Symbols and their meanings

[offramp]

Apolgies to all forumites!
I have edited my post above to show that I am not the creator of the Perambulation thing, and nor is that my website.
I used inverted commas instead of a quote box and it made my original post very unclear.
Sorry about that!

[staffs]

www.robertlomas.com/Orkney/scroll.html

[hollandr]

My understanding of the bishops mitre is that it derives from the annedotus - half fish half human. The greeks recorded perhaps 9 of them coming out of the sea at dawn to teach the usual science and religion and culture and returning to the sea at dusk.

Half fish half human entities apparently also provided the chinese with their civilisation.

Vishnu was half fish half man.

And the Sumerians record that Ea (Ja?) used Oannes (Jonah) one of the annedotus to clear the mouth of the Euphrates river for commerce. Oannes was also used to teach the humans all that they needed.

I understand that bishops by use of the mitre are claiming the heritage of the annedotus as the primary teachers of the human race.

I guess by their fruits you shall know them

In HRA you can see the conjunction of Ja (Ea) and the fish head on a rod.

Cheers

Russell

[taylorsman]

As an aside didn't H P Lovecraft have a half fish half man God, Cthulu, in his stories?

[hollandr]

It recall a distinction made between symbols and emblems in the Alice Bailey writings.

A symbol is an anchor for the real energy. Therefore if the 2 headed eagle is a symbol for the Lord of the World then His energy will be accessible directly through the symbol.

On the other hand an emblem is said only to be a cultural reference to something without an energy link.

An emblem then is much more arbitrary than a symbol. A symbol needs to have geometry, colour and qualities that attract the energy of the real thing.

For example if you draw a pentagram (symbol of all sorts of things) you may be able to use your hand (fingers or palm) to detect an energy spot in the centre. Does the energy flow into the page or out from it?

Cheers

Russell

[offramp]

I have just found a huge load of photos of Masonic and other regalia at The Dlettante Press.

I put it here because it is temporary, I think.

[staffs]

Now Gio ha sreally got me doing some research and internal work (which will please Stewart )

Amazing stuff !!


In the book "Myth, Religion and Mother Right", the author J.J. Bachofen eloquently describes the power of symbolism: "Human language is too feeble to convey all the thoughts aroused by the alternation of life and death and the sublime hopes of the initiate. Only the symbol awakens intimations; speech can only explain. The symbol plucks all the strings of the human spirit at once; speech is compelled to take up a single thought at a time. The symbol strikes its roots in the most secret depths of the soul; language skims over the surface of the understanding like a soft breeze. The symbol aims inward; language outward. Only the symbol can combine the most disparate elements into a unitary impression. Language deals in successive particulars; it expresses bit by bit what must be brought home to the soul at a single glance if it is to affect us profoundly. Words make the infinite finite, symbols carry the spirit beyond the finite world of becoming into the realm of infinite being."



www.spiritual.com.au/articles/witchcraft/spellsmagic_dmcleod.htm

[giovanni]

admin said:

Now Gio ha sreally got me doing some research and internal work (which will please Stewart )

I did just my duty, Little Staffs!

[maat]

I love symbols and have just happened across this thread - may I offer the following suggestions.

Re - Father Time and the Virgin picture.

Virgin = undifferentiated MAtter - Binah if you are Kabbalist.
Father Time = Time obviously
Hair = have heard that it does act as an antenna to more subtle energies
Column = one particular life time (fact that it is broken=entity between incarnations)
Urn = contains what we have achieved (or not) to this point in time
Book = Book of Life (the Akashic Record) - Noah Ark could be seen in this Light.
The Sprig = has ONE branch ... but ...MANY leaves. One Spirit-Many Lives
Three Steps = refers to the Trinity of Us - which is a reflection of the Trinity of Divinity. And also the steps which we must take to reach our goal. This ties in with the Triple Tau.

So our consciousness in between lives still exists in the realms of Time and Matter - the column of the Temple not made with hands must sooner or later be erected - even though this may take many life times. But it will be worth the effort as you can see by the top of the column - the completed work will be a thing of Beauty.


Re - the mitred hat. I have always understood that it represented Illumination (which we hope all our leaders have?!) The Indian Chiefs headress - all those feathers fanning out represent the same thing. With second sight - this is how the Energy appears - as golden light sparkling around the head area. Think Star in the East and Haloes.


Triple Tau....you can learn a lot about this in a simple way by reading up on the Huna tradition, wherein the Trinity (conscious, subconscious and superconscious) each have three types of bodies = 3 x 3 = 9. It is only when THESE THREE AGREE with each other that miracles and Illumination can happen.

Maat

[ruffashlar]

The bishop's mitre is in fact directly descended from the Pharaonic headdress or Pshent of Ancient Egypt: this originally united the red crown of Lower Egypt with the white crown of Upper Egypt.

The resulting object sat on the Paraoh's head like a bulbous bivalve, probably phallic in tenor (like everything Egyptian) and expressive of divine authority derived from temporal power. The appropriation of this fashion accessory by the figure of the Christian bishop - the epi-skopos or over-seer - is thus not unproblematic.

[ruffashlar]

As an aside didn't H P Lovecraft have a half fish half man God, Cthulu, in his stories?

Cthulhu (a barbarous spelling no doubt suggested by the adjective chthonic, relating to the primal gods of the dank underworld) was the monstrous, betentacled priest-servant of the Old Gods whose imminent return was prophesied in The Call of Cthulhu (1926). Published in the atmospheric and hugely influential pulp magazine Weird Tales, this short story carries what is uniquely the only rhyming couplet of 1920s poetry still to be found on the T-shirts and CD covers of Black Metal and Goth bands of today, namely:

That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die.

A line almost as well-known is the chanted alien gobbledygook Phnglui mglwnafh Cthulhu R'lyeh waghnagl fhtagn (please don't ask me to pronounce that), which is given as "In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming". Obviously not one to let mere death spoil the party. The bug-eyed octopus-god is now a mainstay of tongue-in-cheek conspiracy theories from Illuminatus! to The Simpsons. He makes a couple of appearances as the Elder God in the time-travelling vampire fantasy RPG computer-game series Legacy of Kain:-

www.3dactionplanet.com/lok/Images/Characters/Elder.jpg

www.nosgoth.net/Defiance/dialogue/dialogue2.htm

In the full Lovecraft system, and the much-elaborated and generally not-quite-as-good add-on tales of the Mythos, the actual gods include the Sumerian fish-god Dagon and his half-man, half-fish offspring who seem rather too fond of New England fisherfolk for the good of either. I think Lovecraft's own 1920s Eugenics-influenced racism is what actually informs his tales of people from different races intermarrying and producing halfbreed children. Even in his descriptions of European and Negroid miscegenation, the same tone of panic and horror is almost palpable.

[hollandr]

Brethren

Lovecraft is alive and well. See www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1430362/posts

"the defendant stated he was fleeing subterranean beings he called "hemadrones""

However no one believed him apart from Lovecraft followers and he will be probably classified as insane.

Funny though that these beings had such a specific name. The defendant must have had a good imagination to find a previously unknown name for them while dodging them on the express way.

With the capacity for creativity while driving in a state of terror I would have thought there would be plenty of jobs open to him in Hollywood. He could even do the stunts while directing the film.

Cheers

Russell

[giovanni]

Looking the link submitted by Offramp, I noticed a symbol which I was not able to reproduce.

Thanks to Penfold, I got a similar image

unfortunately spoiled by that horrible book above. I submit it to your attention. It's a peculiar representation of the two Saints John, the Baptist and the Evangelist.

The circle with the point in the middle is the alchemical symbol of the sun, which is associated to Jesus.

The two tangents are the solstices and, therefore, the two saints. That of the left is St. John the Baptist, who announces the birth of Jesus - in astrology being the Tropic of Cancer; the other one is st. John the Evangelist, the Tropic of Capricorn.

But I think that the two tangents can be also interpreted as the pillars of Hercules, between which the sun sets: in this case I read the drawing as an exhortation to “follow” the Light without fear, outrunning the pillars as did Ulysses.

Any comments, Bren?

[staffs]

Also possibly being ;

The point within a circle from which no mason can err and with the VSL resting on top

[giovanni]

Sure. But the VSL has no reference with tangents.
I am afraid that we are mixing a metaphysical level (expressed by geometry) with a moralistic one.

[hollandr]

My understanding is that the Point within the Circle, the Point within the Triangle and the Point within the Square are references to the 3 highest sephira of the Tree of Life

Hence while established in the Point within the Circle (Keter) it is not possible to err.

Cheers

Russell

[maat]

POINT IN THE CIRCLE = the Divine spark at the heart of all things.
CIRCLE = Eternity (has no beginning or end) OR limitation (the circumference is a boundary line). Hence Divinity at the heart of the seen and the unseen, the known and the unknown.
Likewise the Divine Spark is within us and we could be the point within the circle of this manifestation (as above, so below) bounded by the two pillars of St John the Baptist representing LAW and St John the Divine representing LOVE. Thus we must try to remain within due bounds.

Capricorn = Goat - The Eqyptians believed that the soul exited via that part of the heavens ruled by Capricorn - it having entered incarnation via Cancer, which interesting enough is said to be the sign that rules motherhood, nurturing and all that fine stuff. With a little imagination one could well see the caricature of a triumphant soul returning to the heavens bestride a goat.

Ain't Life Grand!
Maat

[giovanni]

In the Hindu tradition, the Tropic of Cancer corresponds to the deva-yana (the gods’ door) and is situated at northeast; the Tropic of Capricorn to the pitri-yana (the fathers’ door) and is situated to southwest.

This may be considered as contradiction, since in winter the sun appears to be at its lowest point. The contradiction, however, is just apparent, because the ascending phase of the sun in the celestial order is exactly the opposite in the earthly one, as marked by the seasons. According to the general laws of analogy, these points are opposite to each other: as above so below… or, in Christian terms, the least shall be the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven.

St. John Baptist was born in summer and is so associated to the summer solstice: “He must increase but I must decrease” (St. John 3, 30), where “he” means Jesus, who will be born in winter, in coincidence with the winter solstice.

Here it is necessary to think over an important circumstance. From pitri-yana exit men that have not yet gained the eternal freedom, whilst from deva-yana exit those who need no more any reincarnation. There is no further return. Unless.. voluntarily! This means that Jesus is an “avatar”, a manifestation of the GAOTU, who comes back in this world to give aid and relief to those men who have ears to hear.

[maat]

Great post Giovanni, thank you. May I have permission to share it with the Brn at an upcoming St John in Winter ceremony we are doing.

It never fails to amaze me that at the heart of all belief systems the stories/teachings are the same.

Maat

[maat]

Great post Giovanni, thank you. May I have permission to share it with the Brn at an upcoming St John in Winter ceremony we are doing.

It never fails to amaze me that at the heart of all belief systems the stories/teachings are the same.

Maat