THE WORLD TREE

AND THE

COSMIC PILLAR
PART ONE.

TREE WORSHIP and Tree symbolism in a religious context go back to some of the earliest belief systems known to humankind. Major-General J. G. R. Forlong examined some of these in the first volumeof his work, Rivers of Life. We may present a short overview of the idea of tree worship and tree cults, but we are concerned with some specific ideas, in this narrative. We have no disrespect for our Celtic and Nordic background, or those of our closest friends and associates who share those backgrounds. We are interested in outlining a part of the narrative that may or may not be true, but is interesting all the same. From the way things evolve and develop, it is likely that it is a true narrative.

Why is it important to state this at the outset? Because of the recent activities of persons who have nothing better to do than debunk us and everything that we are. Oh well, the Illuminati shall deal with them swiftly.

Perhaps the oldest concepts pertaining to the Tree and Pillar symbols we are discussing presently, go back to the tree and pillar symbols in Sumer, Akkad, Babylon, Assyria. Phoenicia and Egypt too. At Sumer, we get the imagery of the Bird-men, who stand on either side of the Sacred Tree. This tree represents a gateway to the Abode of the Blessed. Not only that, we are reminded of the concept of both a) the Dur-An-Ki, or Bond-Heaven-Earth; and b) the Duku mound, which was a sort of communication beacon to the Ubshu-Ukkinakku, or Divine Council Chamber, communicated with every year at the time of the Day of Atonement, sacred to Jews today.

Indeed, the Day of Atonement figures prominently in the narrative, because it was on the Day of Atonement that a) the Teacher of Righteousness (the real, and the first one, that is) was killed by the Wicked Priest; and b) the day that the Rabad and his associates in the Languedoc, in the year 1130 c.e., received a communication from Elijah, and commenced their active work in putting the Kabbalah into a tangible form, suitable for learning and for teaching.

Evidently, in Hebrew history, there was an important Tree. It was the Oak of Mamre, or Moreh. It goes back as far (at least) as Abraham. It was important in Moses' time. And, it was important at the time of the Essenes (or their immediate predecessors, perhaps), at the inauguration of the Piscine Age. The language which described it, and its mystical significance, would be echoed hundreds of years later, when the first portions of the Sepher ha-Bahir were composed.

From there, it would become the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, and from there, it would pass into Western Esoterica.

The importance of following this line of inquiry is because it tells us where our DurAnKi linkage came from, and shows us a potent way in which we can become connected to the Divine via the practices. And it shows us the survival of the Authentic Tradition, from the ancient past, through the Essenian period, through the Gnostic period, the Dark Ages, and finally to the time of the Crusades, when the Languedocian school was in full swing. Fromt here it passes into classic Kabbalah schools, both within Jewry, and in the context of the "Western Esoteric Tradition".

At some point these ideas passed into India, where they became the bases for such things as Mount Meru, Mount Sumeru. This led to the idea of the Nadis, and the importance of the spinal column in yoga meditations.

In other traditions, we get pillar symbolism. Pillars and obelisks were important in Phoenicia, in Egypt, in Ugarit, in other Syrian cultures. Indeed, the phallic pillars that we see, read about, or erect in our places of worship are very ancient motifs, and, according to Forlong, they go back to the second period of the World's worship, and take their place alongside the Serpent Cultus.

We have important Masonic legends relating to Pillars. These have been touched upon lightly in "Is This THE Holy Mountain?" but may need to be examined at length.

The Pillar symbols, in a manner of speaking, not only relate to phallic concepts, but to a stylized form of the Tree, and the idea of an axis, or antenna that communicates with The Eternal. Later on, they would be identified with the Standing One motif of the school of the Essenes (or their predecessors), and the School of Simon Magus. The Standing Ones, of Simon Magus shall be discussed at another time, in the section that follows the present section.

BACKGROUND TO TREE WORSHIP AND TREE CULTS

"Tne meaning of Gogard, the Hellenic tree of life, the sacred oak among whose luxuriant branches a serpent dwells, and cannot be dislodged; thus becomes apparent. Creeping out from the primordial ilus, the mundane snake grows more material and waxes in strength and power with every new evolution." -- Blavatsky, ISIS, I-297 - 298.

"As a symbol, the Serpent had as many aspects and occult meanings as the Tree itself; the 'Tree of Life', with which it was emblematically and almost indissolubly connected. Whether viewed as a metaphysical or a physical symbol, the Tree and Serpent, jointly, or separately, have never been so degraded by antiquity as they are now, in this our age of the breaking of idols, not for truth's sake, but to glorify the more gross matter. The revelations and interpretations in 'The Rivers of Life' would have astounded the worshippers of the Tree and Serpent in the days of archaic Chaldean and Egyptian wisdom; and even the early Saivas would have recoiled in horror at the theories and suggestions of the author of the said work. 'The notion of Payne Knight and Inman that the cross or Tau is simply a copy of the male organs in a triadic form is radically false,' writes Mr. G. Massey, who proves what he says. But this is a statement that could be as justly applied to almost all the modern interpretations of ancient symbols." -- Blavatsky, SD, I-405.

"Thus, in the beginning of their joint existence as a glyph of Immortal Being, the Tree and Serpent were divine imagery, truly. The tree was reversed, and its roots were generated in Heaven and grew out of the Rootless Root of all-being. Its trunk grew and developed, crossing the planes of Pleroma, it shot out crossways its luxuriant branches, first on the plane of hardly differentiated matter, and then downward till they touched the terrestrial plane. Thus, the Asvattha, tree of Life and Being, whose destruction alone leads to Immortality, is said in the Bhagavatgita to grow with its roots above and its branches below (ch. xv.)...." -- ibid., I-406.

"It is only when its pure boughs had touched the terrestrial mud of the garden of Eden, of our Adamic race, that this Tree got soiled by the contact and lost its pristine purity; and that the Serpent of Eternity -- the heaven-born LOGOS -- was finally degraded. In days of old - of the divine Dynasties on Earth -- the now dreaded Reptile was regarded as the first beam of light that radiated from the abyss of divine Mystery. Various were the forms which it was made to assume, and numerous the natural symbols adapted to it, as it crossed aeons of Time: as from Infinite Time itself -- KALA -- it fell into the space and time evolved out of human speculation. These forms were Cosmic and astronomical, theistic and pantheistic, abstract and concrete. They became in turn the Polar Dragon and the Southern Cross, the Alpha Draconis of the Pyramid, and the Hindu-Buddhist Dragon, which ever threatens, yet never swallows the Sun during its eclipses. Till then, the Tree remained ever green, for it was sprinkled by the waters of life; the Great Dragon, ever divine, so long as it was kept within the precincts of the sidereal fields. But the tree grew and its lower boughs touched at last the infernal regions -- our Earth. Then the great serpent Nidhogg -- he who devours the corpses of the evil-doers in the 'Hall of Misery' (human life), so soon as they are plunged into 'Hwergelmir', the roaring cauldron (of human passions) -- gnawed the World-tree. The worms of materiality covered the once healthy and mighty roots, and are now ascending higher and higher along the trunk; while the Midgard-snake coiled at the bottom of the Seas, encircles the Earth, and, through its venomous breath, makes her powerless to defend herself." - ibid., pp. 406-7.

"Now it may become comprehensible why the earliest Initiates and Adepts, or the 'Wise Men', for whom it is claimed that they were initiated into the mysteries of nature by the UNIVERSAL MIND, represented by the highest angels, were named the 'Serpents of Wisdom' and 'Dragons'; as also how the first physiologically complete couples -- after being initiated into the mystery of human creation through OPHIS, the manifested Logos and the androgyne, by eating of the fruit of knowledge -- gradually began to be accused by the material spirit of posterity of having committed SIN, of having disobeyed the "Lord God", and of having been tempted by the Serpent.

"So little have the first Christians (who despoiled the Jews of their Bible) understood the first four chapters of Genesis in their esoteric meaning, that they never perceived that not only was no sin intended in this disobedience, but that actually the 'Serpent' was 'the Lord God' himself, who, as the OPHIS, the LOGOS, or the bearer of divine creative wisdom, taught mankind to become creators in their turn. They never realised that the Cross was an evolution from the 'tree and the serpent', and thus became the salvation of mankind. By this it would become the very first fundamental symbol of Creative cause, applying to geometry, to numbers, to astronomy, to measure and to animal reproduction. According to the Kabala the curse on man came with the formation of woman. The circle was separated from its diameter line. 'From the possession of the double principle in one, that is the Androgyne condition, the separation of the dual principle was made, presenting two opposites, whose destiny it was, for ever after, to seek reunion into the original one condition. The curse was this, viz.: that nature, impelling the search, evaded the desired result by the production of a new being, distinct from that reunion or oneness desired, by which the natural longing to recover a lost state was and is for ever being cheated. It is by this tantalizing process of a continued curse that Nature lives.'"... -- Ibid., II-215-216.

"For I am divided for love's sake, for the chance of union." AL.I.29.

"Nay! who shall devour the Infinite? who shall undo the Wrong of the Beginning?" -- Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente sub figura LXV, Chapter IV. Verse 56.

"The Secret of the Occult Sciences is that of Nature itself, the Secret of the generation of the Angels and Worlds, that of the Omnipotence of God.

"Ye shall be like the Elohim, knowing good and evil," had the Serpent of Genesis said, and the Tree of Knowledge became the Tree of Death.

For six thousand years the Martyrs of Knowledge toil and die at the foot of this tree, that it may again become the Tree of Life.

"The Absolute sought for unsuccessfully by the insensate and found by the Sages, is the TRUTH, the REALITY, and the REASON of the universal equilibrium!

"Equilibrium is the Harmony that results from the analogy of Contraries." - Pike, Morals and Dogma, Chapter 32, p. 844. Probably translating Levi's Key of the Mysteries.

"The Harmony of Opposites." -- Advertising slogan for the Citroën SM, circa 1971-2.

Madame Blavatsky brings up some interesting points, in the above quotations. Tree and Serpent worship was once, practically a Divine Science. Yet, we would be amiss if we regarded anything of a sexual nature in religion, as Madame did, as evil, superstitious, decadent or degraded. Indeed, anything that forces out of the sanctuary the celebration of Light, Life, Liberty and Love really is to be avoided like the plague.

Once a Divine Science, but turned into religions. That is really the way we need to view these things. The Divine Science, once upon a time, related partly to the mysteries attached to human reproduction. However, it also, and most importantly, related to Communion. Communication with the Divine, via the "Tree" or "Pillar" and "Serpent" in the Human Organism (i.e., the Microcosm), and its corresponding Macrocosmic entity(ies).

Is this so absurd?

It is clear to us, from our studies, that there was some sexual meaning to be gained from early religious practices. In fact these WERE the early religious practices themselves.

We have seen the famous picture of the Eagle Men flanking the sides of the Tree of Life, from Babylonian art. Some have likened this to the Tree of Life, or Tree of Immortality, like we read about in the Gilgamesh Epic. Some, like Zecharia Sitchin, have likened it to the ancient astronauts flanking their "shem" or Rocket-Ship. Perhaps he had something there. When we look at it, it appears to us to be a pillar. That is not insignificant.

If we can allow ourselves to analyze the writings of the 19th Century, and read them intelligently, we shall see that these are not mere fictions, as they get dismissed today by those who are incapable of creating anything that comes near to the mark.

Forlong, in Volume II of Rivers of Life, tells us:

"To be an enemy of Asher was to be an enemy of the populator and populations of Asyria. Asher was the Abram or 'the strong one' of Syria -- 'the progenitor', 'he who lived int he circle of life' or creation. Nay, he has been called 'The Dove' with outspread winds, as well as Venus; 'the holder of the bow'; 'the discharger of the arrow;' 'the destroyer, and he who maketh alive again;' 'the Triple god,' or 'Trinity-in-unity.' 'The triple figure shows him to us in temporary combination,' says Rawlinson, 'with two other gods,' which is perfectly true, though the author does not, I fancy, attach to his words the full force they merit. With Asher is ever associated 'the tree of life', or 'life-giving tree', which we occasionally see divested of all ornament, and therefore clearer in its signification. It is then a plain column -- the Column universales -- with rounded top, and flaming hood or Baldachin of expanded serpents over it; and hence those who desire to stand as a god-king, 'man of God,' or high priest, in the eyes of the world, are shown in the position of a column, and sit under a Baldachin. In Vol. I., Fig. 25, p. 73, I give an imperfect idea of the budding column. Where shown plain by Asyrians, there is usually seen (as in Fig. 219, 3,4) irradiating from its sides long, slender stalks carrying the very Phallic forms of acorns in cups as a species of bud; so holy men or women and holy objects are often exhibited as irradiating light and flowers, and if the holy ones be imaged with a bird's head, we find a radiant comb as in the gods or demi-gods usually worshipping the feminine tree of life. This last, however, is a highly ornate and more complicated symbol than 'the Pillar God'; and here, too, we see the Baldachin of serpents crowning 'the holy door of life,' which Dr. Inman explains from a professional point of view. It is a long caveum not always shown open, as here, but as in Fig. 25, above noted, which suggests the idea of the Zoroastrian Atash bairam, the cleft or niche of fire.

"Both symbols were pretty equally cherished all over the valleys and water-sheds of 'the two old world rivers', and the hills and shores of the Mediterranean, including the I-Er-sulam mount and its temple, where they inconspicuously flourished alike under Jebusite and Jew till the 7th C. B. C., when an outburst against the Solo-Serpent rule took place, though with very evanescent success; as the faiths dominated int he third century B. C., over all the Roman Empire, and outlasted it even in the centres of civilisation." - Forlong, Rivers of Life, II, pp. 92-93.

Earlier in the same volume, Forlong states:

"We must begin our sketch of the early Faiths of Western Asia at a period long prior to that when the faith of Zardusht was dominant in this part of the world, although I feel confident that there existed in Central Asia and Bactria a kind of Zoroastrianism, when we first get cognizance of the great cities of Mesopotamia. It is now also generally acknowledged that before the Kaldians, whose history we can scarcely yet investigate, there existed a great Aithiopic, Phallic and Serpent-worshipping race, embracing peoples variously termed Kuths or Cusites, Skuthi, Kuklopians, Kabiri, &c., with a considerable civilization, who were some three thousand years or so B. C. pushing westwards to teach Egypt and Europe, as they had taught some parts of Asia, to build and trade; they were called giants, valiant and bold men, and must have attained a very advanced state, probably 5000 to 6000 years B. C. It may have been from amongst them that an heretical Zoroaster sprang some thousands of years before our era, (like most prophets, not valued or much known till long after his death,) at any rate, we seem to owe more to this race and sect than we are ever likely to ascertain. It seems clear that the first settlers came from the north, and were called Aithe-Opes, from Athor, Ait, and Ops, here worshipped as Sun and Serpent. ..." -- Forlong, II, 2-3.

Thomas Inman, whom Forlong and others like to quote, gives us some information on the early Tree and Serpent worship:

"There are some authors who have treated of tree and serpent worship, and of its prevalence in ancient times, without having, so far as I can see, any idea of that which the two things typify. The tree of knowledge, the tree of life, the serpent that tempted Eve, and still tempts man by his subtlety, are so many figures of speech which the wise understand, but which to the vulgar are simply trees and snakes. In a fine old bas-relief over the door of the Cathedral at Berne, we see an ancient representation of the last judgment. An angel is dividing the sheep from the goats, and devils are drawing men and women to perdition, by fixing hooks or pincers on the portions of the body whence their sins sprung. One fat priest, nude as our risen bodies must be, is being savagely pulled to hell by the part symbolised by tree and serpent, whilst she whom he has adored and vainly sought to disgrace, is rising to take her place among the blest. It is not those of the sex of Eve alone that are inveigled to destruction by the Serpent." - Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism, pp. 10-11.

Later on, in describing the famous engraving which we have included in this article, of the Bird-men flanking the Tree/Pillar:

"The central figure, which is probably the biblical 'grove', represents the delta, or female 'door'. To it the attendant genii offer the pine cone and basket. The signification of these is explained subsequently. I was unable at first to quote any authority to demonstrate that the pine cone was a distinct masculine symbol, but now the reader may be referred to Maffei, Gemme Antiche Figurate (Rome, 1708), where, in vol. iii., plate 8, he will see a Venus Tirsigera. The goddess is nude, and carries in her hand the tripliform arrow, emblem of the male triad, whilst in the other she bears a thyrsus, terminating in a pine or fir cone. Now this cone and stem are carried in the Bacchic festivities, and can be readily recognised as virga cum ovo. Sometimes the thyrsus is replaced by ivy leaves, which, like the fig, are symbolic of the triple creator. Occasionally, the thyrsus was a lance or pike, round which vine leaves and berries were clustered; Bacchus cum vino being the companion of Venus cum cerere. But a stronger confirmation of my views may be found in a remarkable group...

This is entitled Sacrifizio di Priapo, and represents a female offering to Priapus. The figure of the god stands upon a pillar of three stones, and it bears a thyrsus from which depend two ribbons. The devotee is accompanied by a boy, who carries a pine- or fir- cone in his hand, and a basket on his head, in which may be recognised a male effigy. In Figure 64 the position of the advanced hand of each of the priests nearest to the grove is very suggestive to the physiologist. It resembles one limb of the Buddhist cross... The finger or thumb when thus pointed are figurative of Asher, in a horizontal position, with Anu or Hea hanging from one end. Figure 65 is explained similarly. It is to be noticed that a door is adopted amongst modern Hindoos as an emblem of the sacti....

"My friend Mr. Newton, who has taken great interest in the subject of symbolism, regards these 'groves' as not being simply emblems of the yoni, but of the union of that part with the lingam, or mystic palm tree. As his ideas are extremely ingenious, and his theory perfect, I have requested him to introduce them at the end of this work." - Inman, pp. 49-50.

Now, this material says to us that the Tree and Serpent worship was sexual in nature, and had to do with imparting wisdom, and imparting the knowledge of the human reproduction process. This is your basic Pagan system. It would be fitting for the same symbolism to be different, once it goes over to Judaeo-Christian symbolism, but, this is not really what happened. What am I saying? I am stating that Judaeo Christian usages actually vindicate the "heathens" so-called, that they persecuted and cut-off as gentiles. They co-opted these practices for their own usages, at the damnation of the people who had been practicing according to this fashion, forever. Does this sound familiar? We refer the interested reader to the history of the Grand Lodge of England.

Forlong presents us with a rather detailed survey of Tree Worship, as the second chapter of Volume I of Rivers of Life. Because it is so huge, we are not going to extract it in its entirety here, for the benefit of compiling it into our Readings materials. We shall, however, present the section on the Oak.

"THE OAK.

"The Oak was Israel's ancient 'tree of the Covenant;' the word actually means this, but at present I wish to draw attention to the Skandinavian ideaa of the tree which we see in this illustration. It was in this form that the Druids cut their cross out of the live tree, and called it their Thao, Tau, Tor, or Thor, the Thunderer, or Fashioner, in fact Jupiter Tonans, though with these northerns, Odin and Balder more became them than Mars or Apollo. I do not know if their symbolism reached to a Crux Ansata, but this Tau was no doubt that holy sign of life which rendered, or aided in rendering, the Egyptian Scarabaeus so sacred, and what the Jewish Seer alluded to as 'stamped upon the foreheads of the faithful'. The Samaritan cross, which they stamped on their coins was No. 1, but the Norsemen preferred No. 2 -- the circle and four stout arms of equal size and weight, and called it Tor's hammer. It is somewhat like No. 3, which the Greek Christians early adopted, though this is more decidedly phallic, and shows clearly

the meaning so much insisted on by some writers as to all meeting in the centre. The later Greeks do not seem to have thought of these early crosses, as having any connection with their new faith -- the Christian, and it is now generally acknowledged that they had a solar origin. So far as I know, the cutting of a live tree into a T -- tau or Deity, is unique on the part of the Druids. Borlase in his Cornwall thus describes the operation. 'The Druids all consenting, pitched on the most beautiful Oak tree, cut off its side branches, and then joined two of them to the highest part of the trunk, so that they extended themselves on either side like the arms of a man' (p. 108); the whole of this they called 'Thau or God, that on the right Hesus, that on the left Belenus, and he the middle, Tharanis,' which we may grant our valiant author of the History of Thorn Worship, meant the thorn, or upright divider.

"Maximus Lyrius tells us that amongst the Kelti, a tall Oak was considered not only an idol, but the very image of Jupiter. Pliny, in his Natural History, says that there were worshippers of the Oak throughout France, whom the Greeks called Drus. He calls them French Magi and Dryade, that is, priests of the Oaks, and sorcerers. The Oak was esteemed by Greeks and Romans the arbor Jovi sacra, the tree devoted to God, and so was it amongst the Hebrews, who called it El-on, as much as to say the Tree of God. Turner shows that Deukalion, the Greek Noah, 'preached or prophesied by or under an Oak or tree, not after, but before the Flood,' as Abraham did under the Oaks of Mamre. Both Noah and Deukalion were instructed by a IOne or Dove -- the latter, I should say, for all evidence is converging to prove to us that Deu-kal-ion was Siva or Deva-Kala, or incarnation of this Lingam God. Deu-kal-ion and his were the beloved of God -- Dod-Donai, or Do Adonai; and the Greeks, as is here well shown, had 'corrupted the traditions of the East.' They called Dodona .... a sea nymph, or goddess who had come to them by the sea or way of the sea. Sphanheim derives Dodona from (hnwy dwd) Duda Iona or Amabilis Columba, which is, I suspect, Kali, or the Yoni, and hence the myths about Arks, Jonahs, Ionahs, and Doves; in the mythology of 'the Ark and the Ionah,' Holwell and Bryant's Mythology says, that there is a continual reference to the Moon: The Ark was Luna, Laris, Boeotus, Naus, Men, and the mother of all beings. Meno Taurus and Tauris Lunaris signified the same, and both were the Deus Arkitis; hence the deity, Meen and Manes, which later became Magnes, and was so applied to great people. Noah was called the Deus Lunus, because the Moon, or Lunette, was his ark, as it was that of all gods.

"Deborah the prophetess preferred dwelling under a Palm-tree, and Rebeka's nurse, Deborah, was buried under an Oak; first a Beth-el, or alter, probably a Lingam stone, such as Jacob was partial to annointing (Gen. 35:8, 14), being erected, and of course under the Oak. On this occasion it was denominated a 'place of weeping'. All connected with these holy trees was deeply venerated, so much so, as to have left their impress even immortally in language, as in (Sanctus) Quercis, alsos, and lucus, which still recall to us ideas of something sacred, just as our Bible 'Testimony' and Testament does this, quite irrespective of the strange origin of such word. Every grand and noble tree was a god-like object, and the abode of deities, and where they might always be asked to make their presence manifest. No ancient races would start at being told that sprites or fairies had been seen dancing under a fine or quaint-looking tree, or that the voice of Jove had spoken to any one from amidst its branches. Xerxes, at the head of his army on his way to Sardis, paused respectfully before a huge Plane tree, and offered golden ornaments to the deity, and left a guard to protect it; amnd an earlier, and perhaps as great a king as he, may be seen on a bas-relief of Koyoonjik (Nineveh), stopping in his chariot and devoutly saluting a tall Palm tree (Barlow, 99). Nor have Persians yet forgotten such ways, although for eleven centuries they have been strict Islamees; it is still common in Persia to see grave men addressing Darakti-fasels, or sacred trees, and many of these are still said, as in the days of Moses, to show fires gleaming in their midst. Jeremiah, in 2:20, alludes to the tree adoration of his people, and Mr. Bruce tells us that the Abysinians worshipped the Wanzy tree 'avowedly as God.' 'In Arabia, Africa, India, China, and Japan,' says Barlow, the same stories still reach us, and still the deity sits 'on the summit of the trunk, sufficiently near for the attendant spirits below to transmit to him readily (he used in Egypt to be generally she, the goddess Netpe) the prayers offered up by the faithful. We see the same idea in this deity on the Lingam stump, as we do in the Pythoness sitting on the serpent column over Delphi's thermal fountain; and Mr. Fergusson tells us he sees the same on the panels of the gateway of the Sanchitope. He considers also that it is only Tree Worship he sees in the altar with angels depicted by me in fig. No. 5; but I see a good deal more than this. Captain Wilford, in 10th Volume "Asiatic Researches", says that the tree of life and knowledge is a Manichaean Cross on a Calvary; and as such it is called the 'Divine Tree' or 'tree of the gods.' If it is a trunk without branches (which is a simple lingam), it is said to be 'the seat of the Supreme One' -- Maha Deva. When two arms are added, it becomes 'the Tri-moorti,'or Brahma, Vishnoo, and Siva, who are then said to be seated there; regarding which, says M. Guiniaut, in his Religions de l'Antiquité, p. 147: 'Quand se furent formés les quatorze mondes, avec l'axe qui le traverse et au-dessous le mont Calaya, alors parut sur le sommet de ce dernier le triangle, Yoni, et dans l'Yoni le Lingam, ou Siva Lingam. Ce Lingam (arbre de vie) avait trois écorses: la première et la plus exterieure était Bramhma, celle du milieu Vishnou, la troisième et la plus tendre Siva; et, quand les trois dieux se furent détachés, il ne resta plus dans le triangle que la tige nue, desormais sous la garde de Siva.'

"'Wisdom', says the Jewish Proverb, 'is a tree of life to them that lay hold on her,' and the serpent is often this symbol of wisdom, as Sophia is in the Greek Church. The Kelt had his Tri-Sool, or the three-thorned One, or Trimoorti, or Bel in this Tharamis, which the Skandinavian denoted by Odin, Balder, and Tor. Teramis was Tor or Jove or Indra. Esus was Mars, the irresistable torrent, which some say is derived from the Roman Eas or Es. Belenus, Balder, or Bel is the good and the beneficent, who shines on all alike; but Odin is the Jewish 'God of Battles' - a Tor, who, as Jeremiah says, was 'a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces' (23:29); he is 'the mighty One', the 'bruiser,' the very Oak himself, 'the Covenant God' -- Pillar or Terebinth-stem, before whom (Gen. 17:1-3; 18:1) this God swore and the Patriarch agreed; thus in connection with an Oak (Gen. 12:6,7), Jews and Christians received their glad promise from Jhavh-Elo-him, and on Mahadeva the two patriarchs executed their most solemn oaths (Gen. 24:2,3; 47:29), and beside him the pious Josiah had to stand in making his new covenant (2 Kings 23:1-3). His very name is an oath and 'a strong one' (hl)), and a 'testimony' as that for which the Ark was built, viz., an Eduth (Ex. 25:16, 21), which I shall have occasion hereafter to dwell upon. No place is so holy, no shrine or grave so sacred as Deru's sanctum, said Sklavonians and Kelts, and so also thought Jacob, Joshua, and great Jhavh himself. (See Gen. 35:4; Joshua 24:26; and Judges 6:11-21.)

"'In Palestine,' says Barlow, to whom I am indebted for reminding me of some of the above, 'the Oak is the semblance of a divine covenant, and its shadow indicated the religious appropriation of any stone monument erected beneath it; it was symbolical of the Divine presence.' Many a decree or covenant besides those of the Jewish Patriarchs have been ratified and sealed throughout Europe 'sub Quercibus', or 'sub annosa Quercu.' Not only was the Quercus, and so the Quercetum or grove of Oaks, the 'Sancta Quercus', but the 'Holy Oak' of pre-Christian times became the gospel tree of Christian days, as I hope to make clear in the course of this work.

"It was Drusus, or oaks that sheltered Zeus on Mount Lycaeus, and there, in consequence, was erected its universal female accompaniment - a holy well or a fountain, and afterwards a temple. The oak was the patron, nay teacher of hospitality, for its shade was as sacred as the medieval church navis, which indeed took its place. The wisest men, no less than the ignorant masses, saw in it a god; Jews, Pagans, and Christians, nay the enlightened Sokrates, all swore their most solemn oaths under this monarch of the woods, and the martial Roman coveted a wreath of it as the highest of all rewards. In these respects it was even more to the West, than the Ficus, et hoc genus omne was to the East; like these species, its wood alone must call down fire from heaven, and gladden in the yule (suiel or Seul) log of Christmas-tide even Christian fires, as well as annually renew with fire direct from Ba-al, on Bel-tine day, the sacred flame on every public and private hearth, and this from the temples of Meroe on the Nile, to the furthest icy forests and mountains of the Sklavonian. The Tree was called 'the Healer of the Nations', to gaze down its 'elfish looking holes', or torture one self on its quaint gnarled stem, was sure to bring about some happy result, if not an immediate and direct answer from Jove, Tor, or Toth. The tree-god was more peculiarly efficacious as a Healer at Yule-tide, just as all sects still hold their sacraments and prayers to be, at their great festivals, more specially beneficial; if a ruptured person was stripped naked and passed three times betwixt two strips of oak at Yule-tide, he was almost immediately healed, and the gods latterly conceded the same privilege to similar good deeds on 'Good Friday', and naturally so, as this is the most hallowed day of the Vernal Equinox.

"The passing naked through Odin's arms reminds us of many strange rites, and has an evident connection with Phallic lore. Osiris allowed no clothed ones to approach, and carry him in his Isinian car, as will be made abundantly clear hereafter. The superstition of passing through natural, or even artificial, clefts in trees and rocks, or, failing them, caves and holes, has scarcely yet left the most civilized parts of Europe, and is firmly maintained throughout the rest of the world, and in India takes the thoroughly literal aspect of the question, viz., of being really 'born again' -- the person to be so regenerated being actually passed through the mouth and organ of a properly constructed cow -- if the sinner be very rich, of a gold or silver cow, which is then broken up and divided among the purifying priests. A wooden or lithic perforation, that is an IOni, is, for ordinary men, however, a sufficient 'baptism of grace', and in these islands, the holy Ash or Ygdrasil, is the proper tree to regenerate one. Major Moore describes his gardener in Suffolk as splitting a young Ash longitudinally (the Oak is its equivalent) and passing a naked child through it three times, 'always head foremost, for Rickets and Rupture'. The tree is bound up again, and if it heals, all goes well with the child. The operation is called 'drawing' in Suffolk, and in 1834 seems to have gone beyond the spiritual, and passed into the sphere of a medical luxury -- a sort of Turkish-bath, though called Regeneration but a few years previously. In England the Ash is for drawing, preferred to the Oak; it should be split for about five feet, as closely as possible East and West, and in the Spring or fertilizing season of the year, before vegetation has set in, and just as the sun is rising; the child must then be stripped quite naked, and, say some, passed feet, and not head foremost through the tree three times; it should then be carefully turned around, as the Kelts say, Deasil-ways -- that is with the sun, after which the cleft of the tree must be bound up carefully. Here we see the Tree as a thing of Life, and forming the very IOni-ish, door of life, and in the presence of Siva or the Sun, without whom regeneration of old, or giving of new life, is known by all to be impossible.

"I attach a good deal of significance to the following remarks of the author of the Hindoo Pantheon, for rude races I have always found to be very keen observers of such peculiarities. He says, 'a longitudinal wound in the bark of a tree will primarily assume the Sivaik form -- the erect, obeliscal -- like the tree itself, symbolic of the Linga; expanded for a mysterious purpose -- and it is curious what a number of mysterious purposes seem to have occurred to prurient eyes -- it is IOnic. Duplicated, when healed, and healed, we find it still of like allusion.' All the forms which this learned Orientalist alludes to, are spells, and highly mystical, and are worn on the foreheads of millions, as charms; just as Europe puts a cross or Tau -- equally Phallic, on her churches, tombs, and all sacred things. Now the Cross or Tau was the ancient clavis or key, by which it was said trees were propagated, especially the holy Ash and Sycamore; the cutting or graft was in fact a clavis, and in Christian times our ancestors transferred their love for Tau or Thor to the church door key, for this was the 'portal of bliss', the 'gate of heaven', so their church key and Bible, (of this they knew little), became fetish charms, which together could unfold matters, especially matrimonial. The key was in this case laid in the fetish volume, and certain words were then repeated as to the wish of the searchers, and the verse on or over which it was found, was the god's answer; witches much feared this fetish, and no wonder, for they, poor ill-used wretchesm were weighed against the Church Bible! The 'thread-needle fetes,' elswhere mentioned in Cornwall, are of the same significance as passing through tree or rock clefts, indeed passing through the Killarney tree cleft is called 'threading the needle'; and as Cicerones there tell one, are specially fertilizing and 'aving of pains your honor, to your lady, if in a certain way.' Oxford exhibits the same phase in her 'groaning cheeses', the cut of which in a circular or oval form, must be kept ready at a birth, to pass the new-born babe through; afterwards, like wedding cakes, it is cut up and given to maidens to sleep upon, 'to excite pleasant and expressive dreams.

"The Dodona of history was not purely grove or tree worship; that faith had, I think much faded before these days; a close scrutiny of all the most ancient records I can get regarding this celebrated oracle, seems to place the matter, to be brief, somewhat thus: --- The Peliades, of whom much will be hereafter said, were, says Pausanias, 'the most ancient prophetesses of Dodona in Ka-onia (query Kal-IOnia?) even antecedent to the celebrated Phemonoe;' their first oracle was Zeuth-Zeus, the Lingam god, who stands through mythology variously as Prometheus, Noah, or Deukalion -- Deva Kala, or Devi Kali, for sexes are here of no account, Jupiter being frequently styled the mother of the gods, here meaning merely the Parental source, or the Peladian idea of the cause of generation, see volume cited, under numerous articles, as to Zeuth. The worship here, that is at Dodona, was evidently IOnish or Dove-ish -- a name the Greeks appear to have punned much upon, saying however that it came from Theba or Thebes, the Ark. Thebais of Egypt was founded by Koothites, variously styled El-o-pians, Pier-ians, and Kad-mians, regarding whom we shall speak a good deal etymologically and otherwise further on. The worship at Dodona appears to me, from my experience in the study of Eastern Sivaik shrines, to have gone through such changes as: first, a sacred tree, no doubt an oak; then a Lingam under the oak; then a sacred grove whose leaves rustled and whose priests interpreted; then a fountain whose murmuring improved on these; then tinkling cymbals on the oaks; then the Lingam pillars on which the brazen kettles hung and the boys played; then Fire and statuary gods, ending in Jove. The grove was undoubtedly man's first temple, and became a sanctuary, asylum, or place of refuge, and as time passed on, temples came to be built in the sacred groves. There is no doubt but that where the holy Al-Ka-aba of Meka stood was but a grove and a well, and round all the 'holy circles' of England, and Klachans or Kirks (circles) of Scotland, stood, say our best authorities, 'sacred woods,' and the same holds good wherever I have been able to investigate the origin of a shrine. Let me repeat, for the matter is most important, -- First and prominently comes the tree; then the grove and well; then the little column or Phallus; then the altar of unhewn stone, and an Ark or adytum, then poles, gongs, or bells, streamers or serpents, &c. The early gods liked not walls, said Pliny very truly, and that the Jews well knew this we see in Gen. 12:6, 7; 13:18, and elsewhere, though our translators too freely use the word 'altar' or [hbzM], instead of trees." -- I:64-70.

Continuing:

"The Jewish temple had, it is said, an enclosure planted with a Palm, Cedar, and Olive, as the mosque which stands on its site now has. We know that the fruitful olive was Maiya's or Asherah's or Mylita's symbol, as the cedar and the palm are Mahadeva's and Asher's. The last act of Joshua's life -- 1427 B. C., says English orthodoxy -- and be it remembered he was the great circumciser of all the tribes, was, 'to set up a great stone under an oak that was by the Sanctuary of the Jhavh at Shechem (Jos. 24:26) as a witness,' lest the tribes should afterwards deny their Elohim; under this oak, with its sacred pillar stone -- which stone could hear and no doubt speak -- was Abimelech crowned king of Israel 228 years later (Jud. 9:6). In Smith's Bible Dictionary we read that 'this veneration throughout Old Testament history of particular trees, was amongst the heathen extended to a regular worship of them.' Surely by this it is not meant that these Jewish tribes were other than heathens; but I doubt the applicability of this word to any peoples. Eusebius writes that the tree under which God sat and talked with Abram, and arranged the great Covenant on the plains of Mamre, was worshipped down to the days of Constantine, but that 'he cut it down to build a temple to St. George!'

"As the early Indian and Israelite worshipped under what they each thought most beautiful and good - so do the pious of our own day; and so we in India find Asher and Asherah, Baal and the Grove, and the sacred fire-ark-altar, set up under lovely and sacred trees; it was in later times that man built temples with domes and minarets, and herein still symbolized his old faiths; and so do we still enshrine all we hold sacred, in altars and cathedrals, with spires and towers pointing to heaven, and marked by that symbolic cross which carries us back to the origin of Faiths in many lands. If it was not the 'Asyrian Grove' -- (Asherah) or Asher, I believe we see the Jewish idea of 'grove' worship to the present hour all over India in the worship of Mamojee; numerous grotesque but very symbolical figures commonly seen seated under a holy banian tree in the outskirts of many villages, which are worshipped monthly throughout the year by all classes. The picture at the head of this chapter is meant to represent the worship. The usual figure is an elephant with a curiously shaped horse's head; it is always hollow, with a large orifice behind. The elephant represents power, and the horse's head intelligence, as also the Sun-god Baal or Asher. It is more phallic than Hippos-like, but my sketch both here and in No. 1, is from nature: Clearly the large hollow inside denotes the mighty womb of Maiya, Mama, or Mamojee, that is mother-jee, the affix signifying respect, 'great' or 'universal'.

"The 'grove' of our Old Testament translators was pure Phallic worship, approaching to the Sakti, or Left-hand sect, whilst the worship of Baal, or Asher, was the Sivaite form of the faith: I hope I shall not offend my Vishnoo-ite friends, if I say that the 'grove' sects of Syria seem to have come nearer to their phase of the faith than to the Sivaites; we may grant that both worshipped 'the Tree of Life,' for it is male and female. I give here a precise sculpture of the Asyrian and Jewish Grove from Dr. Inman, I. 161, where full particulars as to the sistrum-looking object and its thirteen flowers will be found. The Israelites, as all old nations did, worshipped the 'grove' and lingam separately or together 'under every green tree,' and our English version, as before said, translates the Hebrew, Asherah, wrongly into 'the grove.' Smith's Bible Dictionary says, that Ashtoreth is the proper name of the Phenician goddess called by the Greeks Astarte, whilst her worship, or name of her symbol or image, was Asherah. The general notion, says the learned writer, here symbolised alike by Jews and Gentiles, is that of productive power, as Asher or Baal symbolised generative power; Asherah was the Asyrian Ishtar or Star of love, very often represented thus, as an eye, so that we are left in no doubt as to the purity of the faith of this 'holy Jewish people.'

"The male 'tree of life' is quite differently delineated to this 'burning bush' -- the symbol of the ark goddess, and is probably most clearly represented in this next Asyrian sculpturem where the man with knife and cone in hand is seen approaching the 'door of life,' embattled, to denote 'dominion,' as Isis is very usually shown; the seeding tree stands in the midst of the picture, and beside it the Bull, or Power with 'Passion' as the serpent round his neck; more will appear on this subject in my chapter on the Faiths of Kaldia and Asyria.

"The tree and serpent, says Fergusson, are symbolised in every religious system which the world has known, not excepting the Hebrew and Christian; the two together are typical of the reproductive powers of vegetable and animal life. It is uncertain whether the Jewish 'tree of life' was borrowed from an Egyptian or Kaldean source, but the meaning was in both cases the same, and we know that the Asyrian tree was a life-giving divinity, and Moses, or the writer of Genesis, has represented very much of the same in his coiled serpent and love-apples or citrons of the 'tree of life.'" -- I., pp. 71-73.

Continuing: ---

"I have in figure 10 given 'the Skandinavian idea' of the tree, and I now give that which, after much study, I have come to the conclusion, is the Asiatic idea -- viz., that it is the Toth or Pillar, and the Earth or Isis. We must not expect to find a clear and logical sequence in things mythical, any more than in our ecclesiastical or theological 'mysteries' -- we see how the most learned Christians fight about transubstantiation and consubstantiation, and openly aver that neither their words nor arguments are to be taken according to the reasonable and grammatical meaning, which the outside and unregenerate world affixes to these; they assert that 'the real presence' is in the bread and wine, and yet is not, and that no one knows how or when it got there; in fact there is a considerable muddle, which yet we are to receive, and try and swallow with what faith 'the Lord only can grant to us;' and so it is with Hindoo mysteries, as the orthodox have often told me, when hard pressed to dry and logical conclusions. Some say that the tree pierces the skies, of which Juno (IOni) is the representation, and that hence its flowers and fruits, which it culls from the rich abundance of the heavens; others, that the dews which nightly suffuse its leaves and branches are the 'over-shadowings' of great Dius or Indra, who thus becomes the Greek Ouranos, and the earth the Ge or female energy; this is, I think, the real Asiatic idea, for the Greeks learned their lore in Asia, and they are never tired of their Ge and Ouranos idea, and this is the most usual Indian notion by those few priests who know anything of the subject. Perhaps a compromise is possible by saying that the Pillar or Stem is Jove, whilst Ge and Juno is mundane matter and moisture, acting and reacting on the fruit-yielding mass; anyhow the whole is 'a thing of beauty,' and was for long long ages a veritable god. The Cross Idea probably followed at a very remote interval the Phallic and Serpent symbolism, but rapidly on the Cross, came semi-spiritual notions, which crystallised themselves eventually, and then concreted with other matter into such forms or names as the Kaldian 'Memra,' the Greek 'Logos' -- the 'Divine Wisdom' or 'Word,' which existed, it was averred, 'from the beginning with the Father.' This wisdom was heard no less amidst the thunderings on desert mountains and the oaks of Dodona, than 'among the branches of the Tree of Life in the Paradise of Osiris,' for Egyptians held, that from her seat on her sylvan throne, Netpe, 'the goddess of divine life,' there proclaimed the will of Heaven. It was she of Sais, and she of 'a thousand lights,' who sat there, and it is her lights which Jews and Christians have carried down to the present day and set up in their altar candlesticks; and it is her 'tree of lights' and good gifts which they still symbolise in Christmas-trees at the winter solstice: True, we here have it from Germany, but it originally came from the Nile or from the furthest east, where it is now, though in a somewhat different way, vigorously maintained." -- I: 73 - 74.

Continuing ---

"And surely a descent from Osiris to the Palm tree, then to the Ficus Sycamora, an ignoring of Netpe, though the substitution be the IOni, then the quarrel as to whom the Cross belonged, a denial of fair Netpe's baptism and office as the Lady, or 'bread distributor', now claimed for the virgin mother of Bethlehem, though both words signify the same, was enough to arouse the ire of even saints. Whether it should have been so or not, it was so; and the new God, and new Virgin, and Cross, were boldly declared as having no connection by idea or otherwise with the old; yet wise philosophers, in secret nooks (for they were too discreet to speak their minds), no doubt smiled and thought otherwise. They had learned that though faiths may be held by their votaries to have started at times with a tabula rasa, yet none ever remain so; for God moves not, so far as historians and critics have been able to investigate, by new creations, or by fits and starts. He ever weaves the new threads of progressive ideas into the old ones, for the bottles are too fragile to bear an entirely new wine. The discreet old philosophers probably said among themselves, 'This Virgin and Prophet of Nazareth, whether historical or mythical, must have sprung from the old, old virgins and prophets, and in time the ideas will again entwine themselves about our old ones, altering, and mayhap improving on them, but never, as time progresses, able to ignore them.'

"Netpe, the Holy Spirit of the Egyptian Tree of Life, was female, as was Jehovah, but after ages changed her sex, from casual circumstances noticed elsewhere. 'She was,' says Rosellini, 'a form of the Egyptian Rhea, the sister and wife of Sev (Siva) or Saturn. . . . Her hieroglyphic name is the 'Abyss of Heaven"' (Barlow, p. 63. Of course, for 'Heaven' here is Siva, and the consort of all gods is called in Sanskrit an 'Abyss', 'Cave', and such like, which I would rather not illustrate, equivalent to the Syrian Chiun, Kiun, or Kevan. Osiris was the Son of Time (Kronus of later days), who was Sev of Egyptian cosmogony, and his mother was Netpe, the vault of heaven; and thus in a sense Netpe was Mary, for Osiris was 'he alone of all the Egyptian gods who was born and died on earth; his birthplace was Mount Sinai, called by the Egyptians Nysa, hence his Greek name Dio-nysus -- 'the same', says Mr. Sharpe, 'as the Hebrew "Jehovah Nissi," which Moses gave to the Almighty when he set up an altar to Him at the foot of the Holy Mountain (Ex. 17:15). Philae, or the holy island, is the more accredited place of his burial,' for islands are always holy to Siva. Osiris came to earth for the benefit of mankind, was put to death, and rose again to judge the quick and the dead, 'which', says Barlow, 'was the great mystery'. All were to appear before him, to give an account of every deed done in the body, an amount of labor (for all is to be recorded we are told), clerical, and argumentative, of the audi alteram partem kind, which entered not into the minds of these poor writers to conceive of. I may mention that all great plains, and even continents, have very feminine names, thus Isis or Isha (woman) is often applied to the plains of the Nile and other fertile pastures, and so we have Berti-Koonti as a name of India."-- I., 77-78.

Now, these very long extracts from Forlong illustrate some of the ideas that went into the worship of Trees and Pillars. Also, for they who can read the runes aright, are presented confirmations by another writer of certain things of which it is not lawful to speak, regarding the actual nature of the original Hebrew religion, and the actual gender of the God of the Old Testament (and the Book of the Law, too.).

All of this is important, even if it may be deemed by many to be mere mythology, which, in today's manner of viewing the term, means 'fiction'. It is important, because when we get to the Story of the Mamre Oak, it says to us that there was in fact a tradition present, from the beginning, of a most Pagan nature. Perhaps the term we should use, is not Pagan, but Natural. Or, that which is harmonious with Nature. (Is it not a sick joke, really, that even though the JCI crowd condemns people who "go with the flow", or who follow the crowd, or take the path of least resistance, when it comes to certain things, they hem and haw about it being "a crime against nature" -- then it is okay, as in the case of same-sex partnerings, which, from our survey of the past, do not appear to be abominations at all. Indeed, there may have been taboos placed upon the act, but certain things were not available to certain classes of people, particularly to those who were charged to be fruitful and multiply. This the priest class has always known, and it is clear to us today, that it, too has not been forgotten, even amongst the so-called 'celibate' clergy!

THE CONTEXT OF THIS ENQUIRY

"In regard to the word "Alhambra," we may associate another word appropriated to Druidical Stones in England -- Men-Amber. A famous Logan-Stone, commonly called 'Men-Amber,' is in the parish of Sethney, near Pendennis, Cornwall. It is 11 feet long, 4 feet deep, and 6 feet wide. From this the following derivatives may be safely made: Men-Amber, Mon-Amber, Mon-Ambra, Mon-Amrha, Mon-Amra (M'Om-R'a, Om-Ra), 'Red Stone,' or Magic, or Angelic, or Sacred Stone..." -- Hargrave Jennings, The Rosicrucians: Their Rites and Mysteries, Second Edition, p. 134.

"The Ophites are said to have maintained that the serpent of Genesis was the LOGOS, and the 'Saviour.' The Logos was Divine Wisdom, and was the Bhudda, or Buddha, of India. The Brazen Serpent was called LOGOS, or the 'Word,' by the Chaldee Paraphrast (Basnage, lib. iv. ch. xxv.) It is very certain that, in ancient times, the serpent was an object of adoration in almost all nations. The serpent-worshippers seem to have placed at the head, or nearly at the head, of all things (Maia), and most intimately connected with the serpent, a certain principle which they called 'Sophia.' This is clearly a translation of the word 'Bhudda' into Greek. It also reminds us that the old Bhuddas are always under the care of the Cobra-Capella. This is evidenced in all the Memnonian or Egyptian heads; and in the asp (or fleur-de-lis), more or less veiled or altered, displayed as the chief symbol upon the universal Sphynxes. The serpent, in one view, was the emblem of the evil principle, or destroyer. But, as we have seen before, the 'destroyer' was the 'creator.' Hence he had the name, among his numerous appellations, of OPHIS; in Hebrew, AUB, OB; and as he was the 'logos,' or 'linga,' he was also OPS, and in Hebrew MMRA. Query, hence [Suraph in Greek], a seraph, or serpent? -- See Jones' Lexicon (in voce), and [Sophos in Greek], wise. The Suph and Soph are both the same root. The famous 'Brazen Serpent,' called Nehustan, set up by Moses in the Wilderness, is termed in the Targum a 'Saviour.' It was probably a 'serpentine crucifix,' as it is called a cross by Justin Martyr. All the foregoing is allegorical, and hides deep Gnostic myths, which explain serpent-worship, united with the adoration paid to a perpendicular." -- Ibid., pp. 200-201.

While it may seem more all-inclusive to cover every asoect of ancient religion that contains tree and pillar symbolism, that would be defeating the purpose of this segment of the Essay in progress. We are interested in the Oak at Mamre, influences upon the early Hebrew cultus there, and influences it had, in its turn, upon later developments in Judaism, going down to the Tree of Life of the Kabbalah.

As we have seen with the extensive quotes from Forlong, it is not unreasonable to hold the opinion (and that with material to substantiate said opinion) that the Sycamore cultus of Egypt, which was always sacred to Hathor, as well as the Ark Goddess cultus, were picked up by the Jews, and taken with them into the wilderness. It is also interesting to read that Osiris was born in the Sinai, since Isis was born at Denderah, and at the Sinai, is Serabit al-Khadim, a Hathor complex which was important for its mining and production of Turquoise and Copper, as well as some interesting alchemical operations. The Temple at Denderah, being sacred also to Hathor, was the place where Isis is said to have been born. The two complexes being related one to the other, and also at Denderah was sacred the worship of the Horus of the Rising Sun of the Spring Equinox. Aren't these ideas interesting, to say the least? And Hathor's consort being Heru Behutet, Horus of Edfu, we get a good deal of coverage for the deities of The Book of the Law. The following is roughly extracted from an email narrative we sent one of our associates recently:

"There were those bull heads found in Chlodion's tomb along with the golden bees, remember, and Payne Knight shows one of these in his Priapus book. Also, we can see these in the Lambert engraving, one of the pillars in the top right panel (in the panels section). Also, in Apollinopolis Parva, were the same bulls' heads.

"Egypt Woman. I know, Sheba was from Saba. But... Then there was the Bull of Merowe. I do not hold that Merowe and Merovée were related etymologically because too far a gulf existed between the alps and the Fayyum region of Egypt. In any way one looks at the subject.

"But... there are some things which beg for an explanation. The Arian heresy was originated in the Thebaid region, or at least it got going there, and that was the kind of Christianity our Merovingian cousins were said to be involved in before Clovis' wife made him bend over and get converted by il Papa.

"Egypt Woman. Remember that Sycamore stuff I told you. The Goddess, THE GODDESS, mind you, not any regular priced Isis will do, but THE GODDESS, par excellence. Just as I suspected all along. So the sycamore cult ... migrates to Israel, [this deity] gets a sex change, and becomes the god of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. I would appear to be a pissed off old man, too."

[Author's comment after the fact: Remember the Book of J? It is said in there that the God of that book was a woman, at least by the writer of the introduction.]

"It gets transferred into the Mamre Oak cult. And the Mamre Oak cult goes on throughout the entire run of Jewish History up to the Essene period, when it becomes the Teacher's Oak, which was significant on this very day, way way back, probably 73 BCE according to the Time System. That is why I cannot in any way accept Eisenmann and Wise's retelling of history, just because they got the translations. That done make it raht! They are moving it away from crucial time that would vindicate the Sepher Toledoth Yeshu, which paints paul in a more evil light than they do. That Would vindicate Allegro and others, too, who held, as I do, that the Essene Master was not James the Just, but this guy who existed 100 years "bc". He was killed on this very day, Atonement Day, hung upside down from the branches of the Teacher's Oak, by the Wicked Priest who came out from Jerusalem in order to accomplish the deed.

"The cover up of time is one of the things which has helped the Church succeed in its lies.

"EVENTUALLY the same symbolism that we see in the dead sea scrolls relating to the Tree, the World Tree, the Teacher's Oak, etc., shows up in the Book Bahir, and from that, it becomes apparent that they were referring in all of these versions, to the DurAnKi, the Bond Heaven Earth, the Axis where the real Crossing takes place.

"Now, what is this supposed to mean to the average john and mary peon in the trailer park? Absolutely nothing. Soup is good food. Yummy.

"But -- to the vindication of our Luciferian Goddess, it means everything. She is the Goddess of the Ark, the Giver of Life, the LAW, the whole works. These are terms generally referred to Jehovah. But they were hers first, because the Jews were an experiment. If one reads the story of the wilderness, one can see that this is the case, since the people were cut off from everything that came natural to them, at every turn. This is always done to people who undergo behavior mod practices. Aka Brainwashing. Anything came natural, it was an abomination. Anything unreasonable and hideous, that was being good and obedient. Good Cracker. Good Cracker. I wonder if anybody got the racist slur in that Andy Griffith Commercial slogan? ...

"So, [the Benjaminites] were cursed; then the judges come to an end, then Saul, then he is intrigued against by "Samuel", and then David, and then Solomon. So, that by the time that Hiram of Tyre is brought in to build a Pagan Temple, to "Yahweh" at roughly the same time, discoveries are made that make Solomon, who is really ignorant of the truth, uncomfortable, and he builds on the wrong spot. Instead of building on Enoch's chamber, he builds on something else. ... Well, anyway, The Queen shows up, and is probably coming to give him instruction! I do know that the Sabaeans and the Minaeans or however it is spelled, go way back, and there is that book, if you ever find it... -- The Bible Came from Arabia, Prometheus Books, Kamal Salibi I think. Olahm and 'Elyon were the deities, in the Asir highlands. Between Mecca and Saba." -- excerpted from a communication to Soror L.'. written by G. H. Frater E.'. I.'. A.'. E.'., 16 September 2002 c.e.

So, all this said, we can go on to the sequential narrative, taking into consideration a story such as this. Beginning, ultimately in Nibiru (or whatever the Home Planet is called), touching down on Earth, evolving a priesthood known as the Wise Men (also can't forget the Wise Women, either). Some migrate, by long circuitous route, to India, then back via Persia and Arabia, to Ethiopia, then to Egypt, and across the Mediterranean to a) Palestine and b) the Greek Isles, like Crete, Euboea, finally Athens, Pergamon, Ionia, etc. Finally back to Phoenicia, Syria, and Israel. After the Captivity, a grade of priests initiated in the Babylonian and Persian Schools of Wisdom, came back and formed a priesthood that made up the State religion, and one that was more of a School of Prophets. The School of Prophets schism at some point, after the mid 2nd Century bce, and from this is born the Essenes.

The Master is killed by the Wicked Priest from Jerusalem on the Day of Atonement, circa 73 BCE, and another sacrifice stains the tomb. The Age of Pisces is here. Well, it had been going on for a hundred years already. The writings left behind, are buried, by the time the Temple at Jerusalem is destroyed. Migrations take place. People and traditions scatter to the four winds.

In some of the Jewish schools the practical Kabbalah is being developed. The Raza Rabba, and other works and practices. Rabbi Abu Aharon ben Samuel ha Nasi of Baghdad brings the Practical Kabbalah to Italy, and from thence to the Kalonymide family of Northern Italy. Some of these are also the German Hasidim. Eleazar of Worms, Judah the Hasid, etc.

At the same time, some developments take place in Spain and the SOuth of France. In 1130 on the Day of Atonement several prominent Languedocian Jews receive a vision of the Prophet Elijah. The study and teaching of the Kabbalah is commenced there at Lunel and Narbonne. The Rabad, and others, notably Isaac the Blind. Some time prior to this and concurrent with this is the development of the Book Bahir which contains elements about the Tree that remind us of the Teacher's Oak written of in the Dead Sea Scrolls. From this is evolved by the Languedocian Kabbalists, the Sephirotic Tree of Life. This is a new form of the DurAnKi.

From this comes the study of the Kabbalah, that we in the "West" are accustomed to studying. The practical techniques as to realizing the Tree of Life, travelling up its levels to the Crown, realizing these centres in the human organism, etc. - these are developed by the Kabbalists, through the ages. In time, a Degree system is evolved, it is said, by either John Dee or Michael Maier. Some say it was actually Nicholas Stone who devised a degree system that utilized the entire Tree of Life. At any rate, it does show up by 1777 in the New And Gold Rosicrucians. With its Degree names which we see much later in the SRIA and the Golden Dawn, and the A.'. A.'. System of Crowley, which was a lineal continuation of the Golden Dawn system.

So, with the above narrative, concerning some of the origins of Tree Worship, from Forlong, and in particular, certain items concerning the early worship tendencies of the Hebrews, and ideas they borrowed from the Egyptians, we can carry on, next, with the Story relating to the "Teacher's Oak", which is quite a significant tree, in Biblical stories, from Abraham down to the time of the Dead Sea sect. Later, we shall follow this up with a survey of the significance of Pillar symbolism to this Story.

STILL TO COME... :

The Origins of the Hanged-Man.

Nephilim Parallels.

Samael -- Sammane -- Semoni -- Rasa Betsijah.

THE TREE IN THE BAHIR

THE TREE OF LIFE

THE TREE AND THE DURANKI

All Original Contents Copyright © 1997 - 2003 e.v., Jonathan Sellers. All Rights Reserved.