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Post by hollandr on May 8, 2008 22:37:39 GMT
What is the origin of the Water of Life and the Bread of Life?
Why were or are they required?
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Post by maximus on May 8, 2008 23:38:07 GMT
What is the origin of the Water of Life and the Bread of Life? Why were or are they required? The Water of Life is a fictional drug from Frank Herbert's science fiction Dune universe. Found on the planet Arrakis, the Water of Life is categorized as an illuminating poison, or an awareness spectrum narcotic. Specifically, it is the bilious liquid exhalation of a sandworm produced at the moment of its death from drowning. In its raw state it is toxic to anyone but a Reverend Mother. A Reverend Mother can metabolize the Water within her body, then expel it to transform the raw Water into a form consumable by others. The "changed" Water is the narcotic used in the Fremen Sietch orgy. The Bene Gesserit test their acolytes to see if they can be Reverend Mothers by feeding them the Water of Life in a ritual known as the spice agony. If the adept is qualified, she transmutes the poison safely within and becomes a Reverend Mother. If not, she dies. Paul Atreides uses the Water of Life to fulfill his destiny as the Kwisatz Haderach. Paul also perceives that the Water of Life could also be used to catastrophic effect in combination with a pre-spice mass, as the "blow" reaction which formed the melange would transform the Water of Life into Water of Death, resulting in the destruction of the sandworms and the end of the spice-cycle ecosystem. With the power to destroy all the spice at its source, the Fremen were thus able to exercise a degree of control over both the Bene Gesserit and the Spacing Guild. Since there were no sandworms after the transformation of Dune to Arrakis during and after the reign of Emperor Leto, it appears that the Water of Life was replaced by spice essence in Bene Gesserit and Fremen rituals. From: Wikipedia ;D Sorry Russell, couldn't resist. ;D
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Post by hollandr on May 9, 2008 0:02:08 GMT
Actually Herbert knew a lot about a lot
And about page 280 of the Dune that I read an old woman says that Arrakis is Mars
And as we know the secret of Arrakis is that the desert planet has much water beneath the surface - written in the early 1960s
And now we know that Mars has lots of water
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Post by hollandr on May 11, 2008 0:18:17 GMT
Upon the corpse hung from a stake they directed the fear of the rays of fire, Sixty times the food of life, sixty times the water of life, they sprinkled upon it, Inanna arose.
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Tamrin
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Posts: 3,586
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Post by Tamrin on May 11, 2008 1:06:58 GMT
Upon the corpse hung from a stake they directed the fear of the rays of fire, Sixty times the food of life, sixty times the water of life, they sprinkled upon it, Inanna arose. Source?
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Post by hollandr on May 11, 2008 2:16:09 GMT
SUMERIAN MYTHOLOGY A Study of Spiritual and Literary Achievement in the Third Millennium B.C.
SAMUEL NOAH KRAMER REVISED EDITION
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Tamrin
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Post by Tamrin on May 11, 2008 3:20:43 GMT
What do you make of this account? Remembering that the queen was only a theophany of Inanna; the goddess was immortal; and, after the prescribed time and rituals, another theophany would be chosen. Innana (right) presumably with her mortal representative (left)
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Post by hollandr on May 11, 2008 5:01:12 GMT
> Remembering that the queen was only a theophany of Inanna;
Funnily enough I don't remember that. I suggest that "theophany" is a concept developed long after the original accounts. It may serve more to soothe the theologians than enlighten the texts
>the goddess was immortal;
That seems to be the point - gods and goddesses seemed to get a bit upset when they died prematurely - and they seemed to do that on Earth - hence the pressing need to take the bread of life and water of life with them
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Tamrin
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Post by Tamrin on May 11, 2008 5:50:48 GMT
Just because a concept is elucidated and named at a later date does not invalidate it. For instance, each God's Wife was, for the Egyptians, Mut on earth and each Candace was, for the Kushites, Isis on earth. They inevitably died and the goddess lived on in and through their successor. We now call her mortal representatives, her totem animals and her cult objects, her "theophanies." This is no more than good, practical shorthand for an otherwise complex, widespread set of customs and beliefs.
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Post by hollandr on May 11, 2008 7:35:25 GMT
>shorthand for an otherwise complex,
I think that is the point
I noticed the same thing when I worked for a treasury department years ago. In order to supervise the enormous complexity of the various agencies, treasury used to simplify - one or two sizes fited all - and that allowed them to get their heads around their responsibilities. Of course the agencies were of another view
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Tamrin
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Post by Tamrin on May 11, 2008 9:27:55 GMT
Do not suppose there has not been extensive scholarship underlying the simplification in this case. By analogy, we use terms such as "Age of Enlightenment" and "Middle Ages" as shorthand. Among Freemasons, it is a bit like using the term "Templar Transmission Theory." All are complex subjects but, rather than getting bogged down in those complexities, permutations and qualifications every time the topics impinge on another, use of the terms enables the speaker to simply acknowledge the relevance of the particular topic and move on as, I suggest, do we. Whether one simply uses the term "theophany" or describes and qualifies the subject in greater detail, the point remain that the Queen / High Priestess was thought in some circumstances to be the preferred vehicle by which Innana expressed herself: To at times "BE" Innana.
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Post by hollandr on May 13, 2008 2:52:24 GMT
To return the thread, I recall in the Sumerian literature some reference to the dispute on earth amongst the annunaki who were doing the mining.
They, the immortals, were dying on this planet and were not happy. Eventually Anu/On descends to earth to sort it out and the annunaki of the northern and southern hemispheres come together.
This is recorded in some versions of the Rosecroix where descendeth he to meet the knights of the north and south. And the Bread of Life and Water of Life that the annunaki used to retain their lifespan was possibly alchemical and thus preserved in the ritual as wine (mercury) bread (sulphur) and salt (salt)
But why were the gods dying upon Earth?
What is peculiar about Earth?
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Post by lauderdale on May 13, 2008 7:43:16 GMT
What is peculiar about Earth?
A lot of free water on its surface, Van Allen Belts, Strong Magnetic Field?
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Tamrin
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Post by Tamrin on May 13, 2008 8:22:03 GMT
To return the thread, I recall in the Sumerian literature some reference to the dispute on earth amongst the annunaki who were doing the mining.
They, the immortals, were dying on this planet and were not happy. Eventually Anu/On descends to earth to sort it out and the annunaki of the northern and southern hemispheres come together. Source?
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Post by hollandr on May 20, 2008 5:45:04 GMT
>But why were the gods dying upon Earth? What is peculiar about Earth? I was reading "I remember Lemuria" the other day Download here manybooks.net/titles/shaverrother07I_Remember_Lemuria.htmland for the first time I saw an explanation of why the gods needed the water of life and the bread/food of life The account there is that our Sun is aging and puts out some substances that reduce lifespan - particularly for life forms on the surface of planets - hence the desirability of living deep inside the Earth When I look into the proposition it may well be correct. But the Solar Logos seems to need the planets to produce their spiritual fruit regardless of short life spans. So here we are Now I expect some posters will have the utmost trouble with Shaver - despite at least 10 000 letters affirming the validity of the original publication in Amazing en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaver_MysteryBut Shaver has provided the first explanation (as far as I know) of why the Water and Bread of Life were/are required And incidentally he seems to provide corroboration for Numbers 13:, 33 And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. Grasshoppers may not be an exaggeration according to Shaver
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Post by maat on Jun 3, 2008 23:20:02 GMT
This thread just caught my eye... because the Bread of Life might be explained quite well by the video link provided by Max on the Ominous Dream thread. All about mono-atomic gold. Gold reduced to a state where it looks like a white powder or bread -Maat
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