Notes and Themes Malki-Zedek The name of the High Priest of Jerusalem in the days of the Patriarch Abraham indicates that Jupiter’s (in Hebrew “Zedek”) was the cult of that city. Malki-Zedek means “Jupiter is my lord (king)”. The story of a ram in the scene of the purported sacrifice of Isaac, points also to Jupiter, ram being the animal representing that planet. Malki-Zedek, the High Priest of the Highest, plays an important role in Christian catechism. The time of the Middle Bronze I and II was the age of Jovian dominion; and probably also the Early Bronze. Siwa-Shiva The oracle of Zeus-Ammon was the oracle of Jupiter (Herodotus IV.181).The name “Siwa Oasis” must have been attached to the oasis by the Macedonians, like Ptolemy I, returning from the invasion of India, Shiva or Siva being the name of Amon there. The salts of ammonia in the neighborhood of the Siwa Oasis resulted from an electrical discharge. The oracle was established in memory of the event and in honor of the deity. Jupiter has ammonia in the atmosphere. Is it not strange that ammonia was found in the neighborhood of the oasis of Amon-Zeus? Zeus-Amon Zeus of the Greeks, Jupiter of the Romans, Mazda of the Iranians, Amon of the Egyptians, Shiva of the Hindus, were all the same planetary god, optimus maximus. The Io, Jahwe coorelation to Io, Jupiter was already made, I assume, so obvious it is. The Planetary Gods Hinduism is not one but three relations closely connected. In one, Brahma is the supreme deity, in another Shiva, and in still another Vishnu. The woshippers of Agni and of Shiva were alsoin conflict. Equally so the worshippers of Mitra in Iran, who were in conflict with the worshippers of Mazda; and in Palestine the worshippers of El (Saturn) were in conflict with the worshippers of Jupiter and of Venus (Astarte); in Babylonia the worshippers of Enlil, of Marduk, of Ishtar, of Nergal. The Astral Religion of Egypt When J. Wilson writes (volume to honor Albright) that it is an admission of failure that the chief cultural content of Egyptian civilization—the religion, with its mythology again and again narrated and alluded in texts and pictured in statutes and temple reliefs, is not understood—he is right. The astral meaning of Egyptian deities was not realized and the cosmic events their activities represent was not thought of. Amon was Jupiter—and this we know from classical writers. Another cult—Isis is Jupiter and Osiris is Saturn. The death of Osiris and its return to life; the birth of Venus-Horus, the fight of Horus and Seth (the head of the Venus comet and its tail)—all refer to celestial drama played before the opeles of the world—and of Egypt. Monotheism In the days of Menashe—understanding that the sun is the supreme planetary body. In the days of Jeremiah, that the Supreme Deity is no planetary body. Is there any opposition to the worship of planetary bodies in the prophets before Jeremiah? Only Abdi-Ashirta sounds like a monotheist in his letters. Yet according to the book of Jeremiah, the Jews of Israel worshipped the planet Venus and brought her cakes till the close of the time of Josiah, the grandson of Menashe. Many passages in the psalms and in the prophets are monolatrous, not monotheistic. Hillel ben Shahar (Hillel son of the Morning Dawn) in Isaiah, was the planet Venus. Many of the psalms reflect astral religion. The psalms “Hallel” may have been adopted from the “pagan” worship of the Morning Star. The visions of the Lord traversing the sky with rays streaming from his body, as in Habbakuk, are not monotheistic. These passages, and on the other hand, the passages in the books of law that establish a worship of sacrifices to the Supreme Being are not enhancing the sacred value of the Old Testament. To expose these alien motifs may be necessary to ruin the idolatrous Christian church, built on the Old Testament. Tragic is for ethical relation between man and his God that when the Israelite nation conceived a God not an astral being but a Supreme Creator and ruler of the world, and this in the days of Jeremiah ande King Josiah, the destruction of the state was only years away. Whereas Nebukhadnezzar was a worshipper of astral deities, a monolator, who changed is protective deity several times in his life, Josiah was a monotheist, whose God was abstracted from anything material. To experience the collapse of the state and the destruction of the temple must have been [experienced as] a great letdown of man by his God. Menashe’s Iniquity In the days of the King Menashe, accused of reverting to idolatry and the worship of celestial bodies, a great advance in the understanding of celestial processes took place, a change comparable to that of the Copernican revolution. It was understood that the Sun is not a body dependent on the will of the planets, especially Jupiter, but that it is the central body. In cataclysmic events, the disturbance in the motion of the Sun was ascribed to the planet at a close approach, Jupiter, Venus, or Mars, as the case would be. The Sun played a very little role on the Greek Olympus, dominated by Zeus. In global catastrophes, the Sun seemed to be powerless—at the approach of a celestial body (planet or comet) to the Earth, the Sun was distrubed in its motion, and therefore appeared to be subservient to planets of violent temper, like Jupiter. The name of the sun—shamash (Akkadian) or shemesh—the servant—reflects this understanding of the ancients. In the ninth and eighth and seventh centuries before the present era, the undstanding that the Sun may be the most powerful started to penetrate the oriental mind, possibly first in Egypt. To understand its central role was the achievement of the seventh-century astrologers in Judea and also in other countries of the Near East. Menashe, son of Hezekiah, built solar chariots for the temple of Jerusalem, which points toward a Copernican revolution in that period of history. The realization of the leading position of the Sun, though itself never the cause of a cataclysmic event on earth, was a major step forward. A greater step was made in the next generation, when the Supreme Being was abstracted from planetary or solar body. But the idea of the invicible sun, “sol invictus” continued to live into the Roman times. Menashe actually returned to the faith of Moses, when he killed Isaiah, opponent of Moses. At that time in Egypt was resurgence of Set’s cult. However Menashe called his son Amon. Isaiah and Moses The complete absence of references to Moses in Isaiah I leads to the thought that Isaiah was not at all reverend to Moses’s memory. The fact mentioned in the Book of Kings that, urged by Isaiah, king Hezekiah destroyed the brazen serpent made by Moses, an object of worship three arters of a millennium after Moses, strengthens the impression that Isaiah was antagonistic toward Mose and his cult. Also in the rest of the prophets Moses is menionted very rarely and mostly not at all. Compare with this the references to Moses in the Koran. There is hardly a sura where Moses is not mentioned, and mostly more than once. Moses-Zarathustra-Quetzalcoatl In the times following the global cataclysms the survivors banding into groups of migrants looked in their despair for leaders. Such a figure was Moses—for the migrant masses that retreated from Egypt toward Asia. Such a leader was also Quetzalcoatl in Mexico. Zoroaster of the Persians arose in a similar role, possibly, afte the same catastrophe. These leaders became lawgivers. However, it is hardly possible that the temple or traveling sacrarium regulations were authored by such leaders in the form the tradition ascribes to them. Of Moses’ monotheism more proofs are needed. The battles in the sky were visualized by all men as contests of the gods; in such times to abstract the religion from the visual planetary gods must have been near impossible. The making of the serpent carried on a pole by Moses and the making of the golden calf by Aharon, appear to be not unsimilar actions. It is remarkable that the prophets of the Israelites hardly ever referred to Moses. It is possible that Ezra, returning from Persia to Palestine, ascribed to Moses many laws and beliefs that were actually of a later date. A prophet of uncompromising monotheism is Jeremiah. Sukkoth The holiday of Sukkoth with building of sukka and palm branches was instituted in the days sof Ezra; in his book it is said that it was not observed this way since the days of Joshua, son of Nun. It must have been a Persian custom and I saw a reference to a Persian festival when palm leaves were a part of the ceremonial. Four Span in the Sky The vision in the sky in the days of Joshua was that of a chariot with a driver and a span of four horses. The four horses idea repeats itself in apocalyptic literature, but also in Olympic charioteeringk and can be traced in ancient folklore and usage, with its mythic undertone. Maccabees’ revolt, Hannukkah The revolt of the Hashmanaim (better known by the name of one of his sons Judah Maccabi) coincides with the conquest of Greece by Rome ca -160. It appears that the Romans fomented the revolt in the Hellenized provinces at the time of their conquest of Greece. The introduction of Hannukkah feast seems to be an adaptation of the roman Saturnalia, and the way of praying with covered head, a taking over of the Roman usus, while the Greek usus was to pray with uncovered head. Some hundred years later, with Pompey, the Romans wished to terminate the alliance, making Judea into a province. Hannukkah was introduced to the memory of Saturn and the Deluge, by the time Israelites looked for alliance with Rome against Greece and Antiochus dynasty. Christmas, like Hannukkah, are memories of seven days of light that preceded the Deluge when Saturn became a nova. The seven-branch candlestick was to serve the seven planets. But the “shamash” with a special position—is to serve the sun. It gives light to all other candles, it has also a special position; and its name indicates that it obtained that position on realization of the role of the sun. The Ball Play In Egypt religious observations had a counterpart in Mexico. It probably symbolized the change in the direction of the sun across the firmament. Illumination of Bel Compare with “Illumination of Osiris” (hayes 328) Ch. VI of the Book of the Dead. (Explosion of Saturn: nova) Shaddai Shaddai may mean “´breasts,” or the heavenly breasts that supplied the wanderers in the desert with nectar and ambrosia. The Lord of the Breasts, the God of compassion and motherly love for mankind, received this appellative. For the Indians (Hindu) it was a holy heavenly cow. Ashera The worship of Ashera or a tree goes back to the time when the world was covered by an envelope of clouds that let food fall ont he ground. The idea of a tree covering the entire earth was born in the experiences of that period when only from the heaven cam food and nothing grew on the ground. Circumcision Behind the story of Saturn swallowing his children there must be a factual story of satellites absorved by the body of the giant planet. Behind the story of Saturn emasculating his father Uranus there might have been a scene in the sky. The similar story of Jupiter emasculating his father Saturn may be “transfer” or borrowing, but may be a reflection in mythology of similar events. Circumcision might have originated as an emulation (but pars pro toto) of the acts displayed in the sky—of Uranus being emasculated by Saturn, or Saturn by Jupiter. Having been “commanded” in the days of the patriarch Abraham, it may reflect the latter event. Circumcision has a hygienic value; it could have been found out and sanctified by the astral events. Christianity The Christian religion and its mysteires originated in Osirian death and resurrection, and also in the flood of fire caused by the Morning Star. The first century’s world expected a repetition of cataclysmic events and the end of the world—Sibylline literature, the Apocrypha and other such books, the Gospels and the book of Revelation. It is possible that the upsurge of such fear was motivated by the fact that between the 15th century catastrophes of the days of the Exodus and of the time of Joshua (Phaethon’s story) and the castrophes caused by the close approeachs of Mars to the Earth in the last act of the theomachy, ca. 700 years passed. After another span of 700 years the fear was intensified. The Christian religion appealed partly because it could in visual demonstration—painting and sculpture—respond to so many instincts in man and woman— – adoration of a newborn child – young mother and child – a wonder healer – a young dead – a mother dolorosa but also the bi-sexual nature of Jesus (with hair of a woman and beard of a man), whatever was his appearance in life, and especially the masochistic-sadistic tendencies and expressions and experiences of his story, found an echo in many a soul. Themes for Sinai and Olympus Malki-Zedek Filekterie 8-year feast in Mexico-Passover cake circumcision; Kronos, Uranos Isaiah and Moses, cf. Koran Athena-Aten Angels at Mamrech Baal Mitra-Metatron-Mazda Mazza-Manna God’s Land Plato and God Sabbath Angels, Archangels Cicero and planets Shaddai Star of David Astrology Amon Seven lamps Jupiter and Venus Num Festival of Sukkoth, fruits Mars and Moon Gad grove, ashera Four span in the sky Tammuz Leviathan (Satan) Exodus-Passover-Mexico Azazel Jeremiah and monotheism Disc of Saints red cow Baal psalms God as creator Jubilee Habakkuk Job and monotheism Atonement day Moses-Zarathustra-Quetzalcoatl Olympus Mora Glilim* Isaiah against Venus Calendar; New Year Disk between horns Seth Hanukkah; Saturnalia Brahma-Saturn Jupiter and Venus cults *Glilim references in the Scriptures - Jeremiah, Ezekiel? Kings? Deuteron. Philol. of the word. Idea of Ben-Yahuda (Osiris). Planets. Opposition to astral religion. Hezekiah? Menashe-sun & planets. Jeremiah. Complaints of the exiled to Egypt. Planets as circling orbs. End of kingdom. When monotheism prevailed.