AAL’S LABYRINTH HISTORY An Alternative Viewpoint…..contd. #63

 

Cyrus the Great of Persia

549                 CYRUS the GREAT (600-529 BCE) son of Persian Cambyses I and Median Princess Mandane. As King of Persia he establishes the great Persian/Mesopotamian Empire and secures the Achaemenid Dynasty (from the founder Achaemenid c650 BCE). Building a great empire Cyrus took over Media, Lydia (Turkey) and Babylon but failed to take Egypt. The Empire expanded under his successors Cambyses II (529-522 BCE) Darius (522-486 BCE) and Xerxes (486-465 BCE). From this civilization came the so called ‘Arabic’ numerals. 

                       The Persians under Darius will use the Phoenician alphabet [to write in Arabic] rather than the cuneiform script of Babylon and Sumer. (176) The Persian triad of gods by this time are; Ahura Mazada, Mithra and Anahita. (102)

                       It is around this time that the zodiac is introduced to the Greeks. [16]

Anaximenes

Engraver  Girolamo Olgiati 1580

c545               ANAXIMENES (c585-528 BCE ) Ionian Philosopher born at Miletus, member of the Greek philosophic group, along with Anaximander and Thales.  Attempting to resolve the problem of the origin and structure of the universe, Anaximenes held that the fundamental and most pervasive thing in the world was air, which being infinite, allows for the manifold processes of nature. (114) Air (‘pneuma’ or cosmic breath) is thus taken as the primary form of matter, from which all things, such as water, earth and stone are formed by successive stages of compression or in the case of fire, by rarefaction. (13]

                       As the primary source, air, is taken as the basic essence of life which can remain itself whilst undergoing many transformations. Thus, the ‘arche’ or the beginning or originating cause becomes the ‘principle’, something that eternally maintains its own nature while transmuting itself into many transient and changing phenomena of the visible world. (19)

                       With the establishment of the Ionian school of philosophy, mythology gradually shed and replaced anthropomorphic deities with a world whose source and substance is a primary element such as water, air or fire. Eventually these primary substances cease to be endowered with divinity or intelligence and become understood as purely material entities mechanically moved by chance or blind necessity. 

539                The Persians conquer Mesopotamia as part of the expansion of the Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus II, known as Cyrus the Great. They make Aramaic the state language, whilst ink and papyrus now replace cuneiform tablets. (46)

                  From these cuneiform texts it is known that the Babylonian priests of Mesopotamia had made astronomical observations of the planets through the twelve constellations of the sidereal zodiac. The original delineation of this sidereal zodiac, at the physical/astronomical and spiritual/occult levels, is attributed to Zoroaster (580 BCE) who is to carry forward the ancient wisdom of ancient Egypt. (50a)

Cyrus liberates the Jews.

Painting: Jean Fouquet [1420-81]

Court painter to Louis XI

538 BCE          The Babylonian Jewish diaspora return to Jerusalem to rebuild their temple that was destroyed in 586 BCE after standing for the previous 400 years to house the tablets of Moses. This temple will be embellished by the future King Herod the Great, and others, until the time of its own and final destruction in 70 CE. These exiles returning from Babylon are to be led by the High Priest Ezra. It is from this period of the Second Temple that the Torah becomes the scriptural basis for the Jewish religion. The Oral Torah now becomes the written ‘Five Books of Moses’ or the ‘Pentateuch’ of the Old Testament. [226] When the priest Ezra returned to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon be brought with him ‘The Book of the Law of the Lord’, (198) which was probably added to the existing ancient Hebrew writings.

Building Temple of Jerusalem

Painting: Jean Fouquet [1420-81]

c525               Persians capture Egypt, and the Roman Republic gets going with its ideals of democracy. Persian conquest of Egypt dramatically increased the influence of Mesopotamia in that country and of the Chaldean star knowledge. (29)

CLEVER MERCURY

 The small planet Mercury, with deep meanings, is said to have a close affinity with the sign Virgo. This planet is also closely associated with the sign Gemini. Other planets of the ‘traditional’ 7 group also have affinity with two signs of the zodiac, unlike the Sun and Moon which rule only one sign each. These other traditional planets in order from the Sun are, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. These 5 planets plus the Sun and Moon are known in astrology as the ‘traditional’ seven planets. They are observable in the sky by the naked eye [in clear skies] and they formed the basis of astrological interpretation for a very long time before the ‘new’ planets of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto entered into the human consciousness. These late comers were ‘discovered’ with the aid of new technological innovation, that is the telescope. 

 

Mercury is a very important planet, one whose qualities indicate how we perceive and intellectually respond to the world around us, and what our nerve energy is like, are we quick or slow or over-stressed from too much worry. In Ancient Egypt the god Thoth represented these qualities, those of communicating by letter and voice. Later this role was taken over by the Greek god Hermes.

 

THOTH Ancient Egyptian god of writing and

communication, who opens the 4 doors

By the time of the Greeks and Romans

Thoth had become Hermes/Mercury [Larousse]

In Egypt, Thoth as master of writing, transcribed the word of the gods so that humans could understand what was being communicated. The gods being represented by the other planets and acting as symbols for the different human traits such as loving [Venus] giving [Jupiter] conserving [Saturn]. feeling [Moon] generosity [Sun]

 

In Greece, as a descendent of Thoth, Hermes too communicated between the gods and humans; he wears wings on his heels for speedy transport between the two worlds, that of man and that of the gods. This hints at another Egyptian god, that of Anubis who also commutes between worlds and is known as a psychopomp or one who leads and guides the dead to the world of the spirit or gods.

Here is an amusing composite of Anubis and

the Greeco-Roman Hermes/Mercury. [Barnett]

Moving back through time we follow the evolution of communication, both physical and spiritual; from Roman Mercury who inherited from Greek Hermes, who inherited from Egyptian Thoth. The Greeks called an inherited collection of ancient Egyptian essays on Divine Wisdom, ‘The Hermetica’. Try the Solos Press edition.