Enlightening interview with Dorian Yates on London Real




Above is an interview with Dorian Yates, an athlete who remained at the very pinnacle of his sport for six straight years, winning the Mr. Olympia bodybuilding championship from 1992 through 1997 -- and winning the 1997 contest despite having a torn triceps and biceps.

The interview is especially noteworthy in light of the subject we have been discussing this Summer Solstice 2014, which is the "crossing" in every man and every woman of the material component (symbolized in the ancient esoteric system by the horizontal line running between the two equinoxes) and the spiritual component (symbolized in the ancient esoteric system by the vertical "pillar" or "column" running between the two solstices).

Bodybuilding contests, whether for men or for women, clearly involve extreme focus upon the material, physical aspects of the human body -- the material aspect of who we are. And yet, we all instinctively know and feel that this human body is not all of who we are -- not even the most important part of who we are. In the above interview, conducted by the team at London Real, Dorian Yates demonstrates that there is a lot more to him than just his superlative muscular development and the discipline that enabled him to reach the pinnacle of the bodybuilding world for so many years -- as impressive as that achievement is.

In fact, not to throw any "spoilers" at those who haven't yet seen the interview, he even discusses techniques of transcending the body -- traveling outside the body -- and entering into the other realms: what I would argue is indeed the world of the shamanic.

He also discusses ways in which, while he wasn't paying particular attention to these areas of investigation while he was immersed in the intensely competitive world of professional bodybuilding, he has since come to realize that many of the conventional narratives which are fed to us constantly through schooling and "the news" and the media are absolutely false, and he discusses what I would call "walking out of the Truman Show" that the designers of these false narratives want to keep us in.

It is also interesting to note that some of the contests at the summit of the sport of bodybuilding have titles such as "Mr. Universe" or "Mr. / Ms Olympia." While it is probably a stretch to make too much out of the title chosen for these contests, it can be argued with substantial evidence that one of the central esoteric teachings of all the world's ancient sacred traditions is the concept of the "macrocosm / microcosm," or "as above, so below" -- which includes the teaching that each individual man or woman is a microcosmic embodiment and reflection of the entire cosmos.

In other words, a contest which is absolutely all about the human body (and, incidentally, the proportions of the human body) is also about the universe.

The interview above with Dorian Yates is absolutely fascinating, and it is also enlightening. Special thanks to my good friend David Y. for alerting me to its existence. And, thanks to Dorian Yates for sharing his profound thoughts and personal views. Kudos must also go out to the team at London Real, for the way they allow the many amazing people on our planet (and in their particular corner of the planet) to tell their story.




Now man is distinctly a creature compounded of two natures, a higher and a lower, a spiritual and a sensual, a divine and a human, a mortal and an immortal, and finally a fiery and a watery, conjoined in a mutual relationship in the organic body of flesh. Says Heraclitus: "Man is a portion of cosmic fire, imprisoned in a body of earth and water." Speaking of man Plato affirms: "Through body it is an animal; through intellect it is a god." To create man God incarnated the fiery spiritual principle of his life in the watery confines of material bodies.  This is the truest basic description of man that anthropology can present.  All problems spring from that foundation and are referable for solution back to it.
Man is, then, a natural man and a god, in combination. Our natural body gives the soul of man its baptism by water; our nascent spiritual body is to give us the later baptism by fire! We are born first as the natural man; then as the spiritual. Or we are born first by water and then by fire. Of vital significance at this point are two statements by St. Paul: "That was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural"; and, "First that which is natural, then that which is spiritual."
-- Alvin Boyd Kuhn, Lost Light. 6.



Summer solstice, 2014





























image: Summer solstice sunrise behind heel stone, Stonehenge (2005).  Andrew Dunn.  Wikimedia commons (link).

The sun has been toiling "up the mountain" ever since making the turn at the very bottom of the year (at the winter solstice) and it reaches the veritable summit of the year today: the day of summer solstice (for the northern hemisphere).  

The north pole will be tilted most directly towards our sun at the moment of this year's solstice, which occurs on June 21st at 10:51am Greenwich time, which is 6:51am Eastern time for those in North America, and 3:51am for those in the happy condition of being located along the Pacific coast in the Pacific time zone. Of course, this means that the south pole will be tilted most directly away from our sun at the same moment, and thus the June solstice marks the winter solstice for observers in the southern hemisphere.

For those in the northern hemisphere, this tilting of the north pole most directly towards the sun means that the sun's arc across the sky (caused by the daily rotation of our planet on its axis) will be the furthest "up" towards the north pole out of all of the arcs that it makes across the sky throughout the year.  The mechanics of this phenomenon are described in many previous posts: those interested may find that the most helpful of these include "How the earth-ship metaphor helps explain the sun 'standing still' at the solstices" and "Winter solstice 2011" (which contains some helpful sketches).

In the system of celestial allegory we have been exploring together in some of the most recent posts, we have seen that the myths and sacred traditions of the world almost universally depict the "upper half" of the year -- that part rising up from the spring equinox all the way to the summer solstice before descending again all the way to the autumn equinox, during which days are longer than nights (and yes, it is true that days remain longer than nights just a bit prior to and after the spring and fall equinoxes, due to the properties of physics and the size of the solar disc) -- as a heavenly mountain (including Olympus, Sinai, Mount Meru, and many more), as a shining city, or as Paradise. In contrast, the lower half of the year is depicted as a pit, an underworld, a place of toil and imprisonment, and as Hell (or Sheol, Tartaros, Niflheim, or Amenta).

Previous posts which deal most directly with the esoteric and allegorical aspect of these two halves of the year, with their summit at the point of summer solstice and their lowest pit at the point of winter solstice, were entitled "A land flowing with milk and honey . . ." and "No hell below us . . .". The critical crossing points between these two halves of the year (the two equinoxes) were allegorized as places of sacrifice, as well as of passing through a narrow and dangerous door or gateway (or channel between two clashing rocks). These allegories for the equinoxes are discussed more fully in the first three chapters of The Undying Stars available to preview online here, as well as in previous posts such as "Why St. Peter was crucified upside-down," "The old man and his daughter," and "The horizon and the scales of judgment."

Esoterically, these beautiful allegorizations of the annual circle with its four most important yearly points of the two solstices and two equinoxes were used by the ancient sages who gave us the scriptures and sacred traditions of the world to represent their view of the human condition: plunging into incarnation at the autumn equinox, to toil through the underworld of this life until reaching the point of spring equinox and release from the present incarnation, there to rise up and soar into the heavenly realms of spirit until impelled again to descend into the material world. 

Alvin Boyd Kuhn, who is perhaps the most thorough expositor of this interpretation of the esoteric meaning in the world's ancient myth-systems, explains in Lost Light (published in 1940) that the horizontal line between the two equinoxes was seen by the ancient sages as representative of the soul of the man or woman "cast down" into incarnation, as if the spirit had "fallen upon its face" or was going about horizontally like an animal (because the spirit was now incarnated in an "animal" body), but that the vertical line which ascends from the winter solstice up to the pinnacle of the summer solstice represents the spirit ascending again, overcoming its "death" in the body, reclaiming its divine nature even though for a time it was imprisoned in the flesh of the material world.

The two lines together, of course, form a cross (as can be seen on the zodiac wheel).  Of this concept, Kuhn writes:
This most ancient, perhaps, of all religious symbols (by no means an exclusive instrument of Christian typology) was the most simple and natural ideograph that could be devised to stand as an index of the main basic datum of human life -- the fact that in man the two opposite poles of spirit and matter had crossed in union. The cross is but the badge of our incarnation, the axial crossing of soul and body, consciousness and substance, in one organic unity. An animal nature that walked horizontally to the earth, and a divine nature that walked upright crossed their lines of force and consciousness in the same organism. 414 - 415.
Kuhn goes on to explain that in Egypt, the Djed column (which he calls "the Tat cross") and which was representative of this concept, would be cast down upon its face at the time of the autumn equinox, but then raised again in a mighty ceremony at either the spring equinox or the summer solstice.  He writes: 
The Egyptians in the autumn threw down the Tat cross, and at the solstice or the equinox of spring, erected it again. The two positions made the cross. The Tat is the backbone of Osiris, the sign of eternal stability.  And Tattu was the "place of establishing forever." 416.
This "raising of the Tat cross" or elevation of the divine spark inside each man or woman was the purpose of our material incarnation, according to the ancient sacred traditions: "This transformation," Kuhn writes, "is made by man here on the cross of material life" (359).  Thus, the "pillar of the year" (which is embodied in the Djed column or "backbone of Osiris") is represented in the zodiac metaphor by the vertical "pillar" which runs from the pit of the winter solstice to the summit of the summer (see diagram):



Kuhn also connects this raising of the Djed column, in the Old Testament, with the raising up of various staffs by Moses, including the staff with the fiery brazen serpent in Numbers 21, but also with the raising of the staff of Moses and his two arms in the famous battle-scene described in Exodus 17.  In that story, the Old Testament scriptures tell us:
Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim.
And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand.
So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.
And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. 
But Moses' hands were heavy: and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.  
Exodus 17:8-12. 





































image: Bible Pictures and What They Teach Us, Charles Foster (1897).  Wikimedia commons (link). 

The battle with the Amalekites here may be representative of the "battle" between the upper and lower halves of the year, and the raising and lowering of the staff almost certainly represents the column of the solstices, going up to the summer solstice and down to the winter solstice. When the staff goes down towards winter solstice, of course the Amalekites (representing the forces of the lower half of the wheel) would prevail, and when the staff goes up towards summer solstice, then the Israelites (representing the forces of the upper half of the wheel) would prevail.

Note that Moses is here depicted as located at the "top of the hill," which would generally correspond to the summer solstice in the system of celestial metaphor found throughout ancient mythology.  In Lost Light, Alvin Boyd Kuhn explains that the symbology of the upraised arms of Moses also relate to the upraised arms of Shu in Egyptian mythology, saying that "Shu, who upholds the heaven with his two arms," resembles "his Hebrew antitype, Moses on the Mount" (483).  

Shu was an Egyptian deity associated with the air, one of the four elements of fire, air, earth, and water, and he was almost always depicted with both arms upraised, often holding up the body of Nut, the goddess of the sky or heavens.  In the image below, from the version of the Book of the Dead inscribed upon the Papyrus of the priestess Nesitanebtashru of Egypt (circa 1025 BC), we can see that the upraised arms of Shu are held up by two assistants, just as in the Exodus passage the upraised arms of Moses are held up by Aaron and Hur:



























image: Shu god of air holding up the body of Nut, goddess of the heavens; Geb god of earth reclines beneath.  Papyrus of Nesitanebtashru, 21st Dynasty (aka Greenfield Papyrus).  Wikimedia commons (link).

Now, according to the process described in the previous post in which we demonstrated that if the "land flowing with milk and honey" truly relates to the summit of the zodiac, we should be able to find connections to the zodiac signs located next to the juncture of the June solstice (that is, to either Gemini or Cancer, or to both of them), let us examine this symbolism of Shu (or Moses) with his upraised arms, assisted by two companions.

Sure enough, there at the summit of the year, with his section of the year beginning right at the point of the solstice, we find the sign of Cancer the Crab, an animal with two prominent arms which are typically extended in an attitude very similar to the depiction of the arms of Shu in the ancient papyrus reproduced above. Below is an illustration of the sign of Cancer the Crab from a book printed in 1511 or 1512:



image: Wikimedia commons (link).

As can be seen from the zodiac wheel diagramed earlier (with the cross composed of the horizontal line of the equinoxes and the vertical line of the solstices), the sign of Cancer was sometimes previously depicted as a creature we would today call a lobster (rather than a crab). Nevertheless, these creatures also feature the same outstretched or "upraised" arms, very suggestive of the upraised arms of Shu. 

The Reverend Robert Taylor (1784 - 1844), whose analysis of the celestial metaphors present throughout the Old and New Testaments of the Bible is described at greater length in The Undying Stars, also makes this identification of the "arms" with the sign of Cancer the Crab.  In his text Astronomico-Theological Lectures, published in 1857 (after his death, and containing sermons he delivered on the celestial metaphors in various parts of the Bible, sermons which were sufficient to get him thrown in jail in England for a total of three years), Robert Taylor asserts that the "everlasting arms" described in Deuteronomy 33:27 are the arms of Cancer the Crab:
From the domicile of the Sun in the Lion of July adjoining on that of the Crab [. . .] when the Sun begins to descend, the claws or arms of the Crab in the Egyptian diagrams of the Zodiac were represented as spread out or extended below the path of the Lion; and hence affording the idea of support and security from falling, which is the solution of those beautiful figures of the allegory, 'the eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.' It is none other than the claws of the Crab, which, had they been duly depicted according to their position in the heavens, would have presented to your eye the exact position of the everlasting arms [. . .]. 263.
Note that despite the charges of heresy leveled against him (which landed him in jail), Taylor always treats the scriptures themselves with the utmost reverence (it is the literalist misinterpretations against which he levels his sometimes razor-sharp sarcasm), and asserts that interpreting them in the way they were intended to be interpreted is the only way to truly render them their due honor.

As discussed in the previous post on the land flowing with milk and honey, the summer solstice point is located at the beginning of the sign of Cancer, but at the end of the sign of Gemini, and so the two signs together really flank the solstice and "share the duty" of upholding the summit of the year. And so, just as with the appellation of the Promised Land as a land flowing with milk and honey, in the imagery from the ancient Egyptian papyrus from around 1025 BC, elements of both Cancer and Gemini are present. In the papyrus, we see two helpers assisting Shu, who are certainly nearly identical in their appearance -- perhaps suggestive or representative of the Twins of Gemini.  

These two figures become Aaron and Hur assisting in the holding up of the arms of Moses in the Exodus version of the same symbol. 

Just as with Robert Taylor, the aim in illuminating the solstice connection of these ancient depictions is in no way meant to detract from our appreciation of what he calls "those beautiful figures of the allegory." Far from it! In fact, the profound truths that they depict can only be fully realized if the esoteric and allegorical nature of the passages is unlocked (see discussions in this previous post entitled "Montessori and 'thinging'" and in this one entitled "The ancient torch that was lighted for our guidance").  

In this case, as previously alluded, the esoteric message conveyed by the summer solstice imagery concerns the "raising up of the Tat cross" or the "Djed column," which has to do with the realization of our spiritual and divine nature, a major part of our labor here in the material realm (where our spirit has been cast down "between the two horizons" and imprisoned in the material or the "animal" flesh and blood of the body).

One more image is appropriate here as we reach the summer solstice, one which has been shown and discussed in previous blog posts and which is discussed at greater length in The Undying Stars, and that is the image of the Djed column shown below from the beautifully-illustrated version of the Book of the Dead from the Papyrus of Ani (Ani was a priest thought to have lived during  the reign of Seti I, between 1290 and 1279 BC).  

Here, the upright column can be clearly seen to possess the horizontal bars reminiscent of the vertebrae, and it also is surmounted with the Ankh, or cross of life (incorporating the two parts of the zodiac wheel and the two parts of our human nature, animal and divine). The Ankh also incorporates the circle symbol on top of the cross, which is representative of eternity since a circle has no beginning and no end. It is also representative of the feminine force, joined together with the masculine symbol of the column. And, surmounting it all (of course) we see again the "everlasting arms," uplifted in an expression of blessing, victory, and support.

All these things are worthy of deep consideration this Summer Solstice, 2014.  Peace.







































image: Wikimedia commons (link).

Brisingamen, the necklace of Freya







































Freya and Brisingamen sketch based on image in Ingri and Edgar D'Aulaire's Norse Gods and Giants

Now is a particularly good time of year to go out after dark and enjoy the spectacular constellations visible along the zodiac band in the hours after nightfall and leading up to midnight (and the next week and a half will be particularly excellent, as the moon is waning and rising later and later in the night -- that is, closer and closer to sunrise -- as the sun prepares to "overtake" the moon and give us another new moon on June 28th, after which there will still be a few nights of good star-gazing while the moon sets relatively soon behind the sun).

High in the center of the sky you can locate the constellation Virgo, one of the most important constellations in the sky, and one who plays numerous roles in the ancient mythologies of the world, as demonstrated in the previous series of posts which presented some of the connections between the mythical stories of cultures as widely diffuse as those of ancient Japan, of the Indians of North America, and of the Norsemen of Scandinavia.

Virgo is easy to spot if you can locate her brightest star Spica, which Corvus the Crow is constantly staring at as described in this previous post, and her directly outstretched arm which is very prominent and which is described in this previous post.

Above her (all relative positions described from the perspective of a viewer in the northern hemisphere; please adjust for your own latitude on our planet) you can now easily make out the stars of Bootes the Herdsman, featuring the brilliant red-orange star Arcturus. A commonly-cited memory aid for locating both Arcturus and Spica tells us to follow the sweep of the handle of the Big Dipper and draw an "arc" to Arcturus, and then to continue along the same general direction and draw a "spike" to Spica. This method works quite well, especially as the well-known constellation of the Big Dipper is now high in the sky for observers in the northern hemisphere.

Another aid to locating Bootes which always helps me to find him is the fact that his long pipe reaches very nearly to the tip of the handle of the Dipper. Once you locate the Dipper's handle, you can trace the Herdsman's pipe back to his large (but faint) head, and then continue to trace out the rest of the constellation.  Both Virgo and Bootes are depicted in the star chart below, which is now familiar to readers of the three articles linked above which make the case that all the myths discussed utilize a common system of celestial metaphor, one that connects virtually all the world's ancient sacred traditions no matter how widely dispersed across the globe (including those in the Old and New Testaments).



If the night is dark and Bootes is high in the sky, you can clearly make out the beautiful semicircle of stars known as the Corona Borealis, or Northern Crown, which can be seen in the diagram above just to the left of the Herdsman's head, and which is labeled "Crown." It really is very close to the outline of the head of Bootes, and the best way to locate it is to look right at his head and it will be seen to be almost touching him. The diagram in the previously-linked post on Arcturus shows both Bootes and the Crown, and labels the brightest star in the Crown, which is known as Gemma or Alphekka or Gnosia.

We have seen from the examination of the mythology of ancient Japan that the Northern Crown was described in the Kojiki as an "augustly complete string of jewels eight feet long," which should give us a clue that another marvelous string of jewels belonging to a beautiful goddess may also be connected to this semicircle of stars next to Bootes and above Virgo: the dazzling fire-gold necklace of Freya, the Norse love-goddess.

Freya's necklace is called the Brisingamen, and it is featured in the Norse poetic Edda in the section known as the Thrymskvitha (or "Lay of Thrym"), which can be found beginning on page 173 of this online version of the poetic Edda. The Brisingamen is also featured in the prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson, particularly in the section known as the Skaldskaparmal, in which the theft of the necklace by Loki is alluded to although not described at length.

Other early Norse poetic compositions outside of the Eddas describe the theft of the Brisingamen by Loki with more detail, saying that Loki (who is a master of shape-shifting) turned himself into a fly in order to steal into Freya's bedchamber while she slept, buzzing around her face until she batted at him with the hand which even in sleep rested upon the clasp of her precious necklace. The moment she did this, Loki transformed in a flash into his normal self and stole the necklace. Snorri also refers to the theft of the necklace, citing passages from other poets which refer to the theft as well, showing that the episode was well-known by his day and probably much earlier.

If any doubt remained about the identification of Loki with Bootes in the episode of Skadi's laughter described in that post on the mythology of ancient Japan, the fact that Loki is described as the thief of the Brisingamen from the sleeping goddess and the fact that the starry necklace in the celestial realm is located not on Virgo where it belongs but next to Bootes who hovers over Virgo's recumbent form should "put those doubts to bed" once and for all (so to speak).  

Additional evidence comes from the fact that Snorri mentions that it was Heimdal who challenged Loki over the suspected theft, and who fought Loki for the necklace and eventually beat Loki and returned the necklace to Freya.  The authors of Hamlet's Mill present extensive evidence that Heimdal, the "son of nine mothers" and the one who, Snorri tells us, is also referred to by the name Vindler (which the authors of Hamlet's Mill tell us is associated with turning, or a turning handle).  The authors of Hamlet's Mill argue that these clues tell us that Heimdal is associated with the "handle" that turns the entire night sky around the central pole -- and that he is in fact associated with the entire "equinoctial colure," which stretches from Ares to Virgo through the north celestial pole (and around from Virgo to Ares through the south celestial pole as well, although this half of the colure is less appropriate to this discussion about the northern constellation Bootes and the northern myth of Loki).

Based upon their arguments, if Heimdal is associated with the handle of the Dipper and the north celestial pole, we can surmise that it is only natural that Norse myth might describe him as the arch-rival of Loki, if Loki is associated with the nearby constellation of Bootes the Herdsman, who appears to be tied to the handle of the Big Dipper. For discussion of those characteristics of Heimdal, see this previous post.

The fact that Virgo's arm is raised as if in the act of "swatting away" the thief of her necklace should be even further proof that this set of constellations furnished the material for this particular episode from Norse myth.

Any doubts which still remain regarding the identification of Loki the thief who steals from the goddess her most precious possession with the constellation Bootes above Virgo can be laid to rest by noting another nearby asterism seen in the star chart above, located just above the head of Virgo and to the right of the figure of Bootes the Herdsman, the constellation known as Coma Berenices or Berenice's Hair (and marked as such on the diagram). In his outstanding book The Stars: A New Way to See Them, author H.A. Rey says of Berenice's Hair:
Small and very faint. Contains a group of dim stars, visible only on clear, moonless nights when the constellation is high up [like, right now].  36.
He goes on to explain that:
The constellation owes its name to a theft: Berenice was an Egyptian queen (3rd century BC) who sacrificed her hair to thank Venus for a victory her husband had won in a war.  The hair was stolen from the temple but the priests in charge convinced the disconsolate queen that Zeus himself had taken the locks and put them in the sky as a constellation.
This story as related by H.A. Rey almost certainly has it backwards: the story of the queen who sacrificed her hair to the goddess Venus is most likely a legend inspired by the constellations Virgo and Coma Berenices (and not an original event that happened on earth and which later inspired the naming of constellations in the sky).

Those familiar with the Norse myths will immediately be reminded of yet another theft by Loki of the treasured possession of a beautiful goddess: this time, the theft of the golden-red hair of Sif, the wife of the thunder-god Thor. The myth of the theft of Sif's hair by Loki is clearly a dramatization of these three constellations: the disembodied hair of Coma Berenices, floating above Virgo and just next to Bootes.  In all of this, it can be seen that our identification of Loki with Bootes has ample reinforcement.

This analysis provides further support for my assertion regarding the identity of Loki and Skadi in the episode of the laughter of Skadi (Loki is again Bootes, and the beautiful Skadi is Virgo, who takes on the female role in a great many of the world's myths). It also further supports  the connections we saw, discussed in the post entitled "The celestial shamanic connection: Ancient Japan," between the Norse myth related in the Eddas in which the gods must make the beautiful jotun maiden Skadi laugh, and the Japanese myth related in the Kojiki that brings laughter to the assembled gods when the goddess Amaterasu hides herself in a cave. In the Japanese myth, it is the sexually explicit dance of the goddess Uzume which brings the laughter, and in the Norse myth it is the equally graphic antics of Loki which finally bring laughter to Skadi.

In the discussion, I make the argument that both of these myths clearly involve the constellation Virgo the Virgin and and the surrounding constellations in that region of the sky, and that in the Norse myth Skadi plays the role of Virgo and that Loki is Bootes the Herdsman -- a correlation I have not seen explicitly put forward anywhere else before (although the authors of Hamlet's Mill were clearly aware of some relation between the myth of Skadi and the myth of Uzume and Amaterasu, they never tell us directly that the connection specifically involves Virgo and Bootes, or trace out the connections between these myths and those stars).

The details which indicate that Loki's role in the tale come from the location of Bootes are conclusive, in my opinion, particularly the fact that Loki eventually precipitates himself into Skadi's lap in order to finally bring a smile to her lips -- a detail which can be readily understood from the relative location of Bootes and Virgo shown in the star chart. But the further evidence we have seen for Loki as Bootes in the myth of the theft of the necklace of Freya and in the myth of the theft of Sif's hair should put the matter beyond any doubt.

And so, if we have established that Loki is Bootes in numerous episodes from Norse myths, this serves to reinforce the assertion that the episode in which Loki makes Skadi laugh and the episode in which Uzume makes the assembled gods laugh and the goddess Amaterasu come out of her cave share a clear celestial connection, in that both the Norse and the Japanese myth use many of the exact same celestial components.

Further, the fact that we have now established the Northern Crown as the celestial counterpart of the mythical Brisingamen, the gorgeous necklace of Freya, reinforces yet another connection between the Norse and the Japanese myth-systems, in that the oldest surviving Japanese text containing these myths, the Kojiki, describes a jeweled necklace in conjunction with the episode in which Uzume dances for the assembled kami. Both systems are clearly employing many common elements in their myths involving the constellations surrounding Virgo in this particular part of the night sky.

Be sure to note also the fact that both myth systems, from Japan and from Scandinavia, are doing so in texts which can be shown to date from long before the conventional paradigm would allow for contact between cultures situated so far from one another on the globe. The Kojiki was composed no later than AD 711 or AD 712 (and probably contains myths that are centuries older than that). The age of the Poetic Edda is debated among scholars, but its original composition probably predates Snorri's Prose Edda of about AD 1220, and it may contain material that had been passed down for centuries before it was ever written down. In any case, contact between the cultures of Japan and Scandinavia prior to AD 711 is not consistent with the dominant conventional narrative of history, so what can explain the existence of a common system of celestial metaphor in the mythologies of such widely-separated peoples?

There are many possibilities, but almost all of them set the conventional historical paradigm on its ear.  One possibility is that there was ongoing transoceanic contact between these cultures during the centuries that these works were composed, or at some time prior. Another possibility is that both cultures (and the many others around the world whose mythologies share the same universal allegorical system) are descended from some even earlier common predecessor civilization, perhaps one which left this ancient esoteric system as a precious inheritance for all humanity.

In any case, if it is at all possible for you to do so, now is an excellent time to head outside in the hours after nightfall, and to identify the constellations discussed, such as Virgo, Bootes, the Northern Crown, and even (if the night is dark enough and the sky clear enough) Berenice's Hair. As you do so, you can think of the legends of the beauty of Freya, and of her dazzling necklace, the Brisingamen. And as you contemplate the theft of the heavenly necklace by Loki (and his theft of another heavenly treasure, that of Sif's hair), you can reflect on the possibility that this once-universal system of celestial metaphor, which Aritsotle himself referred to as the "ancient treasure" and which may represent the legacy of some far older and possibly far more advanced predecessor civilization, has effectively been stolen from humanity, and knowledge of it suppressed, for at least the past seventeen centuries.

Make your plans to attend the Eternal Knowledge Festival at Atherstone!












If you have the ability to do so, you should strongly consider making your plans to attend the upcoming Eternal Knowledge Festival for 2014, which will be held on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, July 4th through July 6th, at the Purley Chase Conference Centre, Atherstone, Warwickshire.

The Eternal Knowledge Festival is hosted and organized by Lucy Wyatt and Gary Evans.  

Lucy Wyatt should be familiar to regular readers of this blog: her work on the shamanic roots of civilization were very influential in the formation of my own understanding and analysis as I began to wrestle with the question of why the ancient sacred scriptures and traditions around the world so consistently manifest a common pattern of celestial allegory. Previous blog posts discussing her important work include: 
and
Lucy's interview on Red Ice Creations from March of 2012 can be found in two parts here: part one and part two (Red Ice membership required to access their extensive archive: highly recommended and well worth the subscription!). 

Gary Evans is an explorer and a speaker, and provides public relations to increase the awareness of the work of several alternative researchers and authors.  His own interview on the Red Ice Creations site, with Lana Lokteff on Radio 3Fourteen, can be found here (again, membership required but well worth it).

In addition to the opportunity to meet and talk with Lucy Wyatt and Gary Evans, participants in the Eternal Knowledge Festival will have the opportunity to attend talks and workshops presented by many insightful thinkers and philosophers and authors and explorers on a wide range of subjects, including:
Unfortunately, I personally will not be able to attend this year's Eternal Knowledge Festival, but as you can see it promises to be an exciting time.

If it is at all possible, everyone who is interested in these important topics should try to make plans to be there!

A land flowing with milk and honey . . .






































Previously, we examined the evidence that the threat of literal hellfire which continues to be used to this day (see examples here and here, among many other places on the web and in print) is based on a mistaken literalistic understanding of ancient scriptures, in the post entitled "No hell below us . . ." (05/04/2014).

One of the consistent patterns of the ancient sacred texts from around the world is the depiction in vivid myth of the annual cycle of the sun between its northernmost point of rising and setting (at the summer solstice) and its southernmost point of rising and setting (at the winter solstice; note that all descriptions here are described as they are observed in the northern hemisphere, since the myth-system itself uses northern-hemisphere-centric zodiac allegories, even though the same allegories are also found in the myths of Africa, Australia, and the South Pacific, a significant clue which falls outside the scope of this particular discussion).  

The portion of the year in which the sun's ecliptic path is above the celestial equator during the sun's daily journey (and days are longer than nights) is allegorized as a shining mountain, and the portion of the year in which the sun's ecliptic path is below the celestial equator during the sun's daily journey (and nights are longer than days) is allegorized as a deep pit (for diagrams and discussion of the ecliptic and the celestial equator, see here).  

The upper half of the year was further allegorized in the ancient system of celestial metaphor as the Promised Land in the Old Testament (as opposed to Egypt, the House of Bondage), as fair Achaea in the Iliad (as opposed to Troy and the wind-swept plains of Ilium), as a city upon a holy hill or as a heavenly city where the streets are paved with gold (as opposed to gloomy Sheol in the Old Testament or Hell in the New), as shining Mount Olympus (opposed to Tartarus), as shining Asgard (opposed to Niflheim), and so on.

There is abundant evidence to support this identification of Hell with the lower half of the zodiac wheel (and the point of crossing from the upper half into the lower half as a place of sacrifice and death), some of which is discussed here.  However, some readers may still be skeptical of this identification (or concerned by the assertions in the two tracts linked in the first sentence of the first paragraph, above, which sternly warn that the eternal flames of Hell described in the ancient scriptures cannot be interpreted in any way other than strictly literally).  If the assertion is true that the descriptions of Hell  are really meant to be understood within this ancient system of celestial metaphor, then we should be able to find compelling celestial metaphors corresponding to scriptural descriptions of heaven.  

And in fact, once the system of celestial allegory is understood, the evidence turns up right where we would expect to find it.  This predictive power of the system, by the way, is one of the hallmarks of a correct theory: once the model is understood, it should be able to predict future discoveries, and this is exactly what happens with the ancient system of celestial allegory which informs all the myths of the ancient world (for an example of this predictive power from the Greek myths, see this previous post).  

In that post, we surmised that the approach of the planet Jupiter to the planet Venus, which was taking place at the time I was writing that post, back in February of 2012, would probably have a corresponding myth, most likely of a sexual nature, in which the god Jupiter or Zeus would be amorously pursuing the goddess Venus or Aphrodite, and a short search through the mythology turned up just such a story (with rather graphic detail).  In this case, we might predict that if the identification of the Promised Land with the upper half of the year is correct (and specifically with the very peak of the summer solstice), there might be imagery from the zodiac signs associated with that part of the sun's annual journey which is found in descriptions of that Promised Land in the ancient scriptures.  Since the summer solstice takes place at the juncture between the signs of Gemini and Cancer (at the juncture marked by the red arrow in the diagram below), we should expect to find veiled references to one or both of these zodiac constellations or their known mythical characteristics within the ancient scriptures dealing with paradise, heaven, the heavenly city, or the Promised Land.































Readers who have absorbed some of the discussion found in the first three chapters of The Undying Stars (those first three chapters can be read online here; link will open an online pdf version in a new window or tab) will recall that the constellation Cancer the Crab, one of the two signs guarding the summer solstice at the very "summit of the year," contains the beautiful star cluster known as "The Beehive," and which was allegorized in the myth of Samson found in the Old Testament book of Judges.  In conjunction with a search for celestial imagery in the descriptions of the Promised Land from the ancient Hebrew scriptures, this should immediately ring a bell, because one of the most common scriptural descriptions of the Promised Land is that it is "a land flowing with milk and honey"  (see for example Exodus 3:8 and 3:17 and 13:5 and 33:3; Leviticus 20:24; Numbers 13:27 and 14:8 and 16:3 and 16:14; Deuteronomy 6:3 and 11:9 and 26:9 and 26:15 and 27:3 and 31:20; Joshua 11:5; Jeremiah 32:22; and Ezekiel 20:6 and 20:15).

Clearly, if we suspect that the Promised Land represents the "summit" half of the year, and we look for clues in the vicinity of the "summit" of the zodiac wheel (between Cancer and Gemini), the discovery of the connection to the Beehive Cluster (Messier 44) in one of the two constellations at that summit is a powerful confirmation of our theory.

But what about the other half of the appellation?  We see a possible source for the "honey" -- now, what about the "milk"?  Readers of Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend's 1969 masterwork, Hamlet's Mill: an Essay on Myth and the Frame of Time, may recall that the authors devote an entire chapter to a discussion of the shining band of the Milky Way and its manifestation in the sacred texts and traditions around the world (Chapter XVIII: The Galaxy, which can be read online here, part of a site containing the entire text of Hamlet's Mill here).

In that chapter, de Santillana and von Dechend demonstrate myths from around the world in which  souls in between incarnations ascend the path of the Milky Way in the heavens, from the lower gate between the constellations of Scorpio and Sagittarius all the way up to the "upper gate," located near the sign of Gemini, from whence they descend into incarnation again.  They cite Macrobius in his commentary on Cicero's Dream of Scipio.  There, de Santillana and von Dechend explain, the constellation Gemini (the zodiac sign at the upper end of the Milky Way band) is referred to as "the Gate of Cancer" (Hamlet's Mill, 242).

The visible path of the Galaxy can be seen to pass right beneath the feet of the Twins of Gemini in the dual-hemisphere star chart shown below:



In this chart, the line of the ecliptic (which connects the constellations of the zodiac) is shown as a green line.  If you find where that green line intersects the broad blue band of the Milky Way galaxy in the right-hand hemisphere, you will be able to find Gemini on the chart.  The constellation of Cancer is slightly to the left along the same green line of the ecliptic in the right-hand hemisphere of this chart.  Obviously, then, the "milk" in the descriptor "milk and honey" must refer to Gemini rather than Cancer.  The "honey" is a reference to Cancer.

Just as the system of celestial allegory predicted, we find in the scriptural description of Paradise two very clear references to the two zodiac signs that we would expect to find referenced, if the identification of Heaven (or Paradise, or the Promised Land) with the upper half of the zodiac wheel (and Hell with the lower) is in fact correct.

Not only does this exercise provide strong supporting evidence for the argument that the scriptures of the Old and New Testament are built upon a foundation of celestial allegory, and that they were not intended to be understood literally but rather were intended to be understood esoterically, but it also shows that the scriptures of the Old and New Testament are built upon the exact same system of celestial allegory upon which are built the myth-systems of ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, of northern Europe, of Africa, Australia, the Americas, and the islands of the Pacific (and nearly every other ancient culture or civilization as well).  Examples of this system in the mythology of Japan, of the First Nations people of the Pacific northwest, and of the Norse can be found in a series of three previous articles, entitled "Odin and Gunnlod," "The old man and his daughter," and "The celestial shamanic connection: Ancient Japan."  The analysis in those articles demonstrates that, just as with the search for clues regarding the "land of milk and honey," once one understands the system of celestial allegory, clues within the ancient narrative point to the part of the cyclical patterns of the heavens that a particular myth or motif is personifying or allegorizing.

This clear kinship with the myths of the "pagan" world also puts to rest the literalist notion that there is a sharp demarcation between those who believe the Old and New Testaments and those who follow (or followed) the other sacred traditions of humanity (including those of Japan, or of pre-Christian Scandinavia, or of the native peoples of the Americas).  This artificial distinction is based upon the mistaken notion that the scriptures of the Old and New Testament, and the myths of the rest of the world, were all intended to be understood literally.  They were not: they are all equally esoteric.  

And yet it is upon this false distinction that the promoters of the literalist threat of eternal torment in a literal Hell (such as the authors of the two tracts linked above) base their argument. 

This literalist error has been the cause of a massive amount of suffering throughout the centuries, and it continues to cause people mental torment to this day.  Additionally, the threat of eternal suffering in the literal fires of a literal Hell continues to be used as a form of mind control in some quarters, and to coerce obedience to certain authorities on the idea that disobedience can invite that harshest of all sanctions.  This is a clear example of the importance of understanding the system of celestial metaphor.  And, the sacred texts of the world were not just clever stories invented to teach about the motions of the stars and other celestial bodies (as awesome and as majestic as those celestial motions undoubtedly are).  They used these motions to convey even more profound truths, as discussed here and here.

Those profound spiritual teachings, perhaps, can point us towards the true "land flowing with milk and honey," one not to be found by following the literalist approach, but one which presents itself once we understand the key.






















Announcing The Undying Stars in paperback!







































You now have the option to own The Undying Stars in a beautiful new paperback version!  

The hardcover version is still available here.

I will have copies of both versions with me at the upcoming Secret Space Program and Breakaway Civilization Conference in San Mateo, California (Saturday, June 28th and Sunday, June 29th) if you would like to purchase copies of either version, which I would be happy to inscribe for you.

You are also welcome to bring copies that you have already purchased or that you purchase before the conference and bring with you, and I would be happy to inscribe those as well.

Hope to see you there!  

And, I hope you enjoy the new paperback version of The Undying Stars -- just in time for some light summer reading at the beach this summer (for readers in the northern hemisphere -- in the southern hemisphere it's just in time for winter reading at the beach).  At least, it is somewhat lighter than the hardbound version (physically lighter -- it contains all the exact same content, of course).