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A MAZE IN ZAZAZA ENTERS AZAZAZ AZAZAZAZAZAZAZZAZAZAZAZAZAZA ZAZAZAZAZAZAZAZAZAAZAZAZAZAZAZAZAZAZ THE MAGICALALPHABET ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA 12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262625242322212019181716151413121110987654321
BEYOND THE VEIL ANOTHER VEIL ANOTHER VEIL BEYOND
A HISTORY OF GOD Karen Armstrong 1993 The God of the Mystics Page 250 "Perhaps the most famous of the early Jewish mystical texts is the fifth century Sefer Yezirah (The Book of Creation). There is no attempt to describe the creative process realistically; the account is unashamedly symbolic and shows God creating the world by means of language as though he were writing a book. But language has been entirely transformed and the message of creation is no longer clear. Each letter of the Hebrew alphabet is given a numerical value; by combining the letters with the sacred numbers, rearranging them in endless configurations, the mystic weaned his mind away from the normal connotations of words."
Page 250 THERE IS NO ATTEMPT MADE TO DESCRIBE THE CREATIVE PROCESS REALISTICALLY THE ACCOUNT IS UNASHAMEDLY SYMBOLIC AND SHOWS GOD CREATING THE WORLD BY MEANS OF LANGUAGE AS THOUGH HE WERE WRITING A BOOK. BUT LANGUAGE HAS BEEN ENTIRELY TRANSFORMED AND THE MESSAGE OF CREATION IS NO LONGER CLEAR EACH LETTER OF THE HEBREW ALPHABET IS GIVEN A NUMERICAL VALUE BY COMBINING THE LETTERS WITH THE SACRED NUMBERS REARRANGING THEM IN ENDLESS CONFIGURATIONS THE MYSTIC WEANED THE MIND AWAY FROM THE NORMAL CONNOTATIONS OF WORDS
THE LIGHT IS RISING NOW RISING IS THE LIGHT
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LIGHT AND LIFE Lars Olof Bjorn 1976 Page 197 "By writing the 26 letters of the alphabet in a certain order one may put down almost any message (this book 'is written with the same letters' as the Encyclopaedia Britannica and Winnie the Pooh, only the order of the letters differs). In the same way Nature is able to convey with her language how a cell and a whole organism is to be constructed and how it is to function. Nature has succeeded better than we humans; for the genetic code there is only one universal language which is the same in a man, a bean plant and a bacterium."
"FOR THE GENETIC CODE THERE IS ONLY ONE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE"
DNA AND DNA DNA AND DNA DNA AND DNA
DNA AND DNA DNA AND DNA DNA AND DNA
"BY WRITING THE 26 LETTERS OF THE ALPHABET IN A CERTAIN ORDER ONE MAY PUT DOWN ALMOST ANY MESSAGE"
FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS A QUEST FOR THE BEGINNING AND THE END Graham Hancock 1995 Chapter 32 Speaking to the Unborn Page 285 "It is understandable that a huge range of myths from all over the ancient world should describe geological catastrophes in graphic detail. Mankind survived the horror of the last Ice Age, and the most plausible source for our enduring traditions of flooding and freezing, massive volcanism and devastating earthquakes is in the tumultuous upheavals unleashed during the great meltdown of 15,000 to 8000 BC. The final retreat of the ice sheets, and the consequent 300-400 foot rise in global sea levels, took place only a few thousand years before the beginning of the historical period. It is therefore not surprising that all our early civilizations should have retained vivid memories of the vast cataclysms that had terrified their forefathers. A message in the bottle of time 'Of all the other stupendous inventions,' Galileo once remarked, what sublimity of mind must have been his who conceived how to communicate his most secret thoughts to any other person, though very distant either in time or place, speaking with those who are in the Indies, speaking to those who are not yet born, nor shall be this thousand or ten thousand years? And with no greater difficulty than the various arrangements of two dozen little signs on paper? Let this be the seal of all the admirable inventions of men.3 If the 'precessional message' identified by scholars like Santillana, von Dechend and Jane Sellers is indeed a deliberate attempt at communication by some lost civilization of antiquity, how come it wasn't just written down and left for us to find? Wouldn't that have been easier than encoding it in myths? Perhaps. "What one would look for, therefore, would be a universal language, the kind of language that would be comprehensible to any technologically advanced society in any epoch, even a thousand or ten thousand years into the future. Such languages are few and far between, but mathematics is one of them" "WRITTEN IN THE ETERNAL LANGUAGE OF MATHEMATICS"
THERE IS NO ATTEMPT MADE TO DESCRIBE THE CREATIVE PROCESS REALISTICALLY THE ACCOUNT IS SYMBOLIC AND SHOWS GOD CREATING THE WORLD BY MEANS OF LANGUAGE AS THOUGH WRITING A BOOK BUT LANGUAGE ENTIRELY TRANSFORMED THE MESSAGE OF CREATION IS CLEAR EACH LETTER OF THE ALPHABET IS GIVEN A NUMERICAL VALUE BY COMBINING THE LETTERS WITH THE SACRED NUMBERS REARRANGING THEM IN ENDLESS CONFIGURATIONS THE MYSTIC WEANED THE MIND AWAY FROM THE NORMAL CONNOTATIONS OF WORDS
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THE DEATH OF GODS IN ANCIENT EGYPT Jane B. Sellars 1992 Page 204 "The overwhelming awe that accompanies the realization, of the measurable orderliness of the universe strikes modern man as well. Admiral Weiland E. Byrd, alone In the Antarctic for five months of polar darkness, wrote these phrases of intense feeling: Here were the imponderable processes and forces of the cosmos, harmonious and soundless. Harmony, that was it! I could feel no doubt of oneness with the universe. The conviction came that the rhythm was too orderly. too harmonious, too perfect to be a product of blind chance - that, therefore there must be purpose in the whole and that man was part of that whole and not an accidental offshoot. It was a feeling that transcended reason; that went to the heart of man's despair and found it groundless. The universe was a cosmos, not a chaos; man was as rightfully a part of that cosmos as were the day and night.10 Returning to the account of the story of Osiris, son of Cronos god of' Measurable Time, Plutarch takes, pains to remind the reader of the original Egyptian year consisting of 360 days. Phrases are used that prompt simple mental. calculations and an attention to numbers, for example, the 360-day year is described as being '12 months of 30 days each'. Then we are told that, Osiris leaves on a long journey, during which Seth, his evil brother, plots with 72 companions to slay Osiris: He also secretly obtained the measure of Osiris and made ready a chest in which to entrap him. The, interesting thing about this part of the-account is that nowhere in the original texts of the Egyptians are we told that Seth, has 72 companions. We have already been encouraged to equate Osiris with the concept of measured time; his father being Cronos. It is also an observable fact that Cronos-Saturn has the longest sidereal period of the known planets at that time, an orbit. of 30 years. Saturn is absent from a specific constellation for that length of time. A simple mathematical fact has been revealed to any that are even remotely sensitive to numbers: if you multiply 72 by 30, the years of Saturn's absence (and the mention of Osiris's absence prompts one to recall this other), the resulting product is 2,160: the number of years required, for one 30° shift, or a shift: through one complete sign of the zodiac. This number multplied by the / Page205 / 12 signs also gives 25,920. (And Plutarch has reminded us of 12) If you multiply the unusual number 72 by 360, a number that Plutarch mentions several times, the product will be 25,920, again the number of years symbolizing the ultimate rebirth. This 'Eternal Return' is the return of, say, Taurus to the position of marking the vernal equinox by 'riding in the solar bark with. Re' after having relinquished this honoured position to Aries, and subsequently to the to other zodiacal constellations. Such a return after 25,920 years is indeed a revisit to a Golden Age, golden not only because of a remarkable symmetry In the heavens, but golden because it existed before the Egyptians experienced heaven's changeability. But now to inform the reader of a fact he or she may already know. Hipparaus did: not really have the exact figures: he was a trifle off in his observations and calculations. In his published work, On the Displacement of the Solstitial and Equinoctial Signs, he gave figures of 45" to 46" a year, while the truer precessional lag along the ecliptic is about 50 seconds. The exact measurement for the lag, based on the correct annual lag of 50'274" is 1° in 71.6 years, or 360° in 25,776 years, only 144 years less than the figure of 25,920. With Hipparchus's incorrect figures a 'Great Year' takes from 28,173.9 to 28,800 years, incorrect by a difference of from 2,397.9 years to 3,024. Since Nicholas Copernicus (AD 1473-1543) has always been credited with giving the correct numbers (although Arabic astronomer Nasir al-Din Tusi,11 born AD 1201, is known to have fixed the Precession at 50°), we may correctly ask, and with justifiable astonishment 'Just whose information was Plutarch transmitting' AN IMPORTANT POSTSCRIPT Of course, using our own notational system, all the important numbers have digits that reduce to that amazing number 9 a number that has always delighted budding mathematician. Page 206 Somewhere along the way, according to Robert Graves, 9 became the number of lunar wisdom.12 This number is found often in the mythologies of the world. the Viking god Odin hung for nine days and nights on the World Tree in order to acquire the secret of the runes, those magic symbols out of which writing and numbers grew. Only a terrible sacrifice would give away this secret, which conveyed upon its owner power and dominion over all, so Odin hung from his neck those long 9 days and nights over the 'bottomless abyss'. In the tree were 9 worlds, and another god was said to have been born of 9 mothers. Robert Graves, in his White Goddess, Is intrigued by the seemingly recurring quality of the number 72 in early myth and ritual. Graves tells his reader that 72 is always connected with the number 5, which reflects, among other things, the five Celtic dialects that he was investigating. Of course, 5 x 72= 360, 360 x 72= 25,920. Five is also the number of the planets known to the ancient world, that is, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus Mercury. Graves suggests a religious mystery bound up with two ancient Celtic 'Tree Alphabets' or cipher alphabets, which as genuine articles of Druidism were orally preserved and transmitted for centuries. He argues convincingly that the ancient poetry of Europe was ultimately based on what its composers believed to be magical principles, the rudiments of which formed a close religious secret for centuries. In time these were-garbled, discredited and forgotten. Among the many signs of the transmission of special numbers he points out that the aggregate number of letter strokes for the complete 22-letter Ogham alphabet that he is studying is 72 and that this number is the multiple of 9, 'the number of lunar wisdom'. . . . he then mentions something about 'the seventy day season during which Venus moves successively from. maximum eastern elongation 'to inferior conjunction and maximum western elongation'.13 Page 207 "...Feniusa Farsa, Graves equates this hero with Dionysus. Farsa has 72 assistants who helped him master the 72 languages created at the confusion of Babel, the tower of which is said to be built of 9 different materials We are also reminded of the miraculous translation into Greek of the Five Books of Moses that was done by 72 scholars working for 72 days, Although the symbol for the Septuagint is LXX, legend, according to the fictional letter of Aristeas, records 72. The translation was done for Ptolemy Philadelphus (c.250 BC), by Hellenistic Jews, possibly from Alexandra.14 Graves did not know why this number was necessary, but he points out that he understands Frazer's Golden Bough to be a book hinting that 'the secret involves the truth that the Christian dogma, and rituals, are the refinement of a great body of primitive beliefs, and that the only original element in Christianity- is the personality of Christ.15 Frances A. Yates, historian of Renaissance hermetisma tells, us the cabala had 72 angels through which the sephiroth (the powers of God) are believed to be approached, and further, she supplies the information that although the Cabala supplied a set of 48 conclusions purporting to confirm the Christian religion from the foundation of ancient wisdom, Pico Della Mirandola, a Renaissance magus, introduced instead 72, which were his 'own opinion' of the correct number. Yates writes, 'It is no accident there are seventy-two of Pico's Cabalist conclusions, for the conclusion shows that he knew something of the mystery of the Name of God with seventy-two letters.'16 In Hamlet's Mill de Santillana adds the facts that 432,000 is the number of syllables in the Rig-Veda, which when multiplied by the soss (60) gives 25,920" (The reader is forgiven for a bit of laughter at this point) The Bible has not escaped his pursuit. A prominent Assyriologist of the last century insisted that the total of the years recounted mounted in Genesis for the lifetimes of patriarchs from the Flood also contained the needed secret numbers. (He showed that in the 1,656 years recounted in the Bible there are 86,400 7 day weeks, and dividing this number yields / Page 208 / 43,200.) In Indian yogic schools it is held that all living beings exhale and inhale 21,600 times a day, multiply this by 2 and again we have the necessary 432 digits. Joseph Campbell discerns the secret in the date set for the coming of Patrick to Ireland. Myth-gives this date-as-the interesting number of AD.432.18 Whatever one may think-of some of these number coincidences, it becomes difficult to escape the suspicion that many signs (number and otherwise) - indicate that early man observed the results of the movement of Precession and that the - transmission of this information was considered of prime importance. With the awareness of the phenomenon, observers would certainly have tried for its measure, and such an endeavour would have constituted the construction-of a 'Unified Field Theory' for nothing less than Creation itself. Once determined, it would have been information worthy of secrecy and worthy of the passing on to future adepts. But one last word about mankind's romance with number coincidences.The antagonist in John Updike's novel, Roger's Version, is a computer hacker, who, convinced, that scientific evidence of God's existence is accumulating, endeavours to prove it by feeding -all the available scientific information. into a comuter. In his search for God 'breaking, through', he has become fascinated by certain numbers that have continually been cropping up. He explains them excitedly as 'the terms of Creation': "...after a while I noticed that all over the sheet there seemed to hit these twenty-fours Jumping out at me. Two four; two, four. Planck time, for instance, divided by the radiation constant yields a figure near eight times ten again to the negative twenty-fourth, and the permittivity of free space, or electric constant, into the Bohr radius ekla almost exactly six times ten to the negative twenty-fourth. On positive side, the electromagnetic line-structure constant times Hubble radius - that is, the size of the universe as we now perceive it gives us something quite close to ten to the twenty-fourth, and the strong-force constant times the charge on the proton produces two point four times ten to the negative eighteenth, for another I began to circle twenty-four wherever it appeared on the Printout here' - he held it up his piece of stripped and striped wallpaper, decorated / Page 209 /
with a number of scarlet circles - 'you can see it's more than random.'19 So much for any scorn directed to ancient man's fascination with number coincidences. That fascination is alive and well, Just a bit more incomprehensible"
NUMBER 9 THE SEARCH FOR THE SIGMA CODE Cecil Balmond 1998 Cycles and Patterns Page 165 Patterns "The essence of mathematics is to look for patterns. Our minds seem to be organised to search for relationships and sequences. We look for hidden orders. These intuitions seem to be more important than the facts themselves, for there is always the thrill at finding something, a pattern, it is a discovery - what was unknown is now revealed. Imagine looking up at the stars and finding the zodiac! Searching out patterns is a pure delight. Suddenly the counters fall into place and a connection is found, not necessarily a geometric one, but a relationship between numbers, pictures of the mind, that were not obvious before. There is that excitement of finding order in something that was otherwise hidden. And there is the knowledge that a huge unseen world lurks behind the facades we see of the numbers themselves."
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THE LIGHT IS RISING NOW RISING IS THE LIGHT
THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN Thomas Mann 1875-1955 Page 466 "Had not the normal, since time was, lived on the achievements of the abnormal? Men consciously and voluntarily descended into disease and madness, in search of knowledge which, acquired by fanaticism, would lead back to health; after the possession and use of it had ceased to be conditioned by that heroic and abnormal act of sacrifice. That was the true death on the cross, the true Atonement."
THE TRUE DEATH ON THE CROSS THE TRUE AT ONE MENT
ATONEMENT
ADVENT 475 ADVENT
CRUCIFIXION
CRUCIFIED
Scofield References Page 1117 A.D. 30. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily,
IN SEARCH OF THE MIRACULOUS Fragments of an Unknown Teaching P.D.Oupensky 1878-1947 Page 217 'A man may be born, but in order to be born he must first die, and in order to die he must first awake.'
I AM THAT LAZARUS COME FROM THE DEAD COME BACK TO TELL YOU ALL I SHALL TELL YOU ALL
ADVENT 475 ADVENT
JOSEPH AND HIS BROTHERS Thomas Mann 1875-1955 Page 935 "Come nearer, my friend," he said, as the bee studded curtain closed behind them, "pray come close to me, dear Khabiru from the Retenu, fear not, nor startle in your step, come quite close to me! This is the mother of god, Tiy, who lives a million years. And I am Pharaoh. But think no more of that, lest it make you fearful. Pharaoh is God and Man, but sets as much store by the second as the first, yes he rejoices, sometimes his rejoicing amounts to defiance and scorn that he is a man like all men, seen from one side; he rejoices to snap his fingers at those sour faces who would have him bear himself uniformly as God." Page 968 "But we are speaking of two different things. My Majesty speaks of the fetters which the teaching puts upon the thoughts of God; yours refers to priestly statecraft, which divides teaching and knowledge. But Pharaoh would not be arrogant, and there is no greater arrogance than such a division. No, there is no arrogance in the world greater than that of dividing the children of our Father into initiate and uninitiate and teaching double words: all-knowingly for the masses, knowingly in the inner circle. No, we must speak what we know, and witness what we have seen. Pharaoh wants to do nothing but improve the teaching, even though it be made hard for him by the teaching. And still it has been said to me: 'Call me not Aton, for that is in need of improvement. Call me the Lord of the Aton!' But I, through keeping silent, forgot. See now what the Father does for his beloved son! He sends him a messenger and dream-interpreter, who shows him his dreams, dreams from below and dreams from above, dreams important for the realm and for heaven; that he should awake in him what he already knows, and interpret what was already said to him. Yes, how loveth the Father his child the King who came forth out of him, that he sends down a soothsayer to him, to whom from long ages has been handed down the teaching that it profits man to press on towards the last and highest! "
Kukulkan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Kukulkan Plumed Serpent", "Feathered Serpent") is the name of a Maya snake deity that also serves to designate historical persons. The depiction of the ... Kukulkan From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Kukulkan at Chichen Itza during the Equinox. The famous descent of the snake. March 2009 The Classic Maya vision serpent, as depicted at Yaxchilan. Although heavily Mexicanised, Kukulkan has his origins among the Maya of the Classic Period, when he was known as Waxaklahun Ubah Kan (/waʃaklaˈχuːn uːˈɓaχ kän/), the War Serpent, and he has been identified as the Postclassic version of the Vision Serpent of Classic Maya art.[3] The cult of Kukulkan/Quetzalcoatl was the first Mesoamerican religion to transcend the old Classic Period linguistic and ethnic divisions.[4] This cult facilitated communication and peaceful trade among peoples of many different social and ethnic backgrounds.[4] Although the cult was originally centred on the ancient city of Chichén Itzá in the modern Mexican state of Yucatán, it spread as far as the Guatemalan highlands.[5] In Yucatán, references to the deity Kukulkan are confused by references to a named individual who bore the name of the god. Because of this, the distinction between the two has become blurred.[6] This individual appears to have been a ruler or priest at Chichen Itza, who first appeared around the 10th century.[7] Although Kukulkan was mentioned as a historical person by Maya writers of the 16th century, the earlier 9th-century texts at Chichen Itza never identified him as human and artistic representations depicted him as a Vision Serpent entwined around the figures of nobles.[8] At Chichen Itza, Kukulkan is also depicted presiding over sacrifice scenes.[9] Sizeable temples to Kukulkan are found at archaeological sites throughout the north of the Yucatán Peninsula, such as Chichen Itza, Uxmal and Mayapan.[7]
QUETZALCOATL THIS SERPENT I PRESENT
Quetzalcoatl - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quetzalcoatl Quetzalcoatl /ˌkɛtsɑːlˈkoʊɑːtəl is a Mesoamerican deity whose name comes from the Nahuatl language and means feathered serpent". The worship of a ... Quetzalcoatl in feathered serpent form as depicted in the Codex Telleriano-Remensis In the Postclassic period (900–1519 AD), the worship of the feathered serpent deity was based in the primary Mexican religious center of Cholula. It is in this period that the deity is known to have been named "Quetzalcoatl" by his Nahua followers. In the Maya area he was approximately equivalent to Kukulcan and Gukumatz, names that also roughly translate as "feathered serpent" in different Mayan languages. In the era following the 16th-century Spanish Conquest, a number of sources were written that conflate Quetzalcoatl with Ce Acatl Topiltzin, a ruler of the mythico-historic city of Tollan. It is a matter of much debate among historians to which degree, or whether at all, these narratives about this legendary Toltec ruler describe historical events.[4] Furthermore, early Spanish sources written by clerics tend to identify the god-ruler Quetzalcoatl of these narratives with either Hernán Cortés or St. Thomas—an identification which is also a source of diversity of opinions about the nature of Quetzalcoatl.[5] Among the Aztecs, whose beliefs are the best-documented in the historical sources, Quetzalcoatl was related to gods of the wind, of Venus, of the dawn, of merchants and of arts, crafts and knowledge. He was also the patron god of the Aztec priesthood, of learning and knowledge.[6] Quetzalcoatl was one of several important gods in the Aztec pantheon, along with the gods Tlaloc, Tezcatlipoca and Huitzilopochtli.
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THE TEARS OF QUETZALCOATL
FINGER PRINTS OF THE GODS Graham Hancock 1995 Page 153 Adventures in the Underworld, Journeys to the Stars "In Egypt's early dynastic period more than 4500 years ago, an 'Ennead' of nine omnipotent deities was particularly adored by the priesthood at Heliopolis.5 Likewise in Central America, both the Aztecs and the Mayas believed in an all-powerful system of nine deities" "The majority of the traditions of the God-King Quetzalcoatl, as we have seen, focus on his deeds and teaching as a civilizer. His followers in ancient Mexico, however, also believed that his human manifestation had experienced death and that afterwards he was reborn as a star.9"
http://theosophy.org/tlodocs/teachers/Quetzalcoatl.htm QUETZALCOATL "What does your mind seek? Beyond is the place where one lives. No, O Lord of the Close Vicinity, Cantares Mexicanos "No one outside the adyta of initiation can know the ultimate origins of American Indian spirituality, and only a few have penetrated the veil of metaphor and symbol constituting the core of Nahuatl literature. No one knows how many, if any, of those who still speak the Nahuatl tongue, spoken by the Aztecs before them and already richly developed in the time of the earliest Toltecs, really fathom the inner meaning of its startling profusion of juxtaposed images, symbolic descriptions and ethereal allusions. The Nahuatl mind found truth only in "flowers and songs", in intuitive apprehension, and entirely dispensed with delusive dichotomies and mechanistic categories. Only the barest lineaments of the history of the Aztecs, latest of the major pre-Columbian civilizations in Meso-America, are known. The peoples before them are immersed in an obscurity dimly illuminated here and there by legend and archaeological discovery. Ancient Mexico and the lands immediately south of it are, as H.P. Blavatsky said, "a land of mystery". Yet within that lost continent is to be found Quetzalcoatl, one of the iridescent spiritual impulses of poorly recorded history. Quetzalcoatl emblazoned a trail through human thought and culture that could not be effaced by the indifference of the rapacious conquistador and the ruthless zeal of the Inquisition."
TLAMATINI SOMEONE WHO KNOWS SOMETHING
"The earliest American high culture known to history was that developed by the Toltecs, whose name in Nahuatl means 'master craftsmen'. They built the great city of Tollan, a sacred precinct laid out to mirror and intimate the mysteries of existence. Tollan, literally 'metropolis', became the prototype of later cities which bore its name as well as specific names of their own. Tollan was the magnificent Teotihuacan which was recognized as the source of Nahuatl civilization, and Quetzalcoatl was the spiritual source of the earthly Tollan. Like Osiris in Egypt, Quetzalcoatl was a divine king who taught all the arts and sciences. Like Prometheus, he gave mankind sacred keys to wisdom. He is the spiritual progenitor of the tlamatinime, the wise men who were the priests and preservers of divine knowledge. The wise maintain a light, a torch, a stout torch Codice Matritense The priest who through purity and insight emerged foremost amongst his peers was given the name Quetzalcoatl, reminiscent of the Egyptian Initiate who earned the epithet Hermes Trismegistus. He is a mirror of the world and of the Divine, "pierced on both sides", so that the transcendent shines forth upon the world and man sees beyond the immanent through the wise man. The tlamatini mirrors the primordial and aeviternal activity of Quetzalcoatl, the divine sage, high priest and inner being of humanity. Quetzalcoatl's ineluctably numinous nature, a mystery impenetrable to theological and mythological analysis, abides in his role as the bridge between ontological levels and between pairs of opposites within each level. The duality essential to manifestation is constrained by and unified in Quetzalcoatl. Thus, to explain the intertwined and enigmatic functions of this man-god, mythographers have been compelled to import the Sanskrit concept of avatara. Surviving fragments of myth, legend and history provide a tantalizingly incomplete mosaic of a priest-king and spiritual principle omnipresent in Nahuatl thought and life. Accounts of his functions and activities seem confused and contradictory, most likely because the keys to levels of interpretation perished with the silent tlamatinime. Nonetheless, Quetzalcoatl, believed to have incarnated as a righteous priest-king in Tollan, was first a metaphysical principle involved in the primordial creative emanation of the world. Ometeotl is the great god who abides forever in the twelfth and thirteenth heavens. In the highest realm, he alone is unaffected by the emergence and dissolution of the cosmos. In the twelfth heaven, Omeyocan (the Realm of Duality), he is "Our Mother and Our Father, Ometeotl-Omecihuatl, who is Dual Lord and Dual Lady", the first cause. Our Lord, Lord of the Ring, The appearance and passing of worlds is the work of hierarchies of divine beings who operate in strict obedience to the universal law, the will of Ometeotl. Yet he also dwells in the centre of the cosmos and on every plane of being as Xiuhtecuhtli, the Lord of Fire and Time. As Mother-Father, the Dual Lord confirms the connection of a soul to the body engendered by conception. In this role, he sits on high with his consort, his feminine self, and Quetzalcoatl sits between them, for Quetzalcoatl creates the connection willed by Ometeotl. As Ometeotl is the heart of manifestation, Quetzalcoatl is the heart of the dual Ometeotl. Within the vast unfoldment of cosmos, the world has emerged five times through five rebirths of the sun. Whilst some say the fifth sun is the last, others suggest that there will be seven suns, and still others hint at the possibility of twelve suns. Each sun has come into existence through the sacrifice of a god, just as Ometeotl must sacrifice his utter transcendence to become the dual first cause. Tezcatlipoca, son of Ometeotl, sacrificed himself in the cosmic fire so that the Sun of Night and of Earth might arise. Represented by the jaguar or tiger, the raw forces of this world were sterile from an evolutionary standpoint and therefore perished. Quetzalcoatl sacrificed himself to produce the second world, the Sun of Air, but its purely spiritual powers could not sustain form. Creatures of this world who corresponded to human beings in the world of the fifth sun became monkeys. Tlaloc, Lord of Rain, immolated himself in the cosmic fire to give birth to the Sun of Rain and Fire, but the volcanic intensity of this world allowed only birds to survive, though during its existence the prototype of maize was grown. Chalchiuhtlicue, life-giving goddess of waters, offered herself so that the fourth Sun of Waters might appear. Whilst men consumed the acicintli seed, it could not grow in water alone, and the world perished in a universal deluge. Two gods volunteered themselves in the fiery sacrifice to create the fifth sun. The divine hearth was constructed at Teotihuacan, the centre of what would be the fifth world. After suitable ritual preparations were made and the gods had purified themselves, the moment came to approach the fire. Tecuciztecatl, Lord of the Snails, who had arrogantly claimed primacy, could not muster the courage to enter the cosmic fire. Nanahuatzin or Nanahuatl, the god whose form is diseased, who therefore understood the pain of limitation and imperfection, stepped forward and threw himself on the pyre. Shamed by such detachment, Tecuciztecatl followed him as the moon (which Tecuciztecatl became) follows the sun. The sun did not rise immediately, however, and the gods became anxious in the oppressive darkness. Quetzalcoatl, however, divined the locus of the sunrise and proceeded to the east. There he welcomed the rising sun as Lord of the Dawn and, when the sun wobbled uncertainly on its rising course, steadied it as god of wind. Thus, the fifth sun is called Nahui Ollin, Four Movement, Naollin, the synthesis of the four elements through dynamic interaction, the Sun of Quetzalcoatl, who as movement is the active ingredient of the ever-changing balance which sustains – and is – life. Its symbol is the human face, the countenance signifying life and intelligence, self-conscious will or choice in the service of unalterable cosmic law, that mystic promise of immortality within necessary dissolution that alone can mirror unmanifest eternity. Its glyph includes the four transient elements and three aspects of divine creativity, arranged as a quincunx that points to both the Fourth Round and Fifth Root Race. In his Promethean aspect Quetzalcoatl is involved in the creation of human beings and in inspiring them with intelligence. Before Naollin's roseate splendour had burst into full day and brought the present world to light, Quetzalcoatl had to descend into the realm of the dead, Mictlan, to secure the precious bones of man so that humans might again inhabit the earth. In Mictlan, the realm of the fleshless, he confronted Mictlantecuhtli and Mictlancihuatl, Lord and Lady of the Land of the Dead, the 'masks' or reflections of Ometeotl and Omecihuatl in the lowest sphere of duality, beyond which is unknowable darkness, just as there is the Unknown above Omeyocan, the highest heaven. When Quetzalcoatl demanded the bones, Mictlantecuhtli offered them on condition that Quetzalcoatl sound the conch-shell and circle the kingdom four times. Whilst this seemed to be a genuine challenge, the shell had no sounding-hole and was ever mute. Quetzalcoatl called upon the worms to pierce the shell, and bees entered through the hole and made it sound. Whilst appearing to yield possession of the bones, Mictlantecuhtli called upon the forces of the underworld to prevent Quetzalcoatl from fulfilling his charge. Mirroring this deception, Quetzalcoatl sent his double, nahualli, who is Xolotl, his twin and another aspect of himself, to inform the Lord of the Dead that the bones would be left in Mictlan. Even whilst this message was being delivered, Quetzalcoatl gathered the bones of Man and Woman and fled. The forces of the underworld did not pursue Quetzalcoatl directly; they had prepared a trap. Quetzalcoatl fell into the trap and lost consciousness for a time. When he recovered, he found the bones damaged and in disarray. Crying out to his nahualli, he asked, "What shall I do now?" His twin gave the pre-ordained response: "Since things have turned out badly, let them turn out as they may." And as soon as he arrived, the woman called Quilaztli, who is Cihuacoatl, took them to grind and put them in a precious vessel of clay. Upon them Quetzalcoatl bled his member. The other gods and Quetzalcoatl himself did penance. And they said, "People have been born, O gods, the macehuales – those 'deserved' into life through penance." Because for our sake, the gods did penance! Manuscript of 1558 Within this mysterious allegory one can see the failure of nature alone to produce intelligent men, the gathering of the lower vestures and their animation with the breath of life within the body of clay, as well as the penitential self-sacrifice of the gods, represented by the seminal blood and signifying the incarnation of the spiritual and divine within the prepared living human form. Once this complex process was completed, Quetzalcoatl stole maize, the proper food of self-consciously intelligent beings, and gave it to humanity. Under Naollin, the fifth sun, Quetzalcoatl is the dynamic order of Nature, the homoeostasis in which humanity can flourish. Celestially, he guards the Milky Way, 'the Luminous Petticoat of Stars'. Tezcatlipoca, son of Ometeotl, became the four Tezcatlipocas who guard the four quarters of the world. In the west this fourfold hypostasis is Quetzalcoatl, whilst in the east he is the red Tezcatlipoca, the two constituting the tension between birth and death, which is also death in this world of change and birth into the Divine Darkness. The red Tezcatlipoca is also Xolotl, the twin of Quetzalcoatl, the other half of one ceaseless activity. In the atmosphere which blankets the fertile earth, Quetzalcoatl is the wind and the water it bears in the air. He is also lightning, sudden illuminator of darkness, who, like an ambassador, precedes Tlaloc, the god of rain. His multivalent functions are intimated in the deliberate ambiguity of his name: Quetzalcoatl is derived from quetzal, 'feathered' or 'precious', and coati, 'serpent' or 'twin'. Thus he is both the Plumed Serpent and the Precious Twin. In tlalticpac, the dream world which is earth, Quetzalcoatl is the divine king who, like Osiris, the second divine pharaoh of Egypt, brought civilization to humanity. As the divine ruler in Tollan, he taught all the arts and sciences, from cultivation of maize to metallurgy and from astrology to poetry, as well as the sacred tlilli tlapalli, red and black ink, that is, writing and, by extension, wisdom. During the golden age he dwelt in his invisible form, guiding and governing in a kingdom of innocent joy. Yet the forces of limitation, shadows in this realm of light, plotted Quetzalcoatl's downfall. Tezcatlipoca took a mirror and invited Quetzalcoatl to gaze into it. To his horror, he thereby gained a body, rather like Anthropos, and seeing himself reflected in the mirror of inchoate Nature, became one with it, according to the Hermetic tradition. In his confusion he allowed a mask and feathered head-dress to be made for him, so that people might look upon him without fear. Whilst he was disoriented, demons made pulque, a fermented drink from sap of the maguey, and gave it to Quetzalcoatl. Thus intoxicated, he took Quetzalpetatl, his feminine aspect from which he now felt alienated, and slept with her, falling afterwards into a stupor. As the archetype of humanity, his deeds brought pain and suffering to humanity – the pain of having a body, the suffering of loneliness, the disharmonies of striving, contention, fear and guilt, which pit person against person and turn the powers of human consciousness into instruments of selfishness and its inevitable offspring, conflict and greed. In the morning Quetzalcoatl awoke filled with grief and remorse. As god, he knew the unavoidable problems of incarnation, but as king, he saw the massive failure of civilization. Between potentiality and actualization fell the dread shadow of self-induced ignorance. Within the architectonics of human life, the problems of creating man had been wholly reflected, and thus Quetzalcoatl's earthly work was completed. He resolved to leave his beautiful Tollan and set out with his closest devotees. He journeyed throughout his kingdom, leaving at different sites marks of his presence – a sacred footprint here, a raised stone there – and stripped himself of his arts and powers as he went so that these might remain with humanity in his absence. He ordered a stone casket to be made, and when it was finished he lay in it for four days so that his most precious secrets might be absorbed into it. When he was ready, he ordered the stone box sealed up to prevent theft or contamination of its contents. Only those who have redeemed Quetzalcoatl's wisdom through severe penance and self-sacrifice can hope to know the contents of that mystic sarcophagus now secreted in the human breast, in the place of purity where Quetzalcoatl was accustomed to bathing. All work finished, Quetzalcoatl went to the sea. When he reached the holy sea Annals of Cuauhtitlan There at Tlillin Tlapallin, the place of burning, he built a huge pyre, mounted it and set it aflame. His ashes rose into the air and the rarest birds of the earth appeared. As the red flames lit up the celestial vault, Quetzalcoatl became again the Lord of the Dawn. When the ashes had ceased to burn, "The heart of Quetzalcoatl became Venus, the morning star which promises first the dawn, then the rising sun itself."
THIS SERPENT I PRESENT
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