THE WORD OF GOD

Within the Indo-European culture exists a drink called Soma, that is said to convey the experience of immortality, is a healer and gives absolution. Soma is also the name of two plants, one known, the other concealed, and it is the name of a god. The drink Soma as described in the Rig Veda, is the sacrament of the Aryans, and it is the prototype for all the great world religions use of a sacrament. It has been believed lost, but in reality it has been hid within plain sight and can be found by anyone who bothers to look for it. Thus these words.

Matthew 7:7-8.

7. Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

8. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

Proverbs 8:17.

Jesus and Virgin Mary, marked by a star.      

                                                                                      -Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma.

Quoting from the Rig Veda, book 9, hymn 109.

Book 9, hymn 80.

4) The men, the ten swift fingers, milk thee out for Gods, even thee most rich in meath, with thousand flowing streams. Soma who winnest thousands, driven by the men, expressed with stones, bring, as thou flowest, all the Gods.

                                                                          -Ralph T. H. Griffith (translator), Rig-Veda.

The entheogen experience is of a magnitude that can be compared to nothing else known to mankind and can be described as a cosmic orgasm on behalf of God. Anything of such immensity is bound to leave a trace and this is what is followed in this little essay.

A part from the entheogen experience, being the King is considered the greatest thing that can happen to a human being. To become the King one must be anointed and equipped with the symbols of the coronation. The church is the institution with the authority to anoint and to coronate.

Here (above) we see Christian V's coronation in the chapel of Frederiksborg Palace, Denmark, in 1671. Two lions are present in front of the throne. The ceremony involved a third lion behind the throne, which can't be see on said picture. This placed the King in a triangle of 3 lions, as God, the All Seeing Eye of Horus, the Holy Trinity.

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Above, the first and the last picture are classical pictures of a king in all his pomp and glamour. There is a lion and a unicorn on the first picture, one at each sides of the crown. The green lion, the unicorn, the sceptre, the lily, and Virgin Mary, are all symbols of Cannabis sativa (Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica and Cannabis ruderalis is henceforth only named as Cannabis sativa). The red lion, the stag, the globus cruciger, the rose and Jesus, are all symbols of Amanita muscaria. On the first picture the kings dress symbolizes the male part of the sacrament and on the last the dress symbolizes the female part of the sacrament.

As has been shown by several authors after the publishing of Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality, by R. Gordon Wasson and The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, by John M. Allegro, the Amanita muscaria is at the centre of religious reverence among the Aryans. Their culture, a patriarchy, only honours the male part of the sacrament as a god, this being so especially within Christian Protestantism.

                        "Sforza Triptych," by Rogier van der Weyden.                             "Crucifixion," by Sanzio Raffaello.

The sacrament, the Soma sacrifice, consist of two parts, male and female, the sun and the moon. The marriage between these two elements is happening within the human body, after consuming the blood of the crucified saviour, the sacrament.

"Diptych of Jeanne of France," by Rogier van der Weyden.

Jesus is, among other things, the anthropomorphization of the sun and Amanita muscaria, and Virgin Mary is, among other things, the anthropomorphization of the moon and Cannabis sativa.

The regal symbols are the sceptre, the globus cruciger and the crown. The symbol of the ability to anoint, are the two keys which St. Peter holds.

Paradise, Canto VI, Dante's Divine Comedy, picture by Sandro Botticelli. The round form made of flames symbolize the Amanita muscaria with all its dots. The flames symbolizes the flames of the Holy Spirit, Cannabis sativa. Furthermore, the drawing is a symbol of the stars spinning around the poles.

 

                                                                    -Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, Purgatorio, Canto IX.

One is more precious, but the other needs much art and skill before it will unlock. Before the age of oil, Cannabis sativa was one of the most important plants used by man, thus more precious, and Amanita muscaria is very difficult to use.

Engraving made by Matthaus Merian for Opus Medico-Chymicum.

The picture above tells the story of the Holy Trinity and is an illustration of the saying "As above, so below." Above, the Trinity is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (the word "Spirit" commonly translates the Greek New Testament word pneuma). Below, the Trinity is man, Amanita muscaria (solar hero), and Cannabis sativa (moon goddess). Aquila, sometimes called Sophia, is the bird in the bottom right corner that brings the young cupbearer to Zeus. Phoenix is the bird in the other corner. These are equivalent with the two birds (Khyung and Khading) who became the bird Garouda in the myths of the Himalayas and are identified with the Aryan Soma. (Shamanism and Tantra in the Himalayas by Surendra Bahadur Shahi, Christian Ratsch and Claudia Muller-Ebeling).

The Church of San Francisco, Puebla, Mexico.

Reliquary of the True Cross at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem.

Double-headed eagle emblem of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (Istanbul), with cross and globus cruciger in the claws.

 

Jesus and Mary, St. George and the dragon, and the double-headed eagle all represent the same, namely Amanita muscaria and Cannabis sativa.

"Mary Nazarene," by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Mary is seen planting a lily and a rose bush beside a stream. Among the Christians, Jesus is the rose of Sharon and Mary is the lily of the valleys.

 

Song of Solomon 2:1.

In view of the fact that the white lily was considered an antidote for poisons and mushrooms, the concurrence of lilies and mushrooms in the same pictorial and sacred space would not have been without special significance to the faithful who contemplated the frescoes.

                                                                                    -Entheos, no. 2.

 

"Sacrifice of Isaac," by Alessandro Allori. Notice the lilies and mushrooms in bottom right corner.

 

Origines identified the Biblical "lilies of the field" with the Word, that is to say, with the Wisdom that comes from God; he would seem to have known the occult tradition that the lily was the fruit flower of the Tree-Bush of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden.

                                                                                    -Entheos, no. 2.

 

... for Origines the lily is the paramount flower of the mystic.

                                                                                    -Entheos, no. 2.

In the European arts the annunciation is usually portrayed by an angel announcing the pregnancy of Mary holding a sceptre or a lily in her hand.

The Danish sceptre, gold with enamel and table-cut diamonds. Made for the coronation of Frederik III in 1648 by an unknown goldsmith in Copenhagen. Used at anointings during the period of Absolutism until 1840. The sceptre has a blue lily with crown and globus cruciger on top.

Mjoelner, the Nordic thunderbolt.

The reader must keep in mind that there are two trees in paradise (Genesis 3:22). Adam and Eve only ate of the tree that gives knowledge of good and evil (Cannabis sativa), and not of the tree that gives eternal life (Amanita muscaria). Concerning the tree from of which they ate, consider the following.

This is the same tree that was the original of the Garden of Eden, for which reason Adam and Eve had its leaves ready at hand to cover their nakedness, hence the curious custom of covering the embarrassing nudeness of classical sculpture with an affixed fig leaf. The Hebrew folkloric collection known as the Haggadah specifically identifies the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge as the fig. The woman's name became Anglicized as Eve, Hava in Latin, which means "the mother of all" (mater sanctorum biennium, Genesis 3. 4-5), from the Hebrew Havvah, or "Life, the Living One," in Greek Zoe, which was the Canaanite epithet of Asherah, the great Mother Goddess, consort of the high god El, who was syncretized with Yahweh, until the reforms of the late seventh century abolished her cult. Her emblem were the Tree, the Cosmic Axis, and the Serpent. And her cult was orgiastic, an ecstatic shamanism, affording direct and easy access to the divine.

The visionary nature of the fig tree is preserved in the curious episode in the gospel of Luke about the tax collector Zacchaeus who wanted to see Jesus, but being too short, he climbed a sycamore fig to catch a glimpse of the deity. Thus also was Amos a tender of sycamore figs, when the Lord spoke to him, commanding him to be a prophet unto the people of Israel. The Buddha was said to have received enlightenment under a fig tree. The ambivalence of the Judo-Christian tradition to this Tree of Knowledge and its in-dwelling goddess can be sensed in the prohibition against eating its figs that make man the equal of god, with the Knowledge of good and evil, reinterpreting its fruits as the "bad" (mahan) "apple" (mahan), homophonous in Latin, the latter designating any fruit that, unlike a nut, is fleshy on the outside, including pomegranates and figs: the fruit is not named in Genesis, although it was recognized as the fig still in medieval times, but the force of the pun became irresistible, probably reinforced by pagan traditions of an apple-like magical fruit.

His heart was very, very saddened, and he was alone. After a long time, Hathor, the Lady of the Southern Sycamore, came, stayed with her father, the Lord of the Universe, and uncovered her nudeness before him. Then the great god burst into laughter because of her, then got up and (went to) take his seat with the Great Ennead.  -Chester Beatty Papyrus c.1550 BCE.

. . .the Egyptian goddess Hathor also exposed herself obscenely to cheer her farther Ra. The gods were in Tribunal, disagreeing about the successor to the dead Osiris, either his son Horus or his brother Seth. Ra sickened and retired to his private quarters for an entire day, and his daughter displayed her vulva and restored him.

In Egyptian traditions, Hathor empowered the pharaoh, feeding him with the elixir of her celestial milk, flowing from her sycamore fig tree. Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were suckled by a she-wolf beneath such a tree. Demeter was similarly associated with the fig tree; and the relationship of the mother and the empowered child passed on into Christian traditions: in the Apocryphal Gospels, there was a sycamore called the Pharaoh's Fig in the Egyptian town of Mathave that opened to hide within it the Virgin Mary and the Christ as they fled from Herod's wrath. The Egyptian tree often grew on the edge of the desert, indicating a source of subterranean water, which made it a fitting marker for the entrance to the otherworld.

But in addition, although obviously not psychoactive, the fig has connotations, not only as a plant of divine empowerment, but of visionary wisdom. Figs were known for inducing both lust and knowledge; thus the fauns and pagan gods of Gaul were called ficarii or "fig-men."

He also suspected that the wise and lascivious forest creatures of pagan Europe who went by the name of "fig-men" existed upon a diet of mushrooms. Graves, unfortunately, was seen as a renegade. . .

The Greek word for fig (sykon, cognate with Latin ficus) was a metaphor for the vagina, preserved in the Italian fica for "vulva."

  It is normally the female sex organs from the Cannabis plant that one wants (the dried flowers), when one uses Cannabis sativa in a spiritual or healing context, though other parts of the plant is somtimes used too.

The botanical classification of Cannabis has long been uncertain. Botanists have agreed on the family to which cannabis belongs: early investigators put it in the Nettle family (Urticaceae); later it was accommodated in the Fig family (Moraceae); the general trend today is to assign it to a special family, Cannabaceae, in which only Cannabis and Humulus, the genus of Hops, are members.

                                                                           -Schultes, Hofmann & Ratsch, Plants of the Gods.                        

Mark 11:12-14.

12. The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry.

13. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs.

14. Then he said to the tree, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard him say it.

Matthew 21:19.

And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away.

                                                                                                                             -The Bible.

What's being said here is that the fig tree that has no fruits (the male Cannabis sativa plant) must be taken away, when it is not the season for figs, thereby avoiding impregnating the female Cannabis sativa plant.

2 Kings 20:7

And Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs. And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.

Isaiah 38:21

For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaister upon the boil, and he shall recover.

Just as certain parts of the fig tree, in this case the fruits, are having heeling properties in the Old Testament, so it is in real life with parts of Cannabis sativa, usually the female flowers.

 

For more than six thousand years hemp has been used as a medicine everywhere it grows in the vicinity of humans. During my ethnomedicinal study (Marijuana Medicine) it came to light that the medical use of hemp is even more multifaceted than the possible uses of the entire plant. Over the course of history different cultures and various healing systems have used hemp to treat far more than a hundred indications. In other words, hemp is one of the most versatile medicinal plants of all!

                                                 -C. Muller, C. Ratsch, and W. Storl, Witchcraft Medicine.

 

1 Kings 4:25

And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.

Micah 4:4

But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it.

The wine is Jesus (Amanita muscaria) and the fig tree is Virgin Mary (Cannabis sativa).

                                                                      -David L. Spess, Soma : The Divine Hallucinogen.

                                                                           -Judith Crews, "Forest and tree symbolism in folklore."

"Guarantee that my soul sets down in the trees which I have planted, so that I may refresh myself under my sycamores," says the Egyptian death prayer carved into a casket lid. The sycamore, a type of fig tree (Ficus sycamores), is the World Tree of the Egyptians and the residence of Hathor, goddess of the heavens, who dispenses the water of life. The Egyptian Copts still believe that the Virgin Mary has sat in every sycamore tree.

To the eternal eye the tree in which the dead souls seek refuge is just one of the many mighty fig trees that grow in every location in India. But to the inner eye this tree reveals itself as the World Tree. It is the shamanic tree, the latter to the heavens, the cosmic spinal column that connects the highest heavens and the depths of the underworld. It is the path on which the witch sits and listens and sometimes laughs her "cosmic laugh."

                                                -C. Muller, C. Ratsch, and W. Storl, Witchcraft Medicine.

The cross is made with wood from this tree, the tree with the knowledge of good and evil, from off which Adam cut a branch for a staff which he brought with him when he and Eve was thrown out of paradise. (Interestingly, Cannabis sativa can be propagated either by seeds or by cuttings.) This staff, the staff of Moses, the staff of St. Christopher and the staff Jesus is often portrayed with, is the tree of Jesse. In fact Jesus is crucified on this very tree (picture below).

Tree of Jesse design in the Apse of San Clemente, in the valley of the Forum in Rome.

                     -Earnest A. Wallis Budge, M.A. (editor and translator), The Book of the Bee.

Cannabis sativa is a virgin, like Virgin Mary, when grown to maximise the psychoactive elements in the plant. The female Cannabis sativa plant, even experiences the immaculate conception, just like Virgin Mary. When kept away from male plants it miraculous carries a few seeds (it turns into a hermaphrodite). And like the pelican in the myths, Cannabis sativa feeds its young with its own blood, when it grows seeds instead of the marijuana.

Seeds. Their presence indicates that this isn't the most potentially resinous of plants, but rather a seeded female - which still can be very strong. There are various estimates indicating that about 40 to 50 percent of the "vital energy" in the female will go into seed production rather than resin production if fertilized. The weight one gets to smoke, of course, doesn't include the weight of seeds.

                                                                                   -Peter Stafford, Psychedelics Encyclopedia.

Tree of Life and Death, a medieval manuscript illumination by Berthold Furtmeyer, from Archbishop of Salzburg's missal, 1481 AD.

There are legends of the tree of knowledge of good and evil in abundance. Some of these tales tell of Jesus being crucified on wood from this very tree. Many images of Jesus show him working miracles with a wand, much like the rod of Moses. This rod is a symbolic representation, as is the sceptre, of Cannabis sativa.

"Discovery of the True Cross," by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. In art Virgin Mary is often associated with smoke, a lot of times coming from an incense burner, also called a thurible. And Saint Mary Coptic Orthodox Church in Atlanta, USA, has it that the name Mary means "Royal Incense."

"Still-Life with Symbols of the Virgin Mary," by Dirck de Bray.

Mary is in fact, the golden thurible (Rev. 8,3) through which we must offer to God in order to please him, not only the incense of our prayers, but also of all our good works. She is also the gate to heaven;...

                  -Ippolito Marracci, Leonis Mariale, 1651, No 8. In Purificationem, pp. 154-157.

 

"The Damsel of the Sanct Grael," by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

 

She is also the gate to heaven;... Thus the cross on graves. In the film "Little Buddha" by Bernardo Bertolucci, Lama Dorje (Lama Thunderbolt) has been reincarnated into the trinity Raju (Krishna), Gita (Bhagavad-Gita) and Jesse (Tree of Jesse). Jesse wears a green cap with an A on it (see third picture below), and in the end of the film Jesse performs a funeral from a ship named Mary Jane, which is slang for Cannabis sativa.

But above all, hemp (Cannabis sativa) is the sacred herb of death ceremonies. In the Pen T'sao of Shen Nung, the most ancient herbal with roots dating to the Chinese Neolithic period, hemp is said to make the body light and enable the human to speak with ghosts. The Scythians, a mounted nomadic people of the West Asian steppes, reportedly placed their dead in a tent with dried hemp burning on glowing stones. The inhalation of the smoke relaxes the soul enough from the physical construct of the body, making it possible to accompany the deceased part of the way into the regions beyond. In India hemp is considered the herb of Harshanas, the god of the death ceremony (shraddha). Those who are left smoke ganja at the funeral pyre or eat it spiced with pepper as a delicacy. Those in mourning cut their hair and sacrifice it, as is done for a birth or other important ritual of transformation. With the help of hemp they meditate on the dissolution of the five physical shells of the body (Pancha Kroshi). They watch as Shiva, swinging the trident, frees the deceased from his material chains in the wild dance of the flames. They see the demons and the elemental beings who dance with Shiva, and they take delight in the flow of life energy.

In Neolithic China it was the custom for participants of the festival of the dead to wrap themselves in hemp garments. The Codex Leviticus of the ancient Hebrews stipulates that the last clothes of the dead be made from hemp fibres. The idea could have come from Egypt, as the bandages of the mummies contain many hemp fibres, and in the mouths of the mummies archaeologists have found hemplike resin mixtures (Behr, 1995: 33). Undoubtedly the hemp seeds that have been found in Germanic graves were thought of as food of the dead. Hemp was, as were all other fibrous plants, sacred to the goddess of fate, the "spinner" Freya or Frau Holle. Hemp seed are still food for the dead among the Slavs and the Balts of eastern Europe: A hemp soup is cooked and eaten at Christmas or the Epiphany, when the dead visit their families.

The Germanic goddess of love, Freya, flew through the worlds with her cat-drawn chariot. Her sacred animals were cats and rabbits; the plants dedicated to her were hemp and flax or linen. Just as the goddess was transformed into a "witch," her sacred hemp was made into a "devil's herb."

                                                  -C. Muller, C. Ratsch, and W. Storl, Witchcraft Medicine.

"The Adoration of the name of the Lord," by Francisco Goya. Within the Eastern Orthodox Church and Eastern Catholic Churches, incense is understood as symbolizing the sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit.

Call it Eve, Virgin Mary, the cross, or Cannabis sativa. It's all different names for the same thing. It's one of the two keys to heaven. The other is Amanita muscaria. The picture above is a detail from a picture called "The Triumph of the Cross," by Agnolo Gaddi. On the fare right the cross is going into a keyhole.

The picture above, by Petrus Christus, is called "Our Lady of the Dry Tree." The golden A letter's hanging from the tree, symbolizes Alpha, part of the Spiritual Gold, and the beginning of the Great Work, God being both Alpha (Cannabis sativa), and Omega (Amanita muscaria). From the Bible:

Revelation 21:6

And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

 

 The Throne of Saint Peter.

On the picture above, a branch is taken from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and given to two men dressed in the colors of the Amanita muscaria mushroom, both men standing besides the River of Life. Notice the many birds. Birds love Cannabis seeds.

When tea is made from the dried Amanita muscaria and ingested on its own, the first results are nausea and vomiting. When ingested together with Cannabis sativa, this sickening part of the experience can be avoided, that is, you fight the nausea with Cannabis. This is what the myths of St. George, also called Green George, is about. The slaying or taming of the dragon, while a virgin and a pot of gold is liberated. Or as in the fully developed Western version of the myth, a dragon makes its nest at the spring that provides water for the city. St. George faces the dragon, slays it thus freeing the waters and rescuing a princess. The slaying is in fact an act of purification. Cannabis sativa purifying Amanita muscaria, thus the epithet Pavamana (Self-purifying) in relation to Soma in the Rig Veda.

The Aryan prototype for all this is in the Vedic encounter of Indra with the great serpent Ahi - alternatively known as Vritra, "Drought," or Namuci, "Holdfast" - who has confiscated the waters, which are only to be released when Indra dismembers the Titan with his thunderbolt. The corresponding Persian myth concerns the overthrowing of Ahriman by Mithra; there is also the Iranian hero Thraetona who slew Dahak, a three-headed dragon. For European counterparts, we have the Teutonic myth of Siegfried, who overcomes a mighty dragon and despoils him of the Rheingold belonging to the river nymphs, and which finds its Scandinavian parallel in the story of Sigurd. The Anglo-Saxon Beowulf is likewise a dragon-slayer.

                               -Mateus Soares de Azevedo (editor), Ye Shall Know the Truth.

 

The basis of St. George is the green man. From Basel Cathedral.

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Two pictures from Stockholm Cathedral. St. George's horse has the horn of a unicorn, and above the horn, the fleur-de-lis (literally translated from French as "flower of the lily") is also presented in a deep disguise in the "Three Feathers" reminiscent of the "Prince of Wales feathers." Both the unicorn and the lily are expellers of poison.

Scholar Sula Benet made the following comments on a tale that closely resembles that of Saint George : "In the Ukraine there is a legend of a dragon who lived in Kiev, oppressing the people and demanding tribute. The dragon was killed and the city liberated by a man wearing a hemp shirt." (Sula Benet, Early Diffusion and Folk Uses of Hemp.)

The early records of the Order of the Garter are lost. Its patron saint was St. George, who is equated in Syria, where his cult originates, with the mysterious Khidr-figure of the Sufis. It was in fact called the Order of St. George, which would translate direct into Sufi phraseology as Tarika-i-Hadrat-i-Khidr (the Order of St. Khidr). It became known as the Order of the Garter. The word "garter" in Arabic is the same as the word for the Sufi mystical tie or bond.

-Chris Bennett, Lynn Osburn and Judy Osburn, Green Gold the Tree of Life: Marijuana in Magic & Religion.

The episode of St. George and the Dragon is Eastern in origin, brought back with the Crusaders. In Islamic cultures, the Prophet or Saint al-Khadr or al-Khidr (according to the Quran a companion of the prophet Moses), is associated with Mar Girgis (St. George), who is also venerated under that name by Christians among mainly Muslim people, especially Palestinian people, and mainly around Jerusalem, where according to tradition he lived and often prayed near the Temple Mount, and is venerated as a protector in times of crisis. His main monument is the elongated mosque Qubbat al-Khadr ("The Dome of al-Khadr") which stands isolated from any close neighbours on the northwest corner of "The Dome of the Rock" terrace in Jerusalem.

The capacity of St. George to cross religious boundaries is seen in an Eastern Orthodox shrine for St. George at Beith Jala, which Moslems use in the belief it is the home of the legendary Saint of fertility known as Khidr, Arabic for green, as well as Jews attending the site in the belief that the prophet Elijah was buried there.

In the Islamic tradition, Khidr is the Green Prophet and Islam's Patron Saint of Cannabis. And Khidr, together with Alexander the Great, finds the Fountain of Life, by placing two fish in some water. After drinking of it Khidr is the only one to attain immortality.

From the first and the last then, Corbin tells a tale of human life in which the place of language and the Word is central, and in which the quest for the lost language of God and the angels is the fundamental problem. It is the question that underlies the unity of the three branches of the Abrahamic tradition.

In his masterful treatment of the prophetic tradition, Norman O. Brown too relies on Corbin's work for insights into the history of these interconnected and tragically divided religions. Islam is the last in the sequence of the great Revelations, and so sees itself as the end of the prophetic tradition. Following Louis Massignon, Brown takes Sura XVIII as the central book of the Quran, and the central episode of this Sura is the meeting between Moses and Khidr. Khidr is a mysterious figure, who acts as Moses' Guide and initiator into the secret meanings of the Law and of the world. He is the archetypal hermeneut whose speech is the lost poetry of Creation. In the Islamic tradition he is identified with the Old Testament figure of Elija. Khidr is the personal Guide, and Corbin says, equivalent to the Paraclete and the Hidden Imam, to the Christ of the Cross of Light; he is the Verus Propheta, the inner guide of each person, the celestial Anthropos and Angel of Humanity whose appearance to every person is each time unique.

Brown writes that the question posed by Islam, at the end of the prophetic tradition, after Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad, is, What comes after the Prophets? In Brown's words, "The question is, Who is Khidr? And, What does it mean to be a disciple of Khidr? . . . Pursuing that question, Ibn Arabi said that he had plunged into an ocean on whose shore the Prophet remained behind standing."

This question is equivalent to asking how we may recover the Lost Speech.

-Chris Bennett, Lynn Osburn and Judy Osburn, Green Gold the Tree of Life: Marijuana in Magic & Religion.

Here Khidr is seen standing on a fish crossing the river of life. More about this very interesting character can be found in the link below.

 http://khidr.org/cannabis.htm

The banner of St. George.

In Latin, canna, as in Cannabis, can mean a small ship. On the picture below, the sailors on the ship seems to try to get our attention. Look at the flag flown from the top of the mast on the ship. It is the shape of the banner of St. George and together with the ship, it is a symbol of Cannabis sativa. And, as with the myth of Khidr, two fish (Age of Pisces/Jesus) are in the water, symbolising Amanita muscaria.

"Hunt of the Unicorn, the Unicorn at the Fountain," anonymous artist, ca.1500, tapestry, French, New York City, Metropolitan Museum.

 

The unicorn is a mythical animal that has changed in appearance over the many years of it first being recorded. In the Middle Ages it was thought of as being a strong and fierce animal associated with chastity and virginity and also with Christ's love of mankind (and it could only be captured by a virgin). When a unicorn dips its horn in water it purifies the water from what ever poison might be in it.

                                                           -Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages.

The Arian sacrament consists of two elements, as does the philosopher's stone within alchemy. It is the union within the human body, of these two opposites, that is the goal of the spiritual seeker.

                                                                        -Alexander Roob, Alchemy and Mysticism.

The wise man plucks it without being pricked, while thieves "have nothing but pain from it." When you ingest Amanita muscaria without being initiated into the proper use of the mushroom, you will become very sick. Make of man and woman a circle; when you add the head to the tail, you have the whole tincture. In Latin the word penis originally meant tail, so this is an other way of saying, that after ingesting Amanita muscaria and Cannabis sativa, then drink your urine. Thus the Ouroboros.

John 7:37-38.

In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

                                                                                                                    -The Bible.

Book 10, hymn 28.

"When the Gods Drank Urine"

by Mike Crowley

http://www.erowid.org/plants/amanitas/amanitas_writings1.shtml

When Buddha was born he jumped around on one leg. This is what his footprint looked like.

Buddhist art indicating the sacramental use of Amanita muscaria. The four pictures above and the one below are from Ajanta Caves, India.

There's a famous saying in Buddhism. "If you ever meet the Buddha on the path, kill him." Also, there is a legend to the effect, that when the Buddha was sitting under the Bodhi tree (ficus religiosa), he was so deep in meditation that he was unaware that it was extremely hot. A group of snails saw him and realising the importance of his thoughts, crawled up to cover and protect his head with their bodies. The snails died from exposure to the hot sun and became honoured as martyrs who had died to protect the Buddha. In some images of the Buddha, his hair curls do indeed resemble snails to remind people of this story. If Buddha in the above story is the Amanita muscaria, then the myth makes perfect sense, since snails are known to sit on the cap of the mushroom, eating from it, as opposed to sitting on a human head.

Amanita muscaria, with the flame of the holy spirit, Cannabis sativa, on top.

 

 

The elongated ears of the Buddha comes from the fact that when the Amanita muscaria is in the end of its life circle, it often literally melts away.

 

 

  Buddha meditating inside the young  Amanita muscaria with what appears to be the fleur-de-lis on top. Nalanda Site Museum, Bihar, India.

                                                  -Schultes, Hofmann & Ratsch, Plants of the Gods.

The Tibetan word for stupa is Chorten, which means "the basis of offering." It is a symbol of the enlightened mind, (the awakened mind, universal divinity) and the path to its realisation. The stupa represents the Buddha's body, his speech and his mind, but most especially his mind and every part shows the path to Enlightenment. Every stupa contains at the very least a life tree and a holy relic.

The first three pictures below are examples of Christian iconography. The last of the three is of a monstrance. A monstrance is the vessel used in the Roman Catholic, Old Catholic, and Anglican Churches to display the consecrated Eucharistic Host, which is literally believed to be the body of Christ.

The Amanita muscaria looks like this (pictures above) when it has been lying down for a while. When you harvest the mushrooms and carry them in your basket, upon retuning home, some of the mushrooms will have turned their caps 90 degrees, to enable the release of spoors.

It is the moon that is carrying the soma.

 

The Mahashivratri is Shiva's Great Night. On this day Lord Shiva was married to Parvati (who had given Shiva the Cannabis plant so that he would not run of with other women). On this day Shiva drank the poison and held it in his throat (turning blue) by binding it with a snake. On this day, after the churning of the ocean, demons attempted to gain control of Amrita, but the gods were able to prevent this seizure, giving Cannabis the name Vijaya ("victory") to commemorate their success. And among his myriad epithets, Shiva is known as "Lord of Bhang."

                                             -Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893-1894, Bombay.

Rudra in the sky is Sirius, star of stars, most exalted among them.

Sirius the dog star is twice and even thrice the star shape of Rudra.

Sirius, the hound of heaven, the star form of Rudra, the Wild God, is mythically the most eminent of all stars.

This mighty star is the sidereal equivalent of the Rg Veda word of power, the raudra brahman. It is the star symbol of the Wild Hunter and the guardian of order, the dog.

                                                        -Stella Kramrisch, The Presence of Siva.

All four pictures above can be found in Alchemy & Mysticism, by Alexander Roob. Notice the pelican and phoenix on the last picture.

 

"Marienaltarchen," by Koelner Meister, Rheinisches Landes-Museum, Bonn. Notice the pelican and phoenix.

This Egyptian deity under many names appears as the principle of natural fecundity among nearly all the religions of the ancient world. She was known as the goddess with ten thousand appellations and was metamorphosed by Christianity into the Virgin Mary, for Isis, although she gave birth to all living things--chief among them the Sun--still remained a virgin, according to the legendary accounts.

Plutarch translates the name Isis to mean wisdom.

Plutarch further asserts that the Greeks recognized in Osiris the same person whom they revered under the names of Dionysus and Bacchus.

The ancients gave the name Isis to one of their occult medicines; therefore the description here given relates somewhat to chemistry. Her black drape also signifies that the moon, or the lunar humidity - the sophic universal mercury and the operating substance of Nature in alchemical terminology - has no light of its own, but receives its light, its fire, and its vitalizing force from the sun. Isis was the image or representative of the Great Works of the wise men: the Philosopher's Stone, the Elixir of Life, and the Universal Medicine.

And in the middle of the crown, just on her forehead, there was a smooth orb resembling a mirror, or rather a white refulgent light, which indicated that she was the moon.

The Druids of Britain and Gaul had a deep knowledge concerning the mysteries of Isis and worshiped her under the symbol of the moon.

The moon was chosen for Isis because of its dominion over water. The Druids considered the sun to be the father and the moon the mother of all things. By means of these symbols they worshiped Universal Nature.

The Druids had a Madonna, or Virgin Mother, with a Child in her arms, who was sacred to their Mysteries; and their Sun God was resurrected at the time of the year corresponding to that at which modern Christians celebrate Easter.

Plutarch describes the requisites of a follower of Isis in this manner: "For as 'tis not the length of the beard, or the coarseness of the habit which makes a philosopher, so neither will those frequent shavings, or the mere wearing [of] a linen vestment constitute a votary of Isis; but he alone is a true servant or follower of this Goddess, who after he has heard, and been made acquainted in a proper manner with the history of the actions of these Gods, searches into the hidden truths which is concealed under them, and examines the whole by the dictates of reason and philosophy."

During the Middle Ages the troubadours of Central Europe preserved in song the legends of this Egyptian goddess. They composed sonnets to the most beautiful woman in all the world. Though few ever discovered her identity, she was Sophia, the Virgin of Wisdom, whom all the philosophers of the world have wooed. Isis represents the mystery of motherhood, which the ancients recognized as the most apparent proof of Nature's omniscient wisdom and God's overshadowing power. To the modern seeker she is the epitome of the Great Unknown, and only those who unveil her will be able to solve the mysteries of life, death, generation, and regeneration.

In light of the Goddesses early connection with the Tree of life, it is not at all surprising to find that the Goddess can also be connected with the star of the holy hemp plant:

There are many legends which tell how the Goddess was born of a star. Sirius (Sept.) was regarded as the sacred star of Isis (Aug-Sep), it is called the "grandmother" by the Bush (wo)men and it is of great and sacred importance to the Dogon people of Mali.
-Monica Sjoo, "New Age And Armageddon."

The Dogon people recognize Sirius as the planet from which their holy cannabis came from. (See chapter 6, Egypt.) A number of scholars have pointed to an earlier Egyptian influence on the Dogon cosmology; and the Queen of Heaven, Isis, connected with this star.(3)


Notes:

3. "Ancient Egypt may have contributed its share of the gorgeous symbolism of the Catholic Church as well as to the pale abstractions of her theology. Certainly in art the figure of Isis suckling the infant Horus is so like that of the Madonna and child that it has sometimes received the adorations of ignorant Christians. And to Isis in her later character, as patroness of mariners the Virgin Mary perhaps owes her beautiful epithet of Stella Maris, "Star of the Sea," under which she is adored by tempest-tossed sailors. The attributes of a marine deity may have been bestowed on Isis by the sea-faring Greeks of Alexandria. They are quite foreign to her original character and to the habit of the Egyptians, who had no love of the sea. On this hypothesis Sirius, the bright star of Isis, which on July mornings rises from the glassy waves of the eastern Mediterranean, a harbinger of halcyon weather to mariners, was the true Stella Maris, "the Star of the Sea."" (J. G. Frazer, "The Golden Bought," 1922.)

-Chris Bennett, Lynn Osburn and Judy Osburn, Green Gold the Tree of Life: Marijuana in Magic & Religion.

"Our Lady, Star of the Sea," venerated in the church of Sliema, Malta.

-Chris Bennett, Lynn Osburn and Judy Osburn, Green Gold the Tree of Life: Marijuana in Magic & Religion.

In "Flesh Of The Gods" Peter T. Furst mention that some of the earliest Sanskrit names for Cannabis sativa is cana and sana. According to the University of Notre Dame Dog in Latin is canicula, Rabbit in Latin is cuniculus and Sirius in Latin is canicula.

The dog features as a guardian of the underworld in Egyptian, Hindu and Greek mythology, and the dog is "man's best friend," and the creature humans have had the longest standing symbiotic relationship with. Among the plants this is true for Cannabis.

                                                                                -Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages.

In old Egypt, Thoth was sometimes depicted with the face of a dog-headed baboon and the body of a man or, as a full dog-headed baboon. His feminine counterpart was Maat.

As with the Egyptian's, Cynocephali is present in Christian world-views too. St. Christopher is in the Eastern Orthodox Church portrayed on certain icons as having the head of a dog.

As the myth goes, during the reign of the Emperor Decius, a man named Reprebus (or Reprobus) "the Condemned" was captured in combat against tribes to the west of Egypt and was assigned to the numerous Marmaritarum or "Unit of the Marmaritae". He was of enormous size and terrifying demeanour, being a cannibal (cannibal as in Cannabis) with, like all the Marmaritae, the head of a dog instead of a man. Traditional Orthodox iconography depicts him as literally dog-headed. Regardless, Reprebus accepted baptism and began to preach the faith.

Eventually, the governor of Antioch (or in some versions, the Emperor himself) decreed that Reprebus was to be executed for his faith. He miraculously survived many attempts at execution, but in the end permitting himself to be martyred after converting multitudes. His body was then taken back to Alexandria by Peter of Attalia.

Among Roman Catholics, the most popular St. Christopher legend is preserved in Jacobus de Voragine's 13th century "Golden Legend." The story states that Christopher was a sort of Canaanite (the "Canines" of the New Testament) giant or ogre, who was said to have lived during the first half of the 3rd century. He was twelve cubits (about 18 feet or 5.5 m) tall and had a most fearsome countenance. His name originally was Offero or Reprobus, "the Condemned." His pride was such that he vowed that he would serve only a master who was more fearsome than himself. After research, he determined that the Devil was a likely candidate. He therefore pledged himself to the Devil's service, only to abandon the Devil when he learned that the Devil was in turn afraid of the cross of Jesus. Offero/Reprobus then vowed to serve Jesus instead, and became a Christian. He sought out a Christian hermit to inquire as to how he could better serve Jesus. The hermit directed him to a dangerous ford in a swift river, and suggested that the giant's great size and strength made him a good candidate to assist people in crossing. Offero/Reprobus began ferrying people across the river on his broad back.

One day, a small child approached the river and asked to be carried across. The giant began to comply, only to learn that the small boy was far heavier than any other passenger he had taken. The child revealed that he was in fact Jesus Christ, and that his unusual weight was due to the fact that he bore the sins of the world. The boy then baptised the giant in the river, and he acquired his new name Christopher, Greek for "Christ-carrier" (christo-phoros).

The child told Christopher to plant his staff in the ground. The staff miraculously bloomed into a fruit-bearing tree. This miracle converted many. Enraged at these conversions, a local king had Christopher imprisoned, where after cruel tortures he was beheaded as a martyr.

"St. Christopher with the Christ Child," by Simon Pereyns.

Interestingly, the Cynocephalic races can be juxtaposed with Amazons, barbarians, cannibals, and Cannabis smoking. 

This brings us back, with a jolt, to the giant, cynocephali, lamp-bearing St. Christopher with whom we opened this chapter. Christopher's name has been glossed, since the time of his earliest Western hagiographies, as the bearer of Christ (Greek Christo-phoros). There exists, however, an alternative reading of his name: Christ-Apherou, "the way-opener of the Christ," a fusion of names and functions of the same order as Hermanubis!

Christopher is not the sole medieval Christian saint to be closely associated with the dog and the dog-star. Others include Dominic, James, Cucufat, and Guignefort. The first of these, the founder of the Dominican (Latin domini-canes) order, was born, according to legend, after his mother had dreamt that she was carrying a little dog with a torch in its mouth in her womb. Claude Gaignebet, in his brilliant study of the esoteric in Rabelais, A plus hault sens, indicates that the torch in the dog's mouth was, for medieval commentators, a representation of the star Sirius in the mouth of the great dog, Canis major.

"St Dominic of Guzman," by Claudio Coello.

Dogs are also present in pagan world-views. St. Guignefort, although never canonized, has enjoyed a cult as a healer of childhood diseases in southern France (Dombes) and other parts of Europe until c.1950. As related by Bernard Hamilton in his book, Religion in the Medieval West.

"St. Guinefort," by Kent Roberts.

Stephen of Bourbon's reaction was to immediately disinter and bum the poor dog saint's bones. An expurgated version of this story still survives in the Walt Disney movie, "Lady and the Tramp."

St. Michael, like St. George and Indra, is the slayer of dragons. The first picture above shows Louis XI, King of France and the members of the St Michael Order established by the King in 1469 at Amboise. In the background on the wall, hangs a painting representing the battle of St Michael, in the foreground two dogs are symbolizing the force used against the dragon. The coat-of-arms of the king can be seen between two angels. The second picture is from the Castle of Pierrefonds and shows St. Michael killing the dragon. Notice the two dogs and the coat-of-arms.

Contemplate the meaning of the pictures below.

"Scenes from the Life of David," by Hans Sebald Beham.

"The Golden Age," by Pietro da Cortona.

 The Three Hares.

http://www.threehares.net/

"The Three Maries at the tomb," by Peter von Cornelius.

"Agony in the Garden," by Andrea Mantegna.

"Allegory of Divine Wisdom," by Andrea Sacchi.

.

Rishis, (illumined sages) of ancient India. The Lukhang murals. 

"St. Jerome Reading in the Countryside," by Giovanni Bellini.

"Saint Anthony Abbot tempted by a heap of gold," ca. 1435, by Master of the Osservanza. The ground at the lower left, now empty, originally showed a pot of gold, a symbol of seductive worldly goods that the stalwart saint resists. The detail was scraped away during the painting's early history.

"The Marriage at Cana," by Paolo Veronese. The holy marriage that's happening within the human body, transforming water into wine, the marriage where Jesus is married to Mary, as Christ to Sophia.

 

 Odin.

One of the most intriguing aspects of ethnomycology and ethnobotany is how widespread the myths connected to Amanita muscaria and Cannabis sativa are and how much similarities they contain, whether they are from Europe, America or Asia. If anything, this indicates the fundamental role the mushroom and the hemp plant has played in human culture, one that goes back to prehistoric times. 
Besides humans, two other animals, the deer and the raven, are known to relish the Amanita muscaria. The raven's love for the mushroom was noted in antiquity where in ancient Egypt the Amanita muscaria was called "raven's bread."

Fly agaric has been known since antiquity. The Egyptians called it "raven's bread," a name which it has retained in Central and Eastern Europe to the present day. It was said that Saint Anthony ate this raven's bread before the ancient pagan gods appeared to him as demons. According to Graves (1961), the followers of Dionysos consumed fly agaric during the Dionysian festivals and mysteries, for it "bestows enormous physical power, erotic potency, delusional visions, and the gift of prophecy." One author has even argued that Christianity began as a fly agaric cult (Allegro 1970). There is also some evidence that the pre-historic "Beaker People" of Stonehenge, and later the British Celts, used fly agaric in a cultic context.

Among the ancient Germans, the fly agaric was associated with Wotan/Odin, the god of ecstasy and the discoverer of the magical runes. According to legend, fly agarics appeared where the foam from Wotan's horse fell onto the earth. The name raven's bread refers to Wotan's two all-knowing, all-seeing ravens.

                                       -Christian Ratsch, The Dictionary of Sacred and Magical Plants.

Seshat with her emblem on a temple wall in Luxor, 1250 BCE. Seshat (also spelled Sesheta, "sesheta" meaning hidden things, mysteries, secrets) was the ancient Egyptian goddess of wisdom, knowledge, and writing. Further more Seshat was the opener of the door to heaven as expressed in coffin text spell 10. Notice on the above picture the star in the center of the emblem. Ever wondered "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" Quote from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland written by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll.

Russian icon of the Prophet Elijah in the wilderness and his Fiery Ascent into Heaven. Notice the raven bringing Elijah bread send from God. (c.1600).

Folklore from all over the northern hemisphere implies the raven with Amanita muscaria. For instance in Japan "beni tengu take" translates as "red long nosed goblin mushroom," meaning the Amanita muscaria.

Tengu shrine in Beppu, Japan. The term tengu means "heavenly dog." The origin of the word tengu is Chinese, where it is written with the same characters though pronounced tiangou, "celestial hound." A particular tengu is the "karasu tengu" the "raven tengu." The karasu tengu is sometimes associated with the Indian Garuda, the eagle-god of the Vedas.

A man named Krokos, named for his "Saffron" hue, was said to have been the first to dwell on the other side of the lake as husband to the Eleusinian Saisara, the "Grinning Bitch," a name that was an epithet for the terrible queen amongst the dead, before the Mystery had pacified her and changed her name. Appropriately, only the priesthood had the prerogative of fishing in those waters, for it was they, the inheritors of the office, who regulated the transfer from life to death, a passage which the Eleusinian faith viewed as a metaphysical union between lovers across a division of water.

                                                    -Carl A. P. Ruck, Sacred Mushrooms of the Goddess.

 

"Allegory with wolf and eagle," by Leonardo da Vinci.

The dog, because of its faithfulness, denotes the relationship which should exist between disciple and master or between the initiate and his God. The shepherd dog was a type of the priestcraft. The dog's ability to sense and follow unseen persons for miles symbolized the transcendental power by which the philosopher follows the thread of truth through the labyrinth of earthly error. The dog is also the symbol of Mercury. The Dog Star, Sirius or Sothis, was sacred to the Egyptians because it presaged the annual inundations of the Nile.

.......is the mercury of the philosophers, essential to material existence.

In alchemy there are three symbolic substances: mercury, sulphur, and salt.

Sulphur because of its fiery nature was also associated with the sun.

The black and white ibis was sacred to the moon; but all forms were revered because they destroyed crocodile eggs, the crocodile being a symbol of the detested Typhon.

The jackal is the canine scourge of the desert, whence the Egyptian Anubis, who in the Hellenistic age became domesticated into the cynocephalic Hermanubis or Mercury.

Plutarch and other Hellenistic authors identify Anubis with the star Sirius, and furthermore conflate him with the "canine" Greek god Hermes.

Second-century Alexandrian coins depict Hermes-Thoth together with cynocephalic apes and the caduceus, and another Ophite source, an "Abraxis" gemstone, depicts the cynocephalic Hermanubis holding a sceptre in each hand and standing between a half moon and a star; on the other side is the archon Michael.

                                                                                    -David Gordon White, Myth of the Dog-Man.

Tomb of Francis II of Brittany and his Wife Marguerite de Foix.

"Circe," by Wright Barker. Notice that the word church (kirke) is derived from Circe.
 

........neatly illustrates the real meaning of Kirkê, "the Circle," or "Circular."

                                                                               -Robert Braun, The Myth of Kirkê.

The two pillars on the picture above, are also known as Jachin and Boaz (2 Chronicles 3:17). These two pillars respectively connote the expressions of Divine Energy, the sun and the moon, sulphur and mercury, good and evil, light and darkness. Between them is the door leading into the House of God, and standing thus at the gates of Sanctuary they are a reminder that Jehovah is both an androgynous and an anthropomorphic deity (God created man in his own image, as male and female (Genesis 1:27)). These two pillars which are found in alchemy, art, mysticism and religion, originate from Adam (Amanita muscaria) and Eve (Cannabis sativa), sometimes both represented by a lion. These pillars are also called Jesus (the second Adam) and Virgin Mary (the second Eve). Both these pillars can be found on the picture below.

"Nativity," by Petrus Christus.

"Allegory with a Virgin," by Hans Memling. Jesus the Rock (1 Peter 2:4-8) and Virgin Mary, as the Fountain of Life.

"Der kleine Morgen," by Philipp Otto Runge.

                                                                                -Alexander Roob, Alchemy and Mysticism.

If deeply immersed in the subject of religion and entheogens, the following part should prove the most interesting. In "Ploughing the clouds. The search for Irish Soma" Peter Lamborn Wilson tells the story of how Indra, with the help of the Maruts, slays the dragon (which in fact is a drought dragon). Indra can not slay it alone.

Before the Maruts were born, Indra tried to kill them, but later they became his allies and helped him to slay Vrtra. An interesting variant (1.85.9-11) describes how the Maruts help a sage named Gotama by splitting open a mountain and releasing a fountain of water - a replication of Indra's freeing the Waters from Vrtra's mountain. "Blowing on the reed-pipe, the Maruts performed joyous deeds in the ecstasy of drinking Soma." In RV 1.165, Indra and the Maruts engage in an uneasy dialogue. The Maruts boast of their dandyism (they "adorned themselves like women" (1.85.1)), and of their power in yoking both horses and gazelles (or deer) to their storm chariots. "Indra, you have always acknowledged our independent spirit." Indra answers, "Where was that independent spirit of yours, Maruts, when you left me all alone in the fight with the dragon?" The Maruts save face with a few more boasts, but then capitulate and begin to sing Indra's praises. Indra now forgives them: "Thus they shine forth facing me, the blameless band who take to themselves fame and the drink of ecstasy."
In the Brahmanas (IV,3,3,6-11) we find an elaboration of this uneasy relation between Indra and his merry Maruts, and the explanation of their reconciliation. The point of the passage is to explain why the Maruts receive a share of the Soma sacrifice, but only in the name of Indra:

Then as to why he draws the Marutvatiya cups (the cups for the Maruts). Now this, the midday pressing feast, is Indra's special (nishkevalya) feast: thereby he strove to smite Vrtra, thereby he strove to vanquish him. But the Maruts, having on that account withdrawn, were standing on an asvattha tree (Ficus Religiosa). Now Indra is the nobility, and the Maruts are the people, and through the people the noble becomes strong: therefore the two Ritu cups (they say) may be of asvattha wood; but in reality they are of karsmarya wood.

The ficus religiosa is Siva's (or Rudra's) tree. I do not understand the point about asvattha and karsmarya wood, but perhaps they symbolize the nobility and the people, or vice versa.

Indra called on them, saying, "Do ye join me that with you as my force I may smite Vrtra!" They said, "What will be our (reward) then?" He drew those two Marutvatiya cups for them.

"Marutvat" is an epithet of Indra as leader of the Maruts.

They said, "Having put aside this one (cup) for our vigour, we will join thee." Having accordingly put it aside for their vigour, they joined him. But Indra sought to obtain it, thinking, "They have come to me after putting aside their vigour."

It is not quite clear what's happening here, although it seems the Maruts are holding out for a greater share of Soma.  

He said. "Do ye join me with vigour!" - "Then draw a third cup for us," they said. He drew a third cup for them, with, "Thou art taken with a support, - thee for the vigour of the Maruts!" They then joined him with vigour, - and he conquered with them, and smote Vrtra with them; - for Indra is the nobility, and the Maruts are the people, and through the people the noble becomes strong. Hence he now bestows that strength on nobility, and therefore he draws the Marutvatiya cups.
Let him draw them for Indra Marutvat (accompanied by the Maruts), and not for the Maruts likewise. For were he also to draw cups for the Maruts, he would make the people refractory to the nobility. He thus assigns to the Maruts a share therein after Indra, whereby he makes the people subservient and obedient to the nobility: therefore let him draw the cups for Indra Marutvat, and not for the Maruts likewise.
But he was afraid of their desertion, - "Lest they should desert me, lest they should take to some other (party)," so thinking, he by that (share in the libation) made them unwilling to desert him. This is why he should draw the grahas for Indra Marutvat.

                                         -Peter Lamborn Wilson, Ploughing the clouds. The search for Irish Soma.

The Rg Vedic Maruts are Rudra and Indra's companions, and they are associated in both the Rg Veda and the Atharva Veda with the seven vital breaths that howl like a whirlwind when leaving the body.

                                                          -David L. Spess, Soma : The Divine Hallucinogen.

 

Closely associated with Indra in his capacity as god of the thunderstorm, the Maruts are also linked to Rudra (1.85 ; cf. 2.33 and 1.114). It is precisely the overlapping of their functions with those of Indra that underlies a series of hymns debating their several rights to the sacrificial offering (1.165, 1.170, 1.171); ultimately, Indra is affirmed to be supreme.

                                                                     -Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, The Rig Veda.

 

The wild hunter of the Vedic forest was Rudra, the "howler" who, like Indra, was the lord of the Maruts, with whom the Vratyas identified themselves.

Apart from being identified with the Maruts, the Vratyas are also called dogs in the Vedic sources. . .

Most importantly Indra is, in the Vedic period, the master (when he is not her son) of the divine bitch Sarama, the mother of Yama's two hellhounds, the Sarameyau.

                                                                  -David Gordon White, Myth of the Dog-Man.

 

The Maruts are wind-gods portrayed always as a group, as a band of warriors who serve Indra.

                                                                  -Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, The Rig Veda.  

 

Sarama, the divine bitch and companion to Indra, is also associated with the wind.

                                                                   -David Gordon White, Myth of the Dog-Man.

Rig Veda 1.85

10. They forced up the fountain with their power; they split open even the mountain on its solid base. Blowing their reed-pipe, the Maruts who give fine gifts performed joyous deeds in the ecstasy of drinking Soma.
11. They forced up the fountain in a stream that shot to the side; they poured out the spring for the thirsty Gotama. Shining brilliantly, they came to him with aid. They fulfilled the desire of the sage in their own ways. 

                                                                     -Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, The Rig Veda.

 

Like Moses with his rod, Indra with the help of the Maruts frees the life-giving waters from the mountain. In a similar story (Rig Veda, 3.31), Indra with the help of Sarama (the bitch of Indra) finds and frees the cows in the cave, symbolic of the releasing of the waters, pent-up by the demons of drought. (All of Rig Veda 1.85, as cited by Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, is of interest for the subject at hand). 

In the text below, the Soma sacrifice needs something to be free from danger and injury. Logic dictates that it is Cannabis sativa. Brahmanas 18 - 21.

In passing it may be worth mentioning that the Tibetan word for Cannabis and its drug products is So.Ma.Ra.Dza. This appears to be a direct borrowing from the Sanskrit soma-raja (Eng.: "King soma," "Royal soma"). The term soma-raja is glossed as "king soma, the moon" in Monier-William's Sanskrit dictionary although the Rig Veda, in its hymns of praise to the drug, refers to it frequently as "King soma" (8.48.8, 8.79.8 etc.)

Still quoting the Rig Veda, book 10, hymn 85.

3. One thinks he has drunk Soma when they press the plant. But the Soma that the Brahmins know - no one ever eats that. (2)
4. Hidden by those charged with veiling you, protected by those who live on high, O Soma, you stand listening to the pressing-stones. No earthling eats you.
5. When they drink you who are a god, then you are filled up again. Vayu is the guardian of Soma; the moon is the one that shapes the years.

Notes:

(2). Verses 3-5 play upon the different Somas: the plant that is pressed, the god that the Brahmins know, the god protected in heaven, the plant between the pressing-stones, the juice that they drink, the moon that is drained of Soma and filled again, waxing and waning.

The Soma plant, Amanita muscaria, is standing listening, while bhang, the known part of the Soma sacrifice, is being prepared. To make bhang the stalk of Cannabis sativa is being hit between stones to get the juice out, whereas the juice from Amanita muscaris is squeezed out just like a sponge is squeezed. Quoting from the Rig Veda.

Book 9, hymn 11.

4. Sing a praise-song to Soma brown of hue, of independent might. The Red, who reaches up to heaven.
5. Purify Soma when effused with stones which hands move rapidly, and pour the sweet milk in the meath.

 

Book 9, hymn 9.

1. The Sage of Heaven whose heart is wise, when laid between both hands and pressed, Sends us delightful powers of life.

It is interesting that in a number of related Indo-European languages, bangha, the Iranian word for hemp, simultaneously refers to mushroom intoxication, and the hemp plant itself. To day in India, certain concoctions of Cannabis are known as bhang, and there are those who still insist that bhang is the Soma of the Vedic hymns, a contention with which R. Gordon Wasson especially has taken sharp issue.                                                                   

It is true, however, that according to one tradition in India the resin of Cannabis, under the name Vijaya, was the favourite drink of the god Indra and that he gave it to the people so that they might attain elevated states of consciousness, delight in worldly joy, and freedom from fear. Hence it is customary for Hindus to throw idols into the river and rejoice with friends by embracing and drinking bhang* on the last day of the Durga pooja.

* Bhang is a decoction of water, milk, Cannabis resin, cucumber and melon seeds, sugar, and black pepper.                                                                             

-William A. Emboden, Jr.

The Rig Veda, book 9, is entirely dedicated to Soma. In this book Indu (the moon) is pressed out between stones and cleansed, running through the fleece, blending with Indra (the sun) on its way, flowing like a wave, to and through the human body. It is the favourite drink of Indra and gives him the ability to slay the dragon Vrtra, that is, purifying Amanita muscaria with Cannabis sativa.

Book 9, hymn 109.

11. The pressers purify this juice of thine, the Soma, for delight, and lofty fame.
12. They deck the Gold-hued Infant, newlyborn, even Soma, Indu, in the sieve for Gods.
13. Fair Indu hath flowed on for rapturous joy, Sage for good fortune in the waters' lap.
14. He bears the beauteous name of Indra, that wherewith he overcame all demon foes.
15. All Deities are wont to drink of him, pressed by the men and blend with milk and curds.
16. He hath flowed forth with thousand streams effused, flowed through the filter and the sheep's long wool.
17. With endless genial flow the Strong hath run, purified by the waters, blend with milk.
18. Pressed out with stones, directed by the men, go forth, O Soma, into Indra's throat.
19. The mighty Soma with a thousand streams is poured to Indra through the cleansing sieve.
20. Indu they balm with pleasant milky juice for Indra, for the Steer, for his delight.
21. Lightly, for sheen, they cleanse thee for the Gods, gold-coloured, wearing water as thy robe.
22. Indu to Indra streams, yea, downward streams, Strong, flowing to the floods, and mingling -there.

 

Book 9, hymn 113.

1. Let Vrtra-slaying Indra drink Soma by Saryanavan's side,
Storing up vigour in his heart, prepared to do heroic deeds. Flow, Indu, flow for Indra's sake.

 

Book 9, hymn 106.

1. To Indra, to the Mighty Steer, may these gold-coloured juices go,
Drops rapidly produced, that find the light of heaven.
2. Effused, this juice victorious flows for Indra, for his maintenance.
Soma bethinks him of the Conqueror, as he knows.
3. May Indra in his raptures gain from him the grasp that gathers spoil,
And, winning waters, wield the steerstrong thunderbolt.
4. Flow vigilant for Indra, thou Soma, yea, Indu, run thou on:
Bring hither splendid strength that finds the light of heaven.

 

Book 9, hymn 72.

5. O Indra, urged by arms of men and poured in streams, Soma flows on for thee after his Godlike kind.
Plans thou fulfillest, gatherest thoughts for sacrifice: in the bowls sits the Gold-hued like a roosting bird.
6. Sages well-skilled in work, intelligent, drain out the stalk that roars, the Sage, the Everlasting One.
The milk, the hymns unite them with him in the place of sacrifice, his seat who is produced anew.
7. Earth's central point, sustainer of the mighty heavens, distilled into the streams, into the waters' wave,
As Indra's thunderbolt, Steer with farspreading wealth, Soma is flowing on to make the heart rejoice.

Soma consists of two elements, Amanita muscaria and Cannabis sativa, sometime called the sun and the moon, heaven and earth, Indra and Indu, husband and wife.

Book 9, hymn 74.

2. He who is the pillar of the sky, the well-adorned support, the full stalk that encircles all around, he is the one who by tradition sacrifices to these two great world-halves. The poet holds together the conjoined pair, and the refreshing foods.

                                                                          -Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, The Rig Veda.

Book 9, hymn 18.

4. He who containeth in his hands all treasures much to be desired:
All-bounteous art thou in carouse.
5. Who milketh out this mighty Pair, the Earth and Heaven, like mother kine
All-bounteous art thou in carouse.

Book 9, hymn 66.

1. For holy lore of every sort, flow onward thou whom all men love.
A Friend to be besought by friends.
2. O'er all thou rulest with these Two which, Soma Pavamana, stand,
Turned, as thy stations, hitherward.

 

Book 9, hymn 68.

3. The gladdening drink that measured out the meeting Twins fills full with milk the Eternal Ever-waxing Pair.
Bringing to light the Two great Regions limitless, moving above them he gained sheen that never fades.

As has been shown, the Indo-European myths abound in symbolism pertaining to the combined use of Amanita muscaria and Cannabis sativa. Many of the Aryan fairytales bring the same story.

Illustration by John Tenniel. From Alice's Adventure in wonderland.

Here is the start and the end of an old Russian one.

Pius II (Pope), Coat of arms.

The Star of the Order of the Elephant, brilliants and pearls on gold and enamel. Possibly made c. 1770 by J.F. Fistaine. This beautiful star tells the story of the Aryan Soma. Amanita muscaria with the flame of the holy spirit, Cannabis sativa, and in the very centre, the Sun Cross.

1. Thy streams that never fail or waste flow forth like showers of rain from heaven,
To bring a thousand stores of strength.
2. He flows beholding on his way all wellbeloved sacred lore,
Green-tinted, brandishing his arms.
3. He, when the people deck him like a docile king of elephants.
Sits as a falcon in the wood.
4. So bring thou hitherward to us, Indu, while thou art purified,
All treasures both of heaven and earth.

In Hinduism, the elephant-headed god Ganesha, son of Shiva and Parvati, refers to the "lord of the hosts," and is one of the most well-known and venerated representations of God (Brahman). Ganesha in fact, is the symbol of he who has discovered the Divinity within himself. Ganesha is the first sound, OM, in which all hymns were born. Furthermore, Indra, King of the Gods, is often depicted riding the white-skinned elephant, Airavata. This Divine Elephant is thought of as the progenitor of all earthly elephants and is understood as the embodiment of the huge clouds pregnant with the monsoon rains. In fact, in the Bhagavad Gita, God says: Amongst the demigods "I am Indra" (10.22) and "amongst the finest of elephants I am Airavata" (10.27).  And last but not least, the Buddha's birth was heralded in a dream by a white elephant.

The Order of the Elephant. The finest Danish distinction.

The organ facade in Vor Frelsers Kirke, Copenhagen, full of mystical symbols. Below two elephants, above two clock faces with illustrations of the sun and the moon, and in the middle a bust of King Christian V, and the star.

 

 The big elephant and its mate represent Adam and Eve.  -The Aberdeen Bestiary. The fleur-de-lis is on the cover of the elephants, and keep in mind that Adam and Eve covered their nakedness with fig leaves.

 

Genesis 3:7

And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

                                                                                             -The Bible.

 

It was a Christian tradition that the Virgin Mary earned her living by spinning.

                            -Timothy Freke & Peter Gandy, Jesus and the lost Goddess.

 

"The Annunciation," by John William Waterhouse.

"Jerusalem," by William Blake.

The use of fiber from Cannabis, the "True Hemp," has declined sharply over the last two centuries, but before the Industrial revolution, hemp was a popular fiber because of its strengths and quick growths. And since the earliest times, this great plant ally has provided people with cordage, cloth, paper, medicine, oil, food, and inspiration. It is a plant with a thousand applications.

From Alle Theosophische Schrifften, by Jacob Boehme (1575 - 1624). Of special interest is the sword made of fibres, and the female Cannabis sativa bud with two male sex organs, a hermaphrodite, stylized as an olive branch with two olives.

 

"The Triumph of Religion in the Arts," by Friedrich Overbeck (1789 - 1869).

Friedrich Overbeck was a Romantic painter and the central figure of the Nazarene movement. In 1809, he together with five students at the Vienna Academy, formed an artistic cooperative called the Brotherhood of St. Luke or Lukasbund, following a common name for medieval guilds of painters. In 1810, Friedrich Overbeck and three of them moved to Rome, where they occupied the abandoned monastery of San Isidoro and lived a semi-monastic existence, as a way of re-creating the nature of the medieval artist's workshop. Religious subjects dominated their output. The name Nazarene came from a term of derision used against them for their affectation of a biblical manner of clothing and hair style and was adopted by the group who aimed to revive honesty and spirituality in Christian art. Notice on the above picture, the head of Jesus, and in the bottom left corner, the sword and the green plant, possibly an olive branch. The painting was commissioned by the Stadel Institute in Frankfurt, where Philipp Veit had just become Director, and took Overbeck nearly a decade to complete (1833 - 1840).

 

Fresco (1832 -1836), by Philipp Veit (1793 - 1877), created for the Stadel Institute on similar lines as Friedrich Overbeck's "The Triumph of Religion in the Arts." Notice the wellspring at the base of the felled sacred oak tree and the sword lying on the word.

 

 

"Germania," by Philipp Veit, painted in March during the Revolutions of 1848. It was used as an allegoric decoration in the National Assembly in Frankfurt's Paulskirche, where it concealed the organ. It was meant as a symbol of a united democratic Germany and remained a national personification until the end of World War I.

Philipp Veit was headmaster of the art school and Director of the art collections at the Stadel Institute from 1830 to 1843. Veit was a Romantic painter and part of the Nazarene movement in Rome. The fundamental element of the Nazarene project was their belief that only the rise of a new religiosity, a re-Christianization, could lead to an artistic as well as political renewal.  On the four pictures above, as in the Christian scriptures (Ephesians 6:17), the sword is a metaphor for the Word of God. On the picture "The Allegoric figure Germania," Germania is sitting in front of three trees (oak, beech or is it birch, and fir), all of which are host trees for Amanita muscaria and Amanita panterina. On her head, Germania is wearing a crown of oak leaves and her inner garment is brownish with a white rim on the sleeves, both of which symbolizes the Amanita pantherina. On the picture "Germania," Germania is holding the sword together with a branch of Cannabis sativa in her right hand, thus showing the connection between Cannabis and the Word of God. On her head, Germania is wearing a crown of oak leaves, and her inner garment is red with a white rim on the sleeves, both of which symbolizes the Amanita muscaria. And the double eagle, the symbol of the Soma, is present on the last two pictures mentioned.

The following is from a letter written by Arch-Druid Bri Leith from Rome in 90 AD to Brân Adamnán, Abbot of Mona, cited in The Twin Deception, a book about Jesus and Didymus Judas Thomas (Twin Judas Twin). The comment added is by Tony Bushby.

When new regions are conquered, their gods, or duplicates of them, are sent to this temple, that the people from those nations, visiting the metropolis, might have their accustomed images before which to bow. Sometimes they pull down one idol and set up another, or merely change its name. The sweet little niche of Vesta is now possessed by the Sun, and Marcellian and Marcus replaced Romulus and Remus (Comment 7). And as these gods are in the Place of the Skull, so it is in other temples that stand in Roma.

Comment 7: The fact that busts of Mary's twins replaced Romulus and Remus reveals that, because they were the bonded "sons of God" (through Tiberius to the deified Augustus), they had been individually deified after their death and honoured in the Pantheon. That conclusion is maintained today in the records of Catholicism with Marcellian and Marcus noted as being twin Saints of "noble birth." A First Century Roman Emperor deified the twins, not a Christian pope, for the construct of Christianity had not yet begun.

                                                                       -Tony Bushby, The Twin Deception.

 

 

"Romulus and Remus," by Peter Paul Rubens. Romulus and Remus the founders of Rome, suckled by a she-wolf beneath a sycamore fig tree. Notice the woodpecker bringing food to the boys. It antedates Zeus and the eagle as the thunder-god, and was the original thunderbird of the Aryans according to J. Rendel Harris.

Parallel evidence from texts of a dual, divine leadership in Rome, Scandinavia and India was demonstrated as early as 1948 by Dumezil in his book Mitra-Varuna (1988). The evidence presented here was not at his disposal at that time. Whether the Divine Twins and the dual leadership represent one and the same or two different instititutions deserves a separate study.

                     -Kristian Kristiansen, Thomas B. Larsson, The Rise of Bronze Age Society.

 

One neglected yet very significant area of research on the Rg Veda concerns the identity and role played by the twin Asvins in both early and later soma ceremonies. The Asvins role in the soma ceremony is fundamental and is connected to the preparation of a special soma drink that was considered the "divine soma mead" and "elixir of immortality."

There is ample proof that it was the legendary Asvins soma drink, prepared during the Rg Vedic soma ceremony, that was the origin of all the "elixir theories" later found in many forms of alchemy throughout the world.

The significance of the Asvins soma drink is even more important when we realize that they are the divine physicians of the gods. As medical deities, they are themselves forever young and are forever renewed and rejuvenated by their soma drink. They are described in the hymns as continually drinking their soma mixture aboard their chariot yet never becoming intoxicated; their madhu soma drink induced ecstatic states and brought about healing, rejuvenation, longevity, and entheogenic experiences rather than intoxication. Eternal youth is another attribute of the Asvins special drink, and they bring the aged back to youthfulness with their drink in special magical rituals. They even aid the gods when they become unable to help or cure themselves of unusual illnesses or other strange misfortunes.

The Asvins who are repeatedly said to be wonderworkers, bring medicines to the priests with their honey-whipped mixtures. Through them and their soma drink miracles take place. The Asvins enable the priests to cross over to immortality and their special mixtures prolong life and are also associated with various paranormal abilities and direct travel to other worlds.

The soma madhu of the Asvins is also said to bestow mental alertness. It invigorates its drinkers and gives bliss and ecstasy. One hymn says, "When Asvins worthy of our praise, seated in the Farther's house, you bring wisdom and ecstasy." Even the Asvins are said to be in a state of exalted ecstasy from drinking their own soma madhu. The Asvins are said to create devotional ecstasy in the hearts of the priests, who attain joyous entheogenic ecstasy when drinking the madhu.

The Asvins chariot is called the Madhuvarna (nectar-bearer). The chariot is the drink itself, comprised of the parts of the flowers and the soma sap nectar from their nectar chambers. Because of this, the chariot alone is said to bring ecstasy. As one hymn says, "For ecstasy I call the ecstatic bestowing chariot, at morning, the inseparable Asvins with their chariot, I call like Sobhari our father." The chariot, loaded with madhu, arrives "rapid as thought, strong and speeding to grant ecstasy." The ecstasy, exaltation, and bliss are all attributes of a divine hallucinogen or entheogen.

The Asvins have close ties with the Greek Dioscuri, twins who are said to have been aliens to Attica and probably came from India, or are at least of Indo-European descent. The Athenians adopted the twins and then included them into the greater mysteries. They are usually depicted with star-shaped flowers on their heads, just like the Asvins. On a striking Attic vase of the fifth century B.C.E. that portrays the mysteries, the figures of the Dioscuri can be seen. It is thought that their association with Eleusis may have arisen from some actual part that their statues played in the mystic ritual. Since entheogenic plants were used in the Eleusinian Mysteries, the Dioscuri probably played the same role there as the Asvins do in the more ancient soma ceremony, that is, as a representation of psychoactive plants that form a special drink that is mixed with other beverages or consumed alone for various healing and entheogenic effects.

The gods live and maintain their immortality by drinking this visionary nectar, amrta (ambrosia or mead). "I have partaken wisely of the [madhu] sweet food, that stirs good thoughts, best banisher of trouble, the food round which all deities and mortals, calling it nectar-mead, collect together."

In the Rg Veda, Tvastr, the artisan of the gods and creator of all forms, is said to drink the special soma mead. His drink is connected to paranormal methods of direct creation.

 The terms madhu and soma are both mentioned as the drink to which the Asvins are invited, and the two are synonymous throughout the Rg Veda: "These are soma for you to drink madhu." Soma is specifically said to be a madhu drink, and the Asvins, their color, their chariot, and their horses are all called madhu. Thus, the entire madhu soma drink comes from the Asvins.

This was seen as an alchemical union of the dual principles of day and night, personified as the sun and moon. This union of sun and moon created the drink that induced the experience of light as Anthropos within the priests.

The Asvins union of the sun and moon plants in the Rg Veda soma ceremony is not only the oldest written form of the creation of the original elixir of immortality, it is also the oldest documented alchemical ritual for producing the "elixir of life." This knowledge is very ancient and is found in the oldest part of the Rg Veda associated with the soma ceremony, as well as in the art of the Indus Valley cultures. It is the probable origin of the union of the sun and moon motif found in European alchemical traditions.

                                               -David L. Spess, Soma: The Divine Hallucinogen.
 

 

 

"Fontana dei Dioscuri" in Rome.

Obelisks were a prominent part of the architecture of the ancient Egyptians, who placed them in pairs at the entrance of temples. The obelisk symbolized the sun God Ra, or Re as some know him, and during the brief religious reformation of Akhenaten, was said to be a petrified ray of the Aten, the sundisk. It was also thought that the God existed within the structure.

Maypoles are manifestations of the same thing as the obelisk. Usually on May 1. people arranged as male-female, and holding onto multi-colored lanyards connected to the top of the maypole, dance around it. This dancing around a maypole is still practiced all over the world. These celebrations descend from fertility rites practiced in spring at the equinox. On a very small Danish island called Avernakø, situated south of Fyn, lies two small villages. In both a pole is raised at Pentecost, in Munke it is called a "majstang" (maypole), and in Avernak By it is called a "majtræ" (maytree). In Germany the maypole is always called a "maibaum" (maytree). This tree/pole symbolises Yggdrasil, Irminsul and the axis mundi.

"Vintersolhvervsblót" ("Wintersolsticeblot" at Uppsala temple, Sweden), by Carl Larsson (1915).

In Finland too, especially on the Åland Islands where ethnic Swedes predominate, the maypole custom is strong. Atop the maypoles stands the "faktargubbe," a little man carved out of wood who wears a cap and uniform. He spins and waves his arms in the wind, or as in other cases four ships are arranged in a cross sailing around the pole, all reminiscent of the stars turning around the poles.

The circle with a cross and the circle with a point are some of the first non-pictorial graphs to appear when humankind was on the threshold of the Bronze Age. They are common on rock carvings from all over the world. These symbols derive from the fact that when you take a staff, stick it vertically in the ground, and then draw a circle around it, you have an instrument with which the two equinoxes, and summer and winter solstice (and times slow pace through the year) can be found. The equinoxes are found by marking the shadow cast by the staff on the circle at sunrise and sunset. The day of the year, when a line drawn between these two points goes through the staff, that day is the equinox. This line will run east/west. Summer solstice is on the day when the midday shadow of the staff is at its shortest, and winter solstice is on the day when the midday shadow of the staff is at its maximum. This line runs north/south. Thus the three nails used to crucify Jesus (morning, midday and evening shadow) and thus the sun cross and the staff of the prophets. Interestingly, a staff can also be used to find the circumference of the earth as demonstrated by Eratosthenes around 240 BC, (https://youtu.be/Mw30CgaXiQw).

The Sun Cross, as a compass, with rose, lily and star.

The place where Jesus was born.

The place where Jesus was crucified.

Crucifix at Am Steinhof Church.

Zodiac and months from Tetrabiblos of Ptolemaios. Manuscript from the 8th century AD. Geographia of Ptolemy; Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. Helios in the centre, identified as the Christ by the cross, twelve naked female figures represent the hours, twelve clothed apostles represent the twelve months, and surrounding are the twelve zodiac signs.