Monday, August 31, 2015

The Sacredness of the Number 72

The number 72 has long been known since antiquity to be a sacred and special number.  72 hours is 3 days.  Three figures just as importantly.  The Triads break down the powerful name of God into its more accessible parts or archetypes.

The number 72  breaks down to a nine.  Oh dear once again another very special number because 9 x 8 is once again 72.   Peruse over the following videos to learn about this Holy and Awesome 72-Part Name of God.


The 72-part name is derived from Exodus 14:19-21. It consists of 72 three-letter "words," which are made by the following formula:
Word one is the first letter of verse 19, the last letter of verse 20, and the first letter 21. Word two takes the second letter of 19, the second-to-last of 20, and the second of 21. Repeat 70 more times. 
Legend has it that Moses used this formula to part the Red Sea; it is certainly very old and is mentioned in the medieval magical compendium the Sefer Raziel.

This is one of the most powerful Names a Kabbalist might use.

Legend has it that to say this name in a state of impurity or uncleanliness will strike the speaker immediately dead!

Probably due to its complexity and inherent danger, this Name was divided up into parts (that is, shorter series of triads), and these parts could in turn be used or specific purposes.

The exact uses and how exactly the Name was to be divided up varied somewhat among Kabbalists.



What led me to do a blog post on the number 72 besides it being such a sacred number is the news that a 72 seat redevelopment project at a protected place at Watson's Bay in Sydney.
Read More Here  from ABC NEWS


IMG 0272 Water craft on Sydney Harbour 


Sunday, August 30, 2015

The Epicyclical and Deferent Model is Egg Shaped.

In both Hipparchian and Ptolemaic systems, the planets are assumed to move in a small circle called an epicycle, which in turn moves along a larger circle called a deferent.

Both circles rotate clockwise and are roughly parallel to the plane of the Sun's orbit (ecliptic). Despite the fact that the system is considered geocentric, each planet's motion was not centered on the Earth but at a point slightly away from Earth called the eccentric.

As an indication of exactly how good the Ptolemaic model is, modern planetariums are built using gears and motors that essentially reproduce the Ptolemaic model for the appearance of the sky as viewed from a stationary Earth.

In the planetarium projector, motors and gears provide uniform motion of the heavenly bodies. One motor moves the planet projector around in a big circle, which in this case is the deferent, and another gear or motor takes the place of the epicycle.

The Mayan Calendars works in the same way.

Ptolemy knew the planets orbited the Sun too and his model was never wrong they love to make out these Ancient Astronomers were ignorant but that is absolute rubbish!

They knew of the Heliocentric model but they also tracked the Great Year with the cycles and the movements of the Heavens using the Earth as the zero point,

The Sumerian's and the Maya knew of Pluto's existence before modern astronomers discovered it in 1930. 
Adding to this..
Modern Science is disconnected with scientists only looking at a small portion of the large picture thus keeping the scientists from seeing the big picture while absolutely absorbed with one tiny part. 

History would have it that our past ancestors were simple folk, as each new day dawns more and more evidence appears to show this is absolutely contrary to what we have been told.

Past civilizations and empires have been to this level before and fallen from greater heights that which we are at presently.  Mankind is in some kind of daze about all of this.  Man kind is sufficiently kept numb with propaganda dressed up as news.
EGG SHAPED DEFERENCE and EPICYCLE

It is curiously interesting because Mercury is connected to the intermediate consciousness ie (Hermes, Thoth, Moses) Therefore, the Divine were seeded through intermediate consciousness before they were materially created.


Jennifer Hope's photo.


Saturday, August 29, 2015

Aboriginal legends reveal ancient secrets to science

Scientists are beginning to tap into a wellspring of knowledge buried in the ancient stories of Australia’s Aboriginal peoples. But the loss of indigenous languages could mean it is too late to learn from them.

The Luritja people, native to the remote deserts of central Australia, once told stories about a fire devil coming down from the Sun, crashing into Earth and killing everything in the vicinity.

Meteor-Map-Australia

Meteor-Map-Australia The Luritja lands include areas to the west and south of Alice Springs, extending around the edge of Arrernte country.

The local people feared if they strayed too close to this land they might reignite some otherworldly creature.

The legend describes the landing of a meteor in Australia’s Central Desert about 4,700 years ago, says University of New South Wales (UNSW) astrophysicist Duane Hamacher.

It would have been a dramatic and fiery event, with the meteor blazing across the sky. As it broke apart, large fragments of metal-rich rock would have crashed to Earth with explosive force, creating a dozen giant craters.

The Northern Territory site, which was discovered in the 1930s by white prospectors with the help of Luritja guides, is today known as the Henbury Meteorites Conservation Reserve.

Gigantic Wave


Mr Hamacher, who runs an Indigenous astronomy program at UNSW, says evidence is mounting that Aboriginal stories hold clues about events from Australia’s ancient past.

Last year, he travelled to Victoria with tsunami expert James Goff, also from UNSW, to visit members of the Gunditjmara people.

“They describe this gigantic wave coming very far inland and killing everybody except those who were up on the mountaintops, and they actually name all the different locations where people survived,” says Mr Hamacher.

Australia-Coastlines-Aboriginal-Tsunami
Australia-Coastlines-Aboriginal-Tsunami

He and Mr Goff took core samples from locations between 500m and 1km (0.6 miles) inland, and at each spot, they found a layer of ocean sediment, about 2m down, indicating that a tsunami likely washed over the area hundreds, or possibly thousands, of years ago.

The samples need further analysis but Mr Hamacher says it is a “very exciting” result that suggests the legend could be true.

Earlier this year, another team of researchers presented a paper arguing that stories from Australia’s coastal Aboriginal communities might “represent genuine and unique observations” of sea level rises that occurred between 7,000 and 11,000 years ago.

The crash landing of a meteor in the Central Desert would have been a fiery affair. Thousands of iron-based meteorite fragments have been found in the vicinity, validating its classification as an impact crater.

Henbury-Meteorite-Rock
Henbury-Meteorite-Rock

Nick Reid, a linguistics expert from the University of New England in Australia, co-authored the paper with marine geographer Patrick Nunn from the University of the Sunshine Coast.

Fact Checking

The stories they analysed, which had been documented in colonial times, referred to water levels rising over coastal areas that were once dry.

By looking at historical records of sea level rise following the last glacial period, about 20,000 years ago, they were able to match the stories to coinciding dates.

Mr Reid says the relative isolation of Australia’s indigenous people – living for 50,000 years more or less free from cultural disruptions – and the conservative nature of their culture could help explain why there is so much detail in their stories.

Secret Knowledge

“Aboriginal people have very particular beliefs about the importance of telling stories properly, and about stories being told by the right people,” he says.

They also employ a rigid kin-based, cross-generational system of fact-checking stories, involving grandchildren, parents, and elders, which Mr Reid says doesn’t seem to be used by other cultures.

This extreme conservatism and adherence to accuracy can also be seen in rock paintings, drawings and engravings, which were often used to support oral legends, says Les Bursill, an anthropologist and member of Sydney’s Dharawal people.

But there is a problem – Indigenous languages are dying off at an alarming rate, making it increasingly difficult for scientists and other experts to benefit from such knowledge.

More than 100 languages have already become extinct since white settlement. About 145 Indigenous languages are still spoken in Australia by at least one person but a 2014 report by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies found that 75% of these were considered “critically endangered”.

Read Full Article Here - See more at: http://ancientexplorers.com/blog/aboriginal-legends-reveal-ancient-secrets-to-science/#sthash.hQBXluDZ.dpuf

Friday, August 28, 2015

Politicians, what was in your GVKHANCOCK Coal Drinks?

Community demands Aurizon rule out involvement in Galilee Basin

The Galilee Basin Story so far . . .  GVK Hancock Coal Media releases state there will be 4000 jobs for the area and yet they still say there will be FIFO workers.  Why? 
Is it because they know they are lying and this is how they get around telling the absolute truth on the subject of real employment.
Thermal coal is uneconomic on the current spot price yet they still get approval from the state and federal governments.

June 2011:

Billionaire mining magnate Gina Rinehart flew Coalition MPs, including the Liberal Party's deputy leader Julie Bishop and Nationals Senate leader Barnaby Joyce, to take part in a sumptuous thre
e day-wedding of a prominent Indian industrialist in Hyderabad.

The Reddy family company, infrastructure behemoth GVK, is seeking a controlling stake in coal mines owned by the Hancock group.

(The Age, 17/6/2011)

November 2013:

The federal government has approved a massive coal mining project in central Queensland that will be the largest in the country.

The environment minister, Greg Hunt, approved the 37,380-hectare Kevin's Corner project on Friday. The mine (will) be operated by a joint India-Australia consortium, GVK-Hancock. 


March 25th 2015   GVKHANCOCKFrom the website:
As part of a comprehensive stakeholder engagement process over several years, GVK Hancock has all Indigenous agreements in place for its mine, rail and port infrastructure.
We value cooperation with all sections of the community and are proud to have reached collaborative agreements with the Indigenous groups which interrelate with our projects including the Wangan & Jagalingou People, Jangga People, Birri People and the Juru People.
Our agreements were negotiated and finalised between 2011 and 2012 and included:
  • Native Title Agreements for each of our Alpha Coal Mine and Kevin’s Corner Coal Mine in accordance with the Commonwealth Native Title Act,
  • Indigenous Land Use Agreements covering our 500 kilometre railway and our coal export terminal at the port of Abbot Point in accordance with the Commonwealth Native Title Act, and
  • Cultural Heritage Management Plans over the areas of both mines and our rail and port infrastructure in accordance with the Queensland Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act.
We will continue to work cooperatively with all indigenous groups, governments, landholders and the broader community as we continue advancing our projects to a point where construction can commence.

Click here to download "20150326 - Media Statement - GVK Hancock has all Indigenous agreements in place for proposed mine rail and port.pdf"

May 28th 2015 
GVK Hancock has developed a plan to boost regional jobs for around 30+ years in the operational workforce of its planned Galilee Basin mining operations.
The plan to boost regional jobs involves adopting bus-in/bus-out services stretching over 300 kilometres from Emerald to Barcaldine to create sustained, long-term employment throughout the region.
This bus-in/bus-out service will complement the unavoidable need for fly-in/fly-out services, to meet the requirement of more than 4,000 direct jobs at our proposed mines.

IMG 4942 Boggabri Coal
Coal Mine
Images @ Flickr

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Epictetus... Greek Philosopher.

IMG 8870 The Duck Family


Epictetus was a Greek speaking Stoic philosopher. He was born a slave at Hierapolis, Phrygia, and lived in Rome until his banishment, when he went to Nicopolis in north-western Greece for the rest of his life. Wikipedia
Born in 55 AD, Hierapolis, Turkey and died in 135 AD, Nicopolis, Greece
Influenced:
Marcus Aurelius, Arrian, Han Ryner, Albert Ellis, James Stockdale, Junius Rusticus
Epictetus was born a slave and he obtained his freedom some time after the death of Nero in 68 A.D.  While he was a slave he was permitted to study philosophy and gained kudos in the community for his excellent scholarly achievements.

Epictetus now free, taught philosophy in Rome. Approximately 93 A.D. Emperor Domitian banished all of the philosophers from the city of Rome and so this caused Epictetus to flee the tyranny and return to the safety of Greece.  When established in Greece, he set up a philosophical school of his own in  Nicopolis in Epirus.

No writings are available the of work of Epictetus himself.  However thanks to his beloved pupil Arrian, Epictetus's discourses were transcribed and compiled.  The Discourses  are four of the preserved books left of the original eight books.  Arrian compiled a digest as well - the Enchiridion, or Handbook. 

In a preface to the Discourses, addressed to Lucius Gellius, Arrian states clearly he is referring to his teacher Epictetus:
"Whatever I heard him say I used to write down, word for word, as best I could, endeavoring to preserve it as a memorial, for my own future use, of his way of thinking and the frankness of his speech."
Epictetus was of a breed called Stoic Philosophers.  I would say I hold very similar beliefs to the Stoic ideology.  Read More HERE on Stoic Philosophy

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Incredible Twitter handle @AbbottLovesAnal

One has to have a great Twitter handle, mine is Mrs Bricee.  I have had Twitter for awhile now, about five years and I thought it was great back then. But this twitter handle has been manufactured for this show and this show only. 




I felt it was a vain attempt to kick a goal against the pig headed prime minister who would be better served tied to a bully ants nest than tied to our parliament.  He is an embarrassment to say the least. 

I, unlike most other Australian's have worked out the Catholic angle here being thrust on us by a bunch of loose goose Jesuits in suits acting like politicians bum holes. 

Their game is up as far as I am concerned.  In the mean time I have to suffer their 'mean' time which they have created for everyone in Australia with so much garbage politics it beggars belief they still stand.

But this twitter handle took the cake.   Of all the funniest ones that could be chosen this is the most appropriate for an episode of the ABC's Q & A.   The handle @AbbottLovesAnal went across the bottom of the screen and Australia just rocked in their seats with laughter. 

  Of course now the show is in hot water again.  But who at the ABC would have known this was going to happen.  I say this very tongue in cheek.  Who indeed?    Well it is a possibility that it was planned this way.  It would not be the first time media has copped it by those who are smarter than the said media.

Read Full Story HERE

Images @ Eminpee Fotography

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Dubbo blown out by the Mother....

Storms were evident right across New South Wales yesterday.  We had storms here and there were storms at the coast and in Sydney and Kiama is on evacuation alert.  But what was a surprise was the Tornado that formed near Dubbo and left a trail of destruction in its wake damaging up to 12 properties in the area.  My niece was without power for 17 hours and they had no telephone either.  There is no mobile service to her property.  What would happen if something happened - how would we know.  I will have to mention a radio.

Please go here to Ch Nine and watch a thirty second video of this weather event.

Channel Nine News

There are pictures of the tornado forming over Dubbo.


 This afternoon this photo was taken and sent to Newcastle fishing trawlers to warn them of an incoming storm 20 mins after this shot was taken the storm hit trawlers the photo was taken by Newcastle fisheries observers such an incredible shot I was sent this via the captain of the trawler via a text msg at 3.30pm

IMG 3554 Funnel Cloud

I saw a funnel cloud outside my back door earlier this year and I was a little concerned but it blew out on the ocean, which was also out my back door.

Monday, August 24, 2015

Palm Trees in the Centre of Australia.

I always wondered how those palms got into the most remote places of the centre of Australia.  I was very interested to read an article depicting the history of these palms. The Livistona palms, L  Mariae... and the L Rigida palm species back up aboriginal lore and stories that say people brought the seeds here from the North.

This disproves the rubbish that tour guides tell people that these palms are left over remnants of the ancient Gondwanna Forest that covered this land at one time.
A striking example of how traditional ecological knowledge can inform and enhance scientific research.  Professor David Bowman, University of Tasmania 
More: http://nationalunitygovernment.org/content/research-findings-back-aboriginal-legend-origin-central-australian-palm-trees

 Central Australian Cabbage Palm (Livistona mariae), Palm Valley, Finke Gorge National Park, Northern Territory, Australia
(ABC/Wikipedia)
I am starting to lose count of situations where science spends a stack of money on research programs and the end result is exactly as is told in the stories that are passed on through thousands of years of tradition of oral teaching and story telling.

Read more at this website for Sovereign peoples


Asserting Australia's First Nations Sovereignty into Governance 
Now its a matter of protecting these precious places from the Mining companies that are literally slaughtering this land to pieces.


IMG 5051 Protest in Brisbane City

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Talgambuun - Deepwater

Deepwater was established on the land of the Ngarabal people.  (Said Gurrabul)  These amazingly strong people had occupied and carefully cultivated the country around this area for thousands upon thousands of years as was done right across the country.

The Ngarabal name for Deepwater is Talgambuun.  This means "Place of dry country with many dead trees".

IMG 5541 Snow in Deepwater NSW

The land around here holds a lot of sadness and pain.  There was great resistance to the white man taking over the traditional lands of the Ngarabal people and it is recorded that many of the people were murdered. 

Those murders should be prosecuted and those Ngarabal people who were murdered should be recognized as having been slaughtered illegally for trying to protect their land.  A land that was being invaded illegally. 

Today if some one comes to your door and forces their way inside and the law says you can't do anything or you will be prosecuted yourself seems like a ludicrous request, and by today's standards we should be able to easily see how the penny should fall here and how literally wrong it was what has happened.

For those that say get over it.  Those that say this are without heart and without soul for this land in terms of the law.  The land will embrace all of those that keep her laws and walk proud knowing the magic.

IMG 5419 

There should be recognition of the past atrocities under an illegal government, and this government needs to be stood down from office because they are acting illegally.

I look forward to the day this will be finally sorted and my brothers and sisters of this land can determine what happens on this land of Australia.



IMG 5263 


The Glen Innes Local Aboriginal Land Council manages approximately 3000 hectares of land near Strathbogie, NSW including The Willows, and the adjoining property Boorabee, which is owned by Boorabee Aboriginal Corporation, of which all members are Ngarabal people.

I look forward to having a yarn with people around here now I am living back up high where the big boulders lie and the trees have a story to tell.

Images @ Eminpee Fotography

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Friday, August 21, 2015

Mystic Christianity

Mystic Christianity
by Manly P. Hall
(Excerpted from The Secret Teachings of All Ages, 1928)

Qumran - Essenes Settlement Ruins
THE true story of the life of Jesus of Nazareth has never been unfolded to the world, either in the accepted Gospels or in the Apocrypha, although a few stray hints may be found in some of the commentaries written by the ante-Nicene Fathers. The facts concerning His identity and mission are among the priceless mysteries preserved to this day in the secret vaults beneath the “Houses of the Brethren.” To a few of the Knights Templar, who were initiated into the arcana of the Druses, Nazarenes, Essenes, Johannites, and other sects still inhabiting the remote and inaccessible fastnesses of the Holy Land, part of the strange story was told. The knowledge of the Templars concerning the early history of Christianity was undoubtedly one of the main reasons for their persecution and final annihilation. The discrepancies in the writings of the early Church Fathers not only are irreconcilable, but demonstrate beyond question that even during the first five centuries after Christ these learned men had for the basis of their writings little more substantial than folklore and hearsay. To the easy believer everything is possible and there are no problems. The unemotional person in search of facts, however, is confronted by a host of problems with uncertain factors, of which the following are typical:
According to popular conception, Jesus was crucified during the thirty-third year of His life and in the third year of His ministry following His baptism. About A.D. 180, St. Irenæus, Bishop of Lyons, one of the most eminent of the ante-Nicene theologians, wrote Against Heresies, an attack on the doctrines of the Gnostics. In this work Irenæus declared upon the authority of the Apostles themselves that Jesus lived to old age. To quote: “They, however, that they may establish their false opinion regarding that which is written, ‘to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,’ maintain that He preached for one year only, and then suffered in the twelfth month. [In speaking thus], they are forgetful of their own disadvantage, destroying His whole work, and robbing Him of that age which is both more necessary and more honorable than any other; that more advanced age, I mean, during which also as a teacher He excelled all others. For how could He have had His disciples, if He did not teach? And how could He have taught, unless He had reached the age of a Master? For when He came to be baptized, He had not yet completed His thirtieth year, but was beginning to be about thirty years of age; and He preached only one year reckoning from His baptism. On completing His thirtieth year He suffered, being in fact still a young man, and who had by no means attained to advanced age. Now, that the first stage of early life embraces thirty years, and that this extends onward to the fortieth year, every one will admit; but from the fortieth and fiftieth year a man begins to decline towards old age, which Our Lord possessed while He still fulfilled the office of a Teacher, even as the Gospel and all the elders testify; those who were conversant in Asia with John, the disciple of the Lord, that John conveyed to them that information. And he remained among them up to the time of Trajan. Some of them, moreover, saw not only John, but the other apostles also, and heard the very same account from them, and bear testimony as to the statement. Whom then should we rather believe? Whether such men as these, or Ptolemæus, who never saw the apostles, and who never even in his dreams attained to the slightest trace of an apostle?”
Commenting on the foregoing passage, Godfrey Higgins remarks that it has fortunately escaped the hands of those destroyers who have attempted to render the Gospel narratives consistent by deleting all such statements. He also notes that the doctrine of the crucifixion was a vexata questio among Christians even during the second century. “The evidence of Irenæus,” he says, “cannot be touched. On every principle of sound criticism, and of the doctrine of probabilities, it is unimpeachable.”

It should further be noted that Irenæus prepared this statement to contradict another apparently current in his time to the effect that the ministry of Jesus lasted but one year. Of all the early Fathers, Irenæus, writing within eighty years after the death of St. John the Evangelist, should have had reasonably accurate information. If the disciples themselves related that Jesus lived to advanced age in the body, why has the mysterious number 33 been arbitrarily chosen to symbolize the duration of His life? Were the incidents in the life of Jesus purposely altered so that His actions would fit more closely into the pattern established by the numerous Savior-Gods who preceded Him? That these analogies were recognized and used as a leverage in converting the Greeks and Romans is evident from a perusal of the writings of Justin Martyr, another second-century authority. In his Apology, Justin addresses the pagans thus:
“And when we say also that the Word, who is the first-birth of God, was produced without sexual union, and that He, Jesus Christ, Our Teacher, was crucified and died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, we propound nothing different from what you believe regarding those whom you esteem sons of Jupiter. And if we assert that the Word of God was born of God in a peculiar manner, different from ordinary generation, let this, as said above, be no extraordinary thing to you, who say that Mercury is the angelic word of God. But if any one objects that He was crucified, in this also He is on a par with those reputed sons of Jupiter of yours, who suffered as we have now enumerated.”
From this it is evident that the first missionaries of the Christian Church were far more willing to admit the similarities between their faith and the faiths of the pagans than were their successors in later centuries.
In an effort to solve some of the problems arising from any attempt to chronicle accurately the life of Jesus, it has been suggested that there may have lived in Syria at that time two or more religious teachers bearing the name Jesus, Jehoshua or Joshua, and that the lives of these men may have been confused in the Gospel stories. In his Secret Sects of Syria and the Lebanon, Bernard H. Springett, a Masonic author, quotes from an early book, the name of which he was not at liberty to disclose because of its connection with the ritual of a sect. The last part of his quotation is germane to the subject at hand:
“But Jehovah prospered the seed of the Essenians, in holiness and love, for many generations. Then came the chief of the angels, according to the commandment of GOD, to raise up an heir to the Voice of Jehovah. And, in four generations more, an heir was born, and named Joshua, and he was the child of Joseph and Mara, devout worshippers of Jehovah, who stood aloof from all other people save the Essenians. And this Joshua, in Nazareth, reestablished Jehovah, and restored many of the lost rites and ceremonies. In the thirty-sixth year of his age he was stoned to death in Jerusalem”.
Within the last century several books have been published to supplement the meager descriptions in the Gospels of Jesus and His ministry. In some instances these narratives claim to be founded upon early manuscripts recently discovered; in others, upon direct spiritual revelation. Some of these writings are highly plausible, while others are incredible. There are persistent rumors that Jesus visited and studied in both Greece and India, and that a coin struck in His honor in India during the first century has been discovered. Early Christian records are known to exist in Tibet, and the monks of a Buddhist monastery in Ceylon still preserve a record which indicates that Jesus sojourned with them and became conversant with their philosophy.
Although early Christianity shows every evidence of Oriental influence, this is a subject the modern church declines to discuss. If it is ever established beyond question that Jesus was an initiate of the pagan Greek or Asiatic Mysteries, the effect upon the more conservative members of the Christian faith is likely to be cataclysmic. If Jesus was God incarnate, as the solemn councils of the church discovered, why is He referred to in the New Testament as “called of God an high prim after the order of Melchizedek”? The words “after the order” make Jesus one of a line or order of which there must have been others of equal or even superior dignity. If the “Melchizedeks” were the divine or priestly rulers of the nations of the earth before the inauguration of the system of temporal rulers, then the statements attributed to St. Paul would indicate that Jesus either was one of these “philosophic elect” or was attempting to reestablish their system of government. It will be remembered that Melchizedek also performed the same ceremony of the drinking of wine and the breaking of bread as did Jesus at the Last Supper.

George Faber declares the original name of Jesus was Jescua Hammassiah. Godfrey Higgins has discovered two references, one in the Midrashjoholeth and the other in the Abodazara, to the effect that the surname of Joseph’s family was Panther, for in both of these works it is stated that a man was healed “in the name of Jesus ben Panther.” The name Panther establishes a direct connection between Jesus and Bacchus–who was nursed by panthers and is sometimes depicted riding either on one of these animals or in a chariot drawn by them. The skin of the panther was also sacred in certain of the Egyptian initiatory ceremonials. The monogram IHS, now interpreted to mean Iesus Hominum Salvator, is another direct link between the Christian and the Bacchic rites. IHS is derived from the Greek ΥΗΣ, which, as its numerical value signifies, is emblematic of the sun and constituted the sacred and concealed name of Bacchus. The question arises, Was early Roman Christianity confused with the worship of Bacchus because of the numerous parallelisms in the two faiths? If the affirmative can be proved, many hitherto incomprehensible enigmas of the New Testament will be solved.

It is by no means improbable that Jesus Himself originally propounded as allegories the cosmic activities which were later confused with His own life. That the Christos, represents the solar power reverenced by every nation of antiquity cannot be denied. If Jesus revealed the nature and purpose of this solar power under the name and personality of Christos, thereby giving to this abstract power the attributes of a god-man, He but followed a precedent set by all previous World-Teachers. This god-man, thus endowed with all the qualities of Deity, signifies the latent divinity in every man. Mortal man achieves deification only through at-one-ment with this divine Self. Union with the immortal Self constitutes immortality, and he who finds his true Self is therefore “saved.” This Christos, or divine man in man, is man’s real hope of salvation–the living Mediator between abstract Deity and mortal humankind. As Atys, Adonis, Bacchus, and Orpheus in all likelihood were originally illumined men who later were confused with the symbolic personages whom they created as personifications of this divine power, so Jesus has been confused with the Christos, or god-man, whose wonders He preached. Since the Christos was the god-man imprisoned in every creature, it was the first duty of the initiate to liberate, or “resurrect, ” this Eternal One within himself. He who attained reunion with his Christos was consequently termed a Christian, or Christened, man.

One of the most profound doctrines of the pagan philosophers concerned the Universal Savior-God who lifted the souls of regenerated men to heaven through His own nature. This concept was unquestionably the inspiration for the words attributed to Jesus: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” In an effort to make a single person out of Jesus and His Christos, Christian writers have patched together a doctrine which must be resolved back into its original constituents if the true meaning of Christianity is to be rediscovered. In the Gospel narratives the Christos represents the perfect man who, having passed through the various stages of the “World Mystery” symbolized by the thirty-three years, ascends to the heaven sphere where he is reunited with his Eternal Father. The story of Jesus as now preserved is–like the Masonic story of Hiram Abiff–part of a secret initiatory ritualism belonging to the early Christian and pagan Mysteries.

During the centuries just prior to the Christian Era, the secrets of the pagan Mysteries had gradually fallen into the hands of the profane. To the student of comparative religion it is evident that these secrets, gathered by a small group of faithful philosophers and mystics, were reclothed in new symbolical garments and thus preserved for several centuries under the name of Mystic Christianity. It is generally supposed that the Essenes were the custodians of this knowledge and also the initiators and educators of Jesus. If so, Jesus was undoubtedly initiated in the same temple of Melchizedek where Pythagoras had studied six centuries before.

The Essenes–the most prominent of the early Syrian sects–were an order of pious men and women who lived lives of asceticism, spending their days in simple labor and their evenings in prayer. Josephus, the great Jewish historian, speaks of them in the highest terms. “They teach the immortality of the soul,” he says, “and esteem that the rewards of righteousness are to be earnestly striven for.” In another place he adds, “Yet is their course of life better than that of other men and they entirely addict themselves to husbandry. ” The name Essenes is supposed to be derived from an ancient Syrian word meaning “physician,” and these kindly folk are believed to have held as their purpose of existence the healing of the sick in mind, soul, and body. According to Edouard Schuré, they had two principal communities, or centers, one in Egypt on the banks of Lake Maoris, the other in Palestine at Engaddi, near the Dead Sea. Some authorities trace the Essenes back to the schools of Samuel the Prophet, but most agree on either an Egyptian or Oriental origin. Their methods of prayer, meditation, and fasting were not unlike those of the holy men of the Far East. Membership in the Essene Order was possible only after a year of probation. This Mystery school, like so many others, had three degrees, and only a few candidates passed successfully through all. The Essenes were divided into two distinct communities, one consisting of celibates and the other of members who were married.

The Essenes never became merchants or entered into the commercial life of cities, but maintained themselves by agriculture and the raising of sheep for wool; also by such crafts as pottery and carpentry. In the Gospels and Apocrypha, Joseph, the father of Jesus, is referred to as both a carpenter and a potter. In the Apocryphal Gospel of Thomas and also that of Pseudo-Matthew, the child Jesus is described as making sparrows out of clay which came to life and flew away when he clapped his hands. The Essenes were regarded as among the better educated class of Jews and there are accounts of their having been chosen as tutors for the children of Roman officers stationed in Syria. The fact that so many artificers were listed among their number is responsible for the order’s being considered as a progenitor of modern Freemasonry. The symbols of the Essenes include a number of builders’ tools, and they were secretly engaged in the erection of a spiritual and philosophical temple to serve as a dwelling place for the living God.

Like the Gnostics, the Essenes were emanationists. One of their chief objects was the reinterpretation of the Mosaic Law according to certain secret spiritual keys preserved by them from the time of the founding of their order. It would thus follow that the Essenes were Qabbalists and, like several other contemporary sects flourishing in Syria, were awaiting the advent of the Messiah promised in the early Biblical writings. Joseph and Mary, the parents of Jesus, are believed to have been members of the Essene Order. Joseph was many years the senior of Mary. According to The Protevangelium, he was a widower with grown sons, and in the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew he refers to Mary as a little child less in age than his own grandchildren. In her infancy Mary was dedicated to the Lord, and the Apocryphal writings contain many accounts of miracles associated with her early childhood. When she was twelve years old, the priests held counsel as to the future of this child who had dedicated herself to the Lord, and the Jewish high priest, bearing the breastplate, entered into the Holy of Holies, where an angel appeared to him, saying, “Zacharias, go forth and summon the widowers of the people and let them take a rod apiece and she shall be the wife of him to whom the Lord shall show a sign.” Going forth to meet the priests at the head of the widowers, Joseph collected the rods of all the other men and gave them into the keeping of the priests. Now Joseph’s rod was but half as long as the others, and the priests on returning the rods to the widowers paid no attention to Joseph’s but left it behind in the Holy of Holies. When all the other widowers had received back their wands, the priests awaited a sign from heaven, but none came. Joseph, because of his advanced age, did not: ask for the return of his rod, for to him it was inconceivable that he should be chosen. But an angel appeared to the high priest, ordering him to give back the short rod which lay unnoticed in the Holy of Holies. As the high priest handed the rod to Joseph, a white dove flew from the end of it and rested upon the head of the aged carpenter, and to him was given the child.

The editor of The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East calls attention to the peculiar spirit with which the childhood of Jesus is treated in most of the Apocryphal books of the New Testament, particularly in one work attributed to the doubting Thomas, the earliest known Greek version of which dates from about A.D. 200: “The child Christ is represented almost as an imp, cursing and destroying those who annoy him.” This Apocryphal work, calculated to inspire its readers with fear and trembling, was popular during the Middle Ages because it was in full accord with the cruel and persecuting spirit of medieval Christianity. Like many other early sacred books, the book of Thomas was fabricated for two closely allied purposes: first, to outshine the pagans in miracle working; second, to inspire all unbelievers with the “fear of the Lord.” Apocryphal writings of this sort have no possible basis in fact. At one time an asset, the “miracles” of Christianity have become its greatest liability. Supernatural phenomena, in a credulous age interpolated to impress the ignorant, in this century have only achieved the alienation of the intelligent.

In The Greek Gospel of Nicodemus it is declared that when Jesus was brought into the presence of Pilate the standards borne by the Roman guards bowed their tops in homage to him in spite of every effort made by the soldiers to prevent it. In The Letters of Pilate the statement also appears that Caesar, being wroth at Pilate for executing a just man, ordered him to be decapitated. Praying for forgiveness, Pilate was visited by an angel of the Lord, who reassured the Roman governor by promising him that all Christendom should remember his name and that when Christ came the second time to judge His people he should come before Him as His witness.

Stories like the foregoing represent the incrustations that have attached themselves to the body of Christianity during the centuries. The popular mind itself has been the self-appointed guardian and perpetuator of these legends, bitterly opposing every effort to divest the faith of these questionable accumulations. While popular tradition often contains certain basic elements of truth, these elements are usually distorted out of all proportion. Thus, while the generalities of the story may be fundamentally true, the details are hopelessly erroneous. Of truth as of beauty it may be said that it is most adorned when unadorned. Through the mist of fantastic accounts which obscure the true foundation of the Christian faith is faintly visible to the discerning few a great and noble doctrine communicated to the world by a great and noble soul. Joseph and Mary, two devout and holy-minded souls, consecrated to the service of God and dreaming of the coming of a Messiah to serve Israel, obeyed the injunctions of the high priest of the Essenes to prepare a body for the coming of a great soul. Thus of an immaculate conception Jesus was born. By immaculate is meant clean, rather than supernatural.
Jesus was reared and educated by the Essenes and later initiated into the most profound of their Mysteries. Like all great initiates, He must travel in an easterly direction, and the silent years of His life no doubt were spent in familiarizing Himself with that secret teaching later to be communicated by Him to the world. Having consummated the ascetic practices of His order, He attained to the Christening. Having thus reunited Himself with His own spiritual source, He then went forth in the name of the One who has been crucified since before the worlds were and, gathering about Him disciples and apostles, He instructed them in that secret teaching which had been lost–in part, at least–from the doctrines of Israel. His fate is unknown, but in all probability He suffered that persecution which is the lot of those who seek to reconstruct the ethical, philosophical, or religious systems of their day.

To the multitudes Jesus spoke in parables; to His disciples He also spoke in parables, though of a more exalted and philosophic nature. Voltaire said that Plato should have been canonized by the Christian Church, for, being the first proponent of the Christos mystery, he contributed more to its fundamental doctrines than any other single individual. Jesus disclosed to His disciples that the lower world is under the control of a great spiritual being which had fashioned it according to the will of the Eternal Father. The mind of this great angel was both the mind of the world and also the worldly mind. So that men should not die of worldliness the Eternal Father sent unto creation the eldest and most exalted of His powers–the Divine Mind. This Divine Mind offered Itself as a living sacrifice and was broken up and eaten by the world. Having given Its spirit and Its body at a secret and sacred supper to the twelve manners of rational creatures, this Divine Mind became a part of every living thing. Man was thereby enabled to use this power as a bridge across which he might pass and attain immortality. He who lifted up his soul to this Divine Mind and served It was righteous and, having attained righteousness, liberated this Divine Mind, which thereupon returned again in glory to Its own divine source. And because He had brought to them this knowledge, the disciples said one to another: “Lo, He is Himself this Mind personified!”

THE ARTHURIAN CYCLE AND LEGEND OF THE HOLY GRAIL

According to legend, the body of the Christos was given into the keeping of two men, of whom the Gospels make but brief mention. These were Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, both devout men who, though not listed among the disciples or apostles of the Christos, were of all men chosen to be custodians of His sacred remains. Joseph of Arimathea was one of the initiated brethren and is called by A. E. Waite, in his A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, “the first bishop of Christendom.” just as the temporal power of the Holy See was established by St. Peter, so the spiritual body of the faith was entrusted to the “Secret Church of the Holy Grail” through apostolic succession from Joseph of Arimathea, into whose keeping had been given the perpetual symbols of the covenant–the ever-flowing cup and the bleeding spear.

Presumably obeying instructions of St. Philip, Joseph of Arimathea, carrying the sacred relics, reached Britain after passing through many and varied hardships. Here a site was allotted to him for the erection of a church, and in this manner Glastonbury Abbey was founded. Joseph planted his staff in the earth and it took root, becoming a miraculous thorn bush which blossomed twice a year and which is now called the Glastonbury thorn. The end of the life of Joseph of Arimathea is unknown. By some it is believed that, like Enoch, he was translated; by others, that he was buried in Glastonbury Abbey. Repeated attempts have been made to find the Holy Grail, which many believe to have been hidden in a crypt beneath the ancient abbey. The Glastonbury chalice recently discovered and by the devout supposed to be the original Sangrail can scarcely be accepted as genuine by the critical investigator. Beyond its inherent interest as a relic, like the famous Antioch chalice it actually proves nothing when it is realized that practically little more was known about the Christian Mysteries eighteen centuries ago than can be discovered today.

The origin of the Grail myth, as of nearly every other element in the great drama, is curiously elusive. Sufficient foundation for it may be found in the folklore of the British Isles, which contains many accounts of magic cauldrons, kettles, cups, and drinking horns. The earliest Grail legends describe the cup as a veritable horn of plenty. Its contents were inexhaustible and those who served it never hungered or thirsted. One account states that no matter how desperately ill a person might be he could not die within eight days of beholding the cup. Some authorities believe the Holy Grail to be the perpetuation of the holy cup used in the rites of Adonis and Atys. A communion cup or chalice was used in several of the ancient Mysteries, and the god Bacchus is frequently symbolized in the form of a vase, cup, or urn. In Nature worship the ever-flowing Grail signifies the bounty of the harvest by which the life of man is sustained; like Mercury’s bottomless pitcher, it is the inexhaustible fountain of natural re source. From the evidence at hand it would indeed be erroneous to ascribe a purely Christian origin to the Grail symbolism.

In the Arthurian Cycle appears a strange and mysterious figure–Merlin, the magician. In one of the legends concerning him it is declared that when Jesus was sent to liberate the world from the bondage of evil, the Adversary determined to send an Antichrist to undo His labors. The Devil therefore in the form of a horrible dragon overshadowed a young woman who had taken refuge in sanctuary to escape the evil which had destroyed her family. When Merlin, her child, was born he partook of the characteristics of his human mother and demon father. Merlin, however, did not serve the powers of darkness but, being converted to the true light, retained only two of the supernatural powers inherited from his father: prophecy and miracle working. The story of Merlin’s infernal father must really be considered as an allegorical allusion to the fact that he was a “philosophical son” of the serpent or dragon, a title applied to all initiates of the Mysteries, who thus acknowledge Nature as their mortal mother and wisdom in the form of the serpent or dragon as their immortal Father. Confusion of the dragon and serpent with the powers of evil has resulted as an inevitable consequence from misinterpretation of the early chapters of Genesis.

Arthur while an infant was given into the keeping of Merlin, the Magi, and in his youth instructed by him in the secret doctrine and probably initiated into the deepest secrets of natural magic. With Merlin’s assistance, Arthur became the leading general of Britain, a degree of dignity which has been confused with kingship. After Arthur had drawn the sword of Branstock from the anvil and thus established his divine right to leadership, Merlin further assisted him to secure from the Lady of the Lake the sacred sword Excalibur. After the establishment of the Round Table, having fulfilled his duty, Merlin disappeared, according to one account vanishing into the air, where he still exists as a shadow communicating at will with mortals; according to another, retiring of his own accord into a great stone vault which he sealed from within.

It is reasonably certain that many legends regarding Charlemagne were later associated with Arthur, who is most famous for establishing the Order of the Round Table at Winchester. Reliable information is not to be had concerning the ceremonies and initiatory rituals of the “Table Round.” In one story the Table was endowed with the powers of expansion and contraction so that fifteen or fifteen hundred could be seated around it, according to whatever need might arise. The most common accounts fix the number of knights who could be seated at one time at the Round Table at either twelve or twenty-four. The twelve signified the signs of the zodiac and also the apostles of Jesus. The knights’ names and also their heraldic arms were emblazoned upon their chairs. When twenty-four are shown seated at the Table, each of the twelve signs of the zodiac is divided into two parts–a light and a dark half–to signify the nocturnal and diurnal phases of each sign. As each sign of the zodiac is ascending for two hours every day, so the twenty-four knights represent the hours, the twenty-four elders before the throne in Revelation, and twenty-four Persian deities who represent the spirits of the divisions of the day. In the center of the Table was the symbolic rose of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the symbol of resurrection in that He “rose” from the dead. There was also a mysterious empty seat called the Siege Perilous in which none might sit except he who was successful in his quest for the Holy Grail.

In the personality of Arthur is to be found a new form of the ever-recurrent cosmic myth. The prince of Britain is the sun, his knights are the zodiac, and his flashing sword may be the sun’s ray with which he fights and vanquishes the dragons of darkness or it may represent the earth’s axis. Arthur’s Round Table is the universe; the Siege Perilous the throne of the perfect man. In its terrestrial sense, Arthur was the Grand Master of a secret Christian-Masonic brotherhood of philosophic mystics who termed themselves Knights. Arthur received the exalted position of Grand Master of these Knights because he had faithfully accomplished the withdrawal of the sword from the anvil of the base metals. As invariably happens, the historical Arthur soon was confused with the allegories and myths of his order until now the two are inseparable. After Arthur’s death on the field of Kamblan his Mysteries ceased, and esoterically he was borne away on a black barge, as is so beautifully described by Tennyson in his Morte d’Arthur. The great sword Excalibur was also cast back into the waters of eternity–all of which is a vivid portrayal of the descent of cosmic night at the end of the Day of Universal Manifestation. The body of the historical Arthur was probably interred at Glastonbury Abbey, a building closely identified with the mystic rites of both the Grail and the Arthurian Cycle.
The medieval Rosicrucians were undoubtedly in possession of the true secret of the Arthurian Cycle and the Grail legend, much of their symbolism having been incorporated into that order. Though the most obvious of all keys to the Christos mystery, the Grail legend has received the least consideration.
 IMG 9428  Trial Bay Gaol

Morte d'Arthur

By Alfred, Lord Tennyson

So all day long the noise of battle roll'd
Among the mountains by the winter sea;
Until King Arthur's table, man by man,
Had fallen in Lyonnesse about their Lord,
King Arthur: then, because his wound was deep,
The bold Sir Bedivere uplifted him,
Sir Bedivere, the last of all his knights,
And bore him to a chapel nigh the field,
A broken chancel with a broken cross,
That stood on a dark strait of barren land.
On one side lay the ocean, and on one
Lay a great water, and the moon was full.

Then spake King Arthur to Sir Bedivere:
"The sequel of to-day unsolders all
The goodliest fellowship of famous knights
Whereof this world holds record. Such a sleep
They sleep—the men I loved. I think that we
Shall never more, at any future time,
Delight our souls with talk of knightly deeds,
Walking about the gardens and the halls
Of Camelot, as in the days that were.
I perish by this people which I made,—
Tho' Merlin sware that I should come again
To rule once more—but let what will be, be,
I am so deeply smitten thro' the helm
That without help I cannot last till morn.
Thou therefore take my brand Excalibur,
Which was my pride: for thou rememberest how
In those old days, one summer noon, an arm
Rose up from out the bosom of the lake,
Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful,
Holding the sword—and how I row'd across
And took it, and have worn it, like a king:
And, wheresoever I am sung or told
In after time, this also shall be known:

But now delay not: take Excalibur,
And fling him far into the middle mere:
Watch what thou seëst, and lightly bring me word."
To him replied the bold Sir Bedivere:
"It is not meet, Sir King, to leave thee thus,
Aidless, alone, and smitten thro' the helm.
A little thing may harm a wounded man.
Yet I thy hest will all perform at full,
Watch what I see, and lightly bring thee word."

So saying, from the ruin'd shrine he stept
And in the moon athwart the place of tombs,
Where lay the mighty bones of ancient men,
Old knights, and over them the sea-wind sang
Shrill, chill, with flakes of foam. He, stepping down
By zigzag paths, and juts of pointed rock,
Came on the shining levels of the lake.
There drew he forth the brand Excalibur,
And o'er him, drawing it, the winter moon,
Brightening the skirts of a long cloud, ran forth
And sparkled keen with frost against the hilt:
For all the haft twinkled with diamond sparks,
Myriads of topaz-lights, and jacinth work
Of subtlest jewellery. He gazed so long
That both his eyes were dazzled, as he stood,
This way and that dividing the swift mind,
In act to throw: but at the last it seem'd
Better to leave Excalibur conceal'd
There in the many-knotted water-flags,
That whistled stiff and dry about the marge.
So strode he back slow to the wounded King.

Then spake King Arthur to Sir Bedivere:
"Hast thou perform'd my mission which I gave?
What is it thou hast seen, or what hast heard?"
And answer made the bold Sir Bedivere:
"I heard the ripple washing in the reeds,
And the wild water lapping on the crag."
To whom replied King Arthur, faint and pale:
"Thou hast betray'd thy nature and thy name,
Not rendering true answer, as beseem'd
Thy fealty, nor like a noble knight:
For surer sign had follow'd, either hand,
Or voice, or else a motion of the mere.
This is a shameful thing for men to lie.
Yet now, I charge thee, quickly go again
As thou art lief and dear, and do the thing
I bade thee, watch, and lightly bring me word."

Then went Sir Bedivere the second time
Across the ridge, and paced beside the mere,
Counting the dewy pebbles, fixed in thought;
But when he saw the wonder of the hilt,
How curiously and strangely chased, he smote
His palms together, and he cried aloud,
"And if indeed I cast the brand away,
Surely a precious thing, one worthy note,
Should thus be lost forever from the earth,
Which might have pleased the eyes of many men.
What good should follow this, if this were done?
What harm, undone? deep harm to disobey,
Seeing obedience is the bond of rule.
Were it well to obey then, if a king demand
An act unprofitable, against himself?
The King is sick, and knows not what he does.
What record, or what relic of my lord
Should be to aftertime, but empty breath
And rumours of a doubt? but were this kept,
Stored in some treasure-house of mighty kings,
Some one might show it at a joust of arms,
Saying, 'King Arthur's sword, Excalibur,
Wrought by the lonely maiden of the Lake;
Nine years she wrought it, sitting in the deeps
Upon the hidden bases of the hills.'
So might some old man speak in the aftertime
To all the people, winning reverence.
But now much honour and much fame were lost."
So spake he, clouded with his own conceit,
And hid Excalibur the second time,
And so strode back slow to the wounded King.

Then spoke King Arthur, breathing heavily:
"What is it thou hast seen, or what hast heard?"
And answer made the bold Sir Bedivere:
"I heard the water lapping on the crag,
And the long ripple washing in the reeds."
To whom replied King Arthur, much in wrath:
"Ah, miserable and unkind, untrue,
Unknightly, traitor-hearted! Woe is me!
Authority forgets a dying king,
Laid widow'd of the power in his eye
That bow'd the will. I see thee what thou art,
For thou, the latest-left of all my knights,
In whom should meet the offices of all,
Thou wouldst betray me for the precious hilt;
Either from lust of gold, or like a girl
Valuing the giddy pleasure of the eyes.
Yet, for a man may fail in duty twice,
And the third time may prosper, get thee hence:
But, if thou spare to fling Excalibur,
I will arise and slay thee with my hands."

Then quickly rose Sir Bedivere, and ran,
And, leaping down the ridges lightly, plunged
Among the bulrush-beds, and clutch'd the sword,
And strongly wheel'd and threw it. The great brand
Made lightnings in the splendour of the moon,
And flashing round and round, and whirl'd in an arch,
Shot like a streamer of the northern morn,
Seen where the moving isles of winter shock
By night, with noises of the northern sea.
So flash'd and fell the brand Excalibur:
But ere he dipt the surface, rose an arm
Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful,
And caught him by the hilt, and brandish'd him
Three times, and drew him under in the mere.
And lightly went the other to the King.

Then spoke King Arthur, drawing thicker breath:
"Now see I by thine eyes that this is done.
Speak out: what is it thou hast heard, or seen?"
And answer made the bold Sir Bedivere:
"Sir King, I closed mine eyelids, lest the gems
Should blind my purpose, for I never saw,
Nor shall see, here or elsewhere, till I die,
Not tho' I live three lives of mortal men,
So great a miracle as yonder hilt.
Then with both hands I flung him, wheeling him;
But when I look'd again, behold an arm,
Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful,
That caught him by the hilt, and brandish'd him
Three times, and drew him under in the mere."

And answer made King Arthur, breathing hard:
"My end draws nigh; 't is time that I were gone.
Make broad thy shoulders to receive my weight,
And bear me to the margin; yet I fear
My wound hath taken cold, and I shall die."
So saying, from the pavement he half rose,
Slowly, with pain, reclining on his arm,
And looking wistfully with wide blue eyes
As in a picture. Him Sir Bedivere
Remorsefully regarded thro' his tears,
And would have spoken, but he found not words,
Then took with care, and kneeling on one knee,
O'er both his shoulders drew the languid hands,
And rising bore him thro' the place of tombs.
But, as he walk'd, King Arthur panted hard,
Like one that feels a nightmare on his bed
When all the house is mute.

So sigh'd the King
Muttering and murmuring at his ear, "Quick, quick!
I fear it is too late, and I shall die."
But the other swiftly strode from ridge to ridge,
Clothed with his breath, and looking, as he walk'd
Larger than human on the frozen hills.
He heard the deep behind him, and a cry
Before. His own thought drove him like a goad.
Dry clash'd his harness in the icy caves
And barren chasms, and all to left and right
The bare black cliff clang'd round him, as he based
His feet on juts of slippery crag that rang
Sharp-smitten with the dint of armed heels—
And on a sudden, lo! the level lake,
And the long glories of the winter moon.
Then saw they how there hove a dusky barge
Dark as a funeral scarf from stem to stern,
Beneath them; and descending they were ware
That all the decks were dense with stately forms
Black-stoled, black-hooded, like a dream—by these
Three Queens with crowns of gold—and from them rose
A cry that shiver'd to the tingling stars,
And, as it were one voice, an agony
Of lamentation, like a wind, that shrills
All night in a waste land, where no one comes,
Or hath come, since the making of the world.

Then murmur'd Arthur, "Place me in the barge,"
And to the barge they came. There those three Queens
Put forth their hands, and took the King, and wept.
But she that rose the tallest of them all
And fairest, laid his head upon her lap,
And loosed the shatter'd casque, and chafed his hands,
And call'd him by his name, complaining loud
And dropping bitter tears against his brow
Striped with dark blood: for all his face was white
And colourless, and like the wither'd moon
Smote by the fresh beam of the springing east;
And all his greaves and cuisses dash'd with drops
Of onset; and the light and lustrous curls—
That made his forehead like a rising sun
High from the daïs-throne—were parch'd with dust;
Or, clotted into points and hanging loose,
Mix'd with the knightly growth that fringed his lips.
So like a shatter'd column lay the King;
Not like that Arthur who, with lance in rest,
From spur to plume a star of tournament,
Shot thro' the lists at Camelot, and charged
Before the eyes of ladies and of kings.

Then loudly cried the bold Sir Bedivere:
"Ah! my Lord Arthur, whither shall I go?
Where shall I hide my forehead and my eyes?
For now I see the true old times are dead,
When every morning brought a noble chance,
And every chance brought out a noble knight.
Such times have been not since the light that led
The holy Elders with the gift of myrrh.
But now the whole ROUND TABLE is dissolved
Which was an image of the mighty world;
And I, the last, go forth companionless,
And the days darken round me, and the years,
Among new men, strange faces, other minds."

And slowly answer'd Arthur from the barge:
"The old order changeth, yielding place to new,
And God fulfils Himself in many ways,
Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.
Comfort thyself: what comfort is in me?
I have lived my life, and that which I have done
May He within Himself make pure! but thou,
If thou shouldst never see my face again,
Pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer
Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice
Rise like a fountain for me night and day.
For what are men better than sheep or goats
That nourish a blind life within the brain,
If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer
Both for themselves and those who call them friend?
For so the whole round earth is every way
Bound by gold chains about the feet of God.
But now farewell. I am going a long way
With these thou seëst—if indeed I go—
(For all my mind is clouded with a doubt)
To the island-valley of Avilion;
Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow,
Nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies
Deep-meadow'd, happy, fair with orchard-lawns
And bowery hollows crown'd with summer sea,
Where I will heal me of my grievous wound."
So said he, and the barge with oar and sail
Moved from the brink, like some full-breasted swan
That, fluting a wild carol ere her death,
Ruffles her pure cold plume, and takes the flood
With swarthy webs. Long stood Sir Bedivere
Revolving many memories, till the hull
Look'd one black dot against the verge of dawn,
And on the mere the wailing died away.

IMG 5521 Snow in Deepwater NSW

Thursday, August 20, 2015

On Fearing God ... by Hermes Trismegistus

IMG 5437

Therefore, the Master saith:

Whosoever bends his back over the study of our books, devoting his leisure thereto, is not occupied with vain thoughts, but fears God, and shall reign in the Kingdom without fail until he die.

For what ye seek is not of sm
all price.  Woe unto you who seek the very great and compensating treasure of God!

Know ye not that for the smallest purpose in the world, earthly men will give themselves to death, and what, therefore, ought they to do for this most excellent and almost impossible offering?


Turba Philosophorum Part 2 (39th Dictum) Hermes

 Albert Einstein