Le Secret

The Sons of God

2007-01-01T15:59:00.000+08:00

Winged Disk, Persepolis, Iran

The Sons of God

(1) The Sumerian Watchers

"...Man and his early civilizations had a profoundly different mentality from our own, that in fact men and women were not conscious as are we, were not responsible for their actions, and therefore cannot be given the credit or blame for anything that was done over these vast millennia of time; that instead each person had a part of his nervous system that was divine, by which he was ordered about like any slave, a voice or voices which indeed were what we call volition and empowered what they commanded and were related to the hallucinated voices of others in a carefully established hierarchy."
"...The astonishing consistency from Egypt to Peru, from Ur to Yucatan, wherever civilizations arose, of death practices and idolatry, of divine government and hallucinated voices, all are witness to the idea of a different mentality than our own."
"The gods were in no sense 'figments of the imagination' of anyone. They were man's volition. They occupied his nervous system, probably his right hemisphere, and from stores of admonitory and receptive experience, transmuted this experience into articulated speech which then 'told' the man what to do."

"Throughout Mesopotamia, from the earliest times of Sumer and Akkad, all lands were owned by gods and men were their slaves. Of this, the cuneiform texts leave no doubt whatever. Each city-state had its own principal god, and the king was described in the very earliest written documents that we have as 'the tenant farmer of the god'."
- Julian Jaynes, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

"... The Akkadians called their predecessors Shumerians, and spoke of the Land of Shumer.
"It was, in fact, the biblical Land of Shin'ar. It was the land whose name - Shumer - literally meant the Land of the Watchers. It was indeed the Egyptian Ta Neter - Land of the Watchers, the land from which the gods had come to Egypt."
- Zecharia Sitchin, The Stairway to Heaven

"It was from that planet [Nibiru], the Sumerian texts repeatedly and persistently stated, that the Anunnaki came to Earth. The term literally means 'Those Who from Heaven to Earth Came.' They are spoken of in the Bible as the Anakim, and in Chapter 6 of Genesis are also call Nefilim, which in Hebrew means the same thing: Those Who Have Come Down, from the Heavens to Earth."
- Zecharia Sitchin, Genesis Revisited

"The Anakim may have been Mycenaean Greek colonists, belonging to the 'Sea Peoples' confederation which caused Egypt such trouble in the fourteenth century B.C. Greek mythographers told of a Giant Anax ('king'), son of Heaven and Mother Earth, who ruled Anactoria (Miletus) in Asia Minor. According to Appollodorus, the disinterred skeleton of Asterius ('starry'), Anax's successor, measured ten cubits. Akakes, the plural of Nanx, was an epithet of the Greek gods in general. Talmudic commentators characteristically make the Anakim three thousand cubits tall."
- Robert Graves and Raphael Patai, Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis

(2) The Egyptian Ntr

There is archaeological evidence of a strong cultural connection between Sumer and ancient Egypt.

"Ptah and the other gods were called, in Egyptian, Ntr - 'Guardian, Watcher'."
- Zecharia Sitchin, The Wars of Gods and Men

During the fabled "First Time, Zep Tepi, when the gods ruled in their country: they said it was a golden age during which the waters of the abyss receded, the primordial darkness was banished, and humanity, emerging into the light, was offered the gifts of civilization. They spoke also of intermediaries between gods and men - the Urshu, a category of lesser divinities whose title meant 'the Watchers'. And they preserved particularly vivid recollections of the gods themselves, puissant and beautiful beings called the Neteru who lived on earth with humankind and exercised their sovereignty from Heliopolis and other sanctuaries up and down the Nile. Some of these Neteru were male and some female but all possessed a range of supernatural powers which included the ability to appear, at will, as men or women, or as animals, birds, reptiles, trees or plants. Paradoxically, their words and deeds seem to have reflected human passions and preoccupations. Likewise, although they were portrayed as stronger and more intelligent than humans, it was believed that they could grow sick - or even die, or be killed - under certain circumstance."
- Graham Hancock, Fingerprints of the Gods

"'Deliver thou the scribe Nebseni, whose word is truth, from the Watchers, who carry murderous knives, who possess cruel fingers, and who would slay those who are in the following of Osiris.'
May these Watchers never gain the mastery over me, and may I never fall under their knives!'
"Who are these Watchers?
"'They are Anubis and Horus, [the latter being] in the form of Horus the sightless. Others, however, say that they are the Tchatcha (sovereign princes of Osiris), who bring to nought the operations of their knives; and others say that they are the chiefs of the Sheniu chamber.
'May their knives never gain the mastery over me. May I never fall under the knives wherewith they inflict cruel tortures. For I know their names, and I know the being, Matchet, who is among them in the House of Osiris. He shooteth forth rays of light from his eye, being himself invisible, and he goeth round about heaven robed in the flames which come from his mouth, commanding Hapi, but remaining invisible himself. May I be strong on earth before Ra, may I arrive safely in the presence of Osiris. O ye who preside over your altars, let not your offerings to me be wanting, for I am one of those who follow after Nebertcher, according to the writings of Khepera. Let me fly like a hawk, let me cackle like a goose, let me lay always like the serpent-goddess Neheb-ka.'"
- The Egyptian Book of the Dead

"They had come to Egypt, the Egyptians wrote, from Ta-Ur, the 'Far/Foreign Land,' whose name Ur meant 'oldest' but could have also been the actual place name - a place will known from Mesopotamian and biblical records: the ancient city of Ur in southern Mesopotamia. And the straits of the Red Sea, which connected Mesopotamia and Egypt, were called Ta-Neter, the 'Place of the Gods,' the passage by which they had come to Egypt. That the earliest gods did come from the biblical lands of Shem is additionally borne out by the puzzling fact that the names of these olden gods were of 'Semitic' (Akkadian) derivation. Thus Ptah, which had no meaning in Egyptian, meant 'he who fashioned things by carving and opening up' in the Semitic tongues."
- Zecharia Sitchin, The Wars of Gods and Men

"The Legend of Votan, who had built the first city that was the cradle of Mesoamerican civilization, was written down by Spanish chroniclers from oral Mayan traditions. The emblem of Votan, they recorded, was the serpent; 'he was a descendant of the Guardians, of the race of Can'. 'Guardians' was the meaning of the Egyptian term Neteru (i.e., 'gods'). Can, studies such as that by Zelia Nuttal (Papers of the Peabody Museum) have suggested was a variant of Canaan who was (according to the Bible) a member of the Hamitic peoples of Africa and a brother-nation of the Egyptians."
- Zecharia Sitchin, When Time Began

(3) Bene Elohim

Note that plural gods elohim' appears in the earliest Hebrew texts, even though it is translated as God (El) in modern texts.

"...The sons of gods (bene ha-elohim') saw the daughters of men that they were fair..."
- Genesis 6:2a

"The sons of God (or children of God; 'bene elohim' and variants) are divine members of God's heavenly host...The title 'sons/children of God' is familiar from Ugaritic mythology, in which the gods collectively are the 'children of El'...The sons/children of God are also found in Phoenician and Ammonite inscriptions, referring to the pantheon of sub-ordinate deities, indicating that the term was widespread in the West Semitic religions."
- Oxford Companion to the Bible

"The Watchers were "a specific race of divine beings known in Hebrew as nun resh 'ayin, 'irin' (resh 'ayin, 'ir' in singular), meaning 'those who watch' or 'those who are awake', which is translated into Greek as Egrhgoroi egregoris or grigori, meaning 'watchers'. These Watchers feature in the main within the pages of pseudepigraphal and apocryphal works of Jewish origin, such as the Book of Enoch and the Book of Jubilees. Their progeny, according to Hebrew tradition, are named as nephilim, a Hebrew word meaning 'those who have fallen' or 'the fallen ones', translated into Greek as gigantez, gigantes, or 'giants' - a monstrous race featured in the Theogony of the hellenic writer Hesiod (c. 907 BC)."
- Andrew Collins, From the Ashes of Angels - The Forbidden Legacy of a Fallen Race (1996) p. 3

"The statement (Gen. 6:1) that the 'sons of God' married the daughters of men is explained of the fall of the angels, in Enoch, vi-xi, and codices, D, E F, and A of the Septuagint read frequently, for 'sons of God', oi aggeloi tou qeou ['angels of God']. Unfortunately, codices B and C are defective in Ge., vi, but it is probably that they, too, read oi aggeloi in this passage, for they constantly so render the expression 'sons of God'; cf. Job i, 6; ii, 1; xxxviii, 7; but on the other hand, see Ps. ii, 1; lxxxviii, & (Septuagint). Philo, in commenting on the passage in his treatise 'Quod Deus sit immutabilis', i, follows the Septuagint."
- Hugh Pope, The Catholic Encyclopedia

"Angels came late into Jewish theology, generally from the non-Jewish myths of the East. The early books of the Bible speak of some vague heavenly beings called malochim (singular, malach). Although malach is usually translated angel, its literal meaning is messenger."
- Harry Gersh, The Sacred Books of the Jews

"The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur."
- Genesis 16:7

"At first the angels are regarded in quite an impersonal way (Gen. xvi, 7).They are God's vice-regents and are often identified with the Author of their message (Gen. xlviii, 15-16). But while we read of 'the Angels of God' meeting Jacob (Gen. xxxii, 1) we at other times read of one who is termed 'the Angel of God' par excellence, e.g. Gen., xxxi, 11."
- Hugh Pope, The Catholic Encyclopedia

"But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, 'Abraham! Abraham!'"
- Genesis 22:11

"It is true that, owing to the Hebrew idiom, this may mean no more than 'an angel of God', and the Septuagint renders it with or without the article at will; yet the three visitors at Mambre seem to have been of different ranks, though St. Paul (Heb. xiii, 2) regarded them all as equally angels; as the story in Ge. xiii, develops, the speaker is always 'the Lord'. Thus in the account of the Angel of the Lord who visited Gideon (Judges vi), the visitor is alternately spoken of as 'the Angel of the Lord' and as 'the Lord'. Similarly, in Judges xiii, the Angel of the Lord appears...."
- Hugh Pope, The Catholic Encyclopedia

"Then Manoah took a young goat, together with the grain offering, and sacrificed it on a rock to the LORD. And the LORD did an amazing thing while Manoah and his wife watched: As the flame blazed up from the altar toward heaven, the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame. Seeing this, Manoah and his wife fell with their faces to the ground. When the angel of the LORD did not show himself again to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realized that it was the angel of the LORD.
'We are doomed to die!' he said to his wife. 'We have seen God!'"
- Judges 13:19-22

"This want of clearness is particularly apparent in the various accounts of the Angel of Exodus. In Judges vi, just now referred to, the Septuagint is very careful to render the Hebrew 'Lord' by 'the Angel of the Lord'; but in the story of the Exodus it is the Lord who goes before them in the pillar of a cloud (Exod. xiii 21), and the Septuagint makes no change (cf. also Num. xiv, 14, and Neh. ix, 7-20."
- Hugh Pope, The Catholic Encyclopedia

"By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night."
- Exodus 13:21

"Yet in Exod. xiv, 19, their guide is termed 'the Angel of God. When we turn to Exod., xxxiii, where God is angry with His people for worshipping the golden calf, it is hard not to feel that it is God Himself who has hitherto been their guide, but who now refuses to accompany them any longer. God offers an angel instead, but at Moses's petition He says (14) 'My face shall go before thee', which the Septuagint reads by autoV though the following verse shows that this rendering is clearly impossible, for Moses objects: 'If Thou Thyself dost not go before us, bring us not out of this place.' But what does God mean by 'my face'? Is it possible that some angel of specially high rank is intended, as in Is. lxiii, 9 (cf. Tobias xii, 15)? May not this be what is meant by 'the Angel of God' (cf. Num. xx, 16)?"
- Hugh Pope, The Catholic Encyclopedia

"He [the Lord] said, 'Surely they are my people, sons who will not be false to me'; and so he became their Savior. In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. So he turned and became their enemy and he himself fought against them."
- Isaiah 63:9-10

"The Massoretic text as well as the Vulgate of Exod. iii and xix-xx clearly represent the Supreme Being as appearing to Moses in the bush and on Mount Sinai; but the Septuagint version, while agreeing that it was God Himself who gave the Law, yet makes it 'the angel of the Lord' who appeared in the bush."
- Hugh Pope, The Catholic Encyclopedia

"There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. Moses thought, 'I will go over and see this strange sight--why the bush does not burn up.'
When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, 'Moses! Moses!'"
- Exodus 3:2-4a

"By New Testament times the Septuagint view has prevailed, and it is now not merely in the bush that the angel of the Lord, and not God Himself appears, but the angel is also the Giver of the Law (cf. Gal. iii, 19; Heb. ii, 2; Acts vii, 30)."
- Hugh Pope, The Catholic Encyclopedia

"The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator"
- Galatians 3:19c

"The person of 'the angel of the Lord' finds a counterpart in the personification of Wisdom in the Sapiential books and in at least one passage (Zach. iii, 1) it seems to stand for that 'Son of Man' whom Daniel (vii, 13) saw brought before 'the Ancient of Days'. Zacharias says: 'And the Lord showed me Jesus the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan stood on His right hand to be His adversary'."
- Hugh Pope, The Catholic Encyclopedia

Unlike the "messengers" who could be mistaken for humans in the Book of Genesis, Daniel's angel was resplendent in its divinity.

"I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen, with a belt of the finest gold around his waist.waist. His body was like chrysolite, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude. I, Daniel, was the only one who saw the vision; the men with me did not see it, but such terror overwhelmed them that they fled and hid themselves."
- Daniel 10:5-7

"Later Biblical books developed the idea of malochim [messengers], but it wasn't until the Book of Daniel, written in the second century BC, that some of these heavenly creatures were given names. Daniel mentions Gabriel (geber is man, El is God) and Michael. The later non-canonical books built a whole hierarchy of angels, headed by Metatron, prince of the heavenly hosts."
- Harry Gersh, The Sacred Books of the Jews

"In the Hebrew writings, the term 'Heavenly Hosts' includes not only the counselors and emissaries of Jehovah, but also the celestial luminaries; and the stars, imagined in the East to be animated intelligences, presiding over human weal and woe, are identified with the more distinctly impersonated messengers or angels, who execute the Divine decrees, and whose predominance in heaven is in mysterious correspondence and relation with the powers and dominions of the earth. In Job, the Morning Stars and the Sons of God are identified; they join in the same chorus of praise to the Almighty; they are both susceptible of joy; they walk in brightness, and are liable to impurity and imperfection in the sight of God."
- General Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma

"He [king Josiah] did away with the pagan priests appointed by the kings of Judah to burn incense on the high places of the towns of Judah and on those around Jerusalem--those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and moon, to the constellations [Mazzaloth] and to all the starry hosts."
- 2 Kings 23:5

"Can you bring forth the constellations [Mazzaloth] in their seasons [a reference to the twelve signs of the Zodiac] or lead out the Bear [Arcturus] with its cubs?"
- Job 38:32

Arcturus is Ursa Major and the three stars in its tail are the cubs.

Click here to learn about the origin of the watchers in the Guardian Stars.

(4) The Apocryphal Tradition

Ca. 150 B.C.E., the author of 1 Enoch wrote of his spell-binding journey to heaven where he saw angels and their glory.

"And these are the names of the holy angels who watch. Uriel, one of the holy angels, who is over the world and over Tartarus. Raphael, one of the holy angels, who is over the spirits of men. Raguel, one of the holy angels who takes vengeance on the world of the luminaries. Michael, one of the holy angels, to wit, he that is set over the best part of mankind and over chaos. Saraqael, one of the holy angels, who is set over the spirits, who sin in the spirit. Gabriel, one of the holy angels, who is over Paradise and the serpents and the Cherubim. Remiel, one of the holy angels, whom God set over those who rise."
- 1 Enoch 20:1-8

Essene proselytes swore to "preserve the books belonging to their sect, and the names of the angels." (Flavius Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Bk 2, Ch 8, Sn 7). The First Book of Enoch was the first piece of Jewish literature to describe a class of angels, the Watchers, who are positively evil and who lead the dead to a place of eternal torment.

"And all the angels shall execute their commandst
And shall seek to hide themselves from the presence of the Great Glory,
And the children of earth shall tremble and quake;
And ye sinners shall be cursed for ever,
And ye shall have no peace."
- 1 Enoch 102:3

The Book of Jubilees "was also known in early times as the Apocalypse of Moses, for it allegedly was written down by Moses at Mount Sinai as an angel dictated to him the histories of days past. (Scholars, though, believe that the work was composed in the second century BC)."
- Zecharia Sitchin, The Stairway to Heaven

"For in his days the angels of the Lord descended upon earth - those who are named The Watchers - that they should instruct the children of men, that they should do judgment and uprightness upon earth."
- The Book of Jubilees

"According to the Book of Jubilees, the Watchers are the sons of god (Genesis 6) sent from heaven to instruct the children of men; they fell after they descended to earth and cohabited with the daughters of men - for which act they were condemned (so legend reports) and became fallen angels. But not all Watchers descended: those that remained are the holy Watchers, and they reside in the 5th Heaven. The evil Watchers dwell either in the 3rd Heaven or in Hell."
- A Dictionary of Angels

"Several fragments with a clear Qumranic cast (4Q286-287, 4Q385-389, 4Q390...) parallel Belial with the angels of MA&+EMOWT ('enmity'), while Jubilees introduces Mastema/Satan into its story of the spirits of the giants, the offspring of the fallen Watchers (Jubilees 10:8,11; see also 11:5,11; 17:16; 18:9,12; 19:28; 48:2,9,12,15). Note that according to Jubilees, the angels of MA&+EMOWT would be the spirits of the giants, the offspring of the angel marriages, one tenth of whom become the servants of Mastema in leading astray and punishing humanity, while 4Q390 makes them the ones responsible for inspiring the sons of Aaron to pollute the Temple through illegitimate marriages and violence."
- David W. Suter, Ioudaios Review, Vol. 3.019, July 1993

"According to the Book of Jubilees, Enoch...testified about the Watchers who had sinned with the daughters of men; he testified against them all." And it was to protect him from the revenge of the sinning angels of the Lord, that 'he was taken from amongst the children of men, and was conducted into the Garden of Eden."
- Zecharia Sitchin, The Stairway to Heaven

"And I Enoch was blessing the Lord of majesty and the King of the ages, and lo! the Watchers called me -Enoch the scribe- and said to me: 'Enoch, thou scribe of righteousness, go, declare to the Watchers of the heaven who have left the high heaven, the holy eternal place, and have defiled themselves with women, and have done as the children of earth do, and have taken unto themselves wives: "Ye have wrought great destruction on the earth: And ye shall have no peace nor forgiveness of sin: and inasmuch as they delight themselves in their children, The murder of their beloved ones shall they see, and over the destruction of their children shall they lament, and shall make supplication unto eternity, but mercy and peace shall ye not attain".'"
- 1 Enoch 10:3-8

As recounted in the Dead Sea Scrolls:
"...'In the days of Jared', two hundred Watchers 'descended' on 'Ardis', the summit of Mount Hermon - a mythical location equated with the triple peak of Jebel esh Sheikh (9,200 feet), placed in the most northerly region of ancient Palestine. In Old Testament times its snowy heights had been revered as sacred by various peoples who inhabited the Holy Land; it was also the probable site of the Transfiguration of Christ when the disciples witnessed their Lord 'transfigured before them'.

"On this mountain the Watchers swear an oath and bind themselves by 'mutual imprecations', apparently knowing full well the consequences their actions will have both for themselves and for humanity as a whole. It is a pact commemorated in the name given to the place of their 'fall', for in Hebrew the word Hermon, or harem, translates as 'curse'. "
- Andrew Collins, From the Ashes of Angels - The Forbidden Legacy of a Fallen Race (1996) pp. 23-24

"In time, each of the 200 took an earthly spouse. These unions produced children of extraordinary size, who quickly devoured the world's food. To satisfy their enormous appetites, the angel-children roamed the earth, slaughtering every species of bird, beast, reptile and fish. Finally, the ravenous creatures turned on one another, stripping flesh from the bones of their fellows and slaking their thirst in rivers of blood. As this wave of destruction washed over the earth, the anguished cries of humankind reached four powerful archangels - Uriel, Raphael, Gabriel, and Michael - who upon orders from God enacted a swift retribution. First Uriel descended to earth to warn Noah of a coming deluge, advising him to prepare an ark to carry his family and a menagerie of creatures to safety. Raphael then fell upon the leader of the Watchers, bound him hand and foot, and thrust him into eternal darkness. Next, Gabriel charged with slaying the dissenters' offspring, encouraged the monstrous angel-children to fight one another. Finally, Michael trussed up the remaining Watchers, forced them to witness the deaths of their progeny, and condemned them to eternal torment. Only then did the heavens open up and wash away the last traces of the destruction that the fallen angels had wrought."
- Cosmic Duality

"Other Watchers stand accused of revealing to mortal kind the knowledge of more scientific arts, such as the knowledge of the clouds, or meteorology; the 'signs of the earth', presumably geodesy and geography; as well as astronomy and the 'signs', or passage, of the celestial bodies, such as the sun and moon. Shemyaza [the leader of the Watchers] is accredited with having taught men 'enchantments, and root-cuttings', a reference to the magical arts...One of their number, Penemue, taught 'the bitter and the sweet', surely a reference to the use of herbs and spices in foods, while instructing men on the use of 'ink and paper', implying that the Watchers introduced the earliest forms of writing. Far more disturbing is Kisdeja, who is said to have shown 'the children of men all the wicked smitings of spirits and demons, and the smitings of the embryo in the womb, that it may pass away'. In other words, he taught women how to abort their babies."
- Andrew Collins, From the Ashes of Angels - The Forbidden Legacy of a Fallen Race (1996) p. 26

"I saw Watchers in my vision, the dream-vision. Two (men) were fighting over me, saying...and holding a great contest over me. I asked them, 'Who are you, that you are thus empo[wered over me?' They answered me, 'We] [have been em]powered and rule over all mankind'. They said to me, 'Which of us do yo[u choose to rule (you)?' I raised my eyes and looked.] [One] of them was terri]fying in his appearance, [like a s]erpent, [his] cl[oa]k many-colored yet very dark...[And I looked again], and...in his appearance, his visage like a viper, and [wearing...] [exceedingly, and all his eyes...]"
"[I replied to him,] 'This [Watcher,] so is he?' He answered me, 'This Wa[tcher...] [and his three names are Belial and Prince of Darkness] and King of Evil.'"
- "Testament of Amram" (4Q535, Manuscript B)

One by one the angels of heaven are appointed by God to proceed against the Watchers and their offspring the Nephilim, described as 'the bastards and the reprobates, and the children of fornication'. Azazel is bound hand and foot, and cast for eternity into the darkness of a desert referred to as Dudael. Upon him are placed 'rough and jagged rocks' and here he shall forever remain until the Day of judgment, when he will be 'cast into the fire' for his sins. For their part in the corruption of mankind, the Watchers are forced to witness the slaughter of their own children before being cast into some kind of heavenly prison, an 'abyss of fire'. Although the Watchers' leader, Shemyaza, is cast into this abyss alongside his brothers, in other versions of the story he undergoes a more dramatic punishment. Since he was tempted by a beautiful mortal maiden named Ishtahar to reveal the Explicit Name of God in exchange for the offer of carnal pleasure, he is to be tied and bound before being made to hang for all eternity between heaven and earth, head down, in the constellation of Orion."
- Andrew Collins, From the Ashes of Angels - The Forbidden Legacy of a Fallen Race (1996) p. 26

"These spirits were locked away in the earth, but Mastema persuaded God to keep out one in ten to tempt humanity until the judgement and to commit all forms of transgression.
"In the Day of Judgement all such spirits will be consigned to eternal torment and humanity renewed in spirit back to the generations of Adam:

'And the days will begin to grow many and increase amongst the children of men till their days draw night to a thousand years ...
And there will be no old man ...For all will be as children and youths.'

"The Tree of Life, fragrant and wonderful to behold will be returned to the centre ground, and the New Jerusalem will be built by God - just as later described in Revelation."
- Chris King, "The Apocalyptic Tradition"

"The corruption still left in the world after the imprisonment of the Watchers, and the death of their Nephilim offspring, is to be swept away by a series of global catastrophes, ending in the Great Flood so familiar within biblical traditions. In a separate account of the plight of the Nephilim, this mass-destruction is seen in terms of an all-encompassing conflagration sent by the angels of heaven in the form of 'fire, naphtha and brimstone'. No one will survive these cataclysms of fire and water save for the 'seed' of Noah, from whose line will come the future human race."
- Andrew Collins, From the Ashes of Angels - The Forbidden Legacy of a Fallen Race (1996) p. 28

"And now, the giants, who are produced from the spirits and flesh, shall be called evil spirits upon the earth, and on the earth shall be their dwelling. Evil spirits have proceeded from their bodies; because they are born from men and from the holy Watchers is their beginning and primal origin; they shall be evil spirits on earth, and evil spirits shall they be called. [As for the spirits of heaven, in heaven shall be their dwelling, but as for the spirits of the earth which were born upon the earth, on the earth shall be their dwelling.] And the spirits of the giants afflict, oppress, destroy, attack, do battle, and work destruction on the earth, and cause trouble: they take no food, but nevertheless hunger and thirst, and cause offenses. And these spirits shall rise up against the children of men and against the women, because they have proceeded from them."
- 1 Enoch 8-12

"The explanation of this myth, which has been a stumbling block to theologians, may be the arrival in Palestine of tall, barabarous Hebrew herdsmen early in the second millenium B.C., and their exposure, by marriage, to Asianic civilization. 'Sons of El' in this sense would mean the 'cattle-owning worshipper of the Semite Bull-god El'; 'Daughters of Adam' would mean 'women of the soil' (adama), namely, the Goddess- worshipping Canaanite agriculturists, notorious for their orgies and premarital prostitution. If so, this historical event has been tangled with the Ugaritic myth how El seduced two mortal women and fathered divine sons on them, namely Shahar ('Dawn') and Shalem ('Perfect'). Shahar appears as a winged deity in Psalm CXXXIX:9, and his son, according to Isaiah XIV:12, was the fallen angel Helel. Unions between gods and mortals, that is to say between kings or queens and commoners, occur frequently in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern myth. Since later Judaism rejected all deities but its own transcendental God, and since He never married or consorted with any female whatsoever, Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai in Genesis Rabba felt obliged to curse all who read 'Sons of God' in the Ugartic sense. Clearly, such an interperetation was still current in the second century A.D., and lapsed only when Bene Elohim meant 'God' and Judge,' the theory being that when a duly appointed magistrate tried a case, the Spirit of El posessed him: 'I have said, ye are gods.' (Psalm LXXXII:6)"
- Robert Graves and Raphael Patai, Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis

Jewish religious authorities, concerned that the growing worship of angels would be a threat to the belief in one God, excised works like those of the Books of Enoch and the Book of Jubilees from canonical literature. These books are now part of what is known as the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha.
The mysterious "egregors" of later magical tradition are linguistically derived from the Watchers and indicate the continuation of an underground stream of knowledge.

The Sefirot

2007-01-01T15:55:00.000+08:00

"Tree of Life" from the Latin translation of Joseph Gikatilla's Gates of Light (1516)

The Sefirot

The Tree of Life

(1) The Ten Spheres

"And the Lord God said, 'Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:'
Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
So he drove out the man; and he placed at the East of the garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life."
- Genesis 3:23-25

"The Tree of Life was a Babylonian concept, and as represented in carvings it does not look particularly like a tree at all. It was shown as a series of leafy rosettes, arranged and construction in a strange [lattice] pattern...To the Babylonians, it was a tree with magical fruit, which could only be picked by the gods. Dire consequences befell any mortal who dared to pluck form its. The tree found its way into the Hebrew legend of Adam and Eve...which is heavily loaded with allusions of the Ancient of Days. Recent works on the Kabbalah make extensive use of this tree. Ten parts or attributes of the Ancient of Days are identified with ten of the rosettes..."
- George Sassoon and Rodney Dale, The Manna Machine

"An important early text used in that study was the Sefer Yetsirah (Book of Creation), which appeared sometime between the third and sixth centuries AD. In its pages, initiates discovered an expanded theory of the creation of the universe."
- Ancient Wisdom and Secret Sects

"According to the Sefer Yezira, the spiritual world consisted of ten spheres, the Sefirot is a term related to the Hebrew word Sappir, loosely translated as 'sapphire' and interpreted as the radiance of God.) Each of the sefirot represented a different force or aspect of God, such as love, power, or understanding. These aspects were said to have emanated, or unfolded from God, and as the sefirot embodied all aspects of creation, generation, and decay, they represented the universe itself unfolding."
- Ancient Wisdom and Secret Sects

"The ten circles are known as sephiroth, the plural of sephira, meaning a number. They are interconnected in various ways....Each connection is identified with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and with one of the twenty-two trumps major of the Tarot, the pack of cards used by some fortune tellers. It is believed that the sephiroth exercise a mystical influence on one another via these connections.
- George Sassoon and Rodney Dale, The Manna Machine

The ten spheres are: "the spirit, air, water, fire, the four cardinal points of the compass, height and depth. These ten are all emanations from God: the crown, the wisdom, the intelligence, the love, the power, the compassion, the steadfastness, the majesty, the foundation and the kingdom. They are linked together as a vital organism, like a tree whose root is the Infinite, with the kingdom as the trunk, the foundation as the point from which the branches begin to spread, the compassion (or beauty) at the center and the crown at the top. They are the names which God gave to Himself and which make up the one great Name."
- John Ferguson, An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Mysticism and the Mystery Religions

The Sefirot

"The ten sephirot were arranged in a rigid hierarchy, and each lower sephirah grew out of the one immediately above; that is, the second ranking sephirah grew out of the first, the third out of the second, etc. Thus the first sephirah had all the powers of the sephirot under him; the second had its own power plus all the powers of the succeeding eight, and so on. They were:
1. Kether (Crown), also called the Simple Point, because this initial and paramount sephirah was unknown and all-embracing. Kether was known familiar as the Old One, the Ancient of Days (from Daniel 7:9), the White head, or the Long Face.
2. Hochmah (Wisdom) was also known as Aba (Father) and was the masculine outgrowth of the Ancient One.
3. Binah (Understanding or Intelligence), the highest feminine emanation in the order of sephirot, also known as Ima (Mother).
4. Hesed (Kindness) is also called Gedulah (Greatness) and is masculine.
5. Geburah (Power) is also called Din (Justice) and is feminine.
6. Tipheret (Glory or Beauty) [also called Rahamin] is both masculine and feminine because it is a combination of Hesed and Geburah.
7. Netzah (Firmness, Might, Victory) is masculine.
8. Hod (Splendor) is feminine.
9. Yesod (Foundation) combines Netzah and Hod.
10. Malkut (Kingdom) has no special attributes but is a kind of funnel through which the qualities of the upper nine sephirot are transmitted to the physical world. It is therefore also called Shechinah, the Spirit of God."

"The first nine sephirot were grouped in threes, each triad including a masculine element, a feminine element, and a combining element. The first three sephirot represented the world of thought; the second, the world of emotions and morals; the third, the world of nature. The tenth sephirah, Malkut, existed alone as the harmony of the other nine.
"This triune was paralleled by the Kaballists' version of the three-part soul - an idea expressed earlier by Plato, Aristotle, the Bible, and the Talmud. The soul called Neshamah represented the intellect and corresponded to the first three sephirot. The soul called Ruah represented the emotion and corresponded to the Hesed-Geburah-Tipheret triad. The soul called Nefesh represented man's animal nature and corresponded to the lowest triad of sephirot."
- Harry Gersh, The Sacred Books of the Jews

"...The 'true' universe consists of the En Sof (literally the infinite or the incomprehensible), which is the spiritual universe. The spiritual universe is inseparable from God, and has no beginning and no end (unlike the physical universe). God has many characteristics, but they can be logically separated into ten groupings. When these characteristics are all present in a particular 'region,' that region is perfect. However, God has several times removed certain characteristics from a point in the En Sof (the act is called tzimtzum , contraction) thus creating a point of imperfection wherein a physical universe can exist.
Our current universe is not believed to be the first, but it may be the longest-lived. It was created by removing Law from a point and filling the 'vacuum' with Kindness. This was necessary for it was God's desire to give Man free will or the power to decide good or evil, and this would not be possible if Divine Law permeated the universe. The act of creation itself was accomplished through ten emanations (esher sephirot in Hebrew ) .... First, Keter (Crown) was emanated as a projection of En Sof into the physical universe. From this sphere of emanation came Khokhmah (Intelligence), called the father."
- Simcha Kuritzky, "Kabbalistic Magic" Part I

(2) Da'ath

Da'ath is "the secret sphere of Knowledge on the cosmic tree."
- Perle Epstein, Kabbalah - The Way of the Jewish Mystic

"...The essential and incorruptible unity of the Sefiroth is revealed not only by their reciprocal 'relationships', which are concentrated in the 'middle pillar' [of the Tree], but also by their common light which 'circulated' in the 'channels' of these relationships and is called da'ath, 'knowledge'. This refers to the omniscience or universal consciousness of God which, properly speaking, is not a Sefirah, but the cognitive presence of the One in each of them."
- Leo Schaya, The Universal Meaning of the Kabbalah

"And by da'ath the rooms [or spiritual 'receptivities'] are filled with all precious and pleasant [Sephirothic] riches."
- Proverbs 24:5

Da'ath: the mysterious knowledge, the great abyss

"Unlike the sephirah which represent states of mind rather than static placements, and the paths of lessons learned to move from one sephirah or concept to another, Da'ath is not represented upon the Qabalah tree. It is placed below the three supernal sephirah - Kether (the crown), Binah (+) and Chokmah (-). The polarities of positive and negative alternate up and down the tree and cause the energies to circulate as the universal input is pulled downward through the tree supernal sephirah to Da'ath. In this void between the higher and the lower the hither to formless energy of the universe takes on material shape by crystallization. Here is the highest point of the human mind: the home of the brainstorm or creative energy that is brought into manifestation on the earthly plain. As the sand passes through the narrow center of the hour glass, so does knowledge incoming from the universe pass into our consciousness in the machinery of Da'ath. Here is the ultimate home of intuitive knowledge from which all concepts stem.

"When working with the tree either to call down the greater knowledge of the superhuman universe and its infinite organization, or to bring our self up the tree from the lower sephirah for spiritual upliftment and higher perspective, all energy must pass through Da'ath on its way into matter or disintegration into the hypertext of the universe. Thus the term mysterious knowledge is given to Da'ath where wisdom (Chokmah) is combined with understanding (Binah) and melded to the material level through the influence of Tiphareth (sixth sephirah: balanced harmony), which pervades one's soul with the concealed light of illumination of consciousness."

Suggested reading: The Mystical Qabalah, by Dion Fortune: Aquarian Thorsons: imprint Harper Collins
- Special commentary by Rebecca Salem

In the 17th century, Nathan of Gaza, "circulated a curious document, the Sepher ha-Sha'are ha-Daath. He described this as a commentary on two chapters of the Book of the Alhazred, an ancient history of the world. The title means the "Book of the Gates of Knowledge". The word for knowledge, da'ath, has a technical meaning. When the Bible was translated into Greek, the word da'ath was translated as gnosis. Da'ath has a very peculiar status in Kabbalah, being a kind of non-existent, a nothingness. In modern Hermetic Kabbalah it is sometimes represented a hole or gate into an abyss of consciousness. Crowley's experiments with the Call of the Thirty Aethyrs led him into this abyss."
- Colin Low, Necronomicon FAQ
(Compiled from The Book of the Arab, by Justin Geoffry, Starry Wisdom Press, 1979)

"When Malkuth ['Kingdom'] 'fell' out of the Garden of Eden it left behind a 'hole' in the fabric of the Tree, and this 'hole', located in the centre of the Abyss, is called Da'ath, or Knowledge. Da'ath is not a sephira; it is a hole."
- Colin Low, "Notes on the Kabbalah"

"DA'ATH - Knowledge - is not a Sephira. It is not on the Tree of Life: that is, there is in reality no such thing....Da'ath is the crown of the Ruach, the Intellect; and its place is in the Abyss. That is it breaks into pieces immediately it is examined."
- Aleister Crowley, Little Essays Toward Truth

"Where the word [;Da'ath] appears in Genesis it is translated into Greek as 'gnosis'. When Adam knew Eve, the word used was based on the same verb root as the word Da'ath. In traditional Kabbalah Da'ath never made it as a proper sephiroth (as Sepher Yetzirah puts it, there could only be "ten and not nine; ten and not eleven", and so the eleventh quality on the kabbalistic Tree of Life has developed a mystique that comes from being unlike the others. As the sephiroth represent emantations of the divine in creation, Da'ath has progressively taken on the quality of an anti-emanation. It is difficult to place exactly in time the point at which this attribution began to find real coherence. In a book on Kabbalah published in 1965 the author Gareth Knight attributes to Da'ath the Roman god Janus, the two-faced god of portals who is forever looking two ways. However, some of the most vivid depictions of Da'ath as gateway were introduced in the mid 1970s in the writings of the British magician (and joint biographer of Crowley) Kenneth Grant."
- Colin Low, "Dr. John Dee, the Necronomicon & the Cleansing of the World - A Gnostic Trail"

"Da'ath has a dual aspect; on one hand it is our knowledge of the world of appearance, the body of facts which constitute our beliefs and prop up the illusion of identity and ego and separateness. On the other hand it is revelation, objective knowledge, what is often referred to as gnosis. The transition between the knowledge of the world of appearance and revelation entails the experience of the abyss, the abolition of the sense of ego, the negation of identity. From within the abyss any identity is possible. It is chaos, unformed. It contains, as it were, the seeds of identity. It is from this point that an infinity of gates open, each one a gateway to a mode of being. These are what Nathan is referring to as the "Gates of Knowledge."
- Colin Low, Necronomicon FAQ
(Compiled from The Book of the Arab, by Justin Geoffry, Starry Wisdom Press, 1979)

The Ancient of Days (detail)
William Blake, 1794

The Ancient of Days

"According to Genesis 1:27, the human being is created in the image of God. The sefirot are the divine original of that image. As Primordial Adam, they are the mythical paragon of the human being, our archetypal nature. The human race has lost this nature, but if one were to purify himself, he would reconnect with the sefirotand become a vessel for them. This is what the Patriarchs attained and, to a greater degree, Moses."
- Arthur Green in the Preface to the Zohar (Daniel Chana Matt Editor)

"The sefirot[emanation of God] below Keter [the top skull], from Hokhmah to Yesod, are referred to as the Impatient One (Ze'eir Appin; literally, 'short-face', but meaning 'short-tempered, impatient'; cf. Proverbs 14:17) . Keter, the White Head, the highest sefirah, is pure compassion and therefore described as Arikh Anpin, 'long-faced, long-suffering, slow to anger'; cf. Exodus 34:6. The lower sefirotare characterized by a tension between different aspects of the divine: right and left, love and rigor. Relative to Keter, they are impatient."
"Looking back to His source, the Impatient One is soothed and manifests the compassion overflowing from Keter."
- Notes on the Zohar (Daniel Chana Matt Editor)

"When the Blessed Holy One is aroused to delight Himself with the righteous, the Face of the Ancient of Days shines into the face of the Impatient One. Its Forehead is revealed and shines to this forehead. Then it is called 'a time of favor' (Psalms 69:14). Whenever Judgment looms and the forehead of the Impatient One is revealed, the Forehead of the Ancient of Ancients is revealed; Judgment subsides and is not executed."
- Idra Rabba, Zohar 3:136b
"When the desire arose in the the Will of the White Head to manifest Its Glory,
It arrayed, prepared, and generated from the Blinding Flash
one spark, radiating in 370 directions.
The spark stood still.
A pure aura emerged whirling and breathed upon the spark.
The spark congealed and one hard skull emerged, emanating to four sides.
Surrounded by this pure aura, the spark was contained and absorbed.
Completely absorbed, you think?
No, secreted within.
That is how this skull emanated to its sides.
This aura is the secret of secrets of the Ancient of Days.
Through the breath hidden in this skull fire emanated on one side, and air on the other, with the pure aura standing over this side and pure fire over the other.
What is a fire doing here?
It is not fire, but the spark surrounded by the pure aura illuminates 270 worlds,
and from its side, Judgment comes into being.
That is why this skull is called the Hard Skull."
- Zohar

the Will of the White Head
"The White Head is keter, who is pure love and compassion, untainted by judgment...Keter is often called Will."
"The hair on His head was like clean wool."
- Daniel 7:9
the blinding flash
"Aramaic, bozina de-quardinuta/. This is the Zohar's name for the first impulse of emanation proceeding for Ein Sof, the Infinite, through Keter
"The flash directs the entire process of emanation, providing its rhythm and measure. The goal of meditation is to attain this flash and participate in the flow of being."
one spark
"Aramaic, bad nizoza. This is the first point: Hokhmah, Wisdom."
one hard skull
"Binah ["Understanding"], who proceeds from the spark of Hokhmah."
four sides
"The four sides (north, south, east, and west) symbolize four sefirotthat emanate from Binah: Din [Power], Hesed [Love], Tif'eret [Beauty], and Shekbinah [Presence]."
Surrounded by this pure aura
"Hokhmah is absorbed by its source. It does not dissolve there but rather remains hidden and transmits the power of further emanation to Binah."
the breath
"breathed by the aura through the spark of Hokhmah into the skull of Binah."
fire
"Din, (Gevurah), the sefirah of Judgment."
air
"Hesed, Love."
270 worlds Judgment
"Binah, the product of the spark of Hokhmah, is the compassionate Divine Mother. However, She includes within Herself the roots of Judgment and gives birth to Din, the sefirah of Judgment. 270 may be an allusion to ra, 'evil', which has the numerical equivalent of 270."
- Notes on the Zohar (Daniel Chana Matt Editor)

"Spiritual and psychological wholeness is achieved by meditating on the qualities of each sefirah, by imitating and integrating the attributes of God. The path is not easy. Divine will can be harsh: Abraham was commanded to sacrifice Isaac in order to balance love with rigor. From the Other Side, demonic forces threaten and seduce."
"The ecstasy of sefirotic contemplation, however seems reserved mostly for souls who have departed this world or for the high-priest on the Day of Atonement. Souls of the living who succeed in prayer delight in palaces below Shekbinah/ [the opening to the Divine]. If especially devout, they may be raised to the level of Yesod or attain a sefirotic vision, but the highest sefirot are considered unapproachable. In fact the Zohar forbids contemplation of Binah and what lies beyond Her."
- Arthur Green in the Preface to the Zohar (Daniel Chana Matt Editor)

The Zohar

2007-01-01T15:52:00.000+08:00

The Zohar

"The chief expression of the Kabbalah is a work know as the Zohar ('Splendor') which was written as a commentary on the Pentateuch. Though it is ascribed to a rabbi of the second century, the work, in the form in which circulated in the last part of the thirteenth century A.D. was composed only a little earlier than then. Since Kabbalism originated in Europe, chiefly in Provence and Spain, the book can probably be ascribed to Moses de Leon, a native of Granada, who died in 1305."
- Ninian Smart, The Religious Experience of Mankind

"When Moses of Leon sat down to write the Zohar, he had to do it in Aramaic He was claiming that it was a transcript of an ancient manuscript which he had acquired, so he had to use the language of a much earlier period....He had learnt the ancient traditions in Ladino, a Spanish-type language spoken by the Jews of Spain and Portugal, and had to translate them; as a result, there are many Spanish words in the text, and some from other languages as well."
- George Sassoon and Rodney Dale, The Manna Machine

"The Zohar is a mystical novel based on the Torah. Its characters include Rabbi Shim'on and his Comrades, biblical figures, and the sefirot, the various aspects of God's personality."
"Gershom Scholem...sifted the writings of Kabbalists, critics, and scholars. He examined the Zohar'/s language, terminology, ideas, and symbolism in the context of early Kabbalah and medieval Hebrew thought and literature. He explored the literary structure of the Zohar, its fictional format, and historical allusions. [In 1925] Scholem demonstrated that the peculiar Aramaic was constructed from literary sources, particularly the Babylonian Talmud and Targum Onqelos; it contains grammatical errors and medieval Hebraisms. The mystical theosophy of the work proved to be pure thirteenth-century Kabbalah, which derived from medieval Jewish Neoplatonism and Gnosticism."

"Parts of the Zohar may have been composed by automatic writing, a technique that is well attested in the history of mystical literature. Joseph Abulafia, an acquaintance of Moses, possessed 'the writing name' (shem ha-kotev), a holy name that focuses meditation and placed one in a trance in which automatic writings were produced."
"The Zohar's style of commentary embraces the precision of textual analysis and the abandon of contemplative fantasy. Its creativity is motivated both consciously and unconsciously."
- Arthur Green in the Preface to the Zohar (Daniel Chana Matt Editor)

"This manuscript, he [Moses of Leon] said, contained the teachings of a well-known Rabbi, Simon bar Yochai, who lived in about +200. Moses of Leon claimed to have edited the manuscript, and to be publishing it for the first time.....The Zohar was an immediate success. Hand-written copies circulated widely until the invention of printing, and many of them still exist.....After Moses' death, his wife admitted that there had been no manuscript; he had invented the whole story as a device to gain publicity for the book."
"It is clear from the Zohar that Moses of Leon must have been a member of a society known as the Reapers of the Holy Field. there were many such societies, whose purpose was to pass on the secret, traditional knowledge of the Jews, the Oral Law, which was said to have been given by the Lord to Moses on the mountain."
"Modern Masons, like ancient Reapers, spend much time memorizing details of the Ancient of Days."
- George Sassoon and Rodney Dale, The Manna Machine

In the first of the Daniel stories (chapter 7), "Daniel sees four monstrous beasts (four successive kingdoms in Asia), the last of which (Alexander's heirs) is sprouting an eleventh horn (King Antiochus IV). This eleven-horned beast is slain by a deeply significant figure, the 'Ancient of Days', the first passage in scripture [168/7 BC] which envisages God as old and white-haired."
- Robin Lane Fox, The Unauthorized Version

"The Reapers of the Field are the Comrades, masters of this wisdom, because Malkbut Shekhinab [the feminine Divine Presence], is called the Apple Field, and She grows sprouts of secrets and new flowerings of Torah. Those who constantly create new interpretations of Torah are harvesting Her."
- Moses Cordovero, Or ha-Hammab
"Come and see:
Every single day, dew trickles down from the Holy Ancient One to the Impatient One,
and the Orchard of Holy Apple Trees is blessed.
Some of the dew flows to those below;
holy angels are nourished by it, each according to his diet, as it is written: '
A human ate angel bread' (Psalms 78:25)
Israel ate of that food in the desert.
Rabbi Shim'on said 'Some people are nourished by it even now!
Who are they?
The Comrades, who engage Torah day and night.
Do you think they are nourished by that very food?
No, by something like that very food; two balancing one."
- Zohar (Daniel Chana Matt Editor)

the Orchard of Holy Apple Trees Shekhinah . The apple trees are the sefirot from Hesed to Yesod, which fill Her. The image originates in the Talmud as a midrashic comment on Genesis 27:27: 'as the fragrance of a field that YHVH has blessed'."
angel bread Hebrew, lebem ahhirim, 'bread of powerful beings'. The verse describes the manna from heaven. In Talmud, Yoma 75b Rabbi Akiva takes the phrase to mean 'bread that the ministering angels eat'. The Zohar adopts this view and sees the manna as a product of divine emanation..."
The Comrades Aramaic, havrayya, 'companions, colleagues, comrades'; the circle of rabbis who gather around Rabbi Shim'on son of Yohai, the master. They constantly engage Torah, searching for her mystical secrets"
two balancing one The mystical Comrades, striving to attain wisdom, are nourished from the sefirah of Wisdom, Hokhmah, which is higher than heaven (Tif'eret), the source of manna...The food of the Comrades is twice as holy as manna!".
- Notes on the Zohar (Daniel Chana Matt Editor)

"The learned commentators of the Talmud, the Rabbis of the synagogue, explain that the garden of delight, in which those four personages are made to enter, is but that mysterious science, the most terrible of sciences for weak intellects, which it leads to insanity."
- A. Franck, Kabbalah

The Manna Machine

2007-01-01T15:48:00.000+08:00

(1) The Ancient of Days

In the Zohar, two engineers, George Sassoon and Rodney Dale, "found a detailed physical description of a god named the 'Ancient of Days'. The androgynous god consisted of a male part and a female part, which is quite typical of mystery religions. What struck Sassoon and Dale as truly odd about the god was the fact that it appeared to be a god that could be taken to pieces and reassembled."
- Brad Steiger, Worlds Before Our Own

"As described in the texts, the Ancient of Days is a complicated physical structure. Some people think that it may have been an intricately-carved idol, captured from a non-Jewish people, which was kept secret because the Jews did not allow idol worship; others dismiss the whole thing as a fanciful invention."
- George Sassoon and Rodney Dale, The Manna Machine

"The minute details of this procedure caused the two scientists to 'look closely at the texts, uncluttered by peripheral verbiage, and to decide that there was a high probability that they describe not a god but a machine in anthropomorphic terms.'"
- Brad Steiger, Worlds Before Our Own

"I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of is head was like pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from him...and behold, one like the son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days."
- Daniel, 7:9ff

"But what are these wheels? The word used in the Aramaic text of Daniel is GLGLVHI (galgalohi) - his wheels. However, in the Zohar, 'his skulls' is GVLGLVHI (golgalohi), and it sometimes appears without the first 'V', making it identical with the 'wheels' of Daniel. It seems fairly likely, then, that Daniel is taking about skulls not wheels; and in describing his 'vision', he is hinting to those in the know that he possesses the secret knowledge."

"In Aramaic, the title [Ancient of Days] is attik yomin (OThIQ IVMIN), and in Hebrew attik yomim (OThIQ IMIM). The first word comes from the word attak (OThQ), to remove or transport; it is used several times in the Bible, mostly with that meaning. The form attik would then mean 'transporting' or possibly ' that which is transported'."
"The second word in the title is IVMIN or IMIM, supposed to mean '(of the) days'. Now the word IVM, pronounced 'yom', does mean 'day'...But there is another word in Hebrew, IM, pronounced 'yam'. This means 'sea'. In the plural, both words are spelt the same, IMIM. If pronounced 'yomim', this means days, and if 'yamim', seas. From this, we discover that OThIQ IMIM can mean Ancient of Days, but is could also mean Transportable One of the Seas..."
"In the Bible, there are various seas, and the word is also used for what we could called lakes such as the Sea of Galilee. There is also the great Sea, yam rav in Hebrew, the name given to the Mediterranean, which was the largest body of water known to the ancient Israelites. Yam rav was also the 'great sea' of bronze which stood in front of Solomon's Temple (2 Chronicles 4:2ff). This was a large vessel filled with water and used for purification rituals. It appears, therefore, that the word 'sea' in Hebrew can also mean 'a large vessel for containing liquids', or in modern terms, a tank."
- George Sassoon and Rodney Dale, The Manna Machine

"The Ancient of Days consisted principally of three 'skulls', an outer one which contained two others inside it, placed one above the other. In the middle of this arrangement was the 'cardinal lamp', which shone with 'a brightness to exceed all brightnesses'. It has a 'beard', the 'hairs' of which grow out of one part of its 'face' and back in again at other places; there is no mention of a body, but there is a 'strong right arm', there are six feet; and in between them there are two testicles, and a penis. A substance known variously as the 'dew', the 'oil of great goodness' and other terms, ran down from the upper parts of this object, to be stored in the 'testicles' and finally discharged from the 'penis'."
- George Sassoon, "The Ancient of Days: Deity or Manna-Machine"

"According to the traditions, the Ancient One had but a single eye, right in the middle of his head, which shone with a blinding brightness, while the Small-faced One had three eyes, of different colors, which did not shine with their own light. There was no easy way in which the rabbis could reconcile these descriptions with a god-being of reasonably human appearance, and so the texts are full of extraordinary arguments."
- George Sassoon and Rodney Dale, The Manna Machine

"This brain is hollowed out, and (the eye) lights up three whitenesses above the eye."
- Lesser Holy Assembly 116

"The upper eye is also known as the Eye of Providence, and under this name it is frequently mentioned in Masonic rituals."
- George Sassoon and Rodney Dale, The Manna Machine

(2) The Dew Still

"The head which is incomprehensible is secret in secret. But it hath been formed and prepared in the likeness of a cranium, and is filled with the crystalline dew."
- The Book of Concealed Mystery
"Its [the manna's] color was like the color of crystal."
- Numbers 11:7

"When Sassoon and Dale read in one of the texts such passages as the following, they believed the words to be describing a machine for making manna: 'Into the skull...distills the dew from the white head...and from this dew they grind the manna...and the manna did not appear to be derived from this dew except at one time: the time when Israel was wandering in the desert.' Sassoon and Dale asumed that the Ark of the Covenant included the manna machine..."
- Brad Steiger, Worlds Before Our Own

"...The top skull is white. In it there is no beginning or end. The hollow thing of its juices is extended and is made to flow....From this follow thing for juice of the white skull the dew falls every day into the small-faced one....And his head is filled, and from the small-faced one it falls....The Ancient Holy One is secret and hidden. And the upper wisdom is concealed in the skull which is found [i.e. can be seen] and from this into that the Ancient One is not opened [i.e. there is no passage visible]. And the head is not single because it is the top of the whole head. The upper wisdom is inside the head: it is concealed and is called the upper brain, the concealed brain, the brain that appeases and is quiet. And there is no [man] that knows it....
"Three heads are hollowed out: this inside that and this above the other. One head is wisdom; it is concealed from that which is covered. This wisdom is concealed; it is the top of all...[heads of the other wisdoms]. The upper head is the Ancient and Holy One, the most concealed of all concealed ones. It is the top of the whole head, the head which is not a head [not an ordinary one], and is not known. And because of this, the Ancient Holy One is called 'nothing'. And all those hairs and all those cords from the brain are concealed, are all smooth in the carrier. And all of the neck is not seen....There is one path that flows in the division of the hairs from the brain..."
- HADRA ZVTA QDIShA (Lesser Holy Assembly) Verses 51-73
from Kabbalah Denudata (1644)

"Sassoon and Dale feel certain that other parts of the exoteric texts indicate that the 'hairs' and 'cords' are wires and pipes. 'Wisdom,' they conclude, is a liquid utilized in the process of manufacturing manna."
- Brad Steiger, Worlds Before Our Own

"From the top of the skull it starts and is extended into the whole of the body, from its breast and from its arms, and from the whole. To his buttocks is attached the spark of the cardinal lamp, and it lights up. And a skull goes out which is concealed from all sides. And the shiner descends from the two brains hollowed out in it [the skull]. And it [the shiner] is attached in the direction of the male part..."
- HADRA ZVTA QDIShA (Lesser Holy Assembly) 709

"At the top is a dew-still: a refrigerated, corrugated surface over which air is drawn, from which water condenses. This is fed to a container in the center of which is a powerful light-source for irradiating a culture, possibly of Chlorella-type algae. There are dozens of strains of Chlorella, and the balance of protein, carbohydrate, and fat in a chosen strain can be varied by choosing the appropriate conditions of growth for the culture.
"This algal culture circulates through pipes which permit an exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide with the atmosphere, and also dissipate heat. The Chlorella sludge is drawn off into another vessel where it is treated so that the starch is partially hydrolyzed to maltose, which is then burnt slightly to give the honey-and-wafers flavor....The dried material is then fed to two vessels. One is emptied daily to provide the day's supply, and the other fills slowly during the week so that two days' supply is available on the eve of the Sabbath...."
- George Sassoon and Rodney Dale, New Scientist, April 1, '76

"And all of the stream (of blessing) that flows from all of the body is gathered there, into those that are called the hosts...and that flow, after it is collected there, it stays there, and then goes to the holly foundation. It is all white, and therefore it is called mercy. And this mercy enters the Holy of Holies..."
- HADRA ZVTA QDIShA (Lesser Holy Assembly) 761
"And furthermore, the body is extended into two legs [or irrigations]. And between them they contain two kidneys, two masculine testicles [literally eggs]. All the oil and the greatness and the masculine force from the whole body are gathered into them...and therefore they are called the 'hosts'; and they are called 'Victory' and 'Glory'....Victory and Glory are the hosts, and therefore (we get the name) 'Lord of Hosts'. The masculine penis is the end of the whole body, and it is called the 'foundation'."
- - HADRA ZVTA QDIShA (Lesser Holy Assembly) 740

"The two hosts, then Victory and Glory, the manna storage tanks, were thought of as testicles; and the manna discharge nozzle, the penis, was the foundation." "The names of the testicles were Victory and Gory, in Hebrew, NTzCh (Netzach) and HVD (Hod)...The dictionary tells us that NTzCh also means 'juice' or 'essence' in Hebrew, and it is used in the Bible (Isaiah 63:3), with the meaning of grape-juice."
- George Sassoon and Rodney Dale, The Manna Machine

(3) Operation and Maintenance

"The name of our source-book is the Zohar from ZHR, to illuminate. Properly, the book should be called The Book of the Illumination. This may refer to the illumination of the soul of the reader, in a religious sense - but it might equally well mean the lighting-up of the Ancient of Days, and its restoration to working order."
- George Sassoon and Rodney Dale, The Manna Machine

"Tradition: at the time when Israel is crying out in distress, then the hairs are uncovering from over the ears, so that the voice can go into the ears, into that tube that drips from the brain, and it collects in the brain. And it goes out into the tubes of the nose. And the nose is shortened and becomes hot, and fire and smoke go out form those tubes, and all the strengths are excited, and it makes revenges. But before the fire and smoke go out form those tubes, that voice goes upwards, and influences the top of the brain, and the two tears flow down for the eyes. And the smoke and the fire go out from the perforations (of the nose), by (the action of) that voice..."
- Greater Holy Assembly 716

"Every seven days [on the Sabbath] , the machine was carefully taken apart and cleaned, with all the parts lovingly protected from dust and dirt. The, even more carefully, it was reassembled, culminating in the final plugging together of the two major components, a sexual act in itself. It was then switched on, and the various processes would start in order. First, the dew would run down from the brain, then the 'great sea' would fill, with the 'oil of great goodness' running through the 'beard'. Then the 'tears' would run down from the 'eyes', adding seed and fertilizer, and finally the 'eye of providence' would light up with a blinding brightness. There would then follow a long period of waiting, during which the plants multiplied and were drawn off and processed, before the testicles started to fill. At long last, after many hours of anxious preparation, the manna would flow. Small wonder that the whole process was seen as some kind of cosmic copulation."
- George Sassoon and Rodney Dale, The Manna Machine

"And Moses speaks these words [IHVH, IHVH] in the place of judgment, that he may make measure of mercies go down from the Ancient Holy One to the Small-faced One. For they teach that so great was the power of Moses, that he made the measure of mercies to go down to the lower part."
- Greater Holy Assembly 696

"..Moses entered the Holy of Holies, said the Name twice, and down came the measures of manna....The failure of the manna coincided with the death of Moses."
- George Sassoon and Rodney Dale, The Manna Machine

"And the manna did not appear to be derived from this dew except at one time; the time when Israel was wandering in the desert. And then the Ancient One of All fed them from this place. But afterwards, it was not found."
- - HADRA ZVTA QDIShA (Lesser Holy Assembly) 440
"Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic: but now our soul is dried away: and there is noting at all beside this mana before our eyes...and the people went about, and gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans, and make cakes of it: and the taste thereof was as the taste of fresh oil."
- Numbers 11:4ff
"And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year."
- Joshua 5:12
"How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!
It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron's beard, down upon the collar of his robes.
It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For there the LORD bestows his blessing, even life forevermore."
- Psalm 133 A song of ascents. Of David.

"This psalm is...quoted in the manna-machine texts of the Zohar (GHA 321, LHA 677). The latter passage is in connection with the nine parts of the beard of the Small-faced One: ' ... the beard is seen as strong power (GIBR ThQIP), as strong Masters of the Juices of the inside parts (GIBR MARI NTzCh QRBIN). Into this beard there flows the oil of goodness from the Ancient Concealed One, as it is said (Ps. 133:2) 'Like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down the beard, even Aaron's beard'.
"Clearly the reference is to the annual Yom Kippur ritual of the fruitless attempts to reboot the manna-machine, with the High Priest pouring oil all over himself."
- George Sassoon (private correspondence)

Psalm 133 was read 'Ecce quam bonum et quam jucundum' during the ritual of admission into the Knights Templar, an order which supposedly sought the lost Ark of the Covenant.

"And Moses said unto Aaron, take a pot, and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up before the Lord, to be kept for our generations...So Aaron laid it up before the [Ark of] Testimony, to be kept."
- Exodus 16:33

"After its final failure, the manna-machine was taken to a shrine at Shiloh, where it no longer occupied a central position in the life of Israel. However, a dedicated band of priests continued to tend it....They could devote their time to the study of the machine; they probably still received enough sacrificial offerings to live in reasonable style. They were the founders of the society known as the Reapers of the Holy Field, and the original Lords of Measurements of the Zohar."
- George Sassoon and Rodney Dale, The Manna Machine

"[The nose] and also all the parts of the Ancient of Days are seen, and they are not seen; they are seen by the Lords of Measurements, but they are not seen by anyone else."
- Greater Holy Assembly 208

(4) The Short Face (Microprosopus)

"The ear [of the Small-faced One] is formed inside with 'curved incisions', so that the 'voice (kola) may be traced as it goes up into the brain'. In the ear, there are the Lords of Wings, whose function is to convert the 'voice (kola)', into 'speech (melah)'."
- George Sassoon and Rodney Dale, The Manna Machine

"And that speech that goes out is made to break through into the ether [or space], and it is poured out and goes up and flies into the universe [or world]. And the 'voice' is made from it...and it goes into [the king's] ears."
- - HADRA ZVTA QDIShA (Lesser Holy Assembly) 592

"Ordinary 'speech' can be heard by human ears, but it does not travel very far. But with the help of 'Lords of Wings', the speech can be converted into the 'voice'. the voice - a radio signal - cannot be heard by the unaided ear, but it can travel vast distances. However, in order to hear it, another set of Lords of wings is necessary, a radio receiver to convert it back to speech again."
- George Sassoon and Rodney Dale, The Manna Machine

"For a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and the Lord of the Wings shall tell the speech."
- Ecclesiastes 10:20

In the discussion of the black eye of the Small-faced One:

"The second color is black, like the stone which goes out from the depth once in a thousand years into the great sea. When this stone goes out, there comes a disturbance and a power on the sea. And it is the 'voice' of the sea, and its rotations [galgalohi] are made to flow. And the great fish that is called Leviathan is made to listen to them."
- Greater Holy Assembly 632

Shrouded in Deceit – Leonardo's Last Laugh

2006-12-22T05:28:00.000+08:00

Composite Photograph of the shroud

After 500 years we can at last spot the flaws in Leonardo's 15th century?

Greater contrast of negative image reveals detail

Anomalies resulting from projection of three images:

A giant figure – 6'8" at front, 6'10" at back!
Head too small for body – and displaced upwards! (projection of head added separately)
Face unnaturally thin; forehead and sides of face foreshortened, ears lost
Right arm/hand too long (double exposure of fingers)
Light circle on nose (effect of lens, centred on the face)
Back of head wider than front of head
Image area oxidized and dehydrated (result of using heat to burn chemical image into cloth. Chemical solution then washed off)

Other anomalies:

Hair hanging vertically, added later (on a shrouded, horizontal body hair would have fallen towards back of head)
Composed expression – odd for a torture victim!
No loin cloth but naked, with hands over genitals (sensitive to intended audience – or a cryptic joke?
'Flowing blood stains' from a corpse? (added in separate process)

Positive image of the Shroud – as seen by the naked eye.

The Shroud is a biscuit coloured cloth 4.4 m by 1.9 m. The large marks are the result of a fire which burned the (folded) cloth and its subsequent repair, in 1532.

Carbon Dating of the Cloth

Such hullabaloo greeted the early identification of pollen ("as found in the Holy Land") in 1973 – yet carbon dating in 1988 at three different laboratories all agreed: the cloth was no older than the 14th century. At that time, the Crusaders brought back vast quantities of Infidel cloth, of much better quality than could be found in Christian Europe.

That the Shroud was fake was obvious – but then how was it done? No known painting technique could reproduce such an effect. This remained the last defense
of die-hard defenders of "authenticity."

But now we know better – the Shroud was not painted at all, it is a photograph!

Pity that 15th century Europe was still in the vicious grip of Holy Mother Church – we might have had the Box Brownie camera in time for the War of the Roses!

Leonardo – Sacrilegious 'Sorcerer' Outwits the Priests

"Many are those who trade in tricks & simulated miracles, duping the foolish multitude; and if nobody unmasked their subterfuges, they would impose them on everyone."

– Leonardo da Vinci (Manuscript F, Institut de France, 5v)

Best known for his artistic masterpieces Leonardo da Vinci revealed insights into everything from the human body to engines of war. He conceptualised objects as diverse as scissors, bicycles and helicopters. Living in the age of the Inquisition, a time when merely being a vegetarian might lead to execution, he had to remain ever vigilant of the censure of the Church. For its part, the Church was only interested in Leonardo's ability to artistically represent the Faith.

Commissioned to produce a better Shroud, he pioneered an early photographic technique, using lenses, a camera obscura, chromium salts and – in a wonderful satire on Church duplicity – his own face in lieu of Jesus Christ!

Head on the Shroud (left) and Leonardo da Vinci self-portrait (right).

On the one hand ...

The 'Shroud' is never mentioned in the New Testament – and nor is it ever referred to by early Christians.

On the other hand ...

'Holy Shrouds' were part of hugely profitable medieval fakery industry – more than 40 rival shrouds are known. The 'Turin Shroud' appeared suddenly on Good Friday, 1494!

The Devil's Magic? Camera obscura...

At least as early as Aristotle (4th century BC) it had been noted that a small hole into a darkened room throws a reversed and upside-down image of the outside scene onto the opposite wall. From at least the time of the Romans, it had been known certain materials reacted to light.

The challenge for Renaissance alchemist/artists – whilst avoiding the attentions of the Inquisition – was to capture and fix the projected image using the right material.

Leonardo, man of outstanding artistic skill and technical ingenuity, was equal to that challenge.

Leonardo's sketch of his "oculus artificialis" (artificial eye)
– a camera obscura.

When & Where?

Leonardo served several wealthy Renaissance patrons, including Giuliano de Medici, son-in-law of the Duke of Savoy. The House of Savoy (which became the Italian royal family) had acquired an earlier 'Holy Shroud' from a minor French aristocratic family, the de Charnys, around 1453.

This (painted) shroud had long since been denounced by the local bishop as "a fake used to defraud gullible pilgrims" but he had been silenced by the Pope. Nothing was seen of any shroud for thirty years.

Colluding with the House of Savoy, Pope Innocent VIII (the witch-burning pope, closely tied to Lorenzo de Medici) commissioned Leonardo to produce a 'better shroud' in 1492.

Under what threats Leonardo worked we can but speculate. Vegetarianism alone could have got him burned, let alone his homosexuality.

Two years later – no doubt after much experimentation – the 'Holy Shroud' appeared. In its positive form it was disappointing – and Leonardo was not paid!

By sheer serendipity, modern photography reversed Leonardo's image into an altogether more awesome artifact – and triggered off a new century of delirious 'Faith'.

The old alchemist would have laughed his socks off!

(Via World Mysteries.)

Origins of Atlantis

2006-12-11T15:32:00.000+08:00

The Eruption of Thera?

(1) "A Wonderful Empire"

"You do not know that there formerly dwelt in your land the fairest and noblest race of men which ever lived, and that you and your whole city [Athens] are descended from a seed or remnant of them which survived.
"The power came forth out of the Atlantic Ocean, for in those days the Atlantic was navigable; and there was an island situated in from of the straits which are by you called the Pillars of Hercules [Gibraltar]: the island was larger than Libya and Asia put together, and was the way to other islands...Now in this island of Atlantis there was a great and wonderful empire which had rule over the whole island, and several others, and over parts of the continent, and furthermore the men of Atlantis had subjected the parts of Libya within the columns of Hercules as far as Egypt and of Europe as far as Tyrrhenia [Italy]."
- Plato, Timaeus, 22c-23c; 24c-d

"So great was Atlantis that Plato had to shift its location to 'beyond the Pillars of Hercules' (outside of the Strait of Gibraltar), which in classical times was the standard location used in stories about lands far away in distance and/or time."
- "The Minoan Civilization - Atlantis Found?"

Plato claimed to have learned his story of the sinking of the lost continent of Atlantis from relatives who had passed it down from the great Athenian statesman Solon. Solon had reportedly traveled to Egypt and received his information from Egyptian priests at Sais in 559 B.C.E. The priests told him that the great disaster had taken place almost 10,000 years earlier, almost exactly a factor of ten too large for the eruption of Thera (which occurred around 1500 B.C.E. according to archeological dating or 1627 B.C.E. according to dendrochronology and radiocarbon dating.

"The story of Atlantis, if Plato did not invent it, may reflect some Egyptian record of this eruption, one of the most stupendous of historical times. "
- Encyclopaedia Britannica

"If a legend, passed down for nearly a thousand years before it reached Solon, and for an additional two hundred years before Plato finally committed it to paper, can, through successive retellings, expand an island culture into a continental one and dislocate it west a thousand miles, it is easy to believe that Plato's family, or the Egyptians, or both, stretch its age as well."
- Charles Pellegrino, Unearthing Atlantis (1991) p. 45

(2) A Place Called Keftiu

"...There are papyrus documents that make references to early contacts between Egypt and a place called Keftiu, which is generally accepted to be Minoan Crete. Keftiu is first mentioned in Egyptian writings dating back to the third millennium B.C.:"
- Charles Pellegrino, Unearthing Atlantis (1991) p. 43

"Keftiu and Isy [Cyprus] are under awe of thee. I cause them to see their majesty as a young bull. Firm of heart, sharp of horns, who cannot be felled."

"If Solon had inquired more particularly about Keftiu, he would have been told that it was an island far away in the west. The Ipuwer papyrus uses the phrase, 'as far away as Keftiu.'...If Solon pressed them on the ultimate fate of Keftiu, the priests could certainly have told him that it disappeared from their records around the middle of the XVIII Dynasty [around the time of Tuthmosis III, Hatshepsut, and Amenophis II."
- J. V. Luce, Lost Atlantis: New Light on an Old Legend (1969)

"J. V. Luce points out that the original name for Crete - Keftiu - is probably derived from a root meaning 'pillar', and that a western island containing a 'sky pillar', that is a lofty mountain helping to support the dome of the sky, would fit neatly into the frame of Egyptian Bronze Age mythology. A goddess [Nut] was said to hold the heavens on her back, and the sky pillars were the four points at which her arms and legs touched earth."
- Charles Pellegrino, Unearthing Atlantis (1991) p. 45

"It is even possible that the Egyptian priests had some recorded material about the worship of sacred pillars which was so prevalent in Minoan Crete....Imagine Solon's reaction when confronted with this sort of information about ancient Keftiu. He could not have failed to associate it with the myth of Atlas, 'the Titan' who held the sky on his shoulders."
- J. V. Luce, Lost Atlantis: New Light on an Old Legend (1969)

Poseidon and Cleito has five pairs of male children. "And the eldest, who was the first king, he named Atlas, and after him the whole island and the ocean were called Atlantis."
- Plato, Critias 114b

"In Greek, Atlantis and Atlantic are adjectival forms of Atlas, meaning '(the island) of Atlas' and 'the sea of Atlas' respectively....Now Atlas may once have been located well inside the Mediterranean before the gradual extension of Greek geographical knowledge pushed him to the west and located him on the High Atlas range in Morocco..."
- J. V. Luce, Lost Atlantis: New Light on an Old Legend (1969)

"Keftiu translates as wither 'the island of Keft' or 'the people of Keft', depending on which determinative is added to the Egyptian hieroglyph. The root keft has come into the twentieth century as the word 'capital'[originally of a pillar]."
"The identification of Keftiu with the Biblical Caphto, Luce explains, is emphasized by the Sargon of Akkad tablet, which refers to Kap-ta-ra as lying 'beyond the Upper Sea' (the Mediterranean). Biblical passages connecting Crete (Kaphtor) with the Philistines include: Genesis 10:14 ('and the Caphtorim when came the Philistines'), Amos 9:7, Jeremiah 47:4."
- Charles Pellegrino, Unearthing Atlantis (1991) p. 46

"However, Luce himself admits that there may be some truth in the view proposed by Vidal-Naquet that the two confronted powers in the legend, Athens and Atlantis, represent in the mind of Plato the 'good' and 'bad' fates of Athens respectively. 'Good' Athens in the eyes of conservative Plato would be the city without navy, and with a well-stratified society of farmers and landowners. On the other hand, 'bad' Athens (Atlantis) 'would be a maritime state of shifty sailors and covetous merchants'."
- Christos G. Doumas Thera - Pompeii of the Ancient Aegean, p. 155

(3) Similarities Between Plato's Atlantis and Minoan Crete

"Upon examination of Plato's words on Atlantis as written in the dialogues Timaeus and Critias, we find many similarities between what archaeologists and historians know to be true for the Minoans, and characteristics Plato attributes to Atlantis and its occupants.
- "The Minoan Civilization - Atlantis Found?"

·"From an Egyptian point of view, [Plato's description of Atlantis] seemed...an apt descriptions of Crete: a gateway to the other Minoan island (the Cyclades) and the European continent beyond."
- Charles Pellegrino, Unearthing Atlantis (1991) p. 154

"Atlantis was the way to other islands and from these you might pass to the whole of the opposite continent."
- Plato, Timaeus, 24e

·"For a civilization said to be coming out of the Atlantic, the pattern of conquest is strange, moving, according to Plato, from the eastern Mediterranean shores of Greece, Libya and Egypt to the rest of the Mediterranean - toward, not from, Gibraltar - with no mention of conquest in northern Spain or along the Atlantic shores of Africa. Plato has described a civilization radiating out of the eastern central Mediterranean, from the direction of Minoan Crete."
- Charles Pellegrino, Unearthing Atlantis (1991) p. 232

"...The island of Atlantis...had subjugated the parts of Libya within the Pillars of Hercules [Gibraltar] as far as Egypt, and Europe as far a Tyrrhenia [Italy]. This vast power, gathered into one, endeavored to subdue at a blow our country [Egypt] and yours [Greece], and the whole of the region within the straits [the Mediterranean]..."
- Plato, Timaeus, 24d

·Thera and Atlantis both experienced severe earthquakes and a volcanic eruption(s) so huge that only 5 islets, some no more than rocks, remain of Thera, and of Atlantis remained 'small islets, only the bones of a wasted body'.

·Both were wealthy, highly developed cultures, concerned with art, beauty, entertainment and personal comforts and adornments."
- "The Minoan Civilization - Atlantis Found?"

"Under the direction of archaeologist Christos Doumas, the excavations at Thera are revealing multistoried, exquisitely decorated buildings, complete with bathrooms and running water. Plumbing and other technologies emerging from the ash are of a complexity not seen again until the Islamic empire of the Middle Ages. The walls and streets are literally honeycombed with pipes."
"The abundance of plumbing suggests that fresh water ran so plentifully on ancient Thera that it must have sluiced continually through the underground sewage system, flushing the city clean."
- Charles Pellegrino, Unearthing Atlantis (1991) p. 17

"[Poseidon] himself, as he was a god, found no difficulty in making special arrangements for the center of the island, brining up two springs of water from beneath the earth, one of warm water and the other of cold, and making every variety of food to spring up abundantly from the soil."
- Plato, Critias 114a

·"Plato spoke of bulls hunted with ropes within a temple in Atlantis. Archaeological evidence has shown the Minoans built bull rings, hunting the animals with nooses, (the only example of this kind of 'bullfight' in world history) and practiced 'bull jumping', either a sport or religious ritual. These practices gave rise to the legend (?) of the Minotaur, half man, half bull, secured within the labyrinth. "
- Charles Pellegrino, Unearthing Atlantis (1991) p. 41

"There were bulls who had the range of the temple of Poseidon; and the ten kings, being left alone in the temple, after they had offered prayers to the god that they might capture the victim which was acceptable to him, hunted the bulls without weapons, but with staves and nooses; and the bull which they caught they led up to the pillar."
- Plato, Critias, 119c

On Crete, "Minoan tombs were being found intact, unmolested by looters. One tomb yielded teacup-shaped vessels with scenes of bullfights engraved on their sides. The bulls were shown snared in ropes. Similar scenes were depicted on the palace walls of Knossos - scenes that differed from all other bullfights known though history in precisely the point Plato had emphasized: no weapons except ropes were used."
- Charles Pellegrino, Unearthing Atlantis (1991) p. 41

·"Atlantis was a powerful thalassocracy, and ruled areas 'larger than Asia and Libya', with 'the docks full of tiremes (a kind of ship) and naval stores...the largest of harbors were full of vessels and merchants coming from all parts.' The Minoan area of sea control and economic influence included all of North Africa, the Mediterranean and Asia Minor. Their fleet was unsurpassed in its size. Since all the countries in these areas were not even aware of each other's existence, certainly strange and exaggerated tales could have begun to circulate about the size, scope and wonders of the Minoan civilization.

·"Plato described Atlantis as alternating rings of sea and land, with a palace in the center 'bull's eye'. Interestingly, the remnants of post eruption Thera are circular around a deep, wide lagoon, with another small island located in the center of the lagoon. Perhaps Egyptians or other ancient travelers visited Thera long after the volcanic destruction ocurred, misinterpreted the geographical remains of the island, and began the legend of the rings of Atlantis. Looking 70 miles south to crescent shaped Crete, the ancient traveler could have easily assumed the ring system of Atlantis reached as far.
- "The Minoan Civilization - Atlantis Found?"

Recent geological examination of the strata of the island of Santorini (the modern name for Thera), reveals that a large open lagoon formed by the volcano's cauldera was present in classical times. This corresponds to Plato's description of Atlantis with its enclosed circular harbor and distinctive rose-colored earth.

"Before 1500 B.C. the sea must have been further inland, as has been shown by the well dug near the south gate of the site, where brackish water was struck at a depth of about 6 m in the layer of pumice and below the ash layer....The spot lies about 200 m inland, in the valley between the hill of Mesovouna (east) and the ride of Mavro Rhachidhi (west). This location, sheltered by the surrounding hills, would have been idea for of prehistoric Akrotiri. In my opinion, it is this harbor which is depicted in the wall-painting of the fleet from the West House [above]....The hilly landscape in the background is very reminiscent of the profile of the Mavro Rhachidhi ridge."
- Christos G. Doumas Thera - Pompeii of the Ancient Aegean, p. 55

·"Plato speaks if the stone quarried from under Atlantis; 'one kind of stone was white, another black, and a third red'. The first sight of Thera that modern day tourists see is the sheer cliffs remaining when the rest of the island dropped into the sea, and these cliffs are a breathtaking mix of white, black and red stone. A unique sight in the Aegean world.

·"Archaeologists have found an extensive and sophisticated system of sewers, drainage, drinking and bath water pipes in Crete and Thera. Private homes had flush toilets and bathtubs. It appears Minoans heated their houses and had hot and cold running water from hydrothermal vents. Plato describes the 'bringing up (of) two springs of water from beneath the earth... fountains, one of cold and another of hot water...there were the king's baths and also the baths of private persons.'"
- "The Minoan Civilization - Atlantis Found?"

·"The size and location of Atlantis's capital was also more in proportion with Crete or Thera than with Plato's Libya/Asia-sized continent. Plato's mythical palace was located halfway along the coast of the island, about fifty stadia (a stadia being less than half a mile) inland, on a low hill about four stadia across (Cirtias, 113). The real Minoan palace of Knossos was located halfway along the northern coast of Crete, on a low hill about four stadia across."
- Charles Pellegrino, Unearthing Atlantis (1991) p. 154

"One curious revelation is that these priests had told Solon that his ancestors had lost the art of writing for awhile. Remarkably, that is exactly what happened, as was only learned by digging up Mycenaean sites. Around 1400-1200 BCE, the Mycenaean Greeks had a system of writing, 'Linear B', which they had learned from the Minoans. It was very different from the Greek alphabet of later times, being a syllabic script that was mixed with picto- and ideographs in the style of Japanese - and which was very unsuited for the Greek language (any one sign could stand for any of several syllables: ke -- ke, ge, khe, kes, ges, khes, ker, ger, kher, etc.) The surviving examples of it were used exclusively for bookkeeping at the Mycenaean palaces, and when the palaces fell, the script apparently went with them. The only memory of this writing in later times was Homer's reference to a tablet with 'magic signs' with this meaning: kill its holder."
- Loren Petrich

"One remnant of Minoan civilization is believed to have sailed southwest to Tunisia, where they settled in the Atlas Mountains and become the tribe known to the classical Greeks as the Atlantes. Another remnant went south, where a handful of talented refugees apparently became Egyptian nobles; and others almost certainly sailed east, bringing their distinctive architecture with them to the land they called Philistia, or Palestine, in what is now Israel's Mediterranean coast west of the Dead Sea."
- Charles Pellegrino, Unearthing Atlantis (1991) p. 86

Other Theories of the Origin of the Legend

(1). During the Peloponesian War?

"Many great and wonderful deeds are recorded of your state (Athens) in our histories but one of them exceeds all the rest in greatness and valor. For these histories tell of a mighty power which unprovoked made an expedition against the whole of Europe and Asia. This power came forth out of the Atlantic Ocean for in those days the Atlantic was navigable and there was an island situated in front of the straits which are by you called the Pillars of Heracles, the island was larger than Libya and Asia put together and was the way to other islands and from these you might pass to the whole of the opposite continent which surrounded the true ocean; for this sea which is within the straits of Hercules is only a harbor having a narrow entrance but that other is a true sea."
- Plato, Timaeus

"The only episode which fits this description which has been recorded as an historical fact is the circumnavigation of Africa by the Phoenician fleet sent forth by the Egyptian pharoah Neco shortly before the time Plato paints Solon as having heard the story in Egypt."
- Steve Whittet

"They had such an enormous amount of wealth as was never before possessed by kings and potentates and is not likely ever to be again. Because of the greatness of their empire many things were brought to them from foreign countries....They went on constructing their temples and palaces and harbours and docks... First of all they bridged over the zones of the sea which surrounded the ancient metropolis."
- Plato, Critias

"The only city built on a man made island in antiquity was the city of Tyre."
- Steve Whittet

"In the center was a holy temple dedicated to the worship of Cleito and Poseidon."
- Plato, Critias

Cleito and Poseidon were "deities associated with and not predating Phoenicia."
- Steve Whittet

"There occurred violent earthquakes and floods; and in a single day and night of misfortune....The island of Atlantis disappeared into the depths of the sea."
- Plato, Timaeus

"...There is also a reference, contemporaneous to the time of Plato,to an island called 'Atalanta' which was destroyed by flooding and sinking beneath the sea after an earthquake in The Peloponesian War, Thucydides. Book III, chapter XI para 89 destroying an Athenian garrison. This is germane because in Timaeus the description of the destruction says: 'in a single day and night of misfortune all your warlike men in a body sank into the earth and the island of Atlantis in like manner dissapeared into the depths of the sea."
- Steve Whittet

(2) The Devastation of Tantalis?

"Plato described a catastrophe involving earthquake and flood, yet the Thera event was a volcanic explosion. The Greeks were reasonably informed about ancient Cretan civilization - as echoed in the stories of Minos, Theseus and the Minotaur in the Labyrinth - so it seems unlikely that they would have, first, earnt about Crete from the Egyptians, and second, not recognised what their source was ostensibly describing. It also became clear by the1980s that the explosion of Thera did not, after all, bring about the end of Minoan civilization. It was time for a new approach to the Atlantis problem."
- Peter James, The Sunken Kingdom - The Atlantis Mystery Solved

According to archaeological evidence, Crete suffered from the eruption of Thera, but the Minoans survived to rebuild. Peter James argues that the story of Atlantis came from western Turkey, where a major Bronze Age city, the legendary Tantalis, was devastated by an earthquake and submerged beneath a lake.

The Eruption of Thera

2006-12-11T15:27:00.000+08:00

Devastation in the Mediterranean

(1) Greater Than Krakatoa

"When Krakatoa exploded on August 26, 1883, it caused widespread destruction and loss of life on the coasts of Java and Sumatra. Blast waves cracked walls and broke windows up to 160 km. away. Tidal waves, reportedly up to 36 metres high, inundated the shores of the Sunda Strait, destroying nearly 300 towns and villages, and overnight more than 35,000 people lost their lives."
- J. V. Luce, "The Changing Face of the Thera Problem"

"Krakatoa erupted noisily. It could be heard as much as 3,000 miles away on Rodrigues Island in the Indian Ocean. Vibrations shattered shop windows 80 miles off. The energy; released in the main explosion has been estimated to be equivalent to an explosion of 150 megatons of TNT."

"Ships navigating the seas in the vicinity of Krakatoa reported that floating pumice in some places had formed a layer about 3 m thick. Other shops, 160 miles off, reported that they were covered with dust three days after the end of the eruption. In fact the dust cloud completely shrouded the area, so that it was dark even 257 miles away from the epicenter. The period of darkness lasted twenty-four hours in places 130 miles distant and fifty-seven hours 50 miles away. The black-out in the immediate vicinity continued for three days and was so total that not even lamp-light could penetrate it. Stunningly beautiful sunsets were observed during the winter months in both American and Europe, thanks to the suspension of fine particles of dust in the atmosphere."
- Christos G. Doumas Thera - Pompeii of the Ancient Aegean, p. 141

"Two titanic volcanic explosions occurred in the Mediterranean in the fifteenth century BC, one on Mount Vesuvius and the other on the island of Thera near Crete. Each dwarfed the great explosion of the Krakatoa volcano in 1883."
- Robert Jastrow, "Hero or Heretic?", Science Digest, Sep/Oct '80

According to current data, the last two great eruptions of Vesuvius occured in 3580 B.C.E and 79 C.E. (the latter being the eruption which buried Pompei and Herculaneum). Both Krakatoa and Thera have a Volcanic Explosivity Index or VEI of 6 which rates them as "colossal" with a plume height over 25 km and a displacement volume of between 10 and 100 ks km ³. Eruptions of this size occur only once every few hundred years on earth. Although the dating of pottery supports the fifteenth century time frame for the Thera eruption, dendrochronology and radiocarbon dating supported by historical records place it at 1628/7 B.C.E. .

"Descriptions of the Krakatoa explosion convey a sense of the horror that must have gripped the people who witnessed the earlier and more violent eruptions in the Mediterranean:

'A tremendous roar, heard over two thousand miles away'
'vibrations of the atmosphere circling the earth'
'ninety-foot waves breaking with devastating force'
'burning ashes raining down, blistering and killing people'."
- Robert Jastrow, "Hero or Heretic?", Science Digest, Sep/Oct '80

"Estimates of the volume of material displaced by the Thera eruption indicated an intensity five or six times as great as that of Krakatoa..."
- Dr. Floyd McCoy, in Ground Truth, Earthwatch Research Report

(2) A Great Flood Tide

"About 7 cubic miles (30 cubic km) of rhyodacite magma was erupted. The plinian column during the initial phase of the eruption was about >23 miles (36 km) high."
- "Santorini, Greece"

"The ejection of huge masses of material created an enormous chamber under the earth's crust, and eventually the roof of this magma chamber must have fractured and collapsed."
- Christos G. Doumas Thera - Pompeii of the Ancient Aegean, p. 137

"The caldera (or crater) created by this eruption of the the Stroggilí volcano on Thera (now known as Santorini) is said to have measured as much as 83 square kilometers in area. It presently extends down as much as 480 meters below sea level inside of the wall of cliffs which ring it and which themselves rise up as much as 300 meters above sea level.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica

"The sea poured into this enormous void through fractures in the ring of land, in the northwest and southwest of the island. If the chamber collapse was sudden, the flow of water must have generated tidal waves to the north and southwest."
- Christos G. Doumas Thera - Pompeii of the Ancient Aegean, p. 137-138

"Knossos [the Minoan capital] was shattered by a succession of earthquakes that preceded or accompanied the eruption, while great waves resulting from it appear to have damaged settlements along the northern coast of Crete."
- Encyclopaedia Britannica

"On the west cost of Turkey, just north of the island of Rhodes*, is a small body of water whose shoreline is like an ever-narrowing funnel. Its open mouth faces west, toward Thera, and anyone living behind that mouth might just as well have been a flea located in the throat of a cannon. As the shock wave surged east between increasingly confined shorelines, the waters piles higher and higher until at last they became a foaming white mountain eight hundred feet tall. The wave penetrated thirty miles inland, in the general direction of Mount Ararat; and when it receded, it dislodged house-sized boulders, scoured the soil and carved out channeled scablands. Elsewhere, on a strip of Turkish coast only ninety miles north of the funnel, the wave seems to have risen barely twenty feet high. Tsunamis are like that - capricious."
- Charles Pellegrino, Unearthing Atlantis (1991) p. 87

* "Where local lore has it that a city called Cyrbe was 'swallowed up by a great flood-tide'."

"There came a sound, as if from within the Earth
Zeus' hollow thunder boomed, awful to hear.
The horses lifted heads towards the sky
And pricked their ears; while strange fear fell on us,
Whence came the voice. To the sea-beaten shore
We looked, and saw a monstrous wave that soared
Into the sky, so lofty that my eyes
Were robbed of seeing the Scironian cliffs.
It hid the isthmus and Asclepius' rock.
Then seething up and bubbling all about
With foaming flood and breath from the deep sea,
Shoreward it came to where the chariot stood."
- Euripides, The Hippolytus

"According to the oral tradition handed to Euripides [who lived on the west Aegean between 480 and 405 B.C.], a wall of water heaved up from the deep, into a sky as clear as glass. This is precisely what one would expect if the poet had recorded the memory of Bronze Age Tsunamis in the western Aegean, which was spared the added calamity of Thera's death cloud."
- Charles Pellegrino, Unearthing Atlantis (1991) p. 89

"Later Greek traditions, such as the story of Deucalion's flood, may enshrine a memory of similar waves that swept the coasts of the mainland at this time."
- Encyclopaedia Britannica

(3) Hell on Earth

After the eruption of Mount Pelée in 1902, "St. Pierre was a cityscape that made Dante's hell look shamefully mild. All the horrors hatching out - the blackened things, the charcoal people, the dead and the still-moving dead - all of these had required just ten thousand cubic yards of vaporized rock dusted less than half an inch deep over eight square miles of the city. Survivors' accounts of the Pelée death cloud provide only the slightest glimpse of how the eastern half of Crete must have suffered in the aftermath of Thera.
"Thera blew a thirty-cubic-mile hole in the earth. Thera was fifteen million times worse than Pelée."
- Charles Pellegrino, Unearthing Atlantis (1991) pp. 72-73

Stones from the Thera explosion have been found as far as the Black Sea.

"On easternmost Crete, more than seventy miles away from ground zero, the great palace of Zakros fell amid flames and ashy deposits. Stone slabs were slammed horizontally across the ground in a manner originally attributed to an earthquake, but all the stones seem to have toppled in the same direction as if pushed over by a great wind. Like Herculaneum, Zakros perished so quickly that people did not have time to flee with household objects. All the implements of Minoan life were left behind: gold rings, razors, tweezers and rare perfumes. At the same time, Phaistos, second in size only to Knossos, was utterly carbonized on the southeast coast."
"More than seventy miles east of Thera, directly in the path of the cloud, Southern Turkey and the islands of Kos, Rhodes and Cyprus received more than a foot of ash. In those places, the cloud, even if it had shed all of its heat (which it probably had not), would have suffocated almost everyone caught outdoors."
- Charles Pellegrino, Unearthing Atlantis (1991) pp. 62, 75

(4) Global Climatic and Economic Disruption

A huge cloud of dust and gas enveloped the earth, and there are accounts of unnusual darkness in Egyptian and Chinese literature.

"In the twenty-ninth year of King Chieh [the last ruler of Hsia, the earliest recorded Chinese dynasty], the Sun was dimmed...King Chieh lacked virtue...the Sun was distressed...during the last years of Chieh ice formed in [summer] mornings and frosts in the sixth month [July]. Heavy rainfall toppled temples and buildings...Heaven gave severe orders. The Sun and Moon were untimely. Hot and cold weather arrived in disorder. The five cereal crops withered and died."
- written during the reign of Emperor Qin c.1600 B.C.

"The death cloud deposited a dense ash layer hundreds of miles east of Thera, but penetrated west only sixty miles, stopping at the island of Melos. To halt the cloud at Melos, the headwinds from the west must have been very strong, and from the meteorologists came word that Westerly squalls were almost exclusively a September through November phenomenon on the Aegean, suggesting that the volcano exploded in autumn."
- Charles Pellegrino, Unearthing Atlantis (1991) p. 233

"One could also envisage the destruction of the ships on which Minoan power depended, and the longer term disruption of agriculture by a heavy overlay of ash."
- Dr. Floyd McCoy, in Ground Truth, Earthwatch Research Report

As the dust cloud "circled the globe, the next spring must have been much like the spring of 1816, 'the year without a summer,' that followed the explosive reawakening of Tambora in Indonesia. There were no harvests in New England that year. Megatons of utrafine dust had been hoisted fifty miles high into the stratosphere, where it shaded out some of the sun's radiation, absorbing its heat long before it reached the ground. As June and August snowstorms swept across New York, few people could draw consolation from the strange beauty of a blood read moon, or from the most splendid sunsets the world had seen in more than thirty-four hundred years."
- Charles Pellegrino, Unearthing Atlantis (1991) p. 77

"The cataclysmic eruption brought about the abrupt transition from the Minoan to the Mycenean culture-documented in various legends from the area-and perhaps even accounts for the stories of Atlantis and Exodus."
- Dr. Floyd McCoy, in Ground Truth, Earthwatch Research Report

For details on the archaeological record of the eruption, see:
Devastation of Crete.

An exploration of Plato's enduring myth can be found at:
Origins of Atlantis.

Hebrew and Egyptian Accounts?

(1) The Earth Melts

"God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.
God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.
Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Come and see the works of the LORD, the desolations he has brought on the earth."
- Psalm 46:1-8
"The Lord, the LORD Almighty, he who touches the earth and it melts, and all who live in it mourn-- the whole land rises like the Nile, then sinks like the river of Egypt--he who builds his lofty palace in the heavens and sets its foundation on the earth, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the land-- the LORD is his name.
'Are not you Israelites the same to me as the Cushites [that is, people from the upper Nile region]?" declares the LORD. "Did I not bring Israel up from Egypt, the Philistines from Caphtor [that is, Crete] and the Arameans from Kir?'"
- Amos 9:5-7

The eruption of Thera occured around 1450-1500 B.C.E. according to archaeological dating which is during the same time frame as the scriptural dating for the Exodus of Moses (1447 B.C.E.)
(Note that dendrochronology and radiocarbon dating, supports an ealier date, 1628/7 B.C.E., for the eruption.)

(2) "Fine Dust" and "Fire Mingled with Hail"

"Ash identified as coming from the [Thera] eruption has been found in coastal sites as far away as Israel and Sardis in Anatolia. The wind may have been blowing from the south or west."
- Encyclopaedia Britannica

"Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, 'Take handfuls of soot from a furnace and have Moses toss it into the air in the presence of Pharaoh. It will become fine dust over the whole land of Egypt, and festering boils will break out on men and animals throughout the land.' So they took soot from a furnace and stood before Pharaoh. Moses tossed it into the air, and festering boils broke out on men and animals."
- Exodus 9:8-10

The eruption of Thera was almost a thousand kilometers from the Nile delta - the land of Goshen - too distant to have suffered much damage from the accompanying earth tremors although, coincidentally, a severe earthquake and hail (falling volcanic stones?) did devastate the delta at the end of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom.

"...The fire ran along upon the ground....There was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous."
- Exodus 9:23-24

"Such things were witnessed as the Mount St. Helens cloud (in its Plinian phase) passed over Yakima, lancing down lightning and warm ash instead of rain..."
"...Recent excavations suggest that at least a quarter inch of dust fell out of the cloud as it rolled over Egypt. The dust was rich in sulfur, and some of it appears to have fallen as acid rain. Doubtless it blacked out the sun for several days..."
- Charles Pellegrino, Unearthing Atlantis (1991) pp. 80-81, 77

(For details on the Egyptian ash fall, click here.)

(3) Three Days of Darkness

"And then straightaway, as they moved swiftly over the great Cretian deep, night terrified them, the night which they call 'the pall of darkness'. No stars nor moonbeams pierced the deadly darkness. It was black chaos coming down from the sky, or some other darkness rising from the inmost recesses of the Earth. They did not in the least know whether they were voyaging on the water or in Hades."
- Apollonius of Rhode, Argonautica

"Then the LORD said to Moses, 'Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness will spread over Egypt--darkness that can be felt.'
So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days."
- Exodus 10:21-22
"The land was in great affliction. Evil fell on this earth....It was a great upheaval in the residence....Nobody left the palace during nine days, and during these nine days of upheaval there was such a tempest that neither the men nor the gods could see the faces of their next."
- Stone Shrine at el-Arish

The inscription dates from the Ptolemaic period but refers to a much earlier event (during the reign of a King Thom?). A papyrus from the Middle Kingdom also tells of a period of great destruction and darkness.

"The Sun is covered and does not shine to the sight of men. Life is no longer possible when the sun is concealed behind the clouds. Ra has turned his face from mankind. If only it would shine even for one hour! No one knows when it is midday. One's shadow is not discernible. The Sun in the heavens resembles the moon."
- "Admonitions of Ipuwer"

An alternative explanation is that the darkness was caused by a a hot southerly wind from the Sahara called a khamsin. Such winds can kick up fierce sand storms lasing to or three days - blowing massive drifts over small buildings, and obscuring the sun in a dark, yellow haze.

For remarkable parallels between the "Admonitions" and the Book of Exodus see:
The Plagues of Egypt.

(4) The Tsunami

"The low tidal wave across the sand would certainly make life difficult for charioteers or mounted soldiers, but wouldn't touch the 500-1000 people who had taken refuge on one of the low hills in the middle...Of course the volcanic ash in the sky would be very impressive in the morning and evening (red sky) and probably had some effect during the day (and night during moonlight) -- the great cloud going before them."
- Timothy C. Green

"The problem with this argument is that the tsunami would have arrived only minutes after the Theran ash cloud (if not before), and if the cloud is what darkened the skies, brought about famine and disease, and frightened the pharaoh into letting Moses and his people go, there was simply not enough time for pharaoh's intimidation, and them for the Hebrews to pack their belongings and travel tens of miles to the 'Reed Sea' to meet the tsunami. The Thera explosion either humbled the pharaoh with its ash or destroyed his chariots with its tsunami. One cannot have it both ways, unless the Exodus account is considered, like the Atlantis legend, a composite of more than one event whose original sequence was forgotten or misunderstood by the time it was committed to writing."
- Charles Pellegrino, Unearthing Atlantis (1991) p. 245

The Israelites, however, may have experienced effects of flooding from the tsunami similar to those described in the following passage:

"This is what the LORD says: 'See how the waters are rising in the north; they will become an overflowing torrent. They will overflow the land and everything in it, the towns and those who live in them. The people will cry out; all who dwell in the land will wail at the sound of the hoofs of galloping steeds, at the noise of enemy chariots and the rumble of their wheels. Fathers will not turn to help their children; their hands will hang limp. For the day has come to destroy all the Philistines and to cut off all survivors who could help Tyre and Sidon. The LORD is about to destroy the Philistines, the remnant from the coasts of Caphtor [that is, Crete]."
- Jeremiah 47:2-4

According to David Rohl, a catastrophe in the Nile Delta was the prelude to the invasion of the Hyksos and fall of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom. He also writes that this event initiated the flight of the Israelites led by Moses.

(5) A "Pillar of Cloud" and a "Pillar of Fire"

"...By day in a pillar of cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light."
- Exodus 13:21

"The pillar of fire, said to have led the Israelites during their nocturnal peregrinations in the desert, has long troubled all but the most pious of scholars: 'Of all the mysterious phenomena which accompanied the Exodus, this mysterious Pillar seems the first to demand explanation' [W. Pythian-Adams]. The account in Exodus 13, so difficult to reconcile with what we know about the facts of 'history', is in perfect accord with the facts of comparative mythology, where the World Pillar forms a universal motive. Indeed, in many traditions the World Pillar is expressly described as a pillar of fire."
- Efemeral Research Foundation, "Exploring the Saturn Myth"

The Egyptian word Keftiu, likely derived from a root meaning 'pillar', is generally accepted as referring to Crete. Was the pillar described in Exodus merely a myth? Compare the following lines describing the eruption of Etna:

"By day a burning steam of smoke; but by night a ruddy eddying flame."
- Pindar, Odes Pythia, I, 22-24

The eruption of Thera so distant from the Nile delta, however, that the Israelites would not have seen anything so striking as a pillar of fire, especially after the ash cloud darkened the sky. If the pillar of smoke and fire refers to a volcanic event it must have been much closer at hand.

Conventional dating places the eruption of Thera during the early 18th Dynasty (1539-1425 BC) and the Exodus during the reign of Ramesses II (or, less probably, that of his successor Merneptah). Placing the Exodus during this period, however, is not supported by archaeological findings in Egypt and Israel.
179 years before Ramesses II took the throne, "in the year 22" of the reign of Thutmose III (ca. 1504 to 1450 B.C.E.), numerous fire circles were sighted and "fishes and volatiles fell down from the sky", phenomena which may have been associated with a large volcanic event. In addition, pumice from the eruption of Thera, has been identified within a stratified context at Tell ed-Daba (Ezbet Helmi) which spans the period from Ahmose to Thutmose III.
Unambiguous dating from bristle cone pines, however, places the Thera eruption at 1628/7 B.C.E., throwing the dates of the Egyptian rulers into serious doubt.

For evidence dating the Exodus to the Second Intermediate Period, see:
In the Land of Goshen.

"After the Exodus, there arose among the Hebrews a historic tradition of associating God with a fiery cloud. It is possible that the tradition survives as a distorted and poorly understood memory of Theran ash storms. In the Book of Numbers, the Lost Ark of the Covenant...was often overshadowed by God's cloud, which struck out and consumed enemies, and on occasion even set part of the Hebrew camp afire: "
- Charles Pellegrino, Unearthing Atlantis (1991) p. 81

"On the day the tabernacle, the Tent of the Testimony, was set up, the cloud covered it. From evening till morning the cloud above the tabernacle looked like fire. That is how it continued to be; the cloud covered it, and at night it looked like fire. Whenever the cloud lifted from above the Tent, the Israelites set out; wherever the cloud settled, the Israelites encamped. "
- Numbers 9:15-17

The Kabbalah

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Early Cosmogonic Speculation

(1) A Mystical System Rooted in Antiquity

Legendary Beginnings

"The Qabalah may be defined as being the esoteric Jewish doctrine. It is called in Hebrew QBLH, Qabalah, which is derived from the root QBL, Qibel, meaning 'to receive'. This appellation refers to the custom of handing down the esoteric tradition by oral transmission, and is nearly allied to 'tradition'."
"The Qabalah was first taught by God himself to a select company of angels, who formed a theosophic school in Paradise. After the Fall the angels most graciously communicated this heavenly doctrine to the disobedient children of earth, they furnish the protoplasts with the means of returning to their pristine nobility and felicity. From Adam it passed over to Noah, and then to Abraham, the friend of God, who emigrated with it to Egypt, where the patriarch allowed a portion of this mysterious doctrine to ooze out. It was in this way that the Egyptians obtained some knowledge of it, and the other Eastern nations could introduce it into their philosophical systems. Moses, who was learned in all the wisdom of Egypt, was first initiated into the Qabalah in the land of his birth, but became most proficient in it during his wanderings in the wilderness, when he not only devoted to it the leisure hours of the whole forty years, but received lessons in it from one of the angels. By the aid of this mysterious science the law-giver was enabled to solve the difficulties which arose during his management of the Israelites, in spite of the pilgrimages, wars, and frequent miseries of the nation. He covertly laid down the principles of this secret doctrine in the first four books of the Pentateuch, but withheld them from Deuteronomy. Moses also initiated the seventy elders into the secrets of this doctrine, and they again transmitted them from hand to hand."
- McGregor Mathers, Introduction to The Kabbalah Unveiled

"In exactly the same way, when the true interpretation of the Law according to the command of God, divinely handed down to Moses, was revealed, it was called the Kabbalah, a word which is the same among the Hebrews as 'reception' among ourselves; for this reason, of course, that one man from another, by a sort of hereditary right, received that doctrine not through written records but through a regular succession of revelations....In these books principally resides, as Esdras with a clear voice justly declared, the spring of understanding, that is, the ineffable theology of the supersubstantial deity; the fountain of wisdom, that is, the exact metaphysic of the intellectual and angelic forms; and the stream of knowledge, that is, the most steadfast philosophy of natural things."
- Pico della Mirandola

"The goal of the Kabbalah is to obtain a complete understanding of God, the universe and their inter-relationships. It strives to achieve this understanding through the use of symbols and analogies, particularly the Jewish holy books."
- Simcha Kuritzky, "Kabbalistic Magic" Part IV

To Jewish mystics, every letter in the Hebrew alphabet was a channel to the life force of God and possessed of sacred meaning. Hebrew numbers were also represented by letters so that names and words had numerical values. Finding associations of words with the same value revealed a complex series of hidden meanings beneath the text of the Torah, the book of law attributed to Moses. In fact, the entire Torah can be considered to be a single long word spelling out one of the names of God. The significance of the name of God goes back to ancient Egypt where knowing the name of a god allowed one to gain power over that god.

"Strange and sometimes obscure are the names given to God, the King who thrones in His glory. We find names such as Zoharariel, Adiriron, Akhtaricl,' and Totrossiyah (or Tetrassiyah, i. e. the Tetras or fourfoldness of the letters of God's name YHWH?), names which to the mystics may have signified various aspects of God's glory. In this context it is well to remember that the chief peculiarity of this form of mysticism, its emphasis on God's might and magnificence, opens the door to the transformation of mysticism into theurgy; there the master of the secret 'names' himself takes on the exercise of power in the way described in the various magical and theurgical procedures of which this literature is full. The language of the theurgist conforms to that of the Merkabah mystic. Both are dominated by the attributes of power and sublimity, not love or tenderness. It is entirely characteristic of the out-look of these believers that the theurgist, in adjuring the 'Prince of Divine Presence,' summons the archons as 'Princes of Majesty, Fear and Trembling.' Majesty, Fear and Trembling are indeed the key-words to this Open Sesame of religion."
- Gershom G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941/1961) pp. 56-57

The Kabbalah "uncovers many of the infinite layers of the secrets of life, of Creation, of the soul, of the heavenly spheres.
It penetrates beyond the garments and the body of the Torah.
It is the very core and soul of Torah, the ultimate revelation of Divinity - exposing the inner meaning, effects and purpose of Torah and mitzvot.
The illumination emanating from the Kabbalah ignites the soul of man, setting it on fire in the awareness of a deeper and higher reality. Its study and insights are themselves mystical experiences.
The Kabbalah is all this - but always and exclusively within the context of Torah."
- "The Authenticity of Kabbalah"

Prophets and Visions
The early plebeian Israelites were Canaanites and Phoenicians, with the same worship of the Phallic gods - Bacchus, Baal or Adon, Iacchos - Iao or Jehovah'; but even among them there had always been a class of initiated adepts. Later, the character of this plebe was modified by Assyrian conquests; and, finally, the Persian colonizations superimposed the Pharisean and Eastern ideas and usages, from which the Old Testament and Mosaic institutes were derived. The Asmonean priest-kings promulgated the canon of the Old Testament in contradistinction to the Apocrypha or Secret Books of the Alexandrian Jews - kabbalists."
- H. P. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled

"Early Hebrew prophecy and Bacchism are similar in some aspects. The Qabbalists called the Holy Spirit, the mother, and the Church of Israel, the daughter. Solomon engraved on the walls of his Temple, likenesses of the male and female principles, to adumbrate this mystery; such it is said, were the figures of the cherubim. This was, however, not in obedience to the words of the Torah. They were symbolical of the Upper, the spiritual, the former or maker, positive or male, and the Lower, the passive, the negative or female, formed or made by the first."
- Isaac Myer, The Qabbalah

"Each soul and spirit prior to its entering into this world, consists of a male and female united into one being. When it descends on this earth the two parts separate and animate two different bodies. At the time of marriage, the Holy One, blessed be He, who knows all souls and spirits, unites them again as they were before, and they again constitute one body and one soul, forming as it were the right and left of one individual."
- The Hebrew Zohar
"'And when They are conjoined together, They appear to be only one body.'
"Hence we learn that the Masculine, taken alone appeareth to be only half the body, so that all the mercies are half; and thus also is it with the Feminine.
"'But when They are joined together, the (two together) appear to form only one whole body. And it is so.'
"So also here. When the Male is joined with the Female, They both constitute one complete body, and all the Universe is in a state of happiness, because all things receive blessing from Their perfect body. And this is an Arcanum."
- The Kabbalah Unveiled

"...The earliest Jewish mystics who formed an organized fraternity in Talmudic times and later, describe their experience in terms derived from the diction characteristic of their age. They speak of the ascent of the soul to the Celestial Throne where it obtains an ecstatic view of the majesty of God and the secrets of His Realm. A great distance separates these old Jewish Gnostics from the Hasidic mystics one of whom said:' 'There are those who serve God with their human intellect, and others whose gaze is fixed on Nothing.... He who is granted this supreme experience loses the reality of his intellect, but when he returns from such contemplation to the intellect, he finds it full of divine and inflowing splendor.' And yet it is the same experience which both are trying to express in different ways."
- Gershom G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941/1961) p. 5

The earliest visionary experiences centered on the throne-chariot of God (merkabah).

"The Rabbis of the Talmud speculated on these mysteries, particularly when they were commenting on Genesis and the visions of Ezekiel. [See 'References in Pharisaic Circles'.] The speculations were later embroidered by new ideas that entered Jewish thought from the Syriac Greeks, the Zoroastrian Babylonians, and the Gnostic sect of the Byzantium Christians. From these foreign and domestic concepts and myths, the Jews wove into their mysticism ideas of upper and neither worlds, angels, and demons, ghosts and spirits - ideas that had been unknown or of little importance to the Jews until then."
"By the first century it had become a proper subject for scholarly study. Philo Judaeus speculated on the Platonic idea of emanations as intermediaries between God and the physical world. The Roman philosopher Plotinus (205-270) traveled in the East and returned to combine Indian, Persian, Greek, and Jewish mystic theories into a systematic structure of these emanations."
- Harry Gersh, The Sacred Books of the Jews

According to Plotinus (205-270 AD), "there are stages in the soul's ladder of ascent. The first includes purification, the freezing of the soul from the body, and the practice of the cardinal virtues. In the second the soul rises above sense-perception to Nous through contemplation. A third and higher stage, already ineffable, leads to union with Nous. Finally there is the climax of the whole ascent in mystical and ecstatic union with the One."
- John Ferguson, An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Mysticism and the Mystery Religions

"He will lapse again from the vision: but let him again awaken the virtue which is in him, again know himself made perfect in splendor; and he shall be again lightened of his burden, ascending through virtue to Nous, and then through wisdom to the Supreme."
- Plotinus

"As the Kabbalah evolved, it came to share certain ideas with other ancient mystical systems, including those of the Gnostics and Pythagoreans. The Kabbalah did not restrict itself solely to instruction on the apprehension of God but included teachings on cosmology, angelology, and magic."
- Ancient Wisdom and Secret Sects

"Many of the basic ideas and principles found in the Kabbalah are also found in Gnosticism because both were in the Eastern Mediterranean near the time of Christ. Both attach an importance to knowledge, called the 'gnosis' or the knowledge of God. This knowledge does not come from rational thinking but is inspired by God. As in Gnosticism, sin is not considered to be wrong doing but ignorance which separates humankind from God. The knowledge, specifically the 'gnosis', unites humankind to God - to know God is to be God. Those sharing this 'gnosis' are the elect; they are the enlightened ones who share the knowledge of God, although they may not lead perfect lives."
- Alan G. Hefner, "Kabbalah"

"Thou shalt have no business with secret things."
- Apocryphal Book of Ben Sirach 3:22 (2nd century BC)

Kabbalism "is distinguished by renewed interest in purely cosmogonic speculation, whose spirit often enough is entirely Gnostic. In the earlier literature - certainly during the phase represented by the Hekhaloth -theoretical questions have no place; its spirit is descriptive, not speculative, and this is particularly true of the best examples of this genre. Nevertheless it is possible that there was a speculative phase in the very beginning and that the famous passage in the Mishnah which forbids the questions: 'What is above and what is below? What was before and what will be after?' refers to theoretical speculation in the manner of the Gnostics who strove after 'the knowledge of who we were, and what we have become, where we were or where we are placed, whither we hasten, from what we are redeemed.'
- Gershom G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941/1961) p. 74

(2) Documents from the Talmudic Era

Spelling and Pronunciation Conventions

Hechalot / Hekhaloth ends with a "t" as there is no "th" sound in modern Hebrew.

Merkavah / Merkabah is written with the letter Bet (without a dot inside) and is pronounced as the English letter "v".

Sfirot / Sphirot is written with the letter Peh (without a dot inside) and pronounced as an "f". The letter is often written as "ph" because there is no "f" in Hebrew.

Both Merkavah and Hekhalot contain the letter Khet which has no equivalent in English. (It is not pronounced as it is written "kh" but has a guttural sound.)

(Thanks to Liora Bernstein)

The Origins of Hekhalot Literature
"Not only have the seers perceived the celestial hosts, heaven with its angels, but the whole of this apocalyptic and pseudepigraphic literature is shot through with a chain of new revelations concerning the hidden glory of the great Majesty, its throne, its palace...the celestial spheres towering up one over the other, paradise, hell, and the containers of the souls."
- Baldensperger, Die messianisch-apokalyptischen Hoffnungen des Judentums, p. 68

"The Hekhaloth were different 'chambers' or 'halls' through which mystics advanced during meditation."
- Alan G. Hefner, "Hekhaloth"

A reference to imagery of the Hekhalot can be found in the apocryphal Fourth Book of Ezra, written around the end of the 1st c. CE.

"O Lord who inhabitest eternity, whose eyes are exalted and whose upper chambers [hekhaloth] are in the air, whose throne [merkavah] is beyond measure and whose glory is beyond comprehension, before whom the hosts of angels stand trembling and at whose command they are changed to wind and fire..."
- 4 Ezra 8:21-22a

"The Hekhalot literature is a bizarre conglomeration of Jewish esoteric and revelatory texts produced sometime between late antiquity and the early Middle Ages. The documents have strong connections with earlier apocalyptic and gnostic literature and claim to describe the self-induced spiritual experiences of the 'descenders to the chariot' that permitted these men to view Ezekiel's chariot vision [the Merkavah] for themselves, as well as to gain control of angels and a perfect mastery of Torah through theurgy."
"This material is of particular interest for the study of divine mediation and mystical/revelatory experiences, because the Hekhalot documents claim to detail actual practices used to reach trance states, gain revelations, and interact with divine mediators."
- James R. Davila, "Hekhalot Literature and Mysticism"

Baruch Halperin "observes that, by reciting given texts from the hekhalot literature, the student was able to achieve the same results as those who actually experienced the ascent."
- Dr. Steven S. Tuell, "Deus absconditus in Ezekiel's Prophecy"

According to Sitrey Tefila ve-Hekhalot (Mysteries of Jewish Prayer and Heavenly Palaces) Hekhalot literature frequently served as the inspiration for liturgical texts of the Talmudic period

"The outstanding documents of the movement appear to have been edited in the fifth and sixth centuries when its spirit was still alive and vigorous. It is difficult to establish exact dates for the various writings, but everything points to the period before the expansion of Islam. The world reflected in this literature has evoked in the mind of more than one scholar comparisons with the pattern of Byzantine society. But there is no reason for assuming that the descriptions of the celestial throne and the heavenly court simply reflect the mundane reality of the Byzantine or Sassanid court, if only because the roots of their central theme go much too far back for such an hypothesis. At the same time there can be no reasonable doubt that the atmosphere of these writings is in harmony with contemporary political and social conditions.
"All our material is in the form of brief tracts, or scattered fragments of varying length from what may have been voluminous works; in addition there is a good deal of almost shapeless literary."
- Gershom G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941/74) p. 44

The Scribes
"The only sustained effort to locate the community behind the Hekhalot literature has been made by David Halperin [Faces of the Chariot: Early Jewish Responses to Ezekiel's Vision, 1988]. He argues, on the basis of a passage found in some manuscripts of the Sar Torah text (paras. 304-305), that the 'people of the land,' the uneducated people who were held in contempt by the rabbis, made theurgic use of the myth of the ascent of Moses to seize the Torah from heaven, and that the result was the Hekhalot literature."
"I propose then, that the composers of the Hekhalot literature were a group of professional scribes who lacked formal rabbinic training and whose socio-economic position probably suffered as a result. They envied the superior station of the rabbis and defied them with another skill common in their own profession -- magic. The 'descenders to the chariot' (the only self-designation they have given us) were familiar with and no doubt transmitted, augmented, and used the Jewish magical literature. But they also developed a strain of magical praxis that from an anthropological perspective is closer to shamanism than anything else. They were, to paraphrase Hultkrantz ['A Definition of Shamanism', Temenos 9 (1973) 25-37], social functionaries who, with the help of guardian spirits, attained ecstasy in order to create a rapport with the supernatural world on behalf of the members of their group. According to their beliefs they used theurgy to compel angels to take them to the otherworld and to give them an infallible knowlege of Torah. They in turn passed on the power from their experiences to their community (which on various levels seems to have been as narrow as a circle of adepts and as broad as the human race)."
- James R. Davila, "Hekhalot Literature and Mysticism"

"Hekhalot texts do tend to summon angels (never God, I believe) in a very premptory way, and they ask for various types of esoteric wisdom and theurgic power."
- James R. Davila, "Ancient Magic (The Prayer of Jacob)"

"According to an account given in the 'Greater Hekhaloth', which one is tempted to correlate with a similar passage at the end of the Fourth Book of Ezra, it was even the custom to place scribes or stenographers to the right and left of the visionary who wrote down his ecstatic description of the throne and its occupants."
- Gershom G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941/1961) p. 63

"He [the Lord] answered me and said, 'Go and gather the people, and tell them not to seek you for forty days. But prepare for yourself many writing tablets, and take with you Sarea, Dabria, Selemia, Ethanus, and Asiel -- these five, because they are trained to write rapidly; and you shall come here, and I will light in your heart the lamp of understanding, which shall not be put out until what you are about to write is finished. And when you have finished, some things you shall make public, and some you shall deliver in secret to the wise; tomorrow at this hour you shall begin to write.'"
"And on the next day, behold, a voice called me, saying, 'Ezra, open your mouth and drink what I give you to drink.' Then I opened my mouth, and behold, a full cup was offered to me; it was full of something like water, but its color was like fire. And I took it and drank; and when I had drunk it, my heart poured forth understanding, and wisdom increased in my breast, for my spirit retained its memory; and my mouth was opened, and was no longer closed. And the Most High gave understanding to the five men, and by turns they wrote what was dictated, in characters which they did not know. They sat forty days, and wrote during the daytime, and ate their bread at night."
- 4 Ezra 14:23-26, 36-42

The End of a a Living Movement
The unedited texts of the oldest documents, the "Lesser Hekhaloth" are full of voces mysticae. "Every secret name seemed to provide a further piece of protective armour against the demons-up to the point where the magical energy was no longer sufficient to overcome the obstacles which blocked the way to the Merkabah [throne-chariot of God]. This point is really the end of the movement as a living force; from then on it degenerates into mere literature."
- Gershom G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941/1961) p. 51

"For my friend [Rabbi Akiba], who endures the suffering of ascending and descending to the merkabah, I have fixed a blessing [to be recited] three times a day in the heavenly court and in the earthly court. I will love and I will redeem any household where it is repeated"
- Hekhalot Zutarti

"The implication seems to be: Akiba made the hazardous journey; stay-at-homes who recite the appropriate formula can share, vicariously, in its benefits."
- Baruch Halperin, 'A New Edition of the Hekhalot Literature,' JAOS 104 (1984): 550

"...In the Merkabah mysticism with which we are dealing here, the idea of the Shekhinah ['light of God'] and of God's immanence plays practically no part at all. The one passage in the 'Greater Hekhaloth' which has been adduced as proof of the existence of such conceptions is based on an obviously corrupt text. The fact is that the true and spontaneous feeling of the Merkabah mystic knows nothing of divine immanence; the infinite gulf between the soul and God the King on His throne is not even bridged at the climax of mystical ecstasy.
"Not only is there for the mystic no divine immanence, there is also almost no love of God. What there is of love in the relationship between the Jewish mystic and his God belongs to a much later period and has nothing to do with our present subject. Ecstasy there was and this fundamental experience must have been a source of religious inspiration, but we find no trace of a mystical union between the soul and God. Throughout there remained an almost exaggerated consciousness of God's other, nor does the identity and individuality of the mystic become blurred even at the height of ecstatic passion. The Creator and His creature remain apart, and nowhere is an attempt made to bridge the gulf between them or to blur the distinction. The mystic who in his ecstasy has passed through all the gates, braved all the dangers, now stands before the throne; he sees and hears - but that is all. All the emphasis is laid on the kingly aspect of God, not his creative one..."
- Gershom G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941/1961) pp. 55-56

(3) The "Greater Hekhalot"

Descent of the Merkabah (Throne-chariot of God)
The "Greater Hekhalot" is "is the Jewish visionary text of the Hekhaloth school originating from the Talmudic phase of Jewish mysticism during the first century AD."
- Alan G. Hefner, "Greater Hekhaloth"

The written version as it survives today is dated ca. 500 C.E.

"In the 'Greater Hekhaloth'...and from then on in almost all the later writings, the visionary journey of the soul to heaven is always referred to as the 'descent to the Merkabah.' The paradoxical character of this term is all the more remarkable because the detailed description of the mystical process nonetheless consistently employs the metaphor of ascent and not of descent. The mystics of this group call themselves Yorde Merkabah, i. e. 'descenders to the Merkabah' (and not 'Riders in the Chariot,' as some translators would have it),' and this name is also given to them by others throughout the whole literature down to a late period. The authors of the 'Greater Hekhaloth' refer to the existence of these Yorde Merkabah as a group with some sort of organization and identify them in the usual legendary fashion with the circle of Johanan ben Zakkai and his disciples. Since the 'Greator Hekhaloth' contain Palestinian as well as Babylonian elements - the earliest chapters in particular bear unmistakable traces, in their subject-matter as well as their style, of Palestinian influence - it is not inconceivable that the organization of these groups did indeed take place in late Talmudic times (fourth or fifth century) on Palestinian soil. As a matter of ascertained fact, however, we only know of their existence in Babylonia, from where practically all mystical tracts of this particular variety made their way to Italy and Germany; it is these tracts that have come down to us in the form of manuscripts written in the late Middle Ages.."

"Originally, we have here [in the 'Greater Hekhaloth'] a Jewish variation on one of the chief preoccupations of the second and third century gnostics and hermetics: the ascent of the soul from the earth, through the spheres of the hostile planet-angels and rulers of the cosmos, and its return to its divine home in the 'fullness' of God's light, a return which, to the gnostic's mind, signified Redemption. Some scholars consider this to be the central idea of Gnosticism.' Certainly the description of this journey, of which a particularly impressive account is found in the second part of the 'Greater Hekhaloth,' is in all its details of a character which must be called gnostic."
- Gershom G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941/1961) pp. 47, 49

Liturgical Power of the Hekhalot Tracts
"The most important sources for our understanding of this atmosphere are undoubtedly the numerous prayers and hymns which have been preserved in the Hekhaloth tracts. Tradition ascribes them to inspiration, for, according to the mystics, they are nothing but the hymns sung by the angels, even by the throne itself, in praise of God. In chapter iv of the 'Greater Hekhaloth,' in which these hymns occupy an important place, we find an account of how Rabbi Akiba, the prototype of the Merkabah visionary, was inspired to hear them sung at the very throne of glory before which his soul was standing. Conversely, their recitation serves to induce a state of ecstasy and accompanies the traveller on his journey through the gates. Some of these hymns are simply adjurations of God; others take the form of dialogues between God and the heavenly dwellers, and descriptions of the Merkabah sphere."
- Gershom G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941/1961) p. 57

"His throne radiates before Him and His palace is full of splendor.
His Majesty is becoming and His Glory is an adornment for Him.
His servants sing before Him and proclaim the might of His wonders, as King of all kings and Master of all masters, encircled by rows of crowns, surrounded by the ranks of the princes of splendor.
With a gleam of His ray he encompasses the sky and His splendor radiates from the heights.
Abysses flame from His mouth and Armaments sparkle from His body."
- "Zoharariel, Adonai, God of Israel," in the "Greater Hekhaloth"

"The Hekhalot Rabbati begins with R. Ishmael's question, 'What are these songs that one recites who seeks to observe the vision of the chariot so as to descend safely and to ascend safely?' (para. 81). Starting in para. 94, songs of the angels who attend the throne of God are given. This collection of songs concludes, 'R. Ishmael said: R. Akiva heard all these songs when he descended to the chariot. He seized and learned them from before the throne of glory, for His attendants were singing before it' (para. 106). Near the end of the Hekhalot Rabbati we are given a set of songs that are recited daily by the throne of glory, which the descender to the chariot should also sing (paras. 251-57 = 260-66). The Maaseh Merkavah begins with R. Ishmael requesting 'a prayer by which a man prays the praise of RWZYY YHWH God of Israel' (para. 544)."
- James R. Davila, "Hekhalot Literature and Shamanism"

"From the text itself it is clear that the one who descends to the Chariot ascends to the upper worlds only in spirit, whereas his body remains among his disciples as if lifeless. When he returns from his mystical voyage it is as if he wakes up, his soul returns to his body, and he turns and speaks to his disciples as usual. In modern language, one can hypothesize that this was some type of trance, a suspension of the senses, in which the person is cut off from the reality around him and feels his soul floating in another realm. Some of the hymns of the Chariot include sections which repeat themselves with a cadence, and one my hypothesize that they were used by those who descended to the Chariot as part of the ceremony which brought the individuals to the above mentioned emotional state."
- Joseph Dan, The Ancient Jewish Mysticism (1993), p. 119

"You are declared holy, God of heaven and earth,
Lord of Lords,
Magnificent One of magnificent ones,
God of the cherubim,
Rider of the cherubim.
God of hosts,
And His rulership is over the hosts.
God of the attendants,
And His name is declared holy over the attendants.
He is His name and His name is He.
He is in He and His name is in His name.
A song is His name and His name is a song.
ZWPH ZP ZWY ZY HSY HWHSYN RMYY YHH HW RG BRQ GH HW YLH HY H HW HWB DRY YL RHY RS L DRW ZRYZ Y' WY' ZRYZ. Eye to eye, strength in strength, might in might, greatness in greatness, support in support, poor in poor, shadow 'in the shadow of DY he will take refuge.' (Ps 91:1). You are declared holy, King of the world, since everything depends on Your arm and all declare praise to Your name, for You are the Lord of the worlds and there is none like You in all the worlds. Blessed are You YY', the holy One in the chariot, rider of cherubim.'"
- Maaseh Merkavah (para. 588)

"Almost all the hymns from the Hekhaloth tracts, particularly those whose text has been preserved intact, reveal a mechanism comparable to the motion of an enormous fly-wheel. In cyclical rhythm // the hymns succeed each other, and within them the adjurations of God follow in a crescendo of glittering and majestic attributes, each stressing and reinforcing the sonorous power of the world. The monotony of their rhythm - almost all consist of verses of four words - and the progressively sonorous incantations induce in those who are praying a state of mind bordering on ecstasy. An important part of this technique is the recurrence of the key-word of the numinous, the kedushah, the trishagion from Isaiah vl, 3, in which the ecstasy of the mystic culminates: holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts. One can hardly conceive of a more grandiose proof of the irresistible influence which the conception of God's kingdom exercised on the consciousness of these mystics. The 'holiness' of God, which they are trying to paraphrase, is utterly transcendent of any moral meaning and represents nothing but glory of His Kingdom. Through various forms of the prayer known as the kedushah, this conception has also found its way into the general Jewish liturgy and left its imprint on it."
- Gershom G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941/1961) pp. 59-60

"Alone this meditative journey the divine names of God would be repeated in a Mantra while the mystics would project their consciousnesses into spirit-vehicles which journey to each hall in turn. In each of the chambers a sacred 'seal' was presented to an archangel who guarded that chamber.
"Just before reaching the seventh chamber, the mystics would enter a chariot that would lift each of them up to a profound state of mystical ecstasy, an experience called Merkabah."
- Alan G. Hefner, "Greater Hekhaloth"

"That the mystic in his rapture even succeeded in penetrating beyond the sphere of the angels is suggested in a passage which speaks of 'God who is beyond the sight of His creatures and hidden to the angels who serve Him, but who has revealed Himself to Rabbi Akiba in the vision of the Merkabah.'"
- Gershom G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941/1961) p. 63

Ascending the Seven Heavens

(1) Preparation

Physical Characteristics of Initiates
"Physiognomy:
a. The art of judging human character from facial features.
b. Divination based on facial features."
- American Heritage Dictionary

"(Anyone) whose [hair color (?)] is medium and not extreme, whose eyes are 'neither light nor dark, whose nose is long 'and attractive, whose teeth are even, whose beard 'is sparse but not extremely so, whose limbs 'are [s]mooth [and neither] thin nor thick: '[ ] He will possess a [sp]irit '[characterized by... He will suffer] oppression."
- 4Q561 ("An Aramaic Horoscope") Col. 3
"He who is born in the constellation of Libra, on the first day, in Jupiter or in the moon: when he, the child, is born in these two hours, he is only born little and small and sallow. And he shall have a sign on the fingers of his hands and the toes of his feet, or an extra finger [or 'toe'] on his hands or on his feet. And this man shall be a ready . And three lines in (the form of) crowns are on his forehead and the middle one is broken into three, and they are wide lines. And he is one of the good. And at the age of seven months and ten days he shall become sick and shall be in hot water. They shall ascend upon him and anyone who sees him says that he shall not be saved from this...."
- 3 Enoch 2b 15-22

"The Hekhalot literature itself does not indicate how one is chosen to become a descender to the chariot. However, a closely related and overlapping genre of literature, the physiognomic texts, seems to indicate that certain physical characteristics are required of initiates in order for them to be accepted into the group. One of these, 'The Physiognomy of R. Ishmael [PRI],' is a Hebrew text originally published from several manuscripts by Gershom Scholem, who dates it to the Talmudic period....Presented as a revelation to R. Ishmael by the angel Suriah (as in the Hekhalot literature), it describes the outward physical characteristics that indicate to the initiated whether a person is righteous or wicked and what that person's fate shall be. A number of the descriptions of the righteous tend to indicate that they are numbered among the descenders to the chariot. They are repeatedly described as 'meriting (from one to four) crowns' (PRI paras. 5, 12, 18, 37), which brings to mind the various references to the Great Seal and Fearsome Crown mentioned in the Hekhalot literature (e.g., paras. 318-21 = 651-54). One description indicates that the subject is 'a son of two worlds' (PRI para. 4), which Scholem compares to the comment in Merkavah Rabba that the reciter of the Shi'ur Qomah' has good in this world and rest for the world to come' (para. 705). Another reads, 'And if he has one (line) that stands on his forehead, thus he ascends opposite those who bind on crowns' (PRI para. 32). Scholem points out that 'binders of crowns' seem to be a category of angel mentioned twice in the Hekhalot Rabbati. Other passages describe the good man as exceptionally wise (PRI para. 20) and 'a son of Torah' (PRI para. 31), both characteristics of those who participate in Sar Torah theurgy."
- James R. Davila, "Hekhalot Literature and Shamanism"

"Chapter 13 of the 'Greater Hekhaloth' lists eight moral requisites of initiation." Also this fragment, "in which the angel Suriyah reveals to Ishmael - one of the two principal figures of our Hekhaloth tracts - the secrets of chiromancy [palm reading] and physiognomy, has a title taken from Isaiah III, 9: Hakkarath Panim, i. e. 'perception of the face,' and in fact this passage from Isaiah first received a physiognomic interpretation in the fourth century, as a Talmudic reference to the subject shows."
"Those who passed the test were considered worthy to make the 'descent' to the Merkabah which led them, after many trials and dangers, through the seven heavenly palaces, and before that through the heavens, their preparation, their technique, and the description of what is perceived on the voyage, are the subject-matter of the writings with which we are concerned.
- Gershom G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941/1961) pp. 48, 49

Induction of Trance States

"Let him who would join himself to the prince of Torah wash his garments and his clothes and let him immerse (in) a strict immersion as a safeguard in case of pollution. And let him dwell for twelve days in a room or in an upper chamber. Let him not go out or come in, and he must neither eat nor drink. But from evening to evening see that he eats his bread, clean bread of his own hands, and he drinks pure water, and that he does not taste any kind of vegetable. And let him insert this midrash of the prince of Torah into the prayer three times in every single day; it is after the prayer that he should pray it from its beginning to its end. And afterward, let him sit and recite during the twelve days, the days of his fasting, from morning until evening, and let him not be silent. And in every hour that he finishes it let him stand on his feet and adjure by the servants (and?) by their king, twelve times by every single prince. Afterward let him adjure every single one of them by the seal."
- Instructions attributed to R. Akiva, Sar Torah, paras. 299-300

"The earliest documents (~100 - ~1000 A.D.) associated with Kabbalah describe the attempts of 'Merkabah' mystics to penetrate the seven halls (Hekhaloth) of creation and reach the Merkabah (throne-chariot) of God. These mystics used the familiar methods of shamanism (fasting, repetitious chanting, prayer, posture) to induce trance states in which they literally fought their way past terrible seals and guards to reach an ecstatic state in which they 'saw God'."
- Colin Low, "cabalah.cln"

"R. Ishmael said: I was thirteen years old and my heart was moved on each day that began with fasting. As soon as R. Nehuniah ben HaQanah revealed to me this mystery of Torah, Suriah, prince of the Presence, was revealed. He said to me: (As for) the prince of Torah, Yophiel is his name. Let anyone who seeks him sit forty days in fasting. Let him not eat his morsel with salt, nor let him eat any kind of filth. Let him immerse (with) twenty-four immersions. Let him not gaze on various dyed things. Let his eyes be pressed down to the earth and let him pray with all his might. Let him set his heart on his prayer, and let him seal himself with his seal and invoke twelve words."
"I sought this mystery, and I sat for twelve days in fasting. As soon as I saw that I could not serve by means of fasting, I made use of the name of forty-two letters. And PRQDS, the angel of the Presence, descended in rage, so that I shrank back, falling backward. He said to me: Mortal, son of a putrid drop, son of a maggot and a worm! You made use of a great name! It has taken for you arrays of Torah! I am not giving to you until you sit for forty days. At once I stood with all my might, and I carefully invoked three letters, and he ascended. (This: BR BYH GDWLT TYT BYH.) And I sat forty days in fasting and I prayed three prayers at dawn, three at noon, three at the afternoon offering, and three in the evening. And I invoked twelve words on every single one. And for the last day I prayed three (times) and invoked and PRQDS, the angel of the Presence, descended, and with him were angels of mercy. And they placed wisdom in the heart of R. Ishmael."
- Maaseh Merkavah, paras. 560, 565

"This mystical ascent is always preceded by ascetic practices whose duration in some cases is twelve days, in others forty. An account of these practices was given about 1000 A.D. by Hai ben Sherira, the head of a Babylonian academy. According to him, 'many scholars were of the belief that one who is distinguished by many qualities described in the books and who is desirous of beholding the Merkabah and the palaces of the angels on high, must follow a certain procedure. He must fast a number of days and lay his head between his knees and whisper many hymns and songs whose texts are known from tradition. Then he perceives the interior and the chambers, as if he saw the seven palaces with his own eyes, and it is as though he entered one palace after the other and saw what is there. The typical bodily posture of these ascetics is also that of Elijah in his prayer on Mount Carmel. It is an attitude of deep self-oblivion which, to judge from certain ethnological parallels, is favorable to the induction of pre-hypnotic autosuggestion. Dennys [The Folklore of China, p 60] gives a very similar description of a Chinese somnambulist in the act of conjuring the spirits of the departed: 'She sits down on a low chair and bends forward so that her head rests on her knees. Then, in a deep measured voice, she repeats three times an exorcism, whereupon a certain change appears to come over her. In the Talmud, too, we find this posture described as typical of the self-oblivion of a Hanina ben Dosa sunk in prayer, or of a penitent who gives himself over to God."
- Gershom G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941/1961) pp. 49-50

A common visionary experience shared by shamans during initiation is the disintegration and the reduction of the body to a skeleton. The following excerpt is from the Thanksgiving Psalms, attributed to the Teacher of Righteousness.

"All the foundations of my frame crumble. My bones are separated, and my bowels are like a ship in a raging storm. My heart roars as to destruction, and a spirit of staggering overwhelms me."
- 1QH + 4Q429 Frag. 1 Col. 15-4-5a

(2) The Journey

Gatekeepers and Dangers
"Finally, after such preparations, and in a state of ecstasy, the adept begins his journey. The 'Greater Hekhaloth' do not describe the details of his ascent through the seven heavens, but they do describe his voyage through the seven palaces situated in the highest heaven. The place of the gnostical rulers (archons) of the seven planetary spheres, who are opposed to the liberation of the soul from its earthly bondage and whose resistance the soul must overcome, is taken in this Judaized and monotheistic Gnosticism by the hosts of 'gate-keepers' posted to the right and left of the entrance to the heavenly hall through which the soul must pass in its ascent."
- Gershom G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941/1961) p. 50

"Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals."
- Revelation 5:1

"In the Hebrew [Book of Enoch] there is an account of the description given by the Patriarch to Rabbi Ishmael of his own metamorphosis into the angel Metatron, when his flesh was transformed into 'fiery torches.' According to the 'Greater Hekhaloth,' every mystic must undergo this transformation, but with the difference that, being less worthy than Enoch, he is in danger of being devoured by the 'fiery torches.'"
- Gershom G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941/1961) p. 52

A similar fiery danger can be found in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

"But You, O [G]od, You protect its [the trees of life's] fruit with the mystery of powerful warriors, holy spirits, and the whirling flame of fire so that none may [come to the] fountain of life, nor with eternal trees drink the waters of holiness, nor make his fruit flourish with [the plan]t of the heavens."
- Thanksgiving Hymn lQH + 4Q428 Frag. 7 16:11b-13a (attributed to the Teacher of Righteousness.)

Magical Seals and Passes
"The longest and most detailed description of the descent to the chariot is in R. Nehuniah's instructions to the academy in the Hekhalot Rabbati. After explaining how to summon the angel Suriah (para. 204...), he described how God sits enthroned in the center of the seven concentric palaces. Eight angels guarding the gate of each palace must be shown the proper seal (i.e., a nomen barbarum) before letting the descender to the chariot pass. The angels and seals for each gate are listed. In particular, the monstrous nature of the angels guarding the sixth and seventh palaces is belabored in horrific detail. However, the descender to the chariot who follows instructions exactly will pass through every obstacle to be welcomed before the throne of God and allowed to observe the angelic liturgy (paras. 205-37)."
- James R. Davila, "Hekhalot Literature and Shamanism"

"The discussions between the traveller and the gate-keepers of the sixth palace, the archons Domiel and Katspiel, which take up a good deal of space, clearly date back to very early times. One of their more unexpected features is the recurrence of rudiments of certain Greek formulae and standing expressions, which the editors in Babylonia were not longer capable of understanding and apparently regarded as magical names of the divinity'...It is difficult to say whether it indicates a concrete influence of Hellenistic religion, or whether the employment of Greek words by the Aramaic-speaking Jewish mystics is merely analogous to the predilection for Hebraic or pseudo-Hebraic formulae characteristic of the Greek-speaking circles for whom the Egyptian magical papyri were written."
- Gershom G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941/1961) pp. 53-54

"We [disciples including R. Ishmael the author] came and sat before him [Nehuniah ben HaQanah], and the associates were a whole crowd standing on their feet, because they were seeing to the globes of fire and the torches of light that they had set as a barrier between us and them. And R. Nehuniah ben HaQanah sat and set out in order all the matters of the chariot: descent and ascent; how one who descends, descends and how one who ascends, ascends: When a man seeks to descend into the chariot, he calls on Suriah, prince of the Presence, and adjures him one hundred and twelve times by WRWSYY YWY who is called WRWSYY WRQ WRBYL WPGR RWYLYY ZBWDYL and ZHRRYL NDL and QDHWZYY DHYBYRWN and DYRYRWN YWY God of Israel. And he must be careful not to add to the one hundred and twelve times, nor to subtract from them. And if he adds or subtracts, his blood is on his own head. But his mouth must only enunciate the names and the fingers of his hands must count to one hundred and twelve. And at once he will descend into and will have authority over the chariot. "
- Hekhalot Rabbati, paras. 203-205

"In both cases, the soul requires a pass in order to be able to continue its journey without danger: a magic seal made of a secret name which puts the demons and hostile angels to flight. Every new stage of the ascension requires a new seal with which the traveller 'seals himself' in order that, to quote a fragment, 'he shall not be dragged into the fire and the flame, the vortex and the storm which are around Thee, oh Thou terrible and sublime.' The 'Greater Hekhaloth' have preserved a quite pedantic description of this passport procedure; all the seals and the secret names are derived from the Merkabah itself where they 'stand like pillars of flame around the fiery throne' of the Creator.'
"It is the soul's need for protection on its journey which has produced these seals with their twin function as a protective armor and as a magical weapon. At first the magical protection of a single seal may be sufficient, but as time goes on the difficulties experienced by the adept tend to become greater. A brief and simple formula is no longer enough. Sunk in his ecstatic trance, the mystic at the same time experiences a sense of frustration which he tries to overcome by using longer and more complicated magical formulae, symbols of a longer and harder struggle to pass the closed entrance gates which block his progress. As his Psychical energy wanes the magical strain grows and the conjuring gesture becomes progressively more strained, until in the end whole pages are filled with an apparently meaningless recital of magical key-words with which he tries to unlock the closed door."
- Gershom G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941/1961) p. 50

Description of the Seven Heavens
"The cosmology of the Hekhalot literature is, not suprisingly, inconsistent in detail; but in its broad outlines it conforms well to the parameters of shamanic cosmology. A description of the world tree forms an inclusion for R. Nehuniah's instructions to the academy in the Hekhalot Rabbati. R. Nehuniah prefaces his instructions with the comments,"
- James R. Davila, "Hekhalot Literature and Shamanism"

"What does this character [of the descender to the chariot] resemble? A man who has a ladder inside his house on which he ascends and descends; there isn't any living creature who can prevent him....I will recite before [the academy] the mysteries, the concealed things, the gradations, wonders, and the weaving of the web that is the completion of the world and on which its plaiting stands, the axle of heaven and earth, to which all the wings of the earth and inhabited world and the wings of the firmaments on high are tied, sewn, fastened, hanged, and stand. And the way of the ladder on high is that its one head is on earth and its other head is on the right foot of the throne of glory."
- Hekhalot Rabbati, paras. 199, 201, cf. para. 237

"...The 'Greater Hekhaloth' gives promise of the revelation of 'the mysteries and wonderful secrets of the tissue on which the perfection of the world and its course depends, and the chain of heaven and earth along which all the wings of the universe and the wings of the heavenly heights are connected, sewn together, made fast and hung up'. But the promise is not carried out, the secret not revealed. The magnificence and majesty of God, on the other hand, this experience of the Yorde Merkabah which overwhelms and over-shadows all the others, is not only heralded but also described with an abundance of detail and almost to excess."
- Gershom G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941/1961) p. 56

"I [R. Akiva] had a vision of and observed the whole inhabited world and I saw it as it is. I ascended in a wagon of fire and gazed on the palaces of hail and I found GRWSQ GRNSQ that sits on MQLYLK'."
- Hekhalot Zutarti, para. 366

"To the dimensions of height, width, length and time the Kabbalists have added the dimension of spirituality. In the positive spiritual direction are the seven heavens. Farthest from Earth is Araboth, which contains uncreated objects and is the permanent residence of men's souls. It is associated with the emanation Greatness (Kindness). Makhon, the second heaven, contains the precipitants rain, snow, hail, fog, and dew. Makhon is presided over by Moses the Law Giver and the emanation Law, and emits a lightning bolt into Ma'on, the third heaven, presided over by Father Abraham who alters the bolt into four 'rays of foundation' corresponding to the four spheres of emanations along the central axis and are colored black, white, red and green. The third heaven is filled with harmonizing lights and sounds that sing praises to God, and is symbolized by the emanation Beauty. Above this is Zebhul, a spiritual Jerusalem corresponding to the emanation Victory which is the positive aspect of cosmic power. In this city is a tabernacle, personified by Metatron, with Michael as high priest, surrounded by the souls of martyrs. There is also a heavenly tribunal of seven lights. The fifth heaven is called Shekhakim and is associated with Glory. It contains millstones whch grind manna for the righteous and is presided over by Jacob and the twelve heads of the Israelite tribes. It is surrounded by a river of fire wherein reside the angels of destruction, and this river is held back by a colorless light of monotheism, which is fueled by prayers from below and projected out from Shekhakim as an archetypal alphabet of 22 colors."
- Simcha Kuritzky, "Kabbalistic Magic" Part IV

"Through the contraction and withdrawal of the Shekhinah, to allow for the contracted world of human experience, what remains are the 'sparks' of that contraction (tzimtzum), each of which inhabits a human soul. This spark, within each of us, is a source of divine wonder and splendor, which through prayer and ecstatic dance, may more fully enlighten our face, showing us the holiness within which we dwell. The 'great way' is through deep inner prayer, in which that spark longs to return to its supreme Source. The soul, in inward contemplation becomes a Throne and the light of the Shekhinah rests above the head and flows with luminous joy through and about the devout, deep in prayer."
- Zos Imos, "Jewish Mystical Traditions"

"Next is Rakiya, the firmament. Symbolized by the emanation Foundation, this heaven supports the heavenly bodies, which are endowed with divine knowledge. The lowest heaven is called Vilon (lit. veil), which shields the heavens during the day and 'rolls' down each night. It is associated with the Kingdom, is the main source [of] prophetic visions, and is presided over by Joseph, the interpreter of dreams. Below the Earth spiritually are seven abysses, known as Gehenna, Death's Shadow, Death's Gate, Filth, Destructive Whirlpools, Place of Perdition and Sheol. Interpretations on these vary considerably; however, it is generally held that they are made up of tohu (impure earth), bohu (impure water), and darkness (opposite of fire). Associated with the heavens, and perhaps above them, are the seven hekhalot (palaces) in the merkavah (Divine Chariot). The seventh palace leads to the Throne of God, symbolized by sapphire and emerald. Here the souls of mystics travel outside of their bodies and rise up to the Veil of God. The veil is not physical, for God has no physical form; it is a symbol for the limitations of Man's comprehension of God.
"These palaces are dangerous, and the mystics who travel them must carry with them the seals of the two angels designated for each gate to show to the eight angels who guard each of the seven entrance ways. Those that do not have the proper seals are said to be swept away in a fiery tornado. The sixth palace is particularly hazardous, for it is made of sparkling marble, and if the traveller mistakes it for water the angels chastise and punish him for his ignorance."
- Simcha Kuritzky, "Kabbalistic Magic" Part IV

"But if one was unworthy to see the King in his beauty, the angels at the gates disturbed his senses and confused him. And when they said to him: 'Come in,' he entered, and instantly they pressed him and threw him into the fiery lava stream. And at the gate of the sixth palace it seemed as though hundreds of thousands and millions of waves of water stormed against him, and yet there was not a drop of water, only the ethereal glitter of the marble plates with which the palace was tessellated. But he was standing in front of the angels and when he asked: 'What is the meaning of these waters,' they began to stone him and said: 'Wretch, do you not see it with your own eyes? Are you perhaps a descendant of those who kissed the Golden Calf, and are you unworthy to see the King in his beauty?'...And he does not go until they strike his head with iron bars and wound him. And this shall be a sign for all times that no one shall err at the gate of the sixth palace and see the ethereal glitter of the plates and ask about them and take them for water, that he may not endanger himself."
- Munich manuscript of the "Greater Hekhaloth"

"Once one negotiates the seven gates he will be seated in the bosom of God (of whom several names are given) (paras. 413-17). In this case the goal seems to be the magical granting of a wish. R. Akiva instructs,"
- James R. Davila, "Hekhalot Literature and Shamanism"

"Make your request (as follows): May there be favor from before You, YHWH God of Israel, our God and the God of our fathers. (_Nomina barbara_), may You give me grace and lovingkindness before Your throne of glory and in the sight of all Your attendants. And may You join to me all Your attendants so as to do such and such, O great, mighty, fearsome, strong, valiant, magnificent, and eminent God! "
- Hekhalot Zutarti, paras. 418-19

Sefer Yetsirah

(1) Background of the Book

Speculations on Genesis
"The two earliest forms of Jewish mysticism were maaseh merkabah, writings which explored the mysteries of the Throne on its Chariot as revealed in the first chapter of Ezekiel, and maaseh bereshith, speculations on the first chapter of Genesis with special emphasis placed on cosmology and cosmogony."
- The Secret Garden: An Anthology in the Kabbalah, David Meltzer Ed. (1976) p. 3

"The most influential book from the Maaseh Bereshit school is called Sefer Yetsirah, ('Book of Formation/Creation'), written sometime between the Third and Sixth centuries. This is the book of mystical teachings that appears in the episode Kaddish. These schools, as well as other less popular ones, merged to become what is still referred to as Kabbalah.
- B. Pilgrim, "A Monstrous Love: The X-Files, Kaddish, and Mystical Judaism"

Mythological Beginnings
"The Book is said to be Abraham's meditations on the laws of creation immediately before his first revelation from G*d (Gen 12.1-3). It portray the origin of the universe in the combinations, reversals, and augmentations of the letters and symbols which underline all human speech."
- "Sefer Yetsirah" Time Line

"When Abraham our father arose, he looked and saw and investigated and observed and engraved and hewed and combined and formed and calculated, and his creation was successful. Then the Master of all revealed Himself to him, and made a covenant with him and with his seed forever. He made a covenant with him on the ten fingers of his hands, and this is the covenant of the tongue; and on the ten toes of his feet, and this is the covenant of circumcision; and tied the twenty-two letters of the Torah to his tongue and revealed to him their secret. He drew them through water; stormed through air, He kindled them in fire, and melted them into ten double and twelve simple letters."
- Sefer Yetsirah 3:24 (translated by Phineas Mordell)

"The Sefer Yezira is believed to have come from the 'Oral Law' which the Lord gave to Moses on Mt. Sinai. Moses was said to have received the Oral Law along with the Written Law, according to Jewish tradition."
"The 'Oral Law' was passed from mouth to ear generation after generation until it was finally written down by Abraham, the patriarch. He is considered the original author of the Sefer Yezira who wrote the book upon his conversion from idol worshipper to the religion of the True God."
"According to a statement in Rokeah (Hasidut Zakuyyut 'Arum), at age 48, Abraham was moved by the deeds of the generation of the Tower of Babel to reflect on God and the universe. He first studied for three years by himself,. Afterwards, by the command of God, he was taught by Shem, until he became so wise he composed the Sefer Yezira.
Then God appeared to him, took him unto Himself, kissed him, called him His friend, and made a covenant with him and his descendants forever. (Legend of Jews, Ginsburg, 210 Sefer Yezira 6.)
"The 'tradition' (Qabala) was then passed down orally to his sons, then to:
Jeremiah, who passed it on to
Joseph b. Uziel, who passed it to his son,
Ben Sira who passed it to his son, Uziel.
It was transmitted until the sages of Jerusalem put it to writing at a time when the Jews were at a period of destruction, sometime in the first or second century AD."
- "History of the Sefer Yezira"

Dating the Written Work
"The written version has affinities with Babylonian, Egyptian and Hellenistic mysticism during the 2nd century BCE, when such a combination of influences was present. It became one of the most frequently and earliest published works of Jewish lore. Sefer Yetsirah was the first systematic treatise of Jewish mysticism between the 3rd and 6th century. Its influences were late Hellenistic and possibly Neoplatonic mathematical mysticism combined with Rabbinic Merkavah theories."
- "Sefer Yetsirah" Time Line

c. 70 C.E.
The oldest reference to the sephiroth is in the Talmud.

"Ten agencies through which G*d created the world, vis: wisdom, insight, cognition, strength, power, inexorableness, justice, right, lore, mercy."
- Talmud, Haggigah 12a

The sephiroth as combinations of the Holy name are also referred to in Sanhedrin 65b, 66b and 67.b .

"What [magic] is entirely permitted? Such as [the magic] performed by R. Hanina and R. 'Oshaia, who spend every Sabbath eve in studying the Laws of Creation, by means of which they created a third-grown calf, and ate it."
- Talmud, Sanhedrin 67a

"The Talmud does not specify how or why the 'Laws of Creation' worked, but the Sefer Yetzirah does. Creative magic 'worked' for the rabbis because Creation itself was, after the formation of the sefirot and the letters, a mechanical -- a magical -- process."
- Dr. David Blumenthal, Conclusion to "Understanding Jewish Mysticism"

120 C.E.
The authorship of Sefer Yetsirah is often attributed to Rabbi Akiba ben Joseph (c. 120 C.E.) who lived in time of Emperor Hadrian and was the pupil of R. Joshua ben Chananja. Akiba was later killed during the Bar Kochba revolt.

6th c. C.E.
The earliest references to the Sefer Yetsirah appear in the Baraita di-Shemu'el and in poems by Eleazar ha-Kalir.

11th c. C.E.
The earliest manuscript? of the Sefer Yetsirah - found in the Cairo Genizah and published by A.M. Habermann (1947).

According to Gershom Scholem, the Sefer Yetsirah was written some-time between the third and sixth centuries in Palestine "by a devout Jew with leanings towards mysticism...[his] aim was speculative and magical rather than ecstatic."
"It is the earliest systematic treatment of the Jewish mystical doctrine. It has been called the earliest scientific treatise in the Hebrew language. It contains the germ of a system of Hebrew phonetics and of a natural philosophy and physiology based on that doctrine."
- The Secret Garden: An Anthology in the Kabbalah, David Meltzer Ed. (1976) p. 41

A Speculative Treatise
"Sefer Yetsirah is extant in two versions: a shorter one which appears in most editions as the book itself, and a longer version which is sometimes printed as an appendix. [The total length is less than thirty-two pages.] Both versions were already in existence in the tenth century and left their imprint on the different types of the numerous manuscripts...In both versions the book is divided into six chapters of mishnayot or halakhit, composed of brief statements which present the author's argument dogmatically, without any explanation or substantiation. The first chapter in particular employs a sonorous, solemn vocabulary, close to that of the Merkabah literature. Few biblical verses are quoted. Even when their wording is identical, the different arrangement of the mishnayot in the two versions and their resultant altered relationship one with the other color the theoretical appreciation of the ideas."
- Gershom Scholem, Kabbalah (1978) p. 23

(2) The Spritual Dimension of Creation

"This book introduced the ten sefirot, the divine emanations of God. The sefirot evolved later into a central theme within Jewish mysticism, and literally became 'the central symbol system of Kabbalah.' Gematria was also born in bereshit mysticism. The Sefer Yetsirah gives an account of creation that involves the divine letters of the Hebrew alphabet in order to effect creation. Gematria is the system of recombining letters into mystical combinations, in order to effect that same creative process, and thereby achieve co-creatorship and healing of the universe."
- Ecstatic Kabbalah

Sefer Yetsirah, Chapter 1

Dr. David Blumenthal,
"Understanding Jewish Mysticism"

-------Verse 1-------

"With thirty-two wondrous paths of Wisdom engraved Yah, the Lord of Hosts, [God of Israel, the Living God, King of the Universe, Almighty God, merciful and gracious, High and Exalted, dwelling in eternity, whose name is Holy, and created His universe with three books, with text (Sepher), with number (Sephar), and with communication (Sippur)."

"The thirty-two wonderful paths of wisdom are the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet plus the first ten numbers of the decimal system. These ten numbers correspond to each of the Sephirot."

-------Verse 2-------

"Ten Sefirot of Nothingness plus twenty two [foundations] letters: Three Mothers, Seven Doubles, and Twelve Elementals."

"...Seven pairs of the letters [of the Hebrew alphabet] have the same shape, with one member of each pair having a dot in the middle. The dot changes the pronunciation of the letter slightly. These are the 'seven doubles.' Twelve letters have no dotted pairs, there are called 'simple letters'. That leaves three letters which the author calls the 'Mothers'."

-------Verse 3-------

"Ten Sefirot of Nothingness: The number of the ten fingers, five opposite five, with a single covenant precisely in the middle, like the circumcision of the tongue [speech] and the circumcision of the membrane [male organ]."

"The symbolism is two-fold: (1) the covenants of the flesh and of the spirit are the main tools of creation, the one human, the other divine; and (2) the sex organ and speech are the metaphors for the creative process."

-------Verse 4-------

"Ten Sefirot of Nothingness: Ten and not nine; ten and not eleven. Understand with Wisdom, and be wise with Understanding. Examine with them and probe them, make a thing stand on its essence, and make the Creator sit on his base."

"...The reader is told 'test' and 'explore' -- that is, to try to combine letters and numbers to 'create' as G-d did....By it, some rabbis were reported to be able to create small animals and homunculi (animated clay men; see the Golem). In performing these acts, the practitioner 'sets the Creator in His place,' i.e., becomes (in a small way) like him."

-------Verse 5-------

"Ten Sefirot of Nothingness: Their measure is ten which have no end. A depth of beginning, a depth of end; a depth of good, a depth of evil; a depth of above, a depth below; a depth east, a depth west; a depth north, a depth south. The singular Master, God faithful King, dominates them all from His holy dwelling until eternity of eternities."

"In this section the basic dimensions and 'borders' of reality are delineated: the physical dimension bounded by the six directions of the sphere, the temporal dimension bounded by beginning and end, and...the moral dimension of reality."

-------Verse 6-------

"Ten Sefirot of Nothingness: Their vision is like the 'appearance of lightning', their limit has no end. His Word in them is 'running and returning'. They rush to his saying like a whirlwind, and before His throne they prostrate themselves."

"And the living creatures [chayot] run and return like the appearance of lightning."
- Ezekiel 1:14

-------Verse 7-------

"Ten Sefirot of Nothingness: Their end is embedded in their beginning, and their beginning in their end, like a flame in a burning coal. For the Master is singular, He has no second. And before One, what do you count?"

"The first image here, 'end ... fixed in their beginning,' is easily decipherable: a circle, which is the perfect geometric form, is generated....Without the coal [God], there is no flame [the sephirot]. The flame is the coal in another form..."

-------Verse 8-------

"Ten Sefirot of Nothingness: Bridle your mouth from speaking and your heart from thinking. And if your heart runs, return to the place, as it is written, 'The Chayot running and returning'. Regarding this covenant was made."

"Note that it is the heart, and not the brain, which is the organ of thinking and consciousness. This is true in other rabbinic sources too, when one is told to 'direct one's heart' i.e., consciousness, to G-d. The 'covenant' is the agreement of the initiates not to speak openly of the mysteries."

-------Verse 9-------

"Ten Sefirot of Nothingness: One is the Breath of the Living God, blessed and benedicted be the Name of the Life of worlds. Voice, Breath and Speech. This is the Holy Breath (Ruach HaKodesh)."

"The enumeration of the sefirot begins. Each constitutes a realm within which the Creator carries out a specific creative activity."

-------Verse 10-------

"Two: Breath [Ruah] from Breath [Ruah Elohim Hayyim]. With it engrave and carve twenty-two foundation letters - three, Mothers, seven Doubles, and twelve Elementals - and one Breath [Avir] is from them."

Ruah Elohim Hayyim - 'the Spirit of living Elohim' "refers to the creative spirit of God, which is, however, not identical to God Himself."
Ruah - 'Spiritual Air' "is intangible, and offspring of Spirit yet different from it, and parallel to water and fire. The function is clear: it is the realm in which the holy letters are created."
Avir] - 'Elemental Air' "refers to air, one of the 'Four Elements' which encircle the Earth (cf. chap. 3 of Sefer Yetzirah)."

-------Verse 11-------

"Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God [Ruah Elohim Hayyim] was hovering over the waters."
- Genesis 1:2

"Three: Water and Breath. With it engrave and carve chaos and void, mire and clay. Engrave them like a garden plot, carve them like a wall, cover them like a ceiling."

"Note that, all through this section, the Creator's activities are described as 'hewing and engraving' or, better perhaps, as 'hewing and stamping' (as one stamps and image on a coin)."

-------Verse 12-------

"And God said, 'Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.' So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. God called the expanse 'sky.'"
- Genesis 1:6-7

"Four: Fire from water. With it engrave and carve the Throne of Glory, Seraphim, Ophanim, holy Chayot, and Ministering Angels. From the three establish His dwelling, as it is written, 'He makes His angels of breaths, His ministers from flaming fire' (Psalms 104:4)."

"The Seraphim are fiery angels (Isaiah 6:2). The Hayot are the complex holy creatures, and the Ophanim are the wheels with eyes, both in Ezekiel's vision."

-------Verses 13-14-------

"Five: With three of the simple letters seal 'above'. Choose three and place them in His great Name: YHV. With them seal the six extremities. Face upward and seal it with YHV.
Six: Seal 'below'. Face downward and seal it with YVH.
Seven: Seal 'east'. Face straight ahead and seal it with HYV.
Eight: Seal 'west'. Face backward and seal it with HVY
Nine: Seal 'south'. Face to the right and seal it with VYH.
Ten: Seal 'north'. Face to the left and seal it with VHY.
These are the Ten Sefirot of Nothingness. One is the Breath of the Living God. Breath [from Breath], Fire [from water, and the extremities], up, down, east, west, north and south."

"Having generated the four realms (Spirit, Spiritual Air, Spiritual Water, and Spiritual Fire), and having created within these realms the letters, the primal chaotic matter of the universe, and the heavenly messengers, God now sets boundaries to space. He uses three letters of the Tetragrammaton (His Holy Name), which he infuses with Spirit. He then 'seals' -- sets limits -- to the six dimensions of space. Note that God faces east."

Magical rites such as the adjuration of the prince or archon of the Torah, Sar Torah and the "putting on of the name" can be found in the Sefer Yetsirah. "The revelation sought through the performance of such rites is identical with that of the Merkabah vision. The 'Prince of the Torah' reveals the same mysteries as the voice which speaks from the throne of fire: the secret of heaven and earth, the dimensions of the demiurge, and the secret names - the knowledge of which gives power over all things."
- Gershom G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941/1961) pp. 77-78

Jewish Mysticism During the Middle Ages

(1) The Two Schools

Merging Traditions
"From Babylonia and Palestine, Jewish mysticism moved into the Jewish communities of Europe and blossomed there. Every community produced its own mystic literature, mystic belief, and mystic practices. There were distinctive Spanish, French, Italian, and German Kabbalahs. Some were mainly 'practical', dealing in magic; others were mainly 'speculative', emphasizing philosophical explanations; many combined practical and speculative Kabbalah in equal parts."
- Harry Gersh, The Sacred Books of the Jews

"The term 'Kabbalah' originated in France around the 12th century as a term to describe the rapidly merging schools of Jewish mysticism. The two main schools were know as Maaseh Merkavah (The Matter of the Chariot) and Maaseh Bereshit (The Matter of Creation). Maaseh Merkavah deals with the various paths that a person may take to spiritual and intellectual enlightenment. These mostly concerned meditation and mystical prayer, following certain formulas. A good overview of its teachings can be found in a book from the early medieval period, Hekhalot Rabbati (The Book of Great Halls). However, it was soon superseded in popularity by Maaseh Bereshit, which speculated on how God actually went about creating the universe, as well as seeking ways to understand the divine power behind that creation."
- B. Pilgrim, "A Monstrous Love: The X-Files, Kaddish, and Mystical Judaism"

"These two esoteric disciplines were connected in the sense that, according to mystical cosmogony, the heavens and spheres of the Divine Throne were situated 'above' the earth and firmament. Practitioners of ecstatic Merkabah mysticism experienced an ascent of the soul, in which they passed through various heavenly spheres until they finally beheld the vision of the Throne of Glory. Gershom Scholem equates the mysteries of the Throne and the Divine Glory revealed there to be parallel in Jewish esoteric tradition to the revelation of the Divine in Gnosticism."
"The study and teaching of both forms were highly restricted and not to be taught in public."
- The Secret Garden: An Anthology in the Kabbalah, David Meltzer Ed. (1976) p. 3

"Thou art not allowed to investigate that which is below, that which is before (in the ultimate future), and that which is behind (at the beginning of things), but only that which is from Creation on."
- Genesis Rabba, 1

Maaseh Merkavah
Voces magicae: "magic words," - non-Greek words and names which were considered to possess great power

"The emphasis in the text [Maaseh Merkavah] is on language, on the correct recitation of the words to achieve the ritual. The particular focus is on the divine Name, Which can be employed in unusual ways. The author relates the structures of the text to the linguistic ideologies. The complex structures of the text begin to unfold in light of the theories about the ritual function of language.
"The hymns include praise of the deity and voces magicae, words that have no semantic meaning, but draw attention to sounds of letters in God's name. Since God's name is used to create the world, the sounds of the name are creative, but the Name cannot be spoken. The hymns create a multiplicity of Name-equivalents, words that have the functional status of the divine Name and which can be employed in ritual. Voces magicae are not so much nonsense as they are logical extensions of the linguistic theory."
- Review of Naomi Janowitz's The Poetics of Ascent: Theories of Language in a Rabbinic Ascent

The liturgical Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice, part of the corpus of Dead Sea scrolls, also uses voces magicae, in this case as a mantra to induce visionary trances based on merkavah imagery.

(2) Later Works of the Maaseh Bereshit School

Shiur Komah
"In the Bible, God was sometimes described in human form. In other places, such as Exodus 23:21-22, an angel is mentioned who has the form of a human and who carries within him or represents 'the name of God.' The human figure on the divine throne described in different ways in Ezekiel 1, Daniel 7, and Exodus 24 among other places was blended into a consistent picture of a principal mediator figure who, like the angel of the Lord in Exodus 23, embodied, personified, or carried the name of God, YHWH, the Tetragrammaton."
- Alan F. Segal, "The Risen Christ and the Angelic Mediator Figures in Light of Qumran" in Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls (James H. Charlesworth, Ed. - 1992), p. 309

"Behold, I send an angel before you, to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place which I have prepared. Give heed to him and hearken to his voice, do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression; for my name is in him."
- Exodus 23:20-21

"Several Jewish traditions discuss the eikon or image of God as Adam's prelapsarian appearance, an especially glorious and splendid form which humanity lost when Adam sinned, since humanity is described as made in 'the image and form of God' in Genesis 1:26: tselem damuwth. The same 'image and form of God' is thereafter associated with God's human appearance in the Bible or the description of the principal angel of God who carries God's name. Most significantly, the human figure on the Merkabah which Ezekiel describes is called: 'the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord'. Thus, God's Glory or kabod can become a technical term for God's human appearances."
- Alan F. Segal, "The Risen Christ and the Angelic Mediator Figures in Light of Qumran" in Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls (James H. Charlesworth, Ed. - 1992), p. 310

Shiur Komah, literally translated, means "Measure of the Body" (i. e. the body of God).

"The Shiur Qoma dates from the Gaonic period [Babylon, seventh-eleventh centuries], possibly much earlier. It caused great controversy and many authorities denounced it as being grossly anthropomorphic and spurious. Maimonides declared that it should be burned. Its defenders claimed that it was not to be taken literally but had an esoteric meaning. According to Gershom Scholem, the Shiur Qoma must be counted among the oldest possessions of Jewish gnosticism."
- The Secret Garden: An Anthology in the Kabbalah, David Meltzer Ed. (1976) p. 3

The writing was supposedly a revelation by Metatron to Rabbi Yishmael.

"Does it not seem possible that among the mystics who wrote the Shiur Komah, this figure was identified with the 'primordial man' of contemporary Iranian speculation, which thus made its entry into the world of Jewish mysticism?...There is no denying the fact that it is precisely the 'primordial man' on the throne of the Merkabah whom the Shiur Komah calls Yotser Bereshith, i. e. Creator of the world - a significant and, doubtless, a deliberate designation."
"...The Demiurge becomes, by an exercise of mystical anthropomorphism, the appearance of God on the 'throne of Glory,' at once visible and yet, by virtue of His transcendent nature, incapable of being really visualized."
- Gershom G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941/1961) pp. 65-66

(Note: the parasang, used in the verse below, is a Mesopotamian unit of length equal to 5724 meters or 3.6 miles.)

"The width of the forehead is equal to the height of the neck, and so is the shoulder.
The length of the nose [is] like the length of the small finger. The height of the cheek is equal to half the roundness of the head.
These measures are also found in human beings. [The size ofl His lips: seventy-seven parasangs. His upper lip is called GBRH, TYA the lower one HZRGYA.
His mouth is fire consuming fire. when He speaks its name (is) ASDRA.
[the next five words are not translatable]
The crown on His head [is] five hundred thousand by five hundred thousand [parasangs].
its name is VYS.
the precious stone between its homs [rays?] is called YS. AMV ALY YS AMI ALY is engraved on it.
My friend is white and ruddy, distinguished among ten thousand.
His head is bright as the finest gold,
His locks are like waving foliage and black as a raven.
His eyes are doves by streamlets of water.
His cheeks are as a bed of roses...
Two thousand, ten thousand parasangs.
And whoever does not conclude with this verse (Song of Songs 5:10-16) is in error."
- Shiur Komah 7

Maaseh Bereshith
"This idea of the seven Hekhaloth transforms the old cosmological conception of the world structure revealed during the ascent into a description of the divine hierachy: the traveller in search of God, like the visitor at Court, must pass through endless magnificent halls and chambers. This change of emphasis, like other important aspects of the mystical system to which it belongs, appears to me to be connected with the fundamental religious experience of these mystics, namely, the decisive importance which they assigned to the interpretation of God as King. We are dealing here with a Judaized form of cosmocratorial mysticism concerning the divine King (or Emperor). This form of adoration takes first place, and cosmological mysticism is relegated to the writings concerned with the creation of the world, the commentaries to Maaseh Bereshith."
- Gershom G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941/1961) pp. 54-55

The mystical cosmogony consisted of seven levels "below" the earth and firmament. In order of descent, they are:
1. Gehenna
2. Shadow of Death
3. Gates of Death
4. Filth of mire
5. Whirlpool of destruction
6. Place of perdition
7. Lower Sheol

Between the depths and heavens lies the round world circled by a great sea. The upper levels are entered through gates corresponding to the four cardinal directions which are guarded by angels.

"The throne of Glory is the staircase from the feet of the almighty to all earth..."
"The highest level of the world consists of the Abode of the Gods of Former Times ("angels, legions and the entire army of the upper world"
"Above this abode there is another, of which it is said: BEHOLD THE HEAVENS, SEE YOUR HOLY AND MAGNIFICENT ABODE. Above this abode are the clouds, as it is said: SING TO THE LORD, CELEBRATE HIS NAME, OPEN A PATH FOR THE HORSEMAN OF THE CLOUDS. In the clouds are found justice, charity, judgment, the treasuries of life, benediction and peace, and the souls of the Just, the dew with which the Holy One, blessed be He, revives the bodies of the dead for the LIGHT.
"The span of the arc rests upon the clouds. Lofty with thousands of myriads of measures, it corresponds to the watchmen and to the angels. Above it are found the wheels of ofanim resting on the arc. Lofty with thousands of myriads of measures, the wheels correspond to the seraphim, to the ofanim and to the legions. Above that are found the feet of the living creatures, resting on the wheels of the ofanim. Lofty with thousands of myriads of measures, they correspond to the great princes.
"The summit of the arc rests on the head of the living creatures, from which radiates the rays of majesty. The firmament is like a formidable mirror extending above the rays of majesty. Lofty with thousands of myriads of measures, it corresponds to the princes of purification. Above the firmament is found a foundation and a luminous likeness situated upon the formidable mirror. Lofty with thousands of myriads of measures it corresponds to the verse: THE CHARIOTS OF GOD ADD UP TO THOUSANDS OF MYRIADS.
"Above this is found an abode which is like fire. Placed upon the luminous likeness it is lofty with thousands of myriads of measures. It corresponds to the majestic rays and to the rains of glory. Above this abode there is a throne of sapphire resting on the likeness of the fire. Lofty with thousands of myriads of measures it corresponds to 'strength' and to 'power.'
"Above the throne of sapphire is the throne of Glory itself. Situated on sapphire stone it is lofty with thousands of myriads of measures. It is like the Lord of the entire world whose Glory is established on the throne, as it is said: I SEE YHWH SITTING ON THE LOFTY AND ELEVATED THRONE. Moreover it is said: A WORK OF TRANSPARENT SAPPHIRE WAS AT HIS FEET. The entire world like a talisman hangs from His powerful arm, as it is said: AND AT HIS FEET: THE WORLD.
"The throne of Glory is encircled by the tents of splendor, with sapphire and emerald which conceal it from view, as it is said: THE EYE SHALL IN NO WAY SEE ME. FOR I WILL INVOKE THE NAME OF YHWH TO MAGNIFY OUR LORD GOD."
"This prayer should be recited with fervent intention: You are blessed YHWH, our God, God of our fathers, God of Abraham, God of Isaac and God of Jacob, the great strong and awesome God, God Above All, who has created the heaven and the earth through His compassion! You are the King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He!
"Blessed be Your Name! Honored be Your Name! Venerated be Your Name! United be Your Name! That Your Name triumph! Praised be Your Name! Adored be Your Name! That Your memory continue through all eternity! You are seated on the throne of Glory and the living creatures ascend before You.
"You are made of fire! Your throne is iron! The holy living creatures are aflame! Your servants are of consuming flame! You are the Prince above all other princes! Your chariots are above the ofanim! Send David to me, the son of Zalmath, your servant, to lead me to the wise at heart who are ordained for the servants of YH. That he expand my heart and my lips like a fountain that overflows the brim, LIKE A FOUNTAINHEAD WHOSE WATERS NEVER DRY UP!
"You are blessed, YHWH!
Your great Name is above all other names!
Rise up, YHWH, in your power!
We want to sing and celebrate your valor! Celebrate your great and formidable Name! It is holy. I want to sing YHWH all the days of my life, celebrate YHWH as long as I live!"
- Baraita de Ma'aseh Bereshit (Baraita on the Work of Creation - c. 8th century)
(Translated by Jack Hirschman from a French translation of the original Hebrew)

Shekhinah (Light of God)

"He is like us, as it were, but greater than everything; and that is His glory which is hidden from us."
- Rabbi Akiba

"Later when the 'Glory of God' had become identified with the Shekhinah, the 'Alphabet of Rabbi Akiba' expressly referred to the 'body of the Shekhinah' as the subject of the Shiur Komah. The employment of this term is proof that its authors had in mind not the substance of divinity but merely the measurements of its appearance."
- Gershom G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941/1961) p. 66

Some ancient Jewish sects perceived the Shekhina as the female presence of God on Earth.

"God took me from the midst of the race of the flood and carried me on the stormy wings of the Shekhinah to the highest heaven and brought me into the great palaces on the heights of the seventh heaven Araboth, where there are the throne of the Shekhinah and the Merkabah, the legions of anger and hosts of wrath, the shinanim of the fire, the cherubim of the flaming torches, the ofannim of the fiery coals, the servants of the flames, and the seraphim of the lightning, and He stood me there daily to serve the throne of glory."
- 3 Enoch 7

(2) The Evolution of the Kabbalah

Sefer Hasidim and Sefir ha-Behir
"The immediate heirs of the Maaseh Merkavah and Maaseh Beresheet traditions were a community of pietists called the Hasidei Ashkenaz, or 'pietists of Germany', active during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. This group, under the influence of their Christian mystic contemporaries, practiced humility and asceticism, and remains best known for its major work, the Sefer Hasidim, a collection of ethical teachings. In addition, the Hasidei Ashkenaz preserved and elaborated on the ancient Jewish mystical teachings, applying them especially to prayer, and developed an increasingly symbolic and mythical strain of mystical thought. To simplify matters somewhat, one may say that this group constituted the link between ancient Jewish mysticism and the soon-to-emerge Kabbalah."
- Michael Sidlofsky, "Kabbalah: A Brief History"

"By the early middle ages further, more theosophical developments had taken place, chiefly a description of 'processes' within God, and a highly esoteric view of creation as a process in which God manifests in a series of emanations. This doctrine of the 'sephiroth' can be found in a rudimentary form in the Yetzirah, but by the time of the publication of the book Bahir (12th century) it had reached a form not too different from the form it takes today."
- Colin Low, "cabalah.cln"

"The Kabbalah, at its heart, is a way to bring man closer to the divine. In order to accomplish this, it has to make the divine understandable to the common man.
"In the terminology of the Kabbalah, God is referred to as Eyn Sof (Without End), and is never pictured in human form. Eyn Sof is without form or sex, completely beyond human comprehension. In order to create the universe, Eyn Sof created 10 Sefirot (Channels) each corresponding to a different element of his/her divinity. Think of them as electrical cables. The energy created by a power plant is to great to be of any use, so it is channeled through electrical cables, being stepped down and controlled until humans can make use of it. The power of Eyn Sof is the power plant, and Sefirot are it's cables, channels that bring power to the universe in a more usable form.
"Mankind could not exist without Eyn Sof providing the power. However, in Kabbalah, it is a true circuit. Just as we could not exist without Eyn Sof's power, Eyn Sof could not exist without our belief. We are partners in creation, in our own way equal to Eyn Sof in the care of the universe. In fact, in Kabbalah, angels (melakh in Hebrew, meaning "messenger") are non-physical embodiments of Eyn Sof's power, that can be sent by Eyn Sof or created by the actions of Mankind, for good or evil. These angels are essential for the practical uses of Kabbalah that (according to legend) can create such things as golems. Practical Kabbalah makes use of letters, words and numbers to channel the power of Eyn Sof and it's messengers, using the two way connection to the divine created by the Sefirot, just as machines are designed to take the power we receive from the power plant via cables, and make use of it practical fashion."
- B. Pilgrim, "A Monstrous Love: The X-Files, Kaddish, and Mystical Judaism"

Sefer ha-Behir
"The first book to begin combining the various mystical elements of Judaism into a single cosmology was Sefer ha-Behir (Book of Brightness), which also introduced the concept that letters and words, when properly combined, possessed mystical power. With the publication of Sefir ha-Behir, Kabbalah began to become more and more accepted by mainstream Judaism, especially in Spain, under the guidance of Rabbi Isaac the Blind, the first great Kabbalist."
- B. Pilgrim, "A Monstrous Love: The X-Files, Kaddish, and Mystical Judaism"

"The Book Bahir is one of the oldest Kabbalist texts and of primary importance to the development of Kabbalah's symbolic language. Modern scholarship believes it was edited in the twelfth century in Provence, incorporating ancient texts transmitted to Europe from the East -an extension of early oriental gnostic concepts which entered into the mainstream of Jewish mystical thought.
"It's a fragmentary work, a collage of voices on the page which appear and disappear...Often a thought or conversation ends abruptly, resonating a far greater mystery by its incompletion -intangible and ineffable fragments from a lost book.
"The Book Bahir is the earliest source to deal with the Sephiroth, the realm of divine attributes. It also proposes other technical terminology which later become a part of Kabbalah's basic vocabulary; that is, the world of beriah ["creation"], the world of yetsirah ["formation"]. It has the first reference in Kabbalistic literature to the doctrine of transmigration of souls, gilgul."
- The Secret Garden: An Anthology in the Kabbalah, David Meltzer Ed. (1976) p. 49

Note similarities with the shaman's "world tree".

"It is I [the Lord] who planted this 'tree' so that all the world might delight in it, and I vaulted the universe with it and named its name 'Universe,' for the universe hangs on it and the universe goes forth from it, everything needs it, and they look upon it and yeam for it, and from there the souls go forth. Alone was I when I made it, and no angel can rise above it and say: I was here before you, for even when I vaulted my earth, when I planted and rooted this tree, and let them have joy in one another and enjoyed them myself - 'who might have been with me,' to whom I might have revealed this secret?"
- Sefer ha-Behir 14c

Raza Rabba
"The Book Bahir was to a large extent directly based on "the book Raza Rabba, 'The Great Mystery', which some Eastern authors of the tenth century named among the most important of esoteric writings....It thus becomes understandable how gnostical termini technici, symbols, and mythologems came to be used by the earliest Kabbalists who wrote their works in Provence during the twelfth century....It can be taken as certain that in addition to the Raza Rabba, which appears to have been a cross between a mystical Midrash and a Hekhaloth text, with a strong magical element thrown in, other similar fragments of ancient writings, with Gnostic excerpts written in Hebrew, made their way from the East to Provence."
- Gershom G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941/1961) p. 75

Zohar
"The Kabbalah attained its first Golden Age in Castille, Spain during the final decades of the thirteenth century. Brilliant, creative figures such as Rabbis Moses de Leon and Joseph Gikatilla pooled their immense scholarship and imaginative powers to produce a richly symbolic, poetic, mythological body of literature which has inspired students of Kabbalah to this day. The major work of the Castille circle is the Sefer ha-Zohar ('Book of Splendor'), a mystical journey through the Torah, Jewish law and legend, the mind of the Kabbalist and the Godhead Itself. Attributed to the second-century Galilean sage, Simeon bar Yohai, the Zohar was, according to modern scholarship, the work of Moses de Leon and possibly others in the Castille school. At the same time, the eccentric Abraham Abulafia, also from Spain, developed an ecstatic form of kabbalistic meditation de-emphasizing the Sefirot and basing itself instead on permutations of Hebrew letters, vovels and biblical phrases. His independent, idiosyncratic form of Kabbalah didn't sit well with the rabbis of his time; however, an Abulafian chain of tradition survived to influence later Kabbalist"
- Michael Sidlofsky, "Kabbalah: A Brief History"

"R. Akiba said. 'In that hour when I ascended on high, I made marks at the entrances of heaven more than at the entrances of my own house, and when I came to the curtain, the angels of destruction went forth to destroy me. God said to them: 'Leave this elder alone, for he is worthy to contemplate my glory. '
"R. Akiba said. 'In that hour when I ascended to the Merkabah, a heavenly voice went forth from under the throne of glory, speaking in the Aramaic language. 'Before God made heaven and earth, he established a vestibule to heaven, to go in and to go out. He established a solid name to strengthen [or to design] by it the whole world. He invited Man [to this pre-established place] to enable him
To ascend on high,
to descend below,
to drive on wheels [of the Merkabah],
to explore the world,
to walk on dry ground,
to contemplate the splendor,
to dwell with the crown,
to praise the glory,
to say praise,
to combine letters,
to say names,
to behold what is on high,
and to behold what is below,
to know the meaning of the living,
and to see the vision of the dead,
to walk in rivers of fire,
and to know the lightning.
"And who can explain and who can behold what is before all this?
"It is said: For man shall not see Me and live (Exodus 33.-20), and secondly it is said: That God speaks to man and he liveth (Deuteronomy 5.-21), and thirdly it is said: I saw the Lord sitting upon a Throne, etc. (Isaiah 6.-II)."
- Zohar, Translated by Gershom Scholem

Click here for more information about the Zohar.

Later Theosophical Developments
" The early Hasid tradition, of the German Ashkanazim c. 1230s, like Judah the Hasid, found it's roots in the concept of the tzaddik 'righteous, blameless' man of G-D and whose primordial model was Noah (Gen 6:9) and Abraham (Gen. 15:6). The early movement emphasized ascetic practices, serenity of mind and extreme altruism (cf. Book of the Devout), or as the Pirke Aboth says, 'What is mine is yours and what is yours is yours--such is the way of the Hasid.' The culmination of such practice is both fear and love of the Most Holy, mystical passions which lead to prophetic knowledge and selfless surrender (David, 1982)."
- Zos Imos, "Jewish Mystical Traditions"

"In this second stage the magical contents cease to represent a Psychical reality and are gradually eliminated; in this way the old texts are gradually replaced by a new devotional literature, at once stilted and lyrical, which employs the elements of the original Merkabah mysticism....[This] includes the numerous texts of the 'Midrash of the Ten Martyrs' and the 'Alphabet of Rabbi Akiba,' both of them writings which were particularly popular among the Jews of the Middle Ages."
- Gershom G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941/1961) p. 51

"In the Sixteenth century, in Safed (then Palestine, now Israel), Kabbalah reached it's nadir, with the rise of Rabbi Isaac Luria, the greatest of all Kabbalists...Many of the hymns and rituals created by Rabbi Luria are still in use today."
"In the Seventeenth century, a false messiah rose up among the Kabbalists named Shabbetai Tzvi, and gathered a large and powerful following. When he was proven not to be the messiah (by converting to Islam in Turkey), Kabbalah fell out of favor and was practically outlawed, since it was believed that the forbidden knowledge about God that he had acquired through his mystical studies had driven him mad.
"Only in the eighteenth century did Kabbalah begin a comeback, through the teachings of Israel ben Eliezar, known as the Baal Shem Tov (Master of the Good Name) [died 1760]. He founded the Hassidic movement, stressing that true piety was not found in studying, but in loving life and all of God's creations. Only through Kabbalah, dancing, singing and meditation/prayer could the divine be understood. Soon, the Baal Shem Tov attracted many followers and students, many of whom went on to form the great rabbinical dynasties of modern day Hassidism. Slowly, as Hassidism became more and more part of the mainstream of Orthodox Judaism, the mystical and Kabbalistic elements from which it grew have been downplayed, but there is still a powerful element of the 'unknowable' just under the surface. Living in Williamsburg, it is likely that the Weiss family of Kaddish belong to the Lubavitcher sect of Hassidism, which is well-known for it's adherence to mystical doctrines."
- B. Pilgrim, "A Monstrous Love: The X-Files, Kaddish, and Mystical Judaism"

The Nephilim

2006-11-09T12:34:00.000+08:00

"The Sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose."
- Genesis 6:2

"Some commentators believe that the expression 'sons of God' refers to the 'godly line' of Seth, and 'daughters of men' to women from the line of Cain."
- Commentary on the Living Bible

"The Book of Giants was another literary work concerned with Enoch, widely read (after translation into the appropriate languages) in the Roman empire....The 'giants' were believed to be the offspring of fallen angels (the Nephilim; also called Watchers) and human women."
- Robert Eisman and Michael Wise, The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered

In The Book of Giants (i.e., 4Q531, 6Q8 Frag. 2 and 4Q530 Col. 2), "the name of one of the giants is Gilgamesh, the Babylonian hero and subject of a great epic written in the third millennium B.C.E."
- Michael Wise, Martin Abegg, Jr., and Edward Cook, The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation (1996) p. 247

The root of Nephilim is nephel which means: "untimely birth, abortion, miscarriage". The Biblical tradition says the Nephilim were on the earth before the Flood and afterwards, but they appear to be missing during the Flood.

"The Nefilim were upon the Earth in those days and thereafter too. Those sons of the gods who cohabited with the daughters of the Adam, and they bore children into them. They were the Mighty Ones of Eternity, the People of the Shem."
- Genesis 6:4
"There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they; bare children unto them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown."
- Genesis 6:4 (King Jame's version)

"Megalithic monuments, found by the Hebrews on their arrival in Canaan, will have encouraged legends about giants; as in Greece, where the monstrous man-eating Cyclopes were said by story-tellers ignorant of ramps, levers and other Mycenaean engineering devices, to have lifted single- handed the huge blocks of stone that form the walls of Tiryns, Mycenae and other ancient cities."
- Robert Graves and Raphael Patai, Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis

On a parchment fragment 4Q201(En ara) copied ca. 200-150 B.C.E. found at Qumrum:

13. [They (the leaders) and all ... of them took for themselves] wives from all that they chose and [they began to cohabit with them and to defile themselves with them]; and to teach them sorcery and [spells and the cutting of roots; and to acquaint them with herbs.] And they become pregnant by them and bo[re (great) giants three thousand cubits high ...]
- Book of Enoch (from Translation by J. C. Greenfield

"Later Jewish tradition has it that their seduction was at least partly their own fault since they had taught the girls the art of cosmetics, and so had begun the awful progress of mankind to degeneracy and sexual abandon. More important, 'they taught them charms and enchantments, the cutting of roots, and make them acquainted with plants..." (Enoch 7:1ff)."
- John M. Allegro, The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross

"The Hebrew word for giants (nephilum) literally means the fallen-down-ones because these tall celestial beings fell from the sky. Their half-breed progeny and their descendants are often mentioned in the early books of the Old Testament until the last of them were finally killed off. They were known as the Rephaim [Hebrew for 'phantoms'], Emim, Anakim, Horim, Avim, and Zamzummim. Some scholars speculate that this tradition of giants born from the union of gods and humans formed the basis for the demigod of Greek mythology."
- Raymond E. Fowler, The Watchers

"Those giants...are termed n'philim (lit. 'those who have fallen' or 'perished'). A similar tradition mentions such a race of primordial giants in the Rephaim."
- John Gray, Near Eastern Mythology

"The Nefilim ('Fallen Ones') bore many other tribal names, such as Emim ('Terrors'), Repha'im ('Weakeners'), Gibborim ('Giant Heroes'), Zamzummim ('Achievers'), Anakim ('Long-necked' or 'Wearers of Necklaces'), Awwim ('Devastators' or 'Serpents'). One of the Nefilim named Arba is said to have built the city of Hebron, called 'Kiriath-Arba' after him, and become the father of Anak whose three sons, Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai, were later expelled by Joshua's comrade Caleb. Since, however, arba means 'four' in Hebrew, Kiriath-Arba may have originally have meant 'City of Four,' a reference to its four quarters mythically connected with the Anakite clans: Anak himself and his 'sons' Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai."
- Robert Graves and Raphael Patai, Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis

"And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, which come of the Nephilim: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight."
- Numbers 13:33
"The Emim - a large and numerous people, as tall as the Anakim - had formerly inhabited it [Moab]. Like the Anakim, they are usually reckoned as Rephaim, though the Moabites call them Emim."
"Now only King Og of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim. In fact his bed, an iron bed, can still be seen in Rabbah of the Ammonites. By the common cubit [63.5 cm/25 in] it is nine cubits [5.7 m/18.75 ft] long and four cubits wide."
- Deuteronomy 2:11, 3:11

"Our skills and behavior are finely attuned to our size. We could not be twice as tall as we are, for the kinetic energy of a fall would then be 16 to 32 times as great, and our sheer weight (increased eightfold) would be more than our legs could support. Human giants of eight to nine feet have either died young or been crippled early by failure of joints and bones. At half our size, we could not wield a club with sufficient force to hunt large animals (for kinetic energy would decrease 16 to 32-fold); we could not impart sufficient momentum to spears and arrows; we could not cut or split wood with primitive tools or mine minerals with picks and chisels. Since these all were essential activities in our historical development, we must conclude that the path of our evolution could only have been followed by a creature very close to our size. I do not argue that we inhabit the best of all possible worlds, only that our size has limited our activities and, to a great extent, shaped our evolution."
- Stephen Jay Gould, "Sizing Up Human Intelligence," Physical Anthropology 96/97, pp.150-51

"The tradition in Genesis 6.4 may reflect the Canaanite myth of the birth of minor gods from the union of El and human women. The conception of the Rephaim as supermen may reflect the Canaanite tradition of defunct kings as rp'um, or Dispensers of fertility. The identity in tradition of 'the fallen ones' of Genesis 6:4 and the Rephaim is supported by the nature of the latter in Proverbs 2:18; Job 26:5 and Phoenician funerary inscriptions."
- John Gray, Near Eastern Mythology

"For her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead."
- Proverbs 2:18
"The dead are in deep anguish, those beneath the waters and all that live in them."
- Job 26:5

Lovecraft's Necronomicon

2006-11-09T12:32:00.000+08:00

H. P. Lovecraft is a master of Gothic horror and the occult manuscript Necronomicon which he refers to in several of his stories is a literary invention. All works purported to be translations of the Necronomicon are also works of fiction. However Lovecraft drew his inspiration from real sources which go back thousands of years.

The Old Ones

"That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die."
- Abdul Alhazred, Necronomicon
(from H. P. Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu", 1926)

The Necronomicon, tell of the Old Ones who arrived on the primal earth from "dark stars". When land appeared they swarmed from the oceans to build cities at the poles and raise temples to those cursed by the Gods. Their ghoulish spawn ruled the earth until the Elder Lords, appalled at their abominations, acted:

"...casting Them forth from the Earth to the Void beyond the planes where chaos reigns and form abideth not. And the Elder Lords set Their seal upon the Gateway and the power of the Old Ones prevailest not against its might.
Loathsome Cthulhu rose then from the deeps and raged with exceeding great fury against the Earth Guardians. And They bound his venomous claws with potent spells and sealed him up within the City of R'lyeh wherein beneath the waves he shall sleep death's dream until the end of the Aeon."
- Dr. John Dee, Liber Logaeth
(Note: Lovecraft asserted that Liber Logaeth was an English translation of the original Necronomicon, which had appeared in Arabic.

"Lovecraft's myth of the Great Old Ones has much in common with the ancient belief, recorded in the Book of Enoch, that human beings were given many kinds of occult and forbidden knowledge by fallen angels who coupled with women to create demonic entities (Lovecraft recycles this legend as The Dunwich Horror). These abominations were cleansed from the Earth by the first flood (Noah's) and the rebel angels were imprisoned in another dimension awaiting a time of judgement. This legend overlaps with the Book of Revelations, which tells what happens to the rebel angels and humanity at the end of time."
- Colin Low, The Necronomicon and Ontological Pressure

"In all probability Cthulhu is based on the Norwegian myth of the Kraken, a legendary monster thought to live under the waves of the northern seas."
-Philip A. Shreffer, The H.P. Lovecraft Companion

"Below the thunders of the upper deep;
Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepeth; faintest sunlights fell
About his shadowy sides: above him swell
Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;
And far away into the sickly light,
From many a wondrous grot and secret cell
Unnumber'd and enormous polypi
Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green.
There hath he lain for ages and will lie
Battening upon huge seaworms in his sleep,
Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;
Then once by man and angels to be seen,
In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die."
- Alfred Lord Tennyson, "The Kraken"

In exile with their Master Azathoth, "Lord of All", in the chaotic Void, the Old Ones bide the day until they return to rule earth once again.

"Azathoth is the 'ultimate nuclear chaos', at 'the center of infinity'. It is from the Throne of Azathoth that the aimless waves, 'whose chance combining gives each frail cosmos its eternal law', originate from."
- Parker Ryan "Necronomicon Info Source"

"However, before the complete influx of these elder forces into our present space-time continuum can be facillated, the secret and primal gateways must be located, and opened, to allow access from 'outside the circles of time'. This gateway has been glyphed by Lovecraft as one of the Great Old Ones themselves - 'the noxious Yog-Sothoth who froths as primal slime in nuclear chaos beyond the nethermost outpost of space and time'.
- Tenebrous, "The Aeon of Cthulhu Rising"

"Yog-Sothoth is coterminous with ALL time and space. In Through the Gates of the Silver Key Lovecraft describes Yog-Sothoth thus:'an All in One and One in All of limitless being and self-the last, utter sweep which has no confines and which outreaches fancy and mathematics alike. ' Past, present, future all are one in Yog-Sothoth."
"HPL researcher Philip A. Shreffler states in The H.P. Lovecraft Companion that the acting principles of Yog-Sothoth and Azathoth are 'infinite expansion and infinite contraction' respectively"
- Parker Ryan "Necronomicon Info Source"

Choronzon: "Guardian of and 'Dweller in the Abyss' (Demon of Dispersion) = 333 (Noznoroch). Crowley called him the 'first and deadliest of all the powers of evil', sole inhabitant of the Abyss [Da'ath], capable of assuming any shape, the very Lord of Chaos."
- The Magicians Dictionary

"333 is the Cabalistic number of 'that mighty devil, [Coronzon],' who once afflicted Dr. Dee in the 17th Century and gave Aleister himself a rough time in Bou Saada, North Africa, 1909, as recounted in The Vision and the Voice, by Aleister Crowley.."
- Robert Anton Wilson, Cosmic Trigger: Final Secret of the Illuminati

"As Guardian of the Gate, he [Yog-Sothoth] is synonymous with Choronzon. The 'nethermost outpost', itself an opening or window to the dimensionality of the Great Old Ones (Universe B), is the star Sothis, or Sirius."
- Tenebrous, "The Aeon of Cthulhu Rising"

"It is now possible to see the continous flow and evolution of Aeons occuring simultaenously and passing over into the world of anti-matter. The Yog (or Yug .. an aeon or age ..) of Sothoth is the counterpoint - as the Aeon of Set- Thoth, or DA'ATH - of its Twin, the Yug-Hoor, or Aeon of Horus. Yog-Sothoth is the Gate through the aeons to the Star-Source beyond Yuggoth, the Yug or Aeon of Goth."
- Kenneth Grant, Outside the Circles of Time, p. 214

"The knowledge and formula by which this gateway can be reopened can therefore be only apprehended through the negative vortex of DA'ATH. In the case of Lovecraft himself, who in waking life vehemently denied the verdical nature of the material with which he was dealing, the process of appropriation was almost completely subconscious, occuring through the medium of dream-experiences. As would be expected, the visitation of such unhuman and ultracosmic revelations took the form of the most hideous nightmares."
- Tenebrous, "The Aeon of Cthulhu Rising"

"That cult would never die until the stars came right again, and the secret priests would take Cthulhu from His tomb to revive His subjects and resume His rule of earth. The time would be easy to know, for then mankind would have become as the Great Old Ones; free and wild, and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside and all men shouting and killing and reveling in joy. Then the liberated Old Ones would teach them new ways to shout and kill and revel and enjoy themselves, and all earth would flame with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom."
- H. P. Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu", (1926)

The Occult Secrets of Alhazred

(1) "The Mad Arab"

Necronomicon: "Original title Al Azif being the word used by the Arabs to designate that nocturnal sound (made by insects) supposed to be the howling of demons."
"Composed by Abdul Alhazred, a mad poet of Sanaa, in Yemen, who is said to have flourished in the time of the Ommiade Caliphs, circa A.D. 700."
- H. P. Lovecraft, "The History and Chronology of the Necronomicon"

According to Lovecraft's history, Abdul Alhazred "travelled widely, from Alexandria to the Punjab, and was well read. He had a flair for languages, and boasts on many occasions of his ability to read and translate manuscripts which defied lesser scholars.Just as Nostradamus used ritual magic to probe the future, so Alhazred used similar techniques (and an incense composed of olibanum, storax, dictamnus, opium and hashish) to clarify the past, and it is this, combined with a lack of references, which resulted in the Necronomicon being dismissed as largely worthless by historians."
- Colin Low, Necronomicon FAQ
(Compiled from The Book of the Arab, by Justin Geoffry, Starry Wisdom Press, 1979)

"Lovecraft told his colleagues that he stole the name 'Al Azif' from another author as a joke, and that the name 'Al-Hazred' was a pun on his mother's maiden name, Hazard."
- Kendrick Kerwin Chua, "The Necronomicon - FAQ Version 2.0"

"Abdul is a favourite dream-character of mine--indeed that is what I used to call myself when I was five years old and a transported devotee of Andrew Lang's version of the Arabian Nights. A few years ago I prepared a mock-erudite synopsis of Abdul's life, and of the posthumous vicissitudes and translations of his hideous and unmentionable work Al Azif ...--a synopsis which I shall follow in future references to the dark and accursed thing."
- H. P. Lovecraft, letter to Robert E. Howard (August 14, 1930)
"The name 'Abdul Alhazred' is one which some adult (I can't recall who) devised for me when I was 5 years old & eager to be an Arab after reading the Arabian Nights. Years later I thought it would be fun to use it as the name of a forbidden-book author."
- H. P. Lovecraft, letter to Harry O. Fischer (late February, 1937)

Alhazred "is often referred to as 'the mad Arab', and while he was certainly eccentric by modern standards, there is no evidence to substantiate a claim of madness, (other than a chronic inability to sustain a train of thought for more than a few paragraphs before leaping off at a tangent)."
- Colin Low, Necronomicon FAQ
(Compiled from The Book of the Arab, by Justin Geoffry, Starry Wisdom Press, 1979)

"HPL wrote that Alhazred's title was 'Mad Poet'. 'Mad' is usually written majnun in Arabic. Majnun means 'mad' today. However, in the eighth century (Alhazred's time) it meant 'Possessed by Jinn' [the Old Ones]."
- Parker Ryan "Necronomicon Info Source"

"Alhazred appears to have had access to many sources now lost, and events which are only hinted at in the Book of Genesis or the apocryphal Book of Enoch, or disguised as mythology in other sources, are explored in great detail."
- Colin Low, Necronomicon FAQ
(Compiled from The Book of the Arab, by Justin Geoffry, Starry Wisdom Press, 1979)

"And I proceeded to where things were chaotic. And I saw there something horrible: I saw neither a heaven above nor a firmly founded earth, but a place chaotic and horrible. And there I saw seven stars of the heaven bound together in it, like great mountains and burning with fire. Then I said: 'For what sin are they bound, and on what account have they been cast in hither?' Then said Uriel, one of the holy angels, who was with me, and was chief over them, and said: 'Enoch, why dost thou ask, and why art thou eager for the truth? These are of the number of the stars of heaven, which have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and are bound here till ten thousand years, the time entailed by their sins, are consummated."
Book of Enoch 21:1-7a

"Alhazred may have used dubious magical techniques to clarify the past, but he also shared with 5th. century B.C. Greek writers such as Thucydides a critical mind and a willingness to explore the meanings of mythological and sacred stories. His speculations are remarkably modern, and this may account for his current popularity: he believed that many species besides the human race had inhabited the Earth, and that much knowledge was passed to mankind in encounters with being from other 'spheres'. He shared with some neo-platonists the belief that stars are like our sun, and have their own unseen planets with their own lifeforms, but elaborated this belief with a good deal of metaphysical speculation in which these beings were part of a cosmic hierarchy of spiritual evolution. He was also convinced that he had contacted these 'Old Ones' using magical invocations, and warned of terrible powers waiting to return to re-claim the Earth - he interpretated this belief in the light of the Apocalypse of St. John, but reversed the ending so that the Beast triumphs after a great war in which the earth is laid waste."
- Colin Low, Necronomicon FAQ
(Compiled from The Book of the Arab, by Justin Geoffry, Starry Wisdom Press, 1979)

"He [Alhazred] visited the ruins of Babylon and the subterranean secrets of Memphis and spent ten years alone in the great southern desert of Arabia-the Roba el Khaliye or 'Empty Space' of the ancients and 'Dahna' or 'Crimson Desert' of the modern Arabs, which is held to be inhabited by protective evil spirits and monsters of death. Of this desert many strange and unbelievable marvels are told by those who pretend to have penetrated it. In his last years Alhazred dwelt in Damascus, where the Necronomicon (Al Azif) was written and of his final death or disappearance (738 A.D.) many terrible and conflicting things are told. He is said by Ebn Khallikan (12th century biographer) to have been seized by an invisible monster in broad daylight and devoured horribly before a large number of fright-frozen witnesses. Of his madness many things are told. He claimed to have seen the fabulous Irem or city of Pillars, and to have found beneath the ruins of a certain nameless desert town the shocking annals and secrets of a race older than mankind. He was only an indifferent Moslem, worshipping unknown deities whom he called Yog-Sothoth and Cthulhu."
- H. P. Lovecraft, "The History and Chronology of the Necronomicon"

(2) Barbarous Names

"Alhazred is said (by HPL) to have journeyed to Egypt in search of occult secrets. This is consistent with the time frame that it was supposed to have ocured in. Between the fourth century and the tenth century Near Eastern scholars interested in magickal matters viewed Egypt as an invaluable source of information. During this time many corrupt Egyptian words and phrases entered magical writings. Gnostic, Coptic, and Greco-Egyptian word formulas were incorporated in great number into existing Arab magickal systems.....It has been suggested that some of the Barbarous names used in Lovecraft's fiction might indeed be corrupt Egyptian word formulas. Particularly Yog-Sothoth, Azathoth, and Nyarlathotep are said to have an Egyptian origin. (Note the obviously Egyptian endings 'hotep' and 'thoth'.)"
"Azathoth is said to be derived from Asa-thoth. The Rites of the Gods states that Asa translates as 'source' from ancient Egyptian and Thoth (Tehut) is of course the popular god name. Asa is an alternate name of Thoth....(He is considered the "source" because of his association with the beginning of time). Ausaa-Thoth or Aasaa-Thoth is translated as the intelligence of Thoth."

"Cthulhu is very close to the Arabic word Khadhulu (also spelled al qhadhulu). Khadhulu (al qhadhulu) is translated as 'Forsaker' or 'Abandoner'. Many Sufis and Muqarribun writings make use of this term (Abandoner). In Sufi and Muqarribun writings 'abandoner' refers to the power that fuels the practices of Tajrid 'outward detachment' and Tafrid 'interior solitude'."
- Parker Ryan, "Necronomicon Info Source"

"Mankind, Shaitan is Khadhulu."
- Quran 25:29

"By the time Mohammad was writing Shaitan was being called 'the Old Serpent (dragon)' and 'the Lord of the Abyss'. The Old Serpent or Old Dragon is, according to experts such as E.A. Budge and S.N. Kramer, Leviathan [Hebrew]. Leviathan is Lotan [Canaanite]. Lotan traces to Tietan. Tietan, we are told by the authorities on Near Easern mythology is a later form of Tiamat. According to the experts the Dragon of the Abyss called Shaitan is the same Dragon of the Agyss named Tiamat."
- Parker Ryan , "Necronomicon Info Source"

"The dragon is an abandoner for he leaves all that is sacred. The dragon goes here and there without pause."
- The Book of Annihilation (an Arabic text on magick)

One of the titles of the Dragon is Lord of the Abyss. "The title Lord of the Abyss translated into Sumerian is 'Kutulu'. Kutu means 'Underworld' or 'Abyss' and Lu is Sumerian for 'Lord' or 'Person of importance'.... Indeed the ruler of the Abyss (kutu) in Sumeria was the Old Dragon Mumu-Tiamat."
- Parker Ryan "Necronomicon Info Source"

"Some...link Kingu (Qingu) with the Ancient Ones by assigning him the status of general for the Ancient Ones in their war against the Elder Gods (which this myth supposedly represents.) Though these groups claim to be servants of the Elder gods, they worship Tiamat as a benevolent creatrix, ignoring the fact that it was Tiamat who appointed Kingu HER general in the Enuma Elis [the Babylonian Epic of Creation], leading to the conclusion that Tiamat was an Ancient One and therefore that this group worshipped the Ancient Ones while claiming to serve the Elder Gods."
- Adapa, "The Necronomicon and Ancient Sumer: Dubunking the Myth"

"Another race is the Deep Ones who are a type of amphibious creature resembling a mixture of a fish, a frog and man. The Deep Ones worship a god called Dagon. Dagon is a deity resembling a giant Deep One. Dagon and the Deep Ones seem to be Allied in some way with Cthulhu."
"Arab myth mentions mysterious fish-men from the sea of Karkar. These fish-men are probably derivative of the myths related to the actual Near Eastern god Dagon. Dagon is a Philistine deity that appears as a giant fish-man. Dagon is a later version of the Babylonian Oannes."
- Parker Ryan "Necronomicon Info Source"

Oannes was a repulsive amphibius being who came from space in an egg shaped vehicle. The fragments of text that survive are a Babylonian retelling of a much more ancient Sumerian tale. Six thousand years ago or so, the Vela supernova was an awe inspiring sight from the earth. It was then, according to legend, that powerful beings or "Watchers" came from the sky, taught humans the arts of civilization, then made them their slaves.
According to Robert Temple in his Sirius Mystery, astronomical knowledge imparted by the Oannes is preserved by the tribal Dogon people today.

"The Greek and Latin Translations"

"In A.D. 950 the Azif, which had gained a considerable though surreptitious circulation amongst the philosophers of the age, was secretly translated into Greek by Theodorus Philetas of Constantinople under the title Necronomicon."
- H. P. Lovecraft, "The History and Chronology of the Necronomicon"
"The name Necronomicon ...occurred to me in the course of a dream."
- H. P. Lovecraft, letter to Harry O. Fischer (late February, 1937)

"This title [Necronomicon] is translated as 'the Book (or image) of the Practices of the Dead'; Necro being Greek for 'Dead' and Nomos meaning 'practices', 'customs' or 'rules' (as in astronomy) ."
- Parker Ryan, "The Necronomicon and Ancient Arab Magick"

"For a century it impelled certain experimenters to terrible attempts, when it was suppressed and burnt by the patriarch Michael. After this it is only heard of furtively, but (1228) Olaus Wormius made a Latin translation later in the Middle Ages."
"The work, both Latin and Greek, was banned by Pope Gregory IX in 1232, shortly after its Latin translation, which called attention to it."
- H. P. Lovecraft, "The History and Chronology of the Necronomicon"

"A Latin translation was made in 1487 by a Dominican priest Olaus Wormius. Wormius, a German by birth, was a secretary to the first Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition, Tomas de Torquemada, and it is likely that the manuscript of the Necronomicon was seized during the persecution of Moors ('Moriscos') who had been converted to Catholism under duress; this group was deemed to be unsufficiently pure in its beliefs. .
"It was an act of sheer folly for Wormius to translate and print the Necronomicon at that time and place. The book must have held an obsessive fascination for the man, because he was finally charged with heresy and burned after sending a copy of the book to Johann Tritheim, Abbot of Spanheim (better known as 'Trithemius'); the accompanying letter contained a detailed and blasphemous interpretation of certain passages in the Book of Genesis. Virtually all the copies of Wormius's translation were seized and burned with him, although there is the inevitable suspicion that at least one copy must have found its way into the Vatican Library."
- Colin Low, Necronomicon FAQ
(Compiled from The Book of the Arab, by Justin Geoffry, Starry Wisdom Press, 1979)

"...The Latin text was printed twice - once in the 15th century in block letter (evidently in German) and once in the 17th (probably Spanish); both editions being without identifying marks, and located as to time and place by internal typographic evidence only.
- H. P. Lovecraft, "The History and Chronology of the Necronomicon"

"It was written in seven volumes, and runs to over 900 pages in the Latin edition."
- Colin Low, Necronomicon FAQ
(Compiled from The Book of the Arab, by Justin Geoffry, Starry Wisdom Press, 1979)

"Of the Latin texts now existing one (15th century) is known to be in the British Museum under lock and key, which another (17th century) is in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris. A 17th century edition is in the Widener Library at Harvard, and in the Library of Miskatonic University at Arkham; also in the library of the University of Buenos Aires.
"Numerous other copies probably exist in secret, and a 15th century one is persistently rumored to form part of the collection of a celebrated American millionaire. A still vaguer rumor credits the preservation of a 16th century Greek text in the Salem family of Pickman; but if it was so preserved, it vanished with the artist R. U. Pickman , who disappeared early in 1926. The book is rigidly suppressed by the authorities of most countries, and by all branches of organized ecclesiasticism. Reading leads to terrible consequences. It was from rumors of this book (of which relatively few of the general public know) that R. W. Chambers is said to have derived the idea of his early novelThe King in Yellow."
- H. P. Lovecraft, "The History and Chronology of the Necronomicon"

Dee's Liber Logaeth

"They have walked amidst the stars and They have walked the Earth. The City of Irem in the great desert has known Them; Leng in the Cold Waste has seen Their passing, the timeless citadel upon the cloud-veiled heights of unknown Kadath beareth Their mark. Wantonly the Old Ones trod the ways of darkness and Their blasphemies were great upon the Earth; all creation bowed beneath Their might and knew Them for Their wickedness."
- Liber Logaeth (translated by Dr. John Dee)

"The Latin text came into the possession of Dr. John Dee in the sixteenth century. Dr. Dee made the only English translation of the Necronomicon known."
- Parker Ryan, "The Necronomicon and Ancient Arab Magick"

"Dr. John Dee, the famous English magician, and his assistant Edward Kelly were at the court of the Emperor Rudolph II to discuss plans for making alchemical gold, and Kelly bought the copy from the so-called 'Black Rabbi' and Kabbalist, Jacob Eliezer, who had fled to Prague from Italy after accusations of necromancy. At that time Prague had become a magnet for magicians, alchemists and charletons of every kind under the patronage of Rudolph, and it is hard to imagine a more likely place in Europe for a copy to surface."
- Colin Low, Necronomicon FAQ
(Compiled from The Book of the Arab, by Justin Geoffry, Starry Wisdom Press, 1979)

Dee and Kelly's "Enochian system" has many parallels with HPL. Schueler asserts that the Enochian tradition proposes the existence of a God or Force which is the manifestation of Infinite Space similar to Crowley's Nuit and HPL's Yog-Sototh. Schueler also contends that The Divine manifestation of the nuclear point at the center of infinity (equivalent to Hadit or Azathoth) is also important to Enochian magick. The Enochian Keys state that the wold is nearing an eon spanning Cycle in which Ancient Gods will return to there throne and the world will be forever changed. These keys also mention an imprisoned dragon (Cthulhu?)"
- Parker Ryan , "Necronomicon Info Source"

"The Necronomicon appears to have had a marked influence on Kelly; the character of his scrying changed, and he produced an extraordinary communication which struck horror into the Dee household...Kelly left Dee shortly afterwards. Dee translated the Necronomicon into English while warden of Christ's College, Manchester..."
- Colin Low, Necronomicon FAQ
(Compiled from The Book of the Arab, by Justin Geoffry, Starry Wisdom Press, 1979)

"An English translation made by Dr. Dee was never printed, and exists only in fragments recovered from the original MS."
- H. P. Lovecraft, "The History and Chronology of the Necronomicon"

"...The manuscript passed into the collection of the great collector Elias Ashmole, and hence to the Bodleian Library in Oxford."
- Colin Low, Necronomicon FAQ
(Compiled from The Book of the Arab, by Justin Geoffry, Starry Wisdom Press, 1979)

"Dee's cipher manuscript was called Liber Logaeth, and was evidently "a portion of a larger manuscript, the origin and nature of which is not known. Due to its history and the similarity in content to the Cthulhu Mythos, this document has been presented...as being, at least a portion of, the document which was the inspiration for HPL's Necronomicon."
- Ken Ottinger

COMPARISON OF TEXTS
Dee's Liber Logaeth	HPL's Necronomicon
Of Ye Old Ones and their Spawn The Old Ones were, the Old Ones are and the Old Ones shall be. From the dark stars They came ere man was born, unseen and loathsome They descended to primal earth.	Nor is it to be thought that man is either the oldest or the last of Earth's masters, or that the common bulk of life and substance walks alone. The Old Ones were, the Old Ones are, and the Old Ones shall be.
Beneath the oceans They brooded while ages past, till seas gave up the land, whereupon They swarmed forth in Their multitudes and darkness ruled the Earth. At the frozen Poles They raised mighty cities, and upon high places the temples of Those whome nature owns not and the Gods have cursed.	The ice desert of the South and the sunken isles of Ocean hold stones whereon Their seal is engraven, but who hath seen the deep frozen city or the sealed tower long garlanded with seaweed and barnacles?
Great Cthulhuis Their brother, the shaggoths Their slaves. The Dholes do homage unto Them in the nighted vale of Pnoth and Gugs sing Their praises beneath the peaks of ancient Throk.	Great Cthulhu is Their cousin, yet can he spy Them only dimly. lŠ! Shub-Niggurath!
Beyond the Gate dwell now the Old Ones; not in the spaces known unto men but in the angles betwixt them. Outside Earth's plane They linger and ever awaite the time of Their return; for the Earth has known Them and shall know Them in time yet to come.	Not in the spaces we know, but between them. They walk serene and primal, undimensioned and to us unseen.
And the Old Ones hold foul and formless Azathoth for Their Master and Abide with Him in the black cavern at the centre of all infinity, where he gnaws ravenously in ultimate chaos amid the mad beating of hidden drums, the tuneless piping of hideous flutes and the ceaseless bellowing of blind idiot gods that shamble and gesture aimlessly for ever.	They walk unseen and foul in lonely places where the Words have been spoken and the Rites howled through at their Seasons. The wind gibbers with Their voices, and the earth mutters with Their consciousness. They bend the forest and crush the city, yet may; not forest or city behold the hand that smites.
The soul of Azathoth dwelleth in Yog-sothoth and He shall beckon unto the Old Ones when the stars mark the time of Their coming; for Yog-sothoth is the Gate through which Those of the Void will re-enter. Yog-sothoth knowest the mazes of of time, for all time is one unto Him. He knowest where the Old Ones came forth in time along long past and where They shall come forth again when the cycle returneth.	Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth. He knows where the Old Ones broke through of old, and where They shall break through again.
After day cometh night; man's day shall pass, and They shall rule where They once ruled. As foulness you shall know them and Their accursedness shall stain the Earth.	Man rules now where They ruled once; They shall soon rule where man rules now. After summer is winter, and after winter summer. They wait patient and potent, for here shall They reign again.

The quotes from Lovecraft were taken from his short story "The Dunwich Horror" ( 1928). Lovecraft attributes the source of his material to Olaus Wormius' Latin version of Abdul Alhazred's Necronomicon, as printed in Spain in the 17th century. Note how Dee's Liber Logaeth places the return of the Old Ones at some indeterminate future while in Lovecraft's version, They are coming soon (and in his stories have already arrived.) For the text of Olaus Wormius' version click here.

Dee's Liber Logaeth is also known as the Book of Enoch and is preserved in the following manuscripts:

"London, British Library: Sloane MS. 3189. Dee's 'Liber mysteriorum sextus et sanctus' in Edward Kelley's handwriting (1583). The clean copy of 'Liber Logaeth', 65 folios containing 101 complex magic squares, 96 of which comprised of 49 x 49 cells containing Latin letters and Arabic numerals, and 4 of 36 x 72 cells containing only Latin letters (these in Dee's hand), plus 2 blank 49 x 49 grids.
"London, British Library: Sloane MS. 2599, art. 1. A partial transcription of 'Liber mysteriorum sextus et sanctus' in at least two different hands. One of them may be Ashmole's.
"London, British Library: Sloane MS. 78, art. 11. An excerpt from Dee's 'Liber mysteriorum sextus et sanctus'. A partial transcription of the first few leaves of MS. 3189 without any tables. The same material is also to be found in 'Mysteriorum Liber Quintus' in Sloane MS. 3188."
- Introductory bibliography of Enochian and diary MSS of John Dee

"No one as yet has made serious attempts to use it, or to understand its nature beyond what is recorded in the diaries. According to the angels, 'logaeth' means 'speech from God'; this book is supposed to be, literally, the words by which God created all things. It is supposedly the language in which the 'true names' of all things are known, giving power over them.
"As described in Liber Mysteriorum Quintis, the book was to consist of 48 leaves, each of which contains a 49-by-49 grid. The book as actually presented to Kelly is somewhat different. It contains 49 'Calls' in an unknown language, 95 tables of squares filled with letters and numbers, two similar tables unfilled, and four tables drawn twice as large as the others. Two 'leaves' are recorded in Liber Mysteriorum Quintis, these are not included in the final book, and apparently serve as an introduction or prologue to the work."
- Benjamin Rowe, Enochian Magick Reference

The leaves in "Liber mysteriorum sextus et sanctus" comprise strings of unintelligible words supposedly written in "Enochian" language " that had been revealed to Dr. John Dee by the Angels". Below is a selection from the text:

Leaf 4a Zvbla ox arnogan Algers aclo.
Leaf 4b Danfal gest Axamph acrosta.
Leaf 5a Gonzahoh alch arge oho Adanch.
Leaf 5b Zvchastors plohodmax argednon acho

(Click here for the full text.)

"On the surface, the 'Calls' of Liber Logaeth do not appear to be a language as humans understand the term. There are no translations by which this might be judged in detail, but the text lacks the repetitiveness and consistent word-placement that is characteristic of the 48 Enochian Calls given in the next year. There is no apparent 'grammar' to the text. Donald Laycock remarks that the language is highly alliterative and repetitively rhyming, while Robert Turner calls it 'glossolalic'. The angels said that each element of each table could be understood in 49 different ways, so that there were that many 'languages' in it, all of them being spoken at once.
"The purpose of Logaeth was said to be the ushering in of a new age on Earth, the last age before the end of all things. Instructions for using it to that effect were never given; the angels continually put it off, saying that only God could decide when the time was right."
- Benjamin Rowe, Enochian Magick Reference

David Langford claims to have deciphered the Liber Logaeth and his translation in English appears in a book called Necronomicon, co-written with Robert Turner and Colin Wilson. This book, however, was an admitted spoof of Lovecraft's Necronomicon. (Click here for details.)

For real correspondences between Lovecraft's mythos, Dee's angelic writings and the apocryphal Book of Enoch, see:

Liora Bernstein's article "Egregor"
"Enochian Magick"

The Missing Texts

"No Arabic manuscript is known to exist; the author Idries Shah carried out a search in the libraries of Deobund in India, Al-Azhar in Egypt, and the Library of the Holy City of Mecca, without success."
- Colin Low, Necronomicon FAQ
(Compiled from The Book of the Arab, by Justin Geoffry, Starry Wisdom Press, 1979)

"The Arabic original was lost as early as Wormius' time, as indicated by his prefatory note (there is, however, a vague account of a secret copy appearing in San Francisco during the present century but later perishing by fire); and no sight of the Greek copy - which was printed in Italy between 1500 and 1550 - has been reported since the burning of a certain Salem man's library in 1692."
- H. P. Lovecraft, "The History and Chronology of the Necronomicon"

"Nathan of Gaza precipitated one of the most profound events in the history of Judaism. In 1665, while only 21 or 22 years old, he proclaimed that Sabbatai Tzevi was the Messiah."
Nathan also wrote the Sepher ha-Sha'are ha-Daath, a commentary on the Book of the Alhazred. "Nathan's purpose appears to have been to develop a methodology for a systematic exploration of the realms of the Klippoth [husks or shells of materiality which ensnare the spirit], as part of his mission to redeem the sparks [concentrated shards of the original creation], using some of Alhazred's techniques. It is an extraordinary development of Alhazred's work, identifying the Klippoth with the primordial Old Ones."
"Nathan developed a huge following and for many years Judaism was riven with charges of heresy. Many prominent Rabbis and community leaders sided with Nathan, and it took most of a century for the drama to unwind. Eventually the Sabbatean movement went underground, and while it is a certainty that a copy of the Sepher ha-Sha'are ha-Daath exists in a private library somewhere, no one is admitting that they have it."

"In the years from 1933-38 the few known copies of the Necronomicon simply disappeared; someone in the German government of Adolph Hitler took an interest in obscure occult literature and began to obtain copies by fair means or foul. Dee's translation disappeared from the Bodleian following a break-in in the spring of 1934. The British Museum suffered several abortive burglaries, and the Wormius edition was deleted from the catalogue and removed to an underground repository in a converted slate mine in Wales (where the Crown Jewels were stored during the 1939-45 war). Other libraries lost their copies, and today there is no library with a genuine catalogue entry for the Necronomicon. The current whereabouts of copies of the Necronomicon is unknown; there is a story of a large wartime cache of occult and magical documents in the Osterhorn area near Salzburg.
- Colin Low, Necronomicon FAQ."
(Compiled from The Book of the Arab, by Justin Geoffry, Starry Wisdom Press, 1979)

Sorting Fact from Fiction

(1) Spoofs, Jokes and the Magickal Tradition

"In their spoof Necronomicon, authors Langford, Turner, and Wilson suggested that Liber Loagaeth was actually a cipher version of the Evil Book, which they had managed to decode. Neither of these ideas is supported by the records.
"Colin Low has perpetuated and embellished these fictional excursions in his 'Necronomicon Anti-FAQ' and other writings. Some modern readers, lacking a sense of humor and irony, have taken his work seriously; as a consequence, the myth of Dee's connection with the book has taken on an air of Utter Authority among certain gullible portions of the magickal community."
- Josh Norton, "Enochian Magick Reference Document 2.0"

"Lovecraft denied that the book existed, and wrote as a joke a paper titled 'A History of the Necronomicon', giving a chronology of the book, names, and places. The name of the book is supposedly bastardized Greek and Latin, which roughly translates into 'The Book of Dead Names' (i.e., ikon = book, necro = die or dead, and nom = name)."
- Kendrick Kerwin Chua, "The Necronomicon - FAQ Version 2.0"

"Regarding the solemnly cited myth-cycle of Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth, R'lyeh, Nyarlathotep, Nug, Yeb, Shub-Niggurath, etc., etc.- let me confess that this is all a synthetic concotion of my own, like the populous and varied pantheon of Lord Dunsany's Pegana . The reason for its echoes in Dr. de Castro's work is that the latter gentleman is a revision-client of mine--into whose tales I have stuck these glancing references for sheer fun. If any other clients of mine get work placed in W.T., you will perhaps find a still-wider spread of the cult of Azathoth, Cthulhu, and the Great Old Ones! The Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred is likewise something which must yet be written in order to possess objective reality."
- H. P. Lovecraft, letter to Robert E. Howard (August 14, 1930)
"Regarding the Necronomicon--I must confess that this monstrous & abhorred volume is merely a figment of my own imagination! Inventing horrible books is quite a pastime among devotees of the weird, &...many of the regular W.T. contributors have such things to their credit--or discredit. It rather amuses the different writers to use one another's synthetic demons & imaginary books in their stories--so that Clark Ashton Smith often speaks of my Necronomicon while I refer to his Book of Eibon . . & so on. This pooling of resources tends to build up quite a pseudo-convincing background of dark mythology, legendry, & bibliography--though of course none of us has the least wish actually to mislead readers."
- H. P. Lovecraft, letter to Miss Margaret Sylvester (January 13, 1934)

"When we then turn to the text referred to as the Necronomicon by H.P. Lovecraft, we are hard-pressed to render a 'verdict' as to its legitimacy. If indeed the text preceded Lovecraft, then this does not guarantee that it has come down to us unedited. If the idea and title were used by Lovecraft as a result of suggestions from others without an extant text, then perhaps its 'source consciousness' hid the text until a later time. If Lovecraft fabricated even the IDEA of the tome along with its title, then perhaps he was simply a 'third party' to a state of consciousness which we may never assess."
- Kendrick Kerwin Chua, "The Necronomicon - FAQ Version 2.0"

It is possible that Lovecraft was concealing an occult source of information for his writings.

"The books of the The Order of the Golden Dawn, "The Equinox and The Golden Dawn, are important to a study of H. P. Lovecraft for several reasons. First, they are the closest thing to Lovecraft's Necronomicon to be produced in this century. Second, in his study of occult material, it is not impossible that Lovecraft may have come into contact with The Equinox. In fact, the Widener Library at Harvard owns Volume 1, Number 5 (March 1911), of The Equinox, which was received at the library on December 31, 1917, placing it easily within Lovecraft's reach. And third, there is a kind of peripheral connection between Lovecraft and the Golden Dawn in that several of his favorite weird fiction writers belonged to it. Arthur Machen and Algernon Blackwood, both of whom Lovecraft praised (albeit to different degrees) in 'Supernatural Horror in Literature', were prominent members of the order, as were Sax Rohmer, Bram Stoker, author of Dracula, and Robert Louis Stevenson."

"Since the publication in 1938 of H. P. Lovecraft's essay on the Necronomicon, at least one more copy of this obviously rare book has surfaced and is now in the collection of the [John Hay] Library at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. Printed by the Owl's Wick Press at Philadelphia in 1973, this modern edition of the Necronomicon appears to be a facsimile of the original Arabic text that Lovecraft presumed lost by the year A. D. 1050. A problematical aspect of the Brown University copy, however, is that the text, though appearing to the untrained eye to be in Arabic, is actually in a language known to Semitic scholars as Duraic. Unfortunately, there has, to date, been no successful completion of a translation."
-Philip A. Shreffer, The H.P. Lovecraft Companion

(2) The Mesopotamian Connection

The "Great Beast" Aleister Crowley interpreted the horrifying communication by Kelly (under the influence of the Necronomicon four centuries earlier) "as the abortive first attempt of an extra-human entity to communicate thelemic Book of the Law."
"There is no question that Crowley read Dee's translation of the Necronomicon in the Ashmolean, probably while researching Dee's papers; too many passages in Crowley's Book of the Law read like a transcription of passages in that translation."
- Colin Low, Necronomicon FAQ
(Compiled from The Book of the Arab, by Justin Geoffry, Starry Wisdom Press, 1979)

H.P. Lovecraft	Aleister Crowley	Ancient Sumer
COMPARISON OF TERMINOLOGY
Cthulhu	The Great Beast	Ctha-lu, Kutulu represented in "CTH/\H 666"
The Ancient Ones	Satan; Teitan	Tiamat
Azathoth	Aiwass (?)	Azag-thoth
The Dunwitch Horror	Choronzon	Pazuzu
Shub Niggurath	Pan	Shub Ishniggarab (?)
Out Of Space	The Abyss	Absu; Nar Mattaru
IA!	IO! IAO!	IA (Jah; Ea; Lord of Waters)
The Five-pointed star cavern	The Pentagram	The AR, or UB (Plough Sign: the original gray pentagram and sign of the Aryan Race)
Vermis Mysteriis	The Serpent	Erim (the enemy; and the sea as Chaos; Gothic: Orim, or Worm Great

From "The Coroner presents the Necronomicron"

"Succinctly stated: there are no 'Ancient One' in Sumerian Religion or mythology. Similarly, there are no 'Elder Gods'. Additionally, there exists no written record of any god, demon, or lesser figure whose names resemble those of the Chthonic pantheon. Some have advanced the proposition that Cthulhu is taken from the eponym Kutu-lu, a mangled rendering of 'man of Kutha'. This would suggest that Cthulhu is supposedly a title of Nergal, the patron deity of the city of Kutha in ancient Mesopotamia. Yet nowhere in any extant text is this title referred to. In fact, nowhere in any tablet is any god of the Mesopotamian pantheon referred to under the title 'man of...' Such a base descriptive was unheard of as a divine appellation."
- Adapa, "The Necronomicon and Ancient Sumer: Dubunking the Myth"

There is disagreement whether "Kutulu" should be translated as "man of Kutha" or "Lord of the Abyss" as Parker Ryan maintains.

"The Enuma Elis, the Babylonian Epic of Creation...attributed to the mid second millennium in the Old Babylonian period, stands not for the struggle between the forces of Darkness and Light, but rather serves to exemplify the movement from chaos to order in the political arena of this ancient land:"
- Adapa, "The Necronomicon and Ancient Sumer: Dubunking the Myth"

"Just as his observation about the physical origin of his country guided the ancient Mesopotamian in his speculations about the origins of the Universe, so do his memory and his experience of its political organization seem to have governed his thinking about the origins of order in that universe. Politics in Mesopotamia in the Old Babylonian Period, various and unstable, abounded in tribal and urban political forms. It ranged from near anarchy to democratic or semidemocratic forms based on general assemblies to monarchies. Its continually shifting power combinations and frequent attempts at achieving supremacy now by one, now by another, undoubtedly afforded many an object lesson in how to win power when common danger imposed unity and in how to preserve such power by wise and benevolent rule after the immediate danger was past. In the [Enuma Elis] epic, world order is seen as the outcome of just such a successful drive towards supremacy."
- T. Jacobsen, Treasures of Darkness

"In Lovecraft's panthaeon, Nyarlathotep, Azathoth, Shub-Niggurath, and so forth...represent chaos and oblivion....Later on, when the war with the Elders vs. the Others became apperant, Nodens, Bast, and the Elders became represented as deities of order and structure."
- Edmund Wilfong

It should also be pointed out that Zoroasterism, the religion of the ancient Persians who conquered Babylon, teaches about a cosmic struggle between the forces of Darkness and Light.

The Sons of Snakes

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The Biblical Seth

The Valentinians and Ophites (Sethians) "regarded Seth as the first of the race of the perfect ones, the spiritual in opposition to the material (Cain) and Abel (the psychic). Seth was, no doubt, well suited to become the great prophet of the Gnostic race, various attributes of prestige being ascribed to him in apocryphal traditions about the Old Testament: image of God, heir of Adam, inventor of astronomy. His sons were to be the 'Sons of God' who, upon Mount Hermion, led a pious and secluded life cherishing the nostalgia for Paradise."
- Jean Doresse, The Secret Books of the Egyptian Gnostics

Adam "had indeed many other children, but Seth in particular. As for the rest, it would be tedious to name them; I will therefore only endeavor to give an account of those that proceeded from Seth. Now this Seth, when he was brought up, and came to those years in which he could discern what was good, became a virtuous man; and as he was himself of an excellent character, so did he leave children behind him who imitated his virtues. All these proved to be of good dispositions. They also inhabited the same country without dissensions, and in a happy condition, without any misfortunes falling upon them, till they died."
- Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews Bk I, Ch II, Sn 3

"The wickedness of Cain is repeated in Ham. But the descendants of both are shown as the wisest of races on earth; and they are called on this account 'snakes', and the 'sons of snakes', meaning the sons of wisdom, and not of Satan, as some divines would be pleased to have the world understand the term. Enmity has been placed between the 'snake' and the 'woman' only in this mortal phenomenal 'world of man' as 'born of woman'. Before the carnal fall, the 'snake' was Ophis, the divine wisdom, which needed no matter to procreate men, humanity being utterly spiritual. Hence the war between the snake and the woman, or between spirit and matter."
- M. P. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled

The Ophites reputedly said:

"We venerate the serpent because God has made it the cause of Gnosis for mankind. Ialdabaoth (the Demiurge who was the 'god of the Jews') did not with men to have any recollection of the Mother or of the Father on high. It was the serpent, who by tempting them, brought them Gnosis; who taught the man and the woman the complete knowledge of the mysteries from on high. That is why [its] father Ialdabaoth mad with fury, cast it down from the heavens."
- St. Epiphanius, Adversus Haereses

"...No one can be saved and rise up again without the Son, who is the serpent. For it was he who brought the paternal models down from aloft, and it is he who carries back up again those, who have been awakened from sleep and have reassumed the features of the Father."
- St. Hippolytus, Elenchos V. 17

The Ophites "made a very special cult of these reptiles: they kept and fed them in baskets; they held their meetings close to the holes in which they lived. They arranged loaves of bread upon a table, and then, by means of incantations, they allured the snake until it came coiling its way among these offerings; and only then did they partake of the bread, each one kissing the muzzle of the reptile they had charmed. This, they claimed, was the perfect sacrifice, the true Eucharist.
"Where is it - in the Dionysiac orgies, in the cult of Asclepios, or in the mysteries of Sabazios which, according to Arnobius (Adversus nationes, V.21), also made use of the image of the serpent - that one must look for the origins of such practices? Or do they not remind one even more of the cults of certain pagan sects which made a special cult of the serpent of the constellation Ophiuchus (if we are to believe the Astonomica of Manilius, 5; 389-93)? Like our Ophites, these adepts held the reptiles to their breasts and caressed them, as living symbols of the celestial image that they worshipped."
- Jean Doresse, The Secret Books of the Egyptian Gnostics

Set/Seth, the Egyptian God of Chaos

In Egyptian tradition, the god Seth or Set "stands for the forces of chaos and destruction, or energy misplaced. He was the manifestation of Apep or Typhon, opposers of the power of light."
- Murray Hope, Practical Egyptian Magic

"In the Pharaonic religion Seth was the great enemy of the other principal gods; of Osiris, of Isis and of Horus. In this character he was ritually cursed in the great myths and in ceremonies held in the great temples. However, he also had his own cult, in some places officially: some of the Pharaohs - The Sethi - even claimed him as the patron god of their dynasty. We can read, in Plutarch's treatise on Isis and Osiris, an exegesis of the mythical relations between Seth and Osiris, derived from sources which seem to have been quite authentically Egyptian, in which we find what is almost a Gnostic dualism. In the magic of the later period Seth is identified with the monstrous Greek genie Typhon, son of Tartarus, who has a serpent's body. He is supposed to have an ass's head, a feature which recalls the elongated snout and long ears of some African animal, with which Seth is sometimes represented in Pharaonic iconography. More often he seems to be identified with a sort of headless demon whose eyes are placed in his shoulders, the Akephalos."
- Jean Doresse, The Secret Books of the Egyptian Gnostics

"...Seth-Typhon is the principle of all which burns, consumes. He has red hair, for example, for he represents the desert rocks, arid and sterile."
- Lucy Lamie, Egyptian Mysteries

"The original Priesthood of Set in ancient Egypt survived for twenty-five recorded dynasties (ca. 3200-700 BCE). It was one of the two central priesthoods in predynastic times, the other being that of HarWer ('Horus the Elder'). Unification of Egypt under both philosophical systems resulted in the nation's being known as the 'Two Kingdoms' and in its Pharaohs wearing the famous 'Double Crown' of Horus and Set.
"Originally a circumpolar/stellar deity portrayed as a cyclical counterpart to the Solar Horus, Set was later recast as an evil principle by the cults of Osiris and Isis. During the XIX and XX Dynasties Set returned as the Pharaonic patron, but by the XXV Dynasty (ca. 700 BCE) a new wave of Osirian persecution led to the final destruction of the original Priesthood of Set. When the Hebrews emigrated from Egypt during the XIX Dynasty, however, they took with them a caricature of Set: 'Satan' (from the hieroglyphic Set-hen, one of the god's formal titles)."
- Murray Hope, "The Temple of Set FAQ"

"In the Gnostic myths which transform the God of Genesis into an evil god, and similarly turn various other values of Biblical doctrine upside down, this Seth - the enemy of the chief Egyptian gods - acquires a definite position. One may even wonder whether, perchance, some of these myths did not bring him into such contact with his homonym, Seth the son of Adam, as to create some confusion between them."
"...Certain Egyptian theologies reported by Plutarch (essentially in the De Iside) set up an antithesis between Seth and Osiris, closely analogous to that which the Gnostics developed between Ialdabaoth-Sacla and the divinity of the light. A Greek Hermetic text even suggests that in the Roman epoch, the Egyptian religion, arraigned its Gnostics as 'sons of Typhon'."

"Seth...is known in Islam, and usually assimilated to Agathodaimon, who is one of the great figures of Hermetic literature. The prophetic prestige with which the Gnostics endowed him, he still possesses, especially in the traditions of various Shi'ite groups, therefore chiefly in Mesopotamia or in Iran. In these particular doctrines the survival of Gnostic themes is ubiquitous and seems immense..."
- Jean Doresse, The Secret Books of the Egyptian Gnostics

Cryptic Manuscripts

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Sumerian and Egyptian myths both relate how a god taught the art of writing and the knowledge of science to mankind. Thoth, the Egyptian God of Wisdom was most likely derived from even earlier Sumerian sources. Thoth was the god who supposedly sent a Flood to punish humankind for wickedness.

Three accounts of an ancient store of wisdom hidden in pillars which may reflect a common tradition based on Thoth:

1.) A Hebrew tradition states that Enoch (the father of Methuselah) erected several columns before the flood and that a bronze one, which held a depository of the great philosophical and religious truths unknown to the world at large, survived.
2.) A third century AD Neoplatonic work, Corpus Hermeticum, tells how an Egyptian priest Manetho discovered the secrets of ancient rites that had been hidden in pillars, buried in a deep vault before the Deluge. (The Greeks equated their god Hermes with Thoth.)
3.) The "old ritual" of Freemasonry relates that the two great pillars placed in front of the Temple of Solomon had been hollow. Inside them had been stored the "ancient records" and the "valuable writings" pertaining to the past of the Jewish people.

The documents below are ascribed to esoteric traditions of revealed secrets of the ancients. Some are authentic, others fakes and forgeries, and still others inspired by "trance writing". All have provided considerable grist for speculation about the true identities and real intentions of their authors.

"The more one studies the best of these mystical sermons, casting aside all prejudices, and trying to feel and think with the writers, the more one is conscious of approaching the threshold of what my well be believed to have been the true adytum of the best in the mystery traditions of antiquity. Innumerable are the hints of the greatness and immensities lying beyond that threshold - among precious things the vision of the key to Egypt's wisdom..."
- G. R. S. Meade

Do these works represent a revealed wisdom for an initiated elite, or are they products of self-delusion with no factual basis in reality? You be the judge.

Hermes Trismegistus

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The Archaic Underground Tradition

(1) Ancient Egyptian Tradition

"In the ancient city of Annu (later called On in the Bible and Heliopolis by the Greeks) there was a great sacred pillar, itself named Annu - possibly before the city. This, we believe, was the great pillar of Lower Egypt and its counterpart in Upper Egypt at the time of unification was in the city of Nekheb. Later the city of Thebes, known then as 'Waset', had the title 'Iwnu Shema', which meant 'the Southern Pillar'."
"The twin pillars of the Two Lands became the Pillars of Hermes and the attributes of the ancient Egyptian moon god Thoth became absorbed into Hermes...It was said that this god [Thoth] possessed all secret knowledge on 36,535 scrolls that were hidden under the heavenly vault (the sky) which could only be found by the worthy, who would use such knowledge for the benefit of mankind."
- Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus

The tradition of a secret doctrine of Thoth appears to be well established in Egypt:
1.) According to a papyrus dating to Dynasty 12 of the Old Kingdom:

"Then [His Majesty] King Khufu, the vindicated, said: Now as for the rumor that you know the shrines of the secret chambers of the enclosure of [Thoth]? Dedi said: By your favor, I do not know their shrines, Sovereign, my lord, but I do know the place where they are. His Majesty said: Where are they? And Dedi said: There is a passage of flint in a chamber called the Inventory in Heliopolis in that passage."
- "A Marvel in the Time of King Khufu Himself"

2.) A chapter in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, according to its rubric, is said to have been found at:

"Shmun [Hermopolis] under the feet of the majesty of this sublime god [Thoth] upon a slab of upper Egyptian granite in the script of the god himself in the tomb of...Mycerinus, by Prince Hor-dedef. He found the spell when he was engaged in inspecting the temples."
- The Egyptian Book of the Dead

"Divine authorship elevates religious literature from present day existence; similarly, the accounts about the discovery of such works ascribe them to a more or less distant past. This exemplifies the tendency to emphasize the antiquity of sacred writings, which is particularly evident in the retention of ancient linguistic forms or the deliberate choice of archaistic expressions. Egyptians could also adopt the customs of bygone ages in their mode of writing."
"There is a particle of truth in the statement of Clement of Alexandria that the Egyptians had forty-two sacred writings by Hermes (Thoth), in so far as these texts, which include geographical and medical works among others, constitute the entire range of material available for the education of priests. The reference to Thoth's authorship...is based on ancient tradition; the figure forty-two probably stems from the number of Egyptian nomes, and thus conveys the notion of completeness."
- Siegfried Morenz, Egyptian Religion

Regarding the "Pillars of Hermes" of "Seth" and of "Solomon"
"In the 9th chapter of the [Egyptian] Ritual of the Dead they are referred to as the 'Pillars of Shu', the 'Pillars of the Gods of the Dawning Light', and also as 'the North and Southern Columns of the Gate of the Hall of Truth'. In the 125th chapter, they are represented by the sacred gateway, the door to which the aspirant is brought when he has completed the negative confession. The archaic pictures on the one Pillar are painted in black upon a white ground, and those on the other in white upon a black ground, in order to express the interchange and reconciliation of opposing forces and the eternal balance of light and darkness which give force to visible nature....The archaic illustrations are taken from vignettes of the 17th and 125th chapter of the Ritual of the Dead, the Egyptian Book of the 'Per-em-Hru' or the 'Book of Coming Forth into the Day', the oldest book in the world as yet discovered."
"...The general design of the White Pillar is a pictorial synthesis of the gradual freeing of the soul from the body, left to be mummied and its union with Osiris, Lord and Judge of the Dead and of the resurrection, the sun in his rising....The Black Pillar symbolizes the pathway of darkness, the Negative Confession, as the White Pillar represents the Hymn to the Rising Sun, the Pathway of Light, and the Positive Confession."
- G. H. Frater, "The Core of the Tradition"
The Complete Golden Dawn System of Magic

(2) Greek Accounts

"Explaining the Egyptian pantheon of twelve gods to his countrymen, the Greek historian Herodotus also wrote of an 'Immortal whom the Egyptians venerated as "Hercules".' He traced the origins of the worship of this Immortal to Phoenicia, 'hearing that there was a temple of Hercules at that place, very highly venerated'. In the temple he saw two pillars. 'One was of pure gold; the other was as of emerald, shining with great brilliancy at night."
- Zecharia Sitchin, The Stairway to Heaven

"Plato's Timaeus and Critias state that about 560 BC in the temple of Neith at Sais there were secret halls containing historical records which had been kept for more the 9,000 years. Proclus gives the name of the high priest with whom Plato spoke in Sais - Pateneit. It is probably from him that the Greek philosopher learned about the oldest archives of Egypt. Another interesting fact to notice is that the high priest of Egypt Psonchis, teacher of Pythagoras, also mentioned sacred registers which even speak of a collision of the Earth with a giant asteroid in a remote past."
- Andrew Tomas, On the Shores of Endless Worlds

"Greek philosophy and Egyptian lore really came together at the time of the Lagides, who gradually made Alexandria the intellectual, scientific, philosophic and religious center of the Hellenistic world....Manetho [his hieroglyphic name meant 'Gift of Thoth'], the Egyptian priest of Heliopolis, was also famous for translating the mysteries into Greek. He lived during the final years of the fourth and first half of the third centuries B.C. in the reign of the last two Ptolemies."
- Murray Hope, Practical Egyptian Magic

"Manetho extracted his history from certain pillars which he discovered in Egypt, whereon inscriptions had been made by Thoth, or the first Mercury [or Hermes], in the sacred letters and dialect; but which were after the flood translated from that dialect into the Greek tongue, and laid up in the private recesses the Egyptian Temples. These pillars were found in subterranean caverns, near Thebes and beyond the Nile, not far from the sounding statue of Memnon, in a place called Syringes; which are described to be certain winding apartments underground; made, it is said, by those who were skilled in ancient rites; who, foreseeing the coming of the Deluge, and fearing lest the memory of their ceremonies be obliterated, built and contrived vaults, dug with vast labor, in several places."

Hermes Trismegistus "invented many things necessary for the uses of life, and gave them suitable names; he taught men how to write down their thoughts and arrange their speech; he instituted the ceremonies to be observed in the worship of each of the Gods; he observed the course of the stars; he invented music, the different bodily exercises, arithmetic, medicine, the art of working in metals, the lyre with three strings; he regulated the three tones of the voice, the sharp, taken from autumn, the grave from winter, and the middle from spring, there being then but three seasons. It was he who taught the Greeks the mode of interpreting terms and things, when they gave him the name of [Hermes], which signifies Interpreter.
"In Egypt he instituted hieroglyphics: he selected a certain number of persons whom he judged fitted to be the depositories of his secrets, of such only as were capable at attaining the throne and the first offices in the Mysteries, he united them in a body, created them Priests of the Living God, instructed them in the sciences and arts, and explained to them the symbols by which they were veiled."
- General Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma

"...The so-called Hermetic literature...is a series of papyri describing various induction procedures...In one of them, there is a dialogue called the Asclepius (after the Greek god of healing) that describes the art of imprisoning the souls of demons or of angel in statues with the help of herbs, gems and odors, such that the statue could speak and prophesy. In other papyri, there are still other recipes for constructing such images and animating them, such as when images are to be hollow so as to enclose a magic name inscribed on gold leaf."
- Julian Jaynes, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

"The Vision is the most famous of all the Hermetic fragments, and contains an exposition of Hermetic cosmogony and the secret sciences of the Egyptians regarding the culture and unfoldment of the human soul. For some time it was erroneously called 'The Genesis of Enoch', but that mistake has now been rectified."
- Manly P. Hall, Masonic, Hermetic, Quabbalistic & Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy

"His importance in magic is due to the so-called 'Emerald Tablet' which succinctly sets out the 'as above, so below' principle on which most magical theory is based."
- David Conway, Ritual Magic

"The exact origins of the celebrated 'Emerald Tablet' are lost, but it is certainly not nearly as old as it is supposed to be. The content of the 'Emerald Tablet' can be traced back, with a fair degree of certainty, to Moslem alchemists in Syria in about the tenth or eleventh centuries."
- Daniel Cohen, Masters of the Occult

"While Hermes still walked the earth with men, he entrusted to his chosen successors the sacred Book of Thoth. This work contained the secret processes by which the regeneration of humanity was to be accomplished and also served as the key to is other writings. Nothing definite is known concerning the contents of the Book of Thoth other than that its pages were covered with strange hieroglyphic figures and symbols, which gave to those acquainted with their use unlimited power over the spirits of the air and the subterranean divinities. When certain areas of the brain are stimulated by the secret processes of the Mysteries, the consciousness of man is extended and he is permitted to behold the Immortals and enter into the presence of the superior gods. The Book of Thoth described the method whereby this stimulation was accomplished. In truth, therefore, it was the 'Key to Immortality'.

According to legend, the Book of Thoth was kept in a golden box in the inner sanctuary of the temple. There was but one key and this was in the possession of the 'Master of the Mysteries', the highest initiate of the Hermetic Arcanum. He alone knew what was written in the secret book. The Book of Thoth was lost to the ancient world with the decay of the Mysteries, but its faithful initiates carried it sealed in the sacred casket into another land. The book is still in existence and continues to lead the disciples of this age into the presence of the Immortals. No other information can be given to the world concerning it now, but the apostolic succession from the first hierophant initiated by Hermes himself remains unbroken to this day, and those who are peculiarly fitted to serve the Immortals may discover this priceless document if they will search sincerely and tirelessly for it."
"It has been asserted that the Book of Thoth is, in reality, the mysterious Tarot of the Bohemians - a strange emblematic book of seventy-eight leaves which has been in possession of the gypsies since the time then they were driven from their ancient temple, the Serapeum."
- Manly P. Hall, Masonic, Hermetic, Quabbalistic & Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy

The Philosphy of Hermes

"According to the Neoplatonic view the material world is arranged as a 'golden chain', which reaches from the topmost being and from the one which is beyond even existence, down to the last shimmer of being in matter, joining plane with plane in their essence. Ascending the chain the beings climb back to the summit of all being."
- Holger Kersten & Elmar R. Gruber, The Jesus Conspiracy - The Turin Shroud & The Truth About the Resurrection (1992)

"Written by a Neoplatonist philosopher of about the fifth century, "the Celestial Hierarchies describes three worlds of which ours is the lowest. This is the elemental world of nature and is subject to influences from above. Above this 'sublunary' world, is what is called the 'celestial' world wherein are found the stars and their 'spirits' or 'guardians' (analogous to the Gnostic archons). Even higher is the sphere of the 'supercelestial' world, the world of nous, the 'intellectual' or 'intelligible' world of angelic spirits, of superior knowledge of reality because closer to the One, the divine source of creation, who is beyond the three worlds. Hand in hand with this concept of worlds, of which ours is the lowest projection, goes it essential counterpart; the concept of microcosm.... Going deeper and deeper into the mind of Man, illuminated by nous, man could travel farther and farther into the universe - and back again."
- Tobias Churton, The Gnostics

"Hermes, while wandering in a rocky and desolate place, gave himself over to meditation and prayer. Following the secret instructions of the Temple, he gradually freed his higher consciousness from the bondage of his bodily senses; and, thus release, his divine nature revealed to him the mysteries of the transcendental spheres. He beheld a figure, terrible and awe-inspiring. It was the Great Dragon, with wings stretching across the sky and light streaming in all directions from its body. (The Mysteries taught that the Universal Life was personified as a dragon.) The Great Dragon called Hermes by name, and asked him why he thus meditated upon the World Mystery. Terrified by the spectacle, Hermes prostrated himself before the Dragon, beseeching it to reveal its identity. The great creature answered that it was Poimandres, the Mind of the Universe, the Creative Intelligence, and the Absolute Emperor of all. [Edouard Schure, The Mysteries of Egypt, identities Poimandres as the god Osiris.] Hermes then besought Poimandres to disclose the nature of the universe and the constitution of the gods. The dragon acquiesced, bidding Trismegistus hold its image in his mind.
"Immediately the form of Poimandres changed. Where it had stood there was a glorious and pulsating Radiance. This Light was the spiritual nature of the Great Dragon itself. Hermes was 'raised' into the midst of this Divine Effulgence and the universe of material things faded from his consciousness. Presently a great darkness descended and, expanding, swallowed up the Light. Everything was troubled. about Hermes swirled a mysterious watery substance which gave forth a smokelike vapor. The air was filled with inarticulate moanings and sighings which seemed to come from the Light swallowed up in the darkness. His mind told Hermes that the Light was the form of the spiritual universe and that the swirling darkness which had engulfed it represented material substance.
"Then out of the imprisoned Light a mysterious and Holy Word came forth and took its stand upon the smoking waters. This Word - the Voice of the Light - rose out of the darkness as a great pillar, and the fire and the air followed after it, but the earth and the water remained unmoved below. Thus the waters of Light were divided from the waters of darkness, and from the waters of Light were formed the worlds above and from the waters of darkness were formed the worlds below. The earth and the water next mingle, becoming inseparable, and the Spiritual Word which is called Reason moved upon their surface, causing endless turmoil."

"Then again was heard the voice of Poimandres, but His form was not revealed: 'I Thy God am the Light and the Mind which were before substance was divided from spirit and darkness from Light. And the Word which appeared as a pillar of flame out of the darkness is the Son of God, born of the mystery of the Mind. the name of that Word is Reason. Reason is the offspring of Thought [Thoth] and Reason shall divide the Light from the darkness and establish truth in the midst of the waters'."
- Manly P. Hall, Masonic, Hermetic, Quabbalistic & Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy

[Compare with the tradition behind the pillar of fire that the Isrealites followed in the wilderness.]

"Of the immortal man it should be said that He is hermaphrodite, or male and female, and eternally watchful. He neither slumbers nor sleeps, and is governed by a Father also both male and female, and ever watchful. Such is the mystery kept hidden to this day, for Nature, being mingled in marriage with the Sky Man, brought forth a wonder most wonderful - seven men, all bisexual, male and female, and upright of stature, each one exemplifying the natures of the Seven governors [spirits of the Planets]. These, O Hermes, are the seven races, species, and wheels."
"Then all living creatures, including man, which had been hermaphroditical, were separated, the males being set apart by themselves and the females likewise, according to the dictates of Reason.'
"Then God spoke to the Holy Word within the soul of all things, saying: 'Increase in increasing and multiply in multitudes, all you, my creatures and workmanships. Let him that is endued with Mind know himself to be immortal and that the cause of death is the love of the body; and let him learn all things that are, for he who has recognized himself enters into the state of Good.'"
- Poimadres (or The Vision of Hermes)

"Man, according to Hermes, had taken on a mortal body merely to commune with nature, but at heart remained a spirit, a divine, creative, and immortal essence. Living beings did not die, but, being composite, dissolved the bond in order to reunite and re-form. Nothing dies; it only dissolves and transforms. The gnosis consisted in re-becoming a god."
- Peter Tompkins, The Magic of Obelisks

"We suffer a perpetual transmutation, whereby we receive a perpetual flow of fresh atoms, while those that we have received are leaving us."
- Giordano Bruno

"Indeed, for antiquity in general, the divination of man was not an extravagant dream. 'Know, then, that you are a God,' Cicero wrote. And in a Hermetic text we read: 'I know thee, Hermes, and thou knowest me: I am thou and thou art I.' Similar expressions are found in Christian writings. As Clement of Alexandria says, the true (Christian) Gnostic 'has already become God.' And for Lactantlius, the chaste man will end by becoming consimilis Deo, 'identical in all respects with God.'"
- Mircea Eliade, Rites and Symbols of Initiation

"...You saw the spirit, you became spirit. You saw Christ, you became Christ. You saw the father, you shall become Father....you see yourself, and what you see you shall [become]."
"Whoever achieves gnosis becomes "no longer Christian but a Christ."
- Gospel of Philip
"...I was very disturbed, and I turned to myself...Having seen the light that surrounded me and the good that was within me, I became divine."
- Allogenes

The Neoplatonic Origins of the Writings

"...A Greek manuscript in seventeen books brought from Macedonia to Cosimo de' Medici...was said to contain the secret wisdom of Thoth, the Egyptian sage whom the Greeks called Hermes Trismegistus, or the Thrice Great Hermes."
- Peter Tompkins, The Magic of Obelisks

"A fusion of Greek philosophy and the ancient religion of Egypt, the beliefs of Hermeticism were contained in a body of texts known as the Corpus Hermeticum."
"The Corpus Hermeticum takes the form of dialogues between Trismegistus, Thoth, and several other Egyptian deities, including Isis. Scholars point out that little in the text is truly original. In fact, much of the Hermetic world view is grounded in the philosophy of Plato. Hermetics saw the universe in terms of light and dark, good and evil, spirit and matter. Like their Gnostic contemporaries, practitioners preached a mind-body dualism and salvation through the possession of true and divine knowledge."
- Ancient Wisdom and the Secret Sects

"...In 1614 the brilliant scholar of Greek, Isaac Casaubon had shown in his de rebus sacris et ecclesiaticis exercitiones XVI that the Corpus Hermeticum could not possibly have been written by an ancient Egyptian sage - be he Hermes Trismegistus or anyone else. The Greek style was of the period of Plotinus (second and third century) and, furthermore, it had clearly escaped the attention of former commentators that neither Plato nor Moses nor Aristotle nor indeed any pre-Christian writer had ever made reference to this Hermes Trismegistus."
- Tobias Churton, The Gnostics

"It is this very book [the Book of Moses/] which Hermes plagiarized when he named the seven perfumes of sacrifice in his sacred book entitled The Wing."
- Fr Festugiere, Revelation of Hermes

"According to the legend... which had come from Lactantius, a father of the Church, Hermes Trismegistus was supposed to have foretold the coming of Christ. Hermes Trismegistus, in the book titled The Perfect Word, made use of these words: 'The Lord and Creator of all things, whom we have thought right to call God, since He made the second God visible and sensible.... Since, therefore, He made Him first, and alone, and one only, He appeared to Him beautiful, and most full of all good things; and He hallowed Him, and altogether loved Him as His own Son.' The fraud perpetrated by Neoplatonics of the second century was that Hermes was supposed to have been living at the time of Moses and his creation story and the quote which I read you was all about 1,500 years before Christ. In reality it was dated about the second century AD."

"The Neoplatonics believed in a world spirit, and that one could coax the spirit into matter through the use of the soul, which was located midway between spirit and matter. This use of the soul is what is known as magic. Augustine was revulsed by this practice and strongly admonished Hermes for practicing such magic."
- Gerry Rose ,"The Venetian Takeover of England and Its Creation of Freemasonry"

"The Trismegistus, then, came under the influence of the early Christian Gnostics, many of whom adopted large chunks of it in defense of their 'heresies'. The most notable of these was Basilides, whom the great psychologist Carl Jung believed to be either a fragment of his own group soul guiding him in trance through the Seven Sermons of the Dead, or himself in a former life. The Valentinian Gnosis was also strongly Hermetical. The Gnostic flavor in the Trismegistus literature is therefore obviously very strong, so it will pay the student to strip away some of these Christo-Gnostic overleaves in order to get a little nearer to the Egyptian original."
- Murray Hope, Practical Egyptian Magic

Ancient Traditions of the Messiah

2006-11-09T12:26:00.000+08:00

Samuel Annointing David
Silver Plate from Constantinople

The Annointed One

(1) Descendents of Aaron

"The word 'Messiah' comes from the Hebrew verb 'to anoint', which itself is derived from the Egyptian word messeh, 'the holy crocodile'. It was with the fat of the messeh that the Pharaoh's sister-brides anointed their husbands on marriage. The Egyptian custom sprang from kingly practice in old Mesopotamia."
- Sir Laurence Gardner, "The Hidden History of Jesus and the Holy Grail" (from a lecture given at the Ranch, Yelm, Washington, 30 April 1997)

"Remarkably and characteristically, the term Mashiah - of which 'Messiah' is the Anglicized form - had preceded the Messianic concept by many centuries. Originally, in Biblical usage, it simply meant 'anointed', and referred to Aaron and his sons, who were anointed with oil and thereby consecrated to the service of God."
- Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts

"And you shall put them upon Aaron your brother, and upon his sons with him, and shall anoint them and ordain them and consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests."
- Exodus 28:41

"The legitimacy of the priesthood...was supposed to descend lineally from Aaron through the Tribe of Levi. Thus, throughout the Old Testament, the priesthood is the unique preserve of the Levites. The Levite high priests who attend David and Solomon are referred to as 'Zadok'- though it is not clear whether this is a personal name or an hereditary title."
- Baigent, Leigh & Lincoln, The Messianic Legacy

Zadok or Sadduc means "Righteous One" and is symbolized by TZADDIK - one of the two pillars which, according to Knight and Lomas, stood at the doorway to Qumran). Two gigantic bronze pillars flanked the entrance to the Temple of Solomon.

"The doorway was created by the pillars of 'tsedeq' ['righteousness' - always doing good to others] and mishpat' ['judgment'- divinely appointed order] with the holy arch of 'shalom' ['peace' - prosperity, success, general well-being]."
"When these two spiritual pillars are in place with the Teacher of Righteousness (tsedeq) on the left hand of God and the earthly Davidic King (mishpat) on his right hand, the archway of Yahweh's rule will be in place with the keystone of 'shalom' locking everything together at its center.
"It was clear from our readings that 'tsedeq' was for Canaanites a term associated with the sun god. The Canaanite sun god was seen as the great judge who watched over the world, righted wrongs and shone light unto the dark doings of hidden crimes."
- Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus

(2) Use of the term "Messiah"

The High Priest and King
"The High Priest, in particular, was termed 'the Anointed [Mashiah] of God'. With the establishment of the monarchy, the same term was applied to the king: he was 'the Anointed of the Lord' because he was installed in the high office by receiving the sacrament of anointment."
- Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts

"The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; against them he will thunder in heaven. The LORD will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king, and exalt the power of his anointed."
- 1 Samuel 2:10

Solomon is anointed by Zadok, thereby becoming 'the Anointed One', the 'Messiah' - 'ha-mashi'ah' in Hebrew."
- Baigent, Leigh & Lincoln, The Messianic Legacy

"Your throne, O God, endures for ever and ever.
Your royal scepter is a scepter of equity;
You love righteousness and hate wickedness.
Therefore God, your God has anointed you
[in the Greek of the Septuagint, enchrisen se, has made you Christ]
with the oil of gladness above your fellows."
- Psalms 45:6-7

Annointed Prophets
"A third type of the divinely elected, the prophet, could also undergo the ceremony of anointing: Elizah, we read, was commanded by God to anoint Jehu as king over Israel, and Elisha as prophet in his own place."
- Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts

"And Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint to be king over Israel; and Eli'sha the son of Shaphat of A'bel-meho'lah you shall anoint to be prophet in your place."
- 1 Kings 19:16

"In a few passages 'anointed one' is used of prophets (most notably in Isa. 61:1) and of priests (Lev. 4:3, 5, 16), but without further designation the term normally refers to the king of Israel."
- Graham N. Stanton, The Gospels and Jesus, The Oxford Bible Series (1989), paperback, p. 221

"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed..."
- Isaiah 61:1 (Deutero-Isaiah 5th c. BCE)

(3) The Idealized King

"...In early monarchic days the person of 'the Anointed of the Lord' came to be considered sacrosanct: to harm him or even to curse him, was a capital offense."
- Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts

"But David said, 'What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeru'iah, that you should this day be as an adversary to me? Shall any one be put to death in Israel this day? For do I not know that I am this day king over Israel?'"
- 2 Samuel 19:22

"A further development of this concept can be seen in the belief that God provided special protection to His anointed king. The Psalms contain several references to the idea of divine intervention for 'the Anointed of the Lord', the idealized Davidic king:"
- Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts

"Now I know that the Lord saveth His Anointed [Mashiah],
He will answer him from His holy heaven
With the mighty acts of His saving right hand."
- Psalms 20:7

"While David was king of Israel (tenth century B.C.E.), the belief developed that his House would rule forever, not only over Israel but also over all the nations:"
- Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts

"The God who giveth me vengeance,
And bringeth down peoples under me....
Therefore I praise Thee, O Lord, among the nations.
And will sing unto Thy name,
Who increaseth the victories of His king
And dealeth graciously with His Anointed,
With David and his seed for evermore."
- 2 Samuel 22:48-52, Psalms 18:42-52

In the seventh century B.C.E., Judah and its capital were besieged by the Assyrians. Micah prophesized deliverance by someone from Bethlehem, the home village of the house of David, in terms that are resonant with Messianic expectations centuries later:

"Now you are walled about with a wall; siege is laid against us; with a rod they strike upon the cheek the ruler of Israel. But you, O Bethlehem Eph'rathah, who are little to be among the clans [or rulers] of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin [Hebrew 'goings out' ] is from of old, from ancient days [olam or from days of eternity]. Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in travail has brought forth; then the rest of his brethren shall return to the people of Israel. And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth."
- Micah 5:1-5

"The word 'olam' is derived from the primitive root alam, meaning to veil from sight, to conceal. An analysis of the passages where olam appears shows clearly that the word does not express 'eternity' or 'everlasting' as it has been frequently translated in the King James Version. Rather, it simply expresses a duration, a time during which a person, thing, or state of a thing exists - literally an age of time which has a definite beginning and conclusion. the duration of an age in scripture is sometimes defined and sometimes undefined."
- Dallas E. James, "Putting the Sword to Churchianity"

Zoroastrian Precedents

(1) The Babylonian Captivity

The Babylonian Captivity or Babylonian Exile was "the forced detention of Jews in Babylonia following the latter's conquest of the kingdom of Judah in 598/7 and 587/6 BC."
"Many scholars cite 597 BC as the date of the first deportation, for in that year King Jehoiachin was deposed and apparently sent into exile with his family, his court, and thousands of workers. Others say the first deportation followed the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadrezzar in 586; if so, the Jews were held in Babylonian captivity for 48 years. Among those who accept a tradition (Jeremiah 29:10) that the exile lasted 70 years, some choose the dates 608 to 538, others 586 to about 516 (the year when the rebuilt Temple was dedicated in Jerusalem)."
"Although the Jews suffered greatly and faced powerful cultural pressures in a foreign land, they maintained their national spirit and religious identity. Elders supervised the Jewish communities, and Ezekiel was one of several prophets who kept alive the hope of one day returning home. This was possibly also the period when synagogues were first established, for the Jews observed the Sabbath and religious holidays, practiced circumcision, and substituted prayers for former ritual sacrifices in the Temple." "The exile formally ended in 538 BC, when the Persian conqueror of Babylonia, Cyrus the Great, gave the Jews permission to return to Palestine."
- "Babylonian Exile"

(2) An New Eschatology

The "Evil One"
"After the Exile of the Jewish people and later through contacts with Jews of the Diaspora in many parts of the Mediterranean world, Zoroastrian concepts influenced Jewish thought. Certain ideas about last things, salvation, and Satan (the Evil One) stem from Zoroastrianism."
- Ninian Smart, The Religious Experience of Mankind

"The Babylonian Captivity had exposed the Jews to the Zoroastrian pantheon, with its good gods headed by Ahura Mazda ('God of Light' [more correctly 'Lord of Wisdom']) and its bad god headed by Ahura Manah or Ahriman ('God of Darkness' [Ahriman is Pahlavi for Angra Mainyu - 'Deceitful Spirit']). This led to the belief that the prolonged overlordship that outlasted the captivity was the fault of the bad gods, rebel messengers who has refused to obey Yahweh's orders.
"Alternative versions of the seraphs' original disobedience were postulated, the most popular being that they were the sons of the gods who had sired the giants by illegally recreating with mortal women. Such rebels had to have a leader, and since the concept of a divine antagonist, a Jewish Ahriman, had been assimilated before there was any speculation as to the antagonist's identity, he was simply styled the Enemy (ha-stan). The first reference to the Enemy as a male in Jewish mythology was made by Zechariah in 520 BCE."
- William Harwood, Mythologies Last Gods: Yahweh and Jesus

"And the Lord said to Satan, 'The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?'"
- Zechariah 3:2

The "Spirit of God"
"Ezra (fl 458 BCE) was a legal expert, a priest-scribe and worshipper of Yahweh, who was attached to the court of the Achaemenian ruler Artaxerxes, and included in his duties was the inspection of the re-established temple at Jerusalem."
"Ezra 7:14 refers to the 'the king and his seven counselors', and it is not impossible that this advisory chamber within the royal court was a remnant of an earlier monarchical structure, perhaps set up in imitation of the divine heptad, with the king representing Ahura Mazda and the seven counselors representing Spenta Mainyu ['Holy Spirit'] and the Amesha Spentas ['Bountiful Beings']."
- Peter Clark, Zoroastrianism, An Introduction to an Ancient Faith, p. 56, 57

"The old Persian faith was an abstract and subtle religion, offering many new ways of looking at divinity and the idea of the holy. Its influence upon the minds of Jewish scribes and rulers, men like Nehemiah and Ezra, was probably greater than surviving evidence can show. There are, however, numerous hints of this influence in the Old Testament. The 'Spirit of God', for example, that moves on the face of the waters in the opening of Genesis is a most remarkable idea...Yet in surviving Persian writings the idea of a 'spirit of god' [Spenta Mainyu] is a common one."
- John Romer, Testament

"Now the earth was [or became] formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God [ruwach 'elohiym] was hovering over the waters."
- Genesis 1:2

Angels
In Zoroastrianism, angels or "bountiful immortals" were divine beings which were aspects of Ahura Mazda. The angels - "messengers" in Hebrew tradition - acquired the wings depicted on guardian deities in Assyrian and Babylonian tradition, and many of the spiritual powers of these divinities. The Bene Elohim of Genesis evolved into an elaborate pantheon of warring angels. (See "The Sons of God" for details.)

"This is the number of angels: in all they number three hundred sixty-five. They all worked together until they completed each limb of the psychical and material body. There were other angels over the remaining passions, and I have not told you about them. If you want to know about them, the information is recorded in the Book of Zoroaster."
- from The Secret Book of John ("The Teaching of the Savior") Nag Hammadi Codex II

Although the surviving edition of "The Teaching of the Savior" dates from the fourth century CE (as part of the gnostic Nag Hammadi library), it indicates a continuing tradition rooted in Zoroastrianism.

The War Between Good and Evil
"The central importance of the king of Judah was demonstrated in their New Year rituals, which followed Egyptian and Babylonian models. Some of the most important ritual acts were intended to ensure that the king continued to rule, an example of this being a re-enactment by the king of the original battle of the triumph of the forces of light over the forces of darkness and chaos. The king and his priests chanted the 'Enuma elish' - the story that tells how the chaos-dragon Tiamat was overcome to allow the creation to take place."
- Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus

The influence of Zoroastrian belief is particularly evident in the pseudepigraphical book of 1 Enoch and Jubilees as well as a number of other texts in Dead Sea Scrolls.

"Now these two spirits, which are twins, revealed themselves at first in a vision. Their two ways of thinking, speaking, and acting were the better and the bad.
"Between these two ways the wise choose rightly, fools not so.
"And then when these two spirits first met, they created both life and not-life, and that there should be at the last the worst existence for the followers of the Lie, but, for the followers of Truth, the best dwelling. Of the two spirits, the one who follows the Lie chose doing the worst things; the Most Bounteous Spirit who is clad in the hardest stones chose truth, as do they who will willingly come with true actions to meet Ahura Mazda."
- Yasna 30.3-5 [attributed to Zarathushtra]
"[The God of Knowledge] has created man to govern the world, and has appointed for him two spirits in which to walk until the time of His visitation: the spirits of truth and falsehood. Those born of truth spring from a fountain of light, but those born of falsehood spring from a source of darkness. All the children of righteousness are ruled by the Prince of Light and walk in the ways of light, but all the children of falsehood are ruled by the Angel of Darkness and walk in the ways of darkness. The Angel of Darkness leads all the children of righteousness astray and until his end, all their sins, iniquities, wickednesses ' and all their unlawful deeds are caused by his dominion in accordance with the mysteries of God ... But the God of Israel and His Angel of Truth will succour all the sons of light. For it is He who created the spirits of Light and Darkness and founded every action upon them and established every deed [upon] their ways. And he loves the one everlastingly and delights in its works for ever; but the counsel of the other he loathes and for ever hates its ways."
- Community Rule 1 QS 3.18-21

"...Unlike the Persian Zoroastrians who could attribute the evil in the world not to Ahura Mazda but to an independent hostile power, the Jews could ascribe to Yahweh the claim that "I make the light and I create the darkness, I make well being and I create disaster" (Isaiah 45:7), a saying that is often considered an early Jewish refutation of Zoroastrian dualism."
- Peter Clark, Zoroastrianism, An Introduction to an Ancient Faith, p. 153

The Coming Savior
"...The Persian Mazda worshippers looked for the birth of a Savior from a virgin mother."
- Frederick Thomas Elworthy, The Evil Eye

"We worship the guardian spirit of the holy maid Esetât-Jedhri, who is called the all-conquering, for she will bring him forth who will destroy the malice of the demons and of men."
- Sacred book of Zoroaster

"We know that Zarathushtra proclaimed a series or group of saviors or 'bringers of benefit' who would 'heal the world' and 'make existence brilliant' (Hom Yasht 30:9), and that he believed himself to head this group. Similarly, although nearly one thousand years later, as their exile drew to a close the Jewish people began to develop a belief in messiah-type figures who would re-establish their fortunes. Initially it seems that any number of such figures was anticipated, and so the messianic title could be granted to anyone who was thought to be sent by Yahweh, and that such figures were not necessarily to be born of Jewish blood - hence Cyrus' designation as the 'Lord's anointed'. Over time this messianic character began to shed his humanity and become almost divine, eventually merging into a 'son of man' figure as expressed in the writings of Daniel, who speaks of one on whom 'was conferred rule, honor and kingship... (which)... will never come to an end' (Daniel 7:14). There is in this 'kingdom' more than a passing resemblance to the Zoroastrian frashokereti."
- Peter Clark, Zoroastrianism, An Introduction to an Ancient Faith, p. 154

(3) Death and Resurrection

"...Some of the optimistic Persian notions of the afterlife seem to have entered into the later Books of the Prophets in the Bible. A rare view of the traditional Israelite afterlife (the afterlife is not often mentioned in older biblical writings) is briefly glimpsed in the tale of Saul's meeting with the dead Prophet Samuel, who is 'called up' by the Witch of Endor (1 Samuel 28:7-21) from a kind of Hades; it is a shadowy survival."
- John Romer, Testament

"The king said to her, 'Have no fear; what do you see?' And the woman said to Saul, 'I see a god coming up out of the earth.' He said to her, 'What is his appearance?' And she said, 'An old man is coming up; and he is wrapped in a robe.' And Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground, and did obeisance."
- 1 Samuel 28:13-14

"Prior to the exile there had been among the Hebrew peoples no real interest in the afterlife, which was seemingly discussed only in the vaguest terms. In fact pre-exilic Judaism was distinctly non-eschatological, content to speak of a shadowy and ill-defined place called Sheol, where a static kind of existence continued indefinitely."
- Peter Clark, Zoroastrianism, An Introduction to an Ancient Faith, p. 153-154

"The original prophet Isaiah - a great poet in his own right, too - was also a consummate statesman in the court of King Hezekiah, where he was not afraid to pour scorn upon the pagan ritual sacrifices going on outside in Jerusalem's Temple."
- Paul William Roberts, Journey of the Magi (1995) p. 275

"I shall be held at the gates of Sheol for the rest of my days;... I shall never see Yahweh again in the land of the living."
- Isaiah 38:10-11

"But in the Book of Isaiah, which was certainly compiled after the Babylonian exile, a full-blown theory of death and resurrection is implicit throughout, a forerunner of one of the major themes of the New Testament."
- John Romer, Testament

"Thy dead shall live,
My corpses shall arise,
Awake and sing
Ye dwellers of the dust,
For a dew of light is thy dew
And the earth shall bring forth [Hebrew tapil 'bring down', 'cast out'] the shades [possibly an eschatological earthquake]."
- Isaiah 26:19

"It seems that, following the conquest by Cyrus, the Jews had progressively adopted the Zoroastrian belief in the matter of eschatology, for the ideas of reward and punishment following death begin to appear in Hebrew literature from this period, and, later still, the concept of complete separation of good from the evil - familiar from the Zoroastrian Gathas - is one that figures prominently in some Christian texts concerning eschatology. (It is also interesting that one word for heaven - 'paradise' - which begins to appear in Jewish literature at this time, and is also found in the writings of the early Christians, derives from the Persian word for 'garden'.)"
- Peter Clark, Zoroastrianism, An Introduction to an Ancient Faith, p. 154

Hinnom Valley

"Greek geenna represents Aramaic gehinnam, which in turn represents Hebrew ge-hinnom, an abbreviation of the full title, 'valley of the son of Hinnom'. The name probably is that of the original Jebusite owner of the property. In the Old Testament this is a geographical term which divides ancient Jerusalem (Zion) from the hills to the south and west. It is the modern Wadi er Rababi, which joins the Wadi en Nar (the Kidron) at the southern extremity of the hill of Zion.
"The valley was a point on the boundary between Judah and Benjamin (Joshua 15:8, 18:16). This usage is reflected in Nehemiah 11:30. The valley had an unholy reputation in later Old Testament books because it was the site of Tophet, a cultic shrine where human sacrifice was offered (2 Kings 23:10; 2 Chronicles 28:3, 33:6; Jeremiah 7:31, 19:2ff, 32:35)."
- John L. McKenzie in Endtime: The Doomsday Catalogue

(All books from Deuteronomy to 2 Kings were constructed from various texts, such as the court narrative of King David, by D, the Deuteronomist, most probably a single author living in the age of exile - ca. 550-540 B.C.E.)

"There Jews who turned to foreign religions performed horrible ceremonies, burning their children in honor of pagan gods (see Jeremiah 7:30, 31)."
- Alan Millard, Discoveries From the Time of Jesus, p 38

"It is called simply 'the valley' (Jeremiah 2:23). Because of this cult Jeremiah cursed the place and predicted that it would be a place of death and corruption (7:32, 19:6ff). The valley is referred to, not by name in Isaiah 66:14, as a place where the dead bodies of the rebels against Yahweh shall lie. Their worm shall not die nor shall their fire be quenched..."
- John L. McKenzie in Endtime: The Doomsday Catalogue

"The authors of Enoch ca. 150 BCE) [adapted] the physical Gehenna to the mythology of Zarathustra to produce an Essene/Pharisee purgatory, identical with the Christian Hell except for the lack of permanence. Prior to Jesus, the Essenes had pictured Gehenna as a monstrous torture chamber that sinners needed to endure as the only method of cleansing them of their sins and making them fit for the afterlife of the saints. It was not...the suffering through which a sinner was purified, but rather exposure to the sacred power of Fire. Zarathustra did not quite deify Fire, but he saw it as an aspect of the divinity of Ahura Mazda."
- William Harwood, Mythologies Last Gods: Yahweh and Jesus

"Their spirits are going to be thrown into a blazing furnace. They are going to be wretched in their immense agony, and into darkness and chains and burning flames...you will have no peace....We have been tortured and destroyed and not hoped to see life from day to day."
- 1 Enoch 98:3, 103:7-10

"In the first century it was the fires of burning refuse that lit the valley. By that time its name had been put into Aramaic as Gehenna, and had become a common Jewish word for hell."
- Alan Millard, Discoveries From the Time of Jesus, p 38

The author of Revelation over 200 years later would write of how Hades itself would be consumed by fire:

"Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death."
- Revelation 20:14

Messianic Prophesies from the Age of Exile

(1) Cyrus the Great

Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered Babylon on 539 BCE and freed the Israelites from their captivity.

"The degree to which the Jews looked upon Cyrus the Great as their benefactor and a servant of their God is reflected at several points in the Hebrew Bible, e.g., at Isaiah 45:1-3, where he is actually called God's anointed."
- "Babylonian Exile"

"...After the period of exile, other major themes of both Judaism and Christianity also begin to appear in the Bible, not the least import of which is the idea of the Messiah - the 'Anointed One'. Cyrus the Great is the first biblical person to be given this title."
- John Romer, Testament

"Thus saith the Lord...that hath said of Cyrus: 'He is My shepherd, and shall perform all My pleasure, even saying of Jerusalem, 'She shall be built', and to the Temple, 'Thy foundation shall be laid'."
"Thus saith the Lord to His Anointed [Hebrew: [mashiyach]Messiah] to Cyrus whose right hand I have holden to subdue nations before him....'I will go before thee and make the crooked places straight...'"
- Isaiah 44:28-45:2

"The Greek historian Herodotus claimed to know many different stories of Cyrus's death, but pointedly, he tells the version in which the king is berated by a queen of the barbaric Scyths. Far away beyond the River Oxus, Cyrus invades the Central Asian steppes, only to be told that he is thoroughly aggressive and 'insatiate of blood'. The Scyths then kill him in the ensuing battle and their queen fills a wine-skin with human blood, she seeks out Cyrus's corpse and stuffs the head of the 'Lord's Anointed' into the wine-skin to take the revenge which this man of war deserves."
-Robin Lane Fox, The Unauthorized Version

"Later, biblical scribes redefined the term [Messiah] so that it came to mean, quite specifically, a son of the House of David, a defender of the Children of Israel who will establish a new era on earth and a new kingdom with its capital in Jerusalem."
-John Romer, Testament

"In the later Old Testament period hopes for a 'messianic age' arose. Sometimes these hopes focused on a divinely appointed King of David's line - i.e., a Messiah. But in many passages, especially in Isa. 40-66, hopes for the future are expressed in general terms. There is often no explicit reference to an agent or Messiah through whom God would bring the longed-for new age of salvation."
- Graham N. Stanton, The Gospels and Jesus, The Oxford Bible Series (1989), paperback, p. 172

(2) Ben Adam - The Son of Man

"The book of Ezekiel is a long series of oracles received by the priest Ezekiel, son of Buzi, who began to prophesy in Babylonia in the fifth year of Jehoiachin's exile, c. 593 BC. He was therefore born around 622 BC, and had been taken captive to Babylon with Jehoiachin in 597 BC (cf. 2 Kings 24)."
"The entire book is dated according to the reign of Jehoiachin, and covers the years from about 593 through 570 BC. The first deportation of captives to Babylon from Judah occurred about 605 BC, leaving Jehoiachin as king in Jerusalem....The second deportation occurred about 597 BC, which is when Ezekiel found himself taken away. Jerusalem and the temple were pillaged, but not destroyed. Nebuchadnezzar took Jehoiachin away as captive, and left Zedekiah as king. In 586, Nebuchadnezzar sacked and destroyed both Jerusalem and the temple. For further background, read 2 Kings 23:36-25:30 and 2 Chronicles 36:5-21."
- Bible Survey - The Book of Ezekiel

"The word of the Lord came to me: 'Son of man, set your face toward Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him and say, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal; and I will turn you about, and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you forth, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in full armor, a great company, all of them with buckler and shield, wielding swords; Persia, Cush, and Put are with them, all of them with shield and helmet; Gomer and all his hordes; Beth-togar'mah from the uttermost parts of the north with all his hordes--many peoples are with you'."
-Ezekiel 38:1-6

"The shape of the future occupies a prominent place in the prophecies of Ezekiel....Among his prophecies are two which subsequently became the basic building blocks of the Messianic myth. One is that of the great apocalyptic war of Gog and Magog, and the other his famous vision of the dry bones."
-Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts

"And I saw, and behold, there were upon them sinews, and flesh came up, and skin stretched upon them on the top, but spirit was not in them. And He said to me: Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy Son of Man, and say to the spirit: Thus saith the Lord God: From the four winds come, O spirit, and breathe into these slain ones so that they may live! And I prophesied as He commanded me, and the spirit came into them and they live, and they stood upon their feet, an army, very, very great. And he said to me: Son of Man! These bones are all the House of Israel."
-Ezekiel 37 7-14

"In the Hebrew Bible, the phrase 'son of Adam' [son of Man] is used in three different senses.

1. The phrase is employed to refer to the human species as insignificant creatures in the presence of God."

"How then can a man be righteous before God? How can one born of woman be pure? If even the moon is not bright and the stars are not pure in his eyes, how much less man, who is but a maggot - a son of man, who is only a worm!"
- Job 25:4-6

2. "The phrase was also used to identify human beings as next to god in the order of creation."

"When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man, that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings [or 'than God'] and crowned him with glory and honor."
- Psalms 8:3-5

3. "The Jewish scriptures portray the human being as the agent to exercise control over every living creature (Genesis 1:28). This ideal decisively shaped Jewish visions of the end of history."
- Robert W. Funk, Roy W. Hoover, and the Jesus Seminar, The Five Gospels

"God blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.'"
- Genesis 1:28
"You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas."
- Psalms 8:6-8

"There are some more evidence(s) which draw us much nearer to the assumption, that the Babylonean Atrahasis, who saves and saves again humanity from disaster, the son of the god Ea, and who is directly (explicitly) called 'Ben Adam' [i.e. Son of Man] was merged in the Jewish-Aramaic tradition of the Messiah, in the manner he was conceived according to the Messianic prophesies in the Bible."
- From the Stone Age quoted in Yehuda Dveer, Bar Kokhva, the Man and the Messiah, in the light of the Jewish Sages and the DDS, p. 62

"Ezekiel claimed, in chapter after chapter (2:1, 3:1, 4:1), that Yahweh habitually addressed him as Ben Adam. This salutation, usually translated 'son of man', is more accurately rendered 'descendant of Adam', or simply 'human'. [Ezekiel in the original Hebrew has 'son of man' without a definite article - i.e., a human being.] Because the title ben Adam carried the implication that the person so styled was the second Adam it came to be viewed as a title for the messiah, once the concept of a messiah was invented in post-exilic days. Both the Book of Daniel (7:13) and the Book of Enoch (46) referred to Ben Adam in terms that persons with a messiah-belief were bound to view as messianic."
-William Harwood, Mythologies Last Gods: Yahweh and Jesus

"Ever since Ezekiel, 'Son of Man' has been a designation signifying special nearness to God of the person so called."
Ezekiel's "prophecy of Resurrection in contemporary with the destruction of the First Temple of Jerusalem (586 B.C.E.). Ezekiel, however, had no Messianic idea in mind; the purpose of his prophecy was theological-political-psychological: he wanted to implant the belief in a speedy return to their own land into the hearts of the despairing Judean exiles in Babylonia."
-Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts

(3) The New Moses

"Just as Moses had brought the Children of Israel to the threshold of the Promised Land and then died, so the Messiah leads them to victory over Gog and Magog, culminating in the elimination of Armilus [their Satanic master], and then fades away, disappears from the scene."
-Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts

"As for you, son of man, thus says the Lord God: Speak to the birds of every sort and to all beasts of the field, 'Assemble and come, gather from all sides to the sacrificial feast which I am preparing for you, a great sacrificial feast upon the mountains of Israel, and you shall eat flesh and drink blood. You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth--of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan. And you shall eat fat till you are filled, and drink blood till you are drunk, at the sacrificial feast which I am preparing for you. And you shall be filled at my table with horses and riders, with mighty men and all kinds of warriors,' says the Lord God."
-Ezekiel 39:17-20

"It is God who resurrects the dead, who judges the pious and the wicked, who sits with the saintly at the great feast, who pours wine into their cups, who entertains them by dancing before them, who teaches them the new Tora, and who receives the homage of the entire rejuvenated, and sanctified world. Where is the Messiah in all this? We are told nothing of him, and were it not that in the earlier phases of the Messianic myth we were assured that he would, after the ultimate victory, reign in Jerusalem as the Prince of Peace, we would not even suspect that he is present."
"Thus, and in this primarily, the Messiah proves to be essentially a Moses figure, and Moses to be the accurate prefiguration of the Messiah. Both are Redeemers, but neither of them has a part in the great era to whose threshold they lead their people at the price of their lifeblood."
-Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts

"In Christian tradition, where so much in the Old Testament is taken as a symbolic prefiguring of the events of the New, Moses is - inevitably, one might almost say - taken to prefigure Jesus, who was the superior and culminating figure."
-David Daiches, Moses - Man in the Wilderness

"For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honor than the house. For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God. And Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; but Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end."
-Hebrews 3:3-6

"The Book of Ezekiel goes on to tell how he [Ezekiel] was commanded in another vision to take two staffs, inscribe them with the names 'Judah' and 'Joseph' and join them into one, symbolically reuniting the two kingdoms. One king will rule over them and Yahweh will save her from apostasy (sliding back into having 'relationships' with other gods), purify her from all uncleanness and bring her into a new covenant relationship. Under the rule of his servant David she will live in obedience and faithfulness and occupy the land of the fathers. The covenant of peace, like all the blessings and benefits of the new age, will be everlasting; but above all Yahweh will dwell in the midst of his people. The presence of his sanctuary in their midst is a pledge that the covenant has been renewed and therefore the nations will see that Yahweh has sanctified his people and has thereby set them apart."
- Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus

Another of Ezekiel's visions was that of the reconstructed and cleansed Temple (after its destruction by the Babylonians.)

Hopes for a New Heaven and a New Earth

(1) A Universal God

"The exile had meant that the Jews were for the first time separated from their god, and so as their captivity continued they began to reconsider how they should understand him. Because it would be unthinkable to suggest that he had completely detached himself from them, the Jews began to view him in more universalist terms, ceasing to confine him to one geographical area and even questioning his exclusive identification with one ethnic group. Since Cyrus brought at least some Zoroastrian beliefs with him into Babylon (where, incidentally, he was also influenced by Babylonian practice), it is highly probable that the Jews were in some way affected by his religious beliefs in this and other matters."
- Peter Clark, Zoroastrianism, An Introduction to an Ancient Faith, pp. 152-153

"About half a century after Ezekiel, there lived in Babylonia the anonymous prophet of consolation and Israel's national restoration, usually referred to a Deutero-Isaiah."
-Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts

Scholars assign chapters 40-65 of the Book of Isaiah to Deutero-Isaiah - Second Isaiah.

"…It is in this unknown master's soaring verses that Yahweh is first celebrated as the Creator of the Universe and everything in it - in just the same way as Zoroaster had celebrated Ahura Mazda."
- Paul William Roberts, Journey of the Magi (1995) p. 275

"Yes, although Thou are the First One, I realized Thee to be (ever) young in mind, Wise One, when I grasped Thee in a vision to be the Father of good thinking, the real Creator of truth, (and) the Lord of existence in Thy actions."
- Yasna 31:8

"I am the Lord, and there is none else. I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil. I the Lord do all these things."
- Isaiah 45:6-7 (Deutero-Isaiah 5th c. BCE)

"Since the section of Isaiah from which this verse is taken was written after the exile, when Persians and Jews had enjoyed considerable contact, it is likely that, in the period leading up to its composition, their awareness of Ahuramazda's universal nature had conditioned their perception of Yahweh, about whom they had already begun to think in more universalist terms as a response to their captivity. Not only did Cyrus liberate the Jews from Babylonian rule, he also encouraged them in their religious customs and allowed them to return home. Furthermore, although Cyrus had permitted those Jews who so wished to go back to Jerusalem (where a new temple was eventually built with Persian funds), many decided to remain in Mesopotamian territory where they continued to prosper under the Achaemenian empire. As the two cultures mingled, ideas on the natures of their respective religions will have been exchanged between them."
- Peter Clark, Zoroastrianism, An Introduction to an Ancient Faith, p. 153

(2) The Suffering Servant

"Behold, My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect whom My soul wanteth: I have put My spirit upon him; he shall send out justice to the nations."
-Isaiah 42:1 (Deutero-Isaiah 5th c. BCE)

"This great poet-prophet (Deutero-Isaiah) spoke repeatedly about the 'Servant of the Lord', describing the call, mission, sufferings, death and resurrection of this mysterious individual."
-Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts

"He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. "
-Isaiah 53:3-6 (Deutero-Isaiah 5th c. BCE)

Messiah ben Joseph?
"As to the identification of the 'Servant', there is no scholarly consensus to this day. However, the Aggada, the Talmudic legend, unhesitatingly identifies him with the Messiah, and understands especially the descriptions of his sufferings as referring to Messiah ben Joseph."
"Messiah ben Joseph, also called Messiah ben Ephraim, referring to his ancestor Ephraim, the son of Joseph, is imagined as the first commander of the army of Israel in the Messianic wars. He will achieve many signal victories, but his fate is to die at the hands of Armilus in a great battle in which Israel is defeated by Gog and Magog. His corpse is left unburied in the streets of Jerusalem for forty days, but neither beast nor bird of prey dares to touch it. Then Messiah ben David comes, and his first act is to bring about the resurrection of his tragic forerunner."
-Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts

"Who is this mysterious suffering and/or dying Messiah? What is the origin of the concept? This question has troubled scholars for decades. Apparently, speculation concerning Zech 12.10 -- 'they will look on him/me whom they have pierced' -- had something to do with it, as the Targum to that passage indicates; also reference to the sufferings endured by the patriach Joseph surely lies in the background of the designation Messiah ben Joseph. May we also suggest that the connection between this Messiah figure and the apocalyptic warfare against Amalek [enemies of the Israelites during the Exodus] is not coincidental, but is partially a product of Jewish midrash on the Amalek episode in which ihsouV [Joshua, Moses' successor], from the tribe of Ephraim, both fought the foe and was told to remember that in a future battle, God would finish the job there begun."
- Robert A. Kraft, "Was there a 'Messiah-Joshua Tradition at the Turn of the Era?"

The Teacher of Righteousness?
"Dupont-Sommer [a noted Dead Sea Scrolls scholar] examines the second part of Isaiah, often termed Deutero-Isaiah, which was long believed to have been written during the Babylonian exile 200 years after the first part. Here appears the account of the 'Suffering Servant despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows' who has 'been wounded for our transgressions' yet by whose 'stripes we are healed'. Christians have taken this as prophesying Jesus, but Dupont-Sommer argues that it is a direct reference to the Teacher of Righteousness [of Dead Sea Scroll fame] added to Isaiah as late as the intertestamental period. Dupont-Sommer urges a re-examination of other Old Testament passages in Daniel, Zechariah, Psalms and the Songs of the Servant of Yahweh in Deutero-Isaiah believing them to be all possibly inserted references to the Teacher of Righteousness."
- Mike D. Magee, "Jesus and the Righteous One"

(3) Visions of a Second Coming

The Psalms

"Wondrously show thy steadfast love, O savior of those who seek refuge from their adversaries at thy right hand. Keep me as the apple of the eye; hide me in the shadow of thy wings, from the wicked who despoil me, my deadly enemies who surround me. They close their hearts to pity; with their mouths they speak arrogantly. They track me down; now they surround me; they set their eyes to cast me to the ground. They are like a lion eager to tear, as a young lion lurking in ambush. Arise, O Lord! Confront them, overthrow them! Deliver my life from the wicked by thy sword, from men by thy hand, O Lord, from men whose portion in life is of the world."
- Psalms 17:7-14

"Once you spoke in a vision, to your faithful people you said: 'I have bestowed strength on a warrior; I have exalted a young man from among the people.'"
- Psalms 89:19

"I'm struck by Ps 89:19: 'then you spoke in a VISION to your faithful one ....' there follows what looks like a description, not of a 'vision' as we normally think of it, but a straightforward description of a cultic ceremony on royal enthronement with complex mythological interpretation which is transparently public. In this instance the 'vision' is, as are all visions in the Jewish apocalyptic worldview, a revelation of reality as it truly is, beyond the barely empirical, for those who are in the know, who are part of God's people - those 'walk in the light of his countenance' v. 17."
- Crispin Fletcher-Louis (Divine Mediators)

The first forty-two Psalms are attributed to King David. Book two (Psalms 42-72) was probably written during Solomon's reign and Books III (73-89) and IV (90-106) date from the days of the Babylonian Exile, and the final book (107-150) dates from the post-exile period of Ezra.

Zerubbabel
The Persian emperor Darius restored a number of temples in Egypt "adding to others or embellishing existing work-in the tradition of Egyptian rulers. This concern with the beliefs of subject nations exceeds any expediency or necessity. Excessive interest in other religions was not just limited to Egypt, either. Darius soon announced his intention to make good Cyrus the Great's legendary promise to the Jews - made after conquering Babylon and ending the Captivity in 538 B.C.-by rebuilding Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem.
"The supervisor of this ambitious project was Zorobabel (or 'Zerubbabel'), a Jew who features prominently in the books of some Old Testament prophets, and also in one of the more fanciful Exilic texts - omitted from many Bibles - known as The First Book of Esdras.
Esdras depicts Zorobabel as one of three courtiers who are also close friends of the Persian king-emperor."
"Some less unorthodox Old Testament books - particularly Ezra - present Zorobabel more prosaically as an official representative of the Persian court, sent to supervise the Temple project. His name also appears in lists of prominent Jewish nobles returning from Babylon when the Captivity or Exile is over - although it would seem that he left Babylon for Persia long before he returned to Jerusalem."
- Paul William Roberts, Journey of the Magi (1995) pp. 265-266

"The tremendous cruelties of the age [of exile] were rejected in visions of a Second Coming leading to a new Heaven and new Earth. This vision, that had first been seen and recorded by prophets in Babylon, was now celebrated in the Book of Psalms, that wonderful collection of hymns ancient and modern designed for use in the new Temple that Zerubbabel built in Jerusalem [between 520 and 515 B.C.E.]. All illness, all wickedness will be banished from the earth, they tell us; Jehovah's Law will be written not on papyrus not on scrolls of vellum but on men's hearts, so that they will grow in understanding of their God. It was a dream of paradise, a paradise prepared for the nation that kept Jehovah's Law."
- John Romer, Testament

"In the New Testament...both Matthew and Luke include Zorobabel in their genealogies of Jesus' ancestors - all of whom are, of course, direct descendants of King David. Except that Luke traces his blood line through David's lesser son, Nathan, not through the royal line of Solomon, as Matthew's more traditionally Jewish gospel presents him."
- Paul William Roberts, Journey of the Magi (1995) pp. 265-266

"The Lord swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back: 'One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne. If your sons keep my covenant and my testimonies which I shall teach them, their sons also for ever shall sit upon your throne.' For the Lord has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his habitation: 'This is my resting place for ever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it. I will abundantly bless her provisions; I will satisfy her poor with bread. Her priests I will clothe with salvation, and her saints will shout for joy. There I will make a horn to sprout for David; I have prepared a lamp for my anointed. His enemies I will clothe with shame, but upon himself his crown will shed its luster'."
- Psalms 132:11-18

"…Zorobabel is the Davidic Messiah of the Jews. His partner in rebuilding the Temple is Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, who himself becomes the first High Priest of the Jews - a clear indication that his own genealogy is the Zadokite or priestly line descended from Aaron. The relationship between these two men is exactly the same as that between Jesus and John the Baptist. Zechariah (4:11-13) even defines the role they will play as joint leaders of the community after the exile: 'a government divided equally between priest and prince.' They are equal, but 'priest' still comes before 'prince' - unlike the situation Solomon created, banishing one of his father's two high priests and assuming both roles himself, a situation which eventually tore the kingdom in half, with northern Israel forming itself around King David's old high priest. Furthermore, Zechariah continues, they are 'the two anointed ones who stand before the Lord of the whole world'."
"Later (6:11-13), Zechariah also mentions Zorobabel's crowning as Davidic ruler- except it is Joshua's name we now read in this section. After Zorobabel's (apparent) death the messianic expectation became concentrated in the priest or Zadokite; and what is termed by some theologians an 'Inspired rereading' of the text caused Joshua's name to replace that of Zorobabel….Any Jew 2,500 years ago would have known that Joshua could not possibly have become the princely Davidic ruler: his job is control of the temple and cultic activities. Besides, only Zorobabel has applied to him - by the prophet Haggai (2:23), for example - the language of royal messianism: '[Sa'th the Lord, I] ... will make thee as a signet: for I have chosen thee.' Haggai (1:11) also makes it clear that the Covenant made 'between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth' (Genesis 9:17) has been broken. But, through the work of Zorobabel and Joshua - that is, the rebuilt Temple-God's covenant, which has never been broken spiritually, will be restored physically, too. This emphasis on a material symbol for what is only a spiritual process of unification seems to be according to the prophets - Judaism's downfall.
""Haggai describes Zorobabel first as 'the son of ... the governor of Judah,' and later as the 'governor of Judah.' His father, Salathiel (or She'alti'el), also appears in the Matthew-Luke genealogies, of course, and thus, like his son, is cut off from the royal blood line by Luke…"
- Paul William Roberts, Journey of the Magi (1995) pp. 267-268

4 Ezra

"I, Ezra, saw on Mount Zion a great multitude, which I could not number, and they all were praising the Lord with songs. In their midst was a young man of great stature, taller than any of the others, and on the head of each of them he placed a crown, but he was more exalted than they. And I was held spellbound.
Then I asked an angel, 'Who are these, my lord?'
He answered and said to me, 'These are they who have put off mortal clothing and have put on the immortal, and they have confessed the name of God; now they are being crowned, and receive palms.'
Then I said to the angel, 'Who is that young man who places crowns on them and puts palms in their hands?'
He answered and said to me, 'He is the Son of God, whom they confessed in the world.' So I began to praise those who had stood valiantly for the name of the Lord.
Then the angel said to me, 'Go, tell my people how great and many are the wonders of the Lord God which you have seen.'"
- 4 Ezra 2:42-48 (Christian Greek addition - 2nd c. CE)

"...The author of 4 Ezra unmistakably refers to the Messiah...when he puts words in the mouth of God to the effect that after four hundred years (counted from when?) My son the Messiah shall die."
-Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts

"And whosoever is delivered from the predicted evil shall see My wonders. For My son, the Messiah, shall be revealed, together with those who are with him, and shall gladden the survivors four hundred years. And it shall be, after those years, that My son, the Messiah, shall die, and all in whom there is human breath. Then shall the world be turned into the primeval silence seven days, as it was at the first beginnings..."
- 4 Ezra 7:27-30 (Jewish Apocalypse - end 1st c. CE)

The Current Hope
"When the death of the Messiah became an established tenet in Talmudic times, this was felt to be irreconcilable with the belief in the Messiah as Redeemer who would usher in the blissful millennium of the Messianic Age. The dilemma was solved by splitting the person of the Messiah in two: one of them, called Messiah ben Joseph, was to raise the armies of Israel against their enemies, and, after many victories and miracles, would fall victim Gog and Magog. The other, Messiah ben David, will come after him (in some legends will bring him back to life, which psychologically hints at the identity of the two), and will lead Israel to the ultimate victory, the triumph, and the Messianic era of bliss."
-Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts, p. 166

"Jews still hope for the coming of the Messiah, who will hand out eternal judgment and reward to all. This hope is largely communal; the entire Jewish race and the whole of creation is in view more than individual men.
"In the end the moral life of man here on earth is considered the most proper concern of man; final judgments are best left to God."
- "The Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error 2", compiled by Steven Cory (Moody Bible Institute of Chicago)

"How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings the news, announcing peace, bringing good news, announcing salvation, saying to Zion, 'Your God reigns as king!'"
- Isaiah 52:7