"The Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela, of Saint James of Compostela,
was the site of a great pilgrimage - one that is still being made. Every year
more than 500,000 pilgrims from all the countries of Europe would set out on
foot, bound for Spain, to visit the tomb of the Apostle James. In the late 16th
Century, because the Wars of Religion disrupted the pilgrimage, the Bishop of
Santiago had the apostle's remains hidden. In the 19th Century they were discovered
by accident. It was some time before the papacy would recognize that they were
authentic. In the 7th Century, A. D., according to legend, a star guided some
shepherds to where St. James' body was hidden. Hence, the name Compostela from
Campus Stelle, the Field of the Stars. In most western European languages, the
Milky Way is also known as the Road to St. James." - Luis Buñuel,
Intro. to the film, La Voie Lactée, or The Milky
Way, 1969.
The Celestial River
As we have seen, the Pyramid Texts contain astronomical data in that they talk
about observations made of Orion, of Sirius and other stars in the region of
the sky the Egyptians called the Duat. What was thrilling and evocative was
the way that the Ancient Egyptians correlated the Nile with the 'celestial river'
i.e., the Milky Way, and this was known even by the Greeks. From the time
of Homer, the Nile was associated with the mythical sky river called either
Okeanos or Eridanus. The Hellenic historian, A. B. Cook, was of the opinion
that Eridanus (which today is a faint constellation formed by a string of stars
joining Rigel to Alchermar) was 'at the outset none other than the Milky Way',
and that in pre-Greek times, Okeanos 'simply meant the Galaxy' i.e., the Milky
Way. Cook also drew attention to a statement by Hyginus that the river Eridanus
was identified with the Nile, and that it was also often called Okeanos ('Eridanus:
hunc alii Nilum, complures etiam Oceanum esse dixerunt').
The identification of the Nile with Eridanus or Okeanos seems to have been common knowledge in the classical world. Even Diodorus reported that 'the Egyptians consider Okeanos to be their river Nile, on which their gods were born', and the chronicler Eusebius says 'the Egyptians believe that the river Nile is the ocean from which the race of gods has taken birth'. Much later Eridanus was identified with the River Po in Italy, and sometimes with the Rhine and even the Rhone, but as R. H. Allen remarks, 'none of these comparatively northern streams suit the stellar position of Eridanus, for it is a southern constellation, and it would seem that its earthly counterpart ought to be found in a corresponding quarter.'
It is not hard to see why a Nilotic people with a sky religion should see a correlation between their river and the Milky Way. Just as the Nile divides Egypt into two regions, so the Milky Way divides the sky. It is quite probable that this relationship between the Nile and the Milky Way was what first gave the Nile dwellers the idea that a cosmic Egypt existed in that region of the sky which their souls could reach after their earthly existence. Wallis Budge explains this rather well:
'The Egyptians… from the earliest days … depicted to themselves a material heaven wherein Isles of the Blest were laved by the waters of the Nile … others again lived in imagination on the banks of the Heavenly Nile, whereon they built cities; and it seems as if the Egyptians never succeeded in conceiving a heaven without a Nile.'
Reading this, I was not surprised that the Pyramid Texts also tell us of an important 'Winding Waterway' in the eastern sky which closely resembles the Nile, with its own 'great flood' and 'fields' of reeds or rushes:
'May you lift me [the dead king] and raise me to the Winding Waterway, may you set me among the gods, the imperishable stars . . . . ' [PT 1759]
'Be firm, O king, on the underside of the sky with the Beautiful Star upon the Bend of the Winding Waterway. . . .' [PT 2061]
'I have come to my waterways which are in the bank of the Flood of the Great Inundation, to the place of contentment . . . which is in the Horizon. . ." [PT 508]
'The Winding Waterway is flooded, the Fields of Rushes are filled with water, and I [the dead king] am ferried over thereon to yonder eastern side of the sky, to the Place where the gods fashioned me, where I was born new [reborn] and young… Lo, I stand up as a star which is on the underside of the sky . . . my sister is Sothis, my offspring is the Morning Star…' [PT 343-57]
It was now looking likely that I had stumbled upon the true mystery of the pyramids. The Duat, which stretched along the 'west bank' of the Milky Way corresponded to - indeed was seen as a mirror image of - that region we now call the Memphite Necropolis. It was, of course, not a necropolis at all in the Greek or western sense of the word; rather the Elysian Fields, the earthly counterpart of the heavenly abode of the king-gods of Egypt - the Egypt, that is, of the Pyramid Age. - Robert Bauval and Adrian Gilbert, The Orion Mystery, pp. 119-121.
"Know, O my son, that the heavens are the impersonation
of 'Ali 'Ibn 'Abu Talib, namely, that hidden garden, beneath the Place of Rest,
which the Kuran speaks of in the words: 'beneath which flow rivers' - of which
rivers the first is a river of wine, in color red, whereby is determined the
seeing of the heavens as red by our lord the Expressed Deity, that is, Muhammad;
the second, a river of milk, in color white, which is what is seen by the Communicator,
that is, by Salman 'al-Farsi, for he beholds the heavens as white; the third,
a river of honey, in color yellow, which determines the seeing of the heavens
as yellow by the angels, that is, the stars; the fourth, a river of water, which
is what we see, for to us the heavens appear as water.
"When, however, we are purified from these human grossnesses, our spirits
will be elevated amid the clustered stars which form the milky way, and we shall
be clothed with spiritual habitations, and shall then behold the heavens as
yellow. But if, during this present transient life, we doubt respecting
the heavens [as the manifestations of 'Ali], our spirits will enter into bodies
of degrading transformation, and there will never be any deliverance for us.
As for people of other sects, who disbelieve in this our doctrine, they will
become sheep and wild beasts, or assume other forms of degradation, and will
never be purified." - The Book of Sulaiman's First Ripe Fruit,
part Seven. Translated by Edward Salisbury in the Journal of the American
Oriental Society, Vol. 8 (1866), pp. 299 - 300.
"Luc, qui était aussi originaire d'Antioche, lui dédia son Évangile, ainsi que ses Actes des apôtres; il y posséda de plus le même rang que le bienheureux Pierre, et fut le septième dans l'ordre des évêques de cette église. Ce fut encore à Antioche que se tint la première assemblée des fidèles, dans laquelle ils adoptèrent le nom de Chrétiens. Avant cette époque, ceux qui suivaient la doctrine du Christ étaient appelés Nazaréens: plus tard, prenant le nom du Christ leur maître, ils se firent appeler Chrétiens, en vertu de l'autorité de ce synode."
TRANSLATION: [Google]
"Luke, who also came from in Antioch, dedicated his Gospel to him [Theophilus], like his Acts of the Apostles; moreover, he had there the same line as Blessed Peter, and was the seventh in the order of the bishops of this church. It was still in Antioch that the first assembly of the faithful ones was held, in which they adopted the name of Christians. Before this time, those which followed the doctrines of Christ were called Nazareans: later, taking to the name of Christ their Master, they were called Christians, under the terms of the authority of this synod."
-- William of Tyre, History of the Deeds done beyond the Sea. (Originally Histoire des Croisés, T. 1. But see also Recueil des Historiens Occidentaux des Croisés Tome I. William's work is there in its entirety and in the original divisions. It is in the original Latin with an Old French translation below. It requires reading both in order to get the story being told. And there is a Story being told between the lines, that the straight translation misses.) It is important to note here that the Nazarean Bishops play an important part behind the formation of the Abbey of Mount Sion and behind its administration. The Stricte-Observance Legend is telling some truth, after all. Or at least recounting the truth as related in these early accounts of the Crusades.
"The accurate Maundrell speaks of them in describing his journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem in 1697. He tells an amusing story of his reception at Sholfatia, an Ansairee village in the plain of Ladikeeh, which seems to have been in much the same state as at present. Further on in his narrative he says: -- 'In that part of the mountains above Jebilee there dwelt a people called by the Turks Neceres, of a very strange and singular character, for it is their principle to adhere to no certain religion, but, chamelion-like, to put on the colour of religion, whatever it be, which is reflected upon them from the persons with whom they happen to converse. With Christians they profess themselves Christians; with Turks they are good Mussulmans, with Jews they pass for Jews, being such Proteuses in religion that nobody was ever able to discover what shape or standard their consciences are surely of; all that is certain concerning them is, that they make very much and good wine, and are great drinkers." -- Rev. Samuel Lyde, The Asian Mystery, p. 72. The French version, in Dussaud's book, pp. 158-9 is a bit different:
"Ce sont des personnes d'un caractère singulier, remarquait Maundrell à la fin du XVIIe siècle. Ils n'ont aucune religion certaine; mais à l'imitation du caméléon, ils prennent la teinture de la religion, telle qu'elle puisse être, des personnes avec lesquelles ils conversent. Avec les Chrètiens, ils sont profession du christianisme. Ils sont mahométans avec les Turcs, et Juifs avec les Juifs. Enfin ce sont des Panthées en religion, sans que l'on puisse découvrir le fond de leurs consciences." (from Dussaud, Histoire et Religion des Nosairis, p. 158. To which the footnote is appended: "Henri Maundrell, Voyage d'Alep à Jèrusalem, p. 20. Il ne faut donc pas se hâter d'accepter leurs dires sans examen et de conclure à leur christianisme primitif."
"Asseman [Bib. Orient. vol. ii. p. 320], after having mentioned that William of Tyre and Jacobus de Vitriaco speak of the Assassins, adds: -- 'And that these are the Nazaraei, i. e., Ansaireeh, both the time and the place where they lived, and finally the fact that they affected the name of Christians, seem to convince me.'" -- Rev. Samuel Lyde, The Asian Mystery, p. 68. It appears common that later researchers have decided that the early accounts must be wrong, that the Nusairi / Nosairi / Nazraei cannot have anything in common, because it would be very repulsive to the senses of the "civilized" "authorities" were it to be so. Stick with us throughout, for this is important to understand.
"Learn the best methods of discovering the acceptance conditions of others and apply the Doctrine to these." -- from the Magical Record of EIAE, 10 April 1991 c.e.
"It was in the training of adepts that Weishaupt showed his profound subtlety. Proselytes were not to be admitted at once to the secret aims of Illuminism, but initiated step by step into the higher mysteries -- and the greatest caution was to be exercised not to reveal to the novice doctrines that might be likely to revolt him. For this purpose the initiators must acquire the habit of 'talking backwards and forwards' so as not to commit themselves. 'One must speak,' Weishaupt explained to the Superiors of the Order, 'sometimes in one way, sometimes in another, so that our real purpose should remain impenetrable to our inferiors.'" -- Nesta Webster, World Revolution, p. 12.
"Weishaupt also insists on the importance of exciting the candidate's curiosity and then drawing back again, after the manner of the Fatimite dais:
"'I have no fault to find with your [methods of] reception ["Spartacus" writes to "Cato"], except that they are too quick . . . . You should proceed gradually in a roundabout way by means of suspense and expectations, so as first to arouse indefinite, vague curiosity, and then when the candidate declares himself, present the object, which he will then seize with both hands.'
"By this means his vanity will also be flattered, because one will arouse the pleasure of 'knowing something which everyone does not know, and about which the greater part of the world is groping in darkness.'" -- Nesta Webster, Secret Societies and Subversive Movements, p. 221.
"From Syria and from Egypt, Nazarean tradition began
to diffuse itself even further afield. Most Mediterranean trade with both Gaul
and Spain was Syrian controlled. Ships from Alexandria sailed daily for the
Atlantic coast of Europe. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that substantial
vestiges of Nazarean thought found their way to this coast. By the time that
Pauline Christianity, moving overland from Rome, arrived, they had already consolidated
themselves.
"Probably the single most important figure in the development of early
Spanish Christianity was the late fourth-century teacher Priscillian of Avila.
Born into a high-ranking family, Priscillian remained a layman, never receiving
ordination from Rome. Although it began in southern Spain, his movement quickly
spread west and north, eventually establishing its most tenacious roots in Galicia,
which was to become its heartland. In its location there, on the Atlantic coast
of north-western Spain, it appears to have received a constantly renewed nourishment
and impetus through the maritime trade routes from Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean.
Gradually, it filtered across the Pyrenees into Gaul and became the dominant
form of Christianity in Aquitaine. At the same time, Priscillian made an active
attempt to acquire material that lay outside the province of the Roman Church.
Thus one of his leading disciples, a woman named Egeria, embarked, between 381
and 384, on a special journey to the Middle East. She sought out uncanonical
texts. She visited Edessa, the centre of Thomasine teaching. She undertook an
extended tour of the Mesopotamian churches with their Nazarean and Nestorian
orientation. The importance of this must not be minimised. It indicates the
means whereby a form of Christianity which entirely circumvented the Pauline
orthodoxy of Rome began to establish itself in Western Europe.
"Priscillian's own teaching was characterized by a marked strain of Nestorian
thought, as well as by skeins of Gnostic Manichaeanism. At the same time, he
also drew heavily on a strictly Judaic body of material, including numerology
and other forms of early Cabalism-which, as we noted previously, were firmly
rooted in Essene / Zadokite / Nazarean sources. Priscillian seems, too, to have
demanded adherence to at least certain tenets of Judaic law. In contrast to
Pauline Christianity, he observed the Sabbath on Saturday. He denied the Trinity.
And he used a great many books of specifically Nazarean orientation, among them
the Acts of Thomas. Like his precursors in Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor, Priscillian
taught that Judas Thomas was Jesus's [sic] twin brother.
"In 386, Priscillian and at least five of his disciples became the first
heretics to be executed. The sentence was carried out at Trier, but Priscillian's
body was carried back to Spain and buried in Galicia. He was celebrated there
as a martyr, and his grave became a shrine, a great site, a pilgrimage centre.
At least one authority on the subject, Professor Henry Chadwick of Oxford, argues
that the shrine of Santiago de Compostela is in fact Priscillian's grave.
"Santiago de Compostela bears testimony to how effectively Nazarean tradition
established itself in Spain. As we have seen, the Pauline Church of Rome found
Jesus's (sic) brother James something of an embarrassment, and went out of its
way, whenever possible, to circumvent him and his role. Only one fragmentary
letter of his survives in the canonical New Testament. Apart from this, he figures
only briefly, in passing, in the Gospels, and as a peripheral background character
in Acts. Yet Santiago de Compostela - the Church of St. James at Compostela-became,
with the exception of Rome itself, the single most important shrine and pilgrimage
centre in medieval Christendom. It was from Santiago that the Reconquista -
the crusade to reconquer Spain from the Moors - was launched. Indeed, Santiago
spawned its own military chivalric order, the Order of Santiago, modelled on
the Knights Templar and Hospitaller.
"According to Spanish tradition of the seventh century, Saint James actually
visited Spain and preached there. It was also claimed that his body after his
death, was brought from Jerusalem to Santiago and buried there. Both of these
assertions, though questionable, attest to the kind of currency James enjoyed
in what is usually regarded as a purely Pauline sphere of influence. Santiago
de Compostela can legitimately be regarded as a shrine to the survival of Nazarean
thought, in implicit defiance of Rome.
"In the early ninth century, human bones were exhumed at Santiago. At the
time, they were believed to be the bones of James. Much more recent excavations,
between 1946 and 1959, uncovered a number of fourth- and fifth-century graves.
The tombs faced east, towards Jerusalem-as Nazareans did when they prayed. It
is now believed that the graves are those of early Spanish Christians, placed
in proximity to the mausoleum of some established holy man. As we have said,
at least one modern authority maintains that the mausoleum in question is Priscillian's,
and this is widely accepted by the local populace as well. In fact the major
pilgrimage route to Santiago is said to be that by which Priscillian's body
was brought back for burial from Trier." - The Messianic Legacy,
pp. 112-115, pbk ed.
( A sexy dame is on the side of the road in her car, honking
at them, calling them over to her.)
OLD BUM: What does the dame want?
YOUNG BUM: Let's find out.
DAME: Well, where are you going? What's the big rush?
YOUNG BUM: Going to Santiago.
DAME: Pilgrimage?
YOUNG BUM: You bet. And make some bread. Heard there's a big crowd.
DAME: Take your time. There's nobody there.
OLD BUM: What?
DAME: Nobody. The four squares around the cathedral used to be crowded with
thousands of pilgrims. Now it's empty, totally empty. I mean zip. Same thing
in the hotels - all empty.
YOUNG BUM: Well what happened?
DAME: Apparently they found out that the body in the crypt wasn't Saint James.
It's a body without a head. Body of a guy named Priscillian that they decapitated
a long time ago. Not exactly a very Christian guy from what I hear.
OLD BUM: Where to now?
DAME: Well you're not in such a hurry after all. How about a roll in the hay?
- Luis Buñuel, The Milky Way.
"Fasten your seat-belts, darling. You're in for a long,
bumpy ride." - Margo, in "All About Eve."
We are eternally grateful to those who have served us, particularly when it comes to the subject of a very obscure Syrian Sect, such as the Nusairi. Since we have been land-locked in California, we cannot travel to the country/ies that inspire our dreams.
We are particularly grateful to ATR for all the information and website assistance he has provided us; without it, we would still be doing home-pages.
There are those who seem to think that the Internet is dead, but…. THE MAD PROPHET SAYS: NEVER!
For those who have provided research materials to us, in this particular "Quest": RavenMunin, ATR (again), Walden418, Keith aka Junior Deacon Junior Deacon….
Most Important: to the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, for the excellent collection of online documentation.
Should we acknowledge anybody else?
This is going to be "In-Progress" until officially final.
What follows may, perhaps, be deemed "armchair detective" "speculation" & "conjecture", or it may actually be a historical breakthrough, as to revealing an important line of Transmission of the Authentic Tradition.
It is, though, a detective piece, in that it has involved investigation on the part of this reporter and Antiquities of the Illuminati's dedicated research team. Since it is not really possible, these days, for an American to travel to Syria, and other key pilgrimage sites [important in tracing the footsteps of the Ancestors of the Tradition which I am writing about.] - I have to rely upon the written record (that is available to me), and if fortunate enough to obtain photos, maps, engravings, recordings of subjects germane to the present undertaking: then, perhaps, I might be able to glean precious insights into the early accounts of the sect which is known as the NUSAIRI, and as by many other names by practicing the Magick of History.
Also, piecing together the Johannite Legend of the Templars from many sources - though not revised much since its first online publication by this reporter - is offered here in a remixed version, and we return to it at the end of our inquiry.
It is also necessary to offer a brief survey of the previous researchers into this subject of the Nusairis. From what we have accumulated, it is clear to us that the lion's share of the research was carried out by the French, during the time they occupied Syria.
Funny, isn't it? - how history can repeat itself like samples in a mix. There seems to be a long-standing relationship between France and Syria, Phoenicia and Gaul, et cetera.
In presenting our Sources, we shall be applying the model used
by René Dussaud, in his monumental work, Histoire et Religion des Nosairis.
The Introductory Section, proper....