AAL’S LABYRINTH HISTORY An Alternative Viewpoint…..contd. #53

 NINTH CENTURY BC (899-800)

From the ninth to eighth century BCE, Etruscans occupy north and central Italy, whilst Greeks colonise southern Italy and Sicily. Etruria, the land of Etruscans, will be at its zenith from the seventh to sixth century BCE. Herodotus thought the Etruscans came from Lydia in Asia Minor.

 

Assyrian Fighters

c883 BCE          ASHURNASIRPAL or ASHURNAZIRPAL II (r. 883-859 BCE) As king he takes Assyria to a new peak of revival. He contributed to the establishment of a more centralized Assyrian state by appointing governors to rule the western regions of the Mesopotamian Empire. (114). His leadership will be continued by his son Shalmaneser III. Ashur-nasipal II is to extend the temple town of Nimrud, founded by Shalmaneser I c1250, to make it the capital of his new empire of Assyria.

                        The national god of the Assyrians is Ashur, a god of battle depicted as eagle-headed and winged, usually in combination with the winged solar disc surmounted by a warrior. This is reminiscent of Egypt’s own winged solar disc and that of the Babylonians. Ashur is indeed identified with the storm god Baal (Bal-Marduk) of the city of Ashur and has similarities to Yahweh of the early Israelites, that is, the tribes of Jacob. (114)

Syrian winged Sun God.

[Time Life ‘History of the World’]

c850                  HOMER: the great Greek poet whose works, the ‘Iliad’ and ‘Odyssey’, record the mythology of the ancients in the form of epic poems. This is primordial mythology suggesting indivisible synthesis of the individual and the universal, a theme that is a strong underpinning to many philosophies. Homer’s writings also show the dual mythological heritage of the ancient Greeks as can be seen in the warring ‘Iliad’ of patriarchal themes, and in the softer ‘Odyssey’ of matriarchal themes. (19)

                  Homer, as a representative of the archaic mind, saw an inseparable connection between the empirical and the archetypal. The endurance of his ideas will be demonstrated in the future great masters, Socrates (c420 BCE) and Plato (c365 BCE) as these philosophers 

Homer’s ‘Odyssey’. Odysseus trying to resist the

call of the Siren or the voice of the feminine soul.

                     Around this time is the first compilation of the Hebrew ‘Five Books of Moses’, the ‘Bereshit’ or ‘In the Beginning’. In the future, its Greek translation will be called ‘Genesis’.  According to this early version, in the beginning god created man and woman at the same time and equal and not in sequence as in a second compilation where Eve is taken from the rib of Adam. Adam and Eve are taken as symbolic of the split in the previously created androgynous human. Adam-Eve in turn can be seen to represent humanity as a polarity of man and woman, reflecting and expressing the fundamental polarity of the Cosmos and Life and as also seen in the Sun and Moon, polarity of day and night. Later, woman or the feminine side of that polarity, is designated as less than the male side or man, and this ‘dark’ side of the feminine moon or the misunderstood nature wisdom of woman, became known as Lilith.

Lilith: personification of the wisdom of the

Dark Night. Sumer c2000 BCE

c837                KING SHALMANESER III (d.824 BCE) the son and successor of Ashurnasirpal II (883 BCE) As King of Assyria (Syria/Iraq) this Shalmaneser leads an expedition during this year and the events recorded are the first mention of the ancestors of the Iranians, that is the Parsua or Persians (Sth Iran), and the Madai or Medes (Nth Iran). The Persians, as descendants of mythological Perseus, inhabit the mountains of Kurdistan. The Medes live on the plains of the Iranian Plateaux. (40) The dominant Persian cult of Mithraism is thought to be a mixture of Greek, Iranian and Gnostic elements, based on the more ancient Aryan fire worship of Mitra.

Arinna sun goddess, Hittite Queen of Heaven and Earth

[Time Life ‘History of the World’]

 

831                   Estimated total eclipse over Tanis and Bubastis in ancient Egypt, during the Third Intermediate Period; (240. 241) and thus, possibly heralding the famous ‘New Kingdom’ development of Ancient Egypt.

 

c800                HALLSTATT, Austria, a lakeside village built on salt mining, is claimed as the first of the early Celtic settlements, a people of the iron-age with developing culture that will spread across Europe. The people were anciently referred to as the ‘Keltoi’. [371]

 

ZODIAC CIRCLE: myth & imagination

 

The Zodiac Wheel as a Rainbow

Twelve steps to the year, marking out the seasons and the journey of the Sun as perceived by us standing on planet Earth. We all now know that it is the Earth which travels through space around our central star called the Sun, but here we are concerned with the way we see the world from our point of observation on planet Earth.

In an attempt to record this dual concept of motion, that of the apparent or perceived Sun journey across the sky, and that of the scientific reality of the Earth moving around the Sun, it is the aim of the Astrological wheel to match the two. For this purpose, our home, Earth, is placed in the centre of a wheel around which is the depiction of the Sun’s apparent circular path, half of the time above the round Earth and half of the time below the round Earth. This circular path is known by the name ‘Ecliptic’. It is an imaginary path but from here down on Earth, it allows us to track the motion of the Sun through the observable sky and is a useful marker for reference in the location of other objects and points and planets.

The Solar Disc, sometimes represented 

By the Egyptian god RA.

This great circle through the heavenly vault has a starting point which is called the Vernal Equinox. The Vernal Equinox point nominates as the start of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere, it is a three-day period marking a time of equal day and night hours. For the Southern Hemisphere of our world this same point marks the opposite Equinox Point at the start of Autumn. These are the natural cycles of the seasons which guide our living and being according to which Hemisphere we belong to. Behind this natural cycle is a more esoteric cycle but that belongs to the Constellations and is for another time.

The Constellations are groups of stars in the sky named by the ancients to tell a story and to aid navigation. These Constellations are the original source of our famous zodiac signs. Those who are enthusiastic astronomers will easily pick out these star formations and it is interesting to follow the ancient mythology surrounding their symbolic pictures. The popular zodiac signs of astrology transferred these ancient Constellation names to the thirty degree segments of the Ecliptic Circle. There is an illustration of these 30 degree segments of the Ecliptic Circle at the start of the blog.  It is an imaginary circle that has inherited the characteristics and qualities of the original Constellation stories. These 12 segments, like those of an orange can can be grouped in various ways but our diagram displays them as a rainbow sequence, expressing the changing qualities of Light.

One of many star formations in the sky.

At the everyday level, the two hemispheres of our globe present us with a mirror image of the seasons, except of course at the Equator where things and climate tend to equalise themselves out. Thus, each half of the world follows its seasonal cycle and as the northern hemisphere was the first to move into high culture, its way of viewing the world has dominated. 

This domination extended to the practice of astrology and the orientation of casting a horoscope or celestial birth map, which still applies today. The result is that the North begins its spring when the Sun is in the zodiac sign of Aries, the classical beginning of the zodiac wheel and the start of a year of new growth. The South begins its spring new year and new growth when the Sun is in the opposite sign of Libra, at the opposite point of the Solar journey.

However, for those who wish to search the deeper secrets of the cosmos, the beginning point of a greater celestial cycle will always begin with the Constellation Aries which nowadays is not in alignment with the zodiac sign of Aries.  Thus, there is an epoch making Vernal Point which overrides that of our Earth seasonal changes. But as said this is a story for another time, hinted at here to demonstrate that true astrology is well aware of deeper and more meaningful realities and cosmic cycles than popular astrology would lead one to believe. There is reason behind apparent inconsistencies and contradictions. The world and living is not a simple straightforward process as is becoming more obvious to more people as technology throws us into the future.

The magic of number and geometry.

Fibonacci series of numbers applied to the zodiac wheel.

From John Cochrane at ‘Vibrational Astrology’.

 

AAL’S LABYRINTH HISTORY An Alternative Viewpoint…..contd. #52

 

Solar Eclipse. Compliments of Skywalk

948 BCE   This is the timing of an Estimated total eclipse over Thebes in ancient Egypt during the Third Intermediate Period. (240. 241) And around this time the Vernal Point is recorded on the second tablet of mul-Apin in the Assurbanipal Library, as at sidereal Nisan 15 [March]. (16.30)

 

945             SHOSHENQ I / SHESHANK I [Biblical Shishak] inaugurates the 22^nd Dynasty of Egypt. Commander is Chief of the armies and advisor to King Psusennes II. Shoshenq will marry Maatkare the daughter of Psusennes and so reign over Egypt in his turn. Shoshenq is a native of Libya, descended from a Tanite princess and living as a prince of Bubastis. In the fifth year of Rehoboam’s rein of Judah, Shoshenq came up against Jerusalem with mighty armies and ransacked the Solomon’s Temple of its treasures, around the year 925 BCE, leaving only the Ark of the Covenant. 2Chron. Xii. 2-4,9. “…And he took away the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the King’s house, he took way all.” Following up on this, and with the taking of Mount Carmel, Ashkelon and Gaza, Egypt regained suzerainty of Syria-Palestine. Shoshenq’s is responsible for a revival of the greatness of Egypt. Shoshenq’s son Iuput is chief priest and oversaw the building of the second pylon at the Temple of Karnak.  Shoshenq’s reign will be followed by that of Osorkon I around 897 BCE. [80. 175] Around the time of when the Greek writer Homer is composing his master pieces.

 

 

940 BCE REHOBOAM (Rehav’am, 922-915 BCE) King of ancient Judah, son of Solomon, grandson of David. Rehoboam, meaning ‘he who enlarges the people’, was the third king of the house of David, and the first king of the Kingdom of Judea. Rehoboam’s mother was Naamah, ‘the Ammonitess’. During Rehoboam’s reign, the kingdom was divided into two parts with Rehoboam and heir of Solomon, ruling the Kingdom of Judah in the south; the Kingdom of Israel occupied the north. (248. 249)

Menorah of the Magdala Stone from the 2^nd Temple of Jerusalem

           MENELIK, son of Queen Makeda of Sheba and King Solomon of Israel is the first king of Axum capital of Ethiopia.  Axum was founded by Sabean tribes of Semitic origin who moved from southern Arabia to the African highlands early first millennium BCE. Menelik is thought to have brought the Ark of the Covenant to Axum from the Temple of Solomon. The religion of this ancient country was that of the Sabeans and organized as a triad of Heaven, Sea and Earth. These divisions of the world are represented by the gods Astar [Babylonian Ishtar-Venus] Beher and Medr. Other gods are Aksum and Mahrem who is identified as Mars. [361]

 

               The descendants of Meneliks’ line are the Falashas, a group of Ethiopians claiming Jewish origin. The Falashas observe the traditions of Judaism in that they read the Bible in the Geez translation, which is an Ethiopian Semitic dialect, and which includes the Old Testament. They also read some Apocrypha, which are termed ‘hidden writings’.  The Falashas do not know the Talmud.  The name Falasha is Amharic for “stranger” and was given to them by other Ethiopians; they call themselves Beta Israel, “House of Israel”. (102) It is from this area that the future legendary figure Prester John is reputed to have come from. According to one author, St John is thought to have journeyed to this legendary kingdom of Prester/Preter John [297] that is Ethiopia.

 

c900 BCE A figurine of the Egyptian god RA with double plumes, is deposited in a sacred cave on Mount Dicte, Crete. The suggestion is that this placement connects RA to the Great Greek god Zeus, (55) and would indicate a line of descent or transference from Egyptian gods to Greek gods. Zeus will be born to the Great Mother Goddess Rhea in this same cave. 

              Around this time, the Celts start to move from the Danube region into France.

ZEUS

The great Greek God of Olympus 

The SUN and MOON

 

The Earthly Sun

Someone asked, ‘why do you follow the Sun and Planets in the apparent circular movements around the Earth?

The answer is, ‘because the sun in its daily journey and the moon in its monthly cycle, connect us with the ecliptic, which connects us to the planets and their cycles. The planets connect us to the stars and the stars to the cosmos beyond. Thus, through these interweaving connections we strive to understand the world and ourselves as a reflection of the greater cosmos.

The Earthly Moon

May I tell you something about the Moon Cycle?

Whatever you are doing or whatever is happening around you during the three days of the New Moon, will grow and develop over the following two weeks. This takes us up to the time of the Full Moon, a time of fulfilment of that two weeks’ growth. If what has grown and developed over that two weeks is not good or useful, the Full Moon marks the time of its disintegration, or the aborting of such action, thought or project. This is so that something new can occur at the next New Moon which will start another cycle of everyday beginnings. Of-course most people ignore this lunar cycle and the result is that their affairs tend to be more difficult than necessary because they are working against the tide of nature. Bit like competing with the tides of a great ocean!!

The Alchemical Sun and Moon.

The All-Good Buddha or the union of the Great Father and

Great Mother produces Enlightenment

AAL’S LABYRINTH HISTORY An Alternative Viewpoint…..contd. #51

 FIRST MILLENIUM BC (999-0 BC)

 

TENTH CENTURY BC (999-900BC)

 

961 BCE                 SOLOMON. According to some, Solomon as the last king of Israel will reign from 961 to 922 BCE (158) He is the son and successor of King David. Sol-om-on means Sun God of On, the Hebrew version of Ra of Heliopolis. (13) However, others think that it could be a derivative from the oldest of the Egyptian gods and another attempt to keep alive Aton of Ancient Egyptian times. Solomon is said to have taken an Egyptian Pharaohs’ daughter for his chief wife.

AMON-RA

The Great Egyptian God of Egypt

 Atlas of Egypt

                        As Hebrew King and leader of his people, Solomon built the Temple of Jerusalem. Other versions say the Temple was built by King Hiram of Tyre (13) as a central sanctuary of the Israelite religion and eventual spiritual centre for the world. The Temple of Jerusalem is built to house the Ark of the Covenant, that is the chest containing the Torah or Teachings of God, written on stone or bones and given to the priest Moses in the distant past. The temple consisted of a vestibule, a hall, and a shrine in an inner sanctum or Holy of Holies where only the High Priest is admitted. (114) The temple will stand until destroyed in 586 BCE although plundered by Egyptian pharaohs before this time. [226] The triple construction of the building represented the triple construction of the universe and of man. The Hebrew temple also has a unique similarity to Egyptian temples of old. One can only ask, ‘was the move by the Hebrews out of Egypt, an attempt to guard against the decline of Ancient Egyptian culture and the loss of knowledge? (1.12.94)

Temple of Jerusalem by Simon Goldhill

Outer court, main hall and Holy of Holies.

                    In the ‘belly of the whale’, like Johana, or in the cavern of the temple, we experience a place and time of mystery, perhaps stimulating a connection with greater states of consciousness.

 

                        Solomon is a master of the occult arts and identified with the Egyptian Thoth or Hermes Trismegistus. ‘The Wisdom of Solomon’, is an occult writing going under his name and includes grimoires. Legends of Solomon will later influence the Arab and Moslem religion of the future ‘Middle Ages’. (1]

 

                                    When Solomon takes the throne in this century he is crowned by a Sheban moon-priestess called Bath-Sheba, said to also be his mother, wife and the daughter of a previous Sheba of c2000 BCE. (13). This would be very much in the ancient Egyptian tradition, although the term ‘sister’ is believed to be more that of associate rather than blood relative. One asks, ‘did Bathsheba come from Ethiopia or from Egypt?’ Another, and possible descendent of the Queen of Saba or Sheba, is thought to have ruled the mighty state of south Arabia until about 115 BCE, a land which was equal to the size of Yemen today. (158) It is known that Solomon took an Egyptian princess to wife and the author Velikovsky suggests that Solomon lived in the time of Hatshepsut and that she was the ‘Queen of Sheba’, and that in truth, Thuthmosis III lived and drove his campaigns in the time of the Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut of the 15^th century BCE.

Hatchepsut,

 the female pharaoh. Joyce Tyldesley

                    On the walls of the Amon temple of Karnak in Egypt, are cut the hieroglyphics recording the military successes of Thutmose III in Canaan [Palestine] and Syria and corresponding to the later reign of Solomon. Indeed, Velikovsky claims Hatshepsut to be that intriguing Queen Sheba who married Solomon. [262] During the reign of Solomon’s son Rehoboam, was the famed city of Kadesh [Holy] taken in the campaign of Thutmose III, really the Holy City of Jerusalem. Was it Thutmose III who ‘ransacked’ the famous Temple of Solomon or did he build it in the first place? [262]

PLUTO IN AQUARIUS

 

Having acknowledged the Solstice of Capricorn, emphasised by a New Moon, and spent three days in thought, meditation and mundane preparation, most of us are now ready to acknowledge the birth of the Christos or the coming of a greater spiritual awareness, celebrated by the Christians in a day called Christmas. Others have different names for this time of the solar cycle.

The Christos according to Leonardo.

Let those who are privileged to enjoy the festivities have a thought and prayer for those still in turmoil following a year of turmoil.

 

One does not like to be a kill-joy, but folks it is not over yet. The tiny but powerful planet Pluto is sitting at the threshold of Aquarius. At the doorstep between Capricorn and Aquarius, Pluto hovers throughout 2023. This major transit between zodiac signs denotes a major shift in cosmic influence. But it is hard to pin down or translate into useful information, although many will have a go at it.

Tiny and slow moving Pluto took 16 slow grinding years to pass through the sign of Capricorn and as it is with Pluto, you can’t really see or comprehend what is going on until there is enough distance in time and space to look back and observe what had occurred. And so, we do look back and see that Pluto in Capricorn brought some incredibly important shake-ups such as those in our precious institutions of banking and money systems based on greed of a few, and large company control of smaller players, and puppet governments, and other organisations, all of which come under the influence of Capricorn. Being an EARTH sign, we of course saw what can happen, not only with mother nature and planet Earth, but also the massive changes to Earth’s inhabitants – we no longer have just boys and girls but a full range of gender expressions – when have we seen that in history before? There is a rather neglected side of Capricorn that points to the god Pan and the god Priapus and the fundamental life force that runs through us and all of created beings. Not to forget the Great Triple Moon goddess who has reclaimed her throne.

                        

 

.     

Pan the Great Green God of Nature                          Triple Hecate by Stéphane Mallarmé

The time period of Pluto in Capricorn reached something of a peak with the by now famous and renowned conjunction of major planets in 2018 and 2020/1  [see blogs of December2018 and December 2020 and November 2021]

Pluto, god of the ‘Underworld’ or the ‘Otherworld’, of treasure hidden in the dark, will move in and out of Aquarius over the next couple of years until he/she finally settles in the AIR sign of Aquarius in 2025 and stays there till 2044; 19 to 21 long years. Will the people of the future generations look back on this time and see how radically new ways of moving through the air came into being? Will it be a time of developing more ways of using air to fuel our ever-growing energy needs? Will there be an ever-increasing awareness of air pollution and the impact on the importance of good breathing, to both our physical and psychic development.  Will we care for each other more and more or will we be subjected to ever increasing surveillance to make sure that the many are dancing to the demands and ‘rights’ of the few?  In which case, there are bound to be many major revolts and revolutions ahead, as the followers of Saturnian control, discipline, and the past, compete with the followers of Uranian search for freedom, innovation and the future. But then again, the few who can combine the two ways to produce practical innovation can lead us to a future Utopia? Will there be a continuing thinning of the veil between dimensions, an increasing blurring of the line between the worlds of reality and virtual living, aided by runaway technology? Either way, over the next 20 years, the mental world is sure to dominate in the end. With our thoughts, we create the world said ‘Monkey’.

Water and Air

Pan and Hecate

    

AAL’S LABYRINTH HISTORY An Alternative Viewpoint…..contd. #50

c1000 BCE      TUATHA DE DANANN followers of the Goddess Danu/Dana and early occupants of Ireland will be taken over by Celtic invaders, sometime in the 4^th century BCE, (21a) perhaps by Milesians from Spain and of Cretan origin. The Tuatha had four treasures, known as the Four Treasures of Ireland and nominated as magical emblems of the Tuatha gods. The Four Treasures are the ‘Cauldron of the Dagda’, father of all; the ‘Spear of Lug’; the ‘Sword of Nuada’; and the ‘Stone of Fal’. (10)

Cauldron of Hochdorf

                    LUGH of the Long Arm a hero who comes to live among the Tuatha de Danaan. His face shone like the sun. He wore a silver chain, token of the Milky Way running across the heavens, he carried the seven-coloured rainbow, his sword was called ‘Answerer’, and his boat the ‘Wave-Sweeper’ was inherited from the god of the Ocean. [371]

Scabbard of Hallstatt

                    The Celtic race probably originated in France (Gaul) before expanding throughout Europe (Germany and Britain) and the Middle East in the latter part of the first millennium BCE, thus they ranged across Europe from the Caspian mountains to Ireland. Eventually the Celts will be repulsed by the Roman and Germanic tribes and withdraw into Gaul by 1^st century BCE, although they will remain a heavy influence in Ireland and Britain for much longer. (13) After being beaten by the Romans in the future, the Celts will gradually be converted to Christianity in the 5^th century CE. (9)

Celtic God Cernunnos

                    Celtic society is divided generally into three classes:- the priests and priestesses called Druids and Dryads, the warriors, and the common people or serfs. Teachings and philosophies of the priest cast were not recorded but transferred by oral teaching, as in the case of many ancient peoples including the Hebrews. It is known from archaeological research that the Celts, or rather the priestly Druids and Dryads, understood and applied astronomical and mathematical knowledge. (9)

                    The priestly cast in old Irish are called Drui and are followers of the Moon Goddess Artemis.  The priestesses reigned supreme in the first matriarchal phase of the Druidic cult but later the male Druids as priests of Be’al, the one god identified with the sun, takeover in the second patriarchal phase of the cult. Generally, as bardic wizards, the priestly cast kept the oral tradition alive to eventually form the nucleus of future medieval sagas, epic, and ballads, such as those of King Arthur. (13. 28)

The Four Treasures by

Marg Thomson

                    Celtic knowledge will descend through the generations in knowledge of the Four Seasons and the Four divisions of the solar year. These are celebrated in the Spring Rite of flowering EARTH at Beltane, the Summer Rite of the heat or FIRE at Lammas, the Autumn Rite of WATER at Samhain and the Winter Rite of the new light of AIR at Candlemas.

The Magician of the Four Treasures

by J.M.Simpson

                    Towards the end of this millennium waves of migrant peoples now begin to bring new cultural influences into Spain and Europe. Celtic people speaking an Indo-European language spread their culture, and settlers from more advanced civilizations establish towns along the Mediterranean coast: Phoenicians at Cadiz, Greeks at Malaga and Ampurias, and Carthaginians at Cartagena. (102)