room to argue a connection between the names of the two sacred rivers. Here is a link to a beautiful post describing some of the points the author visited along the Mekong, and the ancient traditions which have been preserved to this day by those who hold the Mekong sacred. 

In light of the connections already shown between Vishnu and Osiris, and in light of the newly-discovered ancient Vishnu statuary in Vietnam, it is certainly plausible to argue a possible connection between the N-K or N-G sound of the Ankh and the N-K and N-G sounds of the Ganga and the Mekong. The reverence given to these rivers through the centuries (and the millennia) suggests the clear connection to the human process of "raising the Djed" and "restoring the cast-down" in our individual journeys as well.

Finally, it is perhaps not inappropriate to point out the undeniable linguistic connection to the Sanskrit word for cannabis or hemp, which is of course the word Ganja. It is well-known that Ganja is viewed as a sacred plant among Rastafari, and that it is seen as essential to the process of raising consciousness and seeing through illusions. 

It can be argued that here again there may be an ancient connection to the mighty Ankh, and to the central task of raising the Djed.

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

Note that the varied history of the human experience provides clear evidence that it is definitely possible to achieve states of ecstasy (transcendance of the "static" or physical vehicle of the body) without the use of external plant-derived substances, and that many shamanic cultures use a variety of techniques including drumming, chanting, rhythmic breathing, dancing, and other methods to induce ecstasy without the aid of plants. However, it would be ridiculous to deny that the use of plants, including ganja, peyote, ayahuasca, and mushrooms, has also played a central role in many shamanic cultures in shamanic rituals and techniques of inducing ecstasy.

In light of this, and the assertion in the previous post (which is traced out much more extensively in The Undying Stars) that all of the world's ancient sacred traditions are or were fundamentally shamanic but that there has been a concerted effort to rob humanity of this shamanic heritage, we must wonder whether the strict prohibitions against the use of these plants is not part of the same ancient campaign.

In any event, there is no doubt that the message of the Ankh and the raising of the Djed is absolutely central to our human experience -- and that tracing out the echoes of the N-K name of this ancient symbol can be greatly instructive.

There are certainly many more places where the name of the Ankh is hidden, waiting for you to discover!

The shamanic foundation of the world's ancient wisdom

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

The previous post on "The sacrifice of Odin" presented abundant evidence that the important Norse god Odin is a shamanic figure, frequently depicted as undertaking journeys in search of hidden knowledge, and knowledge which specifically can only be obtained through shamanic methods. 

The most central and most shamanic of all of these vision-quest journeys undertaken by Odin is undoubtedly his ascent to hang himself upon Yggdrasil, sacrificing in his own words "myself to myself," wounded with "the spear" which we can assume would likely mean deliberately and with his own spear Gungnir, and through a nine-night-long ordeal eventually obtaining a breakthrough into another reality in which he sees with non-ordinary vision the secret of the runes.

We saw that the power of the runes is far more than "just writing" (as if the power to write, which most of us take for granted, is not incredible enough in and of itself): the ability to see and know and use the runes implies the ability to create worlds through the power of words, sounds, language, speech, and mind. In a very real sense (as Shakespeare, George Orwell, and a host of other thoughtful writers have perceived) we are composed of our thoughts and thought-patterns and narratives, and those thoughts and thought-patterns and narratives are ultimately composed of words and of language, that is to say of symbols -- and we could say of runes.

Students of Old English will know that the very word "spell" which in modern English means a formula to alter reality was the Old English word spel that meant generally "word" or "message" (and hence the English word gospel is derived from the combination of the Old English words god  pronounced "gode" and meaning "good" and spel  meaning "word"). This fact reflects and illustrates the reality-altering power of words, language, and runes. 

Interestingly enough, in light of the tremendous reality-altering power of words (and runes) is the fact that in order to obtain the knowledge of the runes, Odin had to undertake a journey that is clearly shamanic in its elements, including the ascent up a pole or tree: examples abound of the use of a pole or  "tree" in the ritual shamanic journeys described in Mircea Eliade's compendium of shamanic observations from around the world entitled Shamanism: Archaic techniques of ecstasy (originally published in French in 1951). It is quite clear from the details of many of these shamanic poles that they represent the celestial pole, which is in fact the World-Tree, and thus they correspond directly to the "pole" upon which Odin had to ascend during his own ordeal to transcend ordinary reality and obtain the power of runic reality-creation and reality-manipulation.

Eliade offers numerous examples of shamanic rituals which involve, "as an essential rite, climbing a tree or some other more or less symbolic means of ascending to the sky" (123) including the "South American consecration, that of the machi, the Araucanian shamaness," who undergoes an initiation ceremony centered upon "the ritual climbing of a tree or rather of a tree trunk stripped of bark, called rewe. The rewe is also the particular symbol of the shamanic profession, and every machi keeps it in front of her hut indefinitely" (123). Eliade informs us that the rewe is always nine-feet tall in this particular culture, and that the multi-day ceremony involves drumming, drum circles, dancing, stripping naked, the sacrifice of lambs, falling into trance or the state of ecstasy, and the ritual cutting of the fingers and lips of both the shamaness candidate and the initiating shamaness, using a white quartz knife (123-124).  Eliade then goes on to describe a shamanic initiation rite among the Pomo of North America involving "the climbing of a tree-pole from twenty to thirty feet long and six inches in diameter," and similar (and sometimes even more dangerous) symbolic ascents among shamanic cultures from the regions of Hungary, Iran, Australian aborigines, the Sarawak of Malaysia, and the Carib shamans of Dutch Guiana (125-131).

If the reader is not thoroughly convinced that this most central vision quest undertaken by Odin indicates his shamanic nature -- and is thus additional powerful evidence that all the ancient sacred mythologies are in fact shamanic in their core message -- there is the additional evidence that he is known for riding through the heavens upon his eight-legged horse, Sleipnir (shown in the upper section of the carved runestone above). 

While other Norse gods and goddesses of course had horses too, Odin's was the horse most well-known, most unique, and most associated with his wild journeys through the heavens in the company of the wild band of the Valkyries (in this he resembles Dionysus, who was often accompanied by Maenads -- and whose rites in the hills and wilderness were described in terms indicating that they involved ecstasy). As the authors of Hamlet's Mill point out, the shaman's drum was described as the "horse" that serves to carry him or her into the state of ecstasy and to enable the shaman's soul to ascend to the sky (Hamlet's Mill, 122).

Odin's horse, Sleipnir, was notable for having eight legs -- four in the front and four in the back -- making him twice as fast as any other horse. Celestially, since Odin embodies the characteristics of the planet Mercury (who was also a transcendent god associated with breaking through barriers and with language, as explored in this important previous post), the fact that his swift steed Sleipnir had eight legs may be a mythological embodiment of the fact that Mercury is the swiftest of the planets (by virtue of its being so close to the sun). In fact, as you can easily confirm for yourself, the orbital period of Mercury is . . . 88 earth days! So, of course, Odin's steed would be expected to have eight legs -- what other number would have been appropriate?

But, if we see that Odin is clearly a shamanic figure, and that the shaman's horse is his or her drum, then the rhythmic drumming that would be produced by the hoofbeat of an eight-legged steed would be quite rapid, and quite apropos of the very rapid drumbeat used to produce a state of ecstasy in shamanic cultures around the world. So, the eight-legged nature of Odin's steed works to convey esoteric knowledge to us on many levels.

The previous post also demonstrated that the shamanic nature of Odin's sacrifice upon the Tree has direct parallels to the sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross. In The Undying Stars, I explore the ways in which the realization that all the myths of the world (including those found in the Old and New Testaments) unites the world's ancient wisdom, and leads to the possible conclusion that they were all at their very core conveying a message that is essentially and profoundly shamanic (that is, in fact, what I call shamanic-holographic).

This assertion is bolstered by the evidence that the celestial Tree which Odin must ascend (and which the shamans ascend in the ceremonies cited by Eliade) corresponds to the Djed-column of Osiris which must be "raised up" and to the Ankh or Cross of Life of ancient Egypt which has a horizontal component representing the "cast down" nature of our material existence (in which we must go about in an "animal" body), but which also has a vertical component representing our spiritual nature which comes down from above and which is immortal (a fact emphasized on the Ankh itself by the unending loop at the top of the cross), and which represents both the motion of our rise and return to the spiritual realms after each incarnation and also the motion of the raising of the inner spiritual component or fire which we can perform during this life as an essential part of our mission in this earthly existence. 

We have also seen evidence that this "divine spark" in each individual man or woman is associated with the fire brought down from heaven by Prometheus in the ancient Greek mythos, and with the Thunderbolt or Vajra found in the ancient Vedic texts, and that the mission of recognizing this inner divine element and of raising it up is central to our overcoming our cast-down state. 

And -- although "orthodox" (a word that means "straight-teaching" or by implication "right-teaching") and literalist Christianity would strongly object to such an assertion -- this mission of recognizing and the of raising up the divine inner spark can clearly be seen to be a possible interpretation of the message  taught by Paul in some of his early letters urging his listeners to recognize the Christ within (Galatians 1:16,   Colossians 1:27, 2 Corinthians 13:5) and to realize that they themselves undergo the process of being crucified and raised by virtue of this mystical identification with the Christ within (Galatians 2:20). 

This connection advances the strong possibility that the patterns found in the ancient scriptures preserved in the Bible were actually the very same patterns found in the myth-system of ancient Egypt and the Djed-column and Ankh-Cross imagery associated with the Osiris, and the very same patterns found in the myth-system of the Norsemen and the World-Tree sacrifice associated with the shamanic questing of Odin. 

It also supports the conclusion that -- like those other world-myths -- the symbology and esoteric message of the Bible scriptures is in fact deeply shamanic, and pointing towards the same individual ascent and breaking free of the bonds of the material body and the material world undertaken by shamans in the rituals recorded by Eliade and other researchers in the early twentieth century and in the centuries immediately preceding.

Powerful evidence, perhaps even conclusive evidence, to support this conclusion -- the conclusion that the imagery employed by Paul and the other early pre-literalist teachers was actually composed of exquisite metaphors designed to teach a message closely aligned with the message embodied in the Osirian imagery of "the Djed-column cast down" and "the Djed-column raised up," the same message found in the sacrifice of Odin and the Thunderbolt of Indra (the Vajra) and in the ascent to the heavens by the shaman along the celestial tree -- can be seen in the fact that the traditional symbology surrounding the Crucifixion of Christ quite clearly reflects the imagery surrounding the Osirian imagery of the Djed cast down and the Djed raised up.

Below is an image from the temple of Seti I at Abydos which comes from a series of images depicting scenes from the myth-cycle of Osiris, Isis, Set and Horus. Specifically, the image shown below depicts Isis retrieving the casket containing the slain body of Osiris from the King of Byblos. 

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

Significantly (as I discuss in some detail in my first book), the casket containing the body of Osiris had lodged in a tamarisk bush and then been concealed when the tamarisk grew into a tree around it, which the King of Byblos then cut down to use as a pillar in his palace, thus connecting the body of Osiris to the World-Tree which is cut down in many myths around the world (including to Yggdrasil, which ultimately cracks apart and falls at Ragnarokk) and thus to the unhinging of the world-axis and to the precession of the equinoxes. 

This aspect of the story links the Djed-column (also called the "Backbone of Osiris") even more strongly to Yggdrasil and the sacrifice of Odin as alleged in the previous post -- and we can see that, sure enough, in the image above the column that the King of Byblos is handing over to Isis has the horizontal "vertebrae" lines that indicate it is a Djed-column and the Backbone of Osiris.  

Although you may see or hear some people describe the image above from the temple of Seti I at Abydos as depicting the "raising of the Djed-column," it actually is not showing the raising of the Djed. In fact, it is showing the "bringing down" of the Djed and the corpse of Osiris, preparatory to his being laid in the tomb (in later scenes). Only later will Osiris be "raised up."

This fact is very important, because it is my assertion that the above scene is analogous to the taking down of the body of Christ from the Cross (sometimes called "the Descent from the Cross")! 

If all the foregoing discussion and analysis is correct, and the myths from around the world (including those found in the Bible) are actually closely connected, and that they teach a shamanic message, and that they often use the absolutely central symbol of the Djed-column/Cruciform Cross/Ankh Cross/World Tree/Shamanic Pole to embody that message (a message of the "divine spark within" or the "Christ in you," as Paul phrases it), then the symbology of the "casting down" of the Christ into the tomb prior to his subsequent "raising up" is another manifestation of the same pattern, and the taking down of Christ from the Cross would parallel the taking down and giving to Isis of the Djed-column containing the corpse of the now-dead Osiris.

The imagery surrounding the Descent from the Cross supports this connection in absolutely breathtaking fashion. See, for example, this collection of images taken from art through the centuries of this event.

Even more striking, however, is the Christian art in the category known as Pietà and depicting the Virgin Mary holding the body of Christ after the Crucifixion.

Below is perhaps the most famous such Pietà, that by Michelangelo situated in the Vatican:

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

If we remember from previous posts that the "Djed cast down" corresponds to the horizontal line between the equinoxes, then the imagery of Isis and of Mary receiving the "cast down" or "nearly-horizontal" body of Osiris (ancient Egypt) and of Christ (New Testament) makes perfect sense: the sign of Virgo is positioned at the point of the fall equinox -- when the sun is declining down towards the grave, but just before the exact horizontal point of the equinox!

The "Virgo imagery" in both the above images (of Isis from the temple of Seti I, who died in 1279 BC and of the Virgin Mary from the work of Michelangelo who died in AD 1564) should be quite clear by now to anyone who has read The Undying Stars or looked at some of the images provided in previous posts about the constellation Virgo in the world's mythology (see for instance here, here, here, and here). 

Specifically, look at the "outstretched arm" -- which is one of the most characteristic aspects of the Virgo constellation and which is embodied in ancient myth (and ancient art depicting Virgo-connected figures) over and over and over again. It is most evident in the image of Isis receiving the tilted (descending towards the horizontal) Djed-column from the King of Byblos, but the exact same outstretched hand is also present in Michelangelo's masterpiece:

Now that it is pointed out, you can see that the outstretched arm in the Isis image is over-elongated -- as if to ensure that you do not fail to notice it.

For those who may not be as familiar with the constellation Virgo (again, they can go check out the Virgo discussions above, or any of the others linked on this extensive index of constellations) and the way this constellation overlays on ancient sacred art, take a look at the image below from ancient Greece, circa 440 BC, depicting the Pythia: a priestess whose very role was to go into a trance or state of ecstasy in order to obtain knowledge from the other realm which could not be obtained in "ordinary reality." The outline of Virgo (with distinctive outstretched arm) is superimposed:

What does all this mean?

I would submit that it proves the connection of the world's ancient myths -- from ancient Egypt, to ancient Sumer and Babylon (who also had a central story of a "World-Tree" in the mighty cedar whose top reached to the heavens), to ancient India, to ancient Greece, to the myths found in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, to the myths of the Norse, and the list goes on and on (to Africa, North and South America, the islands of the Pacific, Australia, east Asia . . . ). 

It also proves the connection and close kinship of all these myths, their central symbology, and most importantly their esoteric message with each other and with the world's surviving shamanic cultures and traditions.

This connection suggests an even more radical and even more transformative ramification for what we have discovered above, because the esoteric and shamanic nature of the world's ancient wisdom-texts and traditions indicates that these teachings are meant to be put into practice by each man and woman who is incarnated in a body: by each man and woman who, these ancient scriptures teach, embodies a divine spark, a divine Thunderbolt, a divine "Christ within." 

This evidence above suggests that it is part of our purpose here in this incarnation (perhaps even our central purpose) to recognize and to raise

that inner spark of divinity, that "vertical portion of the Ankh," that Djed-column which we each share with Osiris, along that central axis that inside the human microcosm reflects the celestial axis of the World-Tree found in the macrocosm.

Perhaps this can be done through the practice of Yoga(whose name itself we have seen to be connected to the Ankh and hence to the Djed). 

Perhaps this can be done through the practice of Kung Fu (whose name may also be related to the "name of the Ankh," and which is most definitely related to the precession of the equinoxes and the other celestial cycles which allegorize our divine spark cycling back upwards after first plunging downwards). 

Perhaps this can be done through art and the creative force (as eloquently argued by Jon Rappoport, who connects that activity to the smashing of artificial realities embodied by trickster gods including Hermes, and by John Anthony West, who demonstrates that the ancient Egyptians appear to have had strong ideas about the transformative and consciousness-raising power of the artistic process of creating itself).

Perhaps this can be done through meditation, which science has shown can send the brain into a altered state -- perhaps even akin to a shamanic state -- when performed by those who have spent long hours practicing the discipline.

Perhaps this can be done through rhythmic chanting, which appears to have been a central component in the ancient wisdom and which amazingly seems to share a fairly similar form or pattern across many cultures and languages around the world.

Perhaps this can be done through the use of special plants and organisms such as mushrooms, which can be ingested or brewed into teas (please note the strong words of warning regarding the dangers of mistakenly consuming the wrong mushrooms posted on the website of mushroom expert Paul Stamets and repeated on this blog post here).

And certainly this can be done through the practice of what we commonly label as shamanic techniques (deliberately inducing states of ecstasy or the experience of non-ordinary reality, through a variety of methods available to humanity, including shamanic drumming): as we have seen, there is strong evidence to believe that all of the world's ancient wisdom was at one time shamanic, a fact which suggests that part of the world has been deliberately robbed of its shamanic heritage. In other words, the ancient myths were not intended to teach that Osiris "raised the Djed-column" so that we don't have to. The ancient myths were not intended to teach that Christ "raised the Djed-column" so that we don't have to. The ancient myths were not intended to teach that Odin "raised the Djed-column" so that we don't have to.

They contained those stories, and showed that pattern so many times, because it is what we are here to do.

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

The sacrifice of Odin

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

For the third edition of the "Ankh trilogy" of posts (which began with "Scarab, Ankh, and Djed" and continued with "The name of the Ankh"), let us continue our investigation of this most central theme by looking at the connections to another manifestation of the Cross of Life (which the Ankh and the Djed represent, as does the Scarab with its upraised arms): Yggdrasil, the Tree of Life found in Norse and Germanic mythology.

The World-Tree Yggdrasil is described in the Elder Edda and the Younger Edda as a mighty ash-tree whose roots penetrate to the deepest underworlds and whose branches reach to the highest heavenly realms. At its base is the holy fountain of Urd, associated with the Norns who tend to the Tree and who, the Younger Edda tells us in Chapter VII, "shape the lives of men." 

The waters at the foot of the tree are also associated with Mimir's Well. In the Younger Edda, as part of the question-and-answer session between Odin in the guise of Ganglere (might we not read the same "root sound" of "the name of the Ankh" here as well?) and three divinities who are simply named Har ("High"), Jafnhar ("Equally High") and Thride ("Third"), we read:

Then said Ganglere: Where is the chief or most holy place of the gods? Har answered: That is by the ash Ygdrasil. There the gods meet in council every day. Said Ganglere: What is said about this place? Answered Jafnhar: This ash is the best and greatest of all trees; its branches spread over all the world, and reach up above heaven. Three roots sustain the tree and stand wide apart; one root is with the asas and another with the frost-giants, where Ginungagap formerly was; the third reaches into Niflheim; under it is Hvergelmer, where Nidhug gnaws the root from below. But under the second root, which extends to the frost-giants, is the well of Mimer, wherein knowledge and wisdom are concealed. The owner of the well hight Mimer. He is full of wisdom, for he drinks from the well with the Gjallar-horn. Alfather once came there and asked for a drink from the well, but he did not get it before he left one of his eyes as a pledge. Younger Edda, Chapter VII.

This famous incident, of course, is responsible for Odin's having only one remaining eye. But there is another episode in Norse myth in which Odin had to undergo tremendous sacrifice in order to gain wisdom, an episode also closely associated with the holy ash Yggdrasil, and an episode which clearly connects the World-Tree with the concepts and symbology that has been discussed in the previous two posts surrounding the Ankh or Cross of Life, and the Djed-column or Backbone of Osiris: the famous sacrifice of Odin in which he hangs himself upon the tree, described in a somewhat fleeting passage found in the Elder Edda, in the portion known as the Havamal or Hovamol, beginning in stanza 139 (in the online edition of the Elder Edda linked above, it begins on page 59 -- that online text is a little difficult to navigate: the best way is probably to look for the "page numbers" contained within brackets, scrolling down until you reach [59]):

I ween that I hung on the windy tree,

Hung there for nights full nine;

With the spear I was wounded, and offered I was

To Othin, myself to myself,

On the tree that none may ever know

What root beneath it runs.

None made me happy with loaf or horn,

And there below I looked;

I took up the runes, shrieking I took them,

And forthwith back I fell.

This passage describes Odin "raised up" upon the Tree, hanging upon it in a sacrifice or crucifixion, Odin sacrificed to Odin, and through this ordeal after nine full nights he obtains a new vision which he did not have previously -- the vision to see the runes, and to take them up. It is in many ways analogous to the ordeal he had to go through in order to obtain the wisdom of Mimir from the well, and also to the adventure he had to undertake in order to obtain the mead of poetry from Gunnlod, and yet this incident is at once more primordial and defining of the Alfather Odin than any of the others.

It is through this sacrifice that Odin obtains the gift of the runes, the gift of encoding information in symbolic form, the gift of the manipulation of language. We can begin to realize the depth of power that this gift truly contains when we recognize the ordeal Odin had to undergo in order to obtain it.

Previous posts have examined the concept that it is in many ways through language that reality is created and that worlds are shaped. In Genesis, of course, it is through the word of God that all Creation is spoken into existence. Modern science tells us that it is through the combination of the four "letters" (dare we call them "runes"?) in the strands of DNA that all our body's characteristics are spun-out in the cells of our being (perhaps these are the strands that the Norns are spinning?).

And Odin wins the ability to see the runes by his hanging upon the Tree. 

Many other researchers have observed that the double-helix shape of the DNA strand recalls quite strikingly the two serpents of the caduceus staff (carried, of course, in Greek and Roman myth by Hermes or Mercury, who is in many ways associated with Odin, interestingly enough). But we have seen in the previous two examinations of the Ankh and Scarab and Djed that the caduceus staff is clearly a "Djed-column" type of symbol, representative of the Backbone of Osiris "raised up," and of the vertical column of the year which reaches from the very lowest pit at the winter solstice to the very summit of the year (highest heaven) at the summer solstice. 

Clearly, Odin's hanging upon the Tree relates to this same concept.

This profound episode also relates to the concept of "the shamanic," in that Odin by his ascent to hang on the World-Tree penetrates beyond the realm of the ordinary to bring back knowledge that can be obtained by no other means. This is one of the defining characteristics of the shamanic techniques of ecstasy described in the work of Mircea Eliade (see for instance here and here), and in fact it can be easily demonstrated that shamans around the world often use a vertical pole or "climbing the tree" as part of their shamanic travel. There is clearly a powerful stream of connectivity which flows between the ancient wisdom preserved and conveyed in the myths of Osiris and the Djed, the myths of Odin and the World-Tree, and the shamanic practices of the world.

Finally, we must notice the clear connections between the sacrifice of Odin described above and the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross described in the New Testament. Most obviously, both involve a crucifixion upon a Tree (and the Cross is literally referred to as "the tree" in Biblical verses such as Acts 13:29 and 1 Peter 2:24). 

Additionally, in Odin's description of his own sacrifice, he declares that "with the spear I was wounded," which is obviously an element that is present in the sacrifice described in the New Testament as well. Critics might argue, because our records of the Norse myths were written down after Christianity was already known and was spreading throughout Europe, that this element was "imported" into Norse mythology from Christianity, but there is absolutely no evidence that this is the case, and there is no need to assume such an importation. Odin is very closely associated with his powerful weapon the Gungnir, the mighty spear which never misses its target and which Odin used to indicate which force would be victorious when two contending sides met on the field of battle. That he would be wounded by his own spear when he sacrificed himself to himself is clearly not inconsistent with the tenor of what is taking place.

There is also the shout or shriek which Odin utters at the end of his ordeal, when he has finally won the victory and obtained what he sought. 

By this episode, and by other arguments I present in The Undying Stars, I would argue that the verses preserved in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible are actually shamanic in nature, and were originally intended to be regarded as such. By the aggressive literalizing that has taken place in history, this shamanic vision (and their connection to the myths of Osiris and Odin) has been covered-over and obscured.

And yet, like the hidden runes which Odin found, which have the ability to carry world-changing information to faraway places and even to distant times (to those not yet born, even), the words and letters preserved in the Bible itself continue to patiently carry their message down through the centuries. Their kinship with the myths of the world, from Egypt to Greece to the lands of the Norse, and to the shamanic practices found across so many cultures, from North and South America to Siberia and Mongolia and Australia and Africa, is undeniable.

The name of the Ankh

image: Ankhs carried by (left to right) Set, Isis, and Horus. Wikimedia commons (links here, here, and here).

The previous post explored some of the profound significance of the Ankh and its relation to the symbols of the Djed and the Scarab -- and to the message that we as individual men and women have an unending, spiritual component in addition to the horizontal, animal, and material aspect of our being to which we are currently joined.

That post also touched very briefly upon the amazing linguistic analysis Alvin Boyd Kuhn has provided regarding the word Ankh itself, and his assertion that the "N-K" sound seen in  the word Ankh finds its way into an astonishing array of words still in use today, including Yoga -- a practice whose central purpose clearly involves the "raising of the Djed-column," so to speak.

Alvin Boyd Kuhn lays out this analysis of the name of the Ankh primarily in his short treatise entitled The Esoteric Structure of the Alphabet and its Hidden Mystical Language, a delightful and insightful text which can be read in its entirety online here (among other places), and which can of course also still be obtained in print versions from a variety of sources (click here to go to the Project Gutenberg page for that text, which provides some other digital formats, including pdf).

Kuhn really warms to his theme beginning on page 12 of 88 in that online version linked above (and on page 8 of the facsimile print edition that I use at home, which can be purchased online here or perhaps ordered from your favorite local bookstore), saying:

Nothing has been more revealing than the list of words, in English, Greek, German, Hebrew, which can be traced to the old Egyptian name of this mighty symbol ["this mighty symbol" meaning the Ankh, that is]. Its central idea, it was noted, is the production of life through the tieing or union of spirit and matter. The central clue to the meaning of all these derivatives is the idea of tieing two things together. [He then goes on to explain that the root-sound found in the word Ankh, the "N-K" sound, sometimes found its way into words in the order "K-N," and sometimes the "N-K" is replaced by "N-G" (note that a "G" is linguistically nearly identical to a "K" except that the "G" is voiced where the "K" is not), and hence it is also indicated by "G-N" as well as by "N-G"]. With these specifications it is possible now to discern a whole new world of meaning in many common words never deemed to have come down from so divine a lineage.

It is seen first in such words as anchor, that which ties a boat to a fixed place; knit, knot, link, gnarled, gnaw, gnash (accounting for the odd spelling); ankelosis, a growing together of two bones; anger, anguish, anxiety, a tightening up of feelings. But most interestingly it seems to have given name to at least four joints or hinge-points (hinge itself seems to be another) in the human body: ankle, knee, neck and knuckles. Lung, as being the place where outside air unites with the inner blood, could perhaps be added. Far away as our English join appears to be from a source in A N K H, (N being the only letter common to both), it is certainly directly from it after all. For A N K H was the root of the Latin jungo, to join, N K becoming N G through the Greek. From this we get junction, adjunct, juncture, conjunction, from the Latin past participle of jungo, -- junctus. But in coming into English through the French, all these words were smoothed down to join, joint, and thus carried so far into English as to give us union, which is really junction in its primal form. With even the N dropping out we have yoke, that which ties two oxen together. And in Sanskrit it comes out as yoga, which in reality stands for yonga, meaning union. 

He then goes on to argue that the very common prefix con- (which means "with" or "together" and which by itself means both of those things in Spanish) comes from the K-N sound and is thus linked to the Ankh. By the same argument, he argues that the extremely versatile English ending -ing derives from the same ancient symbol (this time in the form of N-G). From there, he even argues that the word thing can trace its lineage to the same source.

But is that all? Far from it -- in fact, he's just getting warmed up!

Next comes one that carries an impressive significance in the study, the common verb to know, in Greek gnosco, German kennen, English ken. What constitutes the knowing act? The joining together of two things, consciousness and an object of consciousness, for there must be something apart from consciousness to be known.

Further arguments bring him to can, king, angel (the name for the messengers between the heavenly realms and the earthly), angle, nook, and of course Gnosis. We could perhaps argue that along with king could be the corresponding word queen, which also contains the K-N sound. As Kuhn explores briefly when discussing the connection between Ankh and king (and we could add, queen), each individual is in some ways a king or queen, "the one who both thinks and knows" as he says: the ruler and sovereign (a word which itself contains the N-G sound, as does reign) of his or her own universe, since each individual is a microcosmic reflection of the macrocosm.

Here Kuhn (whose very surname can itself be seen to contain the K-N combination) leaves off the pursuit in this particular text, but he takes it right up again with even more profound effect in Lost Light (published in 1940 and available online here). There, on page 186 of the version linked in the foregoing sentence, Kuhn provides arguments that the Egyptian tradition of the anointing of Osiris (closely connected to the raising of the Djed-column), and of anointing of the mummy with unguents prior to burial, connects to the A N K H origin as well:

An item of great importance in this ritual was its performance always previous to the burial. It was a rite preparatory to the interment. Said Jesus himself of Mary: "In that she poured this ointment upon my body, she did it to prepare me for my burial" (Matt. 26:12). She was symbolically enacting the Mystery rite of the chrism, and her performance quite definitely matched the previous practices of the Egyptians, from whom it was doubtless derived. But what does such an act denote in the larger interpretation here formulated? If the burial was the descent of the gods into bodily forms, then the anointing must have been enacted immediately antecedent to it or in direct conjunction of it. The etymology of the word sheds much light upon this whole confused matter. The "oint" portion of it is of course the French softening of the Latin "unct" stem; and this, whether philologists have yet discovered the connection or not, is derived from that mighty symbol of mingled divinity and humanity of ancient Egypt -- the A N K H cross. The word Ankh, meaning love, life and tie, or life as the result of tying together by attraction or love the two nodes of life's polarity, spirit and matter, suggests always and fundamentally the incarnation. For this is the "ankh-ing" of the two poles of being everywhere basic to life. The "unction" of the sacrament is really just the "junction" of the two life energies, with the "j" left off the word. Therefore the "anointing" is the pouring of the "oil of gladness," the spiritual nature, upon the mortal nature of living man. The "unguents" of the mummification were the types of the shining higher infusion, and they prepared the soul for, or were integrally a part of, its burial in the grave of mortality. And the Messiah was then crucified in the flesh.

In other words, Kuhn is here arguing that the scriptures are really teaching that the incarnation of every man and every woman is a form of "crucifixion in the flesh" (that is, the pinning down into a body of a spirit), the joining or ankh-ing or yoking of spirit and matter (or spirit upon a cross of matter). This teaching is depicted in the very form of the Ankh, and in words derived from the N-K sound. The act of anointing for burial was a depiction of the teaching that each human life consists of a divine element (represented by the anointing, the unguent, the "oil of gladness" which Kuhn comes right out and defines as "the spiritual nature") poured down upon (and in fact buried within) the body (the mortal, material, and animal part of our earthly existence). 

This explanation is central to his argument that the interpretation of the story of the Christ is that it is always meant to teach of and point to the "Christ in you" (that is to say, in each and every individual) and not to a literal figure (an argument he makes throughout Lost Light , as well as its companion volume Who is this King of Glory?). If this argument is correct, then we can see that the "raising of the Djed column," could be seen (according to such a teaching) as central to our human existence in this incarnation: the process of remembering our status as king (or queen); of knowing and achieving Gnosis; or even of anointing our physical, horizontal, and animal nature with the "vertical component" of the Ankh-cross -- that is to say, our spiritual or even divine aspect -- and in doing so to raise it up.

Whether or not one accepts that this teaching is in fact an accurate depiction of our human condition, the linguistic connections that Kuhn finds between words such as Yoga, unction, angel and Gnosis to the Ankh itself -- and the conceptual connections between these words and the others to the message conveyed by the symbology of the Ankh -- are quite compelling.

To add even more strength to his arguments, we can in fact suggest even more words which appear to have strong linguistic connection to the word Ankh, and which are in fact words which connect to the idea of the joining of the material and the physical natures, or to the "raising" of the spiritual consciousness within our human nature that we have seen is central to the "message of the Ankh."

You may have thought of some of these yourself already, as you have been reading along. How about the word Annunaki, the beings from the celestial realm who apparently joined themselves to the daughters of men?  At this time, I personally believe that this episode was intended to teach the same esoteric concept that has been outlined above (the teaching that we are a mixture of divine spirit and material flesh), and not intended to be understood literally (see previous posts here and here on that subject), although some believe that it refers to a literal event. Either way, the name of these beings,

Annunaki, can most certainly be argued to be connected to the word Ankh.

Another one which is almost certainly linguistically related is the name of the amazing complex of Angkor Wat, which Graham Hancock has demonstrated to be precisely 72 degrees of longitude east of the Giza pyramids in Egypt, and hence deliberately connected to Egypt (72, of course, being one of the most important precessional numbers). Would it not be too far a stretch to suggest that, given this clear longitudinal connection between the sites, and given the fact that the word Angkor begins with an "Ankh," that Angkor Wat was intended to be (like the sacred sites of Egypt) a "place where men and women became gods"?

While we are on the subject of precessional numbers, I have pointed out before (in my first book

and in previous blog posts such as this one, this one, and this one) that the martial arts of China are replete with precessional numbers. Given the fact just discussed, that Giza in Egypt (source of our knowledge of the Ankh) and Angkor Wat are separated by a significant precessional number, is it not possible that the name by which the Chinese martial arts are widely known, that is to say Kung Fu or Gung Fu, contains the K-N (and the N-G) sound which Alvin Boyd Kuhn believed to be connected to the Ankh? 

Critics may argue that there cannot possibly be any linguistic connection between China and ancient Egypt, and that the name Kung Fu is a Cantonese name (Guangdongwa) and that in Mandarin or Poutongwa the art is typically called WuShu. However, if we accept the possibility that the word Yoga  itself is connected to the concept of the Ankh (and the practice of Yoga can certainly be argued to be related to the concept of "raising the spiritual" in conjunction with the physical), then it certainly seems to be a strong possibility that the practice of Kung Fu is also related to the same concept. And, in fact, there are very strong traditions in China itself that Kung Fu anciently came from India and is indeed related in some ways to the practice of Yoga. It should also be pointed out that technically, the terms Kung Fu (and Yoga) refer to a far broader set of practices and disciplines than they are popularly understood to mean (those terms are traditionally applied to a whole set of other forms of "work" or "discipline" than just to fighting movements or yoga asanas, in other words).

Other names which fit Alvin Boyd Kuhn's thesis include Angola in Africa, the name of which country is apparently derived from the title given to the kings who ruled in that land, the ngola. Along the same lines, it might even be argued that there could be a connection to the name of the Hmong people, among whom the surname Nguyen is very common. 

Another, much more amazing connection might be suggested with the civilization of the Inca, whose name can most certainly be argued to have linguistic similarity to the name of the Ankh. Most revealing is the fact that the Inca themselves did not refer to their empire or their people as "the Inca," but that this name is derived (as with the land of Angola) from the name of the kings of that civilization, who were called in their language the Inka. This fact fits the arguments of Alvin Boyd Kuhn perfectly, although to my knowledge he never mentioned it. It would seem to provide strong linguistic support to the enormous piles of other evidence pointing to ancient contact across the oceans (as well as the possibility of an ancient common predecessor civilization predating both -- the two possibilities are not mutually exclusive in this case).

There are no doubt many others which I have not thought of yet, but which you have been yelling at the screen as completely obvious: feel free to share them with me and with others through the medium of Facebook or Twitter (or through your own publication and discussion of this subject, if you have your own blog or other outlet).

And, while remaining alert to the manifestations of the incredibly important Ankh around the world, perhaps it is even more important to consider the message that this ancient sign was intended to convey, and to work to raise and anoint our individual consciousness and individual sovereignty, perhaps through Yoga, or Kung Fu, or some other path . . .

image: Wikimedia commons (link).