Concerning the Time painting, I will begin with the man. And let me apologize
at the start, this will be densely written. It is Kronos, or Chronos, the Titan
or the word “time” in Greek. This character is known under many
guises. In Alchemical language (cant or cabal) Chronos was the color black,
“lead”, “the black dragon,” and the “black hen”.
The Titan is connected with the planet Saturn, and has been for a very long
time. The planet and the Titan are known to “measure out the whole of
creation” (and mentioned in such sources as the Orphic hymns).
This measure is called the “trigon” and it notes the subdivisions
of Precession (the wobble of the earth on its axis. This is charted by the change
of stars as North Star). The great Renaissance Trigon was suggested as being
the beginning of doomsday or a bleak age, when it passed without much fanfare,
astrology lost droves of its adherents and helped open the door to the age of
reason.
“Kronos” the word is from a family of words derived from “kur”
a term too complex to completely define here. Though following the clues in
the painting will help cover ground in the consideration of this word complex.
I mention it because among the Germanic peoples there was a character Orvandil
or “Kurwendil”, meaning –“one who makes the heavens
circle” or “one who twists the heavens”, and he is a variant
of Kronos. Kronos is also related to the word “circle” or “kerkle
(kloklos).” In Harranian hexagonal temples dedicated to Saturn (showing
the motions of Saturn with Jupiter called a great year) idols of “venerable
old men” were called “qirqus” (related to the word circle),
and it is from observations of the heavens, that we get the idea of a circle
at all. “Corona” crown or circular shape is another related word.
Kronos is not only time, it means circle, or circling heavens. Saturn, the planet,
becomes connected as a “measurer” of time, a visible gauge of the
circle of heaven, but it is not the only star associated with “kur”.
The planet Saturn has always been associated with the color black, whether we
are discussing Alchemy, Babylonian symbolism or Harranian temples to Saturn.
This is a hold over from ideas of Saturn or Chronos as the night time sky and
the color of the underworld. This underworld color could be seen in caves and
the black shadows of deep holes, as well as the color of night.
Any star or Planet, any resident of the darkness of night, which kept timely
order, was Kronos, or Kur. Kronos should be kept in mind throughout this painting
and reconsidered with every clue.
The next clue is the bell, deceptively simple clue and word game. Several people
have asked if it represents a penis. It does not but in a subtle way it is meant
to signal the presence of genitals, but that will have to wait a moment. The
bell is in reference to clocks or “glauck”, in German, meaning bell.
Bells, like Kronos, measure, or mete out divisions of time. According to the
Talmud and other Judaic sources the presence of God, the Shekinah, appears ringing
like a bell or with the tinkling of bells. At Eleusis a drummer in a cave representing
“subterranean thunder” was the bell, proclaiming Kronion Plouton’s
presence. The bell is a newer version of other percussion instruments. A bell
is a miniature version of ritual drummers in caves. These drummers were called
Kouretes or Korybantes. They drummed outside a cave on Mt. Ida to cover over
the cries of the infant Zeus and prevent the notice of his cannibalistic father,
Kronos, who sought to devour him. “Knock on wood” is a vestige of
this tradition. The Ark of the Covenant had two Cherubs (Kerub or Korybate related
to Korybante) on its lid made of “beaten” gold. These were drummed
statues. Drumming was seen as time and order or law. Drumming was keeping rhythm
in a specific sense. Rhythm meant also to run or joint together or “flow”
(rhein- from which we get the words Rhein and rhyme, the English word “run”)
or from the word “arithmos” or in its earliest form “ars metric”
–the measuring of heaven or the art of measure (ars meaning both art,
heaven, or mountain). It also governed the mechanisms of life, the heart (kar
in Greek) drummed (kar or kradie in Greek). As evidence of the connection between
drumming and the definition of life, the Kouretes and Korybantes are sometimes
referred to as “lords of the wind” and “Lords of the Breath
of Life.” These elements must be remembered as well.
Before I move on I would also like to mention another branch of this riddle that can, and should be followed concerning musical time. The word drum and “dream” have a common root, “drom”, meaning music and noise in Germanic languages, but should be traced back further to Greek “drome- race course or run”, Greek “drama- act, play, or deed” and Sanskrit “dramati- run, or do”. The Greek drama was especially in reference to tragedies, which means “song on the occasion of the He-goat.” Tragedies were Dionysian ritual activities. Tragedies were not necessarily “tragic” although they were usually dithyrambic songs concerning the death of a goat or “satyr” plays. The idea of sorrow became attached, perhaps justly, due to a word game. Dionysos was also called Eleuther. This name may mean “the one who arrives” similar to Eleusis and Elysium, both with the sense “arrive” and both referring to the underworld. Not in the modern sense of arrive, but rather “come to shore or land”- ar riparia. It must be remembered in Greece to go to the dead one had to be taken by ferry across the waters of the Styx by the ferryman, Charon (Karon). In Gilgamesh the ferryman is Urshanabi, who ferries over the waters of death. In Egypt, tomb boats were common for Pharaohs. In Scandinavia ship burial was common and it was said “no one knew who received that cargo” when it arrived. The arrival of Dionysos is notorius subject in Greek myth, and one of the most popular was by shipboard. The word Eleuther became connected with the Greek word “ ‘elios”- pity, as a similar word “elio’s” was the sacrificial table used in honor of Dionysos Eleuther. Eleuther, as with its related words mentioned above, can ultimately be traced to twin words “Keleus” and “Karios”, variants of Chronos, meaning underworld or nighttime heavens. The place of arrival in the “eleo” sense was death. The nature of a tragedy or play was different then we now expect. The participants would become drunk on the wine from the god, sacrifice a he goat or bull, and listen to dithyrambic poets try to win the prize of the He goat. This was drama in a sense of altered states, of dreams. The drunkenness was an aspect of a larger attempt. The music (which would have been called drom- both dream and drum in Germanic languages) which accompanied the rites was also thought to be like drunkenness. The famous minstrel Orpheus was a devotee of Dionysos, and his music was said to enchant (again a musical term) man and beast alike. Orpheus as musical dream inducer is not alone, other stories of great antiquity tell of music that causes rages, seduction, and the feeling of hashish- dream. Drama, dream, drum, have still a further relative worth mentioning: dormio- to sleep. In the ancient sense, sleep was not just sleep. Sleep was akin to death, or a glimpse of the land of the dead. Various traditions mention precautions taken to tie the soul to the body in sleep. Wearing rings on fingers or toes was seen as a fetter to keep your ghost from leaving. Dreams and music should not be distantly separated in this riddle. A similar relationship of sleep and sounds can be related to the Latin words “sono” – noise and “somnus”- sleep or dream, both from a root “son”, from whence we have the word “sound”. “Song” might also be of this family. It might not be wrong to consider “thunder”, or “donar” or “thunor” or Latin “tono”, a lisped variant of this word complex. In the case of Latin “tono” this word is related to the word “tone”, “tune”, and sonus.
The reference to genitals is entirely location. The fabric surrounding time is the genital symbol. The long fabric Kronos spins is in the shape of a heart. This at once connects to notions of drumming and the heart, as our own physical obedience to time, but it also treads in another, unpleasant, direction. The heart shape is very old and based on the inversion of the Egyptian Hieroglyph “?erui” meaning “testicles”. It looked like this:
At times, the penis would be seen attached to it, and the hieroglyph was then
called “seshem”. The length of fabric upon which the bell is suspended
would be the phallic extension. This symbol is not a sign of virility, it is
often connected with castration. In the myth Kronos castrates his father Ouranos.
According to some sources Kronos and Ouranos are both unmanned, or Kronos is
Ouranos. Osiris was torn to pieces and his member was eaten by a fish. In Greek
Dionysian rites, derived from Egyptian Osiris rites, giant phallus statues were
paraded. The ritual was the “phallophoria” and represented the unmanning
of Dionysos by the Titans. There are several unmanned characters in myth: Adonis,
Attis, Osiris, Loki (by a goat), and Biblical Noah. To be castrated is connected
with kur in many languages like Egyptian “kerui”, English “curt”
meaning to cut but most especially the genitals or castrate, and many unmanned
heroes and gods paraded under the name “ker.” One example would
be Dionysos under his Delphic titles Kar and Karios. The Phallus or heart of
Dionysos was said to be in the tripod kettle upon which the Pythia (the seeress)
sat at the Delphic oracle. A fig branch shaped as a phallus was carried in many
rituals. It was hidden in a basket called a ciste, or an arrheton. All of these
castration trails lead to Orion. Orion and the seasons he keeps. The castrated
gods will all refer back to Orion, including Kronos, and Ouranos. This constellation
was noted in several ideas of timing, such as the flooding of the Nile which
coincide with its rising. Planting and harvest seasons in the Mediterranean
were connected with Orion, Egyptian planting season is December when Orion rose
at sunset. Noah is connected to Orion and is called the New Wine Sailor, by
the Greeks, Duecalion. In a passage deleted from the Bible, Noah’s son
Canaan castrates him with a length of rope. Some note Orion’s belt as
the phallus in question. In many representation Orion can be seen naked and
wearing a belt. These naked belted Orions can be traced from Sumer to Scandinavia
over a 5,000 years span though little is directly stated about it. It was apparently
too well known an idea to bother with, much like the shield of Euphorbus. This
shield was held at the Heraion by several accounts but never described because
everyone knew about it, we, however, know very little about it. Noah’s
ark or “teba” was known as the constellation “lepus”
or the Boat of Orion. It should be noted Orion comes from a root word “or”
which in Hebrew (and its related west Semitic languages) is “hor”
and ultimately derives from “kur”.
Orion is indicated in the painting by the placement of the shell, bell, and
hour glass, they make the belt of Orion, they are also meant to signal Orion
in three respective clues. The shell, aside from its spiral, was a symbol of
St. James (its variant being a scallop shell) and was called a Sabdai in Scandinavia,
from the word “Zebedee” which was one of the appellations of St.
James the Greater and his brother John- the “sons of thunder”. Nautilus
shells were thought to be thunderstones- that is meteorites. The name James
is taken from “Jacob” meaning “wounded in the leg, he will
supplant, or Heel God”. In Judaic Legend Jacob, or Israel, is known as
Orion. Jacob’s ladder, and the scene of Jacob wrestling the Angel are
both references to Orion. St. James Alchemical connections and Orion will be
left to those willing to investigate the nature of a pilgrimage (it would be
advised to examine Caravaggio’s first version of “The supper at
Emmaus”, and El Greco’s “Baptism of Christ”). The bell
and music have already been covered, but it should be noted Orion was the Lord
of death whose “subterranean thunder” was mimicked by the drummers
and Kouretes. He is the “mashit”, “the Angel of Death”,
whose “passing over” is still celebrated in Judaism. The ritual
dress worn during Passover rites are meant to mimic Orion. He is the original
Kourete, and he is Samson as well. When Samson loses his strength through cut
hair, he is also becoming a Kourete, or as known to the Jews he was ending his
term as a Nazarite. Nazarites were “those held aside”- even estranged,
as hunters, and lords of death (the eating of honey and drinking of mead was
seen as consuming the produce of the land of the dead because honey was collected
from carcasses wherein bees had made hives, as in the example given in Samson’s
lion riddle and the vineyard at Timnah- which was a mining colony not a vineyard.)
Nazarite service was over when the devotee would have their hair cut and would
perform rites mimicking the heaven’s i.e. raising a bull’s leg into
the air, Ursa Major was known as the bull’s leg and can be seen in icons
through out the ancient world as such. The hour glass and Orion are fairly simple,
Orion is a Variant of Kronos, originally meaning “one of kur”, often
translated as mountain man, or one of the mountain, this refers to “mountain
men”- or animal men, hunters. Kur means mountain or wilds, desolate place
(Mt. Horeb being a fine example), cannibal, stranger, heavens, time, etc. These
are all applicable to Orion, and Kronos. Time is a heavenly measure it is also
a narrative, and the narrative’s hero is Orion.
The objects on the pillar are likely to be confusing.
The clock is set to nine o’clock and should be left as a later clue.
The folded paper is a combination of the Dogon symbol of Precession, the seven
ring planets around a geocentric earth (or the “Jamshid’s ringed
cup” in Persian legend, in which the future can be told), the signs of
the Zodiac starting at “Aries” the “head”, and a pentagram.
These all make reference to time as told through the heavens. The seven rings
or “Jamshid’s cup” and “telling the future” demonstrate
the notion of “as above so below”. The law of heaven, its measure,
order and time are mirrored on the earth, an old idea of astrology or the earth
as double to the heavens, “what can be seen of the future of the stars
is the law here”. This is because “earth” is not a reference
to a geographic space but a time. “Earth” is derived from a common
root with “era”, “year”, and “horos” (time).
These are temporal designations referring to ages. Earth was not the ground;
it was the fixed span of events mirroring heaven. The square or flatness in
ancient ideas of the earth were more heavenly than terrestrial, each point of
the square represented a station of the sun: equinoxes and solstices-heavenly
geometry.
The Jamshid’s cup is a reference to the past, because it represents a
distant and lost way of looking at the world, should one choose to consider
in a more contemporary perspective. We are very literal and precise with our
narratives. We do not have contact with anything in which our thoughts are grounded.
Who now knows that our idea of composition is based on four formalized representations
of constellations? To whom does it matter that the universe is not whirling
around us? Our perceptions have weight in our immediate thought. The sun still
rises, though through deliberation we realize the world is spinning. We have
to calculate with great extremity to build the perceptions of spaces we will
never have. No matter where a man stands in the Universe, the Universe will
seem to spin around him. He can build the belief it doesn’t but can never
see it. Narration of time is sometimes poetic but one form is not more valid.
Our concept of time is unimaginative and atrophied.
The Dogon Precession is placed at once to look like an hour glass, but also
to show still other ideas of time. Ideas we note in other terms. The symbol
means the same thing as the story of Kronos, or the trigon of Kepler. People
are confused by foreign demonstrations to represent familiar ideas. Also this
Dogon symbol is meant to be a likeness of Shiva’s drum that sets the rhythm
for the cosmos. This drum is also a sign of procession, and is meant to indicate
the direction to be taken when considering these objects, or what would mistakenly
be called symbols. These are not symbols, they are likenesses. The Drum of Shiva
and Shiva’s fire as he dances are astronomical observations. They have
intimate connections to time and thought. In Sanskrit the shape that makes Shiva’s
drum is the Skambha, or support. We would call it the pole of the earth. “with
how much of himself did Skambha enter the past? And how much extends into the
future.” This pole whose motions create the drum of Shiva and set the
Heavens spinning, gives it a rhythm, (that is: begins time). It is intimately
connected with a very widely dispersed term, the “Breath of Life”.
With the motion of the heavens around the Skambha support, Breath too appears,
and is considered the same as the Skambha, or an equal part in the nature of
creation. Breath of life is the ultimate creating god, Prajapati, who sets the
Skambha in place. This being the case he is, as with drumming and dreaming,
connected with thunder and noise under his Breathy guise. “Homage to thee
O Breath of Life, to thy crashing, Homage to thee the thunder…”
“When the Breath of Life in Thunder roars…” “When upon
the plants the Breath of Life, the season come, roars loud” and again
we meet time “…In the Breath of Life is what is past and what is
yet to be…”. These are quotes from the Athar Veda. Hopefully this
will encourage the viewer to take stock of what they assume time may have meant
or even means. The pentagram is another story…
The pentagram, the roses, and the clock are related. And they will begin with
another idea: the music of the spheres. The clock is again a “bell”,
a percussion instrument. It, however, has become more complex than just a bell,
it mimics the heavens, an illustration of the moon and stars show it is night
on its face. A clock has become Time instead of an instrument to announce an
order, the order has become identified with the clock, as if the order is quaint.
The clock will still chime; it will still be an instrument. What is strange
is the clock is meant to represent a set order, like the spinning heavens by
which change can be compared and measured, that is, it is the opposite of change-
constancy. Instead it is considered as the example of change. This is confusion
and ego centrism, arising from an assumed identification of oneself and sense
as the eternal.
The music of the spheres was reference to the stars and planets, the crystal
spheres, and their ordered, set, motion. It has long been known what Goethe
stated “geometry is frozen music”. As Kepler wrote: “Accordingly
, the musical scale or system of one octave with all its pitches, by means of
which natural song is transposed in music, has been expressed in the heavens
by a two fold way and in two as it were modes of song…for as in music
2160:1800, or 6:5 so in that which the heavens express.” The movement
of the planets can be shown to be music. For example, Mars makes the octave,
and creates a triangle. Venus makes a fifth. I
Venus makes the pentagram every eight years. It is from the movements of Venus
we get the star shape. It is a symbolic calendar. Its original sense was not
a point of light, but a point of light over eight years. Space and time. The
five pointed star is observed in many places. In some representations it covers
the Minotaur (whose proper name is Asterios-the star), in Egypt is covers pyramid
walls, in Sumer and later Babylon it meant place in the heavens or simply “star”.
In Israel it was Solomon’s seal. In Greece it was the emblem of transmigration
of souls, especially around Pythagorus and Orphic cults. Pythagorus, aside from
his famous theorem, was a tremendous Philosopher. He discovered musical intervals,
suggested the world was round, and the sun was the center of the cosmos, not
the earth. He was also a mystic and riddler. He named the hexad, “Amphitrite”,
known as the wife of Poseidon because he could create a word game: “amphis-
on both sides” and “trias-three”. To him the pentagram of
Venus did not appear every 8 years, but every 9 years or a Great Year, the Enneateris.
He knew the pentagram was a representation of the eight year cycle of Venus
for he called it “Aphrodite”. In ancient times Kings were given
eight year terms before they were sacrificed. They would be dedicated to Venus.
When Pythagorus saw his nine years goes by (our eight) in Venus, he saw the
five pointed star. Pythagorus knew that when you multiple nine by any number
and you add the sum of that number together it will make nine. For example:9x3=27,
2+7=9 or 9x6=54, 5+4=9 and so on. He also knew that pi is the square root of
9.9, and that 9.99 is a different but equally endless number, as is the square
root of 9.999999. This was a knowledge he kept as forbidden. If told it was
to be punished by death. This was “alogon” not to be spoken. It
is the secret of infinite numbers.
Pythagoras is reported as discerning the secrets of music through the sound
of blacksmiths hammers against anvils. As so many hammerings and drums are noted
above, and in connection with “kouretes” or “Korybantes”
or “Kerubim”, it might be advisable to consider this story a veil.
In any case, he is credited with constructing a monochord, a musical instrument
with a single string and moveable bridge. It is reported he discovered musical
ratios by observing the vibrations of the string at different lengths. For example,
he found a string twice as long as another will vibrate twice as slowly. In
an experiment using two monochords he found seven octaves (i.e. he went from
C to C to C, seven times.) Using the other monochord he went by fifths through
every note (that is C to G, G to D, D to A etc.) until he formed the entire
range of notes. He expected to end on the same note with both monochords. He
came very close, but found it could not be done. He found music does not work
in a circle, it is a spiral, it is infinite. The two notes did not match, they
slightly missed. His intervals would never end. The music we have today is a
“bent” version of this, the scale was compromised to make a prettier
sound when played in chords, but the strength of several notes was corrupted
and diminished in the adjustment. A misunderstanding has arisen that concerns
form. Our notion of perfection is a notion of pleasures and perceptions. Protagorus
suggested our worlds are built of our senses, and this idea has been followed
down a more and more narrow path. This is not a universal doctrine, nor is it
a pervading notion. Pythagorus was well aware of the flaws in music, but the
flaws were not considered flaws, they were examples of the divine. The flaws
were the hidden divine keys. They were not an incompatible puzzle. We have applied
the idea of perfection as flawless, and flawless to us means “pleasing,
in the case of music. However, this was not an assumption of Pythagoras or any
other philosopher and mystic. They were connecting systems, discerning metaphysical
properties. These properties were the laws. They were beyond judgment. There
were no bad notes, there were forbidden secrets to be found in certain notes,
such as hints of infinity, and the keys to “transmigration of souls,”
but these were not flaws. These “flawed” alogon numbers were the
mysteries of Pythagorean doctrine. 5, is an infinite number, an incommensurable
number, when the square root is attempted, 2.2360679774997896964091736687313…,
and was one of the key numbers to Pythagorean doctrines. “Errors,”
or what we might consider unpleasant tones, held the secrets of the cosmos and,
contrary to belief, were indispensable in musical thought, if rarely played.
Nine, and its connections with five, were also alogon.
Nine had many apparently divine qualities, such as being the multiple of the
golden division, the angle of circles and squares. He referred to the ennead
as the “kouretes”, “Kore”, and “the oneness of
mind”. He also connected it with five or “absence of strife”.
The pentagram is made of 54 and 45 degree angles. Nine rules the pentagram.
It also rules music. The 2160:1800 ratio mentioned by Kepler above, is a ratio
in multiples of nine. But here is the main point: Pythagorus realized something
about music, people are transformed by it. They emote involuntarily. People
are inexplicably moved by music, it possesses their minds. Pythagorus knew nine
was the ruling number of music, and therefore the mind. He came to the idea
that a mind is not a native thing, it is math (the governing principle), it
is music, it can be “harmonized” and formed- assembled like a song,
constructed. He made a distinction between intelligence and mind, mind was not
the ability to think it was character, will, implications, ultimately an identity,
an outside identity, a creation. A mind had to be created. He likened the mind
to the number nine. The mind was the nine in a multiplication problem, an ideal
number that reproduces itself. If someone could become the “nine”
they could be every future person, they could reincarnate in armies. He called
nine “oneness of mind”. He thought this was done through music,
number (arithmos), harmony (armonia), and rites (‘ritus). The three latter
words had a common root Pythagorus was well familiar with, “kur”.
Kur was a common word game used by strange men in many different times ( a parallel
would be the book of Exodus that makes a word game of Moses throughout the book).
Pythagorus was a devotee of Dionysos and Apollo under the names “Kar”
and “Karu”. He referred to himself in cryptic language as the head
of Euphorbus, in fact, he referred to himself as several “heads”,
Orpheus, and the Kouretes (who supposedly beheaded their brother and placed
his head on a shield). Pythagorus became a Kourete on Delos as a young man.
Head in Greek is Kranion, it is also the other name of “Aries”.
Aries was considered to be the first constellation, the one in which time began.
The nine was associated by Pythagorus with the Beginner, or the first man, which
he saw himself as an incarnation of. He was not alone in this idea. The Hermetica
called it the Sovereign mind that created time and differentiation by noticing
it. He did not make the world; he understood and recognized the world. He separated
earth from heaven by creating an idea of earth and one of heaven. He was a god
of narrative and abstraction.
The next emblem is the polyhedron on the pillar. This refers back to Hans Holbein’s “ambassadors”:
This is one of the great riddle paintings. Aside from the elongated skull which announces strangeness, the shelves beside the Ambassadors stand are full of riddles. It is on the top shelf representing the Heavens and time that the polyhedron can be found. All the time telling devices on that shelf are set to coordinates; they cannot rest as they are painted. The second shelf holds terrestrial items, all of them damaged, or strange. The globes are the emblems the objects on the shelves; they portray the Heavens and earth. They are also the language of the esoteric. They refer to the pillars Boaz and Joachim from the Temple of Solomon. The pillars in Masonic thought are topped with two globes, one pillar holds the heavens, the other the earth, inside the pillars are supposed to be the great secrets. Holbein was using the same imagery.
The floor is taken from West Minster Abbey http://www.westminster-abbey.org/ the Cosmati pavement.. Holbein altered one detail. In the central, nearly entirely obscured, circle of the floor (hidden by the skull) he placed a Star of David, the six pointed star, this is not present at the Abbey. However, the floor does have a recurrent motif of six pointed stars and hexagrams.
And so we return to Kronos. The Star of David is derived from star watching,
it is a trigon, the motions of Saturn and Jupiter every 22 years. The pentagram
is the seal of Solomon. The Star of David is another clock, this one set every
22 years. (David’s role as musical enchanter should not be overlooked
in this reference.) The Hexagram is also called the seal of Solomon.
We are led to the Temple of Solomon. In the Kabala the “tree of life”
is also known as the floor plan of the Temple of Solomon. The pentagram within
a Hexagram was written as the connected upper sefirot, the tracks of the “thirty
two paths of wisdom.”
The Holbein painting, with its time pieces and terrestrial shelf refer to the
Temple Pillars Boaz and Joachim. So Have I. The two pillars, so famous for their
secrecy, are the pillars in my painting, not garlanded, but still clear. The
pillars themselves were representations of Cherubim, door guardians-kouretes,
and beyond them were where real secrets were held. Pillars were known as thresholds,
gateways to magical places, gateways to the heavens, gateways to the land of
the dead. Brides are still carried over thresholds to prevent them from touching
the “bridal chamber,” which was the place in the underworld where
creation or conception was said to occur. If a woman touched the threshold she
was entering the land of the dead as the dead, if carried she would not be implicated
with the threshold in its larger abstract sense. This situation of women who
don’t touch thresholds also occurs in the Greek festival of Choes day,
where girls were made to swing between to upright posts or a threshold. They
were not to touch the ground but to be raised in the air. 8th century B.C. Neo
Assyrian cylinder seals show a similar theme- two divine figures in a threshold
surrounded by stars and usually one of the two will be winged. On some of these
seals, the figures will also have stars on their persons. Longhaired and bearded
Cherubim can be found guarding at the door posts in some of the seals. Likewise
many hanging Goddesses and suspended gods can be linked to the space between
door posts or pillars. Another instance described by Ibn Fadlan of a Viking
Funeral rite involved a girl being raised three times above “something
which looked like a door frame…” After this several bouts of sexual
intercourse are undertaken before the girl is sacrificed to become the bride
of the dead. At Eleusis, the Hierophant’s (high priest) throne was in
a space like a doorway. In Isaiah’s vision of God and the Seraphim, he
mentions the shaking of the pivots on the threshold of the “house”
(the Temple is where the vision takes place for God’s hem is mentioned
filling the temple), the pivots on Thresholds are a reference to the heavens;
the heavens shook. If one were to enter the Temple, the “house of God”
they are no longer on earth or in their time, they have entered eternity. This
is clearly indicated by the name Jerusalem (Keru Shelem-likeness of the heavens
or image of the land of the dead). The Heavens were seen as a timeless order.
The Temple of Solomon was not just a house it was “heaven” it was
composed around the motions of Venus, Saturn and Jupiter. Solomon is not a name
but rather a title, Shelem-likeness, constellation, or statue, was an emblem
of these heavens. He was a custodian of a clock, an eternal device to measure
the temporal. His name seems to have been Jeremiah; if he lived at all (several
characters under the title Shelem, Shalmu, and the synonym “shab”
can be found.) Shelem/Solomon was an old mythic figure who appears with his
brother Shahar, a variation of Kur. Shahar was the morning star (later Shahar
as in Hellel ben Shahar- the Semitic Lucifer), Shelem the evening star, this
is why his emblem is a pentagram, he is Venus. Hellel ben Shahar can be traced
to other gods connected with the heaven’s and stars, notably Ellil called
the great Kur (Hellel ben Shahar was originally Ellil the great Kur) and Ishker,
god of wind and storm over the city Karkar.
It may be important to tie some ideas together or demonstrate how these painted
items can be related and point to an unusual end. At times what one understands
a thing to be must be reconsidered. A threshing floor, and the threshold, as
examples, must be redefined. In studying mythology, religion, agriculture, viticulture,
ancient astronomy, and even ancient architecture one will come across the threshing
floor. It was usually described as a flat circular area where grain is threshed.
However, it is closely attached to ideas of the Breath of Life. For example,
in the Odyssey, the King of the Winds is called Aleos, “threshing Floor”,
and he give skins containing winds to Odysseus. These pouches of winds more
properly should be attributed to wine making as they are elsewhere described
as “korykos” or wine skins, and refer to fermentation, otherwise
called, “the Breath of Life.” In Judges, Gideon who performs threshing
activities in the winepress, later tests the lord with a sheep skin on the threshing
floor. In Norse myth, the God Odin, which is usually translated as “raging”
but can and should simultaneously be translated “threshing floor”-Oden-
was the God who drank only wine. In Greek rites the Labydai Fratry, or brotherhood
of the two sided ax, performed rites on the threshing floor involving the burning
of a miniature house in which a sacrificial table is overthrown. This same threshing
floor was used as a site for religious dancing rites. The god Hermes should
be associated with the threshing floor as he was placed in a winnowing fan at
birth. A Threshing floor is traditionally known as the site upon which the Temple
of Solomon was built. These strange connections to the threshing floor should
alert the researcher that the idea in question might be more expansive than
is presumed. These are not simple agricultural uses. The word “thresh”
which means to beat (as in a drum), or crashing, or noise, should indicate a
relationship to our previous themes. Its circular shape was meant to be a model
of the heavens. In religious sanctuaries a ceremonial threshing floor was placed
at the main threshold of the edifice. As thresholds have been repeatedly connected
with the heavens or placed in the air (Seneca mentions the rainbow that sometimes
appears around the moon was called the threshing floor) it should be considered
the threshing floor is a heavenly phenomenon as well. In Hebrew, Greek, Latin,
and Germanic languages the words for threshing floor can be traced to a root
“kur” or “kul”- Nighttime heavens or underworld. It
would be the place of the “breath of life” and the crashing, and
drumming, and fires, beyond which would reside the ineffable. As Boaz and Joachim
were meant to define a threshold, beyond them was the tomblike, underworld,
presence of God. The threshold, and threshing floor were Time, beyond the threshold
was Eternity.
The last clue I will cover briefly. This is the sign of Venus in Renaissance
magic. Venus should be closely connected with our notions of time and order.
The roses are placed on the pillars for two reasons. One is to imply the secrecy
of Boaz and Joachim. The term “sub rosa”- under the rose, a signal
of secrecy, like the secrets kept in the hollow pillars. The other reason is
more literal. Sub Rosa means exactly “under the rose”. That is,
under the “apple” of the rose. The secret lies with the leaves beneath
the petals. They form a pentacle. A five pointed star, another sign of time,
and a secret only for the initiated. They recall Venus, the secret rose of heaven,
or is the rose the secret Venus on earth just like the horizontally cut apple?
This is only a brief outline and should not be considered ended. These are only a few the subjects their connections and subtle ties are far more involved and begin to become a language. Each item interacts with every other differently and in different combinations. The rose is easily connected to the graph and the clock then to the floor symbol. But what about the spiral petals of the rose? How are they like the graph, and the Labyrinth and the Minotaur? I should like to note the light roses on the painting are the Kyria, the Lady, rose. At least one “Rosicrician” order suggested this rose, as opposed to say the kardinal (a deep scarlet rose) as the emblem of their rosey cross. To continue with possibilities: what is the point of the nautilus shell (called a Sabdai by the Danes from Zebedee), and how does it relate to the Compostella De Santiago, and what exactly is the Compostella De Santiago, and what is the significance of a severed head, or a star fallen from heaven, and again Venus? Within the roses is hidden a further secret and this concerns the Ark of the Covenant, Moses, the Minotaur, the seven sages of Hinduism, the Labyrinth, and the spinning castle, or “four cornered castle” connected to King Arthur. It is, in part, the secret of the Grail. To understand the connections and think in the way of the painting will take private study. It will then become apparent it is not painted (or written) in an exoteric language, and that hidden language is worth learning.
