Eleusis transcendent

image: the ruins of the sanctuary at Eleusis, including the Telesterion. Wikimedia commons (link). 

The late afternoon sun bathed the city in a warm gold reminiscent of summer, but now a gentle breeze blew in from the sea, the cooler salt air invading the hillsides where the warmth of the sun had left a relative vacuum, bringing with it the hint of the approaching autumn.  From the hills of Athens, the sun in its arc descended towards the west, in the direction of Eleusis and the Gulf of Eleusis, and the island of Salamis rising up out of the Aegean and separated by only a short stretch of water from the site of sacred Eleusis.

Salamis, of course, brought to mind Athenian naval prowess, but at this time of year, all the city-states of Greece observed a holy truce: each year, messengers from Athens traveled throughout the land to announce the celebration of the Eleusinian Mysteries, and to guarantee safe passage for an entire month leading up to the great festival, and for most of the month afterwards, to anyone who wished to attend in person. All were invited, whether man or woman, free citizen or slave -- as long as they could speak the Greek language, and as long as they had never committed the crime of murder. 

The truce would last from the time of the full moon in the month of Metageitneon (the middle of the second month after the annual cycle of the Attic calendar began with the first new moon following summer solstice, which would put the fifteenth day of Metageitneon towards the beginning of our September), when the runners went out, through to the tenth day of the fourth month after summer solstice, Pyanepsion, which would be towards the end of October. But the runners had been sent out nearly a month ago now, and it was now the fourteenth day of Boedromion (and the eve of a full moon), that third and final "summer month" after the solstice, towards the end of what moderns would someday call September. Athens was now packed with those who had streamed in from all over the civilized world to observe the sacred mysteria.

Earlier in the day, the procession of the priests and priestesses of the mysteries had left Eleusis and walked from there to Athens, the priestesses bearing the sacred and secret objects in closed containers, out of public view. 

A thrill of anticipation ran like a steady electrical current through all those who would participate for the first time in the rites which would begin the next day. They did not know, nor did any who had not already experienced the Eleusinian mysteries themselves, the exact details of the secret rites in which they would participate on the fifth day after the sacred festival began, for the penalty for divulging the secrets of those rites was death, and the ancients honored the prohibition so steadfastly that none can say for sure to this day exactly what went on within the sacred sanctuary of the Telesterion at Eleusis.

But, the public portion of the mysteries was widely known, for it began in the public places of Athens on the first day of the festival (the fifteenth day of Boedromion), on which day the formal invitation was proclaimed in the streets. The following day, the command of Halade Mystai! would go up ("Initiates, to the Sea!"), and all the people desiring to be initiated (the mystai) had to go down to the waters of the Aegean below Athens to bathe in a ritual act of purification, taking with them a piglet.

The following days there would be sacrifices and celebrations, and then at last would come the long-anticipated processions of the initiates, led by the priests and priestesses with the sacred objects still in their containers. Significantly, this ritual procession would include a stop at a cemetery, a crossing of a bridge over the river Cephisus, and a ritual mocking of the initiates by onlookers along the way. There was also a point where the initiates had to shout obscenities, in recollection of the time that Demeter, whose rites these Eleusinian mysteria were, had been made to smile by the off-color words and antics of the old nurse Iambe, who had cheered the mourning goddess during her search for her missing daughter Persephone. Both Demeter and Persephone were the goddesses of the Eleusinian rites, but Persephone was always referred to as Kore (meaning "the Maiden") in connection with the Eleusinian Mysteries.

Imagine the excitement of the mystai when they finally arrived in Eleusis! They would be nearly exhausted from the day's march and the events on the march itself, but what an impression it had left upon them and as they finally rested in the shadow of the sacred buildings themselves, they could look back and reflect upon all of them, as well as the emotion-laden days in Athens on the previous days. Perhaps many would then continue further back, and reflect upon how long they had anticipated this day, when they would finally walk the path to Eleusis itself -- perhaps a lifetime goal for many who were there now for the first time. 

For the poets, and no doubt those who were already initiated, made no secret of the knowledge that those who witnessed and experienced the nights that were to come, here among the pillars of the holy buildings dedicated to Demeter, would be forever changed, and would be freed of the dread of death, and would be promised a better condition in the invisible realm of the dead. But, the mystai no doubt had also heard that the experience itself -- the secret rites that would commence the following night -- would move them profoundly, and would contain moments of terror that would fill them with dread (how exactly this would take place, we can today only speculate).

And so it would be with a mixture of high emotions and awful anticipation that those undergoing the initiation would have watched the sun sink once again into the west. They felt that events were now in motion that they could not stop, even if they wanted to back out now, drawing them onward almost in spite of themselves.

They might reflect, too, on the knowledge that these rites had been taking place since time immemorial, right there on those slopes of Eleusis facing the water, each and every year at this particular season, when the sun was crossing the great line of the celestial equator and the nights were balanced with the days, with the festival really getting underway after that line had been crossed and the kingdom of the night was expanding further and further, the days steadily retreating in their length on the way to the lower half of the year. 

No one knows exactly when the Eleusinian mysteries had been founded, but they had been taking place at least since what we would call the eighth century BC, and possibly for many centuries before that based upon the archaeological evidence. We know that the so-called Homeric Hymns, some of them probably composed in the seventh century BC, describe the search of Demeter for Persephone after Zeus permitted Hades to kidnap the maiden and take her to the underworld to be the bride of the god of death, and that Eleusis receives prominent mention in the Homeric hymn to Demeter. The hymn to Demeter is the second in the Homeric Hymn series, and it is rich in mythical detail that help us to understand the profound themes which the Eleusinian Mysteries esoterically convey -- a translation of that Hymn to Demeter, which is believed to be one of the earliest of the collection, can be found online here. 

What experiences awaited those anxious mystai, as well as the epoptai (those who had already been initiated, and were returning to Eleusis to participate again as initiated "seeing-ones," possibly to have revealed to them additional parts of the ritual which took place while the mystai were still blindfolded or in the dark)? They could only wonder and imagine that first night, as the cold night winds accompanied the sun's plunge into the western seas and rustled the leaves on the trees upon the darkened hills.

We, too, can only wonder what awaited them, for the Eleusinian Mysteries, those most celebrated in the ancient world, enacted for two thousand years in a row (a few centuries longer than the period which separates us today from the last participants), were shut down along with many other sacred conveyances of the ancient knowledge, at the dawn of the era of literalist Christianity, by the decree of the Roman Emperor Theodosius in AD 392. Flavius Theodosius began the third dynasty of Christian emperors, following Gratian (who had outlawed the Vestal Virgins in Rome) and the Valentinians, who themselves followed the Constantinians which began with Constantine himself, who had declared Christianity the religion of the empire in AD 324, and who had died in AD 337. 

No longer would the secret experiences of Eleusis be available to all who chose to participate.

However, from the imagery of some of the artwork surrounding the Eleusinian Mysteries -- including the tablet shown below dedicated by a participant named Ninnion (her name can still be seen on the dedicatory inscription, at the lower left corner of the tablet), scholars have formulated guesses regarding what would have taken place on the night of the second day after the arrival of the initiates (behind the procession of the priests and priestesses carrying the hidden sacred objects).

image: Ninnion Pinax, or "Votive Plaque of Ninnion" dedicated to the keepers of Eleusis. Wikimedia commons (link).

We also have veiled hints of what took place which have survived in some ancient accounts, including those of the ever-helpful Plutarch. From these accounts, and from the scene above, we can surmise that the transformative events that awaited the mystai on the night following that first night after their arrival at Eleusis would involve a harrowing search by torchlight, during which they would no doubt be enacting the desperate search of the bereaved Demeter, and during which some have speculated that they would be startled by sudden visions of the two goddesses themselves, Demeter and Kore, illuminated by bursts of light with pyrotechnic effects and perhaps thunderous music or percussion, techniques perfected for and used in ancient theater as well. 

Ancient descriptions suggest that they would have wandered in circles, calling out loudly, perhaps blindfolded during the initial windings and searchings, and that they would have also been given glimpses of sacred and symbolic objects representative of the cult of the two goddesses. One ancient source also declares that at the end of the search there would have been a triumphant revelation and a celebration, and much flinging about of torches also!

The most sacred aspects of the central rites probably took place in the cave-like settings inside the inner sanctuary buildings, and included a ritual drink and perhaps even a handling of the sacred objects themselves, as well as the revelation perhaps of the goddess or goddesses themselves. Some have speculated that the drink given to the initiates possessed hallucinogenic properties, or that hallucinogenic substances were otherwise involved, accounting for the powerful visions and the feeling of dread described. 

But we simply do not know. The contents of the mysteries have been sealed off from our view, and may (as far as we can tell at this point in history) retain their secrets for eternity.

What we can say for sure is that, for those who have become familiar with the ancient system of celestial metaphor which underlies all of the most ancient sacred rites and scriptures of the planet, there are abundant clues in the imagery that has survived, as well as in the ancient Hymn to Demeter itself, to allow us to gather just a taste of the significance of Eleusis.

First of all, it is clear from the specific station of the year when these rites would be celebrated -- just after the fall equinox, and after the full moon began to wane -- that the Mysteries of Eleusis involve the descent of the great  heavenly cycle into the lower half of the year, the dark half, the portion signifying the underworld. From the extensive analysis and evidence offered by Alvin Boyd Kuhn (so extensive that it is really beyond dispute, in my opinion), we can also declare that this descent was seen by the originators of the ancient myths to be representative of the descent of the fiery soul into the material realm: the incarnation in the body.

Note all the imagery which confirms this interpretation surrounding the rites of Eleusis: there is the descent from Athens into the sea by the participants, during their ritual cleansing at the start of the festival; there is the crossing of the bridge, during which crossing the initiates are ritually mocked (note the crossing points of the year marked on the zodiac wheel, above -- the downward crossing is at the sign of the Virgin); there is the story of Persephone, seized and taken down into the underworld; there is the fact that Persephone is always referred to as Kore, the Maiden (the word "maiden" means "virgin") in the rites of Eleusis, just as the sign of the Virgin presides over this downward crossing on the annual cycle; there is the association of Demeter with grain and the harvesting of wheat, just as Virgo traditionally carries a sheaf of wheat, associated with her brightest star, Spica; and there is the imagery of the torches, which we have already seen were anciently associated with the equinoxes and the crossing of the blazing ecliptic path of the sun downward or upward across the unchanging line of the celestial equator (see discussion in this previous post, for example). 

The goddess Hecate is often shown in imagery surrounding Eleusis and the search for and return of Persephone/Kore, and when she is shown, she is often depicted carrying two torches.

Further, the imagery of the goddesses Demeter and Kore, seated upon their thrones, are often configured to resemble the distinctive features of the constellation Virgo. Note in the Ninnion Pinax shown above the posture of the two goddesses, who are seen on right side of the plaque (facing to the left). Demeter is above, and Kore is beneath. Both are seated on thrones, and both have the extended hand that is very distinctive of Virgo (we have discussed this in previous posts such as this one and this one). Below is the same ancient scene, with the outline of the stars of Virgo superimposed:

Further, we have already discussed at length the thesis put forward by Alvin Boyd Kuhn that the search for the hidden god or goddess over all the lands inhabited by men and women was meant by the ancients to convey the sacred truth that the divine spark is hidden within all men and women, but that it is seemingly "lost" and must be pursued, reawakened, and found again (see here and here, for example).

We note that the mystai stopped at a graveyard on their way down to Eleusis: suggestive of the ancient allegorization of the plunge of the soul from the world of spirit as a "death," and this life as a passage through the "underworld" itself (which, relative to the world of spirit symbolized by the ethereal spheres that circle above our heads, this world in fact is -- again see Kuhn's extensive analysis and support of this assertion). We also note the symbolism that on the day in which they were ordered down into the sea (symbolic of the command to incarnate), they had to carry with them a live piglet: symbolic of the fact that when the spirit incarnates, it must take on the "animal" body, and become a cross of the spiritual and the carnal (how many ancient allegorical myths warn against becoming too comfortable with the carnal side of this combination, and of thus "turning into swine").

And, note carefully the incorporation into these rites of the obscenities shouted by the participants, in commemoration of the actions of Iambe in bringing a smile to the lips of the grieving goddess: this is a component of goddess-myths the world over, found in Norse myths (Loki and Skadi), in Japanese myths (Uzume and Amaterasu), and in the Old Testament story of Sarai/Sarah and her secret smile (all of these are discussed in this previous post, which features detailed diagrams of the constellation Virgo which show why these goddesses or female figures all have to smile). 

It is very interesting to note that sexually explicit antics are often involved in the myths involving the smile -- this is true of the antics of Loki, of Uzume, and (in many versions of the tale) of the old Iambe (sometimes named Baubo in some versions of the Greek or Latin myth of Demeter) as well. This is highly significant, as the stars themselves can hardly be said to suggest such a constant theme, and it is difficult to argue that this very specific and distinctive aspect of the myth would arise independently in so many different cultures. And yet Japan is very far from Scandinavia, and both are far from Greece as well -- how did this myth-detail arise in such far-flung mythologies? There are a few possible answers, but I believe the most likely is the fact that all these vessels of ancient wisdom are descended from a common, even more ancient source (the "lost civilization" -- and one that other evidence reveals to have been very advanced and very sophisticated).

Esoterically, however, we can speculate that the connection to the more physical and generally private aspects of the human body (specifically, the sexual functions) at which the goddess or maiden is made to smile in these myths connects to the greater theme of incarnation as well: this specific part of the solar cycle (the autumn equinox and the plunge into the lower half) and of the lunar cycle (after the full moon is over, and the moon begins to wane towards "death") and of the elemental cycle (plunging from the air and fire of the heavenly journey into the earth and water that all the circling heavenly bodies encounter when they sink down into the western horizon) figures the plunge of the disembodied soul into the incarnated physical vessel of the human form. 

Perhaps these myths are meant to hint at the idea that the soul finds this condition somewhat uncomfortable at times, especially the most carnal aspects of its incarnation. Certainly the myths involving the smiling goddess seem to poke fun at this aspect of our incarnate state. The mocking of the initiates, and their explicit participation in the obscenities of Iambe, might certainly have been intended to convey to the mystai this esoteric message.

We do not know what exactly took place on those powerful nights of mystery which the initiates could look forward to as they marveled at the experiences which they had undergone thus far. But we can guess that the truth that the ancient Eleusinian Mysteries meant to have them experience -- and hence to know, deep in their bones, not just by faith but by gnosis -- was that this mortal material life is not all that there is, and that the physical world and all that seems so solid and imprisoning can actually be transcended. If they actually underwent an out-of-body experience during the rites themselves, as some believe they did, then they would have experienced that aspect of transcending apparently un-crossable boundaries right then and there!

This is exactly what the evidence tells me that the ancient universal myths bequeathed to humanity were all meant to convey. They all intended to teach a shamanic, holographic vision of the universe we inhabit, and that we can grasp hold of the shamanic and holographic within this very life, to overcome and to create and to transcend.

Unfortunately -- tragically -- this ancient message was somehow subverted, and an active and deliberate campaign to stamp it out was initiated, even as the Eleusinian Mysteries were still going on. Their shutting down by Theodosius was a decisive event in that anti-shamanic campaign (discussed at greater length, and using other clear examples from history, in my book The Undying Stars). The sanctuary and the Telesterion at Eleusis would be sacked in AD 396 and never rebuilt.

But the message of the Eleusinian Mysteries does not depend upon the physical stones of the sanctuary, nor even in the secret objects or rituals (whatever they were) enacted on those final nights. The message is still available today, and can be read in the book of the starry heavens and the books of the sun and the moon in their cycles, open for all to see every day and every night.

Namaste and Amen

image: Wikimedia commons (link)

In the previous post entitled "Amen and Amenta: the hidden god and the hidden realm," we examined enough evidence from ancient mythology (including stories found in both the Old and New Testaments) to conclude "that buried within the scriptural metaphors is the concept of the 'hidden god,' the divine spark which resides within each man or woman, practically unknown and even forgotten."

Alvin Boyd Kuhn devotes an entire chapter in Lost Light to this concept and to the mythological metaphors which were meant to convey this teaching of the hidden spark of divinity within humanity. In "Colonists from Heaven" (pages 105 - 127), Kuhn demonstrates that myths involving a god or goddess who is cast down into the "underworld" or imprisoned there or cut up and scattered across the earth or lost and searched for by another god or goddess (usually by a goddess) may all be seen as illustrating this teaching. 

Among these myths, Kuhn lists the dismemberment of Osiris and scattering of the pieces of his body across the earth, the search by Isis for Osiris, the search by Demeter for her daughter Persephone, the  descent of divine Eros to wed the mortal Psyche, the bringing down by Prometheus of fire inside a smoldering Thyrsus reed to humanity, the casting down of Lucifer and the fallen angels into the lake of fire, the descent of Hercules into the underworld to drag up the three-headed dog Cerberus, the New Testament parable of the prodigal son, the command given to Abram in the Old Testament to depart from Ur of the Chaldees and go to a new land, the various descents into Egypt found in the Old and New Testaments, and many others.

In addition to all the evidence Kuhn himself musters in his argument, we could add the evidence found in ancient sources, including the hints given to us by the important philosopher and historian Plutarch, (c. AD 46 - AD 120) who describes the searching for dismembered body of the god Osiris by the goddess Isis in his famous essay "On Isis and Osiris" in Moralia.

Plutarch begins the account of the murder of Osiris by Set and the subsequent searchings and wanderings of Isis in section 12 of that essay, but the things he says, seemingly unrelated banter, in the lead-up to the Isis and Osiris myth itself should not be dismissed and were no doubt intended by Plutarch to help to enlighten his readers upon the true meaning of what follows. In section 9, Plutarch takes up the idea of the deepest philosophy being "veiled in myths and in words containing dim reflexions and adumbrations of the truth," and then he takes up the concept of the hidden god "Ammon" or "Amoun," saying:

Moreover, most people believe that Amoun is the name given to Zeus in the land of the Egyptians, a name which we, with a slight alteration, pronounce Ammon. But Manetho of Sebennytus thinks that the meaning "concealed" or "concealment" lies in this word. Hecataeus of Abdera, however, says that the Egyptians use this expression one to another whenever they call to anyone, for the word is a form of address. When they, therefore, address the supreme god, whom they believe to be the same as the Universe, as if he were invisible and concealed, and implore him to make himself visible and manifest to them, they use the word "Amoun"; so great, then, was the circumspection of the Egyptians in their wisdom touching all that had to do with the gods.

This little discourse by Plutarch (on the subject of concealing) is very revealing! No sooner has he given us a reference to a famous authority that the name of the Egyptian god Amun or Amen (whose name is found in the names of Egyptian kings such as Tutankhamun or Amenhotep) than he veers off to the seemingly unrelated observation that "the Egyptians use this expression one to another whenever they call to anyone, for the word is a form of address." 

What on earth is Plutarch doing? Is he just participating in some early "stream-of-consciousness" literary technique, nineteen centuries before it would become popular? Is he showing off his vast knowledge of trivial matters? What does the fact that the Egyptians use the word "Amun" to greet one another have to do with the question of whether the hidden god Amen of Egypt is or is not their version of the great god Zeus of the Greeks?

I believe that Plutarch is here giving away the entire key to the philosophy which, in the preceding sentences, he has just finished telling us has always been "veiled in myths" -- a veil which (according to the inscription upon the statue of Isis which Plutarch also cites) "no mortal has yet uncovered."

In other words, he is telling us that the very name of the "hidden god" is also used as a form of address by the Egyptians (and I quote) "whenever they call to anyone." In other words, Plutarch is telling us (without coming out and saying it directly): "The hidden god is found in every single person -- the Egyptians, about whom I have just declared 'so great was their circumspection in their wisdom touching all that had to do with the gods,' find it appropriate to use the name of the hidden god Amun whenever they are calling out to anyone . . . not just some extremely special people, but anyone." 

Plutarch immediately goes on to say that when the Egyptians address this hidden god, "whom they believe to be the same as the Universe," they "implore him to make himself visible and manifest to them." In other words, they are performing the same function depicted in the myths of Isis searching for the hidden and scattered Osiris: they are declaring the truth that divinity is buried in everyone they meet (and within themselves as well), but that we have to remind ourselves of this truth, because it is not intuitive and it is not always obvious! It is, in fact, quite easy to forget and to start acting like the prodigal son in the parable, eating among the swine and descending into the condition of a brute. 

The Egyptians, Plutarch notes, thus greet everyone with the name that signifies "the hidden divinity" (whom they believe to be the same as the Universe), treating him "as if he were invisible and concealed, and implore him to make himself visible and manifest to them."

It is very interesting to note that this practice of the Egyptians, preserved for us in the writings of Plutarch, seems to parallel quite closely the practice which survives to this day in India and Tibet of the salutation Namaste or Namaskaram, a very ancient practice and one described in the Vedas. 

The expression means literally "I bow to you" and is usually explained to mean "I bow to in recognition of the divine in you," or even "the divine in me recognizes the divine in you." For example, in this explanation, we read that in performing this gesture:

you recognize the source of creation within them. This is the intention behind doing namaskaram. [. . .] And it is a constant reminder that the source of creation is within you too. If you recognize this, you are paving the way towards your ultimate nature every time you do namaskaram.

Note the emphasis here upon a "constant reminder" of a truth which is a hidden truth -- one we need to  reminded ourselves regarding.

Here is another explanation online about namaste or namaskaram. There again, we read that:

The reason why we do namaste has a deeper spiritual significance. It recognizes the belief that the life force, the divinity, the Self or the God in me is the same in all. Acknowledging this oneness with the meeting of the palms, we honor the god in the person we meet.

Clearly, the parallels to what was still a teaching and a practice among the Egyptians during the time of Plutarch and to the practice of doing namaste or namaskaram are quite pronounced. We could almost say that the descriptions of the meaning of namaste cited above could apply equally to the ancient Egyptian practice of greeting with the word "Amun" or "Amen."

And here we encounter an unexpected parallel which strikes us with all the force of one hand clapping (so to speak). And that is the fact that all the descriptions of namaste include the fact that this greeting is always accompanied by the mudra or hand posture of placing the palms together (anjali mudra), generally in front of the heart chakra, and that in fact the gesture itself is often performed without the verbal greeting, although the verbal greeting is not performed without the hand gesture.

In light of the evidence that we have been finding which suggests that the ancient Egyptian greeting "Amen" carries the same meaning as the "namaste" or "namaskaram" (both "Amen" and "namaste" recognize the hidden god in ourselves and in other men and women and children), is it any wonder that the word "amen" in Christianity is often accompanied by the exact same hand gesture? That is to say, are prayers which are concluded with the word "Amen" not also accompanied in many instances by the mudra of the hands placed palms together, at the level of the heart chakra?

This fact is powerful evidence that the greeting Plutarch is describing, which has to do with the  concept of the hidden god (Amen or Amun in ancient Egypt) is in actual fact closely related to the salutation namaste or namaskaram in India -- they are not just similar concepts that express the same idea but they are in fact related in some way (one is either descended from the other, or both are descended from some even more ancient common ancestor). The fact that the Christian "Amen" also uses the hands-together gesture shows that it, too, is directly related to the salutation of namaste or namaskaram, as well as to the hidden god Amun of ancient Egypt.

This is yet further evidence that all the world's ancient sacred traditions are in fact deeply connected.

_/\_ Namaste

Gefjon and her plow

The Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson (AD 1179 - AD 1241) remains one of the most important compendiums of Norse mythology. Snorri was an accomplished poet and the probable author of Egil's Saga, considered one of the finest Icelandic sagas, and his Prose Edda contains major sections which explain the construction and poetic techniques used by skalds and poets, illustrated by verses from other poets. Snorri clearly had an ecyclopedic knowledge of the poets and poetry of his people, and of the construction of eddas and sagas and verse of all types.

Based on this fact, we can conclude that his choice of opening lines for the Prose Edda was no accident. How did Snorri choose to begin his master work? With what myth does he begin the Edda?

The Prose Edda begins with a section called the Gylfaginning, or the contesting or tricking of Gylfi (Snorri wrote an important prologue to the Gylfaginning, in which he converses with the reader about the origins of the myths and other worthwhile subjects, but the his formal recital of the sacred stories really begins at the opening the Gylfaginning itself).M

Here is how he commences the Gylfaginning, and how he introduces and describes King Gylfi:

King Gylfi was ruler in what is now called Sweden. Of him it is said that he gave a certain vagrant woman, as a reward for his entertainment, one plough-land in his kingdom, as much as four oxen could plough up in a day and a night. Now this woman was one of the race of the Æsir. Her name was Gefiun. She took four oxen from the north, from Giantland, the sons of her and a certain giant, and put them before the plough. But the plough cut so hard and deep that it uprooted the land, and the oxen drew the land out into the sea to the west and halted in a certain sound. There Gefiun put the land and gave it a name and called it Zealand. Where the land had been lifted from there remained a lake; this is now called lake Mälar in Sweden. And the inlets in the lake correspond to the headlands in Zealand. Thus says the poet Bragi the Old: Gefiun drew from Gylfi, glad, a deep-ring of land so that from the swift-pullers steam rose: Denmark's extension. The oxen wore eight brow-stars as they went hauling their plunder, the wide island of meadows, and four heads.

The above translation is from that of Anthony Faulkes (1987) from the 1995 Everyman paperback edition, page 7. Some of the names have been Anglicized in that edition, including that of the goddess Gefjon or Gefjun, as well as the name of Jotunheim (which is rendered "Giantland"). For another translation of Snorri's Prose Edda, available online, see here.

Regardless of the exact wording of the translation, however, if we are familiar with the system of celestial allegory which underlies the world's sacred mythology (discussed at length in The Undying Stars as well as in numerous previous posts including "Odin and Gunnlod," "The old man and his daughter," "The celestial shamanic connection: Ancient Japan," "Summer solstice, 2014," and "A land flowing with milk and honey . . ." among others), we might suspect that this myth of the creation of Sjaelland (or Zealand) by the action of the plowing in a single day and a single night by a goddess and her four oxen sons, has a celestial component as well.

In fact, this myth is fairly easy to sort out: the clues given are abundant, and the appearance in mythology of ploughing by celestial oxen is well established, and refers to the familiar constellation of the Big Dipper (in Ursa Major). The stars of the Big Dipper circle the north celestial pole, and they make a full circuit in "a day and a night" (that is to say, in twenty-four hours), due to the rotation of the earth upon its axis. That this motion may correspond to the plowing in a circle of a piece of land by the goddess Gefjon and her sons seems quite likely.

In their seminal work Hamlet's Mill, Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend do not specifically address the myth of Gefjon and her sons, but they do address the many appearances of the Dipper (which in fact is also known as the Plough) in the sacred myths of the world. After first addressing texts from as early as AD 150 which describe the turning of the stars in the region of the northern celestial pole as the turning of a heavenly mill-stone in the descriptions of the ancient Greek astronomer Cleomedes and the Persian or Arab astronomer and writer al-Qazwini (spelled al-Kazvini in Hamlet's Mill), they continue:

Farther to the east, in India, the Bhagavata Purana tells us how the virtuous prince Dhruva was appointed as Pole star. The particular "virtue" of the prince, which alarmed even the gods, is worth mentioning: he stood on one leg for more than a month, motionless. This is what was announced to him: "The stars, and their figures, and also the planets shall turn around you." Accordingly, Dhruva ascends to the highest pole, "to the exalted seat of Vishnu, round which the starry spheres forever wander, like the upright axle of the corn mill circled without end by the labouring oxen."

The simile of the oxen driven around is not alien to the West. It has remained in our languages thanks to the Latin Septemtriones, the seven threshing oxen of Ursa Major: "that we are used to calling the Seven Oxen," according to Cicero's translation of Aratus. 138.

Thus, there is mythological precedent for seeing the stars of the Big Dipper as celestial oxen, as early as the poetry of Aratus (c. 315 BC - 240 BC), who was versifying the earlier work of Eudoxus (408 BC - 355 BC), as well as in the Hindu Bhagavata Purana (whose original date of composition is difficult to know, and which probably incorporates much material from far earlier than its own date of composition). These oxen are seven in number according to Aratus. However, when we look at the Big Dipper itself, it is certainly understandable that it might also be encoded in star-myth as four oxen, the Dipper's remaining stars making up the handle of the plow:

The clues in Snorri's description of the myth of Gefjon (and that of Bragi the Old, which he quotes, citing a poem which has not survived except in fragmentary form such as these quotations by other authors) that we are talking about the Dipper and its daily circling of the pole are numerous.

First, as already mentioned, is the fact that Gylfi promises Gefjon as much land as "four oxen could plough up in a day and a night." She is not offered as much as could be plowed in a single day, or a single night, but rather as much could be plowed up in "a day and a night." The Dipper makes a full circuit as the earth makes its full circuit, and thus it cannot be said to plow a complete "ring" of space until a whole day and night have passed -- and neither, then, could Gefjon and her four sons, if they in fact represent the motion of the Dipper.

Second, we are specifically told that Gefjon took "four oxen from the north," who also happen to be her sons, fathered by a jotun. Of course, the constellation of the Big Dipper is associated with the north, circling closely as it does the north celestial pole.

Finally, as has just been noted, Snorri chooses to cite here a snippet from an older poem, and in those lines which he chooses to quote, we hear that, "The oxen wore eight brow-stars as they went hauling their plunder." This is very interesting: the oxen are specifically described as "wearing stars" as they perform their labor. Further, the stars are described as being eight in number. The Big Dipper, of course, is usually described as having seven stars (we have already seen that Aratus -- and Cicero's Latin translation of Aratus -- describe the stars of the Big Dipper as the Seven Oxen).

However, it has long been known that sharp-eyed observers can see eight stars in the Dipper. If you look carefully at the Big Dipper in the star-chart reproduced above, you will see that at the position "one in" from the end of the Dipper's handle are two close-together stars: Alcor and Mizar, sometimes referred to as "the horse and rider" and sometimes as a bride and groom or married couple. The two have sometimes been said to act as a celestial test of vision. In any case, while it is certainly appropriate to describe the Dipper as having seven stars, the fact that Snorri chooses to cite a poem which tells us that the oxen in question are wearing stars and that they are eight in number would also seem to be a very strong clue that the myth is referring to the circling stars of the Big Dipper around the north pole.

Considered together, all of these clues almost certainly indicate that the myth of Gefjon and her four "oxen from the north" plowing a hole in Sweden and creating Sjaelland or Zealand (the largest island in the Baltic Sea, and the island upon which Copenhagen is located) really refers to a plowing that takes place in heaven, among the stars.

But, some might object that Snorri (and Bragi, whom he quotes) identify the plowing with a piece of undeniably terrestrial real estate: the island of Sjaelland, or "Denmark's extension" in the words of Bragi. Snorri even tells us that the removal of the island by the action of the plow left a large lake, whose inlets correspond to the headlands of the new island. This fact should not really throw us off the scent of the celestial origin of this myth: the authors of Hamlet's Mill demonstrate time and again that star-myths which ostensibly have terrestrial counterparts almost invariably refer to a heavenly location first, with the earth-bound location having been seen by the ancients as an earthly copy fashioned after the heavenly model (they cite as examples the Biblical Mount Ararat, the Babylonian Eridu, and the Greek Mount Ida).

Further, as modern commentators invariably remark, Snorri somewhat confusingly tells us that the place where the land was lifted out by the action of the goddess left a large lake whose shape corresponds to the outline of Zealand, and identifies this lake as lake Mälar in Sweden. But (as can be seen from the map above) the outline of Zealand much more closely resembles in both size and shape the outline of the lake Vänern in Sweden instead! The map above shows an arrow going from this larger lake to Zealand. The much smaller and narrower lake Mälar is indicated by an orange arrow (it is much closer to Stockholm as well, and farther from Zealand itself).

Was Snorri simply confused, or is he perhaps by this device telling us that the simple geographic fable is not the real meaning of the myth? There is no way of knowing at this late date what exactly was going through Snorri's mind, but it is undeniable that Snorri was a master of the riddle, of the hidden meaning, and of the cryptic saying which causes the listener to exercise advanced levels of abstract "connecting the dots."

To return to the thought with which we opened this discussion, it would probably be a mistake to believe that a craftsman of the caliber of Snorri Sturluson did anything by accident.

And this brings us back to the question of why Snorri chose to begin the incredible treasure of Norse mythology that is his Prose Edda with this particular myth. I believe that the answer may lie in the fact that this myth is almost transparently celestial: the metaphor of the Big Dipper as a plow composed of heavenly oxen (or even "northern oxen") was well established, and unmistakeable to anyone with even a passing familiarity with the system of celestial metaphor. By beginning his magnum opus with this particular story, Snorri may be hinting to his listeners and readers that this story sets the pattern for all that will follow.

All of the myths, in other words, have their celestial counterparts and metaphors, although they may not be so easy to spot as the plowing oxen making their heavenly circle in a day and a night.

We have already seen this to be the case with the myth of Odin and Gunnlod and the theft of the marvelous mead of poetry (and the pursuit of Odin in eagle-form by the jotun Suttung, the father of Gunnlod), as well as with the story of Loki and Skadi and the smiling of Skadi, and the story of Loki and the theft of Freya's necklace the Brisingamen, and the story of Loki and the theft of Sif's hair (both of these discussed here in the post about Brisingamen).

We can further speculate that, as the northern celestial pole is the center point around which all of the stars make their silent circles in the sky, Snorri's choice of the myth of the heavenly plow which is located so close to that central pole was a way to "begin at the very heart" of the issue, and to indicate that all of what follows has to do with this motion in some way -- a motion which the ancients considered to be so very important that it was also at the heart of all their sacred myths, whether those of ancient Egypt or of ancient Greece or the Maya or Inca or the Maori of New Zealand.

The stars which circle the pole, including in fact the stars of the Big Dipper, were described in the ancient myth-system as "the undying stars" or the "imperishable stars" or "the never-setting stars," and they are part of the key to the meaning of the entire system (see for example the previous post entitled "The undying stars: what does it mean?"). For, just as the myths themselves have a metaphorical connection to the motions of the stars, the motions of those stars in turn have a deeper meaning, one which relates to the human condition, the nature of the cosmos, and the "ultimate mystery of life" itself!

It is tempting to believe that Snorri was indicating all of this as he chose to open his Edda with the story of Gefjon and her plow.

image: Gefionspringvandet of Anders Bundgaard, Copenhagen (1908). Wikimedia commons (link).

Amen and Amenta: the hidden god and the hidden realm

image: seedlings, Wikimedia commons (link).

In the previous post, we saw evidence which bolsters the theory proposed by Jeremy Narby that shamanic cultures use communication with the spirit world in order to gain access to knowledge not explainable by conventional methodologies (conventional methodologies such as the process of trial-and-error). Previous posts have explored this concept, such as this one, this one, and this one.

The Undying Stars examines the body of the world's sacred mythologies and finds evidence that all of it can be conclusively shown to be based upon a common system of celestial metaphor -- no matter where in the world those myths are found.

From there, one can build a solid case that the message conveyed by these star-myths was a shamanic message: they teach a view of the universe that includes a vitally important unseen realm, and they teach the possibility of communicating with and even traveling back and forth to that unseen realm, in order to gain knowledge not otherwise obtainable, and in order to effect change (change in one realm impacts the other).

Importantly, as The Undying Stars demonstrates, the assertion that the world's sacred mythology is based upon a system of celestial metaphor and teaches a shamanic worldview can be shown to apply to the sacred myths in the Bible, as well as those of the so-called "pagan" cultures of the Egytpians, the Sumerians, the Greeks, the Norse, the Celts, the Inca, the Maya, the Aztec, the tribes of North America, the cultures of the Pacific islands, the cultures of Australia, the cultures of Japan and ancient China, India, and Tibet, and the cultures of Africa.

All of them teach a view of the universe that includes a vitally important unseen realm, and the possibility (and necessity of) communicating with and even traveling back and forth to that unseen realm -- including the sacred stories in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. This interpretation of the Biblical stories, however, has been suppressed for at least seventeen hundred years.

The unseen realm called by many names. The Aborigines of Australia call it Dreamtime. The various cultures of the Americas refer to it as the Spirit World. The concept of the apeiron articulated by the pre-Socratic philosopher Anaximander appears to share almost all of the important aspects of the spirit world or hidden realm, including the fact that it was conceived as being boundless, timeless and infinite, and that it is an unfailing "reservoir" from which new life and new worlds unfold and into which they eventually disappear, only to unfold again in new forms.

This description of the apeiron, as well as of the spirit worlds of the other cultures from around the world, matches very well the ancient Egyptian concept of the hidden realm, which they called Amenta or Amentet, and which was accessed through the gateway of the Duat (sometimes rendered into Latin script as Dwat).

Jeremy Naydler is the author of Shamanic Wisdom in the Pyramid Texts, an extremely important study which offers evidence that the ancient Egyptian Sed Festival performed periodically by the kings of Egypt (assisted by the priests) actually involved a hidden rite taking place inside purpose-built pyramids, during which the king would enter a trance-condition and communicate with the hidden realm, for the purpose of bringing harmony and blessing to the entire kingdom.

His description of the hidden realm, to which the king traveled via what we would today refer to as an "out-of-body experience" or OBE, is very instructive. Dr. Naydler argues that, through their single-minded insistence upon identifying this hidden realm with the realm of the dead, conventional Egyptology portrays ancient Egypt as completely obsessed with death. But, although this hidden realm is in fact the realm of the dead, it is actually much more -- and those who think of it as only the realm of the dead risk missing the entire point. He writes:

Death was a realm -- not a physical realm but a subtle realm that they referred to as the Dwat. Furthermore, the realm of the dead was for them an ever present factor of life, interpenetrating the world of the living. In the realm of the dead, invisible forces, powers, and energies -- gods and demons as well as the spirits of the dead -- are active, and their energy impinges directly on the world of the living. The Egyptians were intensely aware that the world they lived in was more than just the world perceptible to the senses. It included a vast and complex supersensible component as well.

It would be a mistake, then, to regard the Dwat as simply the realm of the dead. It is the habitation of spirits, of beings that are capable of existing nonphysically. These include the essential spiritual energy or life energy of those beings and creatures that we see around us in the physical world. In the Dwat, everything is reduced to its spiritual kernel. Just as the forms of living plants, when they die, disappear from the visible world as they are received into the Dwat, so when the young plants unfold their forms again in the new year, they unfold them from out of the Dwat. This "hidden realm" (literally amentet, another term for the realm of the dead) is the originating source of all that comes into being in the visible world.

[. . .]

Therefore the Dwat, as much as it is the realm of death, is the source of all that comes to exist in the material world. The lord of this realm of death, which is also the realm of rebirth and rejuvenation, is Osiris. Thus the realm of Osiris, where the dead dwell, was by no means only a place where exhausted and tired-out life languished in a state of passive inertia. It was where things also existed in a state of energized inwardness, poised to burst forth again into manifestation. The Egyptian understanding of the realm of the dead, then, was that it was the source of the fertility of the land, the growth of crops, and the increase of herds. And the dead were not just passive in this realm, but were felt to have a special role as the guardians of the forces of life, and hence the well-being of the whole land of Egypt. This is the meaning behind the ancient Egyptian cult of the dead: It was not simply about remembrance; it was about ensuring that a connection between the manifest world and its vital spiritual kernel was maintained, for the dead were the conduits of this inner spiritual vitality to the outwardly manifest world. 83-84.

Note that in the passage above, Dr. Naydler points out that the Egyptian word for the "hidden realm" was amentet (sometimes rendered Amenta), and that the word literally means "hidden realm" or "unseen land." The Egyptian word amen meant "hidden" and the Egyptian god Amen or Amun was in fact "the hidden god" or the "unseen god."

While some may protest the identification, there is no denying that this word in its form and pronunciation is identical to the amen used in the New Testament scriptures. Is it possible that the use of this word in prayer (which, by its very definition, is communication with the unseen realm) indicates an acknowledgement of this fact and a hope that the prayer will successfully reach the other world?

But this concept of the hidden god and the hidden world goes deeper still, with esoteric connections expounded in Lost Light by Alvin Boyd Kuhn (1940). There, he explains that the ancient myths contain the teaching that every man and woman contains a spark of divinity, hidden within the material incarnation, which returns to the hidden realm after the death of the body but, like the invisible life of the plant buried within the seed, will return to bloom forth again. Kuhn finds evidence of this myth in the Old Testament stories of both the ark of the covenant and the ark of Noah. He writes:

Spirit goes into the cabin of the boat of the physical body to be gestated to new birth there. In turn, the body, going to dissolution outwardly, sends its principles into the inner shrine, or ark of the covenant, to be incubated there for its new birth in the next generation. Matter and soul eternally reciprocate dominance and leadership in living nature. And flesh is no more the ark of the soul than the soul is the ark of the flesh. Spirit conserves the gains of matter, to reproduce them in later form, as matter does those of spirit.

As soon as Life bifurcates into its two opposite but complementary nodes, there is set in motion the operation of mutuality and reciprocity, rhythm and balance, between the two. Deep inside the ark was the shrine for Deity; buried in the secret depths of every physical man is Amen-Ra, the hidden Lord.

[. . .]

Inside the physical matrix there hides the form of the god. Inside the god (when not embodied) hides the form of the (next) body. Each will give birth to the other in the cycle. To carry the image of birth in and from water, the boat or ark symbol was introduced. And the vastly important identity between the ark of the Biblical flood and the ark of the covenant in the Old testament -- the boat on the water and the chest in the temple -- has been entirely lost sight of. Egypt kept the intimate relation in view when the chest from the sanctuary was carried on the shoulders of priests in procession in the shape of a boat or inside a boat. The tabernacle was a combined boat and shrine, or ark sanctuary. The fire on the altar or the shrine in the holy of holies was the symbol of divine mind nestling imperturbably in the heart of every material form. 425-426.

It is clear from the above that, at least according to an esoteric interpretation, the scriptures of the Old Testament are teaching a concept very similar, if not identical, to that held by the rest of the world's cultures which taught that this world is interpenetrated by a "hidden world," a "seed world" -- a world in the words of Jeremy Naydler quoted above which is "the originating source of all that comes into being in the visible world."

From the passage just cited, Alvin Boyd Kuhn continues with words which harmonize very closely with Dr. Naydler's description of the Egyptian concept of the Duat or Dwat, Amentet or Amenta:

Life, as said, ceaselessly alternates shuttle-like between the two nodes of manifestation and withdrawal, activity in matter and rest in spirit. From the heart of invisible being it issues forth to express its creative pleasure in building the universe. But it operates rhythmically in cyclic rounds, for it is never static; and its periodic activity is focalized in time, and runs its course to an end, at which the forms built up to express its nature are dismantled and vanish away. 426-427.

But this esoteric interpretation of the Old and New Testament texts has been suppressed for centuries. Thus, the teaching that the word "amen" uttered at the end of a prayer may have reference to the same hidden world which is accessed by the American Indians as the Spirit World and the Australian Aborigines as Dreamtime and the ancient Greeks as apeiron and the ancient Egyptians as Amenta will be reflexively opposed by most "orthodox" interpreters of the scriptures. Likewise the interpretation that buried within the scriptural metaphors is the teaching of the "hidden god," the divine spark which resides within each man or woman, practically unknown and even forgotten.

Alvin Boyd Kuhn avers that the purpose of the ancient myths was to remind us of this reality and to reawaken us from the stupor into which we fall when we incarnate in this material realm. But, with the very existence of the hidden realm denied or obscured or ridiculed, and the very mention of the spark of internal divinity declared heretical by both the religious and the anti-religious alike, humanity in the modern age stands uniquely cut off from the teaching that was once the universal inheritance of all the peoples of the globe, and which still informs those cultures retaining a memory of the shamanic cosmology -- although they are becoming fewer and fewer.

The sacred formulas of the Cherokee

image: Wikimedia commons (link). A'yûn'inĭ or "Swimmer."

Either one or two days after the incident with the ground squirrel recounted here, I sat down to a pleasant cup of oolong tea to read Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees (published by James Mooney in 1891).

The book itself contains extremely important records of primary-source formulas written by Cherokee shamans in their own words. Mooney explains that these records are unique among the Native American tribes of the continent, in that the Cherokee possessed their own alphabet (actually, a syllabary, with each symbol standing for a spoken syllable) and writing system, and could thus record their own thoughts and traditions directly, in their own words and language, without having to relate them to an interpreter. The famous Cherokee syllabary was developed by Sequoyah (c. 1770 - 1840) in the early 1800s, and rapidly adopted among the Cherokee Nation.

Mooney explains the significance of this development for the preservation of formulas used by Cherokee shamans in his text (remember, it was published in 1891, so when he says "the early part of the present century," Mooney is referring to the early part of the nineteenth century):

These formulas had been handed down orally from a remote antiquity until the early part of the present century, when the invention of the Cherokee syllabary enabled the priests of the tribe to put them into writing. The same invention made it possible for their rivals, the missionaries, to give to the Indians the Bible in their own language, so that the opposing forces of Christianity and shamanism alike profited by the genius of Sikwâya. The pressure of the new civilization was too strong to be withstood, however, and though the prophets of the old religion still have much influence with the people, they are daily losing ground and will soon be without honor in their own country.

Such an exposition of the aboriginal religion could be obtained from no other tribe in North America, for the simple reason that no other tribe has an alphabet of its own in which to record its sacred lore. [. . .]

This alphabet was at once adopted by the tribe for all purposes for which writing can be used, including the recording of their shamanistic prayers and ritualistic ceremonies. The formulas here given, as well as those of the entire collection, were written out by the shamans themselves -- men who adhere to the ancient religion and speak only their native language -- in order that their sacred knowledge might be preserved in a systematic manner for their mutual benefit. [. . .] The formulas contained in these manuscripts are not disjointed fragments of a system long since extinct, but are the revelation of a living faith which still has its priests and devoted adherents, and it is only necessary to witness a ceremonial ball play, with its fasting, its going to water, and its mystic bead manipulation, to understand how strong is the hold which the old faith yet has upon the minds of even the younger generation. The numerous archaic and figurative expressions used require the interpretation of the priests, but, as before stated, the alphabet in which they are written is that in daily use among the common people. [pages 308-309 in the original pagination as annotated in the left-hand margin of this online edition].

There is much in the above passage upon which to comment and reflect, but chief among them is the lamentable situation in which the proponents of literalist Christianity failed to understand that their scriptures are unmistakably based upon the exact same universal esoteric system that underlies the sacred traditions of the rest of the world's traditional cultures (see the extended discussions found in this and this previous post), and that in fact the founding scriptures of the Old and New Testament teach a worldview which can be accurately described as shamanic (Paul himself admits to traveling "out of the body" in 2 Cor 12).

The two should have never been "opposing forces" and "rivals" as they are described in the passage above. Yet this is a tragedy of history which was repeated over and over during the centuries which saw the spread of literalist Christianity, first within the borders of the Roman Empire, then out into the former "frontier" regions of Europe, and then into other continents including the Americas, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific islands.

The photograph above shows one of the Cherokee shamans who shared the ancient knowledge with Mooney when Mooney arrived at the Cherokee reservation in 1887, of whom Mooney says:

Some time afterward an acquaintance was formed with a man named A'yûn'inĭ or "Swimmer," who proved to be so intelligent that I spent several days with him, procuring information in regard to myths and old customs. [page 310 of the original pagination as indicated in the left-hand margin of the same online edition linked above].

Swimmer eventually furnished Mooney with "a day-book of about 240 pages" which was "about half filled with writing in the Cherokee characters," and which Mooney bought from Swimmer after giving him "another blank book into which to copy the formulas, after which the original was bought." This became known as the Swimmer Manuscript. It is available to read online in various places, including here.

As I studied this fascinating account, one passage which struck me most forcefully was the Cherokee account of "The Origin of Disease and Medicine," found beginning on page 319 of the original pagination as found in the same online edition linked above. There, the sacred history gives some very significant information regarding the origin of the knowledge of the plant-based medicines. The story begins:

In the old days quadrupeds, birds, fishes and insects could all talk, and they and the human race lived together in peace and friendship. But as time went on the people increased so rapidly that their settlements spread over the whole earth and the poor animals found themselves beginning to be cramped for room. This was bad enough, but to add to their misfortunes man invented bows, knives, blowguns, spears, and hooks, and began to slaughter the larger animals, birds and fishes for the sake of their flesh or their skins, while the smaller creatures, such as the frogs and worms, were crushed and trodden upon without mercy, out of pure carelessness or contempt. In this state of affairs the animals resolved to consult upon measures for their common safety. 319.

The bears go first, but after experimenting with bows and arrows decide for the time being to use their teeth and claws instead (a fortunate development for humanity, the Cherokee account seems to imply). Next the deer held a council under their chief, and they decide to inflict rheumatism upon any hunter who fails to ask pardon for the offense of slaying a deer any time he should kill one of their number: there is a sacred formula, preserved by the tradition of the tribe, that must be spoken by the hunter to ask pardon of the deer for killing it.

The account continues, and becomes even more noteworthy:

Next came the fishes and reptiles, who had their own grievances against humanity. They held a joint council and determined to make their victims dream of snakes twining about them in slimy folds and blowing their fetid breath in their faces, or to make them dream of eating raw or decaying fish, so that they would lose appetite, sicken, and die. Thus it is that snake and fish dreams are accounted for.

Finally the birds, insects, and smaller animals came together for a like purpose, and the Grubworm presided over the deliberations. It was decided that each in turn should express an opinion and then vote on the question as to whether or not man should be deemed guilty. Seven votes were to be sufficient to condemn him. One after another denounced man's cruelty and injustice toward the other animals and voted in favor of his death. The Frog (walâ'sĭ) spoke first and said: "We must do something to check the increase of the race or people will become so numerous that we shall be crowded from off the earth. See how man has kicked me about because I'm ugly, as he says, until my back is covered with sore;" and here he showed the spots on his skin. Next came the Bird (tsi'skwa; no particular species is indicated), who condemned man because "he burns my feet off," alluding to the way in which the hunter barbecues birds by impaling them on a stick set over the fire, so that their feathers and tender feet are singed and burned. Others followed in the same strain. The Ground Squirrel alone ventured to say a word in behalf of man, who seldom hurt him because he was so small; but this so enraged the others that they fell upon the Ground Squirrel and tore him with their teeth and claws, and the stripes remain on his back to this day.

The assembly then began to devise and name various diseases, one after another, and had not their invention failed them not one of the human race would have been able to survive. [. . .]

When the plants, who were friendly to man, heard what had been done by the animals, they determined to defeat their evil designs. Each tree, shrub, and herb, down even to the grasses and mosses, agreed to furnish a remedy for some one of the diseases named, and each said: "I shall appear to help man when he calls upon me in his need." Thus did medicine originate, and the plants, every one of which has its use if we only knew it, furnish the antidote to counteract the evil wrought by the revengeful animals. When the doctor is in doubt what treatment to apply for the relief of a patient, the spirit of the plant suggests to him the proper remedy. 321 - 322.

This passage is full of resonances with topics discussed in The Undying Stars, particularly the subject of the shamanic and accounts from shamanic cultures that their vast awareness of medicinal plants and plant-based remedies are not based on trial and error (nor could they be), but rather are derived from teachings received from the plants themselves (or, in the words of the above translation, from "the spirit of the plant").

This shamanic tradition from shamans in North America who were still in contact with their living ancient tradition accords well with the observations of anthropologist Dr. Jeremy Narby during his years of living and conversing with the people of the Peruvian Amazon. In The Cosmic Serpent, he records that he was originally astonished when he was told by the Ashaninca that they learned of the medicinal properties of plants by undertaking shamanic journeys during which they communicated directly with the plants themselves (in the spirit world).

The sacred teachings of the Cherokee appear to confirm that the things Dr. Narby was told and that he experienced himself are part of a pattern that stretches well beyond the specific peoples and areas he was studying, and may indeed be characteristic of surviving shamanic cultures. The mention of "snake dreams" in the above account may also have some harmonies with the experiences Dr. Nary describes, although it should be noted that in the Cherokee account, these "snake and fish dreams" seem to have a heavily negative and even sinister and potentially deadly connotation.

It is notable that the message of the story does not seem to be one of limiting the growth of the human population: the animals (especially Grubworm) who desire to cause harm to men and women through disease are portrayed in a negative light, and animals such as the deer and the bear seem to take a merciful attitude towards men and women. Further, the plants upon hearing of the harm intended by some of the animals are described as being "determined to defeat their evil designs." The plants furnish remedies so that the harmful plans of some of the animals will be thwarted.

Finally, of personal interest to me was the prominent mention of the Ground Squirrel, who "alone ventured to say a word in behalf of man," because people apparently "seldom hurt him [Ground Squirrel] because he was so small." Coming literally just a couple days after the rescue of the ground squirrel (see link at the top of this post) which made a deep impression on me, this unexpected passage in a book I had never read before was quite astonishing.

In fact, I had not sat down to read this particular Mooney manuscript, but had at that moment been looking for any online editions of Mooney's text describing his time observing the Ghost Dance movement of the Great Plains. When that was unavailable online, I moved on to the Cherokee text linked above instead. You can imagine my surprise when Ground Squirrel was singled out for discussion in this important account of the origin of plant-medicine remedies, and when he was described as being the only one who stood up for mankind, since they seldom hurt Ground Squirrel because he as so small.

These sacred teachings clearly have significance for us today -- they seem to be trying to tell us something important. Among those messages, perhaps: "Listen to the plants," and "Be kind to Ground Squirrel."

Know the stars: change the world

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

How can knowing the stars change your life? And even . . . change the world?

The endless, silent motion of the circling stars (along with the planets, and the motions of the sun and the moon) form the foundation of all the world's ancient sacred traditions -- from ancient Egypt, to ancient Greece, to the land of the Norsemen, to North America, and Central America, and Japan, and China -- even the islands of the broad Pacific (and in many other cultures and places not named here but which can also be demonstrated to have myths and sacred stories based upon the heavenly motions).

These heavenly cycles even form the basis for the stories found in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible (see for example here, here, and here).

If virtually every ancient sacred tradition and set of ancient scriptures is based upon the motion of the stars and other heavenly bodies, the formulators of those priceless vessels of ancient wisdom must have felt that this subject was vitally important.

What were they trying to tell us?

Plato, using the character of Socrates, seems to hint that the message of these celestial myths is the message of the temple at Delphi: Know thyself.

Part of that knowing involves who we are as human beings, and (according to Socrates) the knowledge that we consist of a soul which "is not born and does not die," a soul which descends into and "besouls" a body during multiple successive incarnations, in order to learn certain lessons -- all of which are related (according to Plato and Socrates) to love. This motion of incarnation and reincarnation is demonstrated to us in the motions of the stars and the heavenly spheres. See for example the discussion here.

But there is more. Because knowing that we are actually denizens of a spiritual realm and that our immaterial souls transcend the material realm (and are not dependent for their ultimate survival upon the material body), in the eyes of the ancients, implies something else. It implies that just as we are not bound by the material realm, and will one day transcend its bounds, we are also capable of transcending the material realm even during this life. It can be demonstrated that all of the ancient sacred traditions taught a vision that can be described as shamanic -- a vision that taught that we can transcend the artificial boundaries and limits that others try to impose upon us, or that we impose upon ourselves.

This is the vision that I describe as shamanic-holographic: the perception that what we take for "realities" are often simply illusions, created by our mind -- that we can actually replace these realities with new ones. Writer, investigative reporter and philosopher Jon Rappoport is one of the most eloquent champions of the individual's ability to transcend the realities that others try to force upon us (or that we force upon ourselves), and to create new realities. His concept of art and the artist is very much in harmony with the teaching that I believe is found in all the world's sacred mythologies, and which I have described in my book as "shamanic." He clearly perceives this purpose in the ancient stories of the gods and goddesses -- and in particular the presence of a "trickster" in every myth system, something he spoke of in his performance this past weekend at the Secret Space Program conference (I hope to explore in future posts some of the profound concepts he raised this past Sunday).

Take a look, for example, at this recent essay from Jon Rappoport's website, paying particular attention towards the end to his examination of the message of the god Hermes.

As he demonstrates in that essay, it is possible to transcend boundaries and to change the world for the better through art. The ancient scriptures (including those found in the Old and New Testaments) also teach that it is possible to actually tune our consciousness to the hidden world, the immaterial world -- the world to which shamans travel, and through which people may be moving when they have out-of-body experiences. This hidden realm may also be the world which we encounter when we dream, and which people tap into when they experience a "placebo effect" (essentially healing themselves in some way, based on a belief that they gave themselves by taking a placebo or "sugar pill").

This ability to transcend artificial boundaries -- an ability that the star-myths all urge us to grasp and to wield -- has very real potential to change our world for the better even beyond the individually life-changing possibilities hinted at above. Because most if not all of the world's injustices and violations of human rights are based upon the ability of perpetrators to impose "artificial laws" upon other men and women, and to get men and women to accept these artificial laws.

The great nineteenth-century philosopher and abolitionist Lysander Spooner contrasted artificial laws with what he called natural law. Examples he offered of artificial laws: laws passed in the United States which allowed men and women to be treated as property -- that is, as slaves -- which he argued loudly and powerfully to abolish, as well as laws which said that if citizens living in free states did not turn in fugitive slaves, they could be held to be in violation of the law and subject to both fines and imprisonment themselves. Spooner argued that men and women have the ability -- and even the right and the duty -- to ignore such artificial (and actually criminal) so-called laws. In other words, he argued that we must transcend the phony boundaries and statutes that others try to impose upon us, and that so-called "laws" which violate natural law (what I prefer to call "natural universal law") are no laws at all.

When we know the stars -- and the timeless message which the ancient scriptures of humanity meant to convey using the majestic motions of those stars -- then we can know ourselves, and know that we each individually contain and reflect the infinite cosmos. This endows each of us with infinite worth, and it also endows everyone we meet with the same. It teaches that we cannot violate the rights of our neighbor, and also that no one has the right to violate ours -- no matter what artificial systems others try to erect in order to attempt to excuse such violations or to hypnotize the people into permitting and even enabling such violations. It teaches that we can and must ignore and transcend so-called laws which are actually no laws at all (even as we obey the natural universal law which forbids doing violence to another person, who is equally an immortal soul and who individually also contains and reflects the entire cosmos).

And, on a personal level, it teaches that we can explode and scatter the artificial boundaries and limits that we or others try to impose upon ourselves and our potential, and boxes that we put ourselves into.

These are all potentially world-changing truths.

Know the stars: change the world (for the better).

The universe conspires to rescue a squirrel

The other day my older son had two basketball games with his high school team, which were held at a nearby community college. The games were an hour apart, and so in between the two games, my wife decided to run some laps on the track at the college, which was completely empty. My younger son and I went along as well to get outside and enjoy the sunshine in between games.

There were some young palm trees planted around the outside rim of the field, and he found a very solid palm tree husk and was playing with it to keep busy, in between pushing around some tires that were also lying around and taking some laps with my wife. Towards the end of the hour, when it was almost time to go, he noticed some deep holes next to the long-jump pit, which are used to allow the trainers to move a low hurdle into two different positions (athletes practicing the long jump sometimes train by taking off over a low hurdle, positioned at the end of their approach run and in front of the sand-filled pit where they will land).  

The low hurdle wall was already in place in one set of the holes in front of the pit (which was covered, since the track was not in use) but the other set of the holes were exposed (see image below):

Looking into the hole, he saw that it was so deep he could not even see the bottom. Hoping to see just how deep it went, he inserted the narrow end of the palm husk (shaped just like those seen in the second photo on this page). He heard a squeak. He wasn't sure why the husk would make that noise -- and then he heard the squeak again and realized to his horror that a squirrel had fallen into the hole at some point and was trapped at the bottom!

He quickly called us over and we tried to figure out how we could get the squirrel out. The palm husk was not actually long enough to reach him (or her), and besides it was so narrow that the squirrel couldn't really move his body around to maneuver into position to climb out (it was so deep that he could not be seen until we shined a light down). We tried lowering the empty sleeve of my wife's thin hooded sweatshirt also without success. I even ran over to the pole-vault pit and borrowed a vaulting pole, but the squirrel would not or could not climb up anything that was offered.

It seemed there was nothing else for it but to reach in and try to pull the squirrel out, which wasn't really my first choice of rescue methods. Reaching into a hole with an unknown squirrel at the bottom felt a little like the scene from the 1980 movie version of Flash Gordon, when Flash Gordon and Prince Barin have a little test of nerves by reaching their hands into the big hollow tree stump containing the poisonous "wood-beast."

Here's an image looking down into the hole (it's the closer of the two open squares in the image above):

What a lonely and terrifying place for that poor squirrel to be trapped!

With some trepidation, I reached down into the hole, and although I have pretty long arms I was unable to reach all the way to the squirrel before hitting my deltoid against the edges of the opening. 

Withdrawing my arm, I began to feel that we had exhausted all our options. I had the sickening feeling that we might have to leave the squirrel in there to die, and imagined how miserable it would be. I tried not to think of it turning into a little skeleton down there at the bottom of the long-jump training-wall post-hole.

Shining the light down into the hole, we could see the squirrel's fur and it seemed as though it was barely breathing. After racking my brains for any other solution, I decided to see if perhaps I could get my deltoid past the edge of the hole and somehow reach the squirrel's back. I pulled my sleeve all the way up over my shoulder and reached down again, and slid my arm all the way down up to the very top of my arm, and found that I could just barely touch the squirrel's back with the outstretched tips of my middle and index fingers. The squirrel made a little chattering noise when I made contact with his  (or her) back.

But it was too deep to get my thumb into the action, which would have made it much easier to pull the squirrel out. I tried to pinch its fur between the fingertips of my index and middle fingers, the only parts of my hand that could even reach down far enough. The fur was so short and so soft that it slipped right out each time I tried to lift him up. On about the third or fourth try, however, I managed to pinch a fold of the animal's skin and rapidly drew him out to safety (my wife jumped back quickly!).

The squirrel sat there blinking its eyes for a second, and then tried to run off, but it kind of staggered around and fell over onto its side a couple of times. Each time it did so, however, it took a little breather and then started off again, and quickly recovered its equilibrium and became more sure of its little hops across the grass of the field. Soon it was hopping along at a good pace and it ran down a little dug-out squirrel hole at the base of the pole-vault pit (see images above and below -- this is obviously a ground squirrel).

We ran to the water fountain and filled an empty plastic water bottle we found in the trash can, and took it over to the little hole at the pole-vault pit, where we filled the shallow palm husk with the water and left it for him. We also attempted to cover the hole as best as possible with a square piece of the same palm husk. 

As we hurried back to see the second basketball game (which had already started), we thought about all the things that had to have taken place for us to have even discovered the poor trapped ground squirrel. First, of course, there had to be a basketball schedule with games that were an hour apart. But second we had to all go to the game, rather than just one of us (something we didn't decide until that afternoon). Then, my wife had to actually go through with her plan to take a run on the track in between games, which she almost talked herself out of. Then, my younger son and I had to decide to go with her, rather than hanging out in the gym with the other parents and players. 

Then, there had to be a palm husk available for my younger son to encounter. Then, he had to encounter the palm husk and decide to play with it,  rather than just sitting on the bleachers and reading a book or running around the track. Then, something had to draw him to the particular hole where the squirrel was trapped, and he had to have the idea to see if he could reach the bottom of that particular hole with it (he could not).

Additionally, the squirrel had to squeak at him, even though the palm husk was not long enough to actually get anywhere close to touching the squirrel). And then, he had to actually realize that the faint squeak was a trapped animal (it was pretty deep, and at first he thought the sound was just the scraping of the palm husk against the aluminum sides of the hole). Finally, someone had to be present with an arm just long enough and thin enough to (barely) reach the back of the little animal. 

If any one of the long series of seemingly "chance" decisions had not been made, the squirrel might not have been discovered (he [or she] certainly would not have been discovered by us, and it does not seem too likely that anyone else was coming through that way anytime soon).

While this episode brought that realization out into the open, in fact there are so many areas of our lives in which an equally improbable series of decisions and events and "coincidences" have to take place that it is a wonder that any of us were born at all! Think, for instance, of the chain of circumstances that lead up to anyone meeting their husband or wife.

There are many ways to explain long chains of such improbable events, and "blind chance" is one of them, but that is not the explanation that the ancients seemed to favor. In reviewing the various scriptures of ancient wisdom which deal with this topic, Alvin Boyd Kuhn says in Lost Light:  

Buried within the heart of each fragment, then, is the hidden lord of divine life, and from no one is he absent. He dwells there to be the guide, the guardian, the comforter and informing intelligence of the organism. He is the holy spirit, the flame, the ray, the lamp unto our feet. Says St. Paul (I Cor 4:7): "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts . . . but we have this treasure in earthen vessels." The ancients oft termed this presence the daemon or guardian angel, as in the famous case of Socrates. He is that attendant monitor who stands behind the scenes of the outer life, instant to bless, ready to save, a never-failing help in trouble. His counsel is never lacking, if one seeks it or has not previously stilled its small voice. It reasons with us until many times seven. It abides within our inner shrine, patiently awaiting the hour of our discovery and recognition of its presence. 216-217.

This, or something like it, seems to almost certainly be responsible for the rescue of one small ground squirrel, trapped in a deep hole, all alone.

The squirrel hops away to the pole-vault pit, where he (or she) had a little burrow.