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The "Glory" of Heaven
<./viewtopic.php?f=13&t=410&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a>
Plasma formations in the ancient sky. The role of planets as charged
bodies in these formations. Ground-rules for drawing reliable
conclusions. A new approach to the mythic archetypes: is a unified
theory of world mythology possible?
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The "Glory" of Heaven <#p3925>
New post <./viewtopic.php?p=3925#p3925>by *David Talbott
<./memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=58>* on Mon Apr 21, 2008 8:33 am
This post can best be read in association with the accompanying threads
on "The Crowns of Sages and Warrior-Kings."
In our reconstruction, the story of the "Great Comet" Venus begins with
the planet's role as the "star" that I've called the "Radiant Venus" and
the "Discharging Venus", depicted in the center of another, vastly
larger body conventionally translated as the "sun." Archaic astrological
and astronomical records identify this larger body, not as our Sun, but
as the planet Saturn.
8-rayedSaturn.jpg <./download/file.php?id=497>
/The discharging Venus seen as an 8-rayed star in the center of the
gas giant Saturn/
(35.72 KB) Downloaded 1008 times
Pictographs and textual references to this unusual relationship of
central star and primeval "sun" occur in every corner of the world, and
though translations will use different words for the star--glory,
radiance, majesty, splendor, power, strength--a rigorous examination of
contexts will make clear that all refer to the same image and to the
same story, centered on the mother goddess as the animating life of the
ruling luminary. That is, the god's "life" meant the explosive streamers
of the discharging star.
Though the star of Venus is originally the celestial symbol of beauty,
the Queen of Heaven, the departure of this body from its central
position does not just mean the god's death or loss of power, it is the
story of universal destruction. In a transformation which has left
historians grasping at explanations, the Queen of Heaven becomes the
Terrible Goddess, attacking the world in the form of a devouring serpent
or dragon. She becomes the world threatening "Great Comet--the very
symbol of planetary catastrophe that was the centerpiece of Immanuel
Velikovsky's best-selling book Worlds in Collision (1950).
In the ancient languages there is no escaping certain meanings of words.
When Sumerian texts speak of the "frightful glory" of Inanna, the
reference is to the effusive, radiating streams of Venus, Inanna's star.
Innana is "the Light of the World," "the Amazement of the Lands,"
"Radiant Star," "Great Light," and "Queen of Heaven." The Exaltation of
Inanna speaks of those "who dare not proceed before [Inanna's] terrible
countenance." The texts depict the goddess "clothed in radiance
(glory)." And they say the world stood in "fear and trembling at [her]
tempestuous radiance."
The Sumerian word for the glory or radiance in which Inanna clothed
herself is melammu. The Akkadian term is sallammu, a word used in
astronomical texts for a comet, but with many broader implications as well.
The placement of Inanna's star of "glory" is therefore crucial. In both
texts and artistic renderings it is located in the center of "Heaven."
The word translated as "Heaven" is the Sumerian An, the Akkadian Anu,
the highest god, the prototype of kings and ruler of the Golden Age,
whom we have identified (and more than one specialist has also
identified) as the planet Saturn. Thus the texts invoke the "terrifying
glory in the center of Anu." Both the pictographs and the texts,
therefore, while offering an astronomically absurd depiction of Venus
(that is, absurd in terms of Venus' appearance today), suggest a
relationship that can be readily tested in the symbolism of other early
cultures.
A counterpart to the Mesopotamian image of terrifying glory will be the
Hebrew Shekinah, called the "indwelling," the feminine "Glory" of God.
The Persian Zend Avesta speaks of the "awful Kingly Glory" (Kavaem
Hvareno.)which is said to have "clave unto the bright Yima" during the
Golden Age. But the Glory departed from the god with the end of the
Golden Age when, according to the texts, "the glory was seen to flee
away from him." And strangely, on its departure, the Glory took the form
of a female chaos monster, remembered as "that most powerful, fiendish
Drug, that demon baleful." Yet, paradoxically, this very Glory became a
weapon of power in the hands of the hero Vistaspa, "when he victoriously
maintained Holiness against the host of the fiends." We encounter this
very paradox again and again in the myths and symbols of other lands.
The departed glory takes the form of a chaos monster but is also
employed by the warrior-hero to vanquish and scatter the clouds of chaos.
The Hindus remembered the Face of Glory, called Kirttimukha, which was
said to have been born from the eye of Shiva. It was lion-headed and its
"mane, disheveled, spread far and wide into space.'" Authorities have
recognized the Face of Glory as a form of the Supreme Goddess, Devi, in
her terrible aspect. Like the Medusa head, it could ward off evil, which
is the fundamental character of the mother goddess as Great Protectress.
Its symbol was a gruesome mask placed in Medusa fashion as protection
over the threshold. The frightful countenance of the angry goddess also
means defense. The same concept will be seen in the Gorgon-like T'ao
T'ieh of the Chinese, which Ananda Commaraswamy identifies with both
Kirttimukha and the Gorgonian. The story is repeated in the case of the
Egyptian goddess Tefnut, the Eye of Ra. In her departure, she became a
raging lion with a long smoking mane. Is it significant then, that both
the long flowing mane and trailing smoke are worldwide comet symbols?
To illuminate the connected traditions, and to test the correspondence
with our model, it will be useful to go to the richly-documented
traditions of Egypt, where there are countless references to the
"Majesty" or "Power" of the sun god Ra, ruler of the Zep Tepi, the First
Time or Golden Age. A reader, on encountering these expressions, will
likely see only abstractions. The first mistake will be to assume that
the owner of the celestial "Majesty" is our Sun (the standard
interpretation). The second mistake will be to imagine that the Majesty
of Ra is a poetic but insubstantial notion rooted in the heat or light
of the Sun (since the Sun gives us nothing else). The actual role is far
more concrete than that.
The "Majesty of Ra" is not an abstraction in any sense. It is (or
becomes) an independent cosmic personality. It is inseparable from the
Eye of Ra, and it is sent out or departs from him in connection with a
cosmic rebellion or upheaval. And most significantly it is the
instrument by which the skies are cleared and order is re-established.
The Majesty is described as "a circling star which scatters its flame in
fire" (as only a "comet" can do). And yet at the same time it becomes a
weapon wielded by the warrior god Horus (and by his many alter egos)
against the powers of chaos.
When, in later times, Egyptian armies confronted foreign nations on the
battlefield, they invariably called upon the shining Majesty of Ra,
which had raged against the clouds of darkness in former times. They
sought a victory like unto that achieved by the fierce Majesty, when it
waged war on the god's behalf, when the heavens were overcome by the
rebelling armies of a cosmic night. The Majesty of Ra was a terrifying
form in the sky: "My Majesty is upon me, the Chaos-gods are controlled
for me, so that they of the celestial expanses quake for me," the texts say.
Much more to say here, of course... but must pause for now. One key for
us will be to establish beyond any reasonable doubt that the Majesty of
Ra is nothing else than the mother goddess, the Eye of Ra, appearing in
the heavens as a fire-spitting serpent.
David Talbott <./memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=58>
Site Admin
*Posts:* 113
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Re: The "Glory" of Heaven <#p6045>
New post <./viewtopic.php?p=6045#p6045>by *larryduane100
<./memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=308>* on Sun May 25, 2008 12:19 pm
I remember my first reading of Thoth years ago and not understanding the
mythic stuff. After years of Thunderbolt.info I can see the big
picture.I revisited Thoth and I loved it! I look forward to Mr. Talbot's
threads. What a feast we have in store.
larryduane100
larryduane100 <./memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=308>
*Posts:* 4
*Joined:* Sun May 25, 2008 11:22 am
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