The Mountain of Salvation.

ACCORDING to the various texts which form the corpus of the Grail Cycle, particularly that which includes the Parzival legend, an important place is mentioned. This place is known as Montsalvat, or Munsalvaesche, 'Mountain of Salvation'. This is the Grail Castle, and most researchers try to identify it with Montsegur. And they try to claim that the Treasure associated with the Sang Real was in Montsegur, until the last Cathars secreted it out of the compound on top of the mountain, and deposited it in the Ornolac caves in the valley of the Ariege. We find this to be a smokescreen, a deliberate smokescreen, in order to conceal the real identity of the location of the Mountain of Salvation. If, as it may be, the Mountain of Salvation and the Grail Castle are to be considered as one and the same; and if, this Mountain is Cardou, in which an important agate urn could have been deposited by German miners in the 1150s of the Common Era, then the Grail Chalice might not necessarily be the bloodline itself, but the Power which the Bloodline itself is a guardian of.

Remember the story in the film Excalibur, namely, that Parzival, upon reaching the sacred site, was asked What is the Secret of the Grail? -- to which he responded "I and the Land are One...' [Not quoting verbatim, by the way.]-- and the next question was to the effect: To whom does it Serve? Arthur...

Now, we aren't really speaking of King Arthur, that is more code-language. As Laurence Austine Waddell pointed out, perhaps in a manner serving his theories of Anglo-Aryan superiority: Arthur is Her-Thor, and he meant this in the context of Thor, the Aryan Deity. But what if it really is to be interpreted Het-Heru, or Het-Hert, which is translated as Hathor? Is this too far-fetched?

After all, in our interpretation of Pike's Interpretations of the Words for the 21°, the Name of God has something to do with Khem, and his interpretation of Khem was not Ham, but Khem, the Egyptian deity, which was associated with Khnem, Kneph, Khnoum, Ba-neb-tettu, or the Goat God of Mendes, which became corrupted into the name Baphomet. Now, the real Baphomet means Father of Wisdom. The Father of Wisdom, Abu-fi-Hikmat, in Arabic; Ab-ha-Hokhmah, in Hebrew, was an honorific title, for the head of the community of Kabbalists, at the time of the first reception of the Qabalah in the Languedoc in 1130 e.v., when the first Initiates received a visitation of Elijah on the Day of Atonement. Now, the Day of Atonement is intimately connected with the Duranki, and with the Holy of Holies. This means then the Ark of the Covenant and the Pronunciation of the Ineffable Name of God.

In the Atbash Cipher, Baphomet = Sophia. It is true, it works. That is a Supreme Mystery. Because Sophia is really the feminine counterpart of the Father of Wisdom, not only in recent mysteries, but going all the way back to Sumer, where Nin-Harsag was the counterpart or complement of Enki, at least when they were co-workers in Enki's Scientific Compound. We see when we analyze the literature on Kneph that it is the Egg of Creation which is brought forth from the depths of the ocean of Infinite Space, represented by Hathor. Most accounts credit this to Nut (or NUIT), but this was a late attribution to Her, for it applied in much earlier times, to Hathor. Hathor and Ba-neb-tettu, as Sekhmet and Ptah, are counterparts, Female to Male. And, Ptah is Enki, as Hathor is Nin-Harsag. And, if it wouldn't be enough, the Great Pyramid and the Mountain of Sinai are associated with both Hathor and Nin-Harsag. There is a Temple at Serabit el-Khadim in the Sinai Peninsula where the Israelites would have been travelling where Hathor is identified with the Serpent Goddess, the Serpent Woman. Merlin Stone, in When God Was A Woman, states:

"...Serabit el Khadim, a shrine on the Sinai Peninsula close to the great Egyptian turquoise mines, bilingual Egyptian and Semitic inscriptions have been discovered. The inscriptions named the deity once worshiped at the shrine as the Goddess Hathor. In those bilingual inscriptions Hathor was also referred to as Baalat, meaning Lady or Goddess, as the word was then known in Canaan. J. R. Harris wrote of the temple on Sinai and discussed the relationship between the two names of the Goddess as She was known there. He explained, 'Here she [Baalat] was evidently identified with the Egyptian Goddess Hathor at whose temple all the inscriptions were found.' But perhaps most significant is the fact that, on the walls of this shrine, two prayers had been carved into the stone. In both of these the Goddess was invoked -- as the Serpent Lady.

"Sir Flinders Petrie wrote of probable oracles at the enclosures of the Serabit complex. This shrine on the Sinai Peninsula, which lies between Egypt and Canaan, is particularly worth noting since many scholars have suggested that it may have been on the route the Hebrew tribes took upon their exodus from Egypt. The Bible records that it was during this period in the desert that Moses came to possess the 'brazen serpent,' which appeared seven hundred years later in the shrine in Jerusalem. It was eventually destroyed by the Hebrew reformer Hezekiah as a 'pagan abomination,' but it is not inconceivable that it may have come into the possession of the Hebrews at Serabit and even have been accepted temporarily by Moses as a means of placating the Hebrew people.

"Yet this bronze serpent seems to have been identified with the Goddess religion, for the Bible reveals that it was kept in the same temple in Jerusalem where in 700 B.C. we find vessels for Ashtoreth and Baal, the asherah, the house of the sacred women and the women who wept for Tammuz." -- When God Was A Woman, pp. 206-207.

We also recommend the excellent work, The Hebrew Goddess, by Raphael Patai. He indicates that after the reforms of Hezekiah, and the re-instating of the old cultus by Manasseh, the Brazen Serpent was not a part of that which was reinstated, claiming that by that time the use of the Serpent in Religious worship was considered obsolete. It is said elsewhere, we might add, that when Manasseh came to power, the old priesthood secreted the Ark of the Covenant out of the country, to Egypt, where they set up a refugee temple at Elephantine, where a famous temple of Khnem (Ba-neb-Tettu, or Baphomet) existed.

This is the Brazen Serpent, which Moses received from God, in order to heal the afflicted ones in the wilderness. This was a very prominent part of the legitimate cultus until, in a fit of misunderstanding, Hezekiah destroyed the Relic and its associated rites. In Liber AL vel Legis, Chapter II, verse 26, we read:

"I am the secret Serpent coiled about to spring: in my coiling there is joy. If I lift up my head, I and my Nuit are one. If I droop down mine head, and shoot forth venom, then is rapture of the earth, and I and the earth are one."

This has its parallels in the Secret Tradition, in that the Signs of Baphomet, and of Hathor, though similar, are mirror images of one another, after the manner given in the verse just quoted. And, in the examination in the Grail Castle, we have it again. From our own personal experience, these are very potent signs. They are mudras. They are silent invocations -- for it is the body, in the assumption of the god-forms, doing the invoking and not the voice. That comes later. (Cf. Liber 370...) (Pun intended.) On the back cover of the CD for Tyranny of Beauty by Tangerine Dream (1995 e.v.), Hathor is presented in Her pose. She is standing before Khnem, or Ba-neb-tettu [Baphomet]. Tangerine Dream possess the true Gnosis.

So, now, we come back to Montsalvat. What is meant by this name?

"'Well I know that many brave knights dwell with the Grail at Munsalvaesche. Always when they ride out, as they often do, it is to seek adventure. They do so for their sins, these templars, whether their reward be defeat or victory. A valiant host lives there, and I will tell you how they are sustained. They live from a stone of purest kind. If you do not know it, it shall here be named to you. It is called lapsit exillis. By the power of that stone the phoenix burns to ashes, but the ashes give him life again. Thus does the phoenix molt and change its plumage, which afterward is bright and shining and as lovely as before. There never was a human so ill that, if he one day sees that stone, he cannot die within the week that follows. And in looks he will not fade. His appearance will stay the same, be it maid or man, as on the day he saw the stone, the same as when the best years of his life began, and though he should see the stone for two hundred years, it will never change, save that his hair might perhaps turn gray. Such power does the stone give to a man that flesh and bones are at once made young again. The stone is called the Grail.'

"According to Wolfram, then, the Grail is a stone of some kind. But such a definition of the Grail is far more provocative than satisfying. [It is satisfying, and not merely provocative, when taken in the context of a story that goes back 500,000 years to a planet pulled into our solar system, which caused the events which were recounted in the Babylonian Creation Epic.] Scholars have suggested a number of interpretations of the phrase "lapsit exillis," all of which are more or less plausible. "Lapsit exillis" might be a corruption of lapis ex caelis -- 'stone from the heavens.' It might also be a corruption of lapsit ex caelis -- 'it fell from the heavens'; or of lapis lapsus ex caelus -- 'a stone fallen from heaven'; or, finally, or lapis elixir -- the fabulous Philosopher's Stone of alchemy. Certainly the passage quoted, like the whole of Wolfram's poem for that matter, is laden with alchemical symbolism. The phoenix, for example, is established alchemical shorthand for resurrection or rebirth -- and also, in medieval iconography, is an emblem of the dying and resurrected Jesus. [Recall the meaning of the term Anunnaki -- 'those who to Earth from Heaven came.' -- and also DurAnKi -- 'Bond Heaven-Earth'. We will pick up the stone theme in another place.]

"If the phoenix is indeed somehow representative of Jesus, Wolfram is implicitly associating him with a stone. Such an association is, of course, hardly unique. There is Peter (Pierre or 'stone' in French) -- the 'stone' or 'rock' on which Jesus establishes his church. And as we had discovered, Jesus,. In the New Testament, explicitly equates himself with the 'keystone neglected by the builders' -- the keystone of the Temple, the Rock of Sion. Because it was 'founded' on this rock, there was supposedly a royal tradition descended from Godfroi de Bouillon that was equal to the reigning dynasties of Europe.

"In the passage immediately following the one quoted Wolfram links the Grail specifically with the Crucifixion -- and, through the symbol of the dove, with the Magdalen. [Our note: See M & D, p. 234, the reference to the sacred Babylonian Tower, (MGDL = Magdol) dedicated to the Great Father BAL.ldgm = 77]

'This very day, there comes to it [the Grail] a message wherein lies its greatest power. Today is Good Friday, and they await there a dove, winging down from Heaven. It brings a small white wafer, and leaves it on the stone. Then, shining white, the dove soars up to Heaven again. Always on Good Friday it brings to the stone what I have just told you, and from that the stone derives whatever good fragrances of drink and food there are on earth, like to the perfection of Paradise. I mean all things the earth may bear. And further the stone provides whatever game lives beneath the heavens, whether it flies or runs or swims. Thus, to the knightly brotherhood, does the power of the Grail give sustenance.'

In addition to its other extraordinary attributes the Grail, in Wolfram's poem, would almost seem to possess a certain sentience. It has the capacity to call individuals into its service -- to call them, that is, in an active sense:

'Hear now how those called to the Grail are made known. On the stone, around the edge, appear letters inscribed, giving the name and lineage of each one, maid or boy, who is to take this blessed journey. No one needs to rub out the inscription, for once he has read the name, it fades away before his eyes. All those now grown to maturity came there as children. Blessed is the mother who bore a child destined to do service there. Poor and rich alike rejoice if their child is summoned to join the company. They are brought there from many lands. From sinful shame they are more protected than others, and receive good reward in heaven. When life dies for them here, they are given perfection there.'

"If the Grail's guardians are Templars, its actual custodians would appear to be members of a specific family. This family seems to possess numerous collateral branches, some of which -- their identity often unknown even to themselves -- are scattered about the world. But other members of the family inhabit the Grail castle of Munsalvaesche -- fairly obviously linked with the legendary Cathar castle of Montsalvat, which at least one writer has identified as Montsegur. Within Munsalvaesche's dwell a number of enigmatic figures. There is the Grail's actual keeper and bearer. Repanse de Schoye ('Réponse de Choix' or 'Chosen Response'). And there is, of course, Anfortas, the Fisher King and lord of the Grail castle, who is wounded in the genitals and unable to procreate or, alternatively, to die. As in Chretien's Grail romance, Anfortas, for Wolfram, is Parzival's uncle. And when at the end of the poem the curse is lifted and Anfortas can at last die. Parzival becomes heir to the Grail Castle.

"The Grail or the Grail Family calls certain individuals into its service from the outside world -- individuals who must be initiated into some sort of mystery. At the same time it sends its trained servitors out into the world to perform actions on its behalf -- and sometimes to occupy a throne. For the Grail, apparently, possesses the power to create kings." [As in the case of the DURANKI...] --Holy Blood, Holy Grail, pp. 297-299.

It would seem, then, that we have two specific things related to the Sang Real. First, we have the Relic, the Stone Vessel, the Stone from Heaven, the Agate Urn, and the Foundation Stone, which is to be the subject of another essay on the Stone and the Duranki. Then, we have the lineage -- 1.) of the family descended from the original source, a divine family on earth; and 2.) a lineage of initiates who are charged with the duty of representing and guarding the family and the relic.

In ancient Sumer, there was just such a dual role of the Divine Priesthood. The Institution of Kingship, when it was lowered from Heaven, was in the hands of the highest grade of priests. The Tablets of Destinies (which was like the lineage in the Grail stories) and the Duranki, which is the Relic, are the early ancestors of the Grail dynasty and the Grail itself. The Grail relic, then, is not merely a vessel which has mysterious properties. It is almost like the Black Monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Hargrave Jennings gives an interesting summary of the Grail legend to be found in Parzival, as the third note in The Rosicrucians: Their Rites and Mysteries (Second Edition) --

"THE SANG-RËALE, GRËAL. OR HOLY GRËALE.

"The romance of Guyot, or at least the traditional fable of the San Grëal, spread over France, Germany, and England. In the twelfth century, the dogma of transsubstantiation not being yet defined by the Church, the chalice, the mark of the Knights Templars, had not the deep mystical meaning which it received in the following century. The graal signifies a vase. The San Grëal is identified with the vessel in which Jesus celebrated the Holy Supper, and which also was used to receive His Blood flowing from the wound inflicted upon Him by the centurion Longinus. Walter Mapes, the historian of the San GrËal, ascribes to it a supernatural origin. He gave out that God was its real author, and had revealed it, in a celestial vision, to a holy hermit of Britain towards the year A. D. 720. This writer makes Joseph one of the coryphaei of his history of the San Grëal. After forty-two years of captivity, Joseph of Arimathea, the guardian of the Grail or Grëal, is at last set at liberty by the Emperor Vespasian. In possession of the sacred vessel, and a few more relics, and accompanied by his relations and disciples, Hebron and Alain the Fisherman, he travels over a part of Asia, where he converts Enelach, King of Sarras. He then goes to Rome, and thence to Britain, where he preaches the gospel and performs thirty-four miracles. He settles in the Island "Yniswitrin," Isle of Glass (the Grëal is of emerald, and consequently green), or Glastonbury, where he founds an Abbey (Glastonbury Abbey), and institutes the Round Table (Arthur did this) [If even Arthur did it...] , in imitation of the Holy Supper, which was partaken-of at a "Round Table" with the Twelve Disciples in their mythical double-places, twenty-four in all, and with the double chief-seat, or "cathedra," for the President, or the "Saviour." Lastly, the apostle of the Britons builds a palace, in which he preserves his precious relics, the Sacred Cup (refused to the Laity as a communion), which takes the name of San Grëal, the bloody spear (the "upright" of the St. George's Cross, to whom the "Garter" is dedicated), with which the centurion Longinus pierced the side of the Lord, from whence issued "blood and water" -- the Rosicrucian heraldic colours (royal), [n.b., even though there are several "original versions" of the same spear in other parts of the world, including the Hofburg in Vienna...] Mars -- Red; Luna -- Argent (or "Fire" and "Water"). There are Eight Angels, one to each half-heaven, or dark or light sides, guarding the Four Corners of the World. The Sacred Cup is identified with the vessel of the Holy Supper. The Templars are the successors of the Knights of the Round Table. Their successors again were the Knights of Malta, with their Eight "Langues," or Nations -- each represented in a blade of, or ray, of the Eight-pointed RED Templar Cross.

"The Temple Church, London, was dedicated to St. Mary. The Grëal is a sort of oracle. It is, so to speak, at the orders of the "Mother of God," to execute all "Her" commands. Parsival -- the German champion-hero -- thinks of transporting the Grëal to the East, from whence it originally came. He takes the San Grëal, embarks at Marseilles with the Templars, and arrives at the court of his brother Feirifix in India. The Sacred Cup manifests a desire that Parsival should remain possessor of the "Grëal," and only change his name into that of Prester John (Prestre, or Prêtre, Jehan, or John). Parsival and the Templars settle in India. After the disappearance of the Grëal in the West, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, losing the "central object," or the "Rose" (Rosicrucianism) of the Table, go on a scattered (Knight-Errant or romantic) championship in search of it. They travel over the world -- but in vain. They cannot find the "Grëal." For it is for ever hidden in the far "East," or in the land of the "Sun." Wolfram von Eschenbach tells us that Meister Guyot-le-Provençal found at Toledo an Arabian book, written by an astrologer named Flegetanis, containing the story of the marvellous vase called "Grëal." The sacred vase, or the San Grëal, was placed, according to the myth of Guyot, in a Temple (or Chapel), guarded by Knights Templeis or Templois (Knights Templars). The Temple of the Grëal was placed upon a mountain in the midst of a thick wood. The name of this mysterious mountain (like the Mount Meru of the Hindoos and Olympus of the Greeks) hints sublimity and secrecy. [Meru or SuMeru or Kailasa is the Mount of Salvation in Tibet and India, as we shall see...] Guyot calls it Mont Salvagge, wild or inaccessible mountain (or "Holy Way."). The Grëal was made of a wonderful "Stone" called Exillis, which had once been the most brilliant jewel in the "Crown of the Archangel Lucifer" -- the gem was emerald (green; Friday; the unlucky in one sense, the "sacred" woman's day in another sense). The "Stone" was brought from heaven (rescue) by Angels, and left to the care of Titurel, the First King of the Grëal, who transmitted it to Amfortas, the Second King, whose sister 'Herze'-loïde was the mother of Parzival, the Third King of the San Grëal. (These are the Three Kings of Cologne, or the Three Magi or Astrologers.) [Are they?] A great many towns pretended to possess this holy relic. In 1247 the Patriarch of Jerusalem sent the San Grëal to King Henry the Third of England, as having belonged to Nicodemus (see the "Gospel of Nicodemus") and Joseph of Arimathea. The inhabitants of Constantinople, about the same time, also fancied that a vessel which they had long esteemed as a sacred relic was the San Grëal. The Genoese also felt certain that their santo catino (Catillo: v., a., [L.] :"to lick dishes;" Catinus, i., m., (L.) "a dish") was nothing less than the San Grëal. The same (or similar) modifications of the myth are to be noticed in a romance, in prose, entitled "Percival-le-Gallois." Not only is the Round Table considered in this book as an imitation of the "Holy Supper," but the author goes so far as to give it the name of San Grëal itself. In the Romance of Merlin, written towards the end of the thirteenth century, it is said that the Round Table instituted by Joseph, in imitation of the Holy Supper was called "Graal," that Joseph induced Arthur's father to create a third Round Table in honour of the Holy Trinity.

"The San Grëal. An Inquiry into the Origin and Signification of the Romances of the San Grëal. By Dr. F. G. Bergmann, Dean of the Faculty of Letters at Strasburg, and Member of the Royal Society of Antiquaries, Copenhagen. Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas, 1870." We quote the above in parts.

"Honi-Soit qui Mal-y-Pense."

This might seem a bit of work to go through, but there are a few things in it which will repay the interested reader. Leaving aside the British elements, like Arthur and Glastonbury, and the elements which claim that they went to India, for this may or may not be the case -- Godfrey Higgins placed every origin of every thing from the West in India, including the Jews, and claimed that the Templars were in Kashmir. There is some validation to there being a peculiar significance in North-West India. However, we shall leave that for another report. For example, we have compiled a lot of material in Readings in the Authentic Tradition, Volume One, Indian Survivals of the Wise Ones.

John Yarker presents some interesting background material in The Arcane Schools, pp. 191-4:

"There was in the time of the plenitude of the Templars a peculiar Culdee legend travelling around termed the Quest of the Sangrael: it was supposed that there was a lost cup, which had contained the blood of the Saviour, that could only be found by a chaste Knight who journeyed in search of it. It had, if found, various magical properties, oracular answers to enquiries could be read thereon. Von Hammer professes to read the Graal upon certain old offertory dishes which he considers to have been Templar property, but his views have not been generally credited. There are yet certain ceremonies practised alluding to Joseph, Jesus, and Mary, said to have been of Culdee origin, that have a sober resemblance to the Quest. The Mystic tradition may hide the old blood baptism of the Mysteries. Eugene Aroux speaks very positively of an Albigensian and Templar connection with the legend, which is supposed to have some basis in the Gospel of Nicodemus. San Marte takes the same view and lays stress upon the use by the Templars, at the Lord's Supper of the opening words of St. John's Gospel. The Rev. Baring Gould gives credit to a Templar connection with the Mythos. Von Hammer says the poem of Titurel is nothing but an allegory of the Society of Templars and its doctrine and one with the Gnostic and Ophite symbols. This legend is a lengthy subject to write upon, but it is necessary to say something upon it.

"The origin of the Graal legend is curious, romantic, and ancient. The Persians have a legend of a golden cup discovered in making the foundations of Persepolis which they named the "Goblet of the Sun"; we have also the Hermesian cup in the Poemander. There is also the Welsh legend of Peridur, which means "Companion of the Bowl." Peridur enters a castle, and two young men enter a room, where he is seated, with a lance from which falls three gouts of blood, which the company seeing set up a lamentation; then enter two damsels, with a charger in which is a head swimming in blood, and the company utter a piercing wail. The bowl here is the Cauldron of Ceridwen, and the blood is the three drops of her brew that conferred initiation. In Hanover there is some Templar connection with a charger and the head of John the Baptist, to be mentioned later. Taliesen's poem of Bran the blessed mentions the bowl of Pheredur, which could restore the dead to life, 'but those who were restored to life by it were not to speak lest they should divulge the mysteries of the vessel.' Bran sails to the 'Island of Joy,' with 39 companions.

"M. Pauline de Paris mentions the Liber Gradualis of a British priest about 30 years after the death of Cadwallader. About the year 717 the priest had a vision of Christ, and of Joseph of Arimethea, who brought the cup to this country, with the blood of Christ.

"These legends admit their indebtedness to Moslem legends, and there can be no doubt as to what that legend is; it refers to the erection by Abraham of the Temple of Seth, which we refer to elsewhere, in which on the petition of Adam an etherial temple was let down in appearance to which Adam could direct his prayers.

"The more modern version of the legend was compiled about 1189, under the title of Sir Coules del Grail, by Chretien de Troies. Saniber, prince of Cappadocia in the days of Vespasian, had three sons, who went eventually to Rome; and his great-great grandson Titur-el was the Graal King, and the pure and noble Knight. When dying the Graal King instructed his children in the mystery, and the Knights had explained to them the symbols, ceremonies, and the powers of the 12 precious stones. Shortly after we have the version of Guyot de Provens, who had been a monk with Bernard of Clairvaux, and visited Jerusalem about the year 1170; it was an elaborated version of the preceding, which the author as well as Guy de Provens attributed to the Arabian astrologer and philosopher Flegantan. This was translated into German about the year 1207 by Wolfram von Eschenbach, and would be known in 1248 when Conrad von Hochstetten laid the foundation stone of Cologne Cathedral. Later on another version was completed by Alfred von Scharfenberg. In the oldest account Titurel builds the Graal temple, but in this last version it is Parsifal, grandson of Titurel, who is selected to build a magnificent temple upon a design miraculously shown on curtains of light, and upon a mount called 'Saviour's Mount' placed in the midst of a square wood, the temple itself was to be round, as are the Templar churches. The plan appears miraculously upon a stone, and indicated an inner Sanctuary to hold the Graal, which was to be guarded by chaste Temple, or Templar Knights, for both these forms are used in different MSS. The groining of the roof was to shew a lamb holding a red cross banner in its claws (a Templar standard). The Lecterns were to have carved Apostles, Martyrs, Prophets, and their wise saws; and in one of these MSS. England is named in connection with four crowns, four virgin martyrs, and their legends. Besides the Glastonbury legend of this cup and the account of the Romances of King Arthur, another claim is made for a Sapphire cup in the monastery of Richeneau, Lake Constance, founded by Charles Martel in 725; there is also a third claim for a cup said to have been brought from the East by the Crusaders, and lodged at Genoa; it is now believed to be made of green glass."

It is not at all strange to see a Moslem influence in all this. After all, the Kaaba, or Black Stone at Mecca, is reputed to be a stone fallen from Heaven, and is housed in a special temple, off limits to just about everyone.

At the time that these stories started becoming popular, in Spain and France some new literature was being "discovered." First, in the narrative above, we hear of an Arabic manuscript by the Astrologer Flegetanis in Toledo. Then, in the story of Nicholas Flamel, we read about the discovery of a mysterious book written by Abraham the Jew. We are convinced that this Abraham the Jew was one of two persons. One, Abraham ibn Ezra, who wrote a famous commentary on the Sepher Yetzirah, and the pseudo-Abraham ben David, or Solomon ibn Abreth. Thorndike's History of Magic and Experimental Science gives the honors to the former. Yet, ibn Ezra was more of a neoPlatonist than he was a mystic.

Were there other books which became known at this time and in this place? The answer is yes. It was at this time, that the Qabalah was first formulated. Contrary to popular belief, the ancient science of Qabalah as we know it to be does not go back to the Old Testament times, but to, at best, the early 12th Century e.v., in the Languedoc. The earliest forms of Qabalah were concerned with the Merkabah Mysticism, and that goes back to the first couple of centuries before the common era. The Sages of Lunel and Narbonne received instruction from Jehudah ben Barzilai and others in Northern Spain, and from some of the Kalonymides in Metz, one of the most important areas in the stories concerning the Merovingians and the Priory of SION.

The book we speak of is the Book Bahir. It was modelled after many texts, and teachings, and compiled into one unit. We will not go into this wonderful text in this essay, for that is the subject of another work-in-progress. The late Gershom G. Scholem, in his ground-breaking work, Origins of the Kabbalah, devotes an entire section to it, both in matters of history as well as a detailed description of its contents.

The Book Bahir made its appearance at a special time. Two centuries prior to its appearance, the practical Qabalah made its way from Babylonia to Southern Italy (Sicily and Calabria), and from there to Spain, Southern France, the Alsace-Lorraine region, and Swabia. So, there have been special works which could have been the inspiration of the authors of the Grail legends. Montsalvat, or Mount of Salvation has an ancient antecedent. If we turn to the Epic of Gilgamesh, we see that Utnapishtim (the Sumerian Noah) brought the Ark to rest on the top of the Mountain of Salvation (or Mount Nisir). This was the same thing as Ararat, or one of its mountains. Mount Ararat was a significant location in the ancient Near-East. The N. K. Sandars edition gives it as follows ~~

"I looked for land in vain, but fourteen leagues distant there appeared a mountain, and there the boat grounded; on the mountain of Nisir the boat held fast, she held fast and did not budge. One day she held, and a second day on the mountain of Nisir she held fast and did not budge."

The translator gives the following definition in the glossary:

"NISIR. Probably means 'Mountain of Salvation'; sometimes identified with the Pir Oman Gudrun range south of the lower Zab, or with the biblical Ararat north of Lake Van."

Now, what about the biblical story? It is clear that a great deal of the biblical story was derived from the Sumerian and Babylonian originals, or at least from copies of those originals, and that they correspond in several details. The names are different, yes, but often the meanings are the same. We will not open the Bible at this point, but we will give William Stirling's interesting comment on an apocryphal account of the Deluge story~~

"Hippolytus tells us that Noah's Ark was turned round upon Mount Kardu (cardo) towards the four cardinal points of the world, and 'finally stood towards the East. We say, moreover, that that was a sign of the Cross. And the ark was a symbol of the Christ who was expected' ("Ante-Nicene Library," vol. vi., p. 495)." -- THE CANON, page 385.

""Deucalion, as we have seen, was regarded by the writer of the Clementine Homilies as a mythical double of Noah, and the statement that he was born in Crete must have the same origin as that of Hippolytus, who declared that the Ark of Noah rested on Mount CARDU, or Cardo, that is, the middle of the world." -- THE CANON, pp. 311-12.

What does Hippolytus have to say about it? [Quoting from the Philosophumena]

"SECTION V.

"On Gen. viii. I.

"Hippolytus, the expositor of the Targum, and my master, Jacobus Rohaviensis, have said: On the twenty-seventh day of the month Jiar, which is the second Hebrew month, the ark rose from the base of the holy mount; and already the waters bore it, and it was carried upon them round about towards the four cardinal points of the world. The ark accordingly held off from the holy mount towards the east, then returned towards the west, then turned to the south, and finally, bearing off eastwards, neared Mount KARDU on the first day of the tenth month. And that is the second month Kanun.

"And Noah came out of the ark on the twenty-seventh day of the month Jiar, in the second year: for the ark continued sailing live whole months, and moved to and fro upon the waters, and in a period of fifty-one days neared the land. Nor thereafter did it float about any longer. But it only moved successively toward the four cardinal points of the earth, and again finally stood toward the east. We say, moreover, that that was a sign of the cross. And the ark was a symbol of the Christ who was expected. For that ark was the means of the salvation of Noah and his sons, and also of the cattle, the wild beasts, and the birds. And Christ, too, when He suffered on the cross, delivered us from accusations and sins, and washed us in His own blood most pure.

"And just as the ark returned to the east, and neared Mount Kardu, so also Christ, when the work was accomplished and finished which He had proposed to Himself, returned to heaven to the bosom of His Father, and sat down upon the throne of His glory at the Father's right hand.

"As to Mount Kardu, it is in the east, in the land of the sons of Raban, and the Orientals call it Mount Godash; the Arabians and Persians call it Ararat. "And there is a town of the name Kardu, and that hill is called after it, which is indeed very lofty and inaccessible, whose summit no one has ever been able to reach, on account of the violence of the winds and the storms which always prevail there. And if any one attempts to ascend it, there are demons that rush upon him, and cast him down headlong from the ridge of the mountain into the plain, so that he dies. No one, moreover, knows what there is on the top of the mountain, except that certain relics of the wood of the ark still lie there on the surface of the top of the mountain. "

So, then, there are stories pertaining to the Deluge that connect the Languedoc not only with the Montsalvat motif, but with Ararat. That is, Mount Cardou, in France, and Mount Kardu in the Ararat mountain region, is the same name, and has the same function. Not only that, there is a third Mount of Salvation, this time in Tibet. This is, of course, Mount Kailasa, where every year they erect the giant phallic pole and celebrate their New Year, and the granting of their calendar, just like in the good old days in Sumer. Mount Kailasa is also the Mount of Salvation. It is, we are convinced, where the Anunnaki exiled themselves after the fall of Sumer circa 2,000 bce, during the events described in the "Wars of the Four Kings," in the Book of Genesis. We have produced a lengthy documentation on the subject, and it is available as the first volume of Readings in the Authentic Tradition, Indian Survivals of the Wise-Ones.

Theodor H. Gaster, in Myth, Legend, and Custom in the Old Testament, discusses the Mountain of Salvation. In addition to citing numerous references to various Mountains of Deliverance in many of the World Legends pertaining to the Deluge, he also speaks of Mount Nisir:

"The same tradition appears in the Babylonian narrative of the Deluge where the ark is said to ground on Mt. Nisir, [Gaster note: Gilgamesh xi. 140. The name may have been chosen because of its resemblance to the Semitic nasaru, "preserve." However, it can also be read Ninmush.] an eminence which the Annals of Ashurnasirpal locate in the same general area. Berosus too says that the ark rested 'in the mountains of the Kurds,' and adds that fragments of it were diligently collected in his day -- as they have been throughout the centuries -- for use as amulets! The ancient Aramaic translation (Targum) of Genesis likewise identifies Ararat with Kurdistan." -- page 129.

John Yarker, too, has at least a couple of references to the Mount of Salvation in his Arcane Schools:

"The locality of Babylon gave them in speculation two Great Pillars, the Mount of the world, in the northeast, or Ararat, which they also termed 'the abode of the gods,' and which was to them what Meru was to the Aryans, and a corresponding mount in the south west, whence was the descent to the domain of Mulgi the ruler of the dead; which descent was alleged to be guarded by seven concentric walls, with one gate in each wall. All the great mountains of the East are represented as the residences of a spiritualised race." --Arcane Schools, p. 47.

"...and Iritak built the House of Salvation." --ibid., p. 49.

"About 1350 B. C. Budil built a palace at Assur which his successor Vul-Nerari I. enlarged and which his son Shalmaneser 1300 B. C. still further extended; he also restored the great temple called the Mountain of the world; he further built the new city of Caleh, about 18 miles from Nineveh, founded a palace at the latter place, and repaired the temple of Ishter there. His son Tugulti-Ninip assumed the title of King of Nations, King of Sumar[sic] and Akkad, and conqueror of Karduniyas (Babylon). --ibid., pp. 49-50.

Kar-Duniash was a Kassite name for Mesopotamia.

Now, for some further references, Cardoon is a French word for Thistle, and the Thistle is an important symbol, since it is the Symbol of Scotland, and the Scots figure prominently in the survival of the Grail Lineage.

Also, in Jennings' Rosicrucians, we find the following --

"The Cardinal's 'Red Hat' follows the same idea in a different way; it is a chapel, chapter, chapiter, or chapeau, a discus or table; crimson, as the mystic feminine 'rose', the 'Queen' of Flowers, is crimson. The word 'Cardinal' comes both from CARDO (Hinge, Hinge-Point, 'Virgo' of the Zodiac), and also from Caro, It. Carne, flesh -- the 'Word made flesh.'" -- page 276.

This is interesting, if we consider the device of the Priory of SION, namely, the name Ormus, and its glyph. The glyph is as follows:

ORcUS.

[note, for older browsers: this is OR + Virgo Sign + US, the Virgo Sign in the standard font, "Wingdings"]

What is this? Ormus, that is, Virgo and ORUS. What is ORUS? ORUS is a corrupted form of Horus, and is used in Crowley's 5th Degree Ritual for the OTO. His Rose-Croix ritual includes an analysis of the Keyword, much like in the Golden Dawn Adeptus Minor Ceremony, only IAO stands not for ISIS, APOPHIS, and OSIRIS, but IACCHUS, ASI, and ORUS.

Also, we see in these definitions, such as "hinge-point," the "Place of Crossing" of the Sumerians. Nibiru, the planet of Crossing, Nippur, the place of Crossing, where the Duranki was Kept, and the Hebrews, people of the Crossing.