THE

SATURN
MYTH
A REINTERPRETATION OF RITES AND SYMBOLS ILLUMINATING
SOME OF THE DARK CORNERS OF PRIMORDIAL SOCIETY

David N. Talbott

Intrigued by Velikovskys claim that Saturn was once the pre-eminent planetary god, David Talbott resolved to examine its mythical
character. I wanted to know, he wrote, if ancient sources had a coherent story to tell about the planet . . . I had no inkling of the
spectacular tale hidden in the chronicles.
In this startling re-interpretation of age-old symbolism Talbott argues that the Great God or Universal Monarch of the ancients
was not the sun, but Saturn, which once hung ominously close to the earth, and visually dominated the heavens.
Talbotts close textual and symbolic analysis reveals the fundamental themes of Saturn imagery and proves that all of them
including the cosmic ship, the island at the top of the world, the eye of heaven and the revolving temple were based on
celestial observations in the northern sky. In addition he shows how such diverse symbols as the Cross, sun-wheels, holy mountains,
crowns of royalty and sacred pillars grew out of ancient Saturn worship. Talbott contends that Saturn's appearance at the time,
radically different from today, inspired man's leap into civilization, since many aspects of early civilization can be seen as conscious
efforts to re-enact or commemorate Saturns organization of his celestial kingdom.
A fascinating look at ancient history and cosmology, The Saturn Myth is a provocative book that might well change the way you think
about mans history and the history of the universe.
David N. Talbott is the founder and former publisher of Pensee, an out-growth of the Student Academic Forum which developed the
book, Velikovsky Reconsidered. He is also the co-author of The Ecstasy of Sati-Ra, a cosmological mystery. He now lives with his
family in Oregon.
Talbott, David N., The Saturn Myth
ISBN: 0-385-113376-5
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 76-51986
Copyright 1980 by David N.Talbott.
All Rights Reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
First Edition.
Kindle version created by PapaLazzzaru, Aug 2013

CONTENTS
I. INTRODUCTION
MYTH AND CATASTROPHE
II. THE GREAT FATHER
THE ONE GOD OF ARCHAIC MONOTHEISM
THE UNIVERSAL MONARCH
The Age of Kronos
The Rites of Kingship
THE HEAVEN MAN
Who Was Adam?
THE GREAT FATHER SATURN
THE SATURN MYTH RECONSTRUCTED
III. THE POLAR SUN
SUN AND SATURN
Day And Night
SATURN AND THE POLE
The Unmoved Mover
Egypt
Mesopotamia
India
China
The Americas
IV. SATURNS COSMOS
THE ENCLOSED SUN
The Lost Island
THE COSMOS AND THE DIVINE ASSEMBLY
The Circle of the Gods
THE GREAT MOTHER
Womb and Thigh
Womb and Cosmos
The Hermaphrodite
V. THE HOLY LAND
THE MOTHER LAND
The Egyptian Paradise
The World Wheel
The One-Wheeled Chariot
The City of Heaven
The Enclosure as Prototype
The World Navel
The Ocean
VI. THE ENCLOSED SUN-CROSS
The Four Rivers of Paradise
THE CROSSROADS
The Four-eyed or Four-faced God
The Foundation Stone
The Four Pillars of Heaven
Symmetrical Elaborations of the Sun-Cross
VII. TEMPLE, CROWN, VASE, EYE, AND CIRCULAR SERPENT
THE TEMPLE

The Egyptian Temple

Temple and Womb
The Crown
The Vase
The Eye
The Circular Serpent
In Summary: A Coherent Doctrine
VIII. THE COSMIC MOUNTAIN
Egypt
Mesopotamia
India
Japan, China, Iran, Siberia
Siberia
Greece and Rome
Western Semitic
The Americas
A Collective Memory
The Mount of Masculine Power
The Cosmic Mountain Personified
The Single Leg
The Serpent/Dragon
The Stream of Life
The King of the Mountain
IX. THE CRESCENT
The Crescent and Saturn
The Crescent and Womb
Crescent and Motherland
The Crescent and Mount
THE HEAVENLY TWINS
Who Were the Dioscuri?
The Black and White Twins
Symbolism of the Crescent
THE CRESCENT HORN
The Horned Mountain
IX THE CRESCENT-SHIP
THE CRESCENT-ARMS
The Ka-Arms
THE CRESCENT-WINGS
INTERCONNECTED SYMBOLS
The Plant of Life
Sword
The Altar
Above and Below, Left and Right
Saturns Day
CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ENDNOTES

I. Introduction
The planet Saturn today is recognizable only to those who know where to look for it. But a few thousand years
ago Saturn dominated the earth as a sun, presiding over a universal Golden Age.
Modern man considers it self-evident that our familiar heavens differ hardly at all from the heavens
encountered by the earliest star worshippers. He assumes that the most distinctive bodies venerated in primitive
times were the sun and moon, followed by the five visible planets and various constellationsall appearing as
they do today, but for such ever-so-slight changes as the precession of the equinoxes.
This long-standing belief not only confines present discussion of ancient myth and religion; it is the fixed
doctrine of modern astronomy and geology: every prevailing theory of the solar system and of earths past rests
upon an underlying doctrine of cosmic uniformitythe belief that the clocklike regularity of heavenly motions
can be projected backward indefinitely.
But the evidence assembled in the following pages indicates that within human memory extraordinary changes
in the planetary system occurred: in the earliest age recalled by man the planet Saturn was the most spectacular
light in the heavens and its impact on the ancient world overwhelming. In fact Saturn was the one great god
invoked by all mankind. The first religious symbols were symbols of Saturn, and so pervasive was the planet
gods influence that the ancients knew him as the creator, the king of the world, and Adam, the first man.
Since the only meaningful defense of this claim is the entire body of evidence presented here, I shall not
presume upon the readers credulity, but only ask that he follow the narrative to its end.

Myth And Catastrophe

If our generation disdains the possibility of fact in the language of myth it is because we are aware of
discrepancy between myth and the modern world view, and we ascribe it to the blindness or superstition of the
ancients. There is hardly an ancient tale which fails to speak of world-destroying upheavals and shifting cosmic
orders. Indeed, we are so accustomed to the catastrophic character of the stories that we hardly give it a second
thought. When the myths tell of suns which have come and gone, or of planetary gods whose wars threatened to
destroy mankind, we are likely to take them as amusing and absurdly exaggerated accounts of local floods,
earthquakes, and eclipsesor write them off altogether as expressions of unconstrained fancy. How many
scholars, seeking to unravel the astronomical legends and symbols of antiquity, have questioned whether the
heavenly bodies have always coursed on the same paths they follow today? In the past three hundred years
barely a handful of writers have claimed any connection between myth and actual celestial catastrophe:
William Whiston published in 1696 A New Theory of the Earth, arguing that the biblical Deluge resulted from a
cometary cataclysm. The book produced a storm of scientific objections and had no lasting impact outside
Christian orthodoxy.
In 1882 and 1883 two books by Ignatius Donnelly appeared: Atlantis, the Antediluvian World, and Ragnarok:
the Age of Fire and Gravel. Relying on global myths, Donnelly claimed that a massive continent called Atlantis
once harboured a primordial civilization, but the entire land sank beneath the sea when a comet rained
destruction on the earth. Both of Donnellys books became best sellers and are still available today. Yet
conventional theories of earth and the solar system remain unaffected by these works.
Around the turn of the century Isaac Vail argued in a series of brief papers that myths of cosmic upheaval relate
to the collapse of ice bands surrounding our planet. 1 Three quarters of a century after his death, his work is
familiar only to the esoteric few.
In 1913 Hans Hoerbiger published his Glacial-Kosmogonie, contending that the great catastrophes described in
ancient myth occurred when the Earth captured another planet which became our moon.2 The relatively small
interest in Hoerbigers thesis vanished within a couple of decades.
This was the extent of noteworthy research into myth and catastrophe when Immanuel Velikovsky, in early
1940, first wondered whether a cosmic disturbance may have accompanied the Hebrew Exodus. According to
the biblical account, massive plagues occurred, Sinai erupted, and the pillar of cloud and fire moved in the sky.
His quest for a solution led Velikovsky through a systematic survey of world mythology and eventually to the

conclusion that ancient myths constitute a collective memory of celestial disorder. The great gods, Velikovsky
observed, appear explicitly as planets. In the titanic wars vividly depicted by ancient chroniclers the planets
moved on erratic courses, appearing to wage battles in the sky, exchanging electrical discharges, and more than
once menacing the earth.
Velikovsky set forth his claims of celestial catastrophe in his book Worlds in Collision (published in 1950),
proposing that first Venus and then Mars, in the period 1500-686 B.C., so disturbed the Earths axis as to
produce world-wide destruction. The book became an immediate best seller and the focus of one of the great
scientific controversies of this century.3
I mention Velikovsky not only because his work obviously relates to the thesis of this book, but because, as a
matter of record, Velikovsky first directed my attention toward Saturn. In a manuscript still awaiting publication
Velikovsky proposed that the now-distant planet was once the dominant heavenly body, and he identified
Saturns epoch with the legendary Golden Age. While I have not seen Velikovskys unpublished manuscript on
Saturn, a brief outline of his idea inspired the present inquiry: was Saturn once the preeminent light in the
heavens?
Yet I possessed at the outset no conception of the broad thesis presented herewhich fell into place with
surprising rapidity, once I set out to reconstruct the Saturn myth. While expecting to find, at best, only faint
echoes of Saturn (or no hint at all), I found instead that the ancients, looking back to the beginnings, were
obsessed with the planet-god and strove in a thousand ways to relive Saturns epoch. The most common
symbols of antiquity, which our age universally regards as solar emblems (
, etc.) were originally
unrelated to our sun. They were literal pictures of Saturn, whom the entire ancient world invoked as the sun.
In the original age to which the myths refer, Saturn was no remote speck faintly discerned by terrestrial
observers; the planet loomed as an awesome and terrifying light. And if we are to believe the wide-spread
accounts of Saturns age, the planet-gods home was the unmoving celestial pole, the apparent pivot of the
heavens, far removed from the visible path of Saturn today.
At first glance, however, the Saturn myth seems to present an entanglement of bizarre images. The earliest,
most venerated religious texts depict the great god sailing in a celestial ship, consorting with winged goddesses,
fashioning revolving islands, cities and temples, or abiding upon the shoulders of a cosmic giant. It is
impossible to pursue Saturns ancient image without encountering the paradise of Eden, the lost Atlantis, the
fountain of youth, the one-wheeled chariot of the gods, the all-seeing Eye of heaven, or the serpent-dragon of
the deep. Though celebrated as living, visible powers, none of Saturns personifications or mythical habitats
conforms to anything in our familiar world. Yet once one seeks out the concrete nature of these images, it
becomes clear that each referred to the same celestial form. The subject is a Saturnian configuration of startling
simplicitywhose appearance, transformation, and eventual disappearance became the focus of all ancient
rites.
I now have little doubt that, if Velikovsky had pursued the Saturn question to the end, he would have perceived
a vastly greater influence of the planet than he originally recognized. He would have discovered also that the
full story of Saturn adds a new perspective to much of the mythological material gathered in Worlds in
Collision. (In this connection I must stress that I alone am responsible for the themes and conclusions presented
in this book. Realizing that Velikovsky has had to defend his own heresy for better than a quarter of a century, I
have no desire to burden him with the heresy of others.)
Nothing came as a greater surprise to me than the sheer quantity of material bearing directly on the Saturn
tradition. The scope of the subject matter made it necessary to separate the material into two volumes: the first
dealing with the original Saturnian apparition, the second with Saturns catastrophic fate. This initial volume
then, focuses on the primordial age of cosmic harmony and the unified image of Saturn as king of the world.

II. The Great Father

Anyone attempting to trace the Saturn legend must reckon with the primordial god-figure whom ancient races
celebrate as the great father, and who is said to have first organized the heavens and founded the antediluvian
kingdom of peace and plenty, the Golden Age. While few of us today could locate Saturn in the starry sphere,
the earliest astral religions insist that the planet-god was once the all-powerful ruler of heaven. But
paradoxically, they also declare that he resided on earth as a great king. He was the father both of gods and
men.
This dual character of the great father has been the subject of a centuries-long, but unresolved debate. Was he a
living ancestor subsequently exaggerated into a cosmic divinity? Or was he originally a celestial god whom
later myths reduced to human proportions? For an explanation of the great father researchers look to such
varied powers as the solar orb, an esteemed tribal chief, or an abstract vegetation cycle. Almost uniformly
ignored is the connection of the primordial man-god with the actual planet Saturneven though it is precisely
the latter that can tell us why the great father appears in both human and celestial form.
The overwhelming preoccupation of ancient ritual is with an ancient great god:
1. The myths say that the god emerged alone from the cosmic sea as the preeminent power in the heavens. Out
of watery chaos he produced a new order. The ancients worshipped him as the creator and the supreme lord of
the Cosmos.
2. This solitary god, according to the legend, founded a kingdom of unparalleled splendour. He was the divine
ancestor of all earthly rulers, his kingdom the prototype of the just and prosperous realm. Throughout his reign
an unending spring prevailed, the land produced freely, and men knew neither labour nor war.
3. In the god-kings towering form the ancients perceived the Heaven Man, a primordial giant whose body was
the newly organized Cosmos. The legends often present the figure as the first man or primordial man, whose
history personified the struggle of good and evil.
4. Whether emphasizing the great fathers character as creator, first king, or Heaven Man, widespread traditions
proclaim him to be the planet Saturn.
In investigating the traits of the archaic god we must give greatest weight to the oldest astral religionsthose
which are closest to the original experience. The best material, coming from ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia,
provides a remarkably coherent picture of the god and enables one to see the development and the distortions of
the idea among later peoples. What is most surprising, however, is the enduring power of the root themes.

The One God Of Archaic Monotheism

In the beginning the ancients knew one supreme god only, a divinity invoked as the creator and the father of all
the gods.
According to a long-established school of thought, mans consciousness of a supreme being emerged slowly
from a primitive fascination with petty spirits and demons. Adherents to this opinion tell us that human reason
gradually modified capricious spirits of vegetation, spring, the ancestors, or sexual power into the great
gods of global religion.
Of such an evolutionary process, however, one finds little evidence. The great edifices erected by Herbert
Spencer, E.B. Tylor, and James G. Frazer4 appear to rest exclusively on the assumption that one can learn the
origins of theism by studying existing primitive cultures. The idea is that the civilized races of old must have
first passed through primitive phases. Before the Hebrews, Greeks, or Hindus developed their elevated ideas
of a supreme god, they must have possessed beliefs and customs similar to those of modern-day tribes of
Africa, Australia, or Polynesia. Only by slow development, say these theorists, could a race rise above the
ludicrous magic, totems, and fetishes of the savage.
It is interesting that the advocates of the various evolutionary theories, in their fascination with present-day
primitive cultures, almost never concern themselves with the oldest religious texts and symbols which have
come down to us. The sacred hymns and eulogies of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, reveal a tradition of a
great god reaching back into prehistoric times. Moreover, a comparison of early and later sources, rather than

suggesting a development, actually indicates the disintegration of a once-unified idea into magic, astrology,
totemism, and other elements with which the evolutionists associate the first stages of religion.

1. Atum, the solitary god of beginnings.

There are grounds for speaking of an archaic monotheism, astral in nature, existing long before the idea of God
received its spiritual and philosophical elevation in Hebrew and Greek thought. To the ancients themselves the
entire question was simply a matter of concrete history: the present world is a fragmented copy of an earlier
age, in which the supreme light god stood alone in a primeval sea, occupying the cosmic centre.
Ancient Egyptian texts repeatedly invoke a singular figure worshipped as the greatest and highest light of the
primeval age. One of his many names was Atum, a god born in the Abyss before the sky existed, before the
earth existed.5 These are the words of the Pyramid Texts, perhaps the worlds oldest religious hymns, but the
texts of all periods look back to the same primordial time when Atum shone forth alone. I came into being of
myself in the midst of the Primeval Waters, states the god in the Book of the Dead.6 More than once the Coffin
Texts recall the time when Atum was alone, before he had repeated himself. 7 He was alone in the Primeval
Waters, they say.8 I was [the spirit in?] the Primeval Waters, he who had no companion when my name came
into existence.9
Each locality in Egypt appears to have possessed its own special representative of the father god. 10 To some he
was Horus, the god who came first into being when no other god had yet come into existence, when no name
of anything had yet been proclaimed.11 Other traditions knew him as Re, the God One who came into being in
the beginning of time . . . O thou who didst give Thyself birth! O one, mighty one of myriad forms and aspects,
king of the world . . .12
The followers of Amen proclaimed their god the Ancient of Heaven . . . , father of the gods. 13 Ptah was the
splendid god who existed alone in the beginning.14
The different local names of the primeval deity, though adding complexity to Egyptian religion as a whole, do
not cloud the underlying idea. He is the god One, the Only One, the father of beginnings, the Supreme
Lord, the singular god except whom at the beginning none other existed.15
Surveying Egyptian religion one cannot fail to notice the priests obsession with the pastand their vivid
portrait of the great god in his first appearance. Those who look for an unseen creator in early Egyptian
religion will be disappointed. He is a visible and concrete power, the lord of terror, or the great of terror. 16
The memory of this solitary light god and creator was as old as the most ancient Egyptian ritual. His appearance
and eventual departureshaped every aspect of the Egyptian world view.
So also in Mesopotamia, about which Stephen Langdon raises the question of archaic monotheism. After
prolonged study of Semitic and Sumerian sources, Langdon concludes that veneration of spirits and demons
had nothing to do with the origins of Mesopotamian religion. Rather, both in Sumerian and Semitic religions,
monotheism preceded polytheism and belief in good and evil spirits.17

Langdon notes that on the pictographic tablets of the prehistoric period, the picture of a star repeatedly appears.
The sign , he claims, is virtually the only religious symbol in the primitive period, and in the early Sumerian
language this star symbol is the ideogram for writing god, high, heaven, and bright. It is also the
ideogram of An, the oldest and loftiest of the Sumerian gods.
An (or Anu) was the father of the gods and the central light at the universe summit, a god of terrifying
splendour who governed heaven from his throne in the cosmic sea Apsu.
But the Sumero-Babylonian pantheon is filled with competing figures of the primordial creator. Enki (or Ea),
Ningirsu, Ninurta, Tammuzeach appears as a local formulation of the same great god. 18 Each shares in the
character of the singular An, ruling as universal lord, fashioning his home above and radiating light in the midst
of the celestial ocean.
Here, as in Egypt, the god of archaic monotheism is not a transcendent spirit or invisible power, but a central
light. A Sumerian epic to Ninurta proclaims, Anu in the midst of Heaven gave him fearful splendour. Ninurta,
according to the text, is like Anu, and casts a shadow of glory over the land. 19 All Mesopotamian figures of
the primeval god possess this tangible character, and accounts of the gods radiant appearance are more of a
historical than a speculative nature.
Egyptian and Mesopotamian traditions of the solitary creator find many parallels in later Hebrew, Greek,
Persian, Hindu, and Chinese mysticism and philosophy. But it is the earlier imagery which illuminates the later.
And however unorthodox the idea may seem, the oldest records treat the great gods birth in the deep and his
acts of creation as events experienced by the ancestors. Hearts were pervaded with fear, hearts were
pervaded with terror when I was born in the abyss, proclaims the god in the Pyramid Texts. 20 The solitary god,
in the presence of the ancestors, brought forth the primeval world or earth. To understand the great gods
creation one must put aside modern philosophical and religious conceptions. The tradition has nothing to do
with the origins of our planet or of the material universe. The subject of the original creation legend is the
formation of the great gods visible dwelling above. The legend records that when the creator rose from the
cosmic sea a great band or revolving island congealed around the god as his home. The band appeared as a
well-defined, organized, and geometrically unified dwellinga celestial land fashioned by the great father.
All space outside this enclosure belonged to unorganized Chaos.
In a later section of this book I intend to show that ancient races the world over recorded pictures of the great
god and his circular abode. The images were
and
(the second, more complete form showing streams
of light radiating from the god to animate his city of heaven). The words which in the ancient languages
denote this enclosure receive various translations as heaven, cosmos, world, land, earth,
netherlandterms which take on vastly different meanings in modern usage. In their original sense the
words signified one and the same thing: a band of light which appeared to set apart the sacred ground of the
great god from the rest of space.
(One cannot begin a survey of the great father without confronting his celestial enclosure, but a full discussion
of this dwelling will be possible only after certain other aspects of the single god receive clarification. I mention
the enclosure now in order to indicate the general, and unconventional, direction of this investigation. When
texts cited in the following pages employ the terms heaven, earth, or world the reader should know that
the usual interpretation will not be my interpretation.)
Of the Egyptian Atum (or Re) I note these special characteristics:
1. Primeval Unity. Atum is the One, but also the All. Though he is the solitary god of beginnings, an
assembly of lesser gods emanate from him and revolve in his company. These secondary deities, the paut or
circle of the gods, constitute Atums own limbs. Atums body is the primeval Cosmos, 21 denoted by the
circle in the sign
2. Regulator. Atum is the stationary god, the Firm Heart of the Sky. His hieroglyph, however, is the primitive
sledge
, signifying to move. As the central light or pivot, he imparts motion to (or moves) the

heavens, while he himself remains em hetep, at rest. Directing the celestial motions (and the related cycles)
he becomes the god of Time.22
3. The Word. The Egyptians recall Atum as the ancient Voice if heaven:
The Word came into being.
All things were mine when I was alone.
I was Re [=Atum] in his first manifestations.
The texts describe the gods first manifestations 23 as the bringing forth of his companions (his limbs),
which issueor explodefrom the god as his fiery speech. This circle of secondary divinities receives the
name Khu, meaning words of power, but also brilliant lights or glorious lights.
4. Water God. A well-known chapter of Book of the Dead includes this description of Re:
I am the Great God who created himself.
Who is he?
The Great God who created himself is the water
it is the Abyss, the Father of the Gods.24
The great god and the celestial ooceana lake of fireare fundamentally one. The waters issue from the god
yet, paradoxically, give birth to him.
5. The Seed. Atum is the masculine power of heaven, the luminous Seed embodying all the elements of life
(water, fire, air, etc.), which flow from him in streams of light. He is the universal source of fertility animating
and impregnating the Cosmos.25
What is most compelling about the portrait of Atum-Re is that numerous Egyptian divinities duplicate the
image. The very traits of the great god, outlined above, are endlessly repeated in the figures of Osiris, Ptah,
Horus, Khepera, and Ameneach of whom appears as the solitary god in the fiery sea; the god One who brought
forth the company of gods as his own limbs; the god of the reverberating speech; the unmoving god producing
the celestial revolutions; the final source of waters and the impregnating Seed of the Cosmos.26
If we were to inquire of an Egyptian priest how he arrived at this notion of the supreme god, the priest would
tell us that he did not arrive at the idea at all. The great god was a historical divinity, who ruled heaven for a
time, then departed amid great upheavals. The hymns and ritual texts (the priest would say) simply record the
incarnation of the god in the primordial era and recount the massive cataclysms which accompanied the
collapse of that era.
As the following sections will show, the general tradition is global and highly coherent.

The Universal Monarch

The same cosmic figure whom the oldest races knew as the creator and supreme god appears in the myths as a
terrestrial king, reigning over the Golden Age. His rule was distinguished for its peace and abundance, and he
governed not one land alone but the entire world, becoming the model of the good king. Every terrestrial ruler,
according to the kingship rites, received his charisma and authority from this divine predecessor.
No mythical figure remains more enigmatic than the great king to whom so many ancient peoples traced their
ancestry. Who was Osiris, the legendary ruler who led the Egyptians out of barbarianism and reigned as king of
the entire world? Who was Enki, whom the ancient Sumerians revered as the universal lord and founder of
civilization?
The same figure appears repeatedly as one passes to India, Greece, China, and the Americas. For the Hindus it
was Yama; for the Greeks, Kronos; for the Chinese, Huang-ti. The Mexicans insisted that the white god
Quetzalcoatl once ruled not only Mexico but all mankind. In North America the same idea attached to the
primordial figure Manabozo.
So vivid are the recollections of the Universal Monarch that his story usually forms the first chapter in the
chronicles of kingship. And the kingship rites meticulously preserve a memory of the god-kings rule. Each

stage in the inauguration of a new king reenacts the first kings life and death. The rites take the initiated back
to the beginningto the mythical creation.
An extraordinary theme emerges: In the original age of cosmic harmony and human innocence the gods dwelt
on earth. Presiding over the epoch of peace and plenty was the Universal Monarch, who founded temples and
cities and taught humanity the principles of agriculture, law, writing, music, and other civilized arts. This
Golden Age, however, ended in the god-kings catastrophic death.
What is most puzzling to modern commentators is that the king of the world, ruling on earth, is at the same
time the creator, the god One. How did the ancients come upon this paradoxical notion?

The Age of Kronos

Greek legends recall a remote and mysterious era of Kronos, the creator god who, wielding his sickle, ruled
from the summit of Olympus. Eventually displaced by his own son, against whom he warred violently, Kronos
seems to have appeared to the Greeks as a split personality, at once a radiant godthe very author of the world
and a dark, demonic power.
But in an old tradition, with roots in earliest antiquity, Kronos is preeminently the good king, his darker side
concealed. First of all the deathless gods who dwell on Olympus made a golden race of mortal men who lived
in the time of Kronos when he was reigning in heaven. And they lived like gods without sorrow of heart, remote
and free from toil and grief: miserable age rested not on them . . . The fruitful earth unforced bare them fruit
abundantly and without stint. They dwelt in ease and peace upon their lands with many good things, rich in
flocks and loved by the blessed gods27
When Hesiod wrote these lines the Golden Age of Kronos was but a faint and often confused memory. To
observe the antiquity of the idea one need only refer to the cradles of ancient civilizationEgypt and
Mesopotamia.
Among the Egyptians the father of the paradisal age possessed many names, but each tradition proclaimed the
same original excellence of creation, subsequently corrupted. The peaceful epoch was distinctly the age of
Kronos, under a different title. Throughout their history the Egyptians believed in a time of perfection at the
beginning of the world, observes Clark.28
In the earliest age, say the Egyptian sources, the great god was the first king, a ruler whose life served as a
model for all succeeding ages. With the god-king Osiris the Egyptians constantly associated a vanished Golden
Age. As king, Osiris, the Beneficent Being, taught his subjects to worship the gods, gave them the arts of
civilization, and formulated the laws of justice. Founding sacred temples and cities and disseminating wisdom
from one land to another, he became the benefactor of the whole world. 29 But his eventual murder brought
world-wide destruction.
Among classical writers (Herodotus, Diodorus, Plutarch) the idea prevailed that Osiris lived on our earth as a
man or man-god. Egyptian sources, too, often portray him in human form. Yet the early religious texts say again
and again that Osiris was the supreme light of heaven, ruling from the cosmic centre. He was, in fact, the lord
of the gods, god One.30 His body formed the Circle of the Tuat, the celestial residence of the gods. And the
secondary gods themselves constituted the limbs of Osiris.31
Indeed, the traditions of Osiris melt into those of Re, the god One, who came into being in primeval time. Just
as Osiris followers remembered his rule on earth, so did other Egyptians recall the terrestrial reign of the
Creator Re. To this age, states Lenormant, the Egyptians continually looked back with regret and envy. To
declare the superiority of one thing above all other things imaginable, it was enough to affirm, its like had
never been seen since the days of Re.32
Re, the father of the gods, reigned over the terrestrial world, but wandered away when the heavens fell into
disorder. All chronological tradition affirms that Re had once ruled over Egypt, writes Budge, and it is a
remarkable fact that every possessor of the throne of Egypt was proved by some means or other to have the
blood of Re flowing in his veins . . . 33 But the same belief applied to Horus, the god-king par excellence, as
well as Atum, Khepera, Ptah, and Amen. The fact which must be explained is that the memory of the creatorking and his original age of abundance was far broader than any local tradition.

And the story was not limited to Egypt. According to the theologian and historian Eusebius (who relates the
account of the Babylonian priest-historian Berossus), the ancient tribes of Chaldea owed their civilization to a
powerful and benevolent figure named Oannes, who ruled before the Deluge. Prior to Oannes, the tribes lived
without order, like the beasts. But the new god-king, who issued from the sea, instructed mankind in writing
and various arts, the formation of cities, and the founding of temples. He also taught them the use of laws, of
bounds and divisions, also the harvesting of grains and fruits, and in short all that pertains to the mollifying of
life he delivered to men; and since that time nothing more has been invented by anybody. 34
Oannes was simply the Greek name for the Babylonian Ea (the Sumerian Enki), worshipped in the city of Eridu
at the mouth of the Euphrates. The tradition dates to the earliest stage of Sumerian history, a time when the
myths say that Enki and his wife Damkina governed the lost paradise of Dilmun, the pure place of mans
genesis.
They alone reposed in Dilmun;
Where Enki and his wife reposed,
That place was pure, that place was clean . . .
In Dilmun the raven croaked not.
The kite shrieked not kite-like.
The lion mangled not.
The wolf ravaged not the lambs.35
The inhabitants of this paradise lived in a state of near perfection, drinking the waters of life and enjoying
unbounded prosperity.
Ruling over this favoured domain, Enki introduced civilization to mankind, founded the first cities and temples,
and set down the first laws.
If, in the account of Berossus, the bringer of civilization appears as a man (or part man, part fish), the earlier
accounts call him the creator. His home was the cosmic sea Apsu, the celestial waters of fire, rage, splendour
and terror.36 The priests of Ea or Enki deemed him Mummu, the creative Word. Like the Egyptian creator,
Enki brought forth the secondary gods through his own speech.
Diverse localities worshipped the same cosmic power under different names. In the ancient city of Lagash the
priests honoured the god Ninurta as the father of the paradisal age. Ninurta founded temples and cities; the
years of his rule, connected with the beginning of the world, were years of plenty.
Ninurtascaled the mountain and scattered seed far and wide,
And the plants with one accord named him as their king.37
The Sumerians themselves knew that Ninurta was the same as the vegetation god Damuzi (or Tammuz), son
of the Apsuthe shepherd of mankind whom classical mythology knew as Adonis and whose catastrophic
departure or death became the focus of ritual lamentations for many hundreds of years.
But Enki, Ninurta, and Damuzi were only aspects of the creator An, whose ideogram (as previously noted)
appears as the earliest Mesopotamian sign of divinity. In all the myths and temple hymns, the Sumerians
distinguish the present age from that day, or the days of old, when the gods gave man abundance, the day
when vegetation flourished.38 The supreme figure reigning over this remote age was AN, the central and
highest light, whose foremost epithet was lugal, king. The Sumerians claimed that the very institution of
kingship descended from the heaven of An. It was An who produced the beneficent agewhen the destiny
was fixed for everything that was engendered (by An), when An engendered the year of abundance.39
How widespread was this memory of a Golden Age, foundered and governed by the creator himself? It appears
that the tradition was either preserved in or migrated to every section of the world. In Mexico, legends recount
the ancient rule of Quetzalcoatl, who appeared from the sea to become the good and wise ruler of Tollan, in the
Golden Age of Anahuac. The legend describes the god as a lawgiver, teacher of the arts, and founder of
purified religion.40 He was the Ancestral Founding King, and all later Toltec kings considered themselves his
direct descendants41 Of Quetzalcoatl the Toltecs sang:
All the arts of the Toltecs,

their knowledge, everything came from Quetzalcoatl.

The Toltecs were wealthy,
their foodstuffs, their sustenance, cost nothing.
They say that the squash
were big and heavy . . .
And those Toltecs were very rich,
they were very happy;
There was no poverty or sadness.
Nothing was lacking in their houses,
There was no hunger among them . . .42
In the story of Quetzalcoatl one finds the same confusion of man and god as in the legends of Egypt and
Mesopotamia. The chronicler Sahagun writes, Although this Quetzalcoatl had been a man they respected him
as a god.43 Indeed, he was the creator, for He made the heavens, the sun, the earth.44 The Toltecs claim that in
the beginning their race knew only one god:
Only one god did they have,
and they held him as the
only god, they invoked him,
they supplicated him; his name
was Quetzalcoatl.45
Not only was Quetzalcoatl the Giver of Life; the legend proclaims that the first divine generation emanated
directly from him. But eventually the god (like his counterparts around the world) suffered a violent fate,
bringing to an end his Golden Age. To the Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and American Indian accounts of the
remote epoch correspond numerous legends of India, Iran, China, and northern Europe:
India. The Hindu Brahma, Yama, Vishnu, and Manu converge as representatives of a solitary supreme god and
creator governing a lost paradise as the first king, setting forth the first moral codes, and imparting to mankind
the fundamentals of civilization. Yama appears as the universal lord; Manu, as the king of the world or
universal legislator, to whom later monarchs traced their lineage.46
In the beginning, say the Upanishads, there arose the Golden Child. As soon as born he alone was lord of all
that is.47 This was Brahma, the god One. His prosperous epoch, however, ended in his own death and a
world-destroying conflagration.
Iran. Yima, the Iranian transcript of the Hindu Yama, is the patriarchal lord of mankind, the brilliant Yima
who first introduced law and civilization to the world. His age knew neither cold nor heat . . . neither age nor
death. So resplendent was his rule that the world assembled round his throne in wonder. But then (when
Yima diverged from the path of justice), the Glory fled from his kingdom, and he was put to death. Thereupon,
the eternal spring became a devastating winter.48
China. In the earliest age, according to ancient Chinese lore, the purest pleasure and tranquillity reigned
throughout all nature. Mankind suffered neither hunger, nor pain, nor sorrow. The whole creation enjoyed a
state of happiness . . . , and things grew without labour; and a universal fertility prevailed. It was over just such
a paradise that the Yellow Emperor Huang-ti ruled. Considered the father of the Taoist religion, Huang-ti was
the creator, a universal lawmaker and founder of arts and civilization. He was also a mortal, and his fruitful era
vanished upon his death.49
Northern Europe. During the peace of Frodi, a mythical Danish king, no man injured another and a magical
mill ground out peace and plenty for the entire land. Frodi is the Norse god Frey, founder of temples and
religious rites, the generous lord under whom peace and fruitfulness abounded, both the lord of the Swedes
and god of the world. In the footsteps of the Scandinavian Odin (the creator) well-being, peace, and good
seasons followed. The legends style him the first king, the inventor of arts, and the source of human wisdom.
But the age of Frey dissolved in flames, just as Odin and his prosperous kingdom came crashing down in the
fires of Ragnarok.50

Here then, is a world-wide motif, deeply ingrained in the religious and historical records of all principal races.
The idea of the Edenic happiness of the first human beings constitutes one of the universal traditions, states
Lenormant.51 Ministering over this age is the Universal Monarch. While extolled as the solitary supreme god
and the creator of the world, he yet appears as a ruler on earth, the ancestor of terrestrial kings. By his teaching
mankind rose from barbarianism. But in the end the god met a catastrophic fate, and his death or departure
brought a violent termination of the first world order.

The Rites of Kingship

The ritual surrounding ancient kings amounts to a summary of ancient beliefs about the Universal Monarch, for
every local sovereign was the successor and representative of the great god who ruled the world during the
Golden Age. The rites of kingship testify to the enormous power which the collective memory of this god-king
held over later generations. Chronicles of kingship from Egypt, to Mesopotamia, to Persia, to China, to Italy, to
northern Europe, to pre-Columbian Mexico all trace the line of kings back to the first king, a supreme cosmic
deity who founded the kingship rites.
When history begins there are kings, the representatives of the gods, states Hocart. 52 No greater mistake could
be made by historians than to assume that the sovereignty of kings grew out of economic or material concerns.
Instead, the crucial forces were religious. The king was a product of ancient ritual, and the ritual centered in
cosmic beliefs which, for several millennia, could not be shaken loose. To comprehend the mighty influence of
kingship in the ancient world one must penetrate the mystery of the kings prototype, the Universal Monarch.
In the first kings life and rule originated the prerogatives and obligations of all local sovereigns. It was the duty
of every king to perform the rites instituted by the great god in the beginning, and to renew, if only
symbolically, the primordial era of peace and plenty.
In the ritual, the king turns the wheel of law first turned by the great god, rides on the gods own cosmic ship,
takes as spouse the great mother (mistress of the great father), builds temples and cities patterned after the gods
celestial abode, and subdues the forces of darkness (barbarians), just as the god defeated chaos in the beginning.
Whatever the marvels of the great father, it is the duty of each local king to repeat them, or at least ritually to
reenact these accomplishments as if he were the great god him self.
In his study of kingship in Egypt, Henri Frankfort tells us that the great god was the first king: Whether named
Re, Khepri or Atum, he is the prototype of Pharaoh, and the texts abound in phrases drawing the comparison. 53
To certify his authority as a successor of the Universal Monarch, the king credits himself with having
introduced an age of abundance like that of the ancestral sovereign. Thus, Thutmose III not only sits upon the
throne of Atum, but claims to have achieved what had not been done since the time of Re and to have
restored conditions as they were in the beginning.54 Amenhotep III strives to make the country flourish as in
primeval times55
Similarly, when the Sumerian king Dungi ascended the throne, the people supposed that a champion had arisen
to restore the Paradise which existed before the Flood (but was lost through transgression). 56 Each king, states
Alfred Jeremias, was expected to reproduce the wonders of the great god, the primeval king. 57 Thus does
Assurbanipal proclaim that upon his ascension to the throne Ramman has sent forth his rainthe harvest was
plentiful, the corn was abundantthe cattle multiplied exceedingly.58
Among the Hebrews, Every king is a Messiah, and at times the hope is expressed that the king will introduce a
new Golden Age.59 Such is the test of the just or good ruler, who brings prosperity and a fruitful earth. This
belief, which seems to have held sway over the entire ancient world, receives insufficient attention from
historians: it points directly to the extraordinary memory of the Universal Monarch.
Consider: Homer gives as the ideal a blameless king whose fame goes up to the wide heaven, maintaining
right, and the black earth bears wheat and barley and the trees are laden with fruit, and the sheep bring forth and
fail not, and the sea hives store of fish, and all from his good guidance, and the people prosper.60
Can this be anything other than the lost age of Kronos? Why should a fertile soil confirm the righteousness of
kings? The connection becomes clear once one takes the Universal Monarch as more than an esoteric fiction
and recognizes him as the shaping force behind the ideals of kingship. Just as peace and plenty followed in the

footsteps of the first (ideal, good) king, they should follow those of his successors who share in the charisma
of the great predecessor.
The further we go back in history, observes Jung, the more evident does the kings divinity become . . . In
the Near East the whole essence of kingship was based far more on theological than on political considerations .
. . it was self-evident that the king was the magical source of welfare and prosperity for the entire organic
community of man, animal, and plant; from him flowed the life and prosperity of his subjects, the increase of
the herds, and the fertility of the land.61 This image of the local king is drawn directly from the image of the
Universal Monarch.
Thus did every ancient ruler call himself the king of the world and claim to radiate power and light.
Thompson tells us that the Mayan ruler declared himself as something like King of Kings, ruler of the world,
regent on earth of the great Itzam Na . . . a sort of divine right of kings which would have turned James I green
with envy.62 What Thompson calls an inflated notion of grandeur seems to characterize all ancient kings
(who shine like the sun and direct the heavenly motions); but the reason must be appreciated: every king was,
in a magical way, the Universal Monarch reborn. The institution and ritual of kingship point to the same great
god and the same Golden Age as do the myths of cosmic beginnings.
In what historical conditions did this collective memory originate? And if the Universal Monarch governed the
entire heavens as the god One, why was he called an ancestor?

The Heaven Man

So vivid was the great fathers celestial image and so overpowering was his influence on civilization in its
infancy, that the ancient chroniclers often gave him human form, recalling him as the first man. But he was
no mortal of flesh and blood. In his original character he upheld the Cosmos as the Heaven Man, a celestial
giant whose body encompassed all the gods and composed the primeval matter of creation.
The great father reigned over the prosperous age and then departed amid great upheavals. The mythical
accounts give this imposing figure such tangible and human traits that more than one scholar reduces him to a
living manan esteemed tribal ancestor whose heroic exploits succeeding generations progressively enlarged
until the entire universe came under his authority.
This is the approach of William Ridgeway, who, in a survey of the best-known figures of the great father,
argues that only an actual tribal chief could have left such a profound imprint on primitive communities.
Ridgeway asks us whether the abstract sky, or the solar orb, or a vegetation spiritcommon explanations of
the great fathercould produce such devotion as is evident in the annual lamentations over the rulers
catastrophic death. Osiris, Brahma, Tammuz, Quetzalcoatltheir devotees remember each as a living ancestor,
whose passing was a terrifying calamity.63
Of course Ridgeway does not assume that one man alone accounts for all the traditions of a great father. Rather
he seeks to identify each in terms of a historical figure quite distinct from the venerated ancestors of other
tribes. If his arguments against prevailing astronomical and vegetation theories carry great weight, they fail to
explain the global parallel between the respective myths. Nor can one reconcile Ridgeways interpretation with
the incontrovertible fact that, in the earliest accounts, the great father is manifestly cosmic.
That many sacred histories, however, present the creator-king in human form is a paradox requiring an
explanation. The solution lies in the nature of the legendary first man.

Who Was Adam?

If one compares the traditions of Adam with the global image of the great father there can be little doubt that
this primal ancestor was simply a special form of the Universal Monarch. According to Hebrew legends Adams
stature was so great that he extended from earth to the centre of heaven. 64 His countenance obscured the sun.65
Like the Universal Monarch, Adam was lord on earth, to rule and control it, 66 teaching his subjects the first
arts and sciences.67 The myths say that terrestrial creatures took him to be their creator, and they all came to
offer him adoration.68 While the chroniclers call this a mistake, substantial evidence shows that the tradition
pertained more to a god than a man.

In Gnostic and other mystic systems Adam is not a mortal but a cosmic being whose body contained the seed of
all later creation. As observed by G.G. Scholem, summarizing the traditions of the Hebrew Kabala. Adamor
Adam Qadmonis the primordial man, that is, a vast representation of the power of the universe, which is
concentrated in him.69 This Adam is a man of light occupying the centre of the Cosmos and radiating energy
along the axis of the universe. He is creator and supporter of the world, whose body encloses all the elements of
life.70
Islamic mystics called Adam the universal man or the perfect man upholding the cosmos. 71 To the Ophites
of the early Christian era, he was Adamas, the man from on high or, in the words of Lenormant, the typical
perfect man, that is, the heavenly prototype of man. In one of the cosmogonic fragments preserved in the
extracts of Sanchuniathon (as recorded by Philo of Byblos) Adam is born at the beginning of all things and is
identical with the Greek ouranos, heaven.72 The modern day Mandaeans of Iraq know Adam as the King of
the Universe, a personification of all that spiritual man is intended to be and achieve.73
This, of course, sounds almost exactly like the primordial god One of global legend. Indeed, in the myths of
many lands the first man and creator-king are identical. Though the Hindu Yama and his counterpart Manu
appear as the creator and king of the world, they also signify the primal ancestor. Their character as first man,
however, does not mean flesh and blood. They are the celestial prototypes, notes Lenormant, symbolic of
man in general.74
The role of the Hindu Yama is filled in Persian myth not only by Yima, but also by Gaya Maretan, a legendary
first king, a man of perfect purity, produced brilliant and white, radiant and tall. 75 He, too, appears as the
prototype of mankind.76
Many myths make no distinction between the creator and first man. The Oceanic Tiki is at once the first man,
and the creator or progenitor of man. 77 Among the Koryak the creator of the world is also the first man, the
father and protector of the Koryak. 78 The Assiniboin, a North American Siouan tribe, say that it was the First
Man who brought the World out of the primeval water. . . . They also say of the First Man, the Creator, that no
one made him, and that he is immortal.79
The Altaic Tatars similarly speak of a World Man or First Man. In the creation myths he doubles for god
himself and raises the World from the cosmic waters. 80 Comparable is the World Man of the Laps, 81 or the
Lonely Man whom the Yakuts deem the first ancestor and whose dwelling pierced the summit of heaven.82
If the general tradition be our guide, Adam is the solitary god of beginnings, presented in human form. This was
the opinion of the controversial Gerald Massey, who, enchanted by the depth of Egyptian cosmology, proposed
that the Hebrew Adam echoed the older Egyptian Atum, the god who shone forth alone in the Abyss. 83 It
matters little whether the relationship of the two figures is as direct as Massey suggested. Throughout the
ancient world the original god One passed into the legendary first ancestor.
As the creative intelligence and voice (Word) of heaven, the great father came to be viewed as the thinking and
speaking mana towering giant whose body was the original Cosmos. Both Atum and the later Adam
possess this distinctive character as Heaven Man, but certain developments of the idea stand out:
1. In the Egyptian version of the myth the great god (Atum-Re), through tumultuous speech, brings forth a
circle of subordinate gods as satellites revolving in his company and forming his own limbs. The central god
and his revolving members compose the primordial cosmos (Heaven, World). The crucial term is paut,
primeval matter, referring to the material emitted by Atum, which took form as the Cosmos. Paut is
equivalent to the Khu or fiery words of power uttered by the great god. The term signifies at once the circle
of the gods and the body of Atum-Re. Which is to say: Cosmos = Company of Gods = Creators Limbs,
Body.
That the created Cosmos emanated from the primordial god is a theme which persisted in later traditions of
Adam. From Adam Qadmon sprang successive degrees of creation. Gnostic tradition knew Adam as the prima
materia of the Cosmos84a remarkable parallel to the Egyptian primeval matter, the limbs of Atum-Re.
The great gods body embraces and is heavennot only in Egyptian but in all principal cosmologies. Like
Atum, the Sumerian An encompasses the entire heaven; indeed, his very name signifies heaven, and one
can trace the equation of god and heaven (or shining heaven) through all of the ancient languages. The

Chinese tien signifies both the high god and heaven, as does the Altaic tengri. The Sanskrit dyaus (Latin
deus) carries the double meaning god and heaven. It is useless to look to the open sky for an explanation of
this equivalence. Originally, heaven meant the organized Cosmos (or body) of the god One, formed by the
circle of lesser gods. The myths unanimously insist that this celestial order collapsed with the death of the great
god, the Heaven Man.
2. The all-embracing character of the great father facilitated an important development of the gods image at a
time when cultural mixture could have destroyed the monotheistic theme. In ancient Egypt almost every
district seems to have had its favoured representative of the god One, a fact which gives the great compendiums
of Egyptian religion (Pyramid Texts, etc.) a misleading appearance of confusion. How can we speak of a
solitary god when Egyptian texts refer to an endless number of primary deities?
In more than one locality the priests themselves at least partially resolved the problem by adopting alien gods as
the limbs of the local great goda process obviously encouraged by the preexisting image of the god as
Heaven Man. This habit was widespread in Egypt and occurred as early as the Pyramid Texts, which assimilate
a number of once-independent gods into the body of Atum:
Your head is Horus of the Netherworld, O Imperishable . . .
Your nose is the Jackal [Ap-uat],
Your teeth are Sopd, O Imperishable,
Your hands are Hapy and Duamutef . . .
Your feet are Imsety and Kebhsenuf . . . etc.85
A hymn from the Papyrus of Ani similarly honours Osiris:
The hair of Osiris Ani is the hair of Nu.
The face of Osiris Ani is the face of Re.
The eyes of Osiris Ani are the eyes of Hathor.
The ears of Osiris Ani are the ears of Ap-uat.
The lips of Osiris Ani are the lips of Anpu . . .86
In almost the same words, the Papyrus of Nu joins the divinities Osiris, Ptah, Anpu, Hathor, Horus, Isis, and
others to the body of Re.87 In the Memphite theology Atum, Horus, Thoth, and the company of gods became the
limbs of Ptah.88 Syncretization of this sort, though appearing absurd to us today, actually helped to preserve the
original idea against the eroding forces of cultural assimilation. Faced with a growing number of competing
deities, the priests proclaimed: there was only one great god in the beginning, whose body encompassed a circle
of subordinate deities.
3. In a subsequent development of the myth, the Heaven Man passed into a mythical-philosophical explanation
of our Earth and the material universe as a whole. Here the god appears as a primordial giant who existed
before the Deluge and gave his body to creationnot the creation of the primordial Cosmos, but of our world
with its mountains, seas, clouds, and surrounding heavenly bodies.
A noteworthy example is the Scandinavian primeval giant Ymir. In the Prose Edda the gods fashion the
world from the giants bodyfrom his blood the sea and lakes, from his flesh the earth, from his bones the
mountains. His teeth become rocks and pebbles, his skull the sky, and his brains the clouds. The sparks and
burning embers produced by his dismemberment become the stars.89
Compare the Hindu giant Purusha, whose body formed the world: His mouth was the Brahman, . . . his two
thighs the Vaisya; from his two feet the Sudra was born. The moon was born from his mind; from his eye the
sun was born. From his navel was produced the air; from his head the sky was evolved; from his two feet the
earth; from his ears the quarters.90
Purusha is the Primal Man. In Buddhist lore this cosmic giant is Bodhisattva Manjucri; elsewhere in China the
role belongs to the demiurge Pan-Ku, whose body provides the material for creation. 91 The Zoroastrians
claimed that the created world was the giant Spihr (Cosmos), the body of the great god Zurvan. 92 All such
heaven-sustaining giants can be best understood by reference to the original Cosmos of the god One, rather than
the open expanse to which the term heaven normally refers today.

4. If the giant myths emphasized the material form of the Heaven Man, an age of metaphysics stressed the gods
character as universal intelligence, raising his image to a high degree of philosophical purity. The god One
became the First Principle, First Cause, Mind, Word, or Self (logos, nous, sophia, tao, etc.). Yet in none of these
cases did detached philosophy succeed in creating a pure abstraction. The Greek nous, the animating Mind or
Intelligent Spirit, was never fully divorced from the antecedent tradition of the Heaven Man. Both Eusebius
and Syncellus identify the great Mind with Prometheus, the Primordial Man who lived before the Deluge. 93 In
Orphic description of the universal Mind it is hardly distinguishable from the Hindu giant Purusha: . . . All
things were contained within the vast womb of the god. Heaven was his head: the bright beams of the stars
were his radiant locks . . . The all-productive earth was his sacred womb: the circling ocean was his belt . . . ;
his body, the universe, was radiant, immovable, eternal; and the pure ether was his intellectual soul, the mighty
Nous, by which he pervades, animates, preserves, and governs, all things.94
Nous was the primordial One, from which all things emanatedthe central light which produced and regulated
the Cosmos (body). An exactly equivalent notion was the Hindu Universal Self. Here the original concept
certainly did not mean invisible soul or anything like it. The cosmic Self was Brahma or Prajapati, the
Golden Child who appeared alone on the first occasion. In the beginning, say the Upanishads, Prajapati
stood alone.95
The same texts say, In the beginning there was Self alone. From the primordial Self, enclosing all the life
elements, issued the creation in successive degrees. From the Self sprang ether; from ether, air; from air, fire;
from fire, water . . . etc.96 (Adam Qadmon radiated the elements in similar fashion.)
Hindu thought portrays the Universal Self as the first form (and the animating soul) of the Heaven Man. In the
beginning this universe was nothing but the self in the form of a man. It looked around and saw that there was
nothing but itself, whereupon its first shout was It is I!; whence the concept I arose. Then the Self poured
forth the creation. The created World (Cosmos), in Hindu myth, took form as the giant Purusha, recognized as
the body of Prajapati-Brahma (Self).
Numerous traditions view the emanation or pouring out of creation as the great gods speech. This is the root
meaning of the Greek and Hebrew Word, which signify, really, visible speech. (The Chinese tao, the
primeval unity or First Cause, also conveys the idea to speak.) By the word of the Lord the heavens were
made, states the Hebrew Psalmist (Ps. 33:6). This idea of the creative Word of God, observes John Allegro,
came to have a profound philosophical and religious importance and was, and still is, the subject of much
metaphysical debate. But originally it was not an abstract notion; you could see the Word of God. In the
Hebrew creation legend the speech of the creator is poured out as spittle or seed. The most forceful
spurting of this seed is accompanied by thunder and the shrieking wind. 97 The imagery takes us back to the
thundering voice of Atum.
In most creation legends and certainly in the Egyptian and Sumerian prototypesthe great father, his lifebearing rays, his voice (word), and the company of gods (limbs) all appear as powers seen and heard. The god
is the celestial Man whose history became the overwhelming obsession of ancient ritual. Residing at the
stationary centrethe domain which the Egyptians called Maat (truth or wisdom) and the Mesopotamians
denominated Apsu (residence of wisdom) the god commanded the cosmic revolutions. He was, in short, the
creative intelligence, producing a new and harmonious celestial order. Thus was the Heaven Man the ideal
man and the ideal king.

The Great Father Saturn

The lost epoch of peace and plenty was the age of the planet Saturn. Ancient myths and rites present Saturn as
the god One, the first king, and the all-encompassing Heaven Man.
Adam, the first ancestor, presided over a garden of abundance. Among the Hebrews such sacred occasions as
the Sabbath and Jubilee commemorated this original state of man and the world, when Adam ruled Eden and
the land produced freely without human effort. The Greek celebration of the Kronia similarly hearkened back to
the lost Golden Age of Kronos. The parallel was no coincidence: Adam was Kronos, in human form.

What the Greeks called the Kronia, celebrating the fortunate era of Kronos, the Latins termed the Saturnalia, a
symbolic renewal of the Saturnia regna or reign of the planet Saturn. In the mystic heritage Saturn is the
Universal Monarch, whose prosperous age all ancient people sought to recover.
These are the words with which James G. Frazer summarizes the Latin tradition:
[Saturn] lived on earth long ago as a righteous and beneficent king of Italy, drew the rude and scattered dwellers
on the mountains together, taught them to till the ground, gave them laws, and ruled in peace. His reign was the
fabled Golden Age: the earth brought forth abundantly: no sound of war or discord troubled the happy world:
no baleful love of lucre worked like poison in the blood of the industrious and contented peasantry. Slavery and
private property were alike unknown: all men had all things in common. At last the good king, the kindly king,
vanished suddenly; but his memory was cherished to distant ages, shrines were reared in his honour, and many
hills and high places in Italy bore his name.98
The Latin poet Ovid knew the tradition well:
The first millenium was the age of gold;
Then living creatures trusted one another;
People did well without the thought of ill:
Nothing forbidden in the book of laws,
No fears, no prohibitions read in bronze,
Or in the sculpted face of judge and master . . .
No brass-lipped trumpets called, nor clanging swords.
Nor helmets marched the streets, country and town.
Had never heard of war: and seasons traveled.
Through the years of peace. The innocent earth
Learned neither spade nor plough;
she gave her Riches as fruit hangs from the tree; grapes
Dropping from the vine, cherry, strawberry
Ripened in silver shadows of the mountain,
And in the shade of Joves miraculous tree
The falling acorn, Springtide the single
Season of the year.99
But then, states Ovid, old Saturn fell to Deaths dark country. There is not a race on earth that forgot this
cataclysmic eventthe death of Saturn, the Universal Monarch; or the fall of Adam, the Heaven Man. And
peoples the world over, for thousands of years, awaited the full turn of Times wheel, when Saturns kingdom
would appear again to rescue the world from a decadent age of Iron (the present age, marking the lowest of the
descending ages after the Golden Age). The powerful memory of Saturns age gave rise to a prophesied return,
as announced in the famous lines of Virgil:
Now is come the last age of the Cumean prophecy: the great cycle of periods is born anew. Now returns the
Maid, returns the reign of Saturn: now from high heaven descends a new generation. And O holy goddess of
childbirth Lucina, do thou be gracious at the boys birth in whom the Iron race shall begin to cease and the
Golden to arise all over the world . . .100
That Saturn governed the Golden Age is a supreme tenet of the ancient mysteries. This is why the most sacred
day of the week, commemorating the primordial era, was dedicated to Saturn. The Hebrew Sabbath, the seventh
day of the week, was the day of Saturn, as was the seventh day of the Babylonian and Phoenician weeks. 101 For
the Romans the seventh day was Saturni dies, Saturns day. This was the Anglo-Saxon day of Seater
[Saturn], which, of course, became our Saturday.
The archaic god One, the father of all the gods, was not the solar orb, not the open sky, but the planet Saturn.
Saturn possessed the double property of being the forefather of all other planetary gods, and of having his seat
in the highest heaven, writes R. Klibansky, E. Panofsky, and R. Saxl in their study of Saturn and
Melancholy.102 The tradition was maintained with striking consistency from its early expressions in SumeroBabylonian religion through the age of medieval astrology.

On the subject of Mesopotamian religion and astronomy, three widely respected researchers are Peter Jensen,
Alfred Jeremias, and Stephen Langdon. A survey of their works will reveal these conclusions concerning the
identity of the great god in Mesopotamia: An, the oldest and highest of the Sumero-Babylonian gods, whose
primordial age was the year of abundance, signified Saturn, according to Jensen. 103 The same verdict is tacitly
maintained by Jeremias and Langdon, who identify the great god Ninurta as both the planet Saturn and a form
of Anu.104 The shepherd Tammuz was likewise Saturn, according to Jeremias. 105 And one can add the wellknown fact that the Sumerian Enki (Babylonian Ea, the Oannes of Berossus) came to be translated Kronos
(Saturn) by the Greeks.106
The identity of the creator-king as the planet Saturn seems to occur throughout the ancient world. The
Canaanite (and Hebrew) Elclosely corresponding to the Sumero-Babylonian Anwas Saturn. 107 The Hindu
Manu, the king of the world, was Satyavratta, the planet Saturn.108 Collitz tells us that Yima, the Iranian
transcript of the Hindu Yama, god of the Golden Age, likewise denoted Saturn. 109 The Zoroastrians knew Saturn
as the heaven-sustaining Zurvan, the King and Lord of the Long Dominion. 110 The Chinese Huang-ti,
mythical founder of the Taoist religion, is acknowledged to be Saturn. 111 Even the Tahitians say of Fetu-tea,
the planet Saturn, that he was the King.112
In classical thought Saturn is the primordial satus, seed, from which the Cosmos sprang; the mind or cause
which brought forth the original creation; the universal source of water, fertility, and vegetation; and father
Time, the regulator of the cosmic cycle.113
It was Saturn who, before retiring to the nether realm, dwelt on earth, establishing his rule over the entire
world. An Orphic fragment declares: Orpheus reminds us that Saturn dwelt openly on earth and among
men.114 This before the reign of Zeus, Kronos [Saturn] ruled on this very earth, writes Dionysius of
Halicarnassus.115
Saturn was the cosmic Adam, bringing forth a company of secondary deities as his own limbs. In the ancient
Sumerian city of Lagash the priests deemed Saturn (Ningirsu or Ninurta) the man whose stature filled the anki the entire Cosmos.116
The Sumero-Babylonian worshippers of the planet Saturn, observes Hildegard Lewy, conceived their god as
the embodiment of the whole universe, the various deified astral as well as natural phenomena being imagined
as members of this divine body and, therefore, as executors of a unique will. The guiding idea . . . [was] the
belief in the existence of only one great god.117
To preserve the strictly monotheistic principle, notes Lewy, the priests composed this hymn to Saturn
(Ninurta):
O Lord, Thy face is the sky . . .
Thy two eyes, oh Lord, are the gods Enlil and Ninlil.
The lids of thy two eyes are Gula (and) Belit-ili.
The white of thy two eyes Oh Lord, are the twin (god)s Sin and Nergal.
The lashes of Thy two eyes are the radiance of the Sun god . . .
Thy chin, oh Lord, is the astral Istar.
The gods Anum and Antum are thy two lips.
Thy tongue is the god Pabilsag . . .118
Though the language pertains to the later-evolved imagery of the Heaven Man, it leaves no doubt that the
archaic doctrine conceived Saturns body as the entire Cosmos. The legendary cosmic giant originated in the
mythical recollections of Saturns all-encompassing form.
In Zoroastrian myth this celestial giant is Zurvan, widely recognized as Saturn. The mystic traditions define
Zurvan as the first principle and the original seed. He is, writes Zaehner, the father of the Cosmos. From
his seed proceeds the entire material Cosmos . . . 119 In the creation Zurvan provided, or emitted, the original
unformed matter from which the wheel of the Cosmos was produced. The idea is precisely that of the Egyptian
primeval matter or the alchemists prima materia, i.e., Adam, the Primordial Man.

The created Cosmos, say the Zoroastrian texts, took the form of an immense giant named Spihr, housing the
elements of fire, wind, water, and earth. The Spihr was the First Body, the body of Zurvan of the Long
Dominion.120 As the god whose body is the firmament he is the macrocosm [Cosmos as a whole]
corresponding to man, the microcosm [Cosmos in miniature], observes Zaehner. Thus did Zurvan come to be
viewed as the prototype of man, eventually acquiring human form as the first ancestorthe origin of the
human race.121
Saturns identity as the Heaven Man and first ancestor occurs again and again in Gnosticism, in alchemy, and in
the traditions of the Kabala. As the first man, observes Jung, Adam is Homo maximus, the Anthropos [Man
par excellence] from whom the macrocosm arose, or who is the macrocosm. He is not only the prima materia
but a universal soul which is also the soul of all men. 122 Saturn, Jung adds, is a synonym for Adam and the
prima materia. The planet is the Philosophical Man or Original Manthe blessed Man on high, the arch man
Adamas.123
In the Great Magical Papyrus of Paris, Kronos/Saturn is Lord of the World, First Father.124 Orphic thought
identifies the primordial man Prometheus with Saturn;125 the Lapps speak of the ancient Waralden Olmay or
World Manwho is the same as Saturnus126; and Norse legend identifies Saturn as the Heaven Man
Kroder.127
All of this means simply that the primordial Cosmos originally signified the limbs of Saturn, a circle of
secondary lights revolving in the company of the giant planet. The terms conventionally translated as
Cosmos, heaven, world, universe, or firmament (as in the previous paragraphs) denoted the primeval
celestial order of which Saturn was king and which collapsed with Saturns fall.

The Saturn Myth Reconstructed

From the foregoing evidence a distinctive portrait of Saturn emerges. In the earliest age recalled by the ancients
the planetor proto-planetcame forth from the cosmic sea to establish dominion over the primeval Cosmos.
The planet-god ruled as the solitary, central light, worshipped as the god Onethe only god in the beginning.
Saturns epoch left a memory of such impact that later generations esteemed the god as the Universal Monarch,
the first and ideal king, during whose rule occurred the prehistoric leap from barbarianism to civilization.
Throughout Saturns era of cosmic harmony no seasonal vicissitudes threatened men with hunger or starvation,
and men suffered neither labour nor war.
In the creation Saturn, the primal Seed, ejected the fiery material (primeval matter), which congealed into a
circle of lesser lights (the Cosmos). The myths describe this resounding birth of the secondary gods as Saturns
speech: Saturn was the Word or voice of heaven.
The ancients conceived Saturn as the visible intelligence bringing forth the Cosmos as his own body and
regulating its revolutions. Thus was the planet denominated the Heaven Man, a being eventually recalled as the
prototype of the human racethe first ancestor.
When Saturn departed the world, the Golden Age catastrophically ended. This is the universal tale of the dying
god, the overthrown first king or fallen first man. Whether betrayed by a dark force, or chastised for having
committed the forbidden sin, or inflicted with old age and a weariness of mankind, the result is the same: a
corruption of nature and a progressive worsening of the human condition. The story is the firstand one could
almost say, only, theme of tragedy and drama in antiquity: Saturns Golden Age came to a sudden and
catastrophic end, either caused by or accompanied by the fall of the great god.
That the distant planet Saturn should loom at the centre of ancient rites is a fact which conventional wisdom
will not easily explain. One looks in vain for any characteristic of Saturn, the present-day planet, which might
account for Saturn, the primeval god. Could the present speck of light have provoked the ancient memory of a
creator standing alone in the deep? Or produced the universal legend of the first king and the lost age of
abundance? Or inspired the myth of the Heaven Man?
If, as is almost universally believed, the heavens have undergone no major changes in astronomically recent
times, then the mythhowever meticulously developedcan only be a fabrication, produced through the
purest disregard for actual observation and experience. I do not ask the reader to ignore this possibility, and I

am fully aware that to many mythologists myth and fancy are synonymous. Since the argument of this book
rests on the coherence of the Saturn myth as a whole, and since many details remain to be covered I urge only a
willingness to consider the evidence in its entirety. Whatever the true origins of the myth, it constituted for the
ancients a compelling visiona vision deserving careful study by all students of history, religion, and
mythology.

III. The Polar Sun

Saturns mythical history includes two themes which not only contradict the planets visible appearance today,
but seem to mock the canons of modern astronomy:
1. Saturn, not the solar orb, was the authentic sun-god of ancient ritual.
2. Throughout Saturns reign this sun-planet remained fixed at the north celestial pole.
These two themes, affirmed by the straightforward testimony of ancient sources, compose a global memory: in
the beginning Saturn did not move on its present remote orbit, but ruled as the central sun around which the
other heavenly bodies visually revolved. Of this tradition early man has left us evidence far too numerous to
cover fully in this volume. I offer below a summary of the principal sources.

Sun And Saturn

The myths and rites celebrate Saturn as the primeval sun.
Today, few mythologists looking back across several millennia to the beginnings of astral religion see anything
more than worship of the rising and setting sun, the solar orb. This preoccupation with the solar orb is evident
in popular surveys: The preeminence of the Sun, as the fountainhead of life and mans well-being, writes W.
C. Olcott, must have rendered it at a date almost contemporaneous with the birth of the race, the chief object
of mans worship . . . It was sunrise that inspired the first prayers uttered by man, calling him to acts of
devotion, bidding him raise an altar and kindle sacrificial flames.
Before the Suns all-glorious shrine the first men knelt and raised their voices in praise and supplication, fully
confirmed in the belief that their prayers were heard and answered.128
Not without reason do scholars identify the Greek Helios, Assyrian Shamash, or Egyptian Re with the solar orb.
Can it be doubted that Helios, radiating light from his brow and mounted on a fiery chariot, is our sun? That
helios became the Greek word for the solar orb is beyond dispute.
In Egypt countless hymns to the god Re extol him as the divine power opening the day. 129 The lords of all
lands . . . praise Re when he riseth at the beginning of each day. Re is the great Light who shinest in the
heavens . . . Thou art glorious by reason of thy splendours . . . 130 Such imagery would seem to leave no
question as to the gods solar character.
Yet if the preceding analysis of the great father is correct, Re (or Atum) is not the solar orb but the planet
Saturn. The Golden Age of Re was the age of An, Yama, or Kronos. One thus finds of interest an Egyptian
ostrakon (first century B.C.) cited by Franz Boll: the ostrakon identifies the planet Saturn as the great god Re.131
Taken alone, this identification could only appear as a very late anomaly divorced from any solid tradition. But
many scholars notice that among the Greeks and Latins there prevailed a mysterious confusion of the sun
(Greek helios, Latin sol) with the outermost planet. Thus the expression star of Helios or star of Sol was
applied to Saturn.132 Though the Greek Kronos was the Latin Saturn, Nonnus gives Kronos as the Arab name of
the sun. Hyginus, in listing the planets, names first Jupiter, then the planet of Sol, others say of Saturn. 133
Why was the planet most distant from the sun called both sun and Saturn?
Concerning the confusion of the sun and Saturn among classical writers, a simple explanation was offered: the
Greek name Helios so closely resembles the Greek transliteration of the Phoenician El that classical authors
confused the two gods; since El is the Greek Kronosand is so translated by PhiloKronos/Saturn came to be
confused with Helios, the sun.134 Yet, as noted by Boll, the identification is more widespread than generally
acknowledged and is much more than a misunderstanding of names. 135 The confusion is also far older than
Philo, who lived in the first century of the Christian era. In the Epinomis of Plato (who lived in the fifth and
fourth centuries B.C.), there is an enumeration of the planets, which, as customarily translated, entails this
unstartling statement: There remain, then, three stars (planets), one of which is preeminent among them for
slowness, and some call him after Kronos.136 Yet the original reading is not Kronos but Helios137which is to
say that Plato (or his pupil Phillip of Opus, to whom some ascribe authorship of the Epinomis) gave the name
Helios to Saturn. But copyists, who could not believe that Helios was anything other than the sun, corrected
the reading to Kronos. Moreover, writes Boll, this practice of correcting the name Helios to Kronos was not

uncommon among later copyists.138 Originally, Boll concludes, Helios and Saturn were one and the same
god.139
The equation of sun and Saturn is very old, with roots in Sumero-Babylonian astronomy. Of the Babylonian
star-worshippers the chronicler Diodorus writes: To the one we call Saturn they give a special name, SunStar.140 Among the Babylonians the sun-god par excellence was Shamash, the light of the gods, whom
scholars uniformly identify with the solar orb. But M. Jastrow, in an article entitled Sun and Saturn, reports
that in the Babylonian astronomical texts the identification of Shamash with Saturn is unequivocal: the planet
Saturn is Shamash, they boldly declare.141
In support of this identity Jastrow notes numerous examples involving the interchangeable application of the
term Samas to either the great orb of the day or the planet Saturn.142
The apparent equivalence of Saturn and the sun goes back to Sumerian times, as is evident in the dual aspect
of the creator god Ninurta. Langdon deems Ninurta both the sun and Saturn: . . . the sun-god Ninurta . . . in
the original Sumerian Epic of Creation, defeated the dragon of chaos and founded cities . . . In SumeroBabylonian religion he is the War-god and planet Saturn.143
It is not difficult to see why Ninurta, or Ningirsu, though identified with the planet Saturn in the astronomical
texts, came to be confused with the solar orb. Ningirsu, coming from Eridu, rose in overwhelming splendour.
In the land it became day. 144 Saturn, as Ningirsu, is the god who changes darkness into light.145 The priests of
Lagash invoke him as King, Storm, whose splendour is heroic. 146 This unexpected quality of the planet led
Jensen to designate Saturn as a symbol of the eastern sun or the sun on the horizon, though he offered no
explanation for the proposed connection.147
The sunlike aspect of Saturn prevails from the earliest astronomy through medieval mysticism and astrology.
Saturn with its rays sends forth transcendent powers which penetrate into every part of the world, wrote an
Arabic astrologer of the tenth century.148 When the alchemists, inheritors of ancient teachings, spoke of Saturn
as the best sun,149 it is unlikely that they themselves knew what to do with the idea. But that the tradition was
passed down from remote antiquity is both indisputable and crucial.
In claiming that the great father Saturn, presiding over the lost epoch, was the primeval sun, I do not propose
that our sun was absentrather, that it simply did not preoccupy the ancients. To avoid confusion on this point
I must indicate here a conclusion for which I intend to cite additional evidence in a later section.

Day And Night

Those scholars who notice the identification of the ancient sun and the planet Saturn usually speak of Saturn as
a mythical night sun or second sun.150 But in truth, Saturn was the sun-god pure and simple, for the body
we call sun today was not a subject of the early rites.
The problem is to discern the original meaning of day and night. Many hymns to Shamash and Rethe
celebrated suns of Mesopotamia and Egyptdescribe these gods coming forth at the beginning of the ritual
day, and the terminology often appears to signify the rising solar orb. One of the chapters of Book of the Dead,
for example, is The Chapter of Coming Forth by Day.151 Does this not refer to the solar orb rising in the east?
A quite different interpretation is possible. Considerable evidence suggests that, to the ancients, the day began
with what modern man calls nightthat is, with the setting of the solar orb. It is widely acknowledged that
the Egyptian day once began at sunset. 152 The same is true of the Babylonian and Western Semitic days. 153 The
Athenians computed the space of a day from sunset to sunset, and the habit appears to have prevailed among
northern European peoples.154
This widespread custom poses a special problem for solar mythology. If, originally, the day began with the
disappearance of the solar orb and the coming out of other heavenly bodies, who is the great god who shines at
the beginning of this day? The explicit answer comes from the Sumerian texts identifying Saturn as god of the
dawn. Saturn came forth in overwhelming splendour. In the land it became day. 155 This does not (as Jensen
proposed) equate Saturn with the sun [solar orb] on the horizon. It means that the coming forth of Saturn
inaugurated the archaic day, which began at sunset. So long as the solar orb was visible, the fiery globe of

Saturn remained subdued, unable to compete with the sheer light of the former body. But once the solar orb
sank beneath the horizon, Saturn and its circle of secondary lights acquired a terrifying radiance.
Therefore, in archaic terms, Saturn was the great god of the day, not the night sun as scholars usually
propose. But obviously, the eventual shifting of the dawn of day from the solar sunset to the solar sunrise
could only create a widespread confusion of day and night and morning and evening. On this distinction among
the Egyptians, Budge writes, At a very early period, however, the difference between the Day-sky and the
Night-sky was forgotten.156 Under normal circumstances would one likely forget this distinction?
If there is confusion, it is because radically different celestial orders separate the present age from the former.
The primeval sun was the solitary god of the deep, the one god of archaic monotheism, the planet Saturn. Only
in a later age did Saturn come to be confused with the solar orb.
There is, in fact, a decisive difference between the primeval god and the body we call the sun today: unlike the
rising and setting solar orb, the original sun-god never moved.

Saturn And The Pole

In ancient ritual Saturn appears as the stationary sun or central fire at the north celestial pole.
When Saturn ruled the world, his home was the summit of the world axis: with this point all major traditions of
the great father agree. Even today, in our celebration of Christmas, we live under the influence of the polar
Saturn. For as Manly P. Hall observes, Saturn, the old man who lives at the north pole, and brings with him to
the children often a sprig of evergreen (the Christmas tree), is familiar to the little folks under the name Santa
Claus.157
Santa Claus, descending yearly from his polar home to distribute gifts around the world, is a muffled echo of
the Universal Monarch, the primordial Osiris, Yama, or Kronos spreading miraculous good fortune. His polar
abode, which might appear as an esoteric aspect of the story, is in fact an ancient and central ingredient. Saturn,
the best sun and king of the world, ruled from the polar zenith. But while popular tradition located Santa
Claus at the geographical pole, the earlier traditions place his prototype, the Universal Monarch, at the celestial
pole, the pivot of the revolving heavens.
The home of the great father is the cosmic centrethe heart, midst, or navel of heaven. As the earth
rotates on its axis the northern stars wheel around a fixed point. While most stars rise and set like the sun and
moon, the circumpolar starsthose which describe uninterrupted circles about a common centrenever fall
below the horizon. The invisible axis of the earths rotation leads directly to that central pointthe celestial
polearound which the heavens visually turn. All of the ancient world looked upon the polar centre as the
middle place, resting place, or steadfast region occupied by the Universal Monarch.
One of the first writers to recognize the pole as the special domain of the great god was W. F. Warren, who
wrote in Paradise Found (published in 1885): The religions of all ancient nations . . . associate the abode of
the supreme God with the North Pole, the centre of heaven; or with the celestial space immediately surrounding
it. [Yet] no writer on comparative theology has ever brought out the facts which establish this assertion.
In the following years a number of scholars, each focusing on different bodies of evidence, reached the same
conclusion. The controversial and erratic Gerald Massey, in two large works (The Natural Genesis and Ancient
Egypt), claimed that the religion and mythology of a polar god was first formulated by the priest-astronomers of
ancient Egypt and spread from Egypt to the rest of the world. In a general survey of ancient language,
symbolism, and mythology, John ONeill (The Night of the Gods) insisted that mankinds oldest religion
centered on a god of the celestial pole.
Zelia Nuttall, in Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations, undertook an extensive review of
ancient Mexican astronomy, concluding that the highest god was polar. From Mexico she shifted to other
civilizations, finding the same unexpected role of a polar god.
Reinforcing the surprising conclusions of the above researchers was the subsequent work of others, among
them Uno Holberg (Der Baum des Lebens), who documented the preeminence of the polar god in the ritual of
Altaic and neighbouring peoples, suggesting ancient origins in Hindu and Mesopotamian cosmologies; 158
Leopold de Saussure (Les Origines de lAstronomie Chinoise), who showed that primitive Chinese religion and

astronomy honour the celestial pole as the home of the supreme god; Rene Guenon (Le Roi du Monde and Le
Symbolisme de la Croix), who sought to outline a universal doctrine centering on the polar gods and principles
of ancient man.
That these and other researchers, each starting down a different path, arrived at much the same conclusion
concerning a supreme polar god of antiquity should have been sufficient to provoke a reappraisal of longstanding assumptions. Is it possible that, as these writers claimed, the ancient star-worshippers paid greater heed
to a god of the pole than to the solar orb? Rather than respond to the question, solar mythologists diplomatically
ignored it, thereby assigning the above investigators to an undeserved obscurity.
I want to reopen the question, but to approach it from a different perspective. Most of the aforementioned
writers possessed a commonif unspokenfaith in the ceaseless regularity of the solar system, seeking to
explain the polar god in strictly familiar terms: the centre of our revolving heavens is the celestial pole; the
great god of the centre and summit must have been the star closest to this cosmic pivot.
But as observed in the previous pages, the great father was not a mere star; he was the planet Saturn, recalled
as the preeminent light of the heavens. Moreover, the Saturn myth states that the planet-god resided at the
celestial pole!159
In the myth and astronomy of many lands Saturns connection with the pole is direct and unequivocal. Chinese
astronomers designated the celestial pole as the Pivot, identifying the Genie of the Pivot as the planet
Saturn.160 Saturn was believed to have his seat at the pole, reports G. Schlegel. 161 This strange and unexplained
image of Saturn caught the attention of de Saussure (one of the foremost experts on Chinese astronomy), who
added an additional startling fact: the Iranian Kevan, the planet Saturn, also occupies the polar centre.162
But the theme is older than Chinese or Iranian tradition, for it finds its first expression in the SumeroBabylonian An (Anu), the highest god, acknowledged as the planet Saturn. Each evening, at Erech, the priests
looked to the celestial pole, beginning their prayer with the words, O star of Anu, prince of the heavens.163
Saturn ruled from the summit of the world axis. 164 I must note, however, that I am not the first to observe this
general principle. A recent volume by Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend, entitled Hamlets Mill,
offers the revolutionary conclusion that according to an ancient doctrine Saturn occupied the celestial pole.
But the authors, maintaining an unqualified attachment to the uniformitarian premise, exclude in advance any
extraordinary changes in the solar system. Instead they speak of Saturns polar station as a figure of speech or
astral allegory whose meaning remains to be penetrated.
What, they ask, has Saturn, the far-out planet, to do with the Pole? . . . It is not in the line of modern
astronomy to establish any link connecting the planets with Polaris, or with any star, indeed, out of reach of the
members of the zodiacal system. Yet such figures of speech were an essential part of the technical idiom of
archaic astrology, and those experts in ancient cultures who could not understand such idioms have remained
helpless in the face of the theory.165
If one could find, in the present order of the heavens, a possible inspiration for the widespread tradition of
Saturns polar station, then the historians and mythologists, operating on uniformitarian principles, would have
something concrete to work with. But the primordial age, as defined by universal accounts, stands in radical
contrast to our own era. One can no more explain Saturns ancient connection with the pole by reference to the
present arrangements of the planets than one can explain, within the uniformitarian framework, Saturns image
as the Universal Monarch, the Heaven Man, or the primeval sun. Yet the fact remains that throughout the
ancient world these images of Saturn constituted a pervasive memory which many centuries of cultural
evolution could not obliterate.

The Unmoved Mover

In the sixth century B.C. Xenophanes of Colophon offered this definition of the true god: There is one God,
greatest among gods and men, neither in shape nor in thought like unto mortals . . . He abides ever in the same
place motionless, and it befits him not to wander hither and thither.166
A remarkable parallel occurs in the Hindu Upanishads:

There is only one Being who exists,

Unmoved yet moving swifter than the mind;
Who far outstrips the senses, though as gods
They strive to reach him, who, himself at rest,
Transcends the fleetest flight of other beings.
Who, like the air, supports all vital action.
He moves, yet moves not.167
To the supreme power in heaven Aristotle gave the name Unmoved Mover, a term which expressed
succinctly the paradoxical character of the god One: though turning the heavens, he himself remained
motionless. According to the general tradition, the god stood at the stationary cosmic centre, imparting
movement to the celestial bodies which revolved about him.
A fact which conventional interpretation cannot explain is that the very terms which ancient astronomers apply
to the celestial pole are applied also to Saturn. Consider the image of the pole:
I am constant as the northern star,
Of whose true-fixd and resting quality.
There is no fellow in the firmament.
So declared Shakespeares Caesar. Many centuries before Shakespeare, Hipparchus spoke of a certain star
remaining ever at the same place. And this star is the pivot of the Cosmos. Among the Chinese, the pole star is
the star of the Pivot,168 to the Polynesians it is the Immovable One. 169 The Pawnee call it the star that
stands still; this star, they say, is different from other stars, because it never moves. 170 To the Hindus, the star
is Dhruva, firm.171
Consider now the image of the planet Saturn. In China, as noted above, Saturn rules the Pivot. The SumeroBabylonian NinurtaSaturnis the god of the steady star and of repose. 172 Enki, also the planet Saturn, is
the motionless lord.173 Mithraic teaching portrays the planet as the cosmic man Aion, the resting god. 174 In
Sanchuniathons description of the Phoenician El (Saturn) the god flew while at rest and rested in flight. To
this description, ONeill responds: Just the symbolism of the Polar Power whirling the heavens round, but ever
reposing himself at the motionless centre.175
Saturns stationary character is the trait most overlooked by conventional mythologists. The reason is that the
mythologists expect the image of the primeval light god to fit the rising and setting solar orb, while in fact
ancient ritual and myth portray the god as a central sun at the polar zenith.
To the modern mind nothing could be less scientific than a polar sun. Yet the unmoving sun is the ancient
tradition, as noted by E. A. S. Butterworth: [The primeval sun] is not the natural sun of heaven, for it neither
rises nor sets, but is, as it seems, ever at the zenith above the navel of the world. There are signs of an
ambiguity between the pole star and the sun.176
If Butterworth is correct we have a convergence of three vital truths: Saturn was the primeval sun; Saturn
occupied the celestial pole; the primeval sun occupied the pole. Each of these points contradicts modern
understanding, yet each finds verification in the independent research of specialists, none of whom seem to
have been aware of the work of the others. (That is, de Santillana and von Dechend, while documenting
Saturns connection with the pole, seem unaware of the planets identity as sun; Jastrow and Boll, though
perceiving the equation of Saturn and sun, ignore Saturns polar station; Butterworth, though recognizing the
polar sun, fails to notice that he is dealing with the planet Saturn.)
On the tradition of the polar god or polar sun numerous traditions concur.

Egypt
If there is an orthodoxy among Egyptologists, it is the belief that the Egyptian great god has his inspiration in
the rising and setting sun. Atum, Re, Osiris, Horus, Khepera, and virtually all the great gods of the Egyptians
are explained as symbols of the solar orbeither the sun of day, or the sun during its night journey.

Because the Egyptian concept of the sun involves many complexities which might distract from the present
general inquiry, I shall reserve many details for treatment in later sections. I cite below, however, a few of the
evidences indicating the polar station of the Egyptian supreme god.
1. Of the Egyptian great father there is no better representative than the mighty Atum, whom Egyptologists
usually regard as a sun-god shining at night. He is the acknowledged alter ego of the primeval sun Re, founder
of the lost Golden Age.
The Coffin Texts say:
The Great God lives,
fixed in the middle of the sky
upon his support.177
The reference is to Atum, whom the eminent Egyptologist R. T. Rundle Clark calls the arbiter of destiny
perched on the top of the world pole.178
The creation legend states that when Atum came forth alone in the beginning, he stood motionless in the cosmic
sea.179 His epithet was the Firm Heart of the Sky. 180 To the Egyptians, states Enel, Atum was the chief or
centre of the movement of the universe at the celestial pole, for the Egyptians knew the pole as the midst or
heart of heaventhe single, immovable point around which the movement of the stars occurred.181
Clark tells us that the celestial pole is that place or the great city. The various designations show how deeply
it impressed the Egyptian imagination. If god is the governor of the universe and it revolves around an axis,
then god must preside over the axis.182
Clark is so certain of the great gods polar station that he writes, No other people was so deeply affected by the
eternal circuit of the stars around a point in the northern sky. Here must be the node of the universe, the centre
of regulation.183 (As we will see, Clark underestimates the influence of the polar centre in other lands.)
Atum was the Unmoved Mover described in Egyptian texts many centuries before Aristotle offered the
phrase as a definition of the supreme power. The Egyptian hieroglyph for Atum is a primitive sledge
,
signifying to move. To the god of the cosmic revolutions, the Book of the Dead proclaims Hail to thee, Tmu
[Atum] Lord of Heaven, who givest motion to all things.184 But while moving the heavens Atum remained em
hetep, at rest or in one spot.
2. Moreover, and contrary to nearly universal opinion, the great god Re has little in common with the solar orb.
Unlike our ever-moving sun, Re stands at the stationary midst or heart of heaven. 185 He is the motionless
sun who resteth on his high place.186
His home is the polar zenith:
. . . May your face be in the north of the sky, may Re summon you from the zenith of the sky.187
My father ascends to the sky among the gods who are in the sky; he stands in the Great Polar Region and learns
the speech of the sun folk. Re . . . sets his hand on you at the zenith of the sky.188
Concerning the enigmatic symbolism of the Egyptian sun-god, Kristensen tells us that the place where the
light sets is also called the place where it rises.189 In reference to the solar orb the statement appears
meaningless. But the notion that Re rises and sets in one spot is inseparable from the vision of Re as the lord of
hetep, rest. In fact the god does not literally rise or set at all. With the phases of day and night his light
comes forth and recedes; the god comes out and goes in. When we say today that the moon comes
out at night we do not mean that it rises in the east; we mean simply that the moon grows bright. Precisely the
same meaning attaches to the Egyptian words which so often receive the translation rise (uben, pert, un).190
Thus, rather than a moving sun, Re is the central pivot round which the lesser gods revolve. They [the
companions of Re] go round about behind him,191 states one text. The deceased king aspires to attain the great
gods position so that these gods shall revolve round about him.192

2. The resting Osiris.

3. The god-king Osiris, an obvious counterpart of the primeval sun Re, is the god of the tet, firmness or
stability. He is always a passive figure, notes Budge. As a cosmic god he appears as a motionless director
or observer of the actions of his servants who fulfil his will. 193 In this he is the prototype of the terrestrial king,
who takes up symbolic residence at the cosmic centre.
Thus is Osiris the stationary heart of heaven: Beautiful is the god of the motionless heart, proclaims the Book
of the Dead.194 The hymns extol Osiris as the lord of hetep, rest, or as the resting heart. One Egyptologist
after another seeks to understand the imagery in terms of a night sun resting in an imagined underworld. But
numerous Egyptian sources show that the place of rest is the motionless centre and summit. Osiris is exalted
upon his resting place,195 or in the heights.196
The hieroglyphs portray a column of steps leading to the polar zenith; it is here that the hymns locate Osiris:
Hail, O Osiris, thou hast received thy sceptre and the place whereon thou art to rest, and the steps are under
thee.197 The deceased beseeches the great god: . . . May I be established upon my resting place like the Lord
of Life.198
It is also futile to interpret Osiris rest or motionless heart as mere symbols of death. The state of rest, one
must remember, belongs to the living or resurrected Osiris, for the texts apply the term hetep, rest, to Osiris
em ankh, as a living being.199 It should be clear to all who consider the language of the hymns that the
unmoving heart means the unmoving god, for the heart is the god (as when the texts describe the heart upon
its seat).200 Osiris, the motionless heart, is the central, stationary sun: O still heart, Thou shinest for Thyself, O
still heart.201
4. The stationary sun, the sun at the polar zenith, also occurs under many other names in Egyptian religion,
including:
- Horus, the firm and stable god who takes his place at the zenith of the sky.202
- Ptah, in the great resting place.
- Iemhetep, whose name means the one who comes forth while standing in one place.203
- Sepa, whose name means stable.204
- Men, whose name means fixed, abiding, stable, firm.205
- Tenen, connected with the root enen, meaning motionless, rest, inactivity. 206
- Kheprer, the Turning One, who spins around while occupying the same stationary position.207
Thus, in the hieroglyphs, all of the Egyptian great gods appear as firmly seated figures. This immovable posture
which corresponds to divine imagery in many other lands is no accident. The seated or resting god is the
Unmoved Mover.

3. Kheprer, the Turning One.

4. The firmly seated (resting) god.

5. That the Egyptians conceived the cosmic centre as the source of celestial motions is clear from the
terminology of the centre. The heart of heaven is ab (
of centre or midst. But as noted by Renouf, ab (

), a word which has the concrete meaning

) also conveys the sense of lively

motion.208 In the latter usage, the determinative

appears to depict a human figure turning around while
standing on one foot, i.e., in one place, at rest. Denoted by the word ab is the resting but ever-turning heart of
heaven. Similarly, while the term men means fixed or abiding, in reference to the god of the stable centre
and summit, mennen means to go round.209
To the great god, as the steadfast centre or foundation stone of the Cosmos, the Egyptians gave the name
Benben (see discussion of The Foundation Stone). But ben alone is a verb of motion, and particularly of
going around This dual, seemingly paradoxical relationship of motion and rest occurs throughout the
Egyptian texts and becomes intelligible only when one recognizes the central sun, the Unmoved Mover, as the
source of the imagery.
I am the Heir, the primary power of motion and of rest,
reads the Book of the Dead. Though the words have a modern sound, Renouf assures us that they express the
literal sense of the hieroglyph text. It is in the root character of every polar god to move while at rest.210

6. Inseparable from the Egyptian motion of rest is the concept of silence. The motionless centre of the
heavens is the Still Place or Region of Silence. (Our English word still accurately conveys the close relationship
between the concepts unmoving and silent.)
[The great god is] King of the Tuat . . . Noble Body whose rest is complete in the Region of Silence.211
King N is he who rests in the Silent Region.212
But those experts who connect the solar orb with the great god have nothing to say concerning such language.
The god who stands at rest in the Silent Region is Re, the sun-god par excellence; yet the entire concept
contradicts the image of our wandering sun.
7. What often prevents generalists from perceiving the stationary character of the primeval sun is the
translators unfortunate habit of substituting vague and intangible terms for literal meanings. Budge follows a
common practice when he renders a hymn to Re in these words: Homage to thee, O thou who art in peace. 213
From such terminology one could hardly be expected to formulate a clear concept of the god. But the phrase in
peace actually conceals a vital meaning, for the Egyptian original is em hetep. Literally, the hymn celebrates
the god who shines at rest or while standing in one place. (In seeking to interpret Egyptian sources I have
found that specific, literal, and concrete meanings of the original texts are uniformly preferable to the more
general and abstract language so often chosen by translators. Of this truth, the reader will find many examples
in the following sections.)

Mesopotamia
Like the central sun of Egypt, the primeval light god of Sumero-Babylonian religion comes forth (shines) and
goes in (declines, diminishes) at the centre or midst of heaven (Kirib sami; Kabal sami), which is also
the zenith (ilatu). In the centre he made the zenith, states one text. 214 Residing at the centre and summit, the
great god is the firm or steadfast light.215
The oldest representative of this stationary sun is the polar god An (Anu).216 An fills the sky with his radiant
even terrifyinglight: the terror of the splendour of Anu in the midst of heaven. 217 Thus does Robert Brown,
Jr., term the polar god a nocturnal sun, the Lord of the Night.218
All principal forms of An appear as stationary gods. Enki is the motionless lord and the god of stability. 219
A broken Sumerian hymn, in reference to Ninurash (a form of Ninurta) reads:
Whom the god of the steady star upon a foundation.
To . . . cause to repose in years of plenty.220
Failing to perceive the concrete meaning of such terms, solar mythologists like to think of a place of repose
as a hidden underworld beneath the earth, a dark region visited by the sun after it has set. But the place of
repose is no underworld. It is:
The lofty residence . . .
The lofty place . . .
The place of lofty repose . . .221
Ninurta, in his place of lofty repose, is the precise equivalent of the Egyptian Re, who resteth on his high
place. That both gods are identified with the planet Saturn further confirms the striking parallel. What, then, of
the great god Shamash, whom one expert after another identifies with the solar orb alone? The prevailing
consensus cannot hide the fact that Shamash, like Ninurta and Anu, is addressed as the planet Saturn (Shamash
is Saturn, say the astronomical texts). Thus Shamash sends forth his light from the immovable centre or
midst of heaven:
Like the midst of heaven may he shine!222
O Shamash . . . suspended from the midst of heaven.223
O Sun-god, in the midst of heaven . . .224
I have cried to thee, O Sun-god, in the
midst of the glittering heaven.225

Let there be no misunderstanding as to the literal and concrete meaning of the midst. It is, states Robert
Brown, the stationary centre, that central point where Polaris sat enthroned. 226 Accordingly, in the symbolism
of the ziggurat and other sun temples, Shamash occupies the summit house, the fixed house, or the house
of rest.227 The top of the ziggurat, a symbolic model of the Cosmos, is the light of Shamash, and the heart of
Shamash, denoting (in the words of E. G. King) the pivot around which the highest heaven or sphere of the
fixed stars revolved.228
The Babylonian tradition of the polar sun has been preserved up to the modern era in the tradition of the
Mandaeans of Iraq. In their midnight ceremonies these people invoke the celestial pole as Olma Inhoara, the
world of light. With the following words they beseech the polar god: In the name of the living one, blessed be
the primitive light, the Divinity self-created. This polar god, states one observer, is the primitive sun of the
star-worshippers.229

India
The Hindu Dhruva, whose name means firm, stands at the celestial polea Spot blazing with splendour to
which the ground is firm, where is fixed the circus of the celestial lights of the planets, which turn all around
like oxen round the stake, and which [the Spot] subsists motionless. 230 What remains to be explained by
mythologists is that the obviously solar god Surya stands firmly on this safe resting place.231 Surya, states
V. S. Agrawala, is himself at rest, being the immovable centre of his system. 232 And just as the Egyptian
primeval sun rises and sets in one place, Surya occupies samanam dhamathe same place of rising and
setting.233
Another name for the stationary sun is Prajapati. The sun in the centre is Prajapati: he is the horse that imparts
movement to everything, writes Agrawala.234

5. Resting Brahma

6. Resting Buddha
The motionless Dhruva, Surya, and Prajapati compare with the light of Brahma, called the true sun, which,
after having risen thence upwards . . . rises and sets no more. It remains alone in the centre. 235 Brahma,
observes Guenon, is the pivot around which the world accomplishes its revolution, the immutable centre
which directs and regulates cosmic movement.236

In fact, every Hindu figure of the primeval sun appears as the fixed mover of the heavens. The Hindu Varuna,
seated in the midst of heaven, is the Recumbent, the axis of the universe. 237 Firm is the seat of Varuna,
declares one of the Vedic hymns. 238 In him all wisdom centres, as the nave is set within the wheel. 239 One of
Varunas forms is Savitar, the impeller. While the rest of the universe revolves, the impeller stands firm. . . .
Firm shalt thou stand, like Savitar desirable.240
Occupying the same resting place is the supreme god Vishnu who takes a firm stand in that resting place in the
sky.241 The location is the celestial pole, called the exalted seat of Vishnu, round which the starry spheres
forever wander.242 Vishnu is the polar sun or central fire: fiery indeed is the name of this steadfast god, states
one Vedic text.243
A fascinating and archaic form of the Hindu great god is Aja Ekapad, originally conceived as a one-legged goat,
the support and mover of the universe. Observes Agrawala: The question arises as to the meaning of ekapad. It
[Aja] is called ekapad or one-footed for the reason that ekapad or one-footed denotes the absence of motion. 244
Agrawala calls this supreme being or principle that of Absolute Static Rest. 245 The principle of Rest, writes
the same author, is inexhaustible and the source of all motion.246
The sacred ground occupied by the Hindu great god is the middle place, the steadfast region, or the
motionless heaven.247 In the Brahmanist tradition it is Nirvana, the Supreme Resting Place at the centre and
summit.
To the Buddhists this is the nave of the cosmic wheel, the throne of the Buddha himself. It is acalatthana, the
unmoving site, or the unconquerable seat of firm seance.248 The Buddha throne crowned the world axis,
states Coomaraswamy.

China
The ancient Emperor on High, according to a universal Chinese tradition, stood at the celestial pole. Chinese
astrologers, according to Schlegel, regard the polar god as the Arch-Premier . . . The most venerated of all the
celestial divinities. In fact the Pole star, around which the entire firmament appears to turn, should be
considered as the Sovereign of the Sky. 249 The supreme polar god was Shang-ti, the first king. His seat was
the Pivot and all the heavens turned upon his exclusive power.
Raised to a first principle, the polar god became the mystic Tao, the motor of the Cosmos. The essential idea is
contained in the very Chinese word for Tao, which combines the sign for to stand still with the sign to go
and head. The Tao is the Unmoved Mover, the god One who goes or moves while yet remaining in one
place.
Chinese sources proclaim the Tao to be the light of heaven and the heart of heaven250 that is, the central
sun. Action is reversed into non-action, states Jung. Everything peripheral is subordinated to the command of
the centre.251 Thus the Tao rules the golden centre, which is the Axis of the World, according to Erwin
Pousselle.252
Yet while many writers have observed the polar station of the Chinese supreme power, few indeed have noticed
that Chinese astronomers identify this central sun as the planet Saturn. Saturn, according to the astronomical
texts, is the Pivot, his primeval seat the celestial pole. It is Saturn, states Schlegel, who imparts motion to the
universe.253
One of the few writers to notice Saturns connection with the pole is de Saussure, who tells us that Chinese
astronomy places the planet in the Centre, around which all secondary elements and powers revolve: . . . the
Centre represents the Creator, Regulator of the entire Cosmos, the Pole, seat (or throne) of the supreme
Divinity.254 Saturn, states de Saussure, is the planet of the centre, corresponding to the emperor on earth, thus
to the polar star of Heaven.255

The Americas
In southern Peru the Inca Yupanqui raised a temple at Cuzco to the creator god, the authentic sun, who was
superior to the sun we know. Unlike the solar orb he was able to rest and to light the world from one spot.
It is an extremely important and significant fact, writes Nuttall, that the principal doorway of this temple

opened to the north. (Since the north celestial pole is not visible from Cuzco, 14-deg below the equator, Nuttall
assumes that this tradition of a polar sun was carried southward.)256
In Mexico a form of the central light is Tezcatlipoca, who, though said to personify the Sun, yet resides at the
poleas does Quetzalcoatl, the sun, first king, and founder of civilization, who Nahuatl priests say
inaugurated the era of the Centre.257

7. Resting Xiuhtecuhtli
Burland tells us that, among the Mexicans, the nearest approach to the idea of a true universal god was
Xiuhtecuhtli, recalled as the Old, Old One who enabled the first ancestors to rise from barbarism. Xiuhtecuhtli
appears as the Central Fire and the heart of the Universe. Xiuhtecuhtli was a very special deity. 258 He was
not only the Lord of Fire which burnt in front of every temple and in the middle of every hut in Mexico, but
also Lord of the Pole Star. He was the pivot of the universe and one of the forms of the Supreme Deity. An
obvious counterpart of this central sun is the Mayan creator god Huracan, the Heart of Heaven at the celestial
pole.
The Pawnee locate the star chief of the skies at the pole. He is the star that stands still. Of this supreme
power they say, its light is the radiance of the Sun God shining through.259
The American Indians also have a counterpart to the Egyptian Still Place and the Hindu Motionless Heaven. A
Zuni account relates that long ago the heart of the great father Kianastepe rested in a sacred spot called the
Middle Place. Here, at the cosmic centre, the holy ancestors sit perfectly still. 260 It does not take a great deal
of imagination to see that this is, once more, the stationary pivot of the heavens.
From one land to another one encounters the same connection of the great father or primeval sun with the
celestial pole. To the traditions cited above, one might add the following:
In the Persian Zend Avesta the sun god Mithra occupies the summit of the world axis, a fixed station around
which the many stars revolve. 261 The common identification of Mithra with the Zoroastrian Zurvan/Saturn
cannot be ignored.
Iranian cosmology, as reported by de Saussure, esteemed the celestial pole as the centre and summit of heaven,
where resided the Great One in the middle of the sky. who is equated with Kevan, the planet Saturn.262
Throughout the ancient Near East, states H. P. LOrange, the King of the Universe appears as a central sun,
the Axis and the Pole of the World.263
The Greek sun-god Helios, in an old tradition, resides at the centre of the Cosmos, with the heavenly bodies
revolving around him.264 Upon evaluating the imagery of Helios in Homers Odyssey, Butterworth concludes
that the mythical sun remained always at the zenith, the celestial pole. 265 What gives meaning to the tradition is
the identity of Helios and the planet Saturn, as earlier documented.
According to Jewish and Muslim Cosmology, writes A. J. Wensinck, the divine throne is exactly above the
seventh heaven, consequently it is the pole of the Universe. 266 Thus Isaiah locates the throne of El (originally
the planet Saturn) in the farthest reaches of the north.267
The alchemists regarded the pole as the dwelling place of the central fire, the motor of the heavens. . . . The
whole machinery of the world is drawn by the infernal fire at the North Pole, notes Jung. 268 An alchemical text

proclaims: At the Pole is the heart of Mercurius, which is the resting place of his Lord.269 Most important of
all for an interpretation of Mercurius, Jung writes, is his relation to Saturn. Mercurius senex [the aged
Mercurius] is identical with Saturn.270
Records of numerous nations around the world stand as a collective witness to a strange, yet consistent idea
an idea which finds no explanation in the heavens we know. Global myths insist that when the first civilizations
rose from barbarism a brilliant light occupied the celestial pole. This steadfast light was the ancient sun-god,
repeatedly identified as the planet Saturn, the Universal Monarch.
Is it possible to reckon with this extraordinary memory in terms acceptable to the modern age? Mythologists
and historians of religion always assume that archaic astral traditions, though filled with imaginative
explanations, nevertheless refer to the very celestial order which confronts us today. The entire Saturn myth
challenges this long-standing assumption. Could it be that Saturns image as the polar sunhowever strange,
however difficult to reconcile with present physical theoryrepresents true history?

IV. Saturns Cosmos

The ancients preserved more than mythical-historical accounts of Saturns rule. From one section of the world
to another the planet-gods worshippers drew pictures of the Saturnian configuration, and these pictures become
the universal signs and symbols of antiquity.
In the global lexicon of symbols the three most common images are the enclosed sun

, the sun-cross

and the enclosed sun-cross

. It appears that every ancient race revered these signs as images of the
preeminent cosmic power. In Mesopotamia and Egypt the signs occur in the earliest period.
Prehistoric pottery and rock carvings from Crete, China, Scandinavia, Africa, Russia, Polynesia, and the
Americas suggest that numerous ancient rites centered on these simple formswhich became the most
venerated images in the first hieroglyphic alphabets.
But what did these signs signify to the ancients? With scarcely a dissenting voice, scholars routinely tag them as
solar symbols. They tell us that such renderings of the sun are perfectly natural (that is, they must be natural
ways of representing the sun because one sees the signs everywhere!)
Though everyone seems to agree on the solar origins,271 many disagree as to what the signs depict. In the image,
does the outer band represent a parhelion (atmospherically caused halo around the sun)? Or does it stand for
the circle of the sky? Some commentators suggest that the outer circle is itself the sun, leaving open the
question of the meaning of the enclosed dot.272
Similarly, in evaluating the sign
, the experts cannot agree whether the four arms of the cross denote rays of
the sun or four quarters of the world. It is also said that the four arms depict spokes of an imagined sun wheel
rolling across the sky each day.
Is it necessary to point out that these differences of opinion immediately throw into question the common claim
that the signs are natural solar emblems? So long as the meaning is uncertain one can hardly state that a symbol
is a natural expression of anything. Yet surely those experts who debate the significance of the sun symbols
must wonder why the ancients, with one accord, inscribed the same images the world over.
Consider the relatively complex sign
. The basic form occurs along with many variants on every continent.
Whatever it may signify, it is more than a simple drawing of the sun. If it is a solar image, then one must
assume not only that the sun worshippers around the world instinctively adopted the sun to a more complicated
abstract form, but that every ancient sun-cult drew upon the same abstraction. Why?
The enclosed sun-cross
is not an abstraction. It simply records what the ancients originally saw. It is a
literal drawing of the polar sun, passed down from earliest antiquity: the image of Saturn, the Universal
Monarch.
Rarely do archaeologists, seeking to interpret the widespread sun symbols, consult ancient mythology. Yet the
myths explain the symbols, and the symbols illuminate the myths. Largely overlooked by archaeologists are the
hundreds upon hundreds of myths and liturgies focusing on the cosmic images
,
, and
. Ancient
sources reveal a world-wide concern with a concrete celestial forman ideal configuration identified as the
great god and his heavenly dwelling. The subject is not the present world order, but the former. The symbols,
legends, and sacred hymns attempt to preserve a memory of Saturn and the primeval Cosmos.

The Enclosed Sun

When Saturn appeared alone in the cosmic waters, a brilliant band congealed around the god as his celestial
island. This band was the original Cosmos, often portrayed as a revolving egg, a coil of rope, a belt or a
shield enclosing the central sun.
The sacred hymns and creation legends of ancient Egypt say that when the creator arose from the cosmic sea, a
vast circle appeared around the god, forming the original Placethe place of the primeval time, or the
Province of the Beginning.273 This primeval dwelling was the island of Hetep [Rest],274 a steadfast, revolving
enclosure. Egyptian texts of all periods offer vivid images of this enclosure on the waterscalled the golden
Pai-land, the Island of Fire, the divine emerging primeval island, or the island emerging in Nun [the
cosmic waters].275
Diverse sources agree that the island of creation stood at the cosmic centre and that it was the residence of the
creator himself, the central sun. Thus, while Osiris is the motionless heart in the Island of Fire, Atum, the
stationary Heart of Heaven, is the Sole One who is alone . . . , who made his heart in the Island of Fire.276
In the following pages I shall attempt to show that Egyptian sources depict the band as something seenthe
gods visible dwelling in heaven. Indeed, the Egyptiansand all other ancient raceswere so preoccupied
with the Saturnian band that they elaborated a vast symbolism presenting the same enclosure under wideranging mythical forms.
Yet standard treatments of ancient myth and religion say little or nothing of the enclosure. And even less do
writers on the subject seem aware that the pictograph of the enclosure sun
Saturn and his legendary home.

is a straightforward portrait of

It is not for want of evidence that the experts have missed this connection. The only obstacle is the a priori
world view of the researchers themselveswho presuppose that all references to the primordial light god can
only signify the solar orb. In connection with our sun today, the ancient language of the enclosure will appear
esoteric or meaningless.
Of Re, the Coffin Texts say, We honour him in the sacred enclosure.277 Re is the sender forth of light into his
Circle.278 I am the One who is in his Circle, he announces. 279 What could this terminology signify in
relationship to the solar orb? Since our sun possesses no perceptible relationship to an enclosure or circle, the
translators will likely ignore the terms or contrive a complicated metaphysical concept to explain them.
Though the Egyptian hieroglyph for Re is
, and though this sign, taken literally, immediately illuminates the
foregoing references, no one seems inclined to take the signor the textsliterally.
To the enclosure round the sun the Egyptians gave the name Aten, a term familiar to every student of Egyptian
religion. Spacious is your seat within the Aten, reads the Coffin Texts.280 One of Res titles is am aten-f, the
dweller in his Aten. Both Atum and Horus possess the same title. Similarly, the Book of the Dead invokes
Osiris: O great god who livest in thy divine Aten.281 Since the Egyptian pictograph of the Aten is
it should be clear that the term refers to a circular enclosure housing the sun-god.

or

But from the beginning Egyptologists have attempted to explain the Aten as the sun itself, translating the word
as the solar disk. Rather than clarify the Egyptian concept, such a translation only confuses the sun-god with
his celestial dwelling. One Egyptologist, for example, states that the Aten was the sun, and that the sun was
conceived as the window in heaven through which the unknown god, Lord of the Disk, shed a portion of his
radiance upon the world.282
Having identified the Aten with the solar orb, the writer concludes that the god who resides in the Aten is an
invisible god. Budge voices a similar opinion when he calls the Aten the material body of the sun wherein
dwelt the god Re283 as if Re himself were an invisible power and the solar orb the visible emanation and
dwelling of the god.
It is impossible to reconcile such metaphysical interpretations with the concrete imagery of the Aten in Egyptian
texts. The Aten is indeed the visible window in heaven and the body of the sun, but this window or

body is surely nor the solar orb. It is, as the Aten sign (
primeval sun is Saturn.

) indicates, a band housing the sun. And the

The same misunderstanding occurs in the case of the Egyptian terms khu and khut. The terms refer to the circle
of glory or the brilliant circle, conceived as a fixed place the place where the [primeval] sun shines
forth. Though the Egyptians regarded this circle as the visible emanation of the creator, standard translations
render khu as Spirit or Soul (implying an unseen power) and khut as horizon (suggesting the place of the
solar sunrise). Both translations violate the literal sense of the words: literally, the khut (written with the sign
) is the Mount of Glory.
The circle of the khu or khut was the glory, halo, nimbus, or aureole of the creatorwhat the Hebrews
called the Shekinah (the encircling glory of God) and the Greeks stephanos (circle or crown of glory).
Indeed, every figure of the creator stands within the luminous ring, always considered as his own emanation.
The band is not only the gods halo, but his dwelling at the cosmic centre.284 In diagrams of the Cosmos
observes J. C. Cirlot, the central space is always reserved for the Creator, so that he appears as if surrounded
by a circular or almond-shaped halo.285

8. Mithraic Saturn, with surrounding halo.

9. Japanese Buddha, with surrounding halo.

If one accepts the immediate sense of the archaic terminology, the enclosure was no abstraction. It was Saturns
shining band. The Babylonian AnuSaturnwas the High One of the Enclosure of Life, 286 his dwelling the
brilliant enclosure. (Here, too, the enclosure becomes the place of the primeval sunrise.) 287 The Maori of
New Zealand know the planet Saturn as Parearau, whose name conveys the meaning circlet or surrounding
band. From this name of Saturn, Stowell concluded that the natives could see the present Saturnian ring with
the naked eyesomething all astronomers know to be impossible today.288
When the African Dogon draw Saturn they depict it as an orb within a circlea fact which Robert Temple, in
his book The Sirius Mystery, cites as evidence for seemingly inexplicable Dogon astronomical knowledge

(which he contends was introduced to the ancients by extra-terrestrial visitors!). But no one asks whether the
order of the solar system may have changed, allowing for a once-visible Saturnian band.

The Lost Island

10. Classical artists often portrayed the great gods halo or aura as an arched mantle
For the primeval enclosure the Egyptians employed a variety of interrelated symbols. The circle of the khu or
Aten was nothing other than the Island of Fire, the Province of Beginning. A single spell of the Coffin Texts
thus identifies Re as the noble one who is at the land of the Island of Fire, but also calls Re the god who is in
his Aten.289 The subject is not two different enclosures but one enclosure under two different titles.
And this identification of the central sun as an enclosed or encircled god appears to throw light on the endlessly
repeated myth of the lost island. What the Greeks called Ogygia (the island of Kronos/Saturn in the farthest
north) occurs under many different names the world over. The white island, the floating island, the revolving
islandmay not these primeval dwellings simply echo the Saturnian enclosure? One recalls the words of
Dionysius of Halicarnassus:
Haste to the realms [rings] of Saturn
shape your course,
Where Cotyles famed island wandering floats
On the broad surface of a sacred lake [the Abyss].290
Not of our earth, the lost isle floated in the sea of heaven. Japanese legends recall the ancient cradle of life as
Onogora, a floating island (the drifting land) which congealed on the waters. This was the isle of the
Congealed Drop. Its location, states a native commentator, was originally the North Pole, from which it
eventually moved to its present position.291 ONeill properly relates the Japanese isle to the floating island of
Delos raised from the sea by Poseidon. Another name for this island was Ortygia, which ONeill connects with
the Latin verto, Sanskrit vart, to turn.292 Answering to the same tradition are the Floating Islands of the
Argonautica, called the Strophades, or Islands of Turning.
In the voyages of the Celtic divine hero Maelduin the adventurer encounters a fabulous isle in the midst of the
sea: Around the island was a fiery rampart, and it was ever wont to turn around and about it.293
Examples are too numerous to receive elaborate treatment here: the primeval, revolving islands of Rhodes and
Corcyra, spun on the cosmic spindle; the primeval isle of the Cyclos, wheel, which gave its name to the
Cyclades; the white island of Zeus in the midst of the sea; the floating Hindu white island ( Shweta-dwipa)
at the polar centre; the lost Toltec white island of Tula, the centre of the world.294
Without exception, the shining, floating, revolving islands are esteemed as the place where history began and
seem to answer to the same archaic tradition as the Egyptian Province of the Beginning, the revolving enclosure
around the central sun. Is it possible that the ancients saw the mythical islandthat the isle was not a
geographical location, but a visible band enclosing Saturn? One must consider several closely related images,
which also imply a visible band around the ancient sun-planet.
The Egg. A hymn from the Egyptian Coffin Texts reads:
I was he who came into existence as circle,
he who was the dweller in his egg.
I was the one who began everything, the dweller in the primeval waters.295

Here the reference is to Atum as the creator of the egg, but other traditions say of the great god Ptah that he
created the egg which proceeded from Nun [the cosmic waters].296
In the Book of the Dead the light god shines as the mighty one within the egg. 297 Homage to thee, O thou
holy god who dwellest in thine egg.298
As the stationary light god turns round about his egg revolves around him. I am the god who keepeth
opposition in equipoise as his Egg circleth round. 299 O thou who circlest round, within thine Egg. 300 Atum, as
governor of the revolving egg, is the lord of Time, for time is regulated by the motion around the egg, Clark
tells us.301
Similar to the egg of Atum is the revolving sphere produced by the Orphic Chronos (Time, who is Kronos,
Saturn):
The great Chronos fashioned in the divine
Aether [the fiery sea] a silver egg.
And it moved without slackening in a vast circle.302
To this revolving egg compares that of the Society Islands creator Taoroa, the ancestor of all the gods, who
sat in his shell in an egg revolving in endless space.303

11. Ptah, fashioning the World Egg upon a potters wheel.

The same egg appears in Hindu myth, set in motion by the central sun Prajapati. 304 Mircea Eliade finds
recollections of the cosmic egg in Indonesia, Iran, Phoenicia, Latvia. Estonia, West Africa, Central America,
and the west coast of South America as well.305
Certainly, none of the later traditions improve upon the Egyptian texts which describe the egg as the enclosure
round Atum-Re. But one can hardly fail to be impressed by the consistency of the tradition. And even the
alchemists, much of whose teachings descended from Egypt, remember the connection of the egg with Saturn.
They recall the egg as a fiery enclosure on the primordial seaa circle with a sun-point in the centre (i.e.,
). This world-egg is the ancient Saturn, they say.306
Is not this cosmic egg the band which the Egyptians called Aten? O thou who art in thine egg, who shinest
from thy Aten, reads the Book of the Dead.307 Just as the Egyptian god-king is the ruler of all that the Aten
encircles, so also is he powerful in the egg or ruling in the egg.308
In celebrating the primeval egg, the priests commemorated the island of beginnings. Budge summarizes the
Egyptian tradition: The first act of creation began with the formation out of the primeval watery mass of an
egg, wherefrom issued the light of the day, i.e., Re. 309 Concerning the identity of this egg and the island or
Province of the Beginning, the texts from the temple of Edfu remove all doubt: another name for the Province
of the Beginning was the Island of the Egg.310 Egyptian sources thus suggest this equation:
Aten (enclosure of the central sun) = Cosmic Egg = Primeval Island

The Bond. To reside within the Aten is to reside in the coil or in the cord. The Hieroglyphs depict the Aten
as a cosmic bond or knot, indicated by an enclosure of rope with the ends tied together (shen

). (Thus shen,

coil, bond, may be written with the determinative

, the Aten sign.) The bond signifies both a boundary
distinguishing the unified domain of the Universal Monarch from the rest of spaceand order, marked by
ceaseless, stable revolution round the central sun. It is the bond of regularity (shes maat), protecting the godking from the surrounding waters of Chaos. Accordingly, the Egyptian king, considered as the incarnation of
the Universal Monarch, takes up symbolic residence within the celestial cord, acquiring the great gods power
as ruler of all that the Aten encircles. The priests indicated this power of the terrestrial ruler by placing his
hieroglyphic name within the shen-coil
. And in order to accommodate longer names they eventually
expanded the coil to an ovoid form, which yielded the familiar royal cartouche
in which the names of all
later kings were inscribed.
Of

this

cosmic

bond

or

knot

the

hieroglyphics

offer

many

signs

(among

them

). But each possesses the same root meaning as a protective

boundary defining the original dwelling of the creator in heaven. The symbols convey the sense to
circumscribe, to set the bounds. The creator, as the Measurer, prescribes the limits and measures out the
sacred enclosure by stretching the cord round about, producing a unified dwelling (the primeval island),
protected from the evils of Chaos and darkness.311
That the ancient mythmakers conceived Saturns enclosure as a cord binding together the gods dwelling will
explain why the Babylonian Ninurta, Saturn, holds the markasu or bond of the Cosmos. Langdon writes:
The word markasu, band, rope, is employed in Babylonian philosophy for the cosmic principle which
unites all things, and is used also in the sense of support, the divine power and law which hold the universe
together.312 The Orphic poet thus celebrates Saturn (Kronos) as Father of the blessed gods as well as of man . .
. you who hold the indestructible bond . . .313
It is easy for contemporary writers to speak of Saturns bond as an invisible principle holding the universe
together, but in the original symbolism one sees the bond as the shining boundary of Saturns dwelling (the
true Cosmos). It was not in Egypt alone that the cord signified the edge or border. What the Greeks called
peirata, rope or bond, possesses the additional meaning boundary. The Latin ora, cord, means also
edge.314 A similar meaning attaches to the noose of the Hindu Varuna and Yama. The bond delimited and
protected the sacred space occupied by the Universal Monarch, and its connection with the sign
directly with Saturns island-egg.

links it

The Garment. Mythmaking imagination also appears to have conceived the Saturnian band as the gods girdle,
collar, or belt. I am the girdle of the garment of Nu, shining, shedding light, states a hymn from the Egyptian
Book of the Dead.315 The great god is the Girdled and the Mighty one, coming forth triumphantly. 316 A
common hieroglyphic determinative of the girdle or collar is the cord sign

The Shield. All creation legends involve a struggle between the light god and the destructive powers of the
Abyss (Chaos). The mythic enclosure provides the gods defense against the turbulent waters which originally
prevailed. The Egyptian enclosure, states Reymond, had the function of protecting the sacred area from the
evil coming from outside.317 Aten was one of the numerous Egyptian names for this defensive rampart in
heaven: The Aten makes thy protection, states the Litany of Re.318 The cosmic egg serves as the same fortress:
I am Horus . . . , whose protection was made within the egg; the fiery blast of your mouths [the fiery water of
Chaos] does not attack me.319

The band of the Aten

, as the protective boundary, was the great gods shield, fending off what the texts
call the fiends of disorder. It is this mythic history of the band which explains why, in the hieroglyphs, the
shield sign
signified sacred space in general. All who resided within the shields enclosure occupied the
safe and stable ground.

12. Mexican divinity holding a revolving cord-shield

Cord, belt, and shield converge. The great father wears the cord as a girdle: it protects him as a shieldnot
merely in Egyptian symbolism, but in the international language of symbols. Why, for example, did divine
figures from Babylonia to Greece to Mexico wear a sacred belt of rope, and why was the belt conceived as an
impenetrable defense? Mexican illustrations of the divine shield show it to be nothing more than a circle of
rope. It was certainly not practical experience which suggested the magical powers of a shield so conceived!
But the mythical imagery of the enclosed sun
is quite sufficient to explain such anomalies: the great gods
shield and the celestial cord signified one and the same protective enclosure.
If the ancients actually saw a band around Saturn, it is clear that the enclosure fostered diverse but interrelated
mythical interpretations. A literal reading of Egyptian and other texts will confirm an extraordinary equation:
enclosure of the central sun = primeval island = cosmic egg = cord (bond) = girdle (belt, collar) = shield
Concerning the overlapping images much more needs to be said. The signs and the myths become
comprehensible only when one relates them to the heavens of ancient times. Celestial island, egg, cord, girdle,
and shield mean nothing more than a shining, revolving enclosure around the great god. Was this band real or
imaginary? The question can be answered by exploring certain other aspects of the enclosure.

The Cosmos And The Divine Assembly

The sign of the enclosed sun
portrays a circle of secondary lights revolving about the stationary god and
forming Saturns Cosmos. The mystic traditions of the great father present an apparent paradox: he is the god
One, the solitary god in the cosmic sea; yet he is the All, embracing a company of lesser gods.
This is not a contradiction. In the first phase of creation the god brought forth a circle of secondary lights: these
issued directly from the god to become his visible limbs. It is the fundamental character of the god Onethe
Heaven Manto unite in a single body all the secondary powers of the Cosmos.
In Pythagorean, Neoplatonist, and Gnostic systems the primal figure is the One, the All, whose symbol is the
enclosed sun
. Hindu mysticism offers the latter sign as the image of the primordial unity, and the same
interpretation is repeated by the alchemists.
Today one naturally thinks of the All as boundless space. The terms which translators render as Cosmos,
heaven, firmament, sky, or universe suggest to the modern mind a limitless arena of the sun, moon, planets, and

constellations. But the original meaning of the All is bounded spacea place (the place, or place par
excellence). The Cosmos simply means the province of the god One, who, as Lord of the All, governs and is the
whole and its parts. Having overlooked this restricted sense of the terminology the translators replace
concrete meanings with ambiguity (in the guise of modern-sounding metaphysics). The once-visible dwelling
of the central sun thus becomes, in the translations, all existence.
Almost without exception the translators fail to notice 1) that the creator was Saturn, recalled as the central sun;
and 2) that the sign of the central sun and the sign of the All were the same image
. The true Cosmos was
Saturns enclosure. And nothing else is necessary in order for one to understand the ancient characterization of
Saturn as the Heaven Man whose body encompassed the Cosmos. When Hildegard Lewy reports that the
Sumero-Babylonian priests of Saturn regarded the planet-god as the embodiment of the whole universe the
modern mind boggles: could the ancients have been so frivolous as to identify Saturnthe present, barely
discernible point of lightwith the whole universe? The answer is that Saturn was not a mere speck of light,
but a gigantic globe at the polar centre; and the universe did not mean the open heavens but Saturns
dwelling, the an-ki or band of the Cosmos. Saturns towering form filled the an-ki.
Zoroastrian texts describe the original Cosmos as the body of Zurvan (Time, Saturn), a revolving wheel called
the Spihr, which remained ever in the same position. The fall of the stationary wheel coincided with the
collapse of the primordial era.320 The image suggests, not unlimited space, but the tangible configuration of
the enclosed sun

Accordingly, the later mystic traditions, as reviewed by Jung, describe the image
as the cosmic form of
Adam, the Anthropos, the Original Man or Man on Highidentified as Saturn. 321 Always the body of this
primal man means Cosmos.
The interrelated myths and symbols of Saturns Cosmos receive remarkable clarification in the creation
accounts and the liturgies of ancient Egypt. Though I briefly touched on the Egyptian texts in earlier
discussions of the Heaven Man, amplification is necessary.

The Circle of the Gods

Whether called Atum, Re, Osiris, Horus, Khepera, or Ptah, the Egyptian great god sits enthroned within a circle
of secondary deities, satellites of the central sun. The gods are the Glorious Ones, Never-Resting Ones, or
Living Ones; the Circle of Fire, Divine Chiefs, Apes of Dawn, Holy Ancestors, or Revolving Ones; the
Followers of Horus, the Followers of Re, or the Followers of Osiris.
While the divine assembly possessed many names, its singular character stands out in the texts of all regions.
There is no Egyptian company of the gods other than that which revolves round the central suna fact
uniformly ignored by writers on Egyptian religion.
The texts repeatedly confirm the same relationship of the assembly to the great god:
This is the Circle of gods about Re and about Osiris.322
The satellites of Re make their round.323
Thy followers circle about.324
Re maketh his appearance . . . with the cycle of gods about him. 325 His Ennead [circle of gods] is around about
his seat.326
I am Re amidst his Ennead.327
Go ye round about me, O ye gods.328
Hail to you, Tribunal . . . O you who surround me . . .329
Divine is your name in the middle of the gods.330

These gods shall revolve round about him.331

Glorious is your sah [brilliant form] in the midst of the living Ones.332
These are the stars who surround Re.333
When it is light all faces adore him, the Brilliant One, he who arises [shines] in the midst of his Ennead.334
The dilemma for solar mythology is obvious: seeing the references to the great god in the above lines, no one
would think of denying that the subject is a visible power (which all presume to be our sun). But the
descriptions of the gods revolving companions are equally explicit. To what visible powers do they answer? No
circle of lights appears to revolve about the body we call sun today.
Egyptian descriptions of the celestial assembly take us back to the remote age, separated from the present by a
wide chasm. Every Egyptian cult possessed mythical accounts relating to the birth of the divine assembly in
remote times. Despite numerous versions of the legend, it is impossible to ignore the coherent pattern. From a
study of the numerous fragments, I offer the following reconstruction and interpretation of the myth.
In the primordial epoch the creator first appeared in the Abyss, alone, wandering, without a resting place. I
found no place to standI was alone, states the god.335
After his appearance the god uttered words and these utterances possessed a visible form as the kheperu, the
first things created. The kheperu came forth from my mouth.336 These visible words flowed from the creator
as the waters of Chaos, the sea in heaven upon which the creator floated or wandered. To reckon with the
tradition in its own terms one must think of the primordial sea as a fiery ocean of words in heaven, emitted by
the god in a prolonged and resounding explosion.
An Egyptian term virtually identical to kheperu is pautti, often translated as primeval matter. The pautti
issued directly from the creator in the form of radiant speech, forming a fiery, watery mass. The creator brought
forth this primeval matter and, paradoxically, produced himself in it (I produced myself from the primeval
matter which I made).337
For a time the creator wandered in the luminous sea but eventually came to rest at a point of stability, the
cosmic centre. Two events followed: an island congealed around the god as his place of rest, and the circle of
the gods came into being, embracing the creator. The two events are synonymous.
From the unorganized sea of words the kheperu or pautti the creator brought forth an organized dwelling. He
gathered the enclosure together as a barrier against the watery Chaos which he himself had created. The fiery
particles of the newly formed enclosure composed the circle of the gods. That is, the gods stood on the
enclosures edge or borderthe shore of the celestial isle
. In one text these are the gods who
338
belong to the Shore. They give an island to the Osiris NN. This was the Cosmos, formed by the Council of
the gods who surround the Island of Fire.339
Vital to this interpretation of the myth is the identity of the divine assembly with the kheperu or pautti uttered
by the creator. The secondary gods are themselves the shining words or names spoken by the creator and
organized into a revolving circle. Kheperu thus means the revolving ones, while pautti signifies the primeval
ones, who inhabit and give form to the Island of Fire.340
What, then, do the texts mean when they say that the kheperu or pautti, though erupting from the creator,
produced the great god? The answer is clear-cut: the circle into which the constituent particles (visible words)
congealed was the creators body. The god One collected or gathered together his own limbs (I united
my members). He produced himself.341
The Coffin Texts depict the creator alone in the primeval sea:
[I was] he who had no companion when [or until] my name came into existence . . .
I created my limbs in my glory
I was the maker of myself . . .342

Literally, the limbs which the god produced are my limbs of my khu. The phrase is of sweeping significance.
An Egyptian sign of the khu was the hieroglyph
. The term, in explicit reference to the creators circle of
glory (halo, aura, Aten), means at once words of power and brilliant lights. Depicted by the hieroglyph is
the island of creation, around which are ranged the secondary deities (khu) produced through the creators
speech. In bringing forth this divine assembly the creator became the maker of his own body. O Khepera . . .
whose body is the cycle of the gods forever, proclaims the Book of the Dead.343 The same texts speak of the
souls of the gods who have come into being in [or as] the members of Osiris.344
The entire symbolism focuses on the celestial form of the enclosed sun
. Individually, the fiery lights which
compose the enclosure (island of the Cosmos) are the creators limbs (plural), but as a unified circle, the
assembly forms his body (singular). Correspondingly, the respective lights are the creators multiple names
or words (the names of his limbs), while as an organic whole (the All) the circle is the gods singular
Name. When the hymn cited above states that the god was alone until my name came into existence, the
meaning is concrete, not abstract. The creator remained alone until he brought forth the circle of the khu, his
visible Name in heaven.
That the gods Name was his tangible dwellinghis circle of gloryis a fact absolutely essential to a
comprehension of the enigmatic symbolism. I have made firm my name, and have preserved it that I may have
life through it.345 The reference is to the enclosure of life, the Island of Fire made firm at the stationary
cosmic centre, when the creator ceased to wander in the Abyss. Thus the hieroglyphic determinative of name
(ren) is the shen sign

, the sign of the celestial enclosure or circle of the Aten. To possess a name is to

reside within the Aten

related symbols:

. A single hymn from the Book of the Dead provides a remarkable summary of the

I am the great god who came into existence by himself.

This is Nu who created his names paut neteru as god.
Who, then is this?
It is Re, who created the names of his limbs.
There came into existence in the form of the gods
who are in the following of Re . . .
Who, then, is this?
It is Tem [Atum] in his Aten.346
The self-generated god in the above lines is Nu, whose hieroglyph
identifies him as both the
source and the substance of the cosmic waters. The text says not only that the great god created his names but
that these names are the paut neteruthe circle of the gods.
But why is the assembly called the paut, or primeval matter? It is because the revolving gods erupted directly
from the creator, eventually forming the organized enclosure. The secondary gods, as words or names spoken
by the creator, composed the gods own limbs, so that the text can say the god created the names of his
limbs. That these came into existence in the form of the gods who are in the following of Re means simply
that they formed the revolving assembly.
Who, then, is this god who shines within the circle of his own limbs? It is Atum in his Aten. The priests could
not have stated more emphatically the equation of the celestial assembly and enclosure of the primeval sun
. Here is the formula set forth by the Egyptian texts:
Cosmos (enclosure of the central sun) = primeval matter (sea of words) in its organized form = circle of the
gods = limbs or body of creator = creators visible Name

That the circle formed by the divine assembly is the cosmic dwelling of the creator is a truth affirmed not by
one local cult alone, but by all streams of Egyptian ritual. Below I list a few of the Egyptian words that connect
the assembly with the enclosure of the central sun:
Khu. In the creation, as noted above, the khu erupt from the creator as words of power or brilliant lights.
This circle of glory
the body of Osiris or Re composes the gods celestial home, the Aten
khus means to fashion a dwelling.

. Thus

13. The body of Osiris forming the circle of the Tuat, the Cosmos.
Tuat. The term refers to the resting place of the creator at the summit. The hieroglyphic symbol of the Tuat
shows the light god within a celestial band which the texts equate with the circle of the Aten, The
Mysterious Soul, which rests in its Aten, rests in the Tuat of Re.347 In the hymns and in art, the Egyptians
depicted the Tuat as the body of Osiris or Re. But Tuat means also the circle of the gods; the enclosure, the
body of the sun-god and the divine assembly are synonymous.
Shen, shenit, sheniu, shenbet. The shen signs
and
portray the central suns enclosure as a cord of rope
the bond of the Cosmos. Shen means to revolve, in reference to the revolving band of the Aten. (The shen
sign
and the Aten sign
function as interchangeable glyphs.) Hence, the sheniu is the great gods
cosmic chamber while the shenit are the chiefs or nobles on high who travel the circuit round the shen.
Shenbet, meaning body, is the bet or place marked out by the shen. Again, enclosure, body, and assembly
converge. Tchatchat. The tchatchat are the chiefs or headsthe council of gods revolving around the
stationary sun. But tchatchat also signifies boundary, enclosure, or holy domain. The circuit traversed by
the chiefs is the boundary of the celestial enclosure

Rer, reri, rert. While rer means to revolve or encircle, rert means menthe inhabitants of the primordial
domain. The reri are the revolving ones (comparable to the kheperu), who collectively enclose the sacred
space. Accordingly, rer possesses the additional meaning the enclosed domain.
Paut, pat. The secondary gods are the pautti, the primeval matter which (as stated above) congealed into the
creators revolving dwelling. Paut thus signifies the creators body. Obviously related are the pat, the
primeval gods whose name conveys the sense to go round like a wheel or in a circle. It is no coincidence that
the hieroglyphic determinative of the pat is an egg
: the circle around which the pat revolve is the egg of
the Cosmos, and this egg is the body of the god Seb.
Tchet, tchet, tchetu. While tchet means to speak, tchetu signifies words, things spoken. In the creation the
great god uttered visible words in the form of the lesser gods. That the creators words became his dwelling is
reflected in the term tchet, the house or chamber of the great god. Tchet also means body.
Shes, shesi. An Egyptian name of the cosmic bond is shes, written with the hieroglyph
. The Tuat (
,
dwelling of Re or Osiris) is the shes maat, the bond of regularity (or of stable, ceaseless revolution). The texts
also speak of celestial shesi, divine warriors who protect the great god. They protect the god because,
collectively, they form the defensive rampart, the cosmic shield.

The language and symbolism of the celestial assembly reveal an underlying idea connecting the separate
traditions. The secondary gods are not merely ill-defined companions, or assistants (as so many
Egyptologists seem to assume); rather, they possess concrete form as the enclosure of life, the very enclosure
which the priests celebrate as the island of beginnings, the revolving bond, or the cosmic egg (all figures of the
Cosmos).
The Cosmos, in other words, has nothing to do with all existence. The concept relates to an organized
domainthe whole and its partsfashioned by the creator out of previously unorganized cosmic debris
(primeval matter). An Egyptian word for the unified domain is temt, which means all or complete and also
to collect, to gather together. Clearly related is the word Temtiu, one of the names of the secondary gods. It
is the secondary gods themselves that the creator collects or gathers together to form the cosmic island.
Pertaining to the same root concept are the terms tema, to unify, join together; temi, shore, bank, or
border; and temen, all, totality. The unified All (Cosmos) is contained within the border of the enclosure,
and the border is the shore of the cosmic island

The Saturnian band is thus the pathway traversed by the secondary gods. The gods revolve around the shore, or
around the bond, or around the egg. Every god who is on the border of your enclosure is on the path . . . ,
states a Coffin Text.348
The testimony could not be more explicit. The road traveled by the secondary gods is the uat, the way or
path, denoted by the glyph
. But the same glyph signifies the tcher, boundary. The path of the gods
and the boundary of the unified Cosmos (the All) are synonymous. Thus the phrase er tcher (to the tcher or
to the boundary) means all, the whole. The great god, as Neb-er-tcherhe who rules to the
boundaryis the ruler of the whole, lord of the revolving Cosmos. It is the same thing to say that he governs
all that the Aten [

] encircles. The whole range of images challenges orthodox interpretations.

But the symbolism of the Cosmos and divine assembly reaches far beyond Egypt. Do not all supreme gods sit
enthroned within the circle of secondary divinities? Ninurta, Kronos, El, Yama, Huang-ti and every other
Saturnian figure has his sons, councilors, spies, followers, assistants, or warriors seated round
about him. The Mesopotamian sign
is a self-evident image of the celestial assembly. It is this Cosmos
not boundless spacewhich Saturns body encompassed. What the mystics knew as the universe organized
within Saturns bond or cord (Babylonian markasu) becomes meaningful only as the visible Saturnian
band, or circle of the gods.349

The Great Mother

The sign of the enclosed sun
also portrays Saturn, the generative Seed, within the womb of the mother
goddess. As the female personification of the Cosmos, the great mother is inseparable from Saturns body.
The mysteries of the mother goddess give rise to an endless debate. What is the fact in nature which will
explain the cosmic union of Isis and Osiris, Tammuz and Ishtar or Kronos and Gaea? One scholar after another
puzzles over the goddess varied forms, finding her everywhere and nowhere. If to one writer she is the fertile
earth around us, to another she is the moon and to another the universe, the sky, or the morning star. The
diverse interpretations seem to suggest that there were many goddesses with a singular figurethe heavenly
consort of the great father. Here, for example, is one statement, offered as the words of the Egyptian goddess
Isis to Apuleius:
. . . My name, my divinity is adored throughout the world, in divers manners, in variable customs, and by many
names. For the Phrygians that are the first of all men call me the Mother of the gods of Pessinus; the Athenians,
which are sprung from their own soil, Cecropian Minerva; the Cyprians, which are girt about by the sea,
Paphian Venus; the Cretans, which bear arrows, Dictynian Diana; the Sicilians, which speak three tongues,
infernal Prosperpine; the Elusinians, their ancient goddess Ceres; some Juno, others Bellona, others Hecate,

others Ramnusie . . . ; and the Egyptians, which are excellent in all kind of ancient doctrine, and by their proper
ceremonies accustomed to worship me, do call me by my true name, Queen Isis.350
In their cosmic rites the Egyptians seemed unwilling to distinguish Isis from such local figures of the great
mother as Nut, Hathor, Mut, or Neith. Each local goddess bore identical or similar epithets (the Eye of Re,
the mother of Re, the Lady of the Holy Land, etc.).
But if the ancients acknowledged a common personality of the goddess, what was that personalitys underlying
trait? There is one universal attribute: the great goddess possesses the form of an enclosurea circle or womb
housing and giving birth to the great father. Neumann perceived this trait when he described the goddess
elementary character as the Great Round or the world-containing and world-creating uterus. 351 From his
exhaustive study of the great mother G. S. Faber concluded that every goddess appears as a protective enclosure
sheltering the great father. Of this truth there is no shortage of evidence.352
The god Tammuz sits within the womb of Tiamat, the mother of the hollow. Mother-womb is the epithet of
the Sumerian goddess Gula, while Ishtars name means womb. 353 Hindu sources describe the great mother as
the yoni or womb and the great father as he enveloped in his Mothers Womb. 354 Agni is the male god
shining in the Mothers eternal womb.355
Similarly, the Norse Odin is the dweller in Friggs bosom. 356 In Orphic doctrine the receptacle housing the
great father is the goddess Vesta. The Gnostics remembered the old god as the Ancient of Days who dwelt as a
babe within the womb.357 Among the Maori the great mother is the Shelter Maid or Haven Maid.358
Descriptions of the primeval womb show that the ancients recall the goddess as a visible bandwhat Hindu
texts call the golden womb,359 and Babylonian the jeweled circlet (a title of Ishtar). 360 The imagery pertains
directly to the enclosed sun
. In Hinduism the latter sign depicts the male seed-point or bindu in the
cosmic womb, states Alan Watts.361 The Father is like the centre (Nabhi) of the circle and the Mother the
circumference (Paramanta), notes Agrawala.362 The same male-female symbolism of the enclosed sun
occurs in European stone carvings discussed by V. C. C. Collum. 363 That the Hebrews regarded the Shekinah
(the creators encircling aura, anima, or glory) as the Mother 364 leads to the same conclusion: the great
gods halo was his own spouse. Accordingly, the Tibetan ritual invokes the great god as the centre of the
Circle, enhaloed in radiance, embraced by the (divine) Mother.365
This conception of the great mother receives compelling support from ancient Egyptian sources. The Egyptian
sun-god has his home within the womb of his mother and consort, the Great Protectress. 366 Of Re, the Book of
the Dead proclaims, Thou shinest, thou makest light in thy mother. 367 Elsewhere Re appears as the sun in the
womb of Hathor.368
Osiris shines forth from the enclosure of his mother Nut: Homage to thee, King of kings, Lord of lords, Prince
of princes, who from the womb of Nut hath ruled all the world.369 The abode of Horus is his mother Hathor,
whose name means the House of Horus. And the goddess Nekhebet is said to personify the primeval abode of
the sun.370
As earlier noted, the Egyptians portrayed the celestial dwelling as the shen bond
. But this enclosure was
really the womb of Nut, states Piankoff.371 (Thus the goddess Shentit takes her name from the shen bond.)
The mother goddess was not our earth, not the open sky, not the moon, but the dwelling of the central sun, the
enclosure of the Aten

: My Aten has given me birth, states the god-king.372 This direct connection of the

mother goddess with the suns enclosure will explain why the Aten sign
, though serving as the glyph of Re,
373
also denotes mistress, in reference to the gods celestial consort. The gods mistress was his own
emanation, his halo of glory or splendour. The priests who invoked the great gods khut or circle of glory
also celebrated the goddess Khut, who was the same circle.

Residing within the enclosure, the central sun is the shining seed impregnating the great mother. I am indeed
the Great Seed, declares Re.374 O Re, make the womb of Nut pregnant with the seed of the spirit which is in
her, reads a hymn of the Pyramid Texts.375 The same texts celebrate the womb of the sky with the power of
the seed of the god which is in it.376 And again, Pressure is in your womb, O Nut, through the seed of the god
which is in you.377
In his coming forth within the cosmic womb the sun copulates with or impregnates the mother goddess,
and this relationship expresses itself in the language. The Egyptian nehep means to copulate while nehepu
means to shine. Though beka denotes the coming forth of the sun, the same word means pregnant. Thus
the union of the primal pair is renewed daily (or with each dawn of the central sun).
But the same coming forth receives mythical interpretation as the birth of the light god. Nut is at once Res
spouse and his mother, who bears Re daily:378
I am exalted like that venerable god, the Lord of the Great House, and the gods rejoice at seeing his beautiful
comings forth from the womb of Nut.379
His birth is wonderful, raising up his beautiful form in the womb of Nut.380
Hail, Prince, who comest forth from the womb.381
Conception and birth are thus confused. The impregnating Seed (father) is also the Child. It is this equation
which yields Res title as Man-Child.382 He is the prototype of the son who impregnates his mother, or the
father who gives birth to himself.
But the confusion does not end here, for the mother goddess, as the great fathers encircling aura, is herself the
emanation of the masculine power. The solitary god brings forth the womb of heaven unassisted. In this sense
the goddess is the great fathers daughter, so that if one considers the entire range of possibilities, three
relationships to the goddessfather, husband, and sonare united in one figure.
Imagery of this sort runs through all of the religious texts of ancient Egypt. Amon-Re is he who begets his
father.383 The goddess Hathor becomes the mother of her father and the daughter of her son.384 Atum-Kheprer
brought himself into being upon the thigh of his divine mother. 385 In the ritual of the Karnak temple Res
daughter Mut encircled her father Re and gave birth to him as Khonsu. 386 The same goddess is the
daughter and mother who made her sire.387
Equation of father and son is explicit in the case of Osiris and his son Horus. The Pyramid Texts describe
Osiris shining in the sky as Horus from the womb of the sky. 388 The king is your seed, O Osiris, you being
potent in your name of Horus who is in the sea. 389 The gods, in the Book of the Dead, recall the ancient time of
Horus when he existed in the form of his own child.390
Because the terrestrial king symbolically acquires the attributes of the Universal Monarch, the rites show the
local ruler uniting with the mother goddess and reproducing himself within the cosmic womb. He announces
that he has been fashioned in the womb of the great mother,391 and after invoking the womb of the sky with
the power of the seed of the spirit which is in it, then proclaims: Behold me, I am the seed of the spirit which
is in her.392 O Nut . . . it is I who am the seed of the god which is in you.393
Frankfort deals with the subject at length, showing that the kings impregnation of the mother goddess and
simultaneous birth in the womb was central to Egyptian ritual. The king enters her, impregnates her, and thus
is borne again by her394 exactly as the great god himself.
If the king receives his authority on earth through personification of the Universal Monarch, it is through the
same identification that he attains the heavenly abode of the goddess upon death, taking up his residence within
the sheltering womb as an Imperishable One. In a hymn to Nut, King Pepi beseeches the goddess, Mayest thou
put this Pepi into thyself as an imperishable star. 395 Mayest thou transfigure this Pepi within thee that he may
not die.396
Frankfort comments: . . . the notion of a god who begets himself on his own mother became in Egypt a
theological figure of thought expressing immortality. The god who is immortal because he can re-create himself
is called Kamutef, bull of his mother.397 The king aspires to duplicate the feat of the Universal Monarch,
giving birth to himself in the womb of Nut. Though the divine marriage and its imitation in kingship ritual

involve many complexities and enigmas, the underlying theme remains clearly defined. Symbolically, the king
has his home in the cosmic womb; he simultaneously impregnates the goddess and is born by her. The source
of the ritual is celestial, for it reenacts the First Occasion when the great father, the fiery Seed, took to wife the
band of glory which congealed around him. The sign of the primordial union is everywhere before us but
rarely recognized. It is the sign of the enclosed sun

Womb and Thigh

In connection with the symbolism of the mother goddess one notes that the womb is generally synonymous
with the thigh or lap. When ancient relieves depict the god or king on the lap of the great mother, they refer
to the primeval union, in which the father of the gods resides within the goddess protective enclosure.
An Assyrian tribute to Assurbanipal reads: A meek babe art thou, Assurbanipal, whose seat is on the lap of the
Queen of Ninevah [Ishtar].398 Thus the Sanskrit yoni, the female enclosure and dwelling of the great father,
may be translated either lap or womb. The Latin word for thighfemen, feminismeans that which
engenders.399 A similar connection occurs in Egypt, where Khepesh, thigh, means the womb of Nut housing
Osiris or Re.
Many godsin Hindu, Greek, and European mythare thus born from the thigh, like the Egyptian Kheprer
who brought himself into being upon the thigh of the divine mother.400
This overlapping symbolism of womb, lap, and thigh will be met more than once in the following sections.

Womb and Cosmos

To identify the mother goddess as the band of the enclosed sun
is to equate the goddess with Saturns
Cosmos, the revolving company of the gods. The goddess Nut is the representation of the cosmos, states
Piankoff.401 Thus while the Egyptian khut signifies the circle of glory formed by the secondary gods, Khut
also means the mother goddess. And though the shenit are the princes in the divine circle, the goddess is
Shentit; both words derive from the shen, the bond of the Cosmos.

14. The Man-Child on the lap of the mother goddess

The religious texts confirm the equation. He is the one who cometh forth this day from the primeval womb of
them [the secondary gods] who were before Re, reads the Book of the Dead.402 I have come forth between the
thighs of the company of the gods.403 What the Book of the Dead calls divine beings of the Thigh404 means
the celestial assembly, the secondary gods who collectively form the womb of cosmic genesis.
But the interrelated symbolism does not stop here. Every Egyptian priest knew that the mother goddess was the
revolving egg housing the central sun. Indeed, the hieroglyphic image of an egg
at the end of the divine
name means goddess. Of Osiris the goddess Isis declares: His seed is within my womb, I have molded the

shape of the god within the egg as my son who is at the head of the Ennead. 405 The god within the womb is the
god within the egg, who is the god ruling the Ennead (circle of gods).
By the same equation the womb becomes the garment or belt girdling the sun: the deceased king prays that he
may be girt by the goddess Tait,406 or announces that My kilt which is on me is Hathor. 407 In the case of the
goddess Neith the womb becomes the shield. (The shield is the hieroglyph for Neith.) 408 Though the symbols of
the primeval enclosure differ, each is presented as a form of the great mother, whose entire character answers to
the visible Saturnian band

The Hermaphrodite
In the Great Magical Papyrus of Paris, dated around the first half of the fourth century A.D., appears the Oracle
of Kronos. The recommended prayer invokes Kronos as Lord of the World, First Father, but also bestows on
the god the peculiar title Man-Woman.409 Kronos is Saturn, the primeval sun. To what aspect of the god did
this title refer?
In Saturn the primal male and female principles unite, yielding the hermaphrodite, or androgyne. Few of the
preeminent deities of antiquity are free of this duality. The Sumerian Anu, Ninurta, Tammuz, and Enki; the
Hebrew El; the Hindu Vishnu, Brahma, and Shiva; the Iranian Zurvan; the Mexican Quetzalcoatlall reveal a
female dimension. Their spouse is never wholly separated from their own body.
The Egyptians esteemed Atum as that great He-She, 410 while celebrating Amen as the Glorious Mother of
gods and men.411 The Egyptian word for this primeval unity is Mut-tef, or Mother-Father. From what has
been established in the previous pages concerning the symbolism of the enclosed sun
there can be little
412
doubt as to the concrete meaning of the Mut-tef. The word signified the organized Cosmos, the central sun
and its enclosure, considered as the male and female parents united in a single personality: the great fathers
body was also the gods spouse, the womb of heaven.
This duality finds expression in the Egyptian term khat, which may be translated either body or womb. The
man-child Horus, who dwells in the womb of Hathor, is Khenti-Khati, at once the dweller in the body and
the dweller in the womb. The Litany of Re proclaims that the khat [body] of Re is the great Nut, the mother
goddess.413
Egyptian artists showed the body of Osiris forming the circle of the Tuat, the abode of Osiris or Re.414 But every
student of Egyptian religion knows that the Tuat, house of rest, was the womb of Nut.
The hermaphrodite, then, personifies the original Cosmos, which means Saturn and his visible dwelling
. G.
S. Faber, in his comprehensive study of ancient ritual, notes that the great father (the Intelligent Being) was
sometimes esteemed the animating Soul and sometimes the husband of the Universe, while the Universe was
sometimes reckoned the body and sometimes the wife of the Intelligent Being: and, as the one theory supposed a
union as perfect as that of the soul and body in one man, so the other produced a similar union by blending
together the husband and wife into one hermaphrodite.415
With Fabers assessment it is impossible to disagree, so long as one remembers that to the ancients, the
universe (Cosmos) meant Saturns home, not a boundless expanse. That Saturns Cosmos acquired a dual
character as the gods body and as his spouse is sufficient to explain the primordial Father-Mother.
The hermaphrodite or androgyne, Eliade tells us, is the distinguishing sign of the original totality [i.e., the
All]. Its customary form is spherical, he notes.416 We thus arrive at the following equation:
Band of the enclosed sun = Cosmos (island, egg, cord, girdle, shield, circle of the gods) = body of the great
father = womb of the great mother

V. The Holy Land

Ancient ritual the world over conceived the terrestrial ruler as the incarnation of the Universal Monarch. By the
same principle each local city or kingdom became a transcript of the god-kings primeval domain. The
sanctified territory on earth was laid out according to a cosmic plan, revealed in remote times.
On this priority of the cosmic dwelling all major traditions concur. A celestial Sumer and Akkad preceded the
organization of the actual Mesopotamian kingdoms. And such settlements as Eridu, Erech, Babylon, and
Lagash took their names from a heavenly city occupied by the central sun.
Every Egyptian townHeliopolis, Herakleopolis, Memphis, Abydos, Thebes, Hermopolismirrored a
prototype, a city in which the sun shone forth in the beginning. So did Egypt as a whole, according to the
ritual, reproduce the dwelling gathered together and unified by the creator.
Hebrew tradition knew a heavenly Jerusalem which gave its name to the terrestrial city; and what the Hebrews
claimed of their city, the Muslims claimed of Mecca. The Chinese declared their kingdom to be a copy of the
celestial empire, and each capital city imitated the same plan.
In unison, diverse traditions of the Near East, Europe, Asia, and the Americas recall a Holy Land par
excellence, founded and ruled by the creator himself. From this Saturnian kingdom every nation took
instruction in the ideals of kingship and in the proper organization of the sacred domain.

The Mother Land

In the creation myth the great god raised a circular plot of earth from the cosmic waters. The enclosure was
Saturns paradisethe kingdom of heavenappearing as a vast wheel or throne turning about the stationary
god.

Saturns Earth417
In seeming reference to the fertile soil around us, the Latin poet Virgil celebrates the mother of harvests and
the mighty mother of men. But he gives the great goddess of fertility an intriguing title: Saturns Earth.
Why Saturns Earth? The curiosity increases when one notices that the Sumerian An, Enki, and Ninurtaall
identified as Saturnrule in the Ekur. The translators render Ekur as earth.418 So also did Chinese
astronomy deem Saturn the planet of the earth, 419 while the Phoenician Saturn is said to have dwelt in the
centre of the earth.
The Egyptian earth god is Seb (or Geb). That is, writes Budge, the earth formed his body and was called the
house of Seb.420 But if Sebs body was the earth, why did the Greek historian Plutarch translate Seb as
Kronos (Saturn)?421
What connection of the planet Saturn and the earth might have justified this identity? Of course the common
English translation, earth, naturally suggests to the modern mind our planet suspended in space. But to the
ancients no such detached view was possible. They knew only a terrestrial region, however large or small. In
archaic ritual, the terms which experts translate as earth mean literally land, place, province; and the
only region which the ancients considered worthy of sanctification as the land was their own unified state or
nationall else belonging to the barbarians.
But every sacred land organized around a religious-political centre proclaimed itself a copy of the primeval
dwelling in heaven. Thus the Egyptian ta, often rendered as earth, refers first and foremost to the heavenly
province of the creatorthe ta ab (pure land), ta nefer (beautiful land), ta sheta (mysterious land), ta
ankhtet (land of life), or ta ur (great land). Such terms are synonymous with ta Tuat, the land of the Tuat,
the cosmic dwelling of Osiris or Re. In naming terrestrial Egypt ta, the Egyptians gave their homeland the name
of the cosmic place par excellence.
Ta signifies the cosmic dwelling gathered together by the creator. That the Egyptians conceived the ta as the
body of Seb corresponds with everything we have learned of the primeval enclosure. Of equal significance is
Sebs hieroglyphic symbol, the egg

. The myths say that the egg of Seb is that from which the sun first

shone forth (i.e., it is the same as the revolving egg of Atum, the egg of the Cosmos). This so-called world
egg has no connection with our planet.
Nor did the Sumerian Ekur, earth, denote our planet. As observed by Jensen, Langdon, and others, the Ekur
appears as the celestial home of the creator.422 Ake Sjoberg and E. Bergmann state the identity bluntly.423 The
Sumerians knew this celestial domain as the kithe place or the landinvoked as ki-sikil-la, the pure
land or pure place, and ki-gal, great land.424
The Sumerian ki was the Assyrian Esara, the supreme place. Rather than familiar geography, the term refers
to the created land of cosmic beginnings. Thus Esara, according to Jensen, was used with special reference to
the earth as it appeared at the creation.425 Equivalent is the celestial land of Hindu myth, 426 or the pure
land of the Buddhists.427 No greater mistake could be made than to seek a geographical location of this lost
land.
Ancient cosmology locates the primordial place, not down here, but at the celestial pole, the centre and
summit. In Egyptian thought, states Clark, the celestial pole is that place or the great city. Here dwells the
Master of the Primeval Place. 428 When the god in the Coffin Texts proclaims, I am the creator who sits in the
supreme place, the reference is to the polar abode, Clark tells us.429 Iranian astronomy drew on the same
tradition when it designated the celestial pole as Gah, which means simply the place, the dwelling of the
Great One in the Middle of the Sky.430
In Iranian cosmology it is Saturn who occupies the polar Gah, placejust as it is Saturn who, in the form of
the polar An, rules the Sumerian pure place. Hence, one could properly call this domain Saturns Land, or
Saturns Province. And this simple relationship enables us to understand why the ancients, who regarded their
own sacred territory as a duplication of the celestial dwelling, extolled the fertile soil as Saturns Earth.

The Egyptian Paradise

A clarification of the Egyptian concept will help to illuminate the general tradition. One of the features of the
Egyptian ta, land, which has encouraged its identification with our earth is its mythical character as a garden
or field of abundance. To reside in the ta is to live in the Garden of Hetep. Many descriptions of this primeval
domain do indeed sound very much like a terrestrial paradise. The land is filled with wheat or barley, and the
inhabitants drink of beer and cool waters. In the Book of the Dead, the deceased king announces, I know the
names of the domains, the districts and the streams within the Garden of Hetep . . . there is given to me the
abundance . . .431 The Pyramid Texts depict the deceased king drinking oil and wine and living off the bread of
eternity and the beer of everlastingness.432
The Egyptians deemed the meadow of peace and plenty at once the ancestral land and the future home of those
yet to pass beyond. Many writers, of course, recognize the Garden of Hetep as an earlyperhaps the earliest
mythical expression of the lost paradise. Its underlying nature, however, has yet to be penetrated by the
conventional schools.
To anyone willing to consider the entire context of Egyptian evidence, it should be clear that the primeval land
produced by the creator and imbued with overflowing abundance was celestial. Those who attain the Garden of
Hetep reach the heaven of the creator. The deceased king in the Pyramid Texts goes to see his father Osiris.
He announces: I have gone to the great island in the midst of the Sekhtet Hetepet [Garden of Hetepet] on
which the swallow-gods alight; the swallows are the Imperishable Stars . . . I will eat of what you eat. I will
drink of what you drink, and you will give satiety to me at the pole . . . You shall set me to be a magistrate
among the Khu, the Imperishable Stars in the north of the sky, who rule over offerings and protect the reaped
corn, who cause this to go down to the chiefest of the food-spirits who are in the sky.433
Let us analyze this important text, which combines several Egyptian interpretations of the celestial garden. As
used above, the term Hetepet signifies abundance or food offerings. so that the Garden of Hetepet is the
Garden of Abundance or Garden of Food Offerings in heaven. Hetepet possesses a root sense of gathering
together or uniting (much like temt, collecting, gathering together), a meaning which is vital to the
symbolism as a whole.
Hetepet is, of course, inseparable from hetep, rest, standing in one place. The Garden of Hetepet is the
Garden of Hetep. One can reasonably speak of the Garden as the dwelling of rest and abundance (i.e., peace

and plenty), gathered together by the creator. The symbolism is, as I shall attempt to show, much deeper than
standard interpretations would suggest.
In the midst of the celestial garden is the great island, whose inhabitantsthe swallow-godsare the
Akhemu-Seku (never-corrupting ones), here translated as the Imperishable Stars. The Egyptians also called
these divinities Akhemu-Urtu (never-resting ones), conventionally identified as circumpolar stars who,
revolving around the polar axis, never sink beneath the horizon. But the foregoing text identifies these gods as
more than stars (in the modern sense of the word). They are the Khu (words of power or light spirits),
which erupted directly from the creator. There is a vast body of evidence to show that these secondary light
gods were themselves the abundant food or offerings of the celestial garden and that this is what the above
hymn means when it speaks of the food-spirits.
The flowing beer (or wine) and the field of grain (wheat, barley, corn) are, in fact, indistinguishable from the
primeval sea of words (secondary gods) which sprang from the creator and which the great god gathered
together to form the enclosure of the primeval islandhis own body. On the great island in the midst of the
Garden of Hetepet the fiery particles (Khu, Akhemu-Urtu) alighted, collectively forming the enclosure. If, in
one myth, the gods shining words congealed into the island, in another, the isle was produced from the
luminous grain of heaven. The words of power, the grain, and the company of the gods represented
interrelated mythical interpretations of the primeval matter ejected by the creator. In the imagination of the
Egyptians the creator collected the grain from the celestial field (sometimes called the Sekhet-Sasa or Field of
Fire), and produced the enclosure as the granary of the godsthe house of abundance which every king
hoped to attain upon death. The grain served as the dough from which the creator fashioned his dwelling; and
it is this crucial relationship which explains the interconnected meanings of the Egyptian term paut or pautti
signifying at once the primeval matter (company of gods) and dough or bread. The creator organized the
company of gods (the grain) into the revolving Cosmos, conceived as a celestial land of abundance.
primeval matter = creative words = secondary gods = grain of heaven (dough, bread)
In their ceremonies the Egyptians reenacted the creation on a microcosmic scale by fashioning ritual dough
cakes used in offerings to the dead. These cakes of paut symbolized the created land or earth, produced
from the overflowing grain of heaven. Thus, while the Egyptian ta means land, ta also means bread or
cakes. Such interrelated terminology pervades the Egyptian language. A review of this usage reveals two
consistent principles:
1. The lesser gods (children, servants, assistants) coincide with the doughthe beer and grain which erupted
from the creator. (Prior to unification as the land, or Cosmos, the fiery particles compose the sea of Chaos and
thus may be termed fiends or demons of darkness.)
2. The organized dwelling (land, city, place, domain) coincides with the granary and the molded
cake or bread of heaven.
Here are a few of the many examples:
The children of the great god are the pert, things which appear; but pert also means grain. The texts
describe the beer and grain (the children) as pert er kheru, appearing at [or as] the words of the creator. Thus,
while akhib means to speak, akhabu signifies grain, and the inhabitants of the heavenly dwelling are the
Akhabiu.
Similarly, seru means at once grain and princes or chiefs; both uses are inseparable from ser, to
command, and serui, flame. Properly understood the grain and the princes refer to the same fiery
material mythically perceived as the creators flaming commands.
Though heq signifies the ale or beer spit out by the creator, it also means to command.
If aut is radiance or glory (compare khu), the same word signifies abundance. But aut derives from au,
children. The abundant wheat and barleyi.e., the light spirits who glorify the creatorare brought forth as
the gods own offspring.
Henu means the servants of the great god, who go round about (hennui); but henu also denotes
abundance. The lush growth of the celestial abode is the hen, but the same word signifies the glory or

majesty of the ruling divinity. From the notion that the celestial lights glorify the creator, it is a very short
step to the idea that they praise him or sing prayers to him. Thus hen means also to praise.
Accordingly, the word tebhu means abundance but also prayers. (One should not attempt to distinguish the
prayers from the praying gods; those who glorify the great god are the glory.)
So also does senem mean, at once, abundance and to pray, adore.
While grain is shert, the related term sherriu signifies the little gods.
Fenkhu means abundance, but the same word denotes the inhabitants of the celestial land.
Ahau means food but also the dwellers in the land.
Hetepet means abundance, while the hetepetiu are the secondary gods. Khefa is food, but the Kheftiu are
the fiends of Chaos (eventually organized into the unified dwelling).
Betu means the grain or barley of heaven, but also the demons.
Just as the secondary gods compose the limbs or members of the central sun, so does the grain. An
Egyptian term for grain is atpet, manifestly derived from at, limb, and pet, heaven. The grain becomes
the limbs of heaven (or of the Heaven Man).
Thus nepu signifies limb or flesh, while neper means grain. The primeval abode is Nepert, i.e., the land
formed from the grain.
Gathered together by the creator, the grain becomes the enclosure of the primeval landthe granary or the
bread of the gods (symbolized by the dough cakes employed in the rites of the dead). Thus, while shen (

) denotes the bond or cord in which the great god dwells, shena means at once granary and body
(the gods body encompasses the grain). Shenti also means granary, but the same word signifies garment.
(The garmentbelt, girdle, collaris the organized band of grain.) Symbolizing this celestial enclosure are the
shens, or sacrificial cakes.
Peq is a name of the celestial land; and the great gods garment (=land) is peqt. But peqt also means the cake
of the gods.
Similarly, sesher is the gods garment, while seshert denotes the cake or bread of heaven.
Qefenu is a name of the gods dwelling, while qefen signifies the sacred cake.
Nes means both grain and fire. (The field of grain is the field of fire.) In the rites the grain is fashioned into
the nest or sacrificial cake. But nest also denotes the throne of the creator. (Creators throne = primeval land;)
The benet are light-spirits who accompany the creator. Helping to explain the term is the related word bennut,
signifying the matter or fluid which erupted from the solitary god. This primeval matter forms the sacred
cake, for cake or bread is bennu. Bener, a name of the created land, derives from the same root.
The food-spirits gathered together to form the primeval enclosure are the builders of the gods home. Thus,
the beer which flows from the creator is aqet, but aqet also denotes a builder or masoni.e., one of the
aqetu who fashion the celestial dwelling.
The language repeats the same connections again and again:
1. secondary light gods = celestial abundance (grain, beer, etc.)
2. unified dwelling of god = celestial abundance (grain, land, body, garment, beer, etc.) gathered into organized
form, i.e., as cake or bread.
It is clear that, in Egyptian ritual, the sacred cakes meant much more than mere bread. The cakes were
symbols of the great god and his creationthe Garden of Abundance. The celestial prototype of the cake was
the island of beginnings, which the creator organized from a previously chaotic sea of beer and grain. That
the Egyptians conceived the unified land or celestial bread as the body of the creator is crucial to the

symbolism; in eating the cake, or in drinking the sanctified beer, the initiates symbolically enjoyed the
abundance of the primeval age, or, what is the same thing, they consumed the body of the creator. (I shall not
distract from the present discussion by elaborating parallels in later religious symbolism.)
The interrelated terminology identifies the primeval ta, land, with the enclosure of the central sun
. The
Egyptians knew that the primeval garden lay within the circle of the Aten. (Thou makest thy creations in thy
great Aten, reads the Litany of Re.)434 Thus the Egyptians denoted the garden of Re by combining the Aten
glyph with the glyph for garden:

The significance of such imagery seems to have escaped mythologists: the lost homeland of global lore was
the original dwelling of the sun-god. Of the Egyptian han or homeland, Reymond writes: The Sun-God was
believed to operate from his birthplace . . . In its essential nature the primeval sacred domain was the very place
from which the Radiance issued first.435 This sacred domain was the island of ta, the celestial earth.
Egyptian sources term the created domain Neter-tathe Holy Land or Gods Earth. Here occurred the
primordial dawn. That is, it was from Neter-ta that the stationary sun shone forth. A hymn to Amen-Re, for
example, invokes the sun-god as the Beautiful Face, who comest [shines] from Neter-ta. 436 No wonder that
Egyptologists confuse this Holy Land with the terrestrial eastthe place of the solar sunrise!
The exact counterpart of the Egyptian Neter-ta is the Sumerian Dilmun, the clear and radiant dwelling of the
gods, ruled by the Universal Monarch Enki. Dilmun, according to Sumerian hymns, is the place where the sun
rises.437 And many thousands of miles from Mesopotamia the natives of Hawaii recall an ancestral land, Tahiti
Na, our peaceful motherland: the tranquil land of Dawn. 438 So also did the Hindus, Persians, Chinese, and
many American Indian tribes conceive the lost paradise as the place of the sunrise.439

The World Wheel

That Saturn, the primeval sun, first shed its light from the circle of the created earth will explain why the
celestial land often appears as a great wheel revolving around stationary sun. It may be called alternately the
world wheel, world mill, or chariot. And this turning wheel of the Holy Land is consistently represented
by the signs

and

Hindu descriptions of the cosmic wheel affirm that the ancient sun stands at the centre, as the Chakravartin or
wheel-turner. From the stationary pivot of the wheel, the Universal Monarch directs the movement without
participating in it himself, states Guenon.440
On the Buddhist iconography of the world wheel, Coomaraswamy writes: He whose seat is on the lotiform
nave or navel of the wheel, and himself unmoving sets and keeps it spinning, is the ruler of the world, of all that
is natured and extended in the middle region, between the essential nave and the natural felly. 441 The organized
world lies within the ever-turning rim
. The Buddhists regard this sacred domain as both an ancestral
442
paradise and the situation of the Goal, the heaven reached by the deceased.
Buddhist myths say that a plot of land congealed out of the cosmic waters to form a band around the great
father, becoming the golden wheel: The surface of these waters, just as in the Brahmanical cosmology and in
Genesis, is stirred by the dawn wind of creation. The foam of the waters solidifies to form the golden circle
(Kancana-mandala) or Land of Gold (Kancana-bhumi), the same as Hsuan-tsangs golden wheel and
representing the foundations of the earth . . . The surface of the Land of Gold is the Round of the World.443
That the world wheel stood at the stationary pole is confirmed by the Buddhist account of the primeval wheel
kingowner of a wheel whose steadfastness was the measure of his fitness to rule. He was a universal
king, a righteous king ruling in righteousness, lord of the four quarters of the earth. (The four quarters were
the four divisions of the wheel
.) The myth states not only that the revolving wheel remained in a stationary
position, but that a fall from its fixed place would mean the death of the ruler. If the Celestial Wheel of a

Wheel-turning king shall sink down, shall slip down from its place, that king has not much time to live . . . 444
That is, of course, exactly what happened: the wheel fell, the Universal Monarch died, and the world was
thrown into confusion.
One is reminded of the Zoroastrian world wheel called the Spihr. This ever-turning wheel was the body of
Zurvan, or Time, the planet Saturn. Throughout the primordial epoch, the wheel of the Spihr remained in one
spot; and its fall coincided with the collapse of the prosperous age.445
In many myths Saturns earth-wheel acquires the poetic form of an enormous mill churning out abundance. An
old Icelandic tradition, for example, knew the mill as the fabulous possession of Amlodhior Frodhi under whose
rule mankind enjoyed peace and prosperity. Recruited by Frodhi to work the mill were two giant maidens, who
day and night turned the massive wheel, grinding out gold and happiness. But like all fabled wheels, Frodhis
mill eventually broke down, causing the death of the great monarch.
As shown by de Santillana and von Dechend, Frodhi was the planet Saturn. 446 The authors (whose work is titled
Hamlets Mill) review widespread traditions of the cosmic millfrom Iceland to Finland to India to Greece
finding many unexpected connections with the same remote planet. (Not once, however, do the two writers
wonder whether the tradition of the Saturnian wheel may have originated in the actual observation of a band
around the planet.)
As the possession of the Universal Monarch, the mill lies in the farthest north and is regularly identified with
the pole or axis of the world. The Finnish Kalevala locates the mill (here called the Sampo) on a great rock
in North Farm, the polar garden of plenty. The hero Ilmarinen:
. . . forged the Sampo skillfully: on one side a grain mill, on the second side a salt mill, in the third a money
[i.e., gold] mill.
Then the Sampo ground away, the lid of many colours went round and round.447
This cosmic mill, too, broke down, bringing wholesale disorder. And if the Finnish Sampo is a late and fanciful
version of the mill, the linguists now recognize the Sampos connection with the older skambha of Hindu
ritual.448 In the Atharva Veda the Skambha (meaning pole) appears as the golden embryo and the frame of
creation, a mill-like edifice which poured forth the gold within the world. The Vedic hymn equates the mill
(Skambha) with the whole creation. The body of the Skambha houses the life elements and the gods; it is the
ancient one or great monster, whose veins are the four quarters of the world (i.e.,
). That the cosmic
mill is at once the Universal Monarchs body and the created paradise will immediately explain why, in the
general tradition, the collapse of the great wheel coincides with the death of the god-king and the sinking of the
lost land into the waters of the Abyss.
Nothing so confuses the underlying theme as the habit, begun long ago, of conceiving the primordial wheel, or
island of earth, in terrestrial terms. Could the landscape familiar to the ancients have produced the many
interrelated images of the turning wheel?

The One-Wheeled Chariot

The great god sits enthroned within the celestial earth as in a one-wheeled chariot. Thus, in Scandinavian rock
carvings the symbol
the universal sign of the world wheelmay either appear alone or as the wheel of a
celestial wagon. All ancient sun-gods seem to own such a wheel or chariot. The one-wheeled chariot of the
Hindu Surya clearly answers to the same cosmic form as the high-wheeled chariot of the Iranian Mithra. 449
An early form was the famous sun wheel of the Babylonian Shamash.

15. The wheel of Shamash, held in place by a cord

16. Triptolemus riding on a single wheel.

17. The wheel of Ixion.

18. Hebrew Yahweh on a single wheel.

Greek art depicts the great father Dionysus seated upon a one-wheeled chariot, much like that of the old god
Triptolemos. In the Astronomica of Hyginus one finds Triptolemos remembered as the first of all to use a
single wheel.450 Argive tradition held that the father of Triptolemos was Trochilos, he of the wheel, whom
some identified as the inventor of the first chariot. The Greeks of Chios knew the primeval god Gyrapsios, he
of the round wheel.451 Obviously, none of these wheels or wheel gods can be separated from the famous wheel
of Ixion, set loose in a celestial conflagration. The Hebrew Yahweh similarly sits upon a single wheel.
While modern commentators offer competing interpretations of the cosmic wheelthe chariot of the gods
few stop to notice the link with Saturn. Cook, for example, after a prolonged study of ancient wheel symbolism,
acknowledges Kronos (Saturn) as the old wheel or disk bearer, but is not inclined to draw any conclusions
from this.452 The inventor of the wheel, or chariot, was the now-distant planet. This is what the Chinese tell
us when they report that the god-king Huang-ti, who is identified with the planet Saturn, was the first to use the
wheeled chariot. In more than one of the illustrations presented here the cosmic wheel serves as the throne of
the ruling god. LOrange calls this the throne chariot, noting many examples in the ancient Near East. 453 One
of the divinities to sit upon such a chariot (or wheel-throne) is the Hebrew Yahweh, whose seat is the wheel of
the throne of his glory.454 (The gods revolving throne is the circle of glorythat is, his own halo.)
If later art showed the god on the wheeled seat, the original motif has the god in it, for the throne revolves
around the god. Here, for example, is a verse from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, revealing a little noticed
aspect of the cosmic throne: O my Seat, O my Throne, come ye to me, and go ye round about me, O ye gods. I
am a sah [luminous body], therefore let me rise up [shine] among those who follow [go around] the great
god.455 When the deceased king attains the celestial throne he stands within the revolving circle of the gods, the
followers of the central sun. The Edfu texts call this the throne-of-gods, for the divine assembly itself forms
the wheel of the throne.456

19. The Celtic god of the wheel.

20. Anglo-Saxon Seater, with wheel.

Denoted by the throne or wheel-throne is the plot of ta, land, which first emerged from the cosmic sea. The
creator brought forth the revolving circle of earth as his primeval seat. Reymond writes: The Earth was
caused to emerge from Nun by virtue of the radiance of the Sun-God who was believed to dry up the water
around his primeval seat.457 This plot of created earth was the han or homeland, which the texts call neset,
the throne.458
The implications reach far beyond Egypt and bear directly on the wide-ranging myths of cosmic chariots and
primeval mills noted above. What one usually regards as two separate themesthe chariot of the sun and the
world wheelconverge in a single image: the wheel of Saturn, the primeval sun. That the ancients denoted
the sun wheel and the created earth by one and the same sign

was no coincidence.

The City of Heaven

The Saturn myth tells us not only that the planet-god ruled the Holy Land as the first king but that he founded
the first city. Saturns city means Saturns Earth.
The great god lives
fixed in the middle of the sky . . .
dweller in the city.459
This is the pronouncement of the Egyptian Coffin Texts. The cosmic city is the Primeval Place: I have come to
this city, the region of the First Time to be . . . a dweller in this land. 460 Thus the Egyptians invoke a
celestial Memphis, the divine emerging primeval island; a celestial Thebes, the island emerging in Nun
which first came into being; a celestial Hermonthes, the high ground which grew out of Nun, or the egg
which originated in the beginning461; a celestial Elephantine, the city in the midst of the waters, or the
throne of Re462; and a celestial Abydos, the ta-ur or Great (Primeval) Land.463
The integrated symbolismthough at times complexnever departs from the underlying idea of an enclosure
around the central sun. The imagery concerns the original state of the world, rather than a terrestrial city,
states Clark.464 Depicted is the city of the dawn or of the suns coming forth. The tradition is universal.
Mention Erech and historians naturally think of the ancient city in southern Mesopotamia. But the Erech
invoked in the ritual is no terrestrial habitation. It is:
Erech, the handiwork of the gods,
The great wall touching the sky,
The lofty dwelling place established by Anu.465

The creator An (Anu)who is the planet Saturndwelt in the uru-ul-la, the city of former timesnot a city
on earth but the embryo of the Cosmos, according to Van Dijk.466 Ruling from the midst of heaven, An shines
as the hero of the sacred city on high. 467 This is the city founded by An . . . Place where the great gods dine,
filled with radiance and awe . . .468 The hymns call it the great city, and the place where the sun rises.469
All Mesopotamian traditions describe the celestial city as the original garden of abundancethe dais of plenty
. . . the pure place . . . Its heart like a distant shrine . . . Its feasts flow with fat and milk, are rich with
abundance.470
Thus did the Sumerians recall the lost land of Dilmun as the primeval city:
Dilmun, the city thou hast founded . . .
Lo, thy city drinks water in abundance.
Lo, Dilmun drinks water in abundance.471
Egyptian and Mesopotamian descriptions of the cosmic city make clear that this habitation was the same
enclosure as the lost paradise, and the identity persists in Hebrew and Muslim thought, which continually
associates Adams paradise with a cosmic Jerusalem. The light of the Jerusalem above was provided by God
himself. And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure fold, like unto glass. 472 One of
the Psalms glorifies the celestial Jerusalem as Sublime in elevation in the uttermost north . . . the City of the
King.473 The heavenly city lay at the cosmic centre; it was the first thing created by God; and it was surrounded
by the primeval sea. The image, observes Faber, is plainly borrowed from the garden of Eden.
The Hebrews also preserved the tradition of a primordial city of Tyre, similarly identified with Eden. 474 In
Ezekiel we read:
O Tyre, you have said,
I am perfect in beauty.
Your borders are in the heart of the seas . . .
You were in Eden, the garden of God;
every precious stone was your covering.475
This equation of the cosmic city and the original paradise finds numerous parallels in other traditions. The
Persian vara fashioned by Ahura Mazda is at once the first city and the lost paradise. 476 The all-containing city
of Brahma at the pole merges into the paradisal plain of Ila; 477 the Imperial City of the Chinese Shang-ti
coincides with the mythical paradise of Kwen-lun;478 while the Mexican lost city of Aztlan (surrounded by
waters) and the Mayan lost city of Tula (the enclosure in the sea) both appear as gardens of abundance.479
A coherent pattern unifies what are often assumed to be unrelated myths and symbols: the created earth, the
lost paradise, the wheel of the sun, the revolving throne, and the cosmic city. While the mythical formulations
vary, all point to the same band housing the central sun.
Surely it is of significance that, while these images are often dissociated in later myths, they constantly overlap
in the earliest versions. The Aztecs may have forgotten that the lost city was the throne of the creator; and
perhaps many Greek cults no longer remembered that the Island of the Blessed was the turning wheel of the
sun, but such connections are central to the worlds oldest cosmologies.
The interrelationships are clearly evident in the image of the mother goddess, who unites in a single personality
the varied aspects of the celestial earth: paradise, wheel, throne, and city.
The Egyptian great motherwhether called Isis, Nut, Hathor, Mut, or Neithis nebt en neter ta, the Lady of
the Holy Land or the Lady of Gods Earth. The island of earth, according to the Pyramid Texts, lies
between the thighs of Nut.480 If one permits the Egyptian concept to illuminate later symbolism of the
mother earth one sees that the supposed distinction between earth goddesses and sky goddesses lacks
foundation. Gods Earth means Saturns Earth, and this mother land, circumscribed by the womb of the
goddess, is the enclosure of the central sun

Nor can one fail to notice that the hieroglyph for the goddess Nut
the holy abodeis the form of a
wheel and an obvious prototype of the world wheels so common to Eastern symbolism. Isis, in the classical
age, was also symbolized by a wheel.481
Mesopotamian cults represented the goddess Ishtar, the womb, by a wheel. The Hindu goddess Rta is the
wheel of law controlling the cosmic cycle, while the goddess Ila personifies the chakra or world wheel. The
name of the Celtic goddess Arianrhod means silver wheel. One is reminded also of the iynx wheel of
Aphrodite and the wheels of Tyche, Nemesis, and Fortuna, all of which appear to reflect a common idea. As the
stable, ever-turning circle of the Cosmos, the goddess eventually became the abstract wheel of Mother
Nature.482
And when one realizes that the wheel served as the great fathers revolving throne it can come as no surprise to
discover that, in the archaic terminology, throne and goddess are synonymous. The seated great mother,
states Neumann, is the original form of the

21. The goddess Nemesis, with wheel of fate.

enthroned goddess, and also of the throne itself. As mother and earth woman the Great Mother is the throne
pure and simple . . . The king comes to power by mounting the throne and so takes his place on the lap of the
Great Goddess, the earthhe becomes her son.483
In the Hindu kingship rites reviewed by Hocart, the king is made to sit on a throne which represents the
womb.484 But the identity of the throne and womb is as old as human language: the Egyptian hieroglyph for
Isis, the womb of heaven, is a simple throne

But the same mother goddess encloses the cosmic city. The determinative of city in the Egyptian hieroglyphs
is simply the sign of the holy abode
, the goddess Nut. The Pyramid Texts invoke the goddess, in this
your name of settlements, . . . in this your name of City. 485 while the Book of the Dead extols the great
mother as Lady of terrors, lofty of walls.486
The Egyptian city-goddess finds a close parallel in the Babylonian goddess Ura-azaga, whose name means
brilliant town.487 Tyro, the mother goddess of the Tyrians, gave the Greeks their word tyrsis, walled city.488
To enter the celestial city is to find shelter in the primeval womb. Thus the refuge of Delphi is the womb and
Jerusalem the city of the heavenly womb.489

In the New Testament (Book of Revelation) one finds a fascinating equation of primeval goddess and primeval
city. In his vision, John beholds the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the
earth have committed fornication . . . and upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON
THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. Who was this
mother of harlots? The angel explains: And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth
over the kings of the earth.490 The language points to the ancient rites of kingship, in which every local ruler
took as his consort the city (womb) on the cosmic waters.
In ranging over the myths and symbols of the created earth, paradise, wheel, throne, and city, one thus remains
in the shadow of a single mother goddess, who contains within her womb the first organized domain in heaven,
the island of Saturns Cosmos

The Enclosure as Prototype

In dealing with the myths and symbols of the Holy Land one must reckon with the distinctionnot always
spelled out in ancient literaturebetween the celestial prototype and the terrestrial copy. Every sacred kingdom
or city derives its character from the primeval dwelling, so that whatever was said of the enclosure above was
also said of the imitative form constructed by men.
From the concordant testimony of all the traditions, writes Guenon, a conclusion emerges very clearly: the
affirmation that there exists a Holy Land par excellence, prototype 491 of all other Holy Lands, the spiritual
centre to which all other centres are subordinated.
Through identification, the sacred history of the race or nation merges with the history of the gods, for each
organized community viewed itself as a duplication of the celestial race. Each line of historical kings leads
back to a first king who is not a man, but Saturn, the supreme power of heaven; in the same way, the race as a
whole traces its ancestry to a generation of gods or semidivine beings who inhabited the earth raised in the
creation. By this universal tendency, Saturns paradise becomes the ancestral land, the place where history
began. Does not every nation claim that its ancestors descended from a race of gods, who occupied a happy
garden at the centre and summit?
It was with the utmost seriousness that the ancients laid out their first political settlements, taking the cosmic
habitation as the prescribed plan. The purpose was to establish Saturns kingdom on earth, repeating the
creators defeat of Chaos and founding a central authority whose power extended to a protective border
separating the kingdom of light from the powers of darkness and disorganization (the barbarians).
Accordingly, the first sacred cities were organized as circular enclosures around the ruling lord. Ritual
requirements superseded practical considerations, and even when geography and growth prevented or distorted
the purely circular form, the sacred city was still conceived as a revolving enclosure. Symbolically, every
Egyptian city lay within the shield or protective border of Nut (the Great Protectoress). The Babylonian map
shows the land as a circle around a centre. Here, concludes Eliade, the earthly abode is the counterpart
(mehret) of the heavenly abode.492
Hebrew thought repeatedly insists that the terrestrial Jerusalem was but a likeness of the city first constructed
by God. A celestial Jerusalem was created by God before the city was built by the hand of man . . . The
heavenly Jerusalem kindled the inspiration of all the Hebrew prophets, observes Eliade. 493 The distinction
between the local and the primordial city receives emphatic statement in the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch,
when God asks, Dost thou think that this is that city of which I said: On the palms of my hands have I graven
thee? This building now built in your midst is not that which is revealed with me, that which was prepared
beforehand here from the time when I took counsel to make Paradise . . . 494 (Again, note the equation of the
cityJerusalem and paradise.)
Equally clear is the primacy of the archetypal city in Hinduism, according to Eliade. All the Indian royal cities,
even the modern ones, are built after the mythical model of the celestial city, where, in the age of gold ( in illo
tempore), the Universal Sovereign dwelt . . . Thus, for example, the palace fortress of Sigiriya, in Ceylon, is
built after the model of the celestial city Alakamanda and is hard of ascent for human beings495

Symbolically, each Hindu settlement stood within the mandala or circle, delineating a consecrated space
magically protected from the invading forces of disintegration. 496 The sanctified area, observes Tucci, by the
line of defense which circumscribes it, represents protection from the mysterious forces that menace the sacred
purity of the spot . . . This protective circle is above all, a map of the cosmos.497
As documented by LOrange, the circle around a centre was the ideal form of sacred cities in the Near East, as
typified by the residential cities of Darabjird and Firuzabad, whose circular form served as a precedent for the
Round City of Baghdad. The ideal pattern derived from the ancient conception of the Cosmos, states
LOrange.498
The same symbolism attaches to the Roman mundusa trench dug around the spot on which a new city was to be
built. The enclosure served as a protective bond, ordaining the city as a renewal of the primeval homeland. 499 In
the old documents the Roman cities were the urbes, from orbis, round.500
The consistent pattern of the sacred territory shows the influence of a universal prototype. Yet few researchers
take the prototype seriously. When the creation myths speak of a primordial Heliopolis, Erech, or Jerusalem, the
analysts think only of the terrestrial city. One can, with far greater assurance, insist that the local habitation
never produces, on its own, a cosmic myth of any kind.
In Egypt, it is the primeval sun who rules the original Heliopolis, Memphis, Thebes, Herakleopolis, just as it is
the primeval sun who governs as the first king of Egypt as a whole. The city and kingdom repeat, on different
scales, the same history and this fact alone is sufficient to show that the history is not local but universal. If
the myths say that Egypt was gathered together from the primeval matter, forming an island around the sun,
they say the same of the sacred city, whatever its name.501
That the ancients often forgot the distinction between their own city or kingdom and the celestial prototype was
a natural result of the inseparable bond between the two. The local habitation inherited the mythical character of
the celestial, so that the divergent actual histories of ancient nations lead back to one universal history.
It is in this sense that one must understand the legends of the first kings and primeval generations. Many
Egyptian texts, for example, refer to a remote time in which the land was ruled by the followers of Horus. An
inscription of a King Ranofer (just prior to the Middle Kingdom) recalls the time of your (fore)fathers, the
kings, Followers of Horus. A text of Thutmose I speaks of great fame the like of which was not seen in the
annals of the ancestors since the Followers of Horus. The Turin Papyrus places this primeval generation prior
to the first historical king, Menes.502
Did these mythical ancestors actually rule terrestrial Egypt? In truth the Followers of Horus means, not a
generation of mortals, but the assembly of the gods. The ancestors were the light-spirits of the celestial city,
encircling and protecting the central sun. Just as the myths translate the Universal Monarch into the first king of
Egypt, so also do they express the god-kings companions as a primeval race from which all Egyptian nobility
might claim descent. Every Holy Land on our earth was assimilated to the same celestial kingdom and every
race to the same generation of gods.

The World Navel

Through identification with Saturns dwelling, each terrestrial kingdom or city of antiquity distinguished itself
as the Middle Place, the centre from which history took its start. Symbolically each local Holy Land became the
omphalos or navel of the world.
Thus, the mythic navel constitutes a global motif of archaic symbolism. As documented in the separate studies
of Roscher and Muller,503 the ancient cities of Babylon and Nineveh (as well as Baghdad), Jerusalem, Hebron
Bethel, Shechem, and the entire land of Palestine; numerous Greek cities (including Athens); the Muslim city of
Mecca; and countless other cities of Asia and Europe were styled the navel or the centre of the earth.
Just as the Egyptians conceived their land as the middle-earth (Aguipte). the Chinese proclaimed their empire
to be the Kingdom of the Middle. 504 Early Japanese sources call Japan the centre of the earthor the middle
kingdom of the reed plain, while the Mongolians regard their home as the Middle Place. 505 Peoples of
northern Siberia know the Yenisei as the centre of the world, 506 Ireland was once the kingdom of the Mide or
Middle.507

In faraway Easter Island the natives speak of their land as the navel. 508 And in the Americas, the Zuni call (or
once called) their town the Middle Place; the Inca city of Cuzco signified the navel of the earth 509; so also
did the Chickasaw of Mississippi regard their territory as the centre of the earth.510
The reader may respond: isnt it perfectly natural that a people, seeing other lands and nations distributed
around them, would come to regard their own as the centre? This is, of course, a common explanation of the
universal habit. On closer examination, however, it becomes clear that the concept of the world navel reflects
something more than narrow vision or tribal arrogance.
The acknowledged religious centre of the Greeks was Delphi, on the steep slopes of Mount Parnassus. Here
was located the omphalos (navel), revered as the Seat of Apollo and the centre of the earth. But among the
Greeks, Delphi was not alone in claiming distinction as the omphalos. Similar claims were made for world
navels in the Peloponnesus, at Elis, at Thessaly, and at Crete. Both the Aetolians and Epirotes were called
omphalians or people of the navel.511
Many competing seats of Apollo appear as the omphalos, according to Roscher.512 Rather than suggest narrowmindedness, such repeated claims confirm a consistent memory: from high antiquity the idea must have been
passed down that Apollos throne occupied the centre. All local shrines certainly shared this tradition. But one
must not mistake the imitation for the original. Just as one might say of Apollos statue, This is the god
Apollo, without intending a literal identification, so could the cult worshippers say of the local shrine, This is
the throne of Apollo at the earth navel. That the statement comes from more than one locality only reinforces
the general tradition. The truth was observed by W. T. Warren long ago when he declared Delphi to be a
memorial shrine, an attempted copy of the great original.513
Clearly, the great originalthe gods primeval homewas not of our earth. Apollo, the polar sun, was not
the only god to occupy this centre. In Mexico, a Nahuatl hymn extols the god Ometeotl as:
Mother of the Gods, Father of the Gods,
the old God
distended in the navel of the earth,
engaged in the enclosure of turquoise
He who dwells in waters the colour of the bluebird.514
A Babylonian hymn located the god Ea at the centre of the earth:
The path of Ea was in Eridu, teeming with fertility.
His seat (there) is the centre of the earth;
his couch is the bed of the primeval
mother.515
Similarly, the Egyptian Osiris sits in judgement on the Primeval Mound, which is in the middle of the world,
states Clark.516 In the ancient account of Sanchuniathon, the great god El (Kronos/Saturn) acquires supremacy
in a certain place in the center of the earth.517
The earth navel, in the original tradition, is the inaccessible dwelling at the cosmic summit which is why the
Hindus could say of the fire god Agni,518 He is the head and summit of the sky, the centre [Nabhi, navel] of the
earth. Hebrew and Muslim thought constantly identifies the throne of Yahweh and Allah with the navel of the
earth, but this navel is above, for the Muslim text states of the Kaba, or earth navel: Know that the centre of
the earth, according to a tradition on the authority of the Prophet, is the Kaba: it has the significance of the
navel of the earth, because of its rising above the level of the earth.519
Another source relates, Tradition says: the polestar proves the Kaba is the highest situated territory; for it lies
over against the centre of heaven.520 Both Jerusalem and Mecca, as earth navels, lie at the cosmic summit.
The centre of the earth and the pole of heaven, both are intimately connected with the throne, observes
Wensinck.521
Similarly, Gnostic traditions surveyed by Jung consider the polar region both the seat of the highest gods and
the navel of the world.522 That the Greek omphalos received the appellation axis indicates an obvious
connection with the pole.523

In all of these traditions, of course, one has to contend with the confusion between the celestial earth and what
we call earth today. It can hardly be doubted that ancient races eventually came to use the phrase world
navel in connection with the terrestrial landscape. The original concept of the navel, however, is not
complicated by ambiguous meanings of the earth. In the original tradition, the created earth is the navel, pure
and simple; Saturns Cosmos appeared as a central enclosure or navel of dry ground rising from the
primordial waters. So it is not surprising to find that the symbol of the navel was the enclosed sun
, the sign
of the world wheel. The concentric circles or the dot-in-circle denoted, in the Mediterranean area, the
omphalos, the navel of the earth, states Butterworth.524 (Thus, in organizing their sacred cities in the form of a
wheel the ancients expressed the cities character as navel.
The enclosed sun
, according to Neumann, served as the life symbol of the womb-navel-centre. 525 It
would be difficult to improve upon this definition. To reside within the life-containing navel is to dwell in the
womb of the mother goddess, for the omphalos, as discerned by Uno Holmberg, is the representative of the
Great Mother not only in classical symbolism but in Hindu and Altaic ritual also.526
Hence Delphi, the Greek omphalos. signifies the womb.527 The spouse of Hercules is Omphale, the female
personification of the omphalos.528 In the same way, Hindu ritual constantly identifies the mystic yoni or
womb with the navel: Agni is born from the yoni or navel of the earth,529 while Brahma is the navelborn.530
Such symbolism connects the famous navel with the primeval enclosure. Saturns band, marking out the stable,
revolving island which appeared in the cosmic waters, came to be remembered as the cosmic centrewhere
mythical history began.

The Ocean
Many ancient traditions describe a circular ocean or river girdling the earth.
The gods, according to the Norse creation legend, made the vast ocean, in the midst of which they fixed the
earth, the ocean encircling it as a ring. 531 By the Greek Okeanos, the whole earth is bound. 532 The
Babylonians said of the nether river, all earth it encloses. 533 Hebrew and Arabic cosmologies, according to
Wensinck, hold that the whole of the earth is round and the ocean surrounds it like a collar.534
In spite of the widespread belief, certain classical writers grew skeptical. Of the famous ocean-stream the
historian Herodotus announced: For my part, I cannot but laugh when I see numbers of persons drawing maps
of the world without reason to guide them; making, as they do, the Ocean-stream to run all round the earth.535
Or again: The boundaries of Europe are quite unknown, and there is not a man who can say whether any sea
girds it round either on the north or on the east. 536 Such was the inevitable conclusion of historians and
philosophers, once the world or earth lost its original cosmic meaning and passed into a figure of
geography. Even today conventional treatments of the mythical ocean perpetuate the misunderstanding.
The cynics overlooked a most significant point: originally, the ocean encircled the creator as a girdle: Okeanos
was no terrestrial river, but the belt around the cosmic deity.537 The land which the ocean enclosed was the
dwelling of the gods. Hesiod, for example, in his description of the shield of Hercules (an acknowledged figure
of the Cosmos) identifies the ocean as the rim of the shield, enclosing a celestial paradise.
The shield was a wonder to see, for its whole orb was a-shimmer with enamel and white ivory and electrum,
and it glowed with shining gold. Within the shields protective enclosure dwelt the great god and the lesser
divinities: There also was the abode of the gods, pure Olympus, and their assembly, and infinite riches were
spread around in the gathering of the deathless gods. The inhabitants of this circular land above celebrated a
continual festival, for here grew grapes and corn in abundance. And around the rim, writes Hesiod, Ocean
was flowing, with a full stream as it seemed, and enclosed all the cunning work of the shield.538
As in the case of the world navel, the imagery makes sense only when one understands the created earth as
the dwelling of the great god himself.

Egyptian sources remove all possible doubt as to the celestial character of the encircling stream. The Coffin
Texts say of the Father of the Gods: the river around him is ablaze with light. 539 The same circular river is
called a lake of fire. Re appears as ami-mer-nesert, he who is in his fiery lake; while the throne of Horus is
the Lake of Double Fire.540
Actually, the Egyptian ocean or lake is simply the Tuat, the dwelling of Osiris or Re: 541 This is the lake which
is in the Tuat . . . This lake is filled with barley [i.e., grain, abundance]. The water of the lake is fire.542
Containing the fiery waters of the Abyss, the celestial river or lake encircled the world. The Pyramid Texts
invoke:
The Great Circle, in your name of Great Surround,
an enveloping ring, in the Ring that encircles the
Outermost Lands,
A Great Circle in the Great Round of the
Surrounding Ocean.543
In the Egyptian symbolism this watery circle is the band of the enclosed sun
the band which circumscribed
the outermost limit of the cosmic dwelling. The ocean in the above text is the Shen-ur, or the great Shen. In
the Egyptian language the shen bond or cord (
,
) signifies at once the band of the Aten and ocean or
river. One can properly term this circle of water the river of the cosmic bond or the ocean of the cord.
Pointing to the same interrelationships is the Egyptian word nut. Nut, the goddess, is the female personification
of the Cosmos or shen bond; but nut also denotes stream, river, sea. The encircling river, as the border of
the Holy abode (nut), thus gives rise to the phrase the ocean, the border of Nut. 544 That nut further means
cord and city only confirms the integrated symbolism.
In none of this symbolism is there any suggestion of a terrestrial ocean. As detailed by Reymond, the primeval
waters form an enclosure around the resting place of the great god perhaps resembling the channel which was
made around sacred places later on.545 Encircled by the celestial river, the province of beginning becomes the
island in the stream,546 or the pool. (See, for example, the pool of Hermopolis; the celestial Abydos was
the pool of Maati.)547
The mythical waters are inseparable from the primeval matter or company of gods which exploded from the
creator, subsequently to be gathered into the circle of glory (khut). The radiant godsor Primeval Ones
revolved around the border of the cosmic ocean or lake, for the Egyptians, according to Reymond, imagined
that, after the phases of the primary creation were completed, these Primeval Ones lived in the vicinity of the
pool . . . Their resting place, however, is portrayed as of the most primitive appearance: the bare edges of the
pool.548 The gods occupy the border and revolve around it, as confirmed by the Book of the Dead: Hail, say
these gods who dwell in their companies and who go round about the Turquoise Pool.549
Not in Egypt alone does the cosmic ocean form the band of the enclosed sun
description of the Engur or river around the motionless lord Enki:

. Here is a Sumerian

Thou River, creatress of all things,

When the great gods dug thee, on thy bank they placed mercy.
Within thee Ea, King of the Apsu, built his abode.
They gave thee the Flood, the unequalled.
Fire, rage, splendour, and terror . . .
O great River, far-famed River . . .550
These are the waters of the cosmic sea Apsuthe waters which are forever collected together in the deep,551
corresponding to the Egyptian dwelling gathered together by the creator. The oldest image of this encircling

river or ocean is the ancient Sumerian sign for Kis (the all, the complete land, the Cosmos):
. The band in
this sign, according to Jeremias, represents the encircling ocean, the same river that is depicted encircling the
earth (Cosmos) in the Babylonian world map. 552 Like the Egyptian ocean the revolving stream forms the
border of the celestial land.
As the womb of primeval birth, the Sumerian Engur, River, provides a close parallel to the Egyptian goddess
Nut. Indeed, like Nut, the Sumero-Babylonian river goddess was conceived as the unifying cord. The waters of
Engur (Apsu) compose the tarkullu, rope, or the markasu, band, bond, holding together the created
Cosmos.553 Like the Egyptians, the Sumero-Babylonians recalled the enclosure of the cosmic ocean as that
which gave birth to the primeval sun. The god who illuminates the interior of the Apsu is Ninurta, the planet
Saturn.554

VI. The Enclosed Sun-Cross

The Four Rivers of Paradise
And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four
heads.555 So reads the Book of Genesis. The four rivers of Adams paradise, according to many Hebrew and
early Christian accounts, flowed in opposite directions, spreading to the four corners of the world.556
The tradition is apparently universal. The Navaho Indian narration of the Age of Beginnings speaks of an
ancestral land from which the inhabitants were driven by a great catastrophe. Among the occupants of this
remote home, some say, were First Man and First Woman. Most interesting is the means by which the land
was watered: In its centre was a spring from which four streams flowed, one to each of the cardinal
points . . .557
The Chinese paradise of Kwen-lun, adorned with pearls, jade, and precious stones, lay at the centre and zenith
of the world. In this happy abode stood a central fountain from which flowed in opposite directions 558 the four
great rivers of the world.559
Four rivers appear also in the Hindu Rig Veda: the noblest, the most wonderful work of this magnificent one
[Indra], is that of having filled the bed of the four rivers with water as sweet as honey. 560 The Vishnu Purana
identifies the four streams with the paradise of Brahma at the world summit. They, too, flow in four
directions.561
Iranian myth recalls four streams issuing from the central fount Ardvi Sura and radiating in the four directions.
Similarly, the Kalmucks of Siberia describe a primordial sea of life and fertility, with four rivers flowing
toward the four different points of the compass.562
The tradition is repeated by many other nations. The Mandaeans of Iraq enumerate four great rivers flowing
from the north.563 Just as the Babylonians recalled the land of the four rivers, 564 the Egyptians knew Four
Niles, flowing to the four quarters. 565 The home of the Greek goddess Calypso, in the navel of the sea,
possessed a central fountain sending forth four streams, flowing each in opposite directions.566
In the Scandinavian Edda, the worlds waters originate in the four streams flowing from the spring Hvergelmir
in the land of the gods,567 while Slavic tradition recalls four streams issuing from under the magic stone Alatuir
in the island paradise of Bonyan. 568 Brinton finds the four mystic rivers among the Sioux, Aztecs, and Maya,
just as Fornander discovers them in Polynesian myth.569
The lost land of the four rivers presents a particularly enigmatic theme for conventional mythology because
few, if any, of the nations possessing the memory can point to any convincing geographical source of the
imagery. When the Babylonians invoke Ishtar as Lady, Queen of the land of the Four Rivers of Erech, 570 or
when an Egyptian text at Dendera celebrates the Four Niles at Elephantine, one might expect the familiar
landscape to explain the usage. But wherever the mythical four rivers appear, they possess the character of an
ideal land, in contrast to actual geography.
The reason for this disparity between the mythical and terrestrial landscapes is that the four rivers flowed, not
on our earth, but through the four quarters of the polar homeland. To what aspect of Saturns kingdom might
the mythical rivers refer?
For every dominant mythical theme there are corresponding signs (though this truth is still to be acknowledged
by most authorities). The signs of the four rivers are the sun-cross
and the enclosed sun-cross
, the
latter sign illuminating the former by showing that the four streams belong to the primeval enclosure. Issuing
from the polar centre (i.e., the central sun), the four rivers flow to the four corners of Saturns Earth.
The sign of the enclosed sun-cross
, observes Cirlot, expresses the original Oneness (symbolized by the
centre), and the four radii . . . are the same as the four rivers which well up from the fons vitae . . .571

But if one myth identifies the arms of the sun-cross

as four paradisal rivers, there are other interpretations
of the cross as well, for this primal image produced a wide-ranging and coherent symbolism, as I shall now
attempt to show.

The Crossroads
From Saturn, the central sun, flowed four primary paths of light. In the myths these appear as four rivers, four
winds, four streams of arrows, or four children, assistants, or light-spirits bearing the Saturnian seed (the life
elements) through the four quarters of the celestial kingdom.
The sun-cross
and enclosed sun-cross
signs of the Holy Land.

, depicting the four life-bearing streams, thus serve as universal

The modern world is accustomed to think of the four quarters in terrestrial terms. Today we conceive north,
east, west, and south only in relationship to our own position or to a fixed geographical reference point.
Chicago is west of New York and east of Omaha, and to the modern mind the four corners of the world
only serves as a vague metaphor for the entire globe.
To the ancients, however, the Four Corners of the World possessed explicit meaning; originally, the phrase
referred not to geography but to cosmography, the map of the celestial kingdom, laid out in the polar heaven.
One of the few scholars to recognize this quality of the mythical four corners was ONeill: It results from
any full study of the myths, symbolism, and nomenclature of the Four Quarters that these directions were
viewed in the strict orthodoxy of heavens mythology, not as the NSEW of every spot whatever, but four
heavens-divisions spread out around the pole.572
The sun-cross
, as the symbol of the four quarters, belongs to the central sun. In sacred cosmography the
central position of the sun-god becomes the fifth direction. To understand such language, it is convenient to
think of the mythical directions (or arms of the cross) as motions or flows of energy. From the great god the
elements of life flow in four directions. The god himself, who embodies all the elements, is firm, steadfast,
or resting; his fifth motion is that of rotation while standing in one place.
The directions can also be conceived as regions: the central (fifth) region and the four quarters spaced around it.
This is why the Pythagoreans regarded the number five as a representative of the fixed world axis. 573 The
Pythagorean idea clearly corresponds with the older Hindu symbolism of the directions. In addition to the
standard four directions, Hindu doctrine knows a fifth, called the fixed direction, the polar centre.574
In China, too, the pole is the immovable fifth direction, the central palace around which the cardinal points
are spaced.575 And in Mexico, Nahuatl symbolism asserts that five is the number of the centre.576
In the ideal kingdom of heaven the Universal Monarch stands at the centre, and all the elements of lifefire,
water, air, and seedflow from the god-king in four brilliant streams. Often interpreted as four sons of the
creator, the streams mark out the four quarters of the cosmic isle, or earth.
Let us consider first the Egyptian symbolism of the directional streams. According to the Egyptian creation
texts, the great god, standing alone, brought forth as his own speech the primeval matteror sea of
wordswhich congealed into an enclosure. The Egyptians associate this pouring out of the seed or life
elements with four luminous streams flowing from the central sun. The four emanations are the four sons of
Atum or the Four Sons of Horus, each identified with a quarter of the heavenly kingdom. 577 Importantly, the
Egyptians term these paths of light the Four Khu: they are the words of powerstreams of creative
speech coursing through the four divisions of organized space.
The Pyramid Texts call these the four blustering winds which are about you. 578 The Four Sons of Horus send
the four winds. In one source the four winds issue from the mouth of Amen. 579 In the Book of the Dead they
are the four blazing flames which are made for [or as] the Khu [words of power],580 while the Coffin Texts
invoke them as the four gods who are powerful and strong, who bring the water.581

The Egyptians also interpreted the four paths of light as arrows launched by the creator toward the four
quarters. (In hieroglyphs, the arrow means shaft of light.) It was an ancient practice of the Egyptian king, on
assuming the throne, to release an arrow, in each of the four directions, 582 thus reenacting the creation, or
organization of the celestial kingdom. The arrow is sat, which means to shoot, but also to pour out; for the
four arrows launched by the king signified the waters of life originally poured out by the creator, whom the
king personified. Sat also means to sow or to scatter seed abroad; which is to say, the four streams carried
to the four corners the creative seed of abundance. 583 By launching the four arrows the local king proclaimed
himself the Universal Monarch and sanctified his kingdom as a duplication of the primeval abode.
In Egypt the crossas the symbol of the four directional streamspossesses two important meanings. The
form

, un, signifies coming to life, for the directional streams shone forth with the daily birth of the

central sun (i.e., with the setting of the solar orb). In the form

(or

), ami, the cross means to be in or

to be enclosed byin reference to the unified space enclosed within the womb of the mother goddess

When certain Egyptologists first encountered the symbol of the goddess Nut
, they saw in it a pictorial
584
symbol of primitive Eden divided by the four-fold river. That conclusion would gain little credence among
modern Egyptologists, yet it is much closer to the truth than the bland explanations currently in fashion. The
four streams of life, emanating from the creator, coursed through the womb of Nut, the Holy Land. Thus the
deceased implores the goddess, Give me the water and the wind which are in thee.585
586
Another symbol of the holy abode is the sign
showing a cross of arrows superimposed upon a shield.
The glyph is precisely equivalent to the symbol of Nut
, for Nut, the Great Protectoress, was the cosmic
shield, and the four streams of life, enclosed within the womb of Nut, were the same as the shafts or arrows of
light launched toward the four corners.

The land of the four rivers was that which the creator gathered together from the sea of words, his own
emanation. The hieroglyphic symbol for to collect, gather together and for the unified land is

depicting the primeval enclosure (shen) divided into quarters by a cross of two flails. That the flail sign
,
in the Egyptian language, is read Khu, equates the flail-cross with the four streams of life (khu, words of
power) radiating from the central sun.
There is, in other words, a level of Egyptian symbolism that the specialists have yet to penetrate. Standard
treatments of the Egyptian Holy Land say little or nothing of the directional streams, though these powers are
vital to the symbolism as a whole. And one can be certain that the paths of light and life have nothing to do with
an ill-defined four quarters of our earth, where they are conventionally located. The four winds, or four rivers,
or four pathways, or four shafts of light (arrows) belonged to the lost land in heaven, and only through symbolic
assimilation to this cosmic dwelling did the terrestrial habitation share in the imagery.
A comparison of Egyptian cross symbolism with that of other lands reveals numerous parallels. The oldest
Mesopotamian image of divinity was the sun-cross
, symbol of the creator An, the planet Saturn. An, like
his counterparts around the world, brought forth and begat the fourfold wind within the womb of Tiamat, the
cosmic sea.587
The cult worshippers of Ninurta (Saturn) also represented their god by the cross. Hence, the cuneiform
ideograms for the fourfold saru, wind, and for mehu, storm windboth of which belong to Saturntake
the form of a cross (figs. 22 and 23). The Babylonian Saturn inaugurates the day, coming forth in splendour,
and this coming forth of Saturn means the coming forth of the four winds (as in Egypt), for the Akkadian umum
denotes both day and wind, just as the Sumerian signs UD and UG, both used for day, occur also in the
sense of wind.588 (The ancient Hebrew expression until the day blows conveys the same identity.)

22. Babylonian saru, wind.

23. Ideogram for mehu, or storm wind.

Saturns four winds mark out the quarters or directions of the Cosmos, Saturns kingdom. Cosmological texts
speak of the furious wind . . . commanding the directions:589 the Sumerian im and Akkadian saru, wind,
also signify region (or quarter) of heaven.590
As in Egypt, the Mesopotamian four winds coincide with the four rivers of life. Instead of the simple sign
,
591
some images show four streams of water radiating from the central sun (fig. 24) The best-known
Mesopotamian figure of these streams is the famous sun wheel of Shamash (a god also identified as Saturn).
Portrayed are four rays of light and four rivers flowing from the central god to the border of the wheel (fig. 15).

24. (a) Mycenaean four rivers symbol; (b) Four rivers symbol, Troy; (c) Babylonian image presenting the
arms of the sun-cross as four rivers.
Hrozny tentatively suggests that Shamashs cross was a sign for settlement. 592 With this suggestion one is
compelled to agree, for the first settlements, organized for a ritual purpose, imitated the heavenly abode. Each
sacred territory became the land of the four rivers and each ruler the king of the four quarters.
Geographical limitations did not prevent the Assyro-Babylonian priests from assimilating the map of their land
to the quartered circle of the primeval kingdom. Thus a text reproduced by Virolleaud locates the land of
Akkad, Elam, Subartu, and Amurru within the fourfold enclosure of the sun
Jeremias, has its paradise, which corresponds with the cosmic paradise.594
The land of the sun-cross

.593 Every land, states

lay within the primeval circle, and this fact will explain why the Babylonian sign

of the four kibrati or world quarters (i.e.,

) also denoted the interior or the enclosed space. 595 The

terminology offers a fascinating parallel to the Egyptian ami (

,
), to be in, to be enclosed by. To
dwell in the land of the four rivers is to occupy the Saturnian enclosure.596

The same overlapping interpretations of the four streams occur in Hindu symbolism. Here the cross and the
circle, according to one observer, represent the traditional abode of their primeval ancestors . . . And let us ask
what better picture or more significant characters in the complicated alphabet of symbolism could have been
selected for the purpose than a circle and a crossthe one to denote a region of absolute purity and perpetual
felicity, the other those four perennial streams that divided and watered the several quarters of it.597
The Hindu Holy Land lies within the world wheel, turned by the stationary sun at the centre. The spokes of the
wheel, delimiting the four quarters, have their foundation in the single centre which is Surya [the sun], notes
Agrawala.598
In the ritual of the Satapatha Brahmana the spokes of the wheel
become arrows launched in the four
directions and carrying the life elements to the four corners. The arrows sent in one direction are fire, those in
another are the waters, those in another are wind, and those in another are the herbs. 599 The Paippalada
or Kashmirian Artharva Veda terms the latter flow of arrows food. The idea seems to be that of abundance or
plenty radiating from the heart of the Cosmos (and thus answering to the four Egyptian arrows [sat]
transmitting the seed of abundance to the outermost limits of the kingdom). The Hindus symbolized these shafts
of light by setting afire the spokes of the sacred wheel.600

25. Hindu cross.

A pictorial image of the four streams occurs on ancient Hindu coins depicting the arms of the sun-cross as
arrows directed toward the four corners (fig. 25).
Every ancient Indian settlement reflected the primeval map of the Cosmos, its unified domain lying within the
sacred circle and its four primary streets answering to the celestial crossroads. The settlements organization
reenacted the creation. As noted by W. Muller, the Hindu sacred city duplicates the Cosmos in wood, brick and
stone: its axes [north-south; east-west] demarcate the four quarters of the universe.601
Muller finds the same concept of the quartered kingdom in Ceylon, Burma, Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Each sacred habitation appears as the celestial city of the king and each ruler as the wheel-king. State and
nation represent a quartered universe [Cosmos], writes Muller. Every image of the sacred settlement reflects
the image of the worldthe circle and cross.602
In China, the emperor stands symbolically at the pole, while ranged around him are the powers of the cardinal
points.603 The cosmic centre is chien, from which, to use Jungs phraseology, the four emanations go forth,
like the heavenly forces extending through space.604 At the chien, the centre, the four she or world quarters
converge.605
The ideal celestial organization finds expression in the ancient Chinese hieroglyph
. The sign, according
to C. Hentze, denotes the contree suburbaine or settlement around a centre.606 Is this not once more the
primeval place sustained by the outward flow of life (or arrows) from the central god?
LOrange, in his studies of cosmic symbolism in the Near East, notes that the great residential cities of
Ekbatana, Darabjird, and Firuzabad were patterned after the wheel of the Cosmos, with the king appearing at
the intersection of the crossroads. Wall and fosse are traced mathematically with the compass, as an image of
the heavens, a projection of the upper hemisphere on earth. The two axis streets, one running north-south and
the other east-west, divide the city into four quadrants which reflect the four quarters of the world. At the very
point of intersection, in the very axis of the world wheel, the palace is situated, here sits the king, The Axis and
Pole of the World, The King of the four Quadrants of the World . . .607

To this city of the wheel also corresponds the imagery of Jerusalem and Palestine. The terrestrial city and Holy
Land, in more than one medieval map, appear in the ideal form of a quartered circle
, for such was the
image of the Eden paradise, with its four directional streams. And this is why Solomon and Hezekiah, in
constructing works for the distribution of Jerusalems waters, sought to imitate the four rivers of paradise
even to the point of naming one stream Gihon (a river of Eden) and declaring that from beneath the temple
these streams flowed out over the whole world.608
The ancient Etruscans, followed by the Romans, looked to the same image of the fourfold Cosmos in laying out
the plan of the sacred city. The surveyors, according to W. Muller, sought to map out the terrestrial image of a
celestial prototype, and their division of the land into four regionsthe Roma quadratareflects a powerful
cosmological model: the quartered earth of the Roman world image.609
It is surely significant that all of the key features of the sun-cross
and the enclosed sun-cross
reviewed
above occur also in the Americas. Often the parallels are stunning. The Omaha Indians, for example, invoke the
Aged One:
. . . seated with assured permanency and endurance,
In the centre where converged the paths,
There, exposed to the violence of the four winds,
you sat,
Possessed with power to receive supplications,
Aged One . . .610
To reside at the intersection of the celestial crossroads
is to sit (rest) at the cosmic centre, the abode of
permanency and endurance. This centre is also the place where the four winds meet, for the four winds
and heavenly pathways are synonymous.
Burland relates that the symbol of the Mexican god Xiuhtechuhtlithe Old, Old One, the lord of the central
fire at the polewas a white cross of the Four Directions in the black background of the night.611
The Inca Yupanqui, writes Nuttall, raised a temple in Cuzco to the Creator who, superior to the sun [solar orb],
could rest and light the world from one spot. This central sun was represented by a cross.612
Indeed, the sun-cross is a symbol of the primeval god throughout the Americasfrom the Inca of Peru to the
Eskimos of Alaska. Wherever the New World symbolism can be examined in sufficient detail, one finds that the
cross possessed the same significance as in the Old World.
The best authorities tell us the native American sun-cross depicts the four windsconceived as visible, even
violent flows of life and energy from a central or stationary god. (That is, the winds are just the opposite of the
incongruous abstractions to which they have been reduced by so many mythologists.) The four winds are the
breath of the sun-god (as in ancient Egypt), bearing the seed of life from the centre to the four corners. Thus
the Mayan Ik means at once wind, breath, and life. Like the Egyptian streams of sat it is the causer of
germination.613
In Mexico, Quetzalcoatl, god of the Four Motions, was represented by the sun-cross, and this symbol explains
his title, Lord of the four winds. According to Nuttall, the cross had a deeper meaning than has been
realized, for it represents life-giving breath carrying with it the seeds of the four vital elements, emanating from
the central lord of life, [and] spreading to the four quarters . . .614
Also noted by Nuttall is the use of the cross in Copan, where it is associated with a figure in repose, occupying
the Middle, and four puffs of breath or air, laden with life-seeds, emanating from this.615
Just as the Egyptians personified the four emanations as four sons of the central god, so did the Mexicans.
From the supreme god Ometeotl issued the four Tezcatlipocas, the primordial forces which were to generate
the history of the world. The four sons corresponded to the four quarters of the world.616

26. Variations of the enclosed sun-cross in the Mississippi Valley.

27. Arapaho sign of the four winds.

The same powerscentral god and four emissionswere represented by the five Tlalocs, who, like the Mayan
Bacabs and Chacs, were set at four cardinal points and at the centre of the heavens. 617 From his dwelling at
the world summit Tlaloc sent forth the waters of the four quarters, often symbolized (as in Egypt and India) by
four vases. The gods who transmitted the waters to the four corners were the same as the gods of the four
winds.618
But there is an even more striking parallel with Old World symbolism: the four streams of light and life were
interpreted as arrows coursing in the four directions. In the Nahuatl language the word tonamitl means at once a
ray or shaft of light and the shining arrow. According to the chronicler Ixtlilxochitl, it was a native custom,
on consecrating a new territory619, to shoot with utmost force four arrows in the direction of the four regions of
the world. Thus did the priests sanctify the land as a renewal of the primeval kingdom, in exact accord with the
ancient Egyptian practice!
Consistent with the global iconography of the central sun, the American Indians revered the sun-cross

and

enclosed sun-cross
as emblems of the unified domain, the Holy Land. Among the Mexicans the cross and
the circle are a native symbol for an integral state, writes Nuttall. Illustrating this symbolism is the famous
Mexican Calendar Wheel, displaying four principal and four secondary rays (or arrows), signifying the four
quarters and their four subdivisions. This wheel of Time, states Nuttall, 620 portrays the ideal habitation, and the
prototype lay in heaven, not on earth. The wheel is as clearly an image of the nocturnal heaven as it is of a vast
territorial state which once existed in the valley of Mexico, and had been established as a reproduction upon
earth of the harmonious order and fixed laws which apparently governed the heavens.621
From the center of the ancient Inca city of Cuzco, four roads radiated in the four directions. At the intersection
of the crossroads rested a golden vase from which a fountain flowed. Thus did the four roads imitate the four
paths or streams transporting the waters of life to the four quarters.
The Mayan Book of Chilam Balam offers the following map of northern Yucatan:622
Roys reports that this mapadapting actual geography to the primordial idealis fairly typical in Maya
documents.623 Here again is the Roma quadrata, the celestial Jerusalem, or Egyptian Neter ta, the Holy Land.
The Delaware sacred text called the Walum Olum records the primeval dwelling of the Great Spirit by the
image

. This was the nations ancestral homeland, they say.624

A group of anthropologists, on examining the Walum Olum, reported that the four points on the circle indicate
the four quarters of the earth. By earth they obviously meant the terrestrial landscape. But if the quartered
circle refers to our earth,625 then the dot inside certainly is not the sun, in spite of the steadfast opinion of solar
mythologists.

28. Cosmological map of northern Yucatan.

In this case, the experts possessed the answer without recognizing it. The text itself identifies the sign with the
place where the Great Spirit stayed. To this statement the commentators add: Concentric circles or a circle
with a dot in the centre means divine or hallowed. 626 Combining the two statements one obtains a clear-cut
definition of the sign as the divine or hallowed place where the Great Spirit stayed. Denoted is the quartered,
primeval land, of which the terrestrial Holy Land was but a symbol.
As a final example, I note that the sun-cross and the life-giving streams are recalled even in Hawaiian myth.
Here the creator Teave is the Father-Mother from whom life coursed to the four directions of the world. 627
From the cosmic centre and zenith, Teave organized the celestial kingdom with his flaming cross of shining
white light, the first and foremost Cross of God. 628 The Primordial Lord of the Sun (Teave) transmitted the
life elements to the four corners through the agency of four assistant gods . . . The blood of life pulsated from
the infinite and coursed to the north, east, south, west, via the Four Sacred Hearts of God, the deities Tane,
Tanaoroa, Tu, Rono.629
The widespread traditions of the primordial kingdom and the four life-streams reflect a consistent memory. On
every continent one finds a compulsion to organize the native land after a cosmic original, defined by the
enclosed sun-cross
. The focus is the primeval ground occupied by the great fatherwhose home is the
earth brought forth in the creation legend. By superimposing the map of Saturns Earth onto the local
landscape, the ancients consecrated their native territory as a likeness, or a renewal, of the celestial abode.

The Four-eyed or Four-faced God

In the ancient Egyptian Heb-Sed festival, the king ascends to the throne of Osiris, where he is deified as the
great gods successor. To certify his authority as Universal Monarch, he launches four arrows toward the four
corners, then assumes his throne, turning to the four cardinal points in succession.630
By facing the four directions the king repeats the feat of the great god; for the Universal Monarch, occupying
the steadfast centre (or fifth region), ceaselessly turned round about, sending his rays of life through the four
divisions of unified space.
The classical historian Diodorus tells us that when the name Osiris is translated into Greek it means manyeyedand properly so; for in shedding his rays in every direction he surveys with many eyes, as it were, all
land and sea. To Osiris, Herodotus compares the Greek Dionysusa god who, in the Bacchic Hymn, shines
like a star, with a fiery eye in every ray.631
By facing the four directions and by sending forth the four directional streams, the Universal Monarch becomes
the god of four faces or four eyes. Homage to thee, O thou who hast four faces, reads a line of the Pyramid
Texts.632 Osiris, as the Ram of Mendes, is the god of four faces on one neck.633
The Hindu Atharva Veda speaks of the four heavenly directions, having the wind as lord, upon which the sun
looks out.634 This, of course, can only be the central sun, who is Brahma, a god of four faces. The myths also
attribute four faces to Shiva.635 The central sun Prajapati takes the form of the four-eyed, four-faced, and fourarmed Vivvakarman, the all maker.636 Agni, too, faces in all directions,637 as does Krishna.638
Chinese myths recall a four-eyed sage named Tsang Chieh, a legendary inventor of writing (i.e., the Universal
Monarch).639 The old Greek god Argos, in the Aigimios of Hesiod, looks this way and that with four eyes. 640

Macrobius tells us the great god Janus was sometimes represented with four faces, in allusion to the four
quarters of the Cosmos.641
Among the Tarahumara in North America, the cross represented the god Hikuli, the four-faced god who sees
all things.642 The Central Lord of Mexican ritual, represented by the cross, is He who looks in four
directions.643
There can no longer be any doubt that the four-eyed or four-faced god is Saturn, for the sun-planet appears in
Babylonian myth as Ea (Sumerian Enki)a god of four eyes that behold all things.644 The Phoenician El
Saturnhas four eyes, as does the Orphic Kronos (Saturn). The Chinese Yellow Emperor Huang-tiidentified
as Saturnis also four-eyed.645 The four-eyes, or four faces, become intelligible only in connection with the
five regionsthe polar centre and the four divisions ranged around it.

The Foundation Stone

Residing at the immovable centre of the Cosmos, Saturn was the stone or rock of foundation, the prototype of
the cornerstone (situated where the four corners meet

). The four beams of light which radiated from the

Saturnian stone appeared to sustain the world wheel at its four corners
bearing streams are synonymous with the four pillars of the world.

, so that, in many myths, the life-

In the mystic traditions reviewed by Manly P. Hall (Masonic, Hermetic, Qabalistic, Rosicrucian, etc.), the
planet Saturn looms as the elementary power of creation. The planet-god was always worshipped under the
symbol of the base or footing, inasmuch as he was considered to be the substructure upholding creation, states
Hall.646
The writer is, of course, thinking in metaphysical terms, and when he speaks of creation he doubtless means
something much different from the creation discussed in the foregoing sections. Yet his summary, when
stripped of metaphysics and solar terminology, accurately conveys an age-old idea: The solar system [read:
Cosmos] was organized by forces operating inward from the great ring of the Saturnian sphere; and since the
beginning of all things was under the control of Saturn, the most reasonable inference is that the first forms of
worship were dedicated to him in his peculiar symbolthe stone. Thus the intrinsic nature of Saturn is
synonymous with that spiritual rock which is the enduring foundation of the Solar temple [read: dwelling of the
central sun].647
In the earlier symbolism of the Foundation Stone, there is no hint of solar associations, and the stone is not a
spiritual [invisible] rock, but the shining center around which the created earth, or Cosmos, congealed.
The Egyptians knew the Foundation Stone as the Benben. Frankfort writes that the first piece of solid matter
actually created by Atum in the primeval ocean . . . 648 was a stone, the Benben; and it had originated from a
drop of the seed of Atum which fell into the primeval ocean. More precisely, one should say that Atum was the
seed and the seed was the Benben stonethe first thing to stabilize at the cosmic centre. Thou [Atum] didst
shine forth as Benben, recalls a Pyramid Text, in connection with the first phases of creation.649
Atum, or Re, is the Great Seed, and this aspect of the god is conveyed by the term ben (from which the word
Benben was produced): ben signifies to beget. But the same word means to go round: the Benben is the
steadfast seed-stone, which, turning round about, moved the wheel of the Cosmos.
From Atum, the Benben, flowed the four streams of life, demarcating the four quarters or corners of the cosmic
dwelling. It is thus vital that ben signifies corner, while the hieroglyphic sign for corner is
.650 Since the
stone of foundation lay at the center, the corner of the ben cannot have originally meant the corner of a
square or rectangular edificeeven if later generations came to conceive it as such. Denoted is one of the four
quarters converging on the central stone

. This meaning is suggested by another sign

division of the holy abode. The sacred edifice is divided into four quarters or corners

, apt, signifying
defined by the

angles of the ben

. Also relevant here are the sign ses , to divide, and the common sign of the holy
abode , nut. The four corners meet at the Benben (Atum), the Foundation Stone.
Go to the streamings of the Nile [that is, the heavenly waters] and there you will find a stone that has a spirit,
stated an old alchemical source.651 Clearly, the tradition refers to the Foundation Stone, the central source of the
four streams radiating life to the inhabitants of the celestial kingdom.
This quality of the central sun persists in Hebrew and Muslim imagery of Adam, the Heaven Man. The
Nassenes esteemed Adam as the rock and cornerstone. 652 Writes Jung: The stone is indeed of supreme
importance, because it fulfills the function of Adam Kadmon as the capital stone, from which all the upper and
lower hosts in the work of creation are brought into being.653
The theosophic Zohar declares, The world did not come into being until God took a certain stone, which is
called the foundation stone, and cast it into the abyss so that it held fast there, and from it the world was
planted. This is the central point of the universe, and on this point stands the Holy of Holies.654
Patai summarized the tradition: In the middle of the Temple and constituting the floor of the Holy of Holies,
was a huge native rock which was adorned by Jewish legends with all the peculiar features of an Omphalos, A
Navel of the Earth. This rock, called in Hebrew Ebhen Shetiyyah, the Stone of Foundation, was the first solid
[i.e., stable, stationary] thing created, and was placed by God amidst the as yet boundless fluid of the primeval
waters. Legend has it that just as the body of an embryo is built up in its mothers womb from the navel, so God
built up the earth concentrically around this Stone.655
Is this not the same account as that recorded by the Egyptians, who say that Atum, the masculine Foundation
Stone, came to rest at the cosmic centre, and that the created land or earththe womb of the mother
goddesscongealed around the central god?
Hebrew and Muslim traditions locate the Foundation Stone in the paradise of Eden. The Arabic term for the
stone is es-Sakrathe Rock. Thus the Mosque of Omarknown as Kubbat es-Sakra, Dome of the Rock
bears on its western facade the inscription: The Rock of the Templefrom the Garden of Eden. 656 The
legends relate that the Foundation Stone conceals beneath it all the worlds waters and winds: All sweet water
comes from under the Holy Rock, notes Wensinck; thereafter it spreads over the earth. A Muslim text states
that all rivers and clouds and vapours and winds come from under the Holy Rock in Jerusalem. 657 This can
only mean that the four rivers of Eden, which water the whole earth, have their origin in, or under, the
Foundation Stone.
Though the stone belongs to the centre, it is, like the Egyptian Benben, a cornerstone, for one reads in Isaiah,
Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold I lay in Zion [i.e., Jerusalem] for a foundation a stone, a tried stone,
a precious corner stone, a sure foundation.658 The center is the intersection of the four corners

That the Foundation Stone stood at the source of the four directional paths is the consistent theme in all of the
ancient architectural plans reviewed by W. Mullerfrom Europe to Southeast Asia. When the Roman augur
marked out the four directions of the sacred city he sat upon a stonewhich denoted the center, the intersection
of the north-south and east-west axes.659 (One naturally thinks also of the lapis niger or black stone of the
Roman Forum, signifying the centre of the world.)
The map of ancient Ireland shows four provincesConnaught, Ulster, Leinster, and Munstersurrounding the
central province of Mide (the Middle), where was situated the Aill na-Mircann, the Stone of the
Divisions.660 This basic pattern occurs also in the original plan of Nimwegen in the Netherlands: at the
intersection of the four streets of the world stood a great blue stone. 661 A similar stone stood at the symbolic
centre of Leiden, from which four main streets radiated in four directions.662
At the center of the sacred Hindu dwelling, where the directional paths meet, stood the Foundation Stone,
considered as the fixed point from which creation began.663 In Thailand the Foundation Stone of the royal
palace, lying at the intersection of the crossroads, was the corner-stone of the land.664

Nor can one ignore the identity of the Foundation Stone and the planet Saturn. Arabic thought often identifies
the Foundation Stone of Eden/Jerusalem with the sacred stone of the Kaba in Mecca. 665 (Tradition says that
Adam himself sat upon the Kaba stone, and that forty years before Allah created the heavens and earth the
Kaba was a dry spot floating on the water and from it the world has been spread out. 666 It is reported that in
the pre-Islamic period the statue of a god Hubal stood inside the Kaba above the opening of a well. The well
symbolized the central source of the worlds waters, and Hubal was the planet Saturn.
In the tradition reconstructed by Hildegard Lewy, the statue of Hubal filled the same purpose as the stone.
When the stone was removed a statue of the planet Saturn [Hubal] had served in its place as the visible symbol
of the planetary god to whom the Kaba was dedicated.667
But the Meccan stone, as affirmed by numerous accounts, symbolized the very rock which the Hebrews called
Ebhen Shetiyyahthe Foundation Stone.668 The Mohammedans, writes Lewy, were fully aware of the
functions of the sacred stone of Mecca and Jerusalem. The sacred stone of Jerusalem represented the same god
[Saturn] as the Black Stone of Mecca.669
The Foundation Stone is thus an indispensable ingredient in the symbolism of the four life-bearing streams. The
stone denotes Saturn in his character as the steadfast support of the turning Cosmos and the source of the
radiating life elements.

The Four Pillars of Heaven

There is an aspect of the four streams which seems to defy nature and reason: they are called pillars.
The Egyptian Four Sons of Horus appear as four supports holding aloft the womb of heaven (Nut). But the
standard analysis of the four pillar-gods, by dispersing them to an indefinable four corners of our earth,
deprives them of their concrete aspect as life-streams flowing from the central sun. When the great god
identifies the Four Sons of Horus as the spirits who have sprung from my body and who shall be with me in
the form of everlasting judges . . . , it is clear that the four powers occupy a particular place.670 Thus the
Pyramid Texts locate Atum-Re at the place of the four pillars, 671 and this place is doubtless the womb of
Nut, the Holy Abode
. The four streams are conceived as four pillars radiating from the immovable
Foundation Stone to sustain Saturns Cosmos at four cardinal points.
The Hindu Satapatha Brahmana, in setting forth the ritual of the world wheel, extols the great god Vishnu with
the words: O Vishnu, with beams of light thou didst hold fast the earth on all sides. 672 The four primary rays
of the Hindu central sun
constitute the pillars of the celestial dwelling
the English word beam, which means both a ray of light and a fixed support.)

. (The connection is implicit in

So also do the four winds serve as pillars. The Ethiopic Book of Enoch reads: I saw the treasures of all the
winds: I saw how He had furnished with them the whole creation and the firm foundations of the earth. 673 And I
saw the corner stone of the earth: I saw the four winds . . . : these are the pillars of the earth. In architectural
representations of Edens four rivers, they too appear as pillars.674 The Mayan Bacabs, who personify the four
directional streams, are the four props of heaven. Similarly, in Hawaiian myth, the life elements radiate to the
four corners of heaven by means of the four spirits, Tane, Rono, Tanaoroa and Tucalled the Four Male Pillars
of Creation.675
On our earth no one has ever seen a beam of light, a wind, or a river serving as a pillar, yet this is the
extraordinary function of the four paths of light and life flowing from the creator. As spokes of the world wheel
, the streams appeared to pillar apart and to steady the revolving enclosure.

Symmetrical Elaborations of the Sun-Cross

In the course of many centuries the sun-cross often acquired complex and symmetrical associations, as schools
of myth and theology combined various interpretations of the four streams in formal systems. These evolved
systems often identify each quarter of sacred space with an element, colour, season, or representative animal.

An early example of this tendency is the assignment of a different substance to each of the four paradisal rivers.
While Marco Polo journeyed to the court of Kublai Khan he was told the legend of an old ruler called the
Sheikh of the Mountain. The sheikh was distinguished for his possession of the worlds most beautiful garden,
containing the best fruits of the earth. Through the garden passed four conduits, one flowing with wine, one
with milk, one with honey, and one with water. The sheikh proclaimed his garden to be paradise.676
Hindu literature describes the four rivers of paradise as flowing respectively with milk, butter, honey, and
wine.677 Similarly, Strabo relates the report of Calamus that the first race of men enjoyed a blissful land in
which corn of all sorts abounded as plentifully as dust does at present; and the fountains poured forth streams,
some of water, some of milk, some of honey, some of wine, and some of oil.678
In a corresponding manner each river receives a different color. The four rivers of the Chinese polar paradise
Kwen-lun possess a remarkable feature: one is blue, another white, another red, and another black. 679 Each of
the Hindu four rivers has its special colour.680 The Kalmucks of Siberia describe a primordial sea from which
four rivers flowed toward the different points of the compass, each issuing from the mouth of a different
animal and identified with different colours: The eastern river contains silver sand, the southern blue jewel
sand, the western red jewel sand and the northern gold sand.681
In developing the symbolism of the terrestrial kingdom, the ancients borrowed from the imagery of the
celestial, assigning a different colour, element, or season to each geographical cardinal point. Of course the
celestial prototype, the sun-cross
, does not itself suggest which terrestrial direction should be associated
with fire and which with air, or whether one special direction should be linked with blue and another
with red. Thus there seems to be no single pattern of the symbolism from one land to another.
But the tendency toward such formalization was universal. Both the Mexicans and the Zuni identified the four
directions with respective colours and elements (air, water, fire, earth), though the specific relationship
differed, as indicated below:682

The Maya, on the other hand, connected the east with red, the north with white, the west with black, and the
south with yellow. Throughout North America, according to Alexander, the directional gods were associated
with respective colours, though there is no uniformity in the distribution of the colours to the several
regions.683
Buddhist symbolism shows four rays radiating from the heads of Makasukha to the four corners, each ray
associated with a colour,684 while the Chinese developed the following associations of the directions:

Taken alone, these varied connections tell us little, for such developments are largely a matter of local
innovation. What is important for our analysis is the unanimity with which the ancients conceived their land as
four quarters around a centre, identifying the quarters with the primal life elements which all traditions describe
flowing from the central sun in radiant streams.
Moreover, there is one aspect of the elaborated symbolism of the four quarters which deserves closer attention
namely, the connection of the planet Saturn with the centre around which the four elements or colors or
seasons are ranged. In the specific associations of the Chinese directions indicated above one recognizes no

correspondence with a general tradition. For example, the Chinese identification of the center with the
element earth or with the color yellow fails to coincide with any world-wide pattern. Surely it is significant,
however, that in China the center, the element earth, and the colour yellow all belong uniquely to the planet
Saturna startling fact which agrees with the equally startling placement of Saturn at the pole, the cosmic
centre in Chinese thought.685 Saturn is Huang-ti, the Yellow Emperor, his residence the Central Palace from
which the four directions radiate.
This character of Saturn prevails in the Chinese symbolism of the five visible planets. Saturn is placed at the
centre, while Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter are spaced at the four corners around Saturn. Nothing in the
present orbits of the planets would suggest Saturns location at the centre of this system. In fact, as the
outermost visible planet, Saturn would seem the least worthy of such distinction.
But originally, Saturn was the polar sun, the central source of the directional streams, and it was only to be
expected that the other four planets, like the four seasons, four colours, or four elements, came to symbolize the
powers of the four quarters, their symbolic location possibly being decided by the element with which each
planet was identified. As to the center, Saturn could be the only choice. The order was:

This cosmological system receives extensive treatment by Leopold de Saussure. 686 To the Chinese, he reports,
Saturn corresponded to the sacred centre, around which the cardinal points ranged; symbolism of the terrestrial
centre mirrored the symbolism of the celestial pole. The other four planets were equated with the four seasons,
elements, and colours, the entire system having its origin in the concept of the four divisions of heaven, to
which the polar centre, Saturns domain, was added as the fifth.
What is even more extraordinary, the location of Saturn at the polar centrewith the four quarters dispersed
around himwas not unique to China. De Saussure finds the same system in Iran. Iranian cosmology connects
the five planets with five regions of space, the centre being fixed at the celestial pole. Placed at the pole was
Kevan, the planet Saturn, precisely duplicating the station of the Chinese Saturn. Here is the system:

The reader will note that the directional connections of the four peripheral planets do not correspond to the
connections in the Chinese system. What is vital is Saturns central station as the source of the four emanations.
The planet that the Chinese consider as the symbol of the emperor [i.e., Saturn] is associated, in Iran, with the
Great One in the Middle of Heaven, which is to say, with the celestial pole; it bears the name . . . of Kevan and
it is precisely identified by the translators with Saturn.687
After reviewing the stunning concordance of the Chinese and Iranian symbolism, de Saussure concluded that
the Iranian system must have been borrowed from the Chinese. Later, however, following correspondence with
the Iranian scholar Junker, de Saussure changed his opinion; for Junker pointed out that the same ideathe
polar centre surrounded by four heavens-divisionsprevailed in the older Babylonian and Hindu systems.
Therefore, concluded de Saussure, the division of the universe into a central region and four peripheral
divisions [and] the assimilation of the terrestrial sovereign to the celestial pole . . . occurs not only in Chinese

cosmologywhich is particularly rational, symmetrical and well preservedbut also in Babylonian, Vedic
[Hindu] and Iranian cosmologies.688
Most surprising of all, however, was the discovery by de Saussure and Junker that when the principles of the
five regions are applied to the oldest enumeration of the sun, moon, and planets in Babylonia, Saturn acquires
the central (polar) station.689 In the most ancient Babylonian series [of planets] based on the number five,
states de Saussure, the planet Saturn is placed, as in China, in the middle. 690 The polar Saturn, presiding over
the central region and surrounded by the powers of the four quarters, thus occurs in the earliest formal
astronomy.
To summarize: The imagery of the quartered kingdom centers on the sign of the sun-cross
, depicting
Saturn sending the seed of life in the four directions. Ancient mythmakers interpreted the radiating streams as
four beams of light, four winds, four rivers, four paths of arrows, or four pillars of the Cosmos

But the heaven-dividing streams eventually passed into an expanded symbolism, relating each direction to an
element, season, colour, or planet. In such elaborate and symmetrical renderings of the quartered kingdom, one
recognizes the arbitrary influence of innovation. But the root idea remains consistent from one land to another,
and when such symbolism is subject to scrutiny, Saturn looms at the cosmic centrethe fifth region, the
immovable pole around which the directional elements, seasons, planets, etc. are ranged.

VII. Temple, Crown, Vase, Eye, and Circular Serpent

A primary thesis of this book is that the Saturnian configuration provoked many different symbols, whose
underlying relationship to a single cosmic form too often goes unnoticed.
When the ancients laid out the sacred city they sought to establish a likeness of the cosmic dwelling, a circle
around a fixed centre. And in organizing the first kingdoms, unifying once-separate territories, the founders
followed the same celestial plan.
There was only one dwelling of the great god, but this dwelling inspired imitative forms of varying scale and
varying ritual functions. At root the creators home is simply the place, the land, the holy abode, or the
enclosure. Only with the construction of imitative cities does the gods residence become the cosmic city.
And only after the organization of imitative terrestrial kingdoms can one meaningfully term the heavenly abode
a celestial kingdom.
What the smallest city and grandest empire have in common is an identical relationship to the Saturnian
enclosure. Distinctions of scale down here do not alter the fact that the celestial city and kingdom are
absolutely synonymous.
In addition to the images of the Saturnian band reviewed in the foregoing sections, several others require
attention.

The Temple
Like the ancient city and kingdom, the terrestrial shrine copies Saturns dwelling. (Saturn, as we have seen,
founded the first temple.) Though the local temple acquired its own special functions and attributes, the ritual
leaves no doubt that the cosmic house, shrine, and chamber mean the same thing as the city of heaven.
Sumerian texts describe the cosmic city of Eridu as:
The house built of silver, adorned with lapis lazuli . . .
The abyss [cosmic ocean],
the shrine of the goodness of Enki, befitting the divine decrees,
Eridu, the pure house having been built.691
Conversely, the celestial temple is called the primeval city (the very title of many Sumerian cities
themselves), and the hymns say of the Kes temple:
Indeed it is a city, indeed it is a city, who know its interior?692
The Kes temple is indeed a city,
who knows its interior?
Enki, the Sumerian Saturn, erects his temple or sea house as the crowning act of creation:
After the water of creation has been decreed,
After the name hegal (Abundance), born of heaven,
Like the plant and herb had clothed the land,
The lord of the abyss, the King Enki,
Enki, the lord who decrees the fates,
Built his house of silver and lapis lazuli:
Its silver and lapis lazuli, like sparkling light.
The father fashioned fittingly in the abyss.693
This is the far-famed house built in the bosom [heart, centre] of the Nether sea. 694 The cosmic dwelling
becomes the Good temple built on a good place . . . floating in the sky . . . heavens midst. 695 It is said to
float like a cloud in the midst of the sky.696
In constructing the earthbound copy of the temple above, states Jastrow, the Babylonians strove to make both
the exterior and interior resplendent with brilliant colouringbrilliant as the sun. 697 The purpose is clear: to
imbue the local temple with a lustre matching that of the prototype. Symbolically, the local temple takes on the

radiance of the celestial, becoming the house of light, house of the brilliant precinct, or lofty and brilliant
wall; the house of great splendour, the beautiful house, the brilliant house.698
To deal with the Sumero-Babylonian imagery in its own terms one must understand the cosmic temple not only
as the gods housebut more. The temple fashioned in the abyss is the created earth. The Sumerian Ekur, the
house of Enlil on the cosmic sea Apsu, means both temple and earth (land, place).699
Gragg confirms the identity of the cosmic temple and the created earth when he notes the cosmic
dimensions of the temple. It fills the whole world.700 The Sumerians celebrated the gods shrine as the pure
place, earth of An (that is, Saturns Earth).701
Throughout the previous sections I have contended that Saturns dwelling produced the original myth of the lost
paradise. That the great gods house enclosed the cosmic land of fertility and abundance is the straightforward
declaration of the Sumerian temple hymns. (Though some of the lines in the following quotes are broken, one
cannot fail to discern the consistent theme):
House, Mountain, like herbs and plants beautifully blooming
. . . your interior is plentitude.702
The temple is built; its abundance is good!
The Kes temple is built; its abundance is good!703
House with well-formed jars, set up under heaven . . .
(Full of) the abundance of the midst of the sea . . .
Emah, the house of Sara, the faithful man
has enlarged for you (Umma) in plenty . . .
(With) good fortune it is expanding, (its)
. . . abundance and well-being . . .704
House . . . from your midst (comes) plenty,
Your treasury (is) a mountain of abundance . . .705
Your interior is the place where the sun rises, endowed with abundance, far-reaching . . .706
House with the great mes of Kulaba . . . ,
(its) . . . has made the temple flourish,
Well grown fresh fruit, marvellous, filled with ripeness,
Descending from the midst of heaven . . .707
One sees that the temple stands at the cosmic midst or centre. From its interior shines the primeval sun, It
houses the flourishing celestial garden.
The chamber of the great god, according to Sumerian creation myths, was that in which dwelt the original
generation of men (i.e., the company of gods to whom all races traced their ancestry and from which each
race took its name). The chamber was the prototype of Eden, the ancestral birthplace.
In the Sumerian myth of the primordial hero Tagtug occurs a lively description of the gods chamber as a
celestial garden. Occupying the house of abundance are the Anunnaki, the great gods companions. And here
came into being the first generation of Mankind:
The abundance of the goddess of flocks and of the Grain Goddess,
The Anunnaki in the holy chamber
Ate and were not filled . . .
The Anunnaki in the holy chamber
Drank and were not filled.
In the holy park, for their (the gods) benefit,
Mankind with the soul of life came into being.
Then Enki said to Enlil:
Father Enlil, flocks and grain

In the holy chamber have been made plentiful.

In the holy chamber mightily shall they bring forth.
By the incantation of Enki and Enlil
Flocks and grain in the holy chamber brought forth.
Pasture they provided for them abundantly,
For the Grain-goddess they prepared a house . . .708
The flowering of the celestial garden is a widespread theme which I touched on briefly in the earlier discussion
of the Egyptian creation and which I intend to explore at greater length in a subsequent volume. It is surely
worthy of note, however, that the great gods chamber is the same as the holy park in which Mankind
was brought forth.
If one reads the above lines in the light of the Egyptian symbolismwhich equates the first generation of gods
(men) with the abundance erupting from the creatorthe Sumerian myth takes on greater meaning than
might otherwise be evident. Immediately after the statement, Mankind with the soul of life came into being,
Enki declares that flocks and grain in the holy chamber have been made plentiful. The primeval generation
was the same thing as the overflowing abundance, both referring to the luminous debris which erupted from the
creator as speech. Thus the flocks and grain of the celestial garden, according to the Sumerian text, are
brought forth by the incantation [i.e., speech] of Enki and Enlil (two competing figures of the single creator).
To my knowledge, such close parallels between the Egyptian and Mesopotamian creation accounts have never
received adequate attention by comparative mythologists.
The blossoming chamber of the Sumerian creation also finds a counterpart in a Hawaiian genesis myth,
reproduced by Leinani Melville:
Man descended from the Sacred Shrine of
The King who created the heavens.
The Shrine of the King of Heaven who caused
that distant realm to bloom and flower:
The Consecrated Realm of Teave, the World of Teave.709
Both the Hawaiian and Sumerian sources place the genesis of the race in the great gods shrine or chamber,
likened to a flowering garden. Just as the Sumerian chamber or temple corresponds to the earth, so does the
Hawaiian sacred shrine answer to the World of Teave.

The Egyptian Temple

As in Mesopotamia, Egyptian sources portray the primeval temple as the visible dwelling of the sun-god:
May I shine like Re in his divine splendour in the temple.710
Homage to thee [Osiris Nu], O thou who art within the divine shrine, who shinest with rays of light and sendest
forth radiance from thyself.711
. . . Every god shall . . . rejoice at the life of Ptah when he maketh his appearance from the great temple of the
Aged One which is in Annu.712
Thou art the ruler of all the gods and thou hast joy of heart within the shrine.713
The great gods shrine, house, or temple is the band of glory, the Aten
interior of the Aten, states a Coffin Text.714

: Your pavilion is enlarged in the

When the Egyptians laid the foundation of a temple, they consecrated the enclosed ground as the primeval
territory of the domain of the sun-god. Each temple became a miniature of the cosmic habitation founded in
the creation. Thus the Egyptians viewed the Edfu temple as the veritable descendant of the mythical temple
that was created at the dawn of this world . . . , 715 Reymond tells us.716 The foundation ground became the
Blessed Territory from the time of the Primeval Ones . . . , the Hinterland of the Primeval Water. 717 This was
the Province of the Beginning, the Blessed Homeland.718

In Hebrew cosmology, reports Wensinck, the sanctuary is the type and representation of Cosmos and Paradise
and as such a power diametrically opposed to Chaos.719
From the very spot of the Hebrew temple the first ray of light issued and illuminated the whole world.
Indeed, the temple was the whole world, according to a Midrash: The temple corresponds to the whole
world.720 Tradition states that the primordial light was not identical with the light of the sun, moon and stars,
but lit up the temple from its centre and radiated out through the windows. 721 The cosmic temple, in other
words, was the lost land of the dawn or first sunrise.

Temple and Womb

Nothing is more basic to the imagery of the temple than its identity as the cosmic womb. Neumann observes:
Just as the temple is . . . a symbol of the Great Goddess as house and shelter, so the temple gate is the entrance
into the goddess; it is her womb, and the innumerable entrance and threshold rites of mankind are expressions
of this numinous feminine place.722 Throughout the Near East, states Allegro, the temple was designed with a
large measure of uniformity and this sacred abode is now recognizable as a microcosm of the womb.723
Not in one land, but in every segment of the world, the sacred texts confirm this identity of temple and womb.
The Egyptian great god resides within the womb of the goddess as in a house or chamber. The goddess
Hathor is the house of Horus.724 The name of Isis means chamber, house, abode, etc., and the Egyptians
claimed she was the house in which Horus came into being. 725 Nut is the good house,726 and Neith the house
of Osiris,727 while the name of Nephthys means Lady of the House.
The identity stands out in this hymn to Re: I am exalted like the holy god who dwelleth in the Great Temple,
and the gods rejoice when they see me in my beautiful coming forth from the body [khat, womb] of Nut, when
my mother Nut giveth birth to me.728 To shine as the sun within the cosmic temple is to come forth within
the womb of Nut, the good house.
Among the Egyptians, notes Sethe, house served as a poetic expression for the womb. 729 Clearly, this poetic
expression originated as a radical identity in the ritual. Just as the goddess titles denominate her the house
or temple of the great god, so does the temple receive the character of the goddess. Ptahs temple at Memphis
is the mistress of life,730 and an inscription in King Seti Is funerary temple states, I am thy temple, thy
mother, forever and forever.731 The Holy Chamber from which Re shines forth is, according to Piankoff, The
Holy Chamber of the Netherworld [Tuat], the womb of divine birth.732
Throughout Mesopotamia, one discovers the same features of the temple. Here, too, the cosmic house
appears as the womb of primeval genesis. Urukug is the shrine which causes the seed to come forth, 733 while
the temple of Aruru is the procreative womb of Emah 734 and the temple of Lilzag the house of exalted
seed.735
The Mesopotamian temple or chamber thus gives birth to the god. Tammuz, the man-child, is the offspring of
the house736 and Marduk the Child of the holy chamber.737 In the Babylonian creation epic we read:
In the chamber of fate, the abode of destinies,
A god was engendered, most able and wisest of gods.
In the heart of the Apsu was Marduk created.738
You have taken my seed into the womb, have given birth to me in the shrine, declares King Gudea to the
goddess Gatumdug.739 One can compare the Sumerian text: In the great house he has begotten me. 740 As in
Egypt, the gate of a sanctuary is conceived as the entrance to the womb of the goddess. 741 Hence, Sargon styles
one of the gates of his palace Belit ilani, mistress of the gods.742

The Crown
Among all ancient races the crown, wreath, or headband signified religious and political authority. Yet this
world-wide function of the crown reflects no self-evident fact of human nature or of the external world. What
was the source of the crowns numinous powers?
The symbols of kingship have their origin in the Universal Monarch, the ancestor of kings and founder of the
kingship ritual. Legends of the great god say that, when he established his kingdom, he wore as a crown his

circle of glory (halo, aura). Before Egyptian rulers ever donned the White Crown, the crown of the great
father Osiris shed its light at the cosmic centre: His crown clove the sky and consorted with the stars. 743 The
primordial sun, reports Pliny, established civilization and first triumphantly crowned heaven with his glowing
circle.744 In the ritual of the Mandaeans it was the First Man who wore as a crown the circle of radiance,
light and glory.745 One could hardly make a greater mistake than to assume, with so many modern scholars,
that the crowns worn by gods are simply projections onto the heaven order of the crowns worn by terrestrial
kings. Divorced from the crown of the Universal Monarch, the headdress of the local king becomes a
meaningless artifact. Whatever powers the crown may possess, they derive from the cosmic prototype.
Fundamentally, the crown is an enclosing band. The most important component of the Egyptian crown was the
gold headband, while the great god was Master of the Head-Band. 746 The Sumerian word for crown, uku,
means great band.747 In the classical etymologies reviewed by Onians the crown possesses the concrete
meaning of a circle or band enclosing a god or a man.748
When the Egyptian priests placed the sacred band on the head of the king, deeming him the regent of the sungod Re, they were guided by the image of the great god himself, whose hieroglyphic was
, showing the
sun-god in the circle of the Aten. Thus, in the Theban ritual, the gods Horus and Set say to the new king, I will
give thee a life like unto that of Re, years even as the years of Tem, and I will establish the crown upon thy
head even like the Aten on the head of Amen-Re.749
The great god not only wears the crown of glory, he dwells in it. He appears in the White Crown 750 or comes
forth from the Very Great Crown.751 In the Book of the Dead one finds the divine being who dwelleth in the
nemmes crown.752
More specifically, the gods crown is his spousethe womb-goddess who emanated from the god, yet gave
birth to him.
O Red crown, O Inu [the crown],
O Great One . . .
O Inu, thou hast come forth from me;
And I have come forth from thee.753
To wear the crown is to reside within the womb; or conversely, to be born in the womb is to wear the crown. 754
It is in this sense that one must understand the statement of the Coffin Texts that the god is born in the crown
or that the king is the son of the white crown. 755 The same identification of crown and womb explains the
statement that Osiris first shone forth fully crowned from his mothers womb. 756 Does not the sign
the fully crowned god within the cosmic womb?

depict

I am he who is girt about with his girdle and who cometh forth from the goddess of the Ureret crown. 757 This
statement from the Book of the Dead concurs with numerous other references in Egyptian texts, equating the
crown with the mother goddess. In the Pyramid Texts we read: I know my mother, I have not forgotten my
mother, the white crown.758 The same texts say of the king: thy mother is the Great Wild Cow, living in
Nekeb, the white crown, the Royal Headdress. 759 Accordingly, the Egyptians esteemed the goddess Isis as the
Crown of Re-Horus760 and the goddess Tefnut as the diadem of Re.761
The identity of goddess and crown, has, in fact, been fully acknowledged by Clark and Frankfort, among
others.762 Yet Frankforts explanation amounts to this: The goddess is simply the personification of the power
of royalty . . . and hence is immanent in the crown. 763 The statement tacitly assumes that the local crown came
first (who knows why) and that the great goddess, personifying an abstract power of royalty, came to be
identified with the crown simply because the crown was a symbol of royal power.
But the relationship of the crown and womb amounts to a radical identity; both take their character from the
same visible band. Ignored by Frankfort is the explicit equation of both the goddess and the crown with the
circle of the Aten.

That the god dwells in the crown means that the crown is the gods house or templewhat the Egyptians called
the temple of the White Crown. Speaking of the headgear of Sumer and Egypt, Levy notes that in each case
it bears a relation to the monuments. It [the crown] may, in fact, be considered as itself a little sanctuary. 764 But
what was the source of this unexpected identity? Sumerian temple hymns repeatedly invoke the cosmic temple
as the great gods crown. The temple of Eqaduda is the Crown of the high plain 765 and Sippar the Sanctuary
of heaven, star of heaven, crown, borne by Ningal.766 The Kes temple becomes the Great, true temple,
reaching the sky, temple, great crown, reaching the sky . . .767
The same identity prevails elsewhere. Hentze, observing that the Mexican Quetzalcoatl wears his temple as a
crown, reports that such symbolism pervades early Chinese bronzes. One notes also the world house worn as
a crown by the famous Diana of Ephesus. Like the sacred abode of all great gods the latter crown-temple has
four doors facing in four directions.768
Since the cosmic temple is the same thing as the cosmic city, one should not be surprised to find that the city
also appears as the crown. In the Book of the Dead occurs a description of Re when at the beginning he rose in
the city of Suten-henen [Heracleopolis], crowned like a king in his rising. 769 The evidence suggests that the
city (or kingdom) in which Re first shone forth was the very circle of glory which he wore as a crownand this
is why, in the symbols
and
, the Egyptians combined the hetch-crown
and tesher-crown
with
the symbol of the goddess Nut
, the city or holy land. In accord with this identity the Babylonian hymn
proclaims, Borsippa [the cosmic city] is thy crown.770
Often the crown takes the form of a city wall. The most famous example, perhaps, is the crown of Tyche of
Antioch, which corresponds to the turreted wall of the city.771 Concerning the goddess of the city-crown, Suhr
writes: . . . the whole city wall, in a diminutive version, was placed on her head, beginning with Astarte and
continuing with Aphrodite of Greek and Roman times. 772 Yet why the crown was assimilated to the city wall
remains unexplained by modern researchersand will continue to remain a puzzle until scholars acknowledge
the concrete form of the mother goddess, city, and crown as a single band of light around the great god.

The Vase
Mythmaking imagination also expressed the Saturnian band as a vase or receptacle housing the sun-god and his
waters of life: all the waters of the world, according to ancient belief, originated in the solitary god.
As a symbol of the all-containing receptacle above, the round vessel became a popular figure of the mother
goddess. . . . The great goddess as divine water jar is the mistress of the upper waters. observes Neumann.773
G. Elliot Smith notices the close connection of the mother goddess with the vase: The idea of the Mother Pot
is found not only in Babylonia, Egypt, India, and the Eastern Mediterranean, but wherever the influence of
these ancient civilizations made itself felt. It is widespread among the Celtic-speaking peoples . . . It became
also a witchs cauldron, the magic cup, the Holy Grail, the font in which a child is reborn in the faith, the vessel
of water here being interpreted in the earliest sense as the uterus or the organ of birth.774

29. The goddess Nut as the revolving water container

The vase, in the Egyptian hieroglyphs, denotes the celestial goddess Nut and the female principle in general. 775
An interesting Egyptian illustration depicts Nut, bearing the cosmic vessel on her head, and spinning around
with sufficient speed to cause drops of water to fly outward (see fig. 29).

The mother goddess is the revolving water container in heaven. Sumero-Babylonian cylinder seals show the
purifying waters of the Apsu descending from a vase, regarded as the mother womb. The vase is in the heaven
of Anu, called the place of the flowing forth of the waters which open the womb.776
The same symbolism of the vase prevails in China, according to Hentze (who relates the symbolism of the
feminine container to a global tradition). 777 The Zuni address the sacred pot as the Mother, 778 while a Peruvian
jar covered with breasts on all sides obviously expresses the identical theme.779
Thus does the sun-god dwell in the vase, renewing his birth each day: I have come forth from my djenit-jar,
and I will appear in the morning, reads an Egyptian Pyramid Text.780 (I remind the reader that archaic day
means our night.) To the same symbolism belongs the Hindu Vasishtha who is born from the jar 781 and is
obviously akin to the Iranian Fravashi Khumbya, the son of the jar. 782 Muslim tradition echoes this theme in
declaring that the soul of Mohammed preexisted in a vase of light in the world of spirits. 783 The Chinese
alchemist Wei Po-Yang says: The True Man living in a deep abyss, floats about the centre of the round
vessel.784 The mother vase housing the manchild appears even in Mexico (fig. 31).785
Among the Mayans, writes Nuttall, the vase symbolized the divine essence of light and life proceeding from
the Heart of Heaven.786 Appropriately they designated the symbolic vase as the navel or centre, 787 a
characterization which agrees with Neumanns interpretation of the vase as the centre from which the universe
is nourished.788
The vase denotes, in other words, the celestial earth, the original land of abundance. While the Egyptian priests
of Ptah claimed the primeval land to have been fashioned by Ptah on his potters wheel, the hymns also extol
the pottery which Ptah moulded789 in clear reference to the same primordial enclosure: the subject is the realm
of the ancestors, where the resurrected dead receive the fresh water in a jar which Ptah has fashioned.790

30. The mother goddess as water container. Vase from Troy, fourth stratum.

31. Man-child in vase. From Mexico, Vienna Codex

Here is the declaration of the potter in the Pyramid Texts (as translated by Faulkner): I am your potter upon
earth . . . I have come and have brought to you this mansion of yours which I built for you on that night when
you were born, on the day of your birth-place; it is a beer-jar (sic!). 791 Most instructive is Faulkners
parenthetical sic! following the phrase beer-jaras if to suggest that the scribe suffered a lapse of reason:
what could a beer jar have to do with the great gods mansion and birthplace? Among the Egyptians beer
symbolized fertility and abundance flowing from on high. The ritual beer-jar was the primeval landthe
dwelling which congealed around the great father and (as the cosmic womb) gave birth to him. The same

texts in which the above lines appear locate the potter god in this Island of Earth. Vessel, temple, earth, and
womb denote the same celestial enclosure.

The Eye
One of the most mysterious symbols which have come down to us is the solitary and all-seeing Eye. In ancient
Egypt, where the most complete information is available, the symbol pervades the monuments and the sacred
texts of all periods. The Eye is the key to the religion, states Clark. 792 Yet no archaic sign has been less
understood than the mystic Eye: The Eye is the commonest symbol in Egyptian thought and the strangest to
us.793
Is the Eye, as almost uniformly asserted, the solar orb? Nowhere is the weakness of solar mythology more
apparent than in its handling of this puzzling symbol. One Egyptologist after another, by following the solar
interpretation, passes over in silence the many enigmatic particulars of eye symbolism.
To my knowledge the only well-known authority to reject categorically the solar interpretation is Rudolph
Anthes. After devoting extensive research to the Eye of Re, Anthes concludes that the Eye apparently never
was the sun.794 Yet Anthes, seeking an answer in the heavens as they appear to us today, does not begin to
unravel the interconnected symbolism of the Eye.
Strictly speaking the Egyptian Eye is neither a sun nor a star, but the circle or enclosure fashioned by the
creator as his celestial home. The great god resides in the Eye as the pupil. One of the most common names of
the Eye in Egypt is Utchat, hieroglyphically rendered as
related signs: 1)

. The Utchat hieroglyph combines three closely

, meaning to see and also to form, fashion, create; 2) , to fashion, encircle; and 3)

, cord, to bind, to encircle. The all-seeing Eye is the created enclosure, the bond around the primeval
sun.
Thus the god has his home in the Utchat (Eye): I am in the Utchat. 795 I am he who dwelleth in the Utchat.796
Enter thou in peace [em hetep, at rest] into the divine Utchat.797
A Coffin Text reads, I am Horus in his Eye, 798 while the Harris Magical Papyrus states, I am Shu under the
form of Re, seated in the middle of his fathers eye. 799 In the Book of the Dead one finds: I am the pure one in
his eye;800 I am he who dwelleth in the middle of his own Eye.801
Thus does the great god reside in the enclosure of the Eye as the pupil. Praise be to thee, O Ra, Exalted
Sekhem, aged one of the pupil of the Utchat [Eye]. 802 I am in the Utchat . . . I sit in [em, as] the pupil of the
eye . . . ;803 God-the-pupil-of-whose-eye-is-terrible is thy name . . .
When the texts speak of the Eye of Re who is in his Aten,804 one recognizes that the Eye is the Aten, for the
Egyptians treated the Eye sign
and the Aten sign
as interchangeable symbols. Just as the Aten
constituted the protective enclosure, so did the Eye: O Osiris Nu, the Eye of Horus protecteth thee, it keepeth
thee in safety . . .805 . . . He is Horus encircled with the protection of his Eye . . . 806 My refuge is my Eye,
my protection is my Eye . . .807 I am the dweller in the Eye; no evil or calamitous things befall me.808
Such references surely indicate that the Eye is not the sun or the sun-god, but the goddess, in whose protective
womb the sun-god dwells. As a matter of fact, though Egyptian ritual presents the goddess under many names,
all primary figures of the goddess receive the appellation Eye of Re. This includes, among others, Isis,
Hathor, Nut, Sekhet, Iusaaset, Mehurt, Bast, Tefnutand of course, the goddess Utchat (Eye).809
The complex meshes of eye symbolism, states Clark, are woven all around the Egyptian Goddess and she
cannot be understood or compared with other goddesses until they are unravelled. 810 Yet, while Clark notes
several interesting associations of the Eye and goddess he fails to discern the Eyes root character, as the
protective enclosure.
Only the direct identity of the Eye and cosmic womb will explain its context in the ritual: The child who is in
the eye of Horus, hath been presented to thee . . . 811 I am he whose being has been moulded in his eye. 812

Horus is said to . . . rear and nourish the multitudes through that Unique Eye, Mistress of the Divine Company
and Lady of the Universe [All, Cosmos].813
The very goddesses whom the texts depict as the Eye of the primeval sun are also called the house, as we
should expect. As to the identity of the Eye and the temple, Egyptian sources leave no room for debate (though
I know of no Egyptologist to observe the connection). The temple of Karnak is the healthy eye of the Lord of
All,814 a striking parallel to the Sumerian temple as the House, eye of the land.815
In the Book of the Pylons Re hearkens back to the remote age when I was in the temple of my eye, 816 while
the Book of the Dead speaks of the son of Osiris residing within the temple of his

32. The eye of the resting god.

Eye in Annu.817 Elsewhere one finds the primeval sun coming forth in the sanctuary of my eye.818
Of course no one who automatically thinks sun when reading eye is likely to reflect on the overlapping
symbols of the eye as a band or enclosure. Nor can one so trained meaningfully explain why, throughout
Egyptian ritual, the eye appears in conjunction with the crown. In the Egyptian mystery play, the king is
commanded, take thou thine eye, whole to thy face, and the command is carried out by placing the crown
upon the kingfor the crown, as the symbol and seat of royal power . . . is called the eye of Horus.819
The Pyramid Texts say, Horus has given you his eye that you may take possession of the Urert-Crown.820 O
king, stand up, don the eye of Horus . . . that you may go forth in it, that the gods may see you clad in it. 821 As
to the identity of Eye and crown one could not ask for more explicit statements than these: I wear the white
crown, the eye of Horus.822 O Osiris the king, I make firm the eye of Horus on your heada headband. 823 I
give you the crown of Upper Egypt, the eye which went up from your head. 824 (The circle of glory issued from
the central sun.)
If the god wears the Eye as a crown, so also does he take the Eye as a throne, and this relationship of the Eye
and throne helps to explain the hieroglyph for Osiris, in which the two symbols appear together
. But to
conventional schools the combination makes little sense. In Budges opinion, for example, there is no clear
basis for the assimilation of the two signs, and the difficulty is hardly likely to be cleared up.825
Yet to anyone aware of the interrelated images of the Aten

, the Osiris hieroglyph will pose no mystery. The

throne
is the symbol of Isis (i.e., Isis is the throne), but the same goddess appears as the eyeso that
Osiris sits enthroned within the circle of the Eye. Indeed, the Egyptian language says as much when it terms the
throne ast utchatthe throne of the Eye. And the Book of the Dead brings the Eye and throne into connection
with the crown and egg: I am the lord of the crown. I am in the Eye, my egg . . . My seat is on my throne. I sit
in [em, as] the pupil of the eye.826
Though the influence of the Eye was felt far beyond Egypt, it is the integrated Egyptian imagery that throws
light on later developments of the symbol. While the texts sometimes speak of two eyes (see the section on
the cosmic twins), fundamentally there is only one Eye of the great god. I am Re who wept for himself in his
single eye,827 states the Coffin Texts. The single Eye of Re or Horus is paralleled by the clear-seeing eye of
the Sumerian Enki,828 the single eyes of the Norse Odin, 829 the Iranian Ahura Mazda,830 and the Mexican

Tlaloc,831 the ageless eye of all-seeing Zeus,832 and the one-eye of heaven belonging to the Japanese Ama
no Ma-hitotsu.833
The Egyptian Eye of Horus, in the Book of the Dead, is that which shineth with splendours on the forehead of
Re.834 One can easily understand how subsequent generations, possessing only conceptions rather than
perceptions to guide them, gave the great god increasingly human form, translating the central Eye into the
legendary third eye, which in Hindu representations appears as little more than a decorative jewel. The single
eye of the Cyclops belongs to the same class of images. If the eye is not centered on the forehead, it may be
located on the breast, as in the case of the Hindu demon Kabandha, slain by Rama, 835 and the headless man
encountered by Fionn, Oisin, and Caoilte in Celtic myth.836 (The pupil of the Eye

is the Heart of Heaven.)

Surely one cannot properly evaluate the fanciful one-eyed giants of the classical and medieval age without first
taking into account the celestial Eyewhich left a mighty imprint on the earliest ritual. 837
The Cyclops, or wheel-eyed giant, corresponds in many ways to the god Odin, of Norse mythology. Odins
all-piercing eye is also a giant wheel. 838 In ancient cosmology nothing is more explicit than such imagery of
the enclosed sun. If the experts have failed to unravel the mystery of the Eye or Eye-wheel
, the failure is
not due to a lack of evidence but to the habit of the researchers, who, from the start, excluded the enclosure
from the mythological investigation.

The Circular Serpent

33. Saturn as Mithraic Zurvan (Time), with central eye. (Pupil of eye=heart of heaven.
It would be quite impossible, within the limited space permitted here, to review all the interconnections
unifying the imagery of the Saturnian band. For every instance previously cited, many others have been left out
simply to avoid excessive monotony.
As a final example of overlapping imagery, I shall cite the case of the circular serpent. All of the Saturnian gods
Atum-Re, An, Yama, Huang-ti, Quetzalcoatl, Kronosreside within the fold of a serpent (dragon, fish,

crocodile, etc.). But this symbol cannot be evaluated in isolation from the celestial earths, eggs, wheels,
temples, crowns, and eyes which fill the ancient lexicon.
In the general mystic tradition, reports Cirlot, the dragon, the serpent or the fish biting its tail, is a
representative of time.839 Father Time, of course, is Saturn. Thus the Greeks placed in the hands of Chronos a
snake which formed a ring by holding its tail in its mouth, 840 and this circular serpent is clearly that which the
Hindus called Kali (Time). The Zoroastrians represented Zurvan (Time) by an enclosing serpent. A serpent
encircles a Nahuatl calendar wheel (wheel of time) published by Clavigero. 841 On the famous Mexican calendar
stone twin serpents form a single enclosure around the stone.842
The Egyptians associated the circular serpent with Atum (god of Time), identifying the serpent with the cosmic
waters erupting from the creator: I am the outflow of the Primeval Flood, he who emerged from the waters,
the serpent announces.843
The water serpent, issuing from Atum, constituted an aspect of the creator, eventually forming a coil around
himself:
I bent right around, I was encircled in my coils,
One who made a place for himself in the midst of his coils.
His utterance was what came forth from his mouth.844
Why the reference to the utterance of the god in association with the appearance of the serpent-coil? The
reason is that the serpent, embodying the outflow of erupting waters, was himself a manifestation of the
creators speech.
In the Coffin Text, the great god, or Master of the All (Cosmos), recalls the original age while I was still in the
midst of the serpent coil.845 And the king hopes to attain this very enclosure: The King lies down in your coil,
the King sits in your circle proclaims a Pyramid Text.846
Can this serpent be anything other than the band of the enclosed sun
? The sun-god Re, while deemed ami
khet, dweller in the fiery circle, is also ami-hem-f, dweller in his fiery serpent. Do not the circle and the
serpent mean the same thing? The hieroglyphs offer conclusive evidence. Though the common pictograph of Re
is
, the Egyptians also denoted Re by the glyph
sun.

, showing the serpent as the band around the primeval

This direct identification of the serpent and the circle of the Aten enables us to test the coherence of Aten
symbolism as a whole. For if the serpent denoted the band of the enclosed sun

one should find:

1. That the serpent was the circle of the mother goddess and defined the limits of the All (i.e., the cord, egg,
shield, or belt of Saturns Cosmos).
2. That the serpent enclosed the world-wheel, city, throne, earth-navel and celestial ocean.
3. That the same serpent formed the wall of the cosmic temple, encircled the god-king as a crown, enclosed the
celestial waters as a vase, and defined the circle of the all-seeing Eye.

34. Egyptian and Mayan versions of the circular serpent as water container.
Throughout all of ancient Egypt the circular serpent was the symbol of the great mother. In the hieroglyphs, the
Uraeus serpent, often used in conjunction with an egg, means goddess. The goddess Uatchet cometh unto
thee in the form of the living Uraeus, to anoint thy head . . . , reads the Book of the Dead.847 A Karnak temple
inscription states that the goddess Mut, in the form of a serpent, encircled her father Re and gave birth to him
as Khonsu.848
In the same way the Babylonians knew the great goddess as the mother python of heaven. 849 The Cosmos,
according to Jeremias, was represented as the womb of the shining Tiamat, the enclosing serpent or dragon of
the primeval sea.850 So also did the Hindus, Cretans, Celts, Greeks, Romans, and Mexicans represent the mother
goddess as a serpent or dragon.851
It is the same thing to say that the circular serpent enclosed Saturns Cosmos. In the Egyptian language the
coil formed by the serpent is literally the cord or the band, indicated by the hieroglyphs
and
.
The serpent itself was the rope which the creator stretched round about, gathering the primeval waters or
primeval matter into an organized enclosure.

35. Circular dragon in Haropollo, Selecta hieroglyphica (1597)

36. The alchemist circular dragon

37. Mexican circular serpent biting its tail

38. Circular serpent motif on the interior of a food basin from Sikyatki in the South-Western United
States

39a&b. Two Chinese versions of the circular dragon.

39b. The dragon encloses the central sun.

40. Hindu circular serpent, enclosing the bindu, or central sun

41. Alaska circular serpent, indicating close relationship to enclosed sun

In Sumero-Babylonian imagery, too, a circular serpentcalled the rope of the great godencloses the
original Cosmos.852 The serpent-rope is the bond of the All held by Enki or Ninurta (Saturn).
But the cord is synonymous with the cosmic egg and girdle, and this conjunction of Saturnian symbols makes
particularly interesting the statement of the Greek philosopher Epicurus to Epiphanius: . . . the All was from
the beginning like an egg, and the pneuma [World Soul] in serpent wise around the egg was then a tight band
as a wreath or belt around the universe.853 The Orphics called this serpent Chronos, describing it as the bond
(peirata) of the Cosmos. The serpent-bond lies around the Cosmos, proclaimed the Pythagoreans. 854 It was
thus an ancient custom to display images of the cosmic egg encircled by a vast serpent.
All the evidence in the foregoing sections indicates that this circle of the Cosmos was the earth or place
fashioned in the creation. Hence, the serpent who circumscribes the organized All is the same serpent whom the
ancients depicted encircling the created world.
In the Gnostic work Pistis Sophia, Our Lord states, The outer darkness is a great serpent, the tail of which is in
its mouth, and it is outside the whole world.855 As shown by Budge, the idea had its roots in Egypt, where the
world-encircling serpent was Apepi, a serpent with his tail in his mouth. 856 Horapollo reports that when the
Egyptians wished to depict the world, they painted a serpent.857
The Babylonian Esharra, the circle of created earth, is identified as the primordial beast Tiamat 858, the worldenclosing serpent-dragon which the Hebrews called Tehom and the Muslims the Mysterious Serpent.859 To the
Hindus it was the fabulous serpent Naga that enclosed the world in its folds. Scandinavian myth knew the
serpent Midgard, the Weltumspanner, or Stretcher-round-the-World.860
All ancient cosmologies which speak of a world-encircling serpent say that its body formed the river or ocean
shielding the organized earth from Chaos. The serpent, dragon, or crocodile, in the Egyptian system, thus
denotes the celestial watercourse. (Hence, the primeval serpent encircling Atum not only emerges from the
cosmic sea; it is itself the outflow of the Primeval Flood.)861
Sumero-Babylonian cosmology knows the river of the girdle of the great goda world-encircling ocean
which is also called the river of the snake.862 According to Hebrew and Arabic thought, states Wensinck, The
whole of the earth is round and the ocean surrounds it like a collar. Other authors compare the circle of the
ocean around the earth with a wreath, a ring, or with the halo round the moon. The commonest image of the
ocean, however, is that of a serpent.863 Thus the famous Leviathan grips his tail between his teeth and forms a
ring around the ocean.864 The Scandinavian Midgard serpent occupied the same circular sea, biting his tail. 865
The Greek Okeanos, the boundary of the world, was the serpent Chronos. 866 Even the Aztecs knew the sea as a
circumambient Great Serpent.867
Nor can one ignore the identical serpent enclosing, or forming, the great gods throne. Muslim legends recall a
brilliant serpent around the throne of Allah: Then Allah surrounded it by a serpent . . . this serpent wound itself
around the throne.868 The same serpent, in Hebrew accounts, wound itself around the cosmic throne-wheel of
Solomon: And a silver dragon was on the machinery of the throne. 869 . . . And a silver serpent bore the
wheel of the throne.870

One remembers also the serpentine wheeled seats of such Greek figures as Triptolemos and Demeter. 871 The
seat of the Mayan god Anhel is a serpent, 872 much like the snake-seat of the primordial pair recalled by the
Miztecs.873 Just as the Egyptian serpent-dragon Set becomes the throne of Osiris, so do the parallel figures of
Tiamat and Leviathan become the thrones of Marduk and Yahweh in Babylonian and Hebrew imagery.874
So also is the temple likened to the circular serpent. Sumerian hymns describe the cosmic temple in heaven
like a dragon gleaming.875 This dragon-like abode answers to the Babylonian sanctuary of Ea, represented by a
serpent or fish.876 Belonging to the same class are the Uraei who form the walls of the heavenly dwelling of
Osiris,877 the serpentine temples or dracontia of Abury,878 the Iguana House of Mayan ritual,879 and the
girdling snake of the Greek Achis, which surrounded the temenos or inner shrine of the gods.880 The Muslims
declare that at the founding of the Sacred House of the Kaba, a serpent with a glittering appearance wrapped
itself around the wall so that its tail approached its head.881
The great fathers dwelling was the encircling serpent or dragonissuing from the cosmic sea. And it matters
not whether the abode be termed a temple or a city, for the cosmic city was equally tied to the imagery of
the circular serpent, as confirmed by Egyptian illustrations of a serpent encircling the district of Hermopolis; 882
the Hebrew imagery of Leviathan surrounding the primeval, celestial Jerusalem; and the serpentine enclosure of
the Teutonic Asgard, the city of the gods.
Always we encounter the same serpent, glittering in the light and marking out the primordial enclosure. In the
case of the Egyptian Eye and crown the identity with the Uraeus serpent is spelled out with uncanny boldness.
Egyptian hymns locate the enclosing Uraeus on the brow of the great god, and this circular serpent is at once
the band of the single Eye and the circle of the crown:
He has come to you, O NT-Crown; He has come to you, O Fiery Serpent . . . O Great Crown . . . Ikhet the
Serpent has adorned you . . . because you are Horus encircled with the protection of his eye.883
O King, the dread of you is the intact Eye of Horus, the White Crown, the serpent-goddess who is in Nekheb.884
To wear the crown is to wear the Fiery Serpent, which, in turn, is to reside within the enclosure or protection
of the Eye. Though offering no explanation, Clark recognizes the identity of these cosmic images: The Eye is
elevated as the defensive cobra whichon the pattern of the earthly pharaohsencircled the brows of the High
God, he writes.885

42. The circular serpent encircling Hermopolis

The connection immediately explains why the Sumerian Mus-crown, conceived as a golden band, was the
great dragon.886
Though the circular serpent appears in many guises, at root there is only one such creature, for its diverse forms
as the Cosmos, earth, temple, city, throne, crown, and Eyeare simply the different mythical formulations
of the circumpolar enclosure.
These unnatural roles of the circular serpentwhich mythologists tend to regard as the most irrational and
unfathomable aspects of ancient symbolismactually provide one of the most significant unifying threads.

In Summary: A Coherent Doctrine

Saturns primordial home was a simple enclosure, a dwelling universally recorded by the sign
.
Mythmaking imagination expressed the enclosure in many ways, and it is the very variety of formulations
which testifies to the bands overwhelming impact on the ancient world.

To deal meaningfully with this imagery one must admit the influence of a celestial order vastly different from
that familiar to us today. We customarily think of myth as the opposite of reality. Yet the consistency of the
testimony suggests that the mythical view, passed down to us through sacred signs, monuments, and literature,
connects us with a very real world confronted by the first mythmakers.
The present heavens explain neither the ancient rites of kingship nor the array of astral symbols which grew up
around the kingwho was conceived as the human incarnation of the ruling divinity in heaven. Always, the
ritual and symbol refer to an age different from our own, an age when Saturn, the central sun, ruled from the
celestial pole, encircled by his band of glory.
Saturns band was the primeval Cosmos, viewed as the planet-gods own consort, the womb on the cosmic
waters. The myths alternately depict the band as a revolving island in the sky, a cord of rope forming the
boundary of Saturns domain, a shining egg, a shield, and the creators collar, belt, or girdle.
This was the earth which (in the universal creation legend) the great god raised from the celestial sea. In
mythical history it became the ancestral land of peace and plentyAdams paradise. Saturns kingdom
possessed the form of a great wheel; it was the creators revolving throne, the celestial city, the lost navel or
Middle Place, where (cosmic, mythical) history took its start. Around the border of the heavenly land flowed
a circular river or ocean.
The same band was Saturns revolving temple, which he wore as a crown and in which he dwelt as the pupil of
the all-seeing Eye. As the cosmic vase, the band housed Saturns waters of life.
And finally, Saturns band appears in the guise of a shining serpent wrapped around the central sun and denoted
by the Egyptian sign
.
Divorced from the archetypal enclosure the various symbols (temples, crowns, thrones, wheels, etc.) appear as
isolated forms of uncertain origin. We simply take them as facts. Why, then, were these forms systematically
related in language, art, ritual, and myth? It is not a question of later generations recklessly joining unrelated
images. The further back we go the greater the unity. The best evidence of the harmonious vision comes from
the oldest sources of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Here we find the central sun wearing the cosmic city and
temple as a crown; taking as his throne the eye of heaven, the holy land, or the vase of upper waters; shining in
the centre of an egg called the earth; and encircled by a river which forms the wall of the temple but also the
circle of the gods. In each case we find that the symbol refers directly to the womb of the mother goddess
enclosing the great father Saturn.
In reviewing this imagery of the enclosure one confronts many dominant motifs of ancient religion. Whatever
the mythical formulation of the band, the hymns celebrate its presence at the polar centre. Yet who can locate a
source of the imagery in todays tranquil heavens? Where is this revolving river of splendour and terror?
Where is the city of the White Wall, the clear and radiant holy land, the temple like a dragon gleaming,
the throne of light, the golden egg, or the fiery serpent?
If the texts present alternative versions of the band, they never question its existence in primeval times. It is the
archaic reality concealed within a massive body of myths and symbols, all pointing to the signs
as images of Saturn, the polar sun.

and

VIII. The Cosmic Mountain

To the images of the enclosed sun
and enclosed sun-cross
ancient myths add the cosmic mountaina
column of light rising along the world axis and visually appearing to hold aloft the great gods home. The signs
of the Saturnian mountain are

and

Throughout the world one encounters the story of a shining peak which once rose to the centre of heaven.
Though this cosmic mountain appears under many different names, accounts from every section of the world
tell much the same story. The Egyptians knew the great column as the Primeval Hill, the Babylonians as the
World Mountain. The mount passed into Hinduism as the cosmic Meru, into Iranian myth as Hera-Berezaiti,
and into Chinese myth and astrology as Kwen-Lun. Mexican cosmology gave it the name Colhuacan. Its most
familiar representatives were Olympus and Zion.
But does not Olympus refer to the well-known peak in Macedonia, and Zion to the small hill in Palestine? In
truth the mythical Olympus and the mythical Zion are the same mountain; only their terrestrial representations
differ. When the ancients sanctified a familiar hill, giving it the name of the primeval mount, they sought to
characterize their own land as a duplication of the homeland. The local mountain took its mythical attributes
from the cosmic peak. Always the sacred mount rises higher than any mountain on earth, attaining the polar
centre and functioning as the cosmic axis.
Legends of the heaven-sustaining peak say that the creatorthe central sunruled his kingdom from the
mountaintop, where stood the original paradise with its four life-bearing streams.

Egypt
According to the long-standing belief of Egyptologists, the sun-god rises over the eastern horizon each morning
and sinks below the western horizon each evening. In widely accepted translations of the texts, one repeatedly
finds such wording as horizon from which Re goes forth,887 Thou living Soul who comest forth from the
horizon,888 or Re riseth in his horizon.889 But if the Egyptian light god truly rises from the horizon then surely
it is not Saturn, the steadfast polar sun.
A closer look at the terminology is needed. As I have already observed, the words which the translators render
as rise (pert, uben, un) mean literally to appear, to shine, to send forth light, etc. The conventional
choice of the word rise follows from the belief that the hymns describe the solar orb emerging in the east.
But what about the word horizon, which occurs with such frequency in the standard translations? The
Egyptian term for the place of the suns coming forth is khut, whose literal sense is anything but horizon. 890
The hieroglyph for khut
(or
) combines two signsthe Re or Aten sign
and the sign for
mountain
. (I take up the latter sign in the section on the cleft peak.) Its literal meaning, as noted by
Renouf, is Mount of Glory and there is no reason why we should continue to use the misleading term
horizon. Literally, the great god does not rise from the horizon, but shines in the Mount of Glory. To what
did the Egyptians refer by such language?
The hymns speak not of the present world order, but the former, when the creator took as his seat the pillar of
the Cosmos. An inscription of the Karnak temple extols the khut or Mount of Glory as the venerable hill of
primeval beginning.891 Hearkening to the same age, the Edfu texts recall the First Occasion in the High Hill at
the beginning of Coming Into Existence. 892 In the Pyramid Texts we read, I am the Primeval Hill of the land
in the midst of the sea, whose hand no earthlings have grasped. 893 (The reader will now recognize the midst of
the sea as the polar heart, navel, or centre of the cosmic waters.)
The myths and liturgies of the Mount of Glory (Primeval Hill) relate that the creator raised the mount from the
Sea of Chaos. States Frankfort: Within the expanse of the primeval waters he created dry land, the Primeval
Hill, which became the centre of the earth, or at least the place round which the earth solidified. Local traditions
differ as regards the details; but everywhere the site of creation, the first land to emerge from chaos, was

thought to have been charged with vital power. And each god counting as Creator was made to have some
connection with this Hill.894
If Frankforts summary is accurate, then the Primeval Hill is directly related to the enclosure of earth which the
creator gathered together as a stable dwellingthe Cosmos.
To discern the connection of the mount and enclosure we must return once more to the legends of Atum. The
texts of all periods agree that in the beginning Atum, or Khepera, floated alone in the Abyss without a resting
place. The god recalls the original epoch:
. . . When I was alone in the waters . . .
before I had found anywhere to stand or sit,
before Heliopolis [the celestial earth] had
been founded that I might be there,
before a perch had been formed for me to sit on . . .895
I found no place where I could stand, states the god in a similar account. 896 In the hieroglyph for to stand,
(aha) the key sign is , conveying the meaning to support, stability. Which is to say that in the beginning
the god wandered without a stable support. This was before a perch had been formed for me to sit on. The
glyph for perch is

, signifying the primordial pedestal of the great god. It was a common Egyptian

practice to place the emblems of the creator upon the perch sign
, for the perch or pedestal means the
same thing as mountain. Thus Osiris, enthroned upon the Primeval Hill, is like an exalted one upon thy
pedestal,897 while Anup, the god who is on his mountain, is also the god who is on his pedestal.898
It seems that the creation accounts refer to a time before the appearance of the great mountain or perch. Prior to
the emergence of this foundation occurs the central act of creation, recalled in numerous accounts: the bringing
forth of the khubrilliant lights, words of powerthe fiery waters which erupted directly from the
creator and came to be recalled as radiant speech.
A literal translation of one text yields the following:
I could find no place to stand
I uttered the incantation
[khut] with my heart.
I laid the foundation of Maa.
I produced all the aru [the guardians of the deep, the assembly].
I was alone.
I had not spit in the form of Shu.
I had not poured out Tefnut.
No other worked with me.
I laid a foundation with my own heart . . .
I poured out (seed, water) in the form of Shu.
I emitted (seed, water) in the form of Tefnut.899
The language indicates that the creator, originally alone, uttered or poured out from his heart the watery
mass (khu, khut) in which the primordial foundation was laid. That this foundation is identified with the gods
Maa or Shu is crucial: for Maa and Shu signify the cosmic pillar holding aloft the central sun.
That the pillar of Shu was born from the khu or khut emitted by Atum is the explicit statement of the Coffin
Texts, where Shu declares:
I am life, the Lord of years, living for ever, Lord of eternity
the eldest one that Atum made in [or from] his Khu
in giving birth to Shu.900
Or again, Shu announces:

. . . I came into being in the limbs of the Self-Creator.

He formed me in [with] his heart and he created me in his Khu.901
The Egyptian priests clearly know that the Shu-pillar, formed in the fiery abyss, was the same thing as the
perch, or pedestal upon which the heart of heaven eventually found rest. Thus, while one Coffin Text
reads, I am raised aloft on my standard (
, perch) above yonder places of the Abyss,902 another states,
I am high in the form of Horus . . . He has established my heart on his great standard. I do not fall on account
of Shu.903 The foundation of Maa, cited above, refers to the same mountain or pillar. A common glyph for
maa is
, the very image used to designate the Primeval Hill. Often the glyph is simply read as the
pedestal of the great god. In its root meaning, maa or maat denotes the stable, enduring foundation, the
source of cosmic regularity. (It is the axle of the Cosmos.) Thus the creator, resting upon the axle-pillar, is he
who rests upon Maat.
In the Egyptian language, the concept support or foundation merges with mountain or hill. The word
thes, for example, means support, to bear, lift up. but also mountain. The reason is that the only mountain
with which the ritual is concerned is the primeval

43. The solitary Eye upon the primordial Perch.

mountain, the foundation of the Cosmos. May I endure in the sky like a [or the] mountain, like a [the]
support, reads a Pyramid Text.904
The cosmic pillar, according to the creation accounts, originated in the seed or water of life flowing from the
creator Atum: the very khu or khut which congealed into the circle of glory took form also as the heavensustaining column. Indeed, one finds that in much of the symbolism, the enclosure and the mount are
inseparablethe enclosure being considered as the hollow summit of the mount. (See below)
To understand the Egyptian hieroglyph for the Mount of Glory (khut,
), one must consider the full range of
meanings attached to the terms khu and khut. In their most elementary sense the words refer to the fiery essence
or luminous matter which exploded from the creator. From this root meaning are derived a number of
interrelated hieroglyphic terms.
When written
, khu is often translated soul or spirit. The reference is not to invisible powers but
to flaming debris, conceived as the erupting substance of the creator and personified in the ritual as the lightspirits of the abyss.

Thus, when written with the determinative

(i.e.,

), khut means fire.

But the mythmakers interpreted the same erupting debris as visible speech or words uttered by the creator.
Hence khu (
) means words of power while khut (
incantation which produced the fiery, watery mass.

) denotes the creative

In fashioning the Cosmos or celestial earth the creator gathered the sea of words into a circle of glory,
sometimes denoted by the sign
Aten

(khu, often written

, the great gods encircling aura or halo.

or

). This is the enclosure of the

But the most common symbol of the creators glory (khu, khut) is the sign
, depicting not only an
enclosure but vertical streams of light ascending the world axis. It is no coincidence, then, that this very khu
sign also denotes Shu, the light-pillar formed in the primordial sea. The radiant column, as proclaimed in the
texts, was poured out by the creator Atum.
Of precisely the same significance is the khut sign
, the Mount of Glory, or more specifically, the
mount and enclosure of the khu. Because the glyph is regularly used in the sense of the place from which the
sun shines forth, Egyptologists as a whole overlook all the interconnected meanings of the glyph and simply
translate it as the horizon. But as we have seen, the place from which the sun shines forth means the
circumpolar enclosure, not the eastern horizon. In the Egyptian language it is impossible to separate the polar
place par excellence from the cosmic mountain.
To this celestial peak the Egyptians continually looked back in their myths and rites. On behalf of the deceased
king the priests poured a heap of sand on the floor inside the pyramid, placing atop the sand a statue of the king
and reciting a prayer which began:
Rise upon it, this land which came forth as [or from] Atum,the spittle which came forth as [or from] Kheprer,
assume your form upon it, rise high upon it.905
The sand represented the Primeval Hill, which the Egyptians often depicted by a flight of stairs,
or
, leading to the centre and summit of heaven. If Atum, or Re, shone from the summit of the hill, so did Osiris:
Osiris sits in judgement in a palace in the Primeval Mound, which is in the centre of the world, writes
Clark.906
Hail, O Osiris, thou hast received thy sceptre and the place whereon thou art to rest, and thy steps are under
thee, reads the Book of the Dead.907 The hill was the fixed resting place of the central sun, its summit the
supreme object of ascension symbolism. The king beseeches the great god: . . . May I be established upon my
resting place like the Lord of Life.908 The obvious Egyptian monuments to the mount so conceived are the
great pyramids, which render in stone the ancient idea of a stairway to and support of the heavenly dwelling.
The steps signify the primeval foundation laid by the creator.
In all Egyptian symbols of the mount one finds the same general significance. Always, it is the stable pillar
supporting the resting god.
One of the most famous representations of the Primeval Hill is the obelisk . The small pyramidion
on top
of the obelisk denoted the Benben stone (Foundation Stone), the Seed of Atum, the central sun. (The same form
crowned the pyramid.)

44. Egyptian Re atop the steps.

Atum-Khepri, thou wert high as the Hill
Thou didst shine forth as Benben.909
To the modern mind it may seem peculiar that the foundation stone should lie at the summit rather than the base
of the cosmic hill. But when one realizes that the summit was the fixed centre of the turning Cosmos
the
idea takes on a remarkable logic. Atum, the stone of the foundation, was the Firm Heart of the Sky, resting
upon a stationary support:

The Great God lives,

fixed in the middle of the sky upon his support.910
So reads a Coffin Text, in obvious reference to Atum or Re, whom Clark terms the arbiter of destiny perched
on the top of the world pole. 911 Thus the obelisk , the symbol of Atum resting on the cosmic pillar, came to
be employed as an ideograph for the Egyptian word men, signifying stability and to rest in one place. Men
also means mountain and pedestal.
Derived from the same root is the Egyptian word mena or Menat, the celestial mooring post. The Egyptians
conceived the stationary pillar as the stake to which the lights of the revolving assembly were bound. The
cosmic mountain is the Mena-uret, the Great Mooring Post, symbolized by the sign
. (The rope drawn
around the neck of the configuration confirms the close connection of the pillar and cosmic bond).912
It seems more than a little likely that the Egyptian Mena-uret was the very pillar from which the Muslims
derived the minaret, the lofty tower attached to the Muslim mosque, and designated Qutb, the pole or axis.
While in many myths the mount is personified as a secondary divinity (Shu, Maa) holding aloft the creator, the
hill may also appear as the trunk or lower limbs of the creator himself. Atum, as suggested by several sources
cited above, is inseparable from the mount on which he rests. The great god Ptah merges with the god Tatunen,
a personification of the Primeval Hill, so that the Book of the Dead can say Thy beauties are like unto the pillar
of the god Ptah.913 The glyph for the great god An is

, meaning pillar.

A famous Egyptian emblem of the pillar was the Tet , the special symbol of Osiris. The Tet sign denotes the
support of the Cosmos. The idea of the Tet column, writes Clark, is that it stands firmly upright.914 In the
ritual these emblems serve as world pillars holding up the sky and so guaranteeing . . . the world in which the
kings authority holds good.915 Tet means stability, permanence. It is the pedestal of Osiris, the resting
heart or motionless heart. Significantly, many Egyptian illustrations of the Tet-column include a pair of
human eyes at the top (fig. 151a), emphasizing that the column was (as Egyptologists often observe) the trunk
or backbone of Osiris himself.
In other words, the Egyptians viewed the cosmic mountain as the great gods own spinal column. Hence the sign
, depicting the pillar of the khu (or of Shu) as vertical streams of light, also means back or backbone.
The word aat, signifying the primeval perch or pedestal of the creator, possesses the additional meaning of
backbone.
Pertaining to the same symbolism is the pillar sign , read as sept, to be provided with. Helping to explain
the sign is the root sep or sepa, stability, often written with the determinative
spinal column.916 So
too, while the word thes refers to the primordial pillar, prop, or mountain, thes can also mean
backbone.

45. Tet, the stable pillar of the Cosmos.

Through extension of the symbolism in a different direction, the cosmic mountain became the creators staff
or sceptre. Texts and reliefs depict the great gods sceptre as the support of heaven or of the god himself.917

The theme may not always be recognized by conventional schools, however. A previously cited hymn from the
Book of the Dead proclaims to Osiris, Thou has received thy sceptre and the place whereon thou art to rest and
the steps are under thee.918 Few have stopped to think that the sceptre signifies the same resting place as the
steps; both refer to the column of the Cosmos. Thus, in the sign
heaven
.

the sceptre holds aloft the glyph for

A spell of the Coffin Texts reads, I am the guardian of this great prop which separates the earth from the
sky.919 But another spell declares, . . . That staff which separated sky and earth is in my hand.920. Often the
sceptre is in the form of a lotus, or papyrus holding aloft the great god.921
Whatever the particular symbolism of the cosmic mountain, all sources agree on one point: the revolving Aten
forms the hollow summit of the peak. To shine in the Aten is to shine in the midst or in the interior of the
khut
, the Mount of Glory. The god occupies the enclosure of the High Hill. O very high mountain! I
hold myself in thy enclosure, proclaims the king.922
A literal translation of Egyptian texts will yield:
O you in your egg, shining in your Aten, growing bright in your Mount of Glory.923
Grow bright and diminish at your desire . . . You send forth light every day from the middle of the Mount of
Glory.924
You shine in the Mount of Glory. The Aten receives praise, resting in the mountain and giving life to the
world.925
Homage to you, O you shining in the Aten, Living One coming forth in the Mount of Glory.926
O Re in the Mount of Glory.927
Re shines in the Mount of Glory.928
The Osiris Nu is at rest in the Mount of Glory.929
You shine in the Mount of Glory day by day.930
Again and again the same terminology occurs. The sun-god does not rise from the mount, but shines in it. I
know this claim may not be welcomed by those experts who have built their entire interpretation of Egyptian
cosmic symbolism around the rising and setting solar orb. But having reviewed all of the primary Egyptian
sources I have yet to find an early text which, when translated literally, suggests that the sun-god (during his
reign) ever leaves the cosmic peak. Though he sails in a ship, as we shall see, only the ship moves, revolving
round the stationary god. And though the texts describe a peak of the right and of the left, they are two peaks of
a singular mount.
The widely respected Egyptologist W. R. Kristensen tells us that fundamentally there was only one horizon
(i.e., khut, Mount of Glory). The two horizons were viewed as essentially identical; what applied to one held
true for the other too. That they were geographically separated could not obliterate the impression. In mythical
cosmography they often assume one anothers functions. The place where the light sets is also called the place
where it rises . . .931
To what cosmic idea did the Egyptians refer in order to speak of the sun rising and setting on the same
mountain? Kristensen assumes that while sacred cosmology united the two mountains, they were
geographically separated. Holding to the solar interpretation, one could hardly believe anything else.
The problem does not lie with the texts, but with the solar interpretation, which looks for imagery of a rising
and setting sun where there is none. The Egyptian sun-god comes out (grows bright) and goes in
(diminishes) em hetep, while standing in one place. That place is the enclosure of the stationary summit.

The universal signs of the sun on the mountaintop are

and

. To the former corresponds the Egyptian

hieroglyph
denoting khut, the Mount of Glory, or Shu, the divine personification of the Mount, but also
serving as the determinative of spinal column. Other Egyptian illustrations depict the disk of the Aten
supported by the Tet-column, or resting over the obelisk (as was customary in the earliest forms of the
obelisk),932 or raised aloft by the divine sceptre. The consistent theme is that the enclosure and the Mount are
inseparable.
In the hieroglyphs, the simple form of the mena-uret or Great Mooring Post is , but the larger illustrations
offer a more detailed portrait of the binding post. A papyrus, for example, shows the goddess Hathor amid the
celestial garden, wearing the Menat symbol.933 Here the form is :

The post, or pillar of the cord (Cosmos), appears to sustain a circle enclosing the image
sign of the four life-bearing streams (un).

, the Egyptian

Clarification of the mooring-post symbol is provided by a Coffin Text, in which the All-Lord (ruler of the
Cosmos) looks back to the primordial age and the four good deeds which my own heart did for me in the midst
of the serpent-coil [cord, bond, Cosmos] . . . I did four good deeds within the portal of the Mount of Glory. I
made the four winds that every man might breathe thereof.934
Does not the above image of the Great Mooring Post answer directly to these lines? On the Mount of Glory
stands the garden of abundance, animated by the life elements radiating in luminous streams from the central
sunthe great gods heart.
Of the Egyptian paradise, Massey writes, The general tradition is that this paradise was a primeval place of
birth and that it was in the north, upon the summit of a mount now inaccessible to the living anywhere on
earth.935 This paradisal enclosure at the summit was the cosmic cityand every sacred citybe it Heliopolis,
Thebes, Memphis, Busiris, or Abydosmirrored the history of the prototype, symbolically resting atop the
Primeval Hill. Of the deceased king, the Coffin Texts announce:
Annubis is mindful of you in Busiris, your soul rejoices in Abydos where your body is happy [em hetep, at rest]
on the High Hill.936
When the deceased ruler enters the city of the god-king, he returns to the Holy Land, the celestial earth at the
summit of the polar mountain.
Osiris, the god on the top of the steps [Primeval Hill], 937 is the universal lord in possession of a seat, his
heart being at peace [em hetep, at rest] on the Mountain of the Necropolis [city of the ancestors] 938 Amen-Re
is the dweller in Thebes, the great god who appeareth in the Mount of Glory. 939 The name of AbydosAbtu
signifies the mountain of the heart.
In the same way every temple, as a symbol of the Saturnian enclosure, magically rested on the Primeval Hill.
Each and every temple was supposed to stand on it, writes Frankfort. This thought is applied even to temples
built quite late in the history of Egypt. 940 Surely the temple builders knew that they were not constructing the
local dwelling on the actual Primeval Hill; but in imbuing the temple with the mythical qualities of the original
dwelling, the architects gave concrete form to an ideal defined in the beginning. When Hatshepsut identifies the
Karnak temple as the Mount of Glory upon earth, the venerable hill of primeval beginning, 941 she connects
the local edifice with the central hill of creation, the mount on which the house of the sun-god originally stood.
States Frankfort: The queen, by beautifying Karnak, honoured the centre from which the creation took its
start . . . The identity of the temples with the Primeval Hill amounts to a sharing of essential quality and is
expressed in their names and in their architectural arrangements by means of ramps or steps. Each temple rose
from its entrance through its successive courts and halls to the Holy of Holies, which was thus situated at a

point noticeably higher than the entrance. There the statue, barge or fetish of the god was kept, resting upon the
Primeval Hill.942

In all basic details, the Egyptian symbolism of the Primeval Hill corresponds to the cosmic images
,
.
The Mount forms in the cosmic sea, stretching upward along the world axis to hold aloft the central sun. The
hollow summit of the Mount is the circle of the Aten, within whose enclosure the sun grown bright and
diminishes with the cycle of night and day. This Mount of Glory is the site of the original paradise, the city or
temple of the Universal Monarch.
A review of similar imagery in other lands will show the influence of a world-wide tradition.

Mesopotamia
I have argued that the Egyptian Atum, the solitary god in the deep, is the very figure whom Babylonian
astronomy identifies as the planet Saturn. Atum, the Firm Heart of the Sky, stands fixed in the middle of the
sky upon his support..
Here, on the other hand, is a broken Sumerian reference to Ninurash, or Ninurta, the planet Saturn:
Whom the god of the steady star upon a foundation
To . . . cause to repose in years of plenty.943
Saturn, founder of the Golden Age, was the stationary light upon a foundation, exactly as the Egyptian Atum.
Accordingly, Babylonian astronomical texts give Saturn the name Kaainu, the Greek kiun, pillar.
What was this foundation or pillar of Saturn? It was the mountain of the an-ki [Cosmos], formedlike the
Egyptian counterpartamid the waters of Chaos. . . . Of the hill which I, the hero, have heaped up,
proclaims Ninurta, let its name be Hursag [mountain]. 944 This cosmic peak, whose foundation is laid in the
pure abyss, the Babylonians denominated the mountain of the world. 945 Ninurta scaled the mountain and
scattered seed far and wide946 just as Atum, resting upon the Primeval Hill, radiated the seed of life in all
directions.
Here, in the Chaldean Olympus, writes Sayce, the gods were imagined to have been born; its summit was
hidden by the clouds, and the starry firmament seemed to rest upon it.947
In what portion of the sky did the ancient Mesopotamians locate the hill? Several texts, as normally translated,
identify the Mount as the place where the sun rises, seeming to fix the peak in the east.
Concerning the Hursag raised by Ninurta, a hymn reads:
IncantationO Sun-god, from the great mountain is thy rising;
from the great mountain, the mountain of the ravine, is thy rising;
from the holy mound, the place of destinies, is thy rising.948
The texts also connect the lost land of Dilmun with a cosmic mountain, a peak which appears to be the same as
the Hursag, for it is the mountain of Dilmun, the place where the sun rises. 949 The temple hymns employ the
same terminology in describing the Kur (mountain) as Kur-d-utu-e-a, the mountain where the sun rises. In
the Epic of Gilgamesh, the hero journeys to the Mashu Mountain upon which the vault of heaven rests. Through
its gate the sun comes forth.950
Mesopotamian reliefs show the sun-god standing upon a cleft peak virtually identical to the Egyptian
mountain symbol
(fig. 60). With the rarest exceptions, authorities identify the image with the solar orb
rising over an eastern hill.
Certain writers, in fact, believe that the entire character of the mythical Mount can be explained by the simple
experience of native races viewing the eastern sunrise. Jacobsen, for example, urges that we understand the
Hursag as the range of mountains bordering the Mesopotamian plain on the east. As seen on the eastern
horizon, its shining peaks towering from earth up into heaven, the hursag appears indeed to belong equally to
both of these cosmic entities, and the epithet . . . of both heaven and earth, is therefore as forceful as it is
apt.951

But there is a curious feature of the great column: the mount from which the Babylonian sun-god rises is the
same mount on which it sets. The singular hill is the mountain of the night [sunset], the mountain of the
sunrise, the mountain of the centre.952
Through the gate of the Mashu Mountain attained by Gilgamesh the sun-god Shamash comes forth. But the
keepers of this mountain-gate are those who guard Shamash at the rising and setting of the sun.953
Similarly, in connection with a hymn to the Fire-god, containing enigmatic references to the mountain of the
sun-set and the mountain of the sunrise, Sayce writes: We must consider the poet to have looked upon the
mountain behind which the sun rose and set as one and the same.954
Were the Sumero-Babylonian races oblivious the geographical realities? One remembers Kristensens
observation that the Egyptian sun-god rises and sets upon a singular khut or Mount of Glory. Is this seeming
confusion of east and west due to the abandon of the mythmakers, or to a modern misunderstanding of ancient
cosmology?
One can begin to resolve the dilemma by comprehending the primeval mounts title as the mountain of the
centre. The mount is the pivot, for the Assyro-Babylonians gave it the title the axis of heavena designation
which leads Lenormant to describe the mount as the column which joined the heavens and the earth and served
as an axis to the celestial vault.955 This, of course, creates a conflict with the apparent solar imagery of the
peak. Because the sun-god shines from the mountain, Lenormant seeks a compromise between the polar and
the eastern locations: . . . The mountain which acted as a pivot to the starry heavens was to the northeast . . .
Unfortunately, the compromise fails to explain either trait of the mountain: the Babylonian sunrise does not
occur to the northeast,956 and in no sense could the northeast appear as a cosmic axis. One faces the very
paradox observed by Butterworth when he speaks of the ambiguity between the Pole and the Sun.957
The entire difficulty vanishes when one recalls:
- that the Sumero-Babylonian sun-god does not literally rise, but comes forth or grows bright.
- that the sun-god comes forth at the polar centre or heart of heaven.
- that the sun-god is Saturn.
These principles permit us to see that what conventional interpretations must regard as flatly contradictory
aspects of the world mountain actually reveal a harmonious idea. The subject is the mountain of the centre at
whose summit shines the stationary sun. The god comes out and goes in on the mountaintop, through the
gate or door or window of the polar enclosure; but he accomplishes this without moving from his fixed
abode.
The Babylonian sun-god, observed Warren, comes forth from the true summit of the Earth, the Northern
Pole.958
It is, in fact, impossible to comprehend Babylonian cosmology apart from the polar character of the great
Mount. Obviously, to ascend the world mountain is to attain the world summit, and the summit is, as many
writers have noted, the polar dwelling of An, the midst or heart of heaven.
In all ancient cosmologies the centre and summit meet at the celestial pole, and the Sumero-Babylonian world
view is no exception. The Babylonian Pole-star, states Robert Brown, is seated in majesty on the summit of
the northern heights.959 One of the names of the pole is Dugga (Semitic Saqu), which means high and is
connected with the idea to rise up, to come to the top.960 The ruling polar god is thus the commander of the
summit, which can only be the summit of the world mountain. The Judge of Heaven [Anu] in the centre is
bound (i.e., he is enclosed within the bond). And in the Centre he fixed the Zenith 961 that is, he raised the
world mountain, the primeval foundation. Like the Egyptian Mena-uret, the Sumerian mount becomes the
binding post or mooring post (DIM.GAL) of the turning Cosmos.
The god on the cosmic mountain was the planet Saturn, the pillar. Anu atop the illustrious Mound, Shamash
on the mountain of the world, Ninurta at the summit of Hursag, Tammuz on the Shepherds Hill of Arallu,
and Enki ruling the Ekur (mountain house), or the mountain of Dilmunall point to the planet Saturn, the
primeval sun upon the column of the Cosmos

With this cosmic mountain the Sumerians identified every city and every temple. As in Egypt, the Mount and
enclosure always appear together, the Mount serving as the heavenly abodes support. Of Enkis temple, the
hymns record, The holy foundation made with skill rises from the nether-sea. 962 Confirming this union of the
cosmic temple and Mount are the titles of the sacred dwellingsThe House, Foundation of the An-ki
(Cosmos); House, the mountain of the Cosmos; House of the Mountain; Temple whose platform is
suspended from heavens midst . . . growing up like a mountain.
In the same manner the hymns extol the local city as a duplication of the celestial prototype. The earthbound
Eridu received its name from Enkis city above, the cosmic Eridu fashioned in the waters of the Apsu like a
holy highland or like a mountain. The city of Ninazu was the mountain, pure place. 963 Indeed the entire
land of Akkad was symbolically linked with the great mountain and portrayed as the centre of the world.964

If the symbols of the enclosed sun are

and
, the symbols of the Mount and enclosure are
and
.
The basic images occur throughout Mesopotamia. Depicted is the inaccessible paradise, a circular plain situated
atop the mountain of the world and watered by four rivers flowing in four directions. Thus the Assyrians called
the world mountain the land [or mountain] of the four rivers. Massey recognized this as the mythical Mount
of the Pole and the four rivers of four quarters, which arose in Paradise. 965 Yet neither Massey nor the more
conventional authorities seem to have perceived that the mountain-paradise corresponds in every way to the
simple images

and

Nor has any writer given sufficient attention to the extraordinary parallel between the Egyptian and
Mesopotamian images of the cosmic mountain.

India
In all the legends of India, states Lenormant, the origin of humanity is placed on Mount Meru, the residence
of the gods and the column which unites the sky to the earth.966 For the Hindus, Meru was the prototype of the
sacred hill. As the Aryans spread through India they named many local peaks Meru, deeming each a copy of
the primeval mount.967
The original Meru was the polar mountain, its summit the quartered enclosure of the celestial paradise
.
Hindu sources describe the mount as a cosmic pillar fixed in the middle of the plain Jambu-dwipa, or rising in
the midst of the cosmic sea. On the summit of this golden mountain or Jewelled Peak lies the heavenly city
of Brahma, and around the peak lie the cardinal points and intermediate quarters. 968 Toward each of the four
quarters of the mountain paradise flows an outlet of the central water source, the celestial Ganges.969
Meru reaches the centre of heaven, and around its summit the stars revolve. 970 The mount, states Lenormant, is
at once the north Pole and the centre of the habitable earth.971 The world navel means the zenith.
Hindu ritual commemorates the cosmic pillar through the sacrificial stake or post. In the Satapatha Brahmana,
the priest raises the sacred stake (yupa) with the words: With thy crest thou hast touched the sky; with thy
middle thou hast filled the air; with thy foot thou hast steadied the earth. 972 The cosmic pillar was the
foundation of heaven: Prop thou the sky! fill the air! stand firm on the earth. 973 A stay art thou! Do thou
make firm the sky!974
This firm or stable support corresponds in every way to the primordial foundation of Egyptian and
Mesopotamian cosmologies. The Satapatha Brahmana locates the post in the centre of the sacrifice shed
(Sadas), itself a symbol of the Cosmos. The participants in the ritual form a circle around the post and touch it
with the words, Here is stability . . . Here is joy.975
The cosmic post, Eliade informs us, was the axis of the world. By mystically ascending the celestial pillar the
sacrificer attained the cosmic centre and summit.976

The Indian world pillar, whether considered as a cosmic mountain (Meru) or as a pole or stake reaching from
earth to heaven, is that which sustains the central sun. Buddhist iconography reviewed by Coomaraswamy
depicts the wheel of the sun raised upon a cosmic column called the pillar of fire. 977 To the solar
mythologists the pillar can only be in the east, the direction of sunrise. Yet Coomaraswamy writes: The wheel
is supported by a column, the Axis of the Universe.978 The sun, in other words, means not the wandering
solar orb, but the Buddha or Brahmathe true sun which after having risen thence upwards . . . rises and
sets no more. It remains alone in the centre.979
The Indian pillarreflecting the cosmic images
and
serves at once as the foundation of the Cosmos
and the axle of the revolving wheel above. That the axle is the pillar is confirmed in the Rig Veda: . . . by the
axle of his wheeled-car indeed, by his abilities, he pillars apart Heaven and Earth. 980 Resting atop the axlepillar, the great god appears as the unmoved mover of the revolving wheel.981
Thus the axle-born Buddha resides at the centre or nave of the wheel, imparting motion to the turning
circumference while himself remaining motionless. The wheel, in turn, rests upon a universal ground or
foundation, a lotus-like pillar. The pillar extends from Earth to Heaven; it is the axis of the Universe, states
Coomaraswamy.982 Buddhist art and architecture give numerous and elaborate expressions to the idea, but
reduced to its fundamentals, it is simply the polar sun-wheel sustained by the cosmic mountain

Japan, China, Iran, Siberia

With the axis-mountain of Indian thought we can bracket closely related examples from neighbouring lands:
A title of the Indian Meru was SuMeru, the excellent Meru, a name which Buddhism carried into China as
Siumi, and to Japan as Shumi. Even the relatively late Chinese commentary the Li-Khi locates Mount Siumi in
the middle of the Cosmos, i.e., at the pole. 983 The Japanese Mount Shumi was, according to Hepburn, a
Buddhist fabulous mountain of wonderful height, forming the axis of every Universe, and the centre around
which all the heavenly bodies revolve.984
The most common name of the polar mountain in China is Kwen-lun. Called the worlds highest mountain,
Kwen-lun stood at the centre of the earth.985 On its summit lay a shining circular plain, recalled as a celestial
homeland whose sparkling fountains and purling streams contain the far-famed ambrosia. 986 The paradise,
notes Warren, possesses a living fountain from which flow in opposite directions the four great rivers of the
world.987
Named the Pearl Mountain, Kwen-Lun rises to the celestial pole, the abode of the first king Shang-ti. 988
Around it revolve the visible heavens.989 Kwen-lun is described as a stupendous heaven-sustaining mountain,
marking the centre or pole.990 It is the Great Peak of Perfect Harmony, whose summit displays Shang-tis
palace, named Tsze-wei, a celestial space around the N. Pole.991
Distinct from Kwen-lun, but representing the same idea, is the Chinese Mount Kulkun, designated as the King
of the Mountains, the summit of the earth, the supporter of heaven and the axis which touches the pole.992
The true nature of the cosmic mount is evident in the Chinese symbolism of the king post. Mystic traditions
defined the centre post of a roof (or the top of such a post) as the Ki. The chief upright (Ki) of the local dwelling
symbolized the Tai-Ki or Great Ki in heaven, the central support of the turning Cosmos. The Great Ki was
the god-king Shang-ti, dwelling upon the summit of the polar mount Kwen-lun.993
The Iranian counterpart of Meru was the cosmic mountain Hera Berezaiti, raised by Ahura Mazda. In the Zend
Avesta this bright mountain appears as the first mountain that rose up out of the earth.994
From this cosmic mountain the sun shone forth each day. Up! rise up and roll along! thou swift-horsed sun,
above Hera Berezaiti, and produce light for the world . . .995 (Darmesteters translation seems to suggest a solar
chariot ascending in the east to pass swiftly over the sky.) According to the Bundahish the light rises up from
Hera Berezaiti.996

Does the mountain, then, lie to the geographic east? It does not. The sun atop the mount is Mithra, the lord of
wide pastures, . . . sleepless, and ever awake; from whom the Maker Ahura Mazda has built up a dwelling on
the Hera-Berezaiti, the bright mountain around which the many stars revolve, where come neither night nor
darkness, no cold wind and no hot wind, no deathful sickness, no uncleanness made by the Daevas, and the
clouds cannot reach up unto the Hera-Berezaiti.997
The polar character of the mount was not lost on Lenormant, who wrote: Like the Meru of the Indians, Heraberezaiti is the pole and centre of the world, the fixed point around which the sun and the planets perform their
revolutions.998 Through the paradise at the zenith flowed the four directional rivers; and here was Ahura
Mazdas shining abode, the house of praise.999
So profoundly influenced were the Iranians by this primordial mountain that one encounters the same cosmic
hill under numerous names. As reported by Lenormant, all the groups embodied by the race, desiring to have
their own Hera-Berezaiti, left commemorative sacred mountains in one location after another.1000
When the Zend Avesta speaks of Mount Us-hindu, that stands in the middle of the sea, 1001 one recognizes the
same central mountain. The Bundahish describes the cosmic peak as that which, being of ruby, of the
substance of the sky, is in the midst of the wide formed ocean. 1002 Is this not the character of every Primeval
Hill, rising to the centre of the cosmic sea?
The Iranians also called the cosmic mountain Taera (or Terak). In the Pahlavi Texts Taera appears as the Centre
of the World.1003 And again, the central mount is the axis, for the Zend Avesta depicts the holy Rasnu resting
upon the Taera of the height Haraiti, around which the stars, the moon and the sun revolve.1004
On the cosmic mount lay the birthplace of the first ancestor. In the centre of the earth Gayomarth was born
radiant and tall, ruling upon the great hill as king of the mountain. 1005 This world centre was the paradise
Airan-vej, the Iranian Eden, and Gayomarth was the first man. The most distinctive characteristic of this
paradise was the great peak Kadad-i-Daitik, termed the Centre of the Earth. And where was this primordial
mountain at the centre of the world? It is identified as the peak of judgement atop Hera Berezaiti.1006
Thus could the Manichaeans say with assurance, The Primeval Man comes, then, from the world of the Pole
Star.1007

Siberia
Among Altaic races one finds a well-preserved memory of the cosmic pillar. The conception of a skysupporting pillar reaches back among the Altaic race to a comparatively early period, states Uno Holmberg. 1008
The consensus holds that the column rose to the stationary celestial pole. Among many tribes it was the golden
pillar. The Kirghis, Bashkirs, and other Siberian Tatar tribes recall it as the iron pillar. To the Teleuts it was
the lone post and to the Tungus-Orotshons, the golden post.1009
Siberian myths describe the pillar as a great mountain, which the Mongols and Kalmucks call Sumur or Sumer
and the Buriats Sumbur (closely related to the Hindu Meru or Sumeru). In whatever form this mountain is
imagined, it is connected always with the cosmography of these peoples, forming its centre . . . As far back as
can be traced it has been a cosmological belief.
Where, then, is the summit of this earth-mountain? asks Uno Holmberg. We might suppose it to be at the
summit of Heaven, directly above us . . . It was not, however, envisaged thus, but instead its peak rises to the
sky at the North Star where the axis of the sky is situated, and where, on the peak, the dwelling of the Over-god
and his golden throne are situated. To this idea points also the assumption, met everywhere in Asia, that the
world mountain is in the north.1010
Siberian creation myths relate that the high God Ulgen, at the creation of the world, sat atop a golden
mountain.1011 The Siberians conceived the axle-pillar as the centre post to which the revolving celestial bodies
were bound. Just as Egyptian texts termed the pillar the Great Mooring Post and the Sumerians denominated
it the binding post, Altaic races gave it the name mighty tethering post. Nomads of Central Asia claim that
their use of a post for tethering of their steeds imitates the gods, who fastened their horses to the heavens post.
Certain Siberian Tatar tribes describe the cosmic pillar as a golden horse post raised in front of the gods
dwelling.1012

Altaic and Finno-Ugric tribes commemorated the world pillar through the sacrificial pillars erected in the centre
of the village or as the centre-pole of the tent. The ritual post of the Lapps was Veralden Tshouldthe pillar of
the worldand represented the lofty polar column. 1013 Uno Holmberg reports that the wood post which
supports the centre of the Altaic shamans tent duplicates the cosmic character of the primeval pillar upholding
heaven. In the magical rites the shaman ascends this post to reach the navel and summit of the world.
In the middle of the world stands a pillar of birch wood, say the Yakuts. 1014 The sacred pole, Holmberg
reports, stood for the mountain of the navel.
Like so many other races, the Finns identify the navel with the summit, for they recall the origin of fire:
Over there at the navel of heaven
On the peak of the famous mountain.1015
On the cosmic mountain appeared the first man, radiating light. Altaic and Finno-Ugric races as a whole
regard this centrethe stillest placeas the site of the lost paradise, watered by four rivers, each associated
with a different colour. Here, they claim, the sun never set beneath the horizon, and here the original race
enjoyed a perpetual spring.1016

Greece and Rome

When the Greeks speak of Mount Olympus as the home of the gods, one customarily thinks of the famous
Macedonian peak, the highest mountain in Greece. Yet numerous peaks in Greece and Asia Minor competed for
the title Olympus. Arcadia and Thessaly had their own Olympus, as did Laconia. Mountains in Attica, in
Euboea, and in Skyros are still called Olympus today. Four different peaks of Mount Ida bore the name, while
there was another Olympus in Galatia, another in Lydia, another in Lycia, another in Celicia. So also did Lesbos
and Cyprus possess a sacred Olympus.
For an explanation of the many locations one must look to the cosmic prototype. Each hill entitled Olympus
commemorated the original resting place of the great father Kronos (later Zeus), just as the hill which the
Romans called the Capitoline symbolized the Mount of Saturn. 1017 Dionysius of Halicarnassus thus reports a
complete assimilation of the Capitoline or Saturnian hill and the Greek Olympus or Mount Kronos. 1018 Both
hills signified the primordial mount on which the old god Saturn founded his celestial residence.
The mythical Olympus, which gave its name to so many sacred peaks, was the wholly-shining summit, the
aetherial height or burning sky. The author of the Platonic Epinomis refers to Olympus as the Cosmos.1019
Plato tells us that Olympus was the omphalos or navel of the earth,1020 a fact of vital significance, since the
Greeks knew the omphalos as the axis.
Moreover, the tradition of Olympus cannot be divorced from that of Ida, another mythical mountain possessing
more than one localization. That Mount Ida bore the name Olympus and, like Olympus, was said to rise into the
aether,1021 reveals the underlying identity of the two heavens pillars. Ida was the birthplace:
In the centre of the Sea is the White Isle of Zeus
There is Mount Ida, and our races cradle.1022
So declares Aeneas. To anyone aware of the general tradition, this mountain in the middle of the sea can only be
the primeval hill, the cosmic peak to which every race on earth traces its ancestry.
Also conceived as the centre of the world was the famous Mount Parnassus, from which, according to local
myths, the human race descended. On the slope of Parnassus stood Delphi, Apollos popular shrine, esteemed as
the navel. But here too we must look beyond the commemorative terrestrial mount to comprehend its
symbolism. The mythical Parnassus is doubtless the same as the Sanskrit Parnasa, which the Hindu Puranas
call Meru, the polar mountain.
One of those to perceive the Greek sacred mountain as the copy of the cosmic mount was Warren, who
concluded: Olympus was simply the Atlantean pillar [the pillar of heaven] pictured as a lofty mountain, and
supporting the sky at its northern Pole. In fact, many writers now affirm that the Olympus of Greek mythology
was simply the north polar World-mountain of the Asiatic nations. 1023 But the point is only rarely

acknowledged today, and most treatments of the subject still ask the Macedonian mount to explain its own
mythical image.

Western Semitic
Mount Zion, the site of the ancient Hebrew temple, is a small hill in Jerusalem, between the Tyropoeon and
Kedron valleys. The Hebrews frequently call Jerusalem itself Zion.
But in the last days, according to Isaiah (2:2), Zion shall be exalted above the hills. This will be the new
Jerusalem. The Book of Revelation, in reference to a new heaven and a new earth, implies a transformation of
the mount: [An angel] carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great
city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven. The verse suggests that in the order to come the celestial
city will rest on a mountain reaching to heaven.1024
The concrete image of the new Jerusalem, however, is supplied by the memory of the primordial Jerusalem,
founded at the creation. This was the mount on which Yahweh, or El, stood in the beginning. From the available
evidence, one observes the following characteristics of the cosmic Zion.
1. The mountain stood at the navel of the world.1025
Thus, in the creation, God fashioned the earth around Zion.1026
2. The mountaintop was the world summit.
Among the Hebrews, states Wensinck, the sanctuary [Zion] has been considered as the highest mountain or the
highest territory of the earth. This is, Wensinck adds, the first character of the navel. 1027 (Every navel marks
the centre and summit.) Through assimilation with the cosmic Zion, the local hill acquires the imagery of the
original.
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful for
situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion.1028
The phrase beautiful for situation (yepeh nop) has the concrete meaning of towering superb (Gasters
rendering of the phrase).1029 Needless to say, the small hill in terrestrial Jerusalem did not supply this image.
3. Zion lies in the farthest north.
Mt. Zion, thou far reaches of the North, an emperors citadel.1030
Here the cosmic Zion is identified with the celestial Zaphon, the Mount of Congregation in the uttermost north.
This is the mount from which Lucifer was cast down:
For thou [Lucifer] hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of
God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north [Zaphon]. I will ascend above
the heights of clouds; I will be like the most High.1031
Thus does God (as El, the Most High) reside on a great northern mountain, reaching the stars. Clifford tells us
that Zaphons meaning seems to be practically heavens.1032 That Zion was synonymous with this cosmic
mountain in the far north links the modest hill in Jerusalem with the polar mountain of global mythology.
4. God appears as a radiant light atop Zion.
Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined. Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire
shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.1033
5. The primeval temple (or city) rests on Zion.
. . . The habitation of Yahweh on Zion is the earthly counterpart of the glorious mansion which, in traditional
popular lore, the divine overlord is said to have built for himself on the supernal hill of the gods, writes
Gaster.1034
6. God resides in the cosmic Zion.

The enclosure of Gods dwelling (temple, city) is inseparable from the mountain on which it rests. Thus can the
Psalm employ the phrase, in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.1035 Gods dwelling place in
Zion1036 is the enclosure of the summit.
7. Zion is the site of Adams paradise, the land of the four rivers.
To the prince of Tyre (clearly the cosmic, not the terrestrial city) the Lord declares:
Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering . . . Thou wast upon the holy
mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.1037
In these lines the prince of the cosmic city appears in the character of Adam, enthroned amid the fiery stones of
Eden. To occupy the primeval garden is to abide upon the holy mountain of God. 1038 The point is noted by
Wensinck: Paradise really consists of a mountain higher than any mountain on earth . . . Paradise is also
considered as a navel.1039 That the mountain surpassed all terrestrial peaks simply means that it was cosmic, as
was the paradise at the summit.
These characteristics of the heavens peak in Hebrew tradition find additional confirmation in the closely
related cosmic mountain of Canaanite myth. Zaphon in the far north appears repeatedly in the texts as the
resting place of the high god Baal. There are striking similarities between the mountain spn [Zaphon] in the
Ugaritic texts and Mount Zion in the Hebrew Bible, writes Clifford. On both the deity dwells in his temple
from which he exercises his rule; thunder and lightning are frequently his means of disclosure; the mountain . . .
is impregnable; it is connected with fertility; and it is a cosmic centre.1040
Noteworthy is the mythic and cosmic dimension of the pillar or mountain. That is, it joins the upper and lower
world; in it is contained a super abundance of life, of water; it is the throne of the deity. 1041 Just as the Hebrew
Yahweh dwells in Zion, so does the Canaanite high god Baal dwell in the cosmic Zaphon:
In the midst of my mountain, divine Zaphon,
In the holy place, the mountain of my heritage,
In the chosen spot, on the hill of victory.1042
Baal is enthroned, yea (his) seat is the mountain . . .
In the midst of his mountain, divine Zaphon . . .
His head is wonderful.1043
It must be this cosmic hill depicted in a Phoenician ivory, reproduced by Clifford. The ivory (dated to the first
millenium B.C.) shows a mountain personified as a male deity. The mountain-god holds in his hand a vase from
which four streams flow in opposite directions 1044. Issuing from the summit of the mount, the four rivers
provide a distinct parallel to the four rivers of other traditions.

The Americas
The ancient Mexicans, writes Warren, conceived of the cradle of the human race as situated in the farthest
North, upon the highest of mountains, cloud-surrounded, the residence of the god Tlaloc. Thence come the rains
and all streams, for Tlaloc is the god of the water. The first man Quetzalcoatl, after having ruled as king of the
Golden Age of Mexico, returned by divine direction to the primeval Paradise in the North (Tlapallan) and
partook of the draught of immortality. The stupendous terraced pyramid-temple of Cholula was a copy and
symbol of the sacred Paradise mountain of Aztec tradition, which was described as standing in the Centre of
the Middle-country.1045
Called Colhuacan, Tlalocs mountain was the site of the mythical homeland Atzlan, the White Mountain from
which, according to the myths, the Mexicans descended. 1046 Resting on the summit of Colhuacan was the
temple of Mixcoatl, the god of the Pole Star.1047 Though Mexican myths abound with references to the
primordial centre, one notes that (as stated by Sejourne) the centre . . . is also the point where heaven and
earth meet,1048 i.e., it is the worlds highest point, the summit of the world mountain.
As an indication of the close correspondence between the Mexican paradisal mountain and that of other races, I
cite the following Mixtec account of divine origins. The account relates that the father and mother of all the
gods constructed a mansion upon a great hill while the world yet lay in deep obscurity:

. . . When all was chaos and confusion,

the earth was covered with water,
there was only mud and slime on the surface of the earth.
At that time . . .
there became visible
a god who had the name 1-Deer
and the surname Snake of the Lion
and a goddess, very genteel and beautiful,
whose name was also 1-Deer
and whose surname was Snake of the Tiger.
These two gods are said to have been the beginning
of all other gods . . .
As soon as these two gods became
visible on earth, in human form,
the accounts of our people relate
that with their power and wisdom
they made and established a large stone
on which they built a very sumptuous mansion,
constructed with the finest workmanship
which was their seat and residence on earth . . .
This large stone and the mansion
were on a very high hill,
near the village of Apoala . . .
This large stone was named
the-place-where-the-heavens-were.
And there they remained many centuries
in complete tranquillity and contentment, as in a pleasant and delightful place . . .
The poem goes on to describe the planting of a garden of abundance on the mountaintop with
flowers and roses
and trees and fruit
and many herbs
and in this way
began the Mixtec kingdom.1049
Here we have the god One (1-Deer) appearing in the primeval waters and taking as his spouse the great
mother. The appearance of the primal pair coincides with the fashioning of a mansion atop a very high hill.
That this was the cosmic mountain is clear from the reference to the large stone of foundation atop the hill: its
name was the-place-where-the-heavens-were (it was not of our earth). With its garden of plenty, this home of
the Mixtec pair offered complete tranquillity and contentment. (Compare the Egyptian garden of Hetep,
whose very name conveys the dual meaning rest and abundance.)
All nations look back to the god One as the first king and to the first generation of gods as the ancestors. Thus
the poem concludes: in this way began the Mixtec kingdom.
A central mountain, identified with the earths navel, appears also in the myths of the Pima of the
southwestern United States. From this mountain the world was populated. 1050 The Omaha commemorate the
great rock which Wakanda summoned from the waters, at the beginning of the world:
the great white rock,
Standing and reaching as high as the heavens, enwrapped in mist.
Verily as high as the heavens . . .1051

The Indians, like the Semites, states Alexander, conceived the world to be a mountain, rising from the waste
of cosmic waters, and arched by the celestial dome.1052
The aborigines of Guiana know the great mountain Roraima, ever-fertile source of streams. Surrounding this
peak, the natives say, is a magic circle. On the same mountain they recall an enormous serpent which could
entwine a hundred people in its folds.1053
In the Eskimo tradition, the upper or netherworld lies beyond a great mountain around which the celestial dome
revolves. The land above this axis-mountain is said to resemble our earth.1054
Like other races, the American Indians represented the cosmic Mount by the centre-post of the sacred dwelling.
Perhaps the most interesting version occurs in the Delaware symbolism of the Big House, a ritual dwelling
known to represent the primeval creation. Atop the centre-post of the Big House stood the effigy of the creator
god Gicelemukaong. The post on which his face appears represents him in his aspect as centre post of the
universe, the supporter of the whole structure of creation, writes Muller.1055 The connection of this king-post
with the Great Bear1056 proves its polar character, while the creator at the summit is without doubt the supreme
polar god.

A Collective Memory
The myths and symbols of the cosmic mountain constitute a collective memory shared by all mankind. The
Mount universally appears as the inaccessible height, attaining the centre of heaven. Around its summit
revolves the circle of the Cosmos. In all principal accounts the Mount appears as the ancestral homelandthe
lost paradise with its four rivers.
From one section of the world to another the ancients represented the primeval hill through sacred posts and
pillarsthe centre-posts of temples and other holy dwellings, or the free-standing columns holding aloft
various emblems of the great god and his enclosure.
The pillar of light appearing to support the planet-god was the earths highest mountain. The god on the
mountaintop seemed to occupy the summit of the terrestrial landscape, yet also appeared literally as the pivot
around which all the heavenly bodies turned.
In other words, one can speak of the great father as ruling on our earth without reducing him to mere human
proportions. The same figure ruled as the central sun.
It is to the cosmic mountain that one must refer in order to make sense of the commemorative hill or sacred
column. Yet the priority of the cosmic peak is only rarely admitted by the experts.
Were the Greeks so unsophisticated as to believe that Kronosacknowledged to be the planet Saturnsat
enthroned on a local Olympus? Did the Hebrews truly believe that Yahweh, at the creation, actually stood on
the mound of earth which we now call Zion? (The truth is that in the age of epic poetry and fable, when the
chroniclers confused the cosmic Olympus and Zion with their local representations, most educated men stopped
believing the myths.)
The memory of the cosmic mountain existed prior to the naming of sacred hills on our earth or the fashioning of
symbolic representations. Indeed, the point should go without saying. While Greek mythologists like to think
that the Macedonian Olympus gave rise to myths of the Olympic home of the gods, surely no one would
suggest that the towering obelisks, iron posts, or minarets were fashioned before men conceived the great god
resting on such a support. The cosmic myth precedes and gives meaning to the symbol. Local mountain and
sacred pillar share the same role as characterizations of a cosmic prototype.
Divorced from the prototype the symbol will always appear as an expression of gross ignorance. A good
illustration of this is Cooks explanation of the Germanic sacred pillar Irminsaul, the pillar of heaven. To the
primitive, Cook tells us, the sky stands in need of a visible support. Early man was in fact haunted by a very
definite dread that it might collapse on him.
How that belief arose, we can only surmise. It may be that in the dim past, when the ancestors of these tribes
developed out of hunters into herdsmen and emerged from the forest on to the open plain, they missed the big

tree that seemed to support the sky (heaven-reaching as Homer calls it). And in the absence of the mighty prop
there was nothing to guarantee the safety of their roof [the sky].
Now early man was a practical person. His roof being insecure, he proceeded to shore it up.1057
One observer after another confuses the symbol with the prototype. Can one credibly suggest that primitives
raised the sacred post because they missed the big tree that seemed to support the sky? Could the most
ignorant savages have believed that the very piece of wood before them sustained the entire heavens so that a
few blows of an ax would bring down the sun, moon, and stars?
A few comparative mythologists, noting the sacred mountains connection with the world axis, seek to
understand it as an astronomical metaphor: the ancients must have been so impressed by the visual revolution
of the heavens around a central pointthe celestial polethat they conceived a great column supporting
heaven at its pivot and constituting the fixed axle of the universe. These writers see the mountain as a primitive
fiction employed to explain the regular and harmonious motions of the heavens.
But in the ancient world view, the cosmic axis-pillar belongs to an integrated vision and cannot be separated
from other central themes. If the Mount was no more than a colourful metaphor for the cosmic axis, in what
metaphor did the polar sun originate? Why was this stationary light called Saturn? And why do the hymns
incessantly invoke a shining band around the god, or four primary rays of light radiating from this central sun?
To explain the cosmic mount as an analogy drawn by primitive imagination, one must, in similar terms, account
for the entire range of motifs attached to the signs
and , the world-wide images of the mountain. Such a
task would require abstractions far beyond any to which the ancients were accustomed.
While modern man looks for an explanation of the myths in the present heavens, the mythmakers themselves
repeatedly tell us that they speak of a vanished world order. The cosmic mountain is the Primeval Hill; the
garden at the summit is the lost paradise; and the central sun ruling the enclosure is the banished god-king. The
entire drama set forth in archaic ritual takes place in a previous age, separated from our own by overwhelming
catastrophes (a subject which must be reserved for treatment in a separate volume).
When the ancient priests invoke the Mount of Glory, the Jewelled Peak, the pillar of fire, or the golden
mountain they affirm the Mount as a visible and powerful apparition.
Moreover, one need only consider the diverse mythical forms of the Mount to discover a symbolism of such
breadth and coherence as to refute any appeal to abstractions.

The Mount of Masculine Power

Mythical history presents the cosmic mountain as the masculine power of the heavens, implanting the luminous
seed (Saturn) within the womb of the mother goddess. The goddess, personifying the band around the central
sun, thus becomes the mistress of the mountain.
If the Egyptian Atum or Re is the Great Seed, the Mesopotamian Ninurta, or Ningirsu, is the life giving
Seed.1058 The ritual declares the primal seed to have been generated by the world pillar. My king
Ningirsu . . . , trusty lord, Seed spawned by the Great Mountain, reads a Sumerian hymn. 1059 In the same vein
the Egyptians conceived Re the Seed of the cosmic mountain Shu.
The mountain is the generative pillar and the great goddess its queen. Upon forming the great column in the
waters of Kur, Ninurta addresses his wife Ninmah (a form of Ninhursag):
Therefore on the hill which I, the hero, have heaped up,
Let its name be Hursag (mountain), and thou be its queen.1060
Similarly, Ishtar, the womb, is the spouse on the mountain:
O supreme mistress of the mountain of the universe.1061
The concrete meaning of the goddess title will be observed in a Canaanite fragment referring to Ishtar and
Mount Pisaisa: the mount cohabits with the goddess.1062 The world mountain takes the form of the Ithyphallus,
observes Jeremias.1063

Egyptian ritual invokes the mother goddess as the Spouse on the Mountain, 1064 while the great father becomes
An-mut-f the pillar of his mother.1065
That the great goddess, as mistress or queen of the mountain, actually cohabits with it may not always be
explicitly spelled out, though the relationship is often explicit in the symbolism of the Mount itself. The phallic
dimension of the cosmic pillar is very clear in the Egyptian obelisk , symbol of the Primeval Hill supporting
the Benben stone or Seed of Atum. According to Rouge, A comparative study of these little monuments
proves that the obelisk was revered because it was the symbol of Amen the generator . . . The obelisk passes
insensibly from its ordinary form to that of the phallus.1066
The Egyptian and Mesopotamian conceptions of the world mountain as masculine power accord with Hindu
symbolism of the cosmic mount Meru, deemed the male principle of the universe. 1067 Meru was, in fact, the
famed lingam or phallus of Shiva, extending upward along the axis of the universe. 1068 Reflecting this idea is
the phrase the virile mountain, employed by the Atharva Veda.1069
The heavenly pillar on which the Japanese pair Izangi and Izanami stood in the beginning 1070 was, according
to the respected authority Hirata, at once the world axis and the lingam.1071
. . . Every mountain was deemed the phallus of the World, and every phallus or cone was an image of the holy
mountain, observes Faber.1072
The phallic character of many sacred pillars is so widely acknowledged as to require little argument. 1073 Indeed,
certain scholars are so impressed by this attribute of sacred pillars that they seek to build an entire interpretation
of ancient ritual around the theme: every pillar and every related symbol becomes an expression of a primitive
preoccupation with human reproductionand nothing else.

46. Cretan Mistress of the Mountain

Yet in each instance, one sees the prevailing theme of the cosmic mountain. It is one thing to admit the
masculine attribute of the pillar (among other attributes), but quite another thing to assert, as some do, that the
pillar was initially nothing more than a masculine emblem. The cosmic mountain came first, and it was quite
natural that the ancients, reflecting on the mountains relation to the enclosed sun at the summit (
),
interpreted the entire configuration in masculine-feminine terms. Faber, after reviewing the global image of the
holy mountain, concludes that in each case the mountain had on its summit a mystic circle given the name of
the mother goddess and called the Circle of the World. The sun-god, states Faber, resides within this
enclosure as husband of the great mother, while the mountain itself is the organ of universal generation.
(Unnoticed by Faber, however, is the connection of this universal cosmology with the sign

.)

Those who assert the absolute priority of phallicism not only forget that the sacred pillar was cosmic from the
start (i.e., it was not a mere phallic emblem gradually enlarged to cosmic dimensions), but must gloss over the
many independent attributes of the pillar and enclosure. (It would be absurd, for example, to argue that the

mythical lost paradisewatered by four rivers running to the four cornerswas the product of primitive
phallicism.)
One interpretation of the polar configuration overlaps with another. But only the prototype explains the
symbol.1074

The Cosmic Mountain Personified

The cosmic mountain often takes the mythical form of a great giant supporting the central sun or holding aloft
the womb of the Cosmos. On other occasions the Mount becomes the lower limbs of the great god himself.
Of the heaven-sustaining giant, there is no more popular figure than the Greek Atlas. In modern imagination
Atlas is the lonely god bearing our earth on his shoulders. But Hesiod surely speaks for the original version
when he writes: And Atlas through hard constraint upholds the wide heaven with unwearying head and arms,
standing at the borders of the earth, before the clear-voiced Hesperides.1075 Pindar has Atlas bearing up
against heavens weight,1076 while Ovid speaks of strong Atlas who wears heaven on his shoulders. 1077 (The
reader will recall that heaven means the Cosmos.)
The usual view is that the Hesperides, in whose company Hesiod places Atlas, occupy a mysterious region
either in Libya or in the far west. But Apollodorus, describing the eleventh labour of Hercules, relates that the
golden apples guarded by the Hesperides were not, as some have said, in Libya, but on Atlas, among the
Hyperboreans.1078 This, of course, places Atlas in the far north, as noted by Frazer.1079
When Apollodorus uses the phrase on Atlas, he refers to Atlas as the mountain on which Hera planted the
garden of the gods.1080 The mythical Mount Atlas and heaven-sustaining god were synonymous, the myths
declaring that Perseus petrified Atlas into the mountain. 1081 Since there is a range of mountains in northwest
Africa called Atlas many writers assume this to be the subject of the myth, but Apollodorus location of the
mount and garden among the far-northern Hyperboreans speaks for a quite different idea.
To find the original character of Atlas, one must consult the global tradition, for this heaven-sustaining god has
many counterparts around the world.
In India numerous gods appear as personifications of the world mountain. Agni is a supporting column, or the
pillar of life,1082 a god who upholds the sky by his efficacious spells, 1083 and serves as the axle of the
cosmic wheel or chariot.1084 Agni is represented as the axis of the Universe, extending as a pillar between Earth
and Heaven, states Coomaraswamy.1085
Closely related is Indra, he who is vast and self-sustained like a mountain, the radiant and formidable
Indra.1086 Be thou just here; be not moved away; like a mountain, not unsteady; O Indra, stand thou fixed just
here; here do thou maintain royalty. 1087
Of Vishnu, Hindu ritual declares, Thou proppedst asunder those two worlds, O Vishnu. 1088 Savitar is the axispillar of the world wheel: All immortal things rest upon him as on the axle end of a chariot. 1089 And the
Upanishads sing of Prajapati By him the heavens are strong and earth is steadfast, by him lights realm and
sky-vault are supported.1090
Hindu traditions of the heaven-sustaining god find a parallel in the cosmic image of the Buddha as the golden
mountain. Buddhist iconography presents the Buddha either as a pillar of fire or as the central sun atop such a
pillar, which was the axis of the Universe.1091
Among Altaic races the central pillar often receives personification as a towering figure supporting the heavens.
The celestial column becomes the Man-Pillar of Fire, 1092 or the iron pillar man. 1093 The Finnish supreme
polar god was Ukko, invoked in the Kalevala with the words O Ukko, god on high, supporter of the whole
sky!1094
Mithraic shrines depict Mithras in the form of Atlas, supporting the vault of heaven. From the moment of his
birth Mithras held the globe as Kosmocrator (ruler of the Cosmos), states Cumont. Atlas served to stress both
the significance of Mithras task as bearer of the heavens and the power derived from this junction. 1095 The
Germanic Heimdall represented the turning axle-post of the heavens 1096 while the name of the Semitic god El
has for its primitive sense a column.

In North America, the divinity widely recognized in legend and myth by diverse Indian tribes was Manabozho,
who resides upon an immense piece of ice in the Northern Ocean, directing the cosmic movements. One of
the forms of Manabozho was Ta-ren-ya-wa-go, the holder of the Heavens. 1097 The assimilation of the great
god to the cosmic mountain on which he rests will explain why, in the language of ancient astronomy, Saturn is
the pillar. The connection bears on an enigmatic reference to Saturn in the Old Testament. The prophet Amos
charges Israel with having borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun, your images, the star of your
god.1098 The term Chiun refers to the pillar or pedestal of the star-god worshipped by the Israelites in the
desert. It is the name of the planet Saturn and traces back to the Babylonian Kaiun, also Saturnthe steady
star upon a foundation. Plutarch gives the title Kiun to the Egyptian Anup, the god who is on his pole. Kiun,
states Massey, denotes the highest point, at the centre, and is applied to the founding of the world. The name
was assigned to Saturn as the god in the highest.1099
Saturn, the Heaven Man, thus acquires the form of a cosmic giant, whose vast trunk is the mountain of the
world. The sign
offers us a picture of the Kosmocrator, the all-containing being embracing the male and
female powers and supporting the Cosmos.
Moreover, this connection of the supreme god to the cosmic pillar provides a further refutation of the common
view which has the god, as our sun, leave the mountain each morning and soar across the sky to sink below the
western horizon. It is the mountain that gives the god his identity as the supporter of the heavens. Could one
reasonably call the mount the gods lower limbs if the sun were joined to the mount only at the moment of
sunrise? The true light god does not move, but remains fixed at the summit.

The Single Leg

Reflecting the assimilation of the great god to the cosmic mountain is the repeated characterization of the
Mount as the gods single leg.
The ancient Mayans knew no greater god than Huracan, the Heart of Heaven. In the Popul Vuh, the sacred
book of the Quiche Maya, Huracan presides over the creation, bringing forth the first dawn.1100 The name
Huracan means literally One-Leg. Goetz and Morley render his name as flash of a leg or the lightning.1101
Did the single leg of Huracan derive from a bolt of lightning? We can answer the question by looking at other
one-legged gods, of which world mythology presents a surprising number. Huracans counterpart in Nahuatl
ritual was the polar god Tezcatlipoca, who also possessed a single leg. And the same people worshipped
Huitzilopochtli:
Portentous one, who inhabits the region of clouds, you have but one foot.1102
Similarly, the Lillooet Indians of British Columbia recall an old thunder god who stood on one leg.1103
Looking beyond the Americas one finds that the natives of Australia remember a one-legged god Turunbulun,
who also possessed a single eye.1104 This peculiarity, in turn, reminds one of the ominous figure met by Owein
in the Arthurian legend: coming to a clearing in the forest, Owein encountered a large mound on which stood a
black, one-eyed, one-legged giant.1105
The Celtic Sol stood on one foot all day.1106 The African Wachoga tell of the old god Mrule who resided on
earth for a time before departing because of human unkindness; the god had only one leg. 1107 ONeill notes that
a bronze statue of a Cabirean god of the Medici lararium stood on one foot.1108 Russian myth presents the
demonic Verlioka as a one-eyed and one-legged figure. 1109 So also was the Chinese primeval god Kuei onefooted.1110
That more than one of these figures possesses a single eye in addition to one leg is surely the key to a solution.
The Cyclopean eye answered to the enclosed polar sun
, which the myths place on the world pillar
Does not the latter image offer us the simplest and most direct explanation of the one-eyed, one-legged god?

The decisive evidence comes from Egypt and India. In language which Egyptologists rarely attempt to
comprehend, Egyptian texts speak of the leg or thigh of Osiris, Set, or Ptah. While the female thigh was
the lap (womb) of the great mother, Egyptian texts similarly show that the masculine thigh or leg was the
cosmic mountain. While numerous texts depict the god shining over the Light Mountain, the god Osiris is said
to shine above the Leg of heaven. 1111 Hail, Leg of fire, who comest forth from Akhekhu proclaims the Book
of the Dead.1112
The Egyptian sept, written with the mountain symbol , means provide with. But sept also means leg.
Masseys conclusion must be our own: The leg or thigh was an Egyptian figure of the pole, as we find it in
the leg of Ptah . . . Hence, above the leg is equivalent to over the pole. 1113 Kees tells us that the leg of Set,
from which the Nile was said to flow, represented the pole.1114
The one-legged god appears to be represented in the Egyptian hieroglyph ab
determinative

, for the

seems to depict a figure turning round while standing on one leg. At least this is the motion

suggested by the words sense to go round. That ab (

) also means heart suggests that the onelegged god is the stationary but ever-turning heart of heaventhe Egyptian counterpart of the one-legged
Mayan god Huracan, the Heart of Heaven.
We can test this interpretation against Hindu symbolism. Hindu legends say that the old god Manu, the king of
men (the first man and the first king), did arduous penance for ten thousand yearsall the while poised on
one leg.1115 The great father Shiva not only endured heavy penances on Mount Himavant, but stood on one
foot for a thousand years.1116 In the Upanishads one reads that the Brahman is only one-footed.1117
The great gods one foot reinforces the principle of rest, Meditation, or penance. A case in point is the
archaic figure of Aja Ekapad, called the one-footed support of the Cosmos. 1118 Agrawala tells us that ekapad
or one-footed denotes the absence of motion. The one-footed god was devoid of any motion and represented
the principle of Absolute Static Rest.1119
On the meaning of the great gods single leg, Coomaraswamy and Nivedita write: The earliest of male
anthropomorphic gods is said to have been Pole-star, and there is a touch of humour in the way he is portrayed
up and down the pages of ancient mythology. The Pole-star, it seems, from his solitary position at the apex of
the stellar system gave rise to the notion of a god who was one-footed . . . Thus the Rig-Veda contains numerous
references to Aja-Ekapada name that may be translated either the One-footed Goat or the Birthless Onefooted One.1120
The Hindus knew the celestial pole as Dhruva-lok or place of Dhruva (the firm god).1121 In the Bhagavatapurana, one reads that Dhruva, god of the pole, in profound meditation, maintained himself upright on one
foot, motionless as a stake.1122 (In truth, the one leg of the motionless Dhruva was a stakethe central pillar
or mountain of the world.)
That the polar god rules the world while standing on one leg throws light on the Siamese ritual in which the
king, in imitation of the Universal Monarch, and in order to prove his fitness for holding supreme authority,
stood on one leg.1123 One thinks of the Greek purification rites which required initiates to stand on one foot
only.1124 The practice of praying on one leg occurs also in old Jewish rites in Jerusalem and among Muslim
dervishes and Hindu hermits.1125 It would be useless to seek a natural explanation for the practice, for the
prototype does not lie in what we call the natural world today. Emulated is the feat of the Universal Monarch or
first ancestor, conceived as the Ideal Man. He who has one foot has out-stripped them that have two, states
the Rig Veda.1126 The statement derives meaning from the supremacy of the one-legged polar god, who, while
standing fixed at the cosmic centre yet moved the turning heavens. The great gods single leg means the
world mountain.1127

The Serpent/Dragon

The serpent fills more than one role in the myths of beginnings. While the circular serpent denotes the
Saturnian enclosure, there is also a masculine serpent who serves as the foundation or pillar.
A comparison of global traditions indicates that while many legends locate the celestial earth on the cosmic
mountain, this enclosure may also appear as the crown of an erect serpent. In the beginning, according to a
creation myth of southeastern Borneo, there was only the sky and the sea, in which swam a great serpent upon
whose head was a crown of gold set with a shining stone. From the sky-world the deity threw earth upon the
serpents head, thus building an island in the midst of the sea; and this island became the world.1128
The Battak of Sumatra say that in the primeval ocean swam or lay a great serpent on whose head the heavenly
maiden spread a handful of earth . . . and thus she formed the world.1129
In Hindu myth the gigantic serpent Shesha sustains the world on his head, 1130 as do the Hebrew Leviathan and
the Muslim cosmic serpents. Among the Buriats of Siberia, the tradition prevails that the mighty Ulgen created
a giant fish amid the cosmic waters to support the world.1131
Is there an underlying consistency between these myths and other myths which depict the celestial earth as the
summit of the world mountain? What is the connection of the serpent/dragon and the axis-pillar?
Of course, it is easy to imagine that a stream of ice or debris stretching between the Earth and Saturn would,
before the latter orb attained stability at the polar centre, take on a twisting, serpentine appearance. And, in fact,
the cosmic mountain in many creation epics is presented as a churning, serpentine column rising along the
world axis and finally achieving stability. (I intend to explore this churning mountain in a subsequent volume).
Here is a fact which linguists and comparative mythologists overlook: in several lands the word for mountain
is the same as the word for serpent or dragon, though our natural world offers no basis for the equivalence.
In Mexico, Nahuatl can means serpent but also mountain, 1132 so that one might term the polar Mount
Colhuacan a cosmic serpent-mountain. Serpent-Mountain is indeed the title of the Mexican primeval hill
Coatepelt.1133
The Egyptian Set is the primordial serpent or dragon, but set also means mountain. The mythical Mountain of
Set, in fact, is the acknowledged Egyptian counterpart of the Hebrew Zaphon in the farthest reaches of the
north.1134 And like the Mexicans, the Egyptians knew the Serpent Mountain, a figure of the pole, according
to Massey.1135
The ancient Sumerian dragon in the cosmic sea was the Kur, playing a prominent role in the creation myth, but
kur also possessed the meaning mountain; indeed, the sign used for it is actually a pictograph representing a
mountain.1136 The Greek Boreas is the primeval serpent raised from the waters of Chaos, but etymologists
connect the serpent-gods name with a primitive bora, mountain.
Among primitive peoples, writes Suhr, there are signs of the column in the form of a python or dragon
riding from the level of the earth to the clouds.1137 Suhr notes several Chinese paintings in which a dragon is
represented as rising from the water of the earth. 1138 A dragon ascending from the earth to the clouds can
serve as the whirling columnwhich no doubt accounts for so many dragons on pillars. 1139 In northern
Australia ceremonies of the Murngin commemorate with a central pole the great python who rises up from a
pool and towers up to the level of the clouds . . . The python was the central pillar of heaven.1140
Only the identity of the world pillar and erect serpent/dragon can explain the primitive habit of decorating
commemorative pillars with scales. The shaft of early Jupiter columns was often patterned with scales, notes
Cook.1141 In both Egypt and Mesopotamia images of sacred mountains reveal a scaled pattern.
Since the great god often unites with the Mount in such a way that it becomes his lower limbs, we need look no
further for an explanation of the great fathers universal serpentine character: the erect serpent/dragon formed
the gods pillar-like trunk. Describing Ningirsu as like heaven his tremendous size, a Sumerian text calls this
creator god a Flood-demon [i.e., dragon] by his lower limbs. 1142 Your hinderparts are the Celestial Serpent,
declares the Egyptian Pyramid Texts.1143 The idea is vividly expressed by the illustration of the African god
Ammon reproduced by Cook: the head and shoulders of the god melt into a pillar-trunk formed by the body of a
serpent1144 (fig. 47). Babylonian cylinder seals show the high god wearing a robe or dress in the form of a
mountain.1145 Typically, the mountain-dress is covered with scales, identifying it with the serpent/dragon.

Serpentine lower limbs of divine figures are, of course, common to the art of many peoples. Indeed it would be
useless to attempt a review of all the creator gods joined with the serpent/dragon, since no prominent figure of
the great father appears to have escaped this identification, even if at times subdued. The unanswered question
is, Why? The last thing suggested (to us) by slithering serpents is the idea of a creator! Yet the prototypical
identity of the erect serpent/dragon and the cosmic mountain gives striking coherence to the symbolism and
places the world-wide union of creator and serpent above grotesque and inexplicable coincidence.

47. Ammon, with serpentine trunk.

An equally bizarre feature of the mythic serpent is its phallic powers, as documented by Crawley, Hartland,
Briffault, Eliade, and others. Here is Eliades summary of the theme: Even today it is said in the Abruzzi that
the serpent copulates with all women. The Greeks and Romans also believed it. Alexander the Greats mother,
Olympia, played with snakes. The famous Aratus of Sicyon was said to be a son of Aesculapius because,
according to Pausanias, his mother conceived him of a serpent. Suetonius and Dio Cassius tell how the mother
of Augustus conceived from the embrace of a serpent in Apollos temple. A similar legend was current about the
elder Scipio. In Germany, France, Portugal and elsewhere, women used to be afraid that a snake would slip into
their mouths when they were asleep, and they would become pregnant, particularly during menstruation. In
India, when women wanted to have children, they adored a cobra. All over the East it was believed that
womans first sexual contact was with a snake, at puberty or during menstruation. The Komati tribe in the
Mysore province of India uses snakes made of stone in a rite to bring about the fertility of women. Claudius
Aelianus declares that the Hebrews believed that snakes mated with unmarried girls; and we also find this belief
in Japan. A Persian tradition says that after the first woman had been seduced by the serpent she immediately
began to menstruate. And it was said by the rabbis that menstruation was the result of Eves relations with the
serpent in the Garden of Eden. In Abyssinia it was thought that girls were in danger of being raped by snakes
until they were married. One Algerian story tells how a snake escaped when no one was looking and raped all
the unmarried girls in a house. Similar traditions are to be found among the Mandi Hottentots of East Africa, in
Sierra Leone and elsewhere.1146
No extent of conventional rationalization could hope to explain this pervasive superstition. The supposed
masculine power of serpents echoes an age-old tradition, whose original subject was the cosmic serpent, not the
lowly serpents of our earth. The impregnating serpent was a creature of myth, his phallic power deriving from
his identity with the engendering mountain of the world. The primeval serpent, often regarded as the male organ
of the great father himself, rose along the world axis. That this archetypal memory produced reverberations in
global folklore for thousands of years attests to the dramatic power of the original experience.

The Stream of Life

The cosmic mountain also found expression as a stream of wind or water either descending from the polar
abode or ascending the world axis from below. As a stream of air it was the life-giving breath of the great
father, often called the North Wind. As a river it was the central stream in which the ancients believed all the
waters of the world to originateor a well, fountain, or spring channeling the waters of the deep upward along
the world axis to be dispersed in four streams flowing to the four corners of the celestial abode

Boreas and the Hyperboreans. The Pelasgian Boreas or Ophion is an archaic, serpentine god whom preHellenic Greeks apparently revered as the father of creation. Graves reconstructs the fragments of the myth:
In the beginning, Eurynome, the Goddess of All Things, rose naked from Chaos, but found nothing substantial
for her feet to rest upon and therefore divided the sea from the sky, dancing lonely upon its waves. She danced
towards the south, and the wind set in motion behind her something new and apart with which to begin a work
of creation. Wheeling about, she caught hold of this north wind, rubbed it between her hands and behold! the
great serpent Ophion. Eurynome danced to warm herself, wildly, until Ophion, grown lustful, coiled about those
divine limbs and moved to couple with her. Now the North Wind, who is called Boreas, fertilizes; which is why
mares often turn their hindquarters to the wind and breed foals without aid of a stallion. So Eurynome was
likewise got with child.1147
As to the origins of Boreas, Graves can only say that he is the serpent demiurge of Hebrew and Egyptian
myth, from whom the Pelasgians claimed to have descended. But questions come immediately to mind. Why
was Boreas, the Pelor or prodigious serpent, called the North Wind? Why was this wind, like the erect
serpent, believed to bring about conception?
Boreas, the North Wind, figures in a long-standing debate concerning the Hyperboreans, the servants of boreal
Apollo. Ancient chroniclers unanimously agree that the Hyperboreans lived beyond or above Boreas, taking this
to mean beyond the North Wind, or in the farthest north. But certain modern etymologists contend that the
classical interpretation rests on a confusion of terms: these critics connect Boreas and the Hyperboreans not
with the North Wind, but with a primitive Greek word, bora, meaning mountain. Bora is the name of a
mountain in Macedonia, the highest peak between the Haliakmon and Axios rivers. Under this modern
interpretation Boreas is simply the wind of the mountain.
By such reasoning boreal Apollo becomes the god of a local peak, and Apollos servants (the Hyperboreans)
become either divine assistants above this mount or human worshippers beyond the mount. The classical
identification of Boreas and the Hyperboreans with the utmost north loses its long-standing validity.1148
Yet to accept the primitive identity of Boreas with the bora or mountain does not require one to concede that
Bora or Boreas originated in reference to a Macedonian peak. If we focus on prototypes rather than local
geography we see that Boreas pertained to both the mountain and the North Windbut the original
reference was cosmic. The North Wind was the luminous breath of the polar god, stretching along the
world axis; and this very stream received mythical interpretation as the world mountain (the true Bora in
heaven).
The North Wind Shu. A widely overlooked fact is that the worlds oldest ritual designates the celestial pillar as
the breath of life.
The Egyptians, as previously observed, personified the Mount of Glory as the heaven-sustaining giant Shu. Yet
Egyptologists as a whole rarely think of the god in such concrete terms. Budge writes: Shu was a god who was
connected with the heat and dryness of sunlight and with the dry atmosphere which exists between the earth and
the sky.1149 It is hard to imagine any link between the dry atmosphere and the god whom the Egyptians
regularly depicted as a cosmic pillar holding aloft the goddess Nut, the womb of heaven.
But Budge remarks, almost incidentally, that Shu was a personification of the wind of the North. Or again:
He was certainly, like his father Tem, thought to be the cool wind of the North. 1150 Budges language seems to
describe a transitory breeze from Lower Egypt. If the god personified such an ephemeral force, why did he
receive explicit representation as the pillar of the heavens? The answer is that the North Wind did not refer to
a terrestrial breeze but to the visible breath of Atum, the firm Heart of the Sky at the celestial pole. More
than once the Book of the Dead speaks of the north wind which cometh forth from Tem [Atum]. 1151 I have

come to protect thee, Osiris, with the North Wind which cometh forth from Tem, states one hymn. 1152
Elsewhere the wind issues from Atum-Re in conjunction with the mother goddess: Let me snuff the air which
cometh forth from thy nostrils, and the north wind which cometh forth from thy mother [Nut].1153
The texts leave no doubt that this wind or breath, descending from Atum (or Re), was the light pillar Shu:
. . . He breatheth and the god Shu cometh into being, states one hymn. 1154 Thou art established upon that
which emanateth from thy existence, states another.1155 Thou hast emitted Shu and he hath come forth from
thy mouth.1156 One text describes the god as a great column of air holding aloft the womb of Nut. 1157 In the
Pyramid Texts the north wind is described as smoke and said to lift up the god-king. 1158 Clearly, the
Egyptians conceived the stream of breath as a visible pillar.
Rather than air I should call this life-bearing breath ether. While many sources describe the wind
descending from the mouth or nostrils of Atum or Re, others view it as rising from below to vivify the god
and his company of celestial spirits. O thou Re, who dwellest in thy divine shrine, draw thou into thyself the
winds, inhale the North Wind. 1159 This wind is the sweet air for thy nose. 1160 The sweet wind of the North is
for thy heart.1161 The deceased king aspires to attain the cosmic domain of the great god: I will take for myself
my breath of life . . . I will snuff the wind for myself, I will have abundance of the north wind, I will be content
among the gods.1162
Actually, the Egyptians left for us a very expressive image of this life-bearing ether in the hieroglyph
,
depicting luminous streams of khu, glory, rising to the enclosed sun. And the relationship of Shu, the heavens
pillar, to this stream is beyond dispute. For the hieroglyph

appears as the determinative in the name of Shu

. Shu, the pillar bearing aloft the womb of the mother goddess, was no terrestrial breeze, but rather
the visible North Wind flowing in a brilliant stream between our earth and Saturns Cosmos.
This very connection of the polar mount and the breath of life prevails also in Mesopotamia. One text states that
the cosmic mountain on which the Sumerian Ningirsu (Saturn) resides is the dwelling place of the North Wind:
To the mountain where the North Wind dwells,
I [Ningirsu] have set my foot.
The man of immense strength, the North Wind,
From the mountain, the pure place,
Will blow the wind straight towards you.1163
The text calls this North Wind the breath of life to the people.
The Sumerians personified the cosmic mountain as the giant Enlil (the great mountain), a striking counterpart
to the Egyptian pillar-god Shu. Like Shu, Enlil is the Wind of the Netherworld Mountainthat is, he
personifies at once the cosmic hill and the breath of the creator. Between heaven and earth the Sumerians
recognized a substance which they called lil [in Enlil], a word whose approximate meaning is wind (air, breath,
spirit), states Kramer.1164 Enlil thus represents the ethereal column joining heaven and earth.
And the Hindu Agni, the pillar of heaven, was the same stream of air, or smoke: He (Agni) as a pillar of
smoke upholds the heavens.1165 The Rig Veda says, Agni, even as it were a builder, hath lifted up on high his
splendour (compare Shu holding aloft the circle of khu, glory). His smoke, yea, holdeth up the sky . . . a
standard as it were the pillar of sacrifice, firmly planted and duly chrismed.1166
The Upanishads thus declare: The Breath-of-Life is a pillar.1167 Both the Hebrews and Muslims claimed that
the created earth rested on the wind,1168 that is, the primeval wind and the primeval foundation were one and
the same thing.
We return, then, to the Greek Boreas. In exploring the question of Boreas and the Hyperboreans, can one ignore
the archaic identity of the cosmic mountain and North Wind? Once we acknowledge this identity, the question
as to whether Boreas received his name from the North Wind or from the bora (mountain) becomes

meaningless: the North Wind was the mountain. And Boreas serpentine form corresponds to the original form
of the Mount in both Mesopotamia and Egypt. Moreover, the myth of Boreas impregnating the mother goddess
which gave rise to the later belief that the wind brings about conception 1169agrees with the universal
character of the cosmic pillar: it is the engendering mountain of heaven.
The River of Life. Ancient ritual also celebrates a stream of water either descending from on high or welling up
from the deep as a central fount, spring, or well bringing life to the celestial abode.
In Egypt the heaven-sustaining giant Shuthe ethereal pillar of the North Windalso represents the
descending or ascending river. Shu is the waterway, while the polar god is established upon the watery
supports of the god Shu. Egyptian creation tales describe the pillar-god as the emission of the polar Atum or
Re. Shu is poured or spit from the mouth of the ruling divinity. What flowed from thee became Shu, 1170
states a hymn to Amen-Re.1171 You are the eldest son of Atum, his first-born; Atum has spat you from his
mouth in your name of Shu.1172
Thou hast emitted Shu, and he hath come forth from thy mouth . . . He hath become a god, and he hath brought
for thee every good thing; he hath toiled for thee, and he hath emitted for thee in his name of Shu, the royal
double. He hath laboured for thee in these things, and he beareth up for thee heaven with his hands in his name
of Shu, the body of the sky.1173
The toiling Atlas-like pillar bearing the heavens was the watery emission of the creator. In the phrase
Thou hast emitted Shu, the Egyptian word translated as emitted is ashesh, which means both pouring out
and supporting, as noted by Budge: It is difficult to reconcile these totally different meanings unless we
remember that it is that which Tem, or Re-Tem has poured out which supports the heavens wherein shines the
Sun-god. That which Tem, or Re-Tem has poured out is the light, and the light was declared to be the prop of
the sky.1174 Yet, while recognizing this connection of the heavens pillar with the waters and light poured
out by the creator, Budge has no concrete image with which to link the integrated concepts.
The cosmic river, poured out from the receptacle of the mother womb, was not only the world mountain but
also the single leg of the great god. Thus, in the Egyptian glyph
we see the vase resting on the leg of
heaven, as we should expect. And the Book of the Dead appropriately juxtaposes the leg with the river of light:
O thou leg in the Northern Sky, and in that most conspicuous but inaccessible Stream. 1175 If one refers the
imagery to the cosmic original

, one sees that the descending stream was the leg!

The Egyptian river of the pillar, the celestial Nile, compares with the heavenly Euphrates invoked in
Mesopotamian ritual. For the Babylonians knew the pure Euphrates as the great mountain Enlil:
With water which the lord [Ea] has guided from the great mountain [Enlil],
Water which down the pure Euphrates he has guided,
The product of the apsu, for the purpose of lustration.1176
Enlil, the world mountain personified, is thus the man of the river of the netherworld, the man devouring
river,1177 and, as noted by Van Buren, the expression to set for the mountain signified to depart this life by
crossing the river of death.1178
While some traditions describe a descending pillar-stream, others depict it as an upward-flowing current. And
often it is both. In a Sumerian myth, Enlil says to his wife:
The water of my king, let it go toward heaven, let it go toward earth . . .1179
The Hindu Rig Veda has the waters passing upwards and downwardslike the stream of ether which
Aristotle describes as a constantly moving river joining heaven and earth and composed of ascending and
descending vapours.1180 An ancient Chinese philosopher, Yang Hiung, states that the ether emanates and rises,
and its splendorous essence floats above, and rolls in a sinuous current which has been named the heaven-River
or torrent, and the vaporous stream or pure River. 1181 Having noted that the Egyptians recorded the ethereal

stream by the hieroglyph

, symbol of the pillar-god Shu, we thus find most relevant the ancient Chinese

hieroglyph for ether

. This concrete image sharply contrasts with the popular definition of the mythical
ether as an imaginary substance filling the entire heavens. The ether was the fiery, pillar-like river flowing
along the world axis.
The Eden-Fountain. That all the worlds waters originate in a central source is a belief found among all ancient
peoples. The explanation lies not in geography but in cosmographythe map of the celestial earth. Viewed as
an upward-flowing current the heavenly river becomes the fountain, spring, or well whose waters are dispersed
in four streams flowing to the four corners of the circular plain on the mountaintop

From the perspective of the cosmic dwelling, the fount rises from below, or the deep. This very idea occurs in
the imagery of Eden. In the Genesis account two statements concern the waters of the primitive paradise:
But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. (Gen. 2:6)
And a river went out from Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.
(Gen. 2:10)
According to the general consensus of authorities, the second reference amplifies the first, indicating that a
central source watered the whole face of the ground through four headstreams.1182
The word conventionally translated as mist, observes Gaster, is really a technical term (borrowed ultimately
from Sumerian) meaning an upsurge of subterranean waters. 1183 We can reasonably connect this channel of
water from below with the fountain of life which a Psalm locates in the dwelling of God: And thou shalt
make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see
light.1184 Gaster calls this the paradisiacal fountain.1185
But whether the life-bearing waters appear as upsurge, river, or fountain, one receives the impression of a
central source rising from below and flowing outward in four streams. Gaster finds a prototype of the upsurge
in an Old Babylonian creation myth according to which, at first, all land was sea, and in the midst of that sea
was a spring which served as a pipe. 1186 The same passage is noted by Butterworth, who suggests that the pipe
or well rose along the cosmic axis.1187 When one relates this evidence to the concrete Mesopotamian imagery
of four rivers radiating from the central sun the connection with the cosmic image

becomes clear.

That the Babylonian and Hebrew channels of water are dispersed in four streams suggests a Germanic parallel
the spring Hvergelmer, the navel of the waters, from whence all rivers flow.1188 The Edda declares that four
streams issue from this central fount watering Asaheim, the home of the gods, while Hindu texts describe a
fourfold headspring of all waters at the Centre of Heaven. 1189 The Iranian Realm of the Blest is watered by
four streams issuing from the central fountain Ardvi Sura, while the central fount of the Chinese Kwen-lun
disperses its waters in four streams, watering the garden at the summit.1190
It does not take a great deal of imagination to see that the paradisal fountain, sending forth the elements of life
in the primordial birthplaceor place of rebirthis the legendary fountain of youth or fountain of
immortality.
Probably the earliest prototype of these fountains is the Egyptian pillar-god Shu, bearing the waters and breath
of life along the world axis. To breathe the North Wind of Shu or drink of the polar waters is to enjoy rebirth in
the domain of beginnings, the land of immortality and perpetual youth. This breath or water (as the four Winds
or Four Niles of heaven) courses out from the central fount and through the womb of Nut, the Holy Land which
every king sought to attain upon death.1191

The King of the Mountain

The few mythologists who discuss the cosmic mount at all tell us that it is a metaphor for the world axis: the
axis of the turning heavens is like a mountain reaching from earth to the celestial pole (or pole star); by
imagining a great pillar as the support and axle of the universe (say these mythologists), the ancients possessed
a simple explanation for the observed motions of the heavenly bodies.
To evaluate this interpretation of the mythical mountain one must ask how well it accounts for all aspects of the
tradition. In the myths the Mount appears as a column of light, often constituting the Universal Monarchs
lower limbs or single leg. United to the pillar, the god-king becomes the heaven-sustaining giant.
The myths also express the Mount as a cosmic serpent, whose body forms the serpentine trunk of the great
father. In many traditions the pillar appears as the vertical stream of lifethe ether, wind, breath, or waters
either coursing down the world axis or rising along the axis to be dispersed in four streams animating the
celestial kingdom. Saturn, the central sun, enthroned within the polar enclosure, ruled from the mountaintop.
Perhaps we can best judge the metaphorical explanation of the cosmic hill by placing ourselves in the position
of an ancient observer and assuming that he looked out upon the same heavens which we see today. Our
observer, noticing that the stars of the circumpolar region slowly swing around a central point, realizes that a
line from that polar pivot through the earth serves as an invisible axle around which the sun, the moon, and all
the stars revolve.
Starting from this perception, what conjectures must our observer add in order to evolve the mythical view
outlined in the previous pages? First, he must decide, in contradiction of his observations, that the axis is not an
invisible column but a veritable pillar of fire and light. He must conclude also that a stationary sun rests (or
once rested) atop the shining pillaragain in contrast to actual observation. He must identify this central sun
not with the blazing solar orb but rather with the planet Saturnthough this remote and unimpressive planet
today never approaches the polar region. Further, it must occur to our observer that Saturn, as king of the
mountain, resides (or once resided) within a great band, divided by four primary streams. And finally, in a series
of baseless speculations, he must conclude that in primeval times Saturn ruled at the summit as the creator, the
first king, and the first man, presiding over a paradise of unlimited abundance.
Can one realistically propose that such a progression of thought could follow from a mere metaphor for the
world axis? To arrive at the complete mythical image of the cosmic mountain (
,
) our hypothetical
observer must not only heap one conjecture upon another, but repudiate direct observation at each stage. Of
what valuereligious, psychological, or otherwiseis a fiction which flatly contradicts the phenomena it is
intended to explain?
Cynics may say that primitives are capable of conjuring any force imaginable to explain something they do not
understand. But the hypothetical case before us does not require the primitive simply to invent explanations for
things observed; it requires him to deny immediate experience and yet to compose a grandiose vision
sufficiently persuasive to acquire hypnotic power over the ancient world. Of course the mass of available
evidence argues against any such inventiveness on the part of early man.
Yet these difficulties vanish once we free ourselves from the doctrine of cosmic uniformity and consider
whether our primitive observer may have actually witnessed the strange forces which ancient records describe
in such detail. The polar mountain is only one ingredient in an integrated cosmology which seems to have
prevailed over the entire ancient world. May not the mythical Mount, the central sun, the polar enclosure and
crossroadsfocusing on the celestial image

speak for powers which were really there?

IX. The Crescent

Our investigation up to this point covers five primary images of the Saturnian configuration: the enclosed sun
, the sun-cross

, the enclosed sun-cross

, the enclosed sun and pillar

, and the enclosed sun-

cross and pillar

. I have contended that these symbols realistically depict Saturns actual appearance to the
terrestrial observers.
Of course, one faces a special difficult in attempting to prove that the sacred signs denoted a visible apparition.
One can show that a coherent, global symbolism developed around the cosmic image
; but how can one
really prove that this configuration was more than the invention of an ancient cultperhaps the extraordinary
product of an advanced race whose abstract unification of discordant cosmic powers gained world-wide
distribution?
There is a specific category of evidence, I believe, which removes any possible appeal to abstractions. I refer to
the symbolism of the crescent
. In the detailed sources left us by the oldest civilizations the symbolic
crescentwhich all men automatically identify with our moonplays a vastly greater role than generally
perceived. But in none of the primary sources can one actually identify the crescent with the body we call
moon today!
If there was any single turning point in my inquiry it was the realization that the crescent with which ancient
ritual deals is inseparable from the band of the enclosed sun
) showing the crescent as the lower half of the band.

. The key is the image

(or the simplified

It was this connectionoccurring in both Egypt and Mesopotamiathat convinced me of the bands reality
and led me to explore more deeply its various mythical formulations.
The crescent in the sign
suggests that Saturns band received illumination from the solar orb in such a way
as to present terrestrial observers with two semicircles of light and shadow.
The concept of a half-illuminated band immediately places in a new perspective the universal image
: is it
possible that the famous sun-in-crescent represented not a contrived conjunction of the solar orb and new
moon (the conventional explanation), but rather the primeval sun Saturn resting over the illuminated portion of
his polar enclosure? Certainly the overlapping images
and
imply that the enclosed sun and sun-increscent pertain to a single astral configuration.
When ONeill claimed that the sign
symbolized the celestial pole, he took the sign as a kind of metaphor
an ancient means of representing the revolution of the circumpolar stars around a fixed centre. Others have
identified the band as the illusory atmospheric halo which occasionally surrounds the solar orb, while still
others explain the band as an abstract circle of the sky. But the connection of the band with a crescent would
suggest a more tangible character.
As a test of this possibility several questions require examination:
- Is Saturn, the primeval sun, associated with a crescent?
- Is there a consistent connection of the crescent and the band of the enclosed sun
- Is the crescent equated with the circle of the mother goddess?
- Does the Holy Land or celestial earth rest within the embrace of the crescent?
- Does a crescent occupy the summit of the cosmic mountain?

The Crescent and Saturn

It is well known that in classical mythology Saturn (or Kronos) wields a curved harpe or sickle by which he
establishes his primeval rule, and most authorities would concur with Kerenyi in identifying the sickle as the
image of the new moon1192 But why should Saturn possess the new moon as his weapon?
The connection appears to be very old, for it occurs also in ancient Babylonia. Ninurta, the planet Saturn, hold
in his hands a weapon called SAR-UR-U-SAR-GAZ, and also BAB-BA-NU-IL-LA. The first name of
Ninurtas weapon means who governs the Cosmos and who massacres the Cosmos, while the second name
means hurricane which spares nothing.
The astonishing fact is this: these names of Saturns weapon are the very epithets of the Babylonian Sin, the
crescent Moon.1193 That is, the crescent of Sin is the weapon (sickle, sword) with which Saturn founded and
destroyed the primeval order.
But there is another peculiarity also: though always identified by scholars as the lunar sphere, Sin is never
presented as a half-moon, three quarters moon or full moon. He is simply Udsar the crescent. And
however incongruous the relationship might appear today, Babylonian art continually presents Sin as the lower
half of the enclosed sun-cross

48. Various Mesopotamian versions of the sun-in-crescent.

Did this relationship of the Sin-crescent to Saturn and his enclosure originate in a haphazard combination of
once independent symbolsor in a fundamental equation? The connection between Sin and Anu (the planet
Saturn) amounts to an identity, according to Jensen. 1194 Rawlinson says the same thing: the Babylonians
regarded Sinthe crescentas an aspect of the planet Saturn. 1195 Jeremias states the equation unequivocally:
Sin = Saturn.1196
When one considers the relationship of the Sin-crescent to the sign
, the nature of the identity becomes clear.
The Sin-crescent is part of the circular dwelling or body of Saturn. Thus the texts invoke Sin as the protective
rampart of the Cosmosa high defensive wall,1197 or a:
Golden sanctuary, which in the land is magnificent!
Luminous sanctuary which in the land is elevated!1198
As Saturns emanation, Sin is synonymous with the great gods circle of glory (halo); and this fact gives
stunning significance to what must otherwise be regarded as a purely esoteric statement of Assyro-Babylonian
astronomical texts: Saturn stands in the halo of Sin, the texts proclaim (not once but several times). 1199
Crescent and enclosure are one.
Do not these evidences strongly suggest that the ancients perceived a literal band around Saturn and that this
Saturnian dwelling or halo displayed a crescent?

Another piece of evidence is noteworthy. The Babylonians represented the circle of Saturns Cosmos (the circle
of the gods) by the sign
. If my contention is correct, the crescent of Sin was simply the brightly
illuminated half of this circle (assembly). So it is of no small significance that Babylonian symbolism also
represented the assembly by the sign
conceivable source of the image.

. Needless to say, the heavens familiar to us today offer no

49. Sun-in-crescent, on the Ur-Nammu stele from Ur.

50. Hawaiian cross design showing alternate positions of the crescent around the central sun

51. American Indian mounds, conveying the image of the revolving crescent.
Such identities point emphatically to an underlying relation of the ancient signs
and
. While the former
depicts the entire Saturnian enclosure, the latter portrays only the brightly illuminated portion of the bandso
that one might appropriately speak of Saturns crescent-enclosure and schematically render the idea this way :
.
It should be stressed, however, that the common location of the crescent beneath the central sun
is not its
only placement in ancient symbolism. At times the crescent appears to stand on end ( or ), while at other
times it is inverted above the sun
. Of course, this is exactly what we should expectfor if the crescent was

the illuminated portion of a circumpolar band then that crescent must have appeared to revolve around the band
with every full rotation of our planet upon its axis. One could thus render the daily rotation of the crescent
schematically:

As we shall see, there is a distinctive relationship of this revolving crescent to the phases of the archaic day
and nightas well as to many other aspects of ancient cosmography. But let us take the present line of
inquiry a little further. Does the equation of the crescent and enclosure occur also in Egypt? The Egyptians (as
previously observed) called the enclosure Aten, recorded by the hieroglyph
symbol evolved into the simplified form
generally prevails in later Egyptian art.)

. (In the course of time this

, with the enclosed sun dropped out) It is the latter form that

In numerous representations of the Aten a crescent forms the lower half of the enclosure. In fig 52, I offer an
imposing example from the tomb of Ramesses VI, showing the Aten resting within a crescent and flanked by
four male figures, two right and two left.

52. The Egyptian crescent-enclosure.

The hieroglyphic form of the crescent-enclosure is

, a form which progressively developed into the images

,
,
,
, as the artists gradually expanded and flattened the crescent into a larger
receptacle supporting the enclosure.
This image of the Aten and crescent seems to have generated great confusion among Egyptologists. One of the
gods associated with the crescent-enclosure is Khensu, whom all authorities identify as the moon. But the gods
image remains enigmatic, for Budge writes: He wears on his head the lunar disk in a crescent,
or the solar
1200
disk with a uraeus, or the solar disk with the plumes and uraeus. Did the Egyptians have difficulty deciding
whether the god was the sun or the moon?

53. Three illustrations of the Egyptian god Khensu, showing the progressive enlargement of the Atens
crescent by Egyptian artists.

When Budge calls the sign

a lunar disk in a crescent, he avoids any association of the sign with the sun.
But on the following page he writes of Khensu: On his head rest the lunar crescent and disk. In this form he
represents both the sun at sunrise and the new moon.1201 Either the Egyptians possessed a remarkable
indifference concerning the astral character of their gods, or scholars have misunderstood the symbolism.
By putting aside all a priori verdicts one discerns a root consistency in the Egyptian image of the crescentenclosure. In Egyptian ritual, the crescent is not the moon but a semi-circle embracing the central sun
.
Very early the Egyptians personified the crescent-enclosure as the divinity Ah, Ah, Aah, or Aahu, denoted by
the glyph
or , and always translated moon. The word ah, however, also means to embracea
concept devoid of meaning in connection with our moon, but charged with meaning when referred to the band
(or the illuminated portion of the band) enclosing the central sun. Ah further signifies to defend against and
collar. That is, like the Babylonian moon-god Sin, the Egyptian ah
signifies the defensive rampart
protecting the sun-god: and the same crescent-enclosure is worn by the great god as his collar. Again, such
interrelationships can only appear absurd when considered as aspects of our moon.

54. Ah, god of the crescent-enclosure.

The only moon invoked in early Egyptian ritual is that which houses the central sun. Chapter LXV of the
Book of the Dead, bearing the title The Chapter of Coming Forth by Day and of Gaining the Mastery over
Enemies, begins, Hail (thou) who shinest from the Moon [Ah] and who sendest forth light therefrom. 1202 In
several chapters the sun is spoken of as shining in or from the moon, notes Renouf.1203
One version of the Coffin Texts reads: Going forth into the day and living after death. O you Sole One who
rises [comes forth] in the moon, O you Sole One who shines in the moon. 1204 The moon is the dwelling of
the solitary god, and the nature of this dwelling is accurately communicated to us in the ancient signs
and
.
Recalling that the Babylonians related the crescent of Sin to the circle of the gods
, one wonders whether
a similar relationship occurs in Egypt. The Egyptian assembly is the pauta term which refers at once to the
company of gods, the limbs of Osiris or Re, and the grain or bread of heaven. Though the Aten sign
may
serve as the determinative of paut, the most common hieroglyph for paut is
, the inverted crescentenclosure!
One thus finds a striking correspondence between the Egyptian and Mesopotamian symbolism of the crescent
a symbolism which takes on coherence only when one sees the crescent as the illuminated half of the polar
enclosure
. By no extent of rationalization can one accommodate the imagery to the sun and moon familiar
to us today. Indeed the difficulty is recognized by Butterworth in his examination of the sun-in-crescent
.

The crescent is not the natural luminary of heaven, writes Butterworth, for it has its hollow side turned
towards the sun.1205 The point is worth emphasizing. The crescent of our moon always faces the solar orb, but
in the early symbolism of the sun and crescent such a relationship rarely if ever occurs.No matter what the
position of the crescent around the sun ( ,
,
, or
), the sun stands within the embrace of the
crescent, giving rise to what Briffault deems an astronomically incongruous image. 1206 But the image appears
discordant only if we judge it against the present heavens. The primeval sun, states Butterworth, is contained
in the hollow of the recumbent crescent moon. This is the sun that is always in the zenith1207 (i.e., it is not the
body we call sun today).

55. Hindu syllable OM, the creative word

56. Phoenician sun-in-crescent

The Crescent and Womb

If the crescent revered in antiquity denoted the illuminated half of Saturns enclosure, then it must be
synonymous with the cosmic wombthe mother goddess.
That numerous goddesses, in later times, came to be associated with our moon is a fact so thoroughly
documented that we need not belabor the evidence here. Yet the reasons for this association are by no means
clear. From the beginning, states G. E. Smith, reviewing the early counterparts of the Egyptian Hathor, all
goddessesand especially this most primitive stratum of fertility deitieswere for obvious reasons intimately
associated with the moon.1208
And what are the obvious reasons for the connection of the goddess with the moon? It is, Smith claims, the
cyclical periodicity of the moon which suggested the analogy with the similar physiological periodicity of
women . . . Also, The influence of the moon upon dew and the tides, perhaps, suggested its controlling power
over water and emphasized the life-giving function which its association with women had already
suggested.1209 These reasons are neither obvious nor adequate.
What requires explanation is the crescent-goddesses elementary character as a receptacle housing the central
sun. That the Egyptian goddess Hathor was represented by a crescent or lunette does not alter the fact that her
very name means the dwelling of Horus. Similarly, Isis, also represented by a crescent, was the temple
chamber or throne enclosing Osiris. The Babylonian Ishtar, whose symbol was the crescent, was the womb
housing the man-child Tammuz. This very aspect of the crescent is explicit in the title of the moon-divinity
Sin, who is called the mother womb, begetter of all things.1210
It can hardly be doubted that the Saturnian crescent eventually became confused with our moon. The confusion
is most noticeable in the case of the Greek Selene and Latin Luna, whose names were assigned to the lunar
sphere. But neither the names nor the imagery of Selene and Luna originated in connection with our moon.
Within the sphere of Luna Sol is hidden like a fire. Helios dwells as the impregnating seed within the womb
of Selene.1211 According to these ancient ideas, writes Jung, the moon is a vessel of the sun: she is a
universal receptacle of the sun in particular. 1212 For an explanation of this imagery one must look to the former

celestial order. Long before the Greeks named the solar orb Helios, they knew Helios as the planet Saturnjust
as Sol primitively signified the same planet. Selene and Luna derive their mythical character from Saturns
enclosure, and the signs
and
offer a literal portrait of the ancient mother goddess.

Crescent and Motherland

There is a further implication: the moon must mean the same thing as the created earth watered by the four
rivers of life. Though it is difficult to imagine a less likely identity in conventional terms, here is Fabers
conclusion concerning the moon and earth in global mythology: The female divinity, however apparently
multiplied according the genius of polytheism, ultimately resolve themselves into one, who is accounted the
great universal mother both of gods and men, and this single deity is pronounced to be alike the Moon in the
firmament and the all-productive Earth.1213
Faber gives far too many examples than can be cited here. In each case the goddess was astronomically the
Moon, but her mystic circle is declared to be the circle of the World. 1214 The goddess Isis, reports Faber,
was declared to be equally the moon and the earth: and she is at the same time unanimously determined by the
ancient theologists to be one with Ceres, Proserpine, Minerva, Venus, Diane, Juno, Rhea, Cybele, Jana,
Atergatis . . . (etc.). These again are said to be mutually the same with each other: and if we descend to
particulars, we still find them indifferently identified with the Earth and the Moon.1215
What might our earth (as perceived by the ancients, not by modern astronomy) have in common with the lunar
sphere to promote this seemingly irrational identity? The question is raised by Briffault: There is not, in fact,
an earth-goddess who is not at the same time a moon-goddess. All Earth Mothers, as Bachofen remarked lead a
double life, as Earth and as Moon.1216 The identity prevails not only in the advanced civilizations but among
primitive races also. The Maori identify the moon (Hine, or the Woman) with the earth. So do Caribbean
nativesand this identity corresponds with the overlapping personalities of the moon and earth among the
Mexicans, Chaldaeans, Chinese, Hindu, Greeks, and northern European races.
Briffault confesses the irrationality of the equation: The Greeks expressly called the moon a heavenly earth
and a part of the earth. That persistent identification of the moon with the earth would be unintelligible in
peoples ignorant of modern astronomical conceptions, let alone in uncultured races such as the Caribs and the
Polynesians. When the earth is conceived as a huge, solid, immovable surface contrasting in every respect with
the wandering sphere or disc of the moon in the heavens, there appears to be no imaginable ground for
assimilating the one to the other. The identification cannot arise from any analogy in appearance or
function.1217
Briffault proposes to resolve the dilemma by positing an intimate connection of the moon and earth with
women and their functions. He suggests that the divinized female came first and her attributes were, through
analogy, transferred at once to the moon and the earth. 1218 But that such indirect reasoning on the part of ancient
man should lead to an identification so universal and so fundamental is not easy to believe.
Actually, no rationalization of this identity is necessary. In the archaic world order, the crescent and earth (land,
province) were identical. The circle of the moon (crescent-enclosure) was the island of beginningsSaturns
Earth. The mythical moon, as Faber observes, was what some call a terrestrial heaven or paradise, and
others a heavenly earth . . . it is described as wearing the semblance of a floating island . . .1219 This island of
the Moon contained within its sphere the Elysian fields or Paradise, which came to be known as the
paradise of the moon.
There exists, in fact, a most appropriate Mesopotamian symbol of this paradise, though it has yet to receive the
serious attention of the experts. It is the sign
, repeated again and again on Mesopotamian cylinder seals. The
sign depicts the quartered earth, the celestial land of the four rivers. That this paradisal earth lies within the
embrace of a vast crescent may appear foolish to modern critics, but is strictly consistent with numerous
independent traditions equating the primeval earth and moon.1220

The Crescent and Mount

In all ancient myths of the lost paradise, the land of peace and plenty rests upon a cosmic pillarearths
highest mountain. One of the peculiarities of the Mount is that it possesses two peaks, rising to the right and
left of the central column.
The Egyptian Mount of Glory (Khut) reveals two peaks between which rests the Aten or enclosed sun
.
1221
Depicted by this sign are the two great mountains on which Re appears.
And what is most interesting
about the Egyptian symbol of the cleft peak
is that it finds strikingly similar parallels in other lands. The
Mesopotamian sun-god rests upon a twin-peaked world mountain of identical form (fig. 60), and the same dual
mount occurs also in Mexicohere too revealing the sun-god between the two peaks (fig. 61).

60. Assyro-Babylonian Shamash standing between the two peaks

61. (a) Mexican twin peaks, with central staff; (b) Central sun between two peaks
The Delaware Indians recall a primeval landthe Talega country, where long ago all kept peace with each
other. The pictograph of the lost land is

an extraordinary counterpart to the Egyptian Mount of Glory

.
In Hebrew and Muslim thought the mountain of paradise is a double one, observes Wensinck. 1222 To the
Hebrews Sinai, Horeb, Ebol, and Gerezim were all conceived as images of a twin-peaked mountain, states
Jeremias.1223 In the primeval Tyre (paradise), according to the description of Nonnus, a double rock rises from
the ocean. In its centre is an olive (the central sun) which automatically emits fire, setting it in a perpetual
blaze.1224 The Syrian and Hittite great gods stand equally balanced upon two mountains. 1225 In the beginning,
according to a central Asiatic legend related by Uno Holmberg, there was only water, from which the two great
mountains emerged.1226 From the central mount of Hindu cosmology rise two secondary peaks to the right and
left.1227 Of course, the twin pillars of Hercules point to the same idea.

The ancient concept of a cleft summit left a deep imprint in ancient architecture, according to Vincent Scully,
author of the book The Earth, the Temple and the Gods. In Crete, a clearly defined pattern of landscape use
can be recognized at every palace site, Scully writes. More than this, each palace makes use, as far as
possible, of the same landscape elements. These are as follows: first, an enclosed valley of varying size in
which the palace is set; I should like to call this the Natural Megaron; second, a gently mounded or conical
hill in axis with the palace to north or south, and lastly a higher, double-peaked or cleft mountain some distance
beyond the hill but on the same axis. The mountain may have other characteristics of great sculptural force . . .
but the double peaks or notched cleft seem essential to it . . . It forms in all cases a climactic shape which has
the quality of causing the observers eye to come to rest in its cup . . . All the landscape elements listed above
are present at Knossos, Phaistos, Mallia, and Gournia, and in each case they themselvesand this point must
be stressedare the basic architecture of the palace complex.1228
The same pattern occurs repeatedly throughout Greece and Asia Minor, according to Scully. A good example is
the siting of the citadel of Troy, which looks out across the isle of Imbross to the more distant isle of
Samothrace from which rises (directly beyond the long low mound of Imbross) the double peaks of
Phengari.1229
In what ritual notion did this common architectural requirement originate? The name of Samothraces sacred
mountain offers a vital clue: Phengari is the Mountain of the Moon. The title is not incidental, for the
Mountain of the Moonin more than one landis the very title of the Primeval Hill, the pillar of the
Cosmos! Thus, the White Island of Hindu myth is distinguished by the presence of a primordial mountain
rising to the moon. Mount Ararat, which Faber connects with the paradisal hill, is denominated Laban, the
mountain of the Moon. So too does the crescent moon rest on the summit of the Hindu Meru. Faber writes:
At the head of the Nile, according to the Indian geographers, is the Meru of the southern hemisphere: this is
also a mountain of the Moon . . . At the source of the Rhine, the Rhone, the Po and the Danube, all of which
were holy rivers, is what may be styled the Meru of the west: here again we have a mountain of the Moon, for
Alpan is but a variation of Laban, and Jura or Ira or Rhe denotes the Moon equally in the Celtic and the
Babylonian dialects. Lebanon, at the head of the sacred river Jordan, was another lunar mountain . . . And even
in the island of Borneo, the peak at the head of its largest river is known by the title of the mountain of the
Moon.1230
An early prototype of such mountains, Faber contends, is the vast summit of the Himalaya, from which the
Ganges flows. The Hindus deemed this towering mass Chandrasichara, the mountain of the Moon, while two
small hillocks of this lofty region receive the title Somagiri, the Mountains of the Moon.1231
At work is the cosmic image of a crescent moon resting upon a great mountain and thereby forming a cleft
summit. . . . The figure presented to their imagination, would be a conical peak terminating in two points
formed by the two horns of the crescent. 1232 Consistent with the universal sun-in-crescent
, the great father
himself stands midway between the peaks of the right and left, states Faber.1233
One thus derives the images
and
as the simplest renderings of the Mountain of the Crescent. Every
student of ancient symbolism, of course, will recognize these as images of global distribution, presented in an
infinite number of variations.

62. Babylonian pillared crescents

63. Sabaean altar, with pillared sun-in-crescent.

64. Hittite crescent-enclosure on support

65. Pillared crescent, from Peru

Surely one cannot ignore this general symbolism of the cosmic mountain in attempting to understand the
common mountain image
. This pictograph, I suggest, simply adapts the primal crescent to its mythical
interpretation as two peaks. Which is to say, the Egyptian
(or the later
) refers to the same cosmic
form as the crescent enclosure
. In fact, Budge says as much when he calls the latter sign an image of the
sun at sunrisefor this is precisely the purported meaning of the sign
. (I shall subsequently show that by
picturing the crescent below the central sun
as opposed to the alternative positions ( , ,
the ancients
denoted the archaic day, the period of Saturns greatest brilliance.)
That the two peaks of the Egyptian Khut

signified the cleft summit of a single mountain is forcefully

indicated by the mountain-sceptre of Re, showing the dual mount as the top of a single column

. As

observed by many authorities, the sceptre represented the pillar of heaven. This particular form closely parallels
the early mountain hieroglyph
, which passed into the image
, identifying the cleft peak with the
solitary gods original perch or pedestal. 1234 The pedestal, as we have seen, was also called the pillar of
Shu, which the hieroglyphs record by the sign

. Here too a single column branches into two secondary

supports. (In following sections the reader will find numerous evidences connecting the images
the underlying cosmic form

and

with

).

The Egyptian hieroglyphs also employ the mountain sign

, appearing to show three peaks; and in early

representations this configuration, too, appears as the summit of a central pillar . There can be little doubt
that the three-peaked mount pertains to the same idea as the twofold summit. The middle peak appears to
indicate a simple extension of the central column. The great god, who stands between the peaks of the right and
left, becomes himself a part of the mount on which he rests.
This development finds illustration in the Hindu symbolism of Mount Meru, the mountain of the crescent
moon. Meru, despite its crescent peak, is the tricutadri, or mountain of three summits. Similarly, the Hindu
White Island or lost paradise is deemed the three-peaked land.1235
Compare Olympus in the Greek poem:
From Olympus, the summit
From the three peaks of Heaven.1236
The basis of this symbolism, according to Faber, is the great god, standing upright in the midst of the cleft so
as to present the image of a central mountain terminating in three points formed by the two horns of the
crescent and its centrical mast [the great god].1237
Accordingly, the primal Hindu image

passes into the later

, which forms the crest of the Hindu trident

the symbol of the cosmic column. The trident, in other words, originated in the cleft Mountain of the
Moon

. To this image answers the Egyptian three-peaked column

Of the three-peaked mount much more could be said, but at the cost of distracting from the more basic theme
the two-fold summit. It is my contention that the myths of the split peak originated in the prehistoric perception
of a vast crescent seeming to constitute the summit of a cosmic column
rested the sun

. Within the cup of the crescent

. Moreover the crescent was itself simply the illuminated half of a circular band

. And if we

include the four rivers of life we arrive at the form

as the complete image of the Saturnian configuration.
Have the ancients preserved for us a literal rendering of this idea?
One could not ask for a more accurate representation than that provided by the cylinder seals of ancient
1238
Mesopotamia, which offers us the symbol
. The circular paradise on the mountaintop, watered by the
four rivers, lay within the primeval moon (of which our lunar crescent is but a pale emblem).

Surely the remarkable correspondence of myth and symbol concerning this celestial configuration (a
configuration which flatly contradicts the present arrangement of the heavens) suggests that something more

than primitive fancy is at work. If the thesis outlined here is correct, then a single celestial apparition gave rise
to these interrelated images:

The crescent is a central ingredient in the symbolism, and its presence implies a tangible band so illuminated as
to display two halves, one bright, the other more subdued.

The Heavenly Twins

Saturns enclosure united two semicircles of light and shadow, distinguished by a revolving crescent. In the
bright and dark divisions of the enclosure the ancients perceived the cosmic twins, the two faces of the
Universal Monarch.
In the human domain, one of every eighty-six births involves twins. But among the gods, the abnormal is the
rule. The great father is either born of or raised by twins, while also giving birth to twins. And the great god
himself commonly appears in dual form.
Prevailing astronomical explanations of the celestial twins identify them as a circle of day and night, or as the
evening and morning star, or as the sun and moon. The constellation Gemini became the zodiacal representative
of the celestial twins, though it is almost universally agreed that the mythical pair existed long before the
naming of such star groups.

Who Were the Dioscuri?

Privileged as the starting point of countless treatises on the twins are the Greek Dioscuri (the two sons of Zeus),
Castor and Polydeuces. In a battle with their cousins Idas and Lynceus (sons of Aphareus) Castor fell mortally
wounded. While his brother gasped for breath, Polydeuces beseeched Zeus: Bid me also die, O King, with this
my brother.
Zeus answered the prayer by granting that the two brothers spend alternate days above and below the earth.
Pindar records Zeuss promise: . . . If thou contendest for thy brother, and art minded to have an equal share
with him in all things, then mayest thou breathe for half thy time beneath the earth, and for half thy time in the
golden homes of heaven.1239
Cooks explanation of the reward is simple enough: the brothers represented the day and night sky, revolving
round our earth. Their alternating position provides a simple but graphic expression of the obvious fact that the
divine sky is half dark, half bright.1240 Supporting this interpretation is the remark of Philon the Jew concerning
the habit of mythologists: They bisected the sky theoretically into hemispheres, one above, the other below,
the earth, and called them Dioskoroi, adding a marvelous tale about their life on alternate days.1241
Several centuries after Philon, Joannes the Lydian (living in the sixth century A.D.) repeated the theory: The
philosophers declare that the Dioskoroi are the hemisphere below, and the hemisphere above, the earth; they
take it in turns to die, according to the myth, because turn and turn about they pass beneath our feet. 1242
Observing that semicircles were sacred to the Dioscuri, Cook concludes that the two brothers personify two
halves of a celestial circlethe animate Sky. 1243 This, of course, would not preclude the ancients from
employing the sun and moon or the morning and evening star as symbols of the light and dark hemispheres:
These are but secondary modes of denoting the great primary contrast between Day and Night, states
Cook.1244
Of the celestial twins one could pursue example upon example in classical myth alone: Apollo and Artemis,
Zetes and Calais, Zerhus and Amphion, Hercules and Iphicles, Otus and Ephialtes, Pelias and Neleus, to name a
few. And these figures of the celestial twins are simply a small segment of the vastly larger Indo-European
pattern reviewed by Walker.1245

66. The Latin twin god Janus, whose single hat means Cosmos.
Also, one must place alongside the twins the comparable two-headed or two-faced god. Here we meet Janus,
whom the Italians knew as the most ancient of gods, and whom they regularly depicted with two faces,
looking in opposite directions (fig. 66). Janus, according to Cook, personified the vault of heaven, his two faces
signifying the two aspects of the sky (day and night): Janus was originally the divine Sky. The divine Sky is
bright by day and dark by night. Being, therefore, of a two-fold or twin character, Janus was naturally
represented as a double-faced god.1246
Janus, as the twin-god par excellence gives us the title Janiform, applied to any two-headed or two-faced deity
(of which the ancient world provides innumerable instances). I give as an example a specimen from Etruria (fig.
66), depicting a Janiform head wearing a petasos or broad-brimmed hat (often associated with Hermes). This
compares with the broad-brimmed hat worn by Odin, Attis, and others. According to Eisler, whose opinion is
shared by Cook, the hat symbolized, simply, the sky so that the two faces together correspond to the entire
circle of the hat (heaven, sky).1247

The Black and White Twins

Though not all twins are black and white, many are, and it is this very dichotomy which Cook notices in several
Greek examples. In certain instances one twin appears on a white horse and the other on a black.1248
This aspect of the twins appears to be universal. In his character as a twin-god the Mexican Quetzalcoatl unites
with Mictlantecuhtli, the two divinities appearing back to back, one black, the other white. 1249 The Zuni
represented their twin war gods by black and white masks. The black and white Asvins of Hindu myth are an
obvious parallel. Hindu philosophers, states Agrawala, divided the cosmic wheel into two halves, one black and
one white, which they personified as twin sisters forming a circle (chakra) revolving in eternal time. 1250 In
Melanesia, states Eliade, one constantly comes across the myth of the two brothers, one bright, the other
dull.1251
Often the twins struggle with each other (sometimes one is good and the other evil), a feature which
complements the black-white and rising-setting aspect of the Dioscuri. Chinese myth describes two brothers
named Opeh and Schichin at constant war.1252 The Ugaritic twins Mot and Aliyan quarrel, as do the Celtic
Gwyn and Gwythur.1253 Remus dies at the hand of Romulus. Acrisius and Proetus quarrel while in the womb of
their mother. Jacob and Esau do the same. The North American Indian mother goddess Awehai conceived twins
who battled while yet in the womb. There can be little doubt that the Chinese yin and yang (primordial forces of
light and darkness) or the Manichaean primal pair of good and evil bore a close relationship to this general
tradition of the cosmic twins.
The black and white aspect of the twins appears to be consistent with Cooks theory of a revolving heavenly
sphere divided into contending hemispheres of light and darkness. But there are other features of the twins
which fit less comfortably into Cooks model. Why were the twins so often conceived as two primeval rulers
(or two aspects of the Universal Monarch, the founder of civilization)?
The Dioscuri bore a distinct relationship to the twins Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of Rome.
There seems to have been a general tradition of dual kingship, for just as the Dioscuri, in early Doric days,
found personification in two kings of Sparta, the Latin Romulus and Remus appear as royal twins, reigning
with equal rights. Representations of Romulus and Remus often assimilate the pair to the Dioscuri.1254
The question is whether something as abstract as a boundless sky could have provoked the idea of a primeval
pair ruling in effect as a single king. The twins, as in the case of Janus, attach themselves to the Universal
Monarch as his two faces, looking in opposite directions. Cook, of course, recognizes this, but he conceives
Janus, the primeval god-king, not in concrete terms, but as an open expansethe sky.
Was this the true identity of Janus? One notes with considerable interest the statement of Joannes the Lydian:
Our own Philadelphia still preserves a trace of the ancient belief. On the first day of the month (sc. January)
there goes in procession no less a personage than Janus himself, dressed up in a two-faced mask, and the
people call him Saturnus, identifying him with Kronos.1255

To Cook this identity of Janus and Saturn must result from an ancient confusion, but to us it accurately reflects
the archaic doctrine. Janus, as the most ancient indigenous god of Italy (Herodians phrase), 1256 is the great
father, whom the star-worshippers of many lands recognized as the planet Saturn.
Also crucial is the relationship of the celestial pair to the cosmic pillar. Many ancient representations of the
twins or twin-god place the two heads atop the sacred pole. As for the Janiform type in Greece, Cook cites
instances in which the double face is set on a pillar or post. 1257 One finds similar portrayals of the two-faced
god in China, northern Europe, Siberia, India, the Americas, and elsewhere. To one who conceives the post as
nothing more than a venerated piece of wood, the connection between it and the two-faced god will mean
nothing. But to one who sees the sacred post as the emblem of the Primeval Hill, the placement is charged with
meaning: the cosmic twins occupied the summit of the central mountain.
Of the male deities worshipped by the Navaho, states Alexander, the most important are the twins Nayanezgani
and Thobadzistshini, who bring to an end the primeval Age of Giants. Their home is on a mountain in the
centre of the Navaho country. The legend of the heaven-growing rock, lifting twins to the skies, occurs more
than once in California.1258
Here are two aspects of the celestial twins which do not readily fit Cooks explanation of the pair. The twins are
two faces or two aspects of Saturn, the Universal Monarch; and they sit upon the cosmic mountain. Are these
accidental attributes of the twins or do they pertain to an integrated image?
It is surprising that Cook, while giving meticulous attention to classical testimony, gives no attention to the
more ancient prototype of the Dioscuri and the Janiform god. The most complete evidence comes from ancient
Egypt, whose ritual and art provide an incisive portrait of the twins.

67. The twin god Horus-Set.

Of the black and white brothers the world knows no older example than the Egyptian pair Horus and Set. In fig.
67 the heads of Horus and Set appear upon one body, looking to the right and left. The black head of Set
contrasts sharply with the light head of Horus, emphasizing the pairs role as the two opponent gods.
Closely related to Horus and Set are the twins Isis and Nephthys, often portrayed back to back. (fig. 67). The
Egyptian pairs Shu and Tefnut, Thoth and Maat, Sekhet and Neith all reveal a similar underlying character.
In the Book of the Dead the pictograph of the two portions of Horus and Set is the sign
, the band of the
Aten.1259 The clear implication is that the sun-gods enclosure possesses two twin-like divisions, one light, the
other dark. Moreover, if the circle of the Aten is half light, half dark, surely one cannot ignore the related sign
, the crescent-enclosure, which appears to provide a literal illustration of the two realms of Horus and Set.

In the same way, the Egyptian shen bond

twins Isis and Nephthys.

stood not only for the sun-gods enclosure (Aten) but for the

Together Isis and Nephthys, the back-to-back twins, formed the protective border or boundary of the All,
the Cosmos. While the Egyptian tcher means boundary, limit, tehera means protective rampart and
tcherti the two halves of the boundary or rampart. The two Tcherti are Isis and Nephthys.
Egyptian cosmology reveals the coherent image of a bisected enclosure revolving around the central sun. Two
interrelated aspects of the twins stand out:
1. In one sense the twins are simply the light and dark halves of the enclosurea characteristic most
pronounced in the pair Horus and Set.
2. But the twofold enclosure revolved around the stationary light god, and by its revolution, the illuminated
crescentthe face of the great godmarked out the respective divisions of the right and left ( , ) and
above and below ( ,
).In their primary personality, the twins Isis and Nephthys represented these
counterpoised positions of the crescent, and hence two divisions of the celestial kingdom. (In standard
translations, the divisions of the left and right are usually rendered as east and west, confusing
cosmography (the map of the Cosmos) with the local geography, while the above and below are translated
heaven and earth, leading to a different but equally troublesome confusion).
This interpretation of the cosmic twins coincides with Cooks in identifying the pair with a celestial circle, half
dark and half light. Distinguishing this view from Cooks, however, is the proposed nature of the circle. Did the
twofold circle mean the abstract sky, or a concrete band (with crescent
) enclosing the central sun?
A requirement of the interpretation set forth here is that the sun-god stand between the twins and that the circle
of the twins revolve around him. Of course, if the twins refer to the open sky and the sun-god means the solar
orb, it would be meaninglessin fact a contradictionto place the god in the centre of the circle (i.e., between
the semicircles of day and night) or to speak of the twins revolving around the sun-god.
The Egyptians great god wears the enclosure of the Aten as a girdle. According to the Pyramid Texts this
garment is the circle of the celestial twins: I am girt with the girdle of Horus, I am clad with the garment of
Thoth, Isis is before me and Nephthys is behind me. 1260 Such language occurs repeatedly in early Egyptian
sources. In the Book of the Dead, the king asks, May I see Horus . . . , with the god Thoth and the goddess
Maat, one on each side of him. 1261 In the Coffin Texts Atum declares of the twins Shu and Tefnut: I was
between these two, the one being in front of me, the other behind me. 1262 The two mistresses of Buto
accompany you to the right and left.1263 The Pyramid Texts announce that the two great and mighty
Enneads . . . set Shu for you on your east [left] side and Tefnut on your west [right] side. 1264 The king
proclaims, Neith is behind me, and Selket is before me. 1265 Thus the Universal Monarch gives judgement in
the heavens between the two Contestants [Horus and Set].1266
The light and dark halves of the enclosurein perpetual revolution, or conflictare balanced by the great
god. I am the girdle of the robe of the god Nu . . . which uniteth the two fighting deities who dwell in my body
[khat, womb].1267 I am the god who keepeth opposition in equipoise as his Egg circleth round.1268
With a little imagination one might possibly conceive the open sky as a black and white sphere revolving
around our earth, but such a circle could in no sense appear as a twofold band around a central sun. It is here, in
short, that Cooks explanation of the twins appears to break down.
The Egyptian twins signify two divisions of the Aten
. There is only one enclosure of the sun, yet by virtue
if its portions of light and shadow it becomes the twofold circle or, as often translated, the two circles. And
this double band is the womb of the mother goddess, giving birth to the central sun. A Coffin Text thus
celebrates the two rings which have given birth to the gods. 1269 The reference is to the twofold enclosure of
Isis and Nephthys. He was conceived in Isis and begotten in Nephthys, states the Book of the Dead.1270 The
same source declares: I was conceived by the goddess Sekhet, and the goddess Neith gave birth to me.1271
Accordingly, the Coffin Texts say:

. . . Your two mothers who are in Nekheb [the celestial province] shall come to you . . .1272
Oh you two who conceived Re, you shall bear me who am in the egg.1273
The Pyramid Texts reveal the same notion of a twofold womb:
. . . The two great ladies [Isis and Nephthys] bore you.1274
My mother is Isis, my nurse is Nephthys.1275
The King was conceived by Sakhmet, and it is Shezmetet who bore the King.1276
The two goddesses were not merely twins, but the two halves of a single womb. These two divisions may
appear either as the two thighs of Nut (Re shines between the thighs of Nut)1277 or as the thighs of Isis and
Nephthys. To attain the primeval womb the King ascends upon the thighs of Isis, the King climbs upon the
thighs of Nephthys.1278
That the two-fold enclosure was something more than an ill-defined sky is proved by the enclosures various
symbolic forms. The fact is that every mythical formulation of the Saturnian band (assembly, holy land, temple,
city, eye, serpent, etc.) is specifically portrayed as a twofold circle, whose two divisions are the cosmic twins.
Here are a few examples from the Egyptian system:
The Two Assemblies: Egyptian texts identify the circle of the gods as the Two Conclaves or Two Enneads:
. . . You stand in the Conclaves of the Mount of Glory . . . the Two Enneads come to you bowing.1279
The sky is strong and Nut jubilates when she sees what Atum has done, while he sat among the Two
Enneads.1280
I have given you vindication in the Two Conclaves.1281
My lips are the two Enneads: I am the Great Word.1282
This twofold circle of the gods forms at once the body of the great god and the womb of the great mother:
Hail, Khepera . . . the two-fold company of the gods is thy body. [khat, body, may also be translated
womb].1283
I am a great one, the son of a great one. I issue from between the thighs of the Two Enneads.1284
I have come forth between the [two] thighs of the company of the gods.1285
It was a crescent which divided the circular assembly into two portions, for the hieroglyphic symbol of paut,
company of the gods, is the crescent-enclosure .
The Two Lands: The celestial Egypt, founded and ruled by the Universal Monarch, possessed two divisions,
alternately termed the right and left or the above and below. The priests of the Memphite doctrine
announced:
Thus it was that Horus appeared as King of Upper Egypt and as King of Lower Egypt who united the Two
Lands in the province of the (white) Wall at the place where the Two Lands are united.1286
The first king is the creator, and the land which he gathered together and unified is a twofold circle. Hence
the Two Lands receive the title the Two Ladies (Isis and Nephthys) or appear as the portions of Horus and
Set,1287 or the twin circle of the gods.1288
In their organization of the terrestrial kingdom the Egyptians strove to reproduce the bisected enclosure, the
ideal kingdom. Writes Frankfort: The dualistic forms of Egyptian kingship did not result from historical
incidents. They embody the peculiarly Egyptian thought that a totality comprises opposites . . . A State
dualistically conceived must have appeared to the Egyptians the manifestation of the order of creation . . .1289

68. The Egyptian twin gods bind together the unified land.
In the early ritual texts the phrase Upper and Lower Egypt consistently refers to the celestial kingdom, not
local geography. When the Pyramid Texts, for example, declare that the Two Lands shine again and he [the
great god] clears the visions of the gods,1290 it should be obvious that they refer to the primordial dwelling
above, rather than terrestrial Egypt.
The Two Crowns: The god-king is the Good Ruler who appears in the Double Crown, King of Upper and
Lower Egypt, Lord of the Two Lands.1291 No one reading these lines for the first time is likely to imagine that
the Double Crown denoted the same dual enclosure as the Two Lands. Yet, drawing on the cosmic imagery
discussed in previous pages one perceives the influence of a single conception. Though the Two Lands are Isis
and Nephthys, the same twins appear as two crowns worn by the god-king. . . . your two mothers the two
White Crowns caress you, your two mothers the two White Crowns kiss you . . .1292
The Egyptians proclaimed that the two crowns composed the circle of glory (khu) which issued from the heart
or head of the great god. The two Great in Magic [crowns] grew out of his head. Thus it was that Horus
appeared as King of Upper Egypt and as King of Lower Egypt . . . 1293 To acquire the two crowns was to unify
the Two Lands.
The Two Eyes: Thou didst stretch out the heavens wherein thy two eyes might travel, reads the Book of the
Dead.1294 The two eyes are simply the two halves of the singular revolving eye, personified by the cosmic twins.
Thine eyebrows are the two sister goddesses who are at peace with each other, reads the Book of the Dead.1295
Isis and Nephthys are thus called the two eyes of Re.
The Two Serpents: If the Egyptian sign
relates the circular serpent or uraeus to the band of the enclosed
sun, the sign of the two uraei
shows the latter to be two halves of the same banda fact which agrees
with the title of Isis and Nephthys as the two serpent-goddesses. The goddess Nebt-Unnut is established
upon thy head [as the crown] and her uraei of the South [Upper Egypt] and North [Lower Egypt] are upon thy
brow.1296 (The Two Lands compose the two uraei serpents, which the god-king wears as a double crown.)
The texts leave no doubt that the eye, crown, and circular serpent, each referring to the same enclosure around
the light god, possessed a dual aspect, as two eyes, two crowns, and two serpents; and this twofold enclosure
was the double circle of the gods (the Two Enneads) encircling the Two Lands.
O King, I provide you with the Eye of Horus, the Red Crown rich in power and many natured, that it may
protect you, O king, just as it protects Horus; may it set your power, O King, at the head of the Two Enneads as
the two serpent-goddesses who are on your brow, that they may raise you up.1297
Passing briefly to other forms of the primeval enclosure one finds the same connection with the celestial twins:
The Two Thrones: The king has come to his throne which is upon the Two Ladies.1298
The Two Vases (= Two Eyes): Take the two Eyes of Horus, the black and white; take them to your forehead that
they may illuminate your facethe lifting up of a white jar and a black jar.1299

The Two Lakes or Rivers: I am born, I purify myself in the two great and mighty lakes in Heracleopolis . . . 1300
O Destroyer who comest out of the Double Throne Lake.1301
He has circumambulated the Two Banks [The Two Banks denoted the circle of Upper and Lower Egypt,
enclosed by the revolving river]1302
The Two Cords:
Oh you two who are lifted up . . . , who make the metacord of the god . . .1303
These are the two knots of Elephantine which are in the mouth of Osiris.1304
Every mythical form of the primeval enclosure in Egypt appears as a twofold band, the circle of the celestial
twins. The diverse figures of the twins, though complicating the symbolism, always point to the same root idea.
The twins denote the revolving enclosure of the great gods dwelling in heaven, divided into equal portions of
light and shadow. Neither Cooks identification of the twins as the abstract night and day sky, nor any other
explanation based on the present celestial order, can account for the underlying identity of the twins as a circle
revolving around a central sun.

69. An Etruscan mirror depicts the Dioscuri to the right and left of a central sun or star.

70. The Uruboros, identified as the One, the All, half dark and half light. From the Codex Marcianus
(11th cent.).
In numerous lands the great father appears to have his home within the embrace of celestial twins. Butterworth
reports that . . . From Asia Minor to Egypt, from Delos to Syria, reliefs and coins and other works of art and
craftsmanship bear representations of a triad consisting of the Dioskoroi, the Heavenly Twins, dispersed on
either side of a divine figure . . .1305
In Egyptian, Sumero-Babylonian, Iranian, Hindu, and Greek imagery the twins appear as twin doors (of the
right and left) from which the sun shines forth.1306
The Gnostic uroborus or circular serpent is half black and half white and encloses the sun (fig. 70). The Muslim
circular serpent, enclosing the Kaba and constituting the world ocean, glitters in the sun and is half white and
half black.1307 But the same twofold serpent will be found from China to the Americas (figs. 71, 72, 73, 74 &
75).

The world egg of Hindu, Greek, and Chinese symbolism is bisected into black and white semicircles. Hindu
sources depict the primeval womb as two bowls which together form a single circle, half white, half black. 1308
The face of the Mexican mother goddess is half black, half white, resembling the black and white Greek
Erinyes or the bright and dark aspects of the Greek goddess Demeter-Persephone.1309
Similarly, two winged goddesses turn the wheel of Ixion, just as two goddesses operate the wheel of the
Icelandic world mill or the wheel of the Hindu Skambha.1310
The Babylonian Shamash and Tammuz rest within the mouth of the twin rivers, 1311 while the Canaanite El
stands at the sources of the Two Rivers, in the midst of the pools of the Double-Deep.1312

71. Twofold circular dragon in alchemist manuscript

72. Egyptian (a), Sumerian (b), and Malayan (c), illustrations of the primeval twins reveal a remarkably
similar concept. Together the twins form an enclosure.

73. Buddhist Tri-Ratna

74. Chinese twin dragons, and the quartered circle

75. Twofold dragon from Honduras

The band of the enclosed sun, whatever its mythical form, is consistently portrayed as a twofold circle, half
black and half white. What defines the two divisions is the illuminated crescent
, revolving about the band
so as to alternately face above and below ,
or left and right , .
While ancient sources never question the dual character of the enclosure, the language of the two divisions is
susceptible to considerable misunderstanding by anyone attempting to read it within the context of an assumed
solar mythology or of local geography. (I examine these confusions in later sections on Heaven and Earth and
East and West.)

Symbolism of the Crescent

The connection of the circumpolar enclosure with a crescent confirms that the images

and

pertained

to the same celestial configuration as the images

and
. But just as the ancients interpreted the enclosure
and cosmic mountain in different ways, should we not find that they expressed the crescent in varying forms
also? In seeking to answer this question one must reckon with the most extraordinary aspects of the Saturnian
imagery.
Of the crescent in the primary images

and

ancient sources present these basic forms:

- The Horns of the bull-god (or cow-goddess).

- The great fathers ship.
- The uplifted arms of the heaven-sustaining giant.
- The outstretched wings of the mother goddess (or winged god).

In the language of ancient ritual, horns, ships, arms, and wings possess an underlying identity which
defies all natural relationships between such concepts in the modern world. To reside within the wings of the
mother goddess is to dwell upon the upraised arms of the Heaven Man. But these same wings, or arms,
constitute the great gods sailing vesselwhich in turn is depicted as two shining horns. Let us examine the
connection of these forms with the Saturnian configuration

The Crescent Horn

In accord with the images
and , the central sun appears as a horned god (the Bull of Heaven), while his
spouse, the cow-goddess, encloses the sun-god within two horns.
Though extolled as the sun, all figures of the great father possess the crescent moon as two horns, reigning
over the first age as the generative Bull.
In Egypt, the sun-gods Re, Horus, Osiris, Amen, and Ptah all take the form of a horned godthe mighty
bull.1313
Osiris is the son of Nut, lord of the two horns. 1314 The Litany of Re celebrates the god as the supreme power,
with attached head, with high horns.1315 One of Res epithets is simply Shining Horn.1316
A chapter of the Book of the Dead begins: I am the sharp-horned Bull, who regulateth the sky, the Lord of the
risings in heaven, the great Giver of Light, who issueth from Flame.1317
I am seated in front of the Great Ones like the horned Re, reads a Coffin Texts.1318 As the incarnation of the
great god, the king acquires the title Bull of Light.1319
It is the general consensus of Egyptologists that Re and his counterparts originated as solar gods. To what, then,
do the sun-gods shining horns refer?
The characterization of the great god as a horned deity seems to be a general principle of ancient thought. A
Babylonian hymn to Ramman (the sun-god) begins: O lord Ramman, thy name is the great god glorious
bull, child of heaven . . . , lord of plenty. 1320 Anu, Ninurta, Enlil, and Enki all possess radiant horns. . . . The
sun, as the Bull of Light [the very title of the Egyptian god-king], was accorded the supreme position in the
Babylonian solar-god hierarchy, writes Conrad.1321 But the horns of the Bull of Heaven are the crescent
moon:
Father Nannar, heavenly lord
. . . moon god . . . lord of Ur . . .
lord of the brilliant crescent . . .
O strong bull, great of horns.1322
Hindu sources depict Vishnu, Brahma, Shiva, Agni, and Indra as bulls with luminous horns. The Greek
Dionysus (Latin Bacchus) is the bull-horned god said to have been born a horned child. Adonis receives the
same form. The Canaanite El is addressed as Bull-god while the Greek Kronos is the horned god. If
Yahweh was the Bull of Israel, Helios was the Adiounian bull.
From Africa to northern Europe to the Americas the archaic sun-god wears the horns of the crescent
moon.1323
In the myths of several lands the celestial bull appears in the guise of Heaven Man, his body providing the
primeval matter of the Cosmos. A hymn of the Hindu Atharva Veda, titled Extolling the Ox, identifies the
various gods with the limbs of the cosmic bull: Prajapati and the most exalted one are his two horns, Indra his
head, Agni his forehead, Yama his neck-joint . . . etc. 1324 The Persians knew this beast as the Primal Bull or
the Sole-Created Ox dwelling in Eran Vej, the central land; his form was white and brilliant as the moon.
The world of the first man and first woman was created from his body.1325
There is only one sense in which the myth of the horned sun or great father will find meaningful
interpretation. The horns belong to Saturn, the sun within the crescent-enclosure
. If the Babylonians

76. Two Egyptian versions of the winged bull: (a) the Apis bull of Memphis; (b) the Bacchis bull of
Hermonthis

77. The horns of the celestial ibex (Mesopotamia) enclose the sun-cross. From a vase discovered at Susa.

78. Bucranium design, Mesopotamia.

79. Fragment of painted vessel from Baluchistan, showing the sun between the borns of the bull.
knew Saturn as Anu, the horned one, the Phoenicians called the planet-god Baal Qarnaim, Lord of the Two
Horns.1326 The Greek Saturn-name Kronos, according to Robert Brown, possesses the radical sense the
Horned.1327

Ancient Egyptian imagery is unvarying in connecting the horns with the Aten, the enclosure of the sun
. In
a Coffin Text the great god recalls the first occasion, before the Aten had been fastened on the horns. 1328
Another source describes the Aten which is between his horns. 1329 Pharaoh Thutmose I calls himself the god
Horus-Re, Mighty-Bullthe sun with sharp horns who comes out of the Aten. 1330 Can one seriously doubt
that such hymns refer to the light god within the crescent-enclosure
?
Two popular forms of the Egyptian horned god were the Apis Bull, worshipped at Memphis, and the Mnevis
Bull of Heliopolis. Illustrations of these bull-gods confirm the very relationship of the horns and enclosure
described in the hymns: the circle of the Aten rests firmly upon the bulls horns, offering the precise image
.
The Egyptian bull-god Bakha similarly wears the Aten between his two horns. The hieroglyphic symbol of the
horned Aten is

. (On the meaning of this imagery the specialists remain silent.) One of the hieroglyphic

forms of the Aten has as its determinative the sign

, signifying the two-horned enclosure. That the
mystic horns embrace or encircle the central sun is a principle reaching far beyond Egypt. In the famous horned
cap of Mesopotamian divinities, the horns were imagined as encircling the head of a divinity rather than
springing out of it, writes Van Buren.1331 Sometimes the symbolic horns in Mesopotamia are not those of a bull
but rather of an ibex, a heavenly beast whom the myths call the Ibex of the Apsu [cosmic ocean]. 1332 Vase
paintings show the horns of the ibex encircling the sun-cross 1333 (fig. 77). Elsewhere the sun appears between
the horns of a bull (figs. 78, 79).
In Egyptian and Scandinavian rock drawings the sun rests between the horns of bovine figures, and the
illustrations often emphasize the horns character as an enclosure by drawing them full circle (figs. 84, 87).
Correspondingly, a poem of the East African Didinga extols the:
White Cow of heaven, your horns have curved full circle and are joined as one.1334
In the same vein the Hindu Atharva Veda recalls The ruddy one, the sharp-horned bull, who encompassed
Agni, the sun.1335 The Iranian Verethraghna, who bears the glory (halo
shape of a wild beautiful ram, with horns bent round.1336

) of Ahura Mazda, possesses the

The horns which are bent round will be the crescent-enclosure, the dwelling of the central sun

which is to

say, the horns are inseparable from the womb of the mother goddess. Hence the Egyptian sign
, which
neatly expresses the crescents mythical aspect as two horns, denotes the goddess Hathor, the House of
Horus. Because Hathor is the goddess of the horned womb, there is no contradiction between the hymns
locating Re in the womb of thy mother Hathor and the representations of the goddess as sky-cow who bears
the sun-god between her horns.1337
In the same way, Hathor is at once the Eye of Re and the horns supporting the Eye: I am that eye of yours
which is on the horns of Hathor, reads a Pyramid Text.1338 One of the names of the Egyptian goddess is simply
Horns, Lady of Purification.1339

80. The goddess Hathor, wearing the horned Aten

Closely paralleling this title of Hathor is the name of the Mesopotamian goddess: the Lady with the horned
countenance.1340 The Sumerian goddess Inanna describes her own womb as a horn, 1341 while the related
Phoenician goddess Ashtoreth appears as Queen of heaven with crescent horns or Ashtoreth of the double
horn.1342 A horn, in the Hindu Satapatha Brahmana, means the womb of primeval genesis. . . . The black
deers horn is the same as that womb, states the text. The priest touches with it [the horn] his forehead close
over the right eyebrow, with the text, Thou art Indras wombfor it is indeed Indras womb, since in entering
it he enters thereby, and in being born he is born therefrom: therefore he says, Thou art Indras womb.1343
It makes no difference whether the horns are those of a bull, cow, ram, antelope, deer, goat, or buffalo. The vital
idea was of a horned enclosure, and ancient nations inheriting the tradition obviously adapted the celestial horn
to animal forms most familiar to them.

The Horned Mountain

In the Pyramid Texts, the king returns to the womb of his birth, with the words: I have joined my mother the
Great Wild Cow. O my mother, the Wild Cow which is upon the Mountain . . . 1344 Homage to thee, Re,
supreme power, Shining Horn, Pillar of Amentet, reads the Litany of Re.1345 The Bakha bull, which supports
the Aten

between its horns, is the Bull of the two Mountains.

That the horns of the bull or cow constitute the two peaks of the cosmic mountain can alone explain such
imagery. The Bull of Heaven, in its original form, is nothing more than a horned pillaras is made clear in a
Pyramid Text addressing the Pillar of the Stars . . . , the Pillar of Kenset, the Bull of Heaven. 1346 This is the
bull whose horns shine, the (well) anointed pillar, the Bull of Heaven.1347
In truth, all that distinguishes the horned Aten
from the Mount of Glory hieroglyph
is the
mythical form in which the recumbent crescent found expression. Mythically, the crescent was viewed as both a
split peak and two horns.
Indeed, one finds that the Egyptian priests had no doubts about the identity of the horns and the cleft summit,
for the two symbols constantly overlap in Egyptian art. Sometimes the head of a bull is placed between the two
peaks of the mountain symbol
, with the Aten resting on the bulls two horns (figs. 81, 82).
In an early period, the Egyptians represented the twin peaks by the image

, locating the cleft summit atop

the primeval pedestal

. At other times, however, they showed a bull resting on the pedestal with the
mountain sign displaced to the side (fig. 83). Clearly, the artists recognized the overlapping meanings of the two
symbols.

Often, in fact, the mountain sign is drawn so as to appear more like horns than two hills (fig. 85b), and this
image, as noted by Percy Newberry some time ago, is virtually identical to the Cretan horns of consecration
discussed by Sir Arthur Evans in his now-famous work, The Mycenaean Tree and Pillar Cult 1348 (fig. 85a)
Thus G.E. Smith observes the identity of what Evans calls the horns of consecration and the [Egyptian]
mountains of the horizon.1349(By mountains of the horizon Smith means, of course, the two-peaked Mount
of Glory.)

81. Illustration of the Aten (circular serpent) from the Papyrus Of Her-Uben A shows the overlapping
interpretations of the Atens crescent as a twin-peaked mountain, the horns of a cosmic bull, and twin
loins (Aker).

82. To show the identity of the Atens crescent-horns and the twin peaks, Egyptian artists placed the
bulls head between the two peaks.
Perceiving the horns as the cleft summit of the pillar sustaining the Cosmos
, one can understand the spell of
the Coffin Texts, which reads: I am the Bull, the Old One of Kenzet [Kenset, the horned pillar] . . . I support
the sky with my horns.1350

83. Prehistoric Egyptian symbols for the two-peaked mount.

84. By indicating the horns as a full circle, prehistoric Egyptian pictures of the cosmic bull (or twin bulls)
emphasize the connection of the horns with the celestial enclosure.

85. (a) Cretan horns of consecration; (b) Egyptian cleft peak

86. Mesopotamian horned pillar.

The Sumero-Babylonians personified the heaven-sustaining peak Hursag as the mountain giant Enlil, also a
horned pillar:
O great Enlil, im-hur-sag [Great Mountain]
whose head rivals the heavens,
whose foundation is laid in the pure abyss,
Whose horns gleam like the rays of the Sun-god.1351
Both Egyptian and Mesopotamian sources give the heaven-sustaining mountain shining horns! The name of the
Babylonian antediluvian king Alaparos derives from alap, bull. and ur, foundation. He is the Bull of the
Foundation.1352

87. Variations of the cosmic bull in Scandinavian rock drawings. At root the bull is the pillar and
crescent-enclosure

88. Rock picture from Germany, identified by Herbert Kuhn as stylized oxen

89. American Indian horned enclosure, resting on erect serpent

Thus the paradisal earth rested upon the crescent-horns. The Babylonians called the horned pillar the Great
Bull, the most great Bull, stamping at the holy gates . . . director of Abundance, who supports the god
Nirba . . .1353 Lenormant comments: This bull thus plays the role of a kind of Atlas, bearing the earth and its
harvests upon his shoulders.1354 But the primeval earth, as we have seen, was simply Saturns Cosmos.
Many Siberian legends speak of a primeval bull supporting the world.1355 Hebrew and Muslim traditions place
a bull atop the serpent-dragon Leviathan (here a symbol of the heavens pillar). The bull supports the earth on its
shoulders1356. The rams horn of the Germanic Heimdal holds fast the rim of the world.1357
We consider again the Mesopotamian symbol of the quartered earth upon its pillar
. What is astonishing
about this symbol is that it exactly corresponds to the mythical image of the bull, or horned pillar, holding aloft
the cosmic enclosure (with four streams of life) and supporting the sun-god between its horns. To my
knowledge, however, no one has yet proposed any connection between this sign and the myths.
As our earth turned on its axis, the crescent-horn must have visually appeared to revolve around the enclosure
,
,
,
. The Great Bull of Osiris circles around! proclaims a text from the Shrines of Tut-Ankh1358
Amon.
Two lines from the Book of the Dead suggest the same thing: I am the steer . . . I go round the
Sekhet-Aaru [the circular plain of abundance].1359
Accordingly, the revolving horns mark out a twofold enclosure. One of the earliest symbols of the Two Lands is
a double-headed cow, facing to the right and left.1360(fig. 90) The Pyramid Texts call this the two bulls within
the Ibis.1361 The reference is more significant than one might recognize at first glance, for the ibis
encompassing the two twins is the god Thothwhose symbol is the crescent-enclosure
:
I have come and I have installed this house of mine . . . The door which is on it is two opposing bulls, reads a
Pyramid Text.1362 Together the opposing horns of the left and right ,
distinguish the full circle of the
door.
To anyone perceiving the role of the Egyptian two Bulls as two halves of the suns enclosure (the door or gate
through which the sun comes forth), it is impossible to overlook the corresponding imagery of two bulls in
Mesopotamia, guarding the gates of the palace or temple. These are the two bulls of the gate of the temple of
E-Shakil, the two bulls of the gate of Ea, or the two bulls of the gate of the goddess Damkina.1363

90. The Egyptian twin-headed bull, symbol of the Two Lands.

91. Mesopotamian design conveying the image of the primeval enclosure and revolving horns.
As to the primary meanings of the horned god or goddess ancient sources do not equivocate: mythically, the
horns signify the revolving crescent reaching around the primeval enclosure and seeming to support or
embrace the sun-god. The horns compose the two peaks of the cosmic mountain. And in their opposing
positions around the central sun, they are identified as the cosmic twins, the opponent gods.

IX The Crescent-Ship (Part 2)

All ancient sun gods sail in a celestial ship. In the oldest ritual the ship appears as a crescent revolving around
the circle of the great gods dwelling, while the god himself remains stationary. The ships mooring post (and,
by extension, its mast) is the cosmic mountain.
One of Saturns most extraordinary possessions is the ark of heaven. Saturn is literally represented as sailing
over the ocean in a ship, remarks Faber.1364 Ovid tells us that because the planet-god traversed the entire sphere
of the earth in his primordial voyage, his special token was a ship, and this is the ship which appears on the
reverse of coins stamped with the double face of Janus.1365 The latter god, as Saturns alter ego, was the
inventor of barks and ships.1366
All of the Saturnian gods of the Sumero-Babylonian pantheon sail in a celestial ship, one of whose names is
Magula-anna, Great boat of Heaven. The beloved ship of Ningirsu is the one that rises up out of the dam
of the deep.1367 Ea rides the ship of the antelope of the Apsu,1368 while Ninurta sails in the ship Magur.
The Chinese Huang-tithe planet Saturnwas the first to sail in a ship. In his journey across the ocean,
Hercules rode in a golden gobletthe ship of Helios (Saturn)to which one naturally compares the newmoon boat of Dionysus. A ship of self-made light transports the Avestan great god Yima (Saturn).
The Phoenician great father Chrysor was the first man who fared in ships, 1369 but it was also said that the twin
god Ousoos was the first who launched a boat. 1370 The Japanese creator god Sukuna-Biko-Na rides on the
crest of the waves in a heavenly Kagami boat.1371 A golden ship of golden tackle moved about in the sky,
reads the Hindu Atharva Veda.1372
Natives of the Marquesas say that in the beginning there was only the sea on which the creator Tiki floated in a
canoe.1373 The Hawaiian god Tanaroa sailed above in a flying canoe, 1374 much like the great shaman of the
Yenisei Ostiaks, who rows his boat in heaven. The legendary Hiawatha navigated a white canoe which
moved without human aid.1375
That the original form of the sun-gods ship was a crescent is a fact disputed by no one. The crescent form
prevails in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, India, Greece, Scandinavia, and even in the Americas, leading to the
popular belief that the mythical sun voyages in the ship of the new moon.
This opinion is due to one fact alone: the new moon is the only crescent familiar to the modern age. Yet so
routine is the identification of the crescent-ship with our moon that mythologists give almost no attention to
specific imagery suggesting a radically different interpretation.

Having observed the unorthodox role of the crescent-horn, it is appropriate to note first that ancient
symbolism always equates the great gods ship with the bull or cow of heaven. Prehistoric drawings from Egypt
continually relate the ship to a horned creature and later Egyptian art continued the theme.1376

92. The Mesopotamian great gods sail in the horned ship

The same connection occurs in many Scandinavian rock drawings. A rock picture from the Nubian desert south
of Kerma shows the ship so placed on the back of a bull that the boat and the galloping animal are one.1377
The Sumero-Babylonian Nannar or Sin, esteemed as the bull with glistening horns, is also the shining bark of
the heavens.1378 May you ferry over by means of the Great Bull, reads an Egyptian Pyramid Text.1379 Another
declares: the Bull of the sky has bent down his horn that he may pass over thereby . . . , 1380 while a Coffin Text
celebrates the long-horn which supports the bark of Anubis.1381
Many years ago G.S. Faber, examining ancient symbolism of the ship, wrote: A heifer seems to have been
adopted as perhaps the most usual emblem of the Ark . . . That the heifer was an emblem of the Ark appears
from a very curious passage in The Etymological Magnum, the author of which informs us, that Theba, in the
Syrian dialect, signified a heifer . . . The import, however, of Theba, in the Hebrew language, is an ark; and
the only reason why a heifer was designated by the same appellation, was the circumstance of its being used as
an arkite emblem.1382
If the crescent-horn is that which embraces the enclosed sun
day, the ship of heaven must be the same crescent.

and visually revolves around the band each

Direct confirmation comes from ancient Egypt. Though the Egyptian ship (as depicted in the reliefs) always
possesses the crescent form, it revolves in a circle: . . . the ark of heaven was the revolving sphere
configurated as a sailing vessel . . . the ark is portrayed in the act of sailing over a vast unfathomable hollow
void, writes Massey.1383
Perhaps the most common Egyptian word for to sail is seqet, from the root qet, a circle (written with the
determinative
). Literally, seqet means to go in a circle (compare seqeti, encircled). Hence one text
declares that the barge circles in the sky,1384 while another extols the circlings of the henhenu-bark1385
(henhenu is a name of the circular ocean above).
But what was the nature of the ships circular pathway? The ship sails around the sun-gods enclosure: I stand
up in thy enclosure, O Maa; I sail round about.1386 Chapter CXXXVI of the Book of the Dead is thus entitled
The Chapter of Sailing in the Great Boat of Re to Pass over the Circle of Bright Flame. 1387 Moreover, this
connection of the crescent-boat with an enclosure will be found also in Mesopotamia. Though the crescent of
Sin was the ma-gur boat possessed by Ninurta (Saturn), the sign for gur means circular enclosure.1388
Is there any direct statement that the enclosure depicted in the sign
is the ships pathway? The Egyptians
called the band Aten or khu (glory, halo): Hail to you who sails in his Khu, who navigates a circle within
his Aten, reads the Book of the Dead.1389
Clearly, the subject is the crescent-enclosure. In the Pyramid Texts, King Unas announces, I revolve round
heaven like Re, I sail round heaven like Thoth. While Res image is the Aten
, the common symbol of
Thoth is the crescent-enclosure
. Allowing the one image to explain the other, we see that Unas does not

here engage in two separate acts, but in a single act depicted in two different ways: to revolve within the Aten is
to sail in the crescent-ship of Thoth.1390
The circle of the Aten is the brow of Re, and it is on Res brow that the texts locate the ship: I fly up and
perch myself upon the forehead of Re, in the bows of his boat which is in heaven, states the Book of the
Dead.1391
Thou sailest on high in the Evening Barge, thou joinest the followers of the Aten,1392 To appreciate this line
from the Shrines of Tut-Ankh-Amon one must recognize that the followers themselves compose the enclosure
of the Aten; the great god in the ship resides within the circle of lesser gods. It is the same thing to say that the
secondary gods, by forming the enclosure, stand on the pathway of the ship, as stated in the Coffin Texts:
Every god who is on the border of your enclosure is on the path of your boat. 1393 Could one ask for a more
explicit statement equating the enclosure and the revolving ship?

93. The sun-wheel resting in the cosmic ship, as depicted in Scandinavian rock drawings.
It is clear from the Egyptian sources that the ship and the secondary gods (the ships crew), in revolving around
the Aten, circumscribe the great god, who resides in the centre of the circle:
I cause Truth [maat] to circle about at the
head of the great barge which carries the
Justified One in the council . . .
The crew of Re circles about.1394
The dwellers in the Sektet Boat go
round about thee . . .1395
This, then, is the only sense in which the central sun moves: he sails around the enclosure
, ,
while yet remaining em hetep, at rest or in one place. The ship is thus the Boat of Rest [Hetep].1396

O God Re, grant thou that the Osiris Nu may travel on in thy boat em hetep.1397
Let me embark in thy boat, O Re, em hetep.1398
Thy resting place is the barge of Khepri.1399
Agreeing with this view of the ship and pathway are the many hymns and liturgies which describe the boat of
heaven navigating the circular ocean. (As earlier observed, this revolving river was the circle of the Aten

.)

I have made my way and gone round the heavenly ocean on the path of the bark of Re.1400
Lo, I sail the great Bark on the Stream of the god Hetep.1401
Other hymns similarly depict the ship going around the Lake of the Tuat, the Pool of Maat, or the Pool of
Fire.1402
This cosmic ocean, lake, or river means the circular womb (or body) of the mother goddess. Hence, the goddess
Nut, the enclosure around the sun-god Re, takes the form of the circumambient sea, and numerous reliefs show
the sun-gods boat sailing over the body of the goddess. I am a Sahu, who assigneth the bounds as he saileth
round the starry throng of Heaven, the body of my mother Nut, states the Book of the Dead.1403
But it is not sufficient to identify the mother goddess as the pathway of the crescent-ship, for the crescent and
enclosure are one: the ship is the goddess. Though Nut is the pathway, the deceased king beseeches the
goddess: Row me, O mother of mine;1404 tow me, O abode of mine. O Boat of the sky . . . O Boat of Nut.1405

Similarly, the ship of Hathor, as stated by Bleeker, was the expression of her being. When the boat was
carried in procession, it was the dramatization of the deitys hierophany. 1406 One of the names of the Hathorship is mistress of love; it is called the boat which exalts her beauty. 1407 A ship was also the symbol of the
goddess Isis.1408 The dweller in the primeval womb is the captain of the ship.
A survey of ship symbolism in other lands will reveal the same identity. The womb of the Sumerian Inanna is a
ship.1409 The ship of the brilliant off-spring was an epithet of the Babylonian goddess Bau. 1410 In Hindu myth
the goddesses Ila, Isi, Lacshmi, and Parvati are synonymous with the ship Argha, 1411 transporting the great
father (Manu, Shiva, Brahma) over the waters. Bergelmirthe Norse mythical giantwas born in a boat 1412
(i.e., boat = womb). The Latin goddess Minerva was surnamed Ergane, from Ereg or Erech, the ark; under
which title she was venerated both in Laconia, and in Boeotia, Faber tells us. 1413 The Celtic Goddess Ceridwen
takes the form of a ship,1414 and the ship was the symbol of the old Latin goddess Ceres (Demeter), the Phrygian
goddess Cybele, and the Phoenician goddess Ashtoreth.1415
The ship, in other words, is part and parcel of the circumpolar enclosure. And the identity finds confirmation in
all mythical formulations of the enclosure:
The World-Ship. The Egyptian ship is the Barge of Earth. O gods who carry the Barge of Earth, who
support the barge of the Tuat, proclaims the Book of Gates.1416
While the name of the Hindu goddess Ida (or (Ila) means the world, she is depicted as a floating ship;
Stonehenge, the famous Druidic monument, was called at once the circle of the World, the enclosure of the
ship-goddess Ceridwen, and the Ark of the World.1417
The ship-goddess is none other than the mother earth in heaven.
The Island-Ship. Ancient history is filled with legends of floating, paradisal islands, of which the Greek Delos
and Hindu island of the Moon are noteworthy examples. The Italian floating isle of Cotyle; the Egyptian
floating island of Chemnis, described by Herodotus; and the Celtic floating island of Snowdon suggest a
common theme.1418
The tradition of the island-ship receives remarkable expression in the Roman island of Tiber, which, as a
monument to Asclepius, was fashioned with a breastwork of marble into the form of a ship, its upper part
imitating the stern and its lower part the bow.1419 Fig. 94, taken from Carl Kerenyis Asklepios, shows the
ancient form of Tiber Island as reconstructed by a sixteenth-century draftsman. 1420 Symbolized is the island of
the blessed resting within the vast crescent of the cosmic ship.

94. The city-ship of Tiber island, as reconstructed by a draftsman in the sixteenth century.
The City-Ship. The Egyptians commemorated the ships daily revolution by fashioning an image of the great
gods barge, placing it on a sledge-shaped stand, and dragging it around the walls of the city 1421for the city
wall denoted the primeval rampart, the path of the ship. This Great God travels in this city, on the water,
states one text.1422 Thus, the Mesopotamian Surripak is the city of the Ship, corresponding to Homers
Mycenae, the ark-city. The Greek cities of Thebes, Argos, and Berytus are connected by Faber with the
ancient ship names theba, argha, and baris or barit.1423
The Temple-Ship. Just as the Egyptians conveyed the sacred ship around the wall of the city so did they also
pull it around the wall of the temple, in imitation of the cosmic ship which coursed daily around the great gods
dwelling. Egyptian illustrations depict the shrine as an inseparable part of the boat. And the texts confirm this
connection: The Sektet boat receiveth fair winds, and the heart of him who is in the shrine thereof
rejoiceth.1424

A Sumerian hymn to the Kes temple equates the dwelling with the princely Magur-boat, floating in the
sky.1425
Good temple, built on a good place,
Kes temple, built on a good place,
Like [or as] the princely Magur-boat, floating in the sky.
Like the pure Magur-boat . . .
Like the boat of heaven, foundation of all the lands,
Cabin of the banda-boat which shines from the beaches,
Temple, roaring like an ox, bellowing like a breed bull.1426
The Greeks designated a temple and a ship by the same word, naus or naos. Our word nave (from the Latin
navis) possesses the dual significance of a temple and a ship.1427
The Wheel-Ship. One of the most unnatural aspects of the great gods chariot (wheel) is that it functions also
as a ship. In commemoration of the gods remarkable vehicle, the ancients often placed the sacred ship on
wheels, drawing it on dry land. Scandinavian rock carvings depict the wheel of the sun resting in a cosmic
boat (fig. 93), and from Assyria to Britain to Polynesia images of cosmic ships either contain wheels or are set
on wheels. The vehicle of the Chinese Huang-ti was both a ship and a chariot. 1428 Similarly, the Sumerian
magur-boat receives the appellation chariot. Cosmic ship and world wheel are one.

95. Egg of Lunus.

96. Atum, seated within the Aten, sails in the ship of the Eye.
The Egg-Ship. The god Lunus of Heliopolis and Carrhae, writes Faber, was an egg, on the top of which
rested a crescent formed like a boat 1429 (fig. 95). But the god whom classical writers translated as Lunus was
the Egyptian Aah, or Thoth, whose hieroglyph was the crescent-enclosure
, and one can reasonably assume
that, in accord with this symbol, the egg originally stood within, or upon, the crescent boat. Thus the Hindus
knew the ship Argha as the lower half of a primeval egg which floated on the waters of Chaos.1430
The Eye-Ship. An Egyptian Coffin Text speaks of the barge, the Eye of thy father. 1431 Elsewhere one finds, I
am the Great One in the midst of his Eye, sitting and kneeling in the great barge of Khepri [the Turning
One].1432 O you who are in the Eye of the Bark of the God. 1433 In precise accord with such language the
symbolic Eye was regularly inscribed upon ships of Egypt (fig. 96). Interestingly, the same symbol appears on

the Greek Argo. A Phoenician terra-cotta model of a galley from Amathus reveals the central Eye upon its
prow.1434 The Eye occurs also on Chinese boats.1435
The Vase-Ship. Reflecting the identity of the ship and receptacle is the English word vessel, meaning both
container and ship. The German Schiff means, at once, ship and water container, and the roots of the
German Kanne, pot, and Kahn, boat, are identical.1436
In Egyptian symbolism, Piankoff tells us, The jar is the cradle and at the same time a vessel for crossing the
celestial waters.1437 The receptacles in which Hindu priests offered fruits and flowers to the gods were called
arghas. But the Argha was the ship on the cosmic sea.1438
The Shield-Ship. Norse mythology knows the shield-god Ull, the son of Thors wife Sif by an unknown
father. The shield, according to the skalds, was the ship of Ull, that on which he traveleda reference to a
lost mythology . . . writes MacCulloch.1439 Similarly, King Arthurs magic shield Prydwen served as the heros
ship.1440
The Throne-Ship. In the Pyramid Texts the king ascends to the throne which is in your bark, O Re. 1441 And
the Book of the Dead locates the throne in the same ship: I shall advance to my throne which is in the boat of
Re. I shall not be molested, and I shall not suffer shipwreck from my throne which is in the boat of Re, the
mighty one.1442
The Serpent (Dragon)-Ship. G.E. Smith writes: The custom of employing the name dragon in reference to a
boat is found in places as far apart as Scandinavia and China . . . In India the Makara, the prototype of the
dragon, was sometimes represented as a boat which was looked upon as a fish-avatar of Vishnu, Buddha or
some other deity.1443
Numerous Egyptian sources identify the ship with the cosmic serpentwho is also the pathway traversed by
the boat. The Book of the Dead, for example, describes the ship sailing over the back of the serpent-dragon
Apepi.1444 A dragon-like creature often serves as a ship in Mesopotamian cylinder seals, just as the serpentine
Chronos forms the path of the ship of Helios
One could, of course, endlessly expand the list of such connections between the enclosure and the ship. One
might even say that the ship has no independent existence apart from the enclosure.
Nor can one ignore the widespread connection of the great gods ship with the cosmic mountain. In accord with
the archaic forms
and
, the ship rests on the mountaintop, providing the Mount with its cleft summit.
From Egypt to Mesopotamia to Scandinavia one finds the images of the ship brought into connection with the
pillared crescent
. Fig. 101f, from southwest Norway can be compared to a prehistoric drawing from Egypt
(fig. 102f) In the latter instance the pillared crescent is shown twice, while one end of the ship terminates in a
crescent-enclosure
.
For a more formal version of the ship and Mount I offer details from two illustration in the Book of the Dead
(fig. 97). In both drawings the ship, in the form of a double serpent, rests upon the Primeval Hill. While one
shows the throne within the ship, the other shows the steps of the Primeval Hill: I have reached the high
portals of the Entourage of Re, who reckon up the pillared bark, announces the king in a Coffin Text.1445
The subject is a revolving ship, traversing a circle around the summit of the cosmic mountain,
, ,
, .
That is, the Mount serves as the axis of the ships revolution: I assume my pure seat which is in the bow of the
Bark of Re. It is the sailors who row Re, and it is the sailors who convey Re round about the Mount of Glory,
and it is they who will convey me round about the Mount of Glory. 1446 Hail, Only One! behold thou art in the
Sektet boat as it goeth round about the Mount of Glory.1447
When the texts describe the god sailing over the supports of Shu, 1448 or engaged in his voyage over the Leg
of Ptah,1449 they do not depart from the integrated symbolism of the world pillar, for the supports of Shu ( )
and the leg of Ptah refer to one and the same cosmic column.

It is surely significant that in both Egypt and Mesopotamia the cosmic pillar appears as the mooring post of
the great gods ship. What the Sumerians called dimgal (Babylonian tarkullu) and the Egyptians mena or menat
may be translated either as the Binding Post or Mooring Post. The Egyptian image of the menat is
,
depicting the enclosed sun-cross atop the cosmic pillar; but menat is a common term for the post to which the
ship of heaven is tied or moored, and the verb mena means to tie the boat to the post.
One can also understand the axis-pillar as the ships mast. We earlier noted that the great father, considered as
an extension of the Mount, becomes the central (third) peak rising between the two peaks of the right and left.
When one views the crescent (two peaks) as the ship of heaven the equivalence of the Mount and the ships
mast becomes self-evident. The general tradition is observed by Faber: A vast centrical mountain formed the
mast or boss of the mundane boat: and the great father, rising out of the sacred umbilicus of the arkite world,
supplied to it the place of a mast. That mountain was the hill of paradise. 1450 The Hindu symbol of the ship on
the mountaintop, according to Faber, is the trident of Shiva, composed of a rod or staff surmounted by a
lunette
with a spike rising in its centre. The trident, he states, denotes the ship Argha under its sidereal
form of a crescent with Shiva standing in the midst of it and supplying the place of a mast.1451
This identity of the ships mast and the axis-pillar is also noted by Coomaraswamy, who relates an introductory
verse of the Dasakumaccrita, listing the mast of the ship of the earth as an aspect of the axis of the
universe. In the construction of Hindu stupas the universe axis was represented by a central finial often
extending upward to an impressive height. The column bore the title sky-scraping yasti, or mast.1452
It is noteworthy also that the Sumerian dimgal, the mooring post or binding post, often receives the
translation ships mast.1453 In our world a mast and a mooring post are wholly distinct, but in the symbolism
of the cosmic ship and mountain they are strictly synonymous, as we should expect.
By understanding the ships mast as an extension of the cosmic mountain one perceives a deeper meaning in the
steps which rise in the centre of the Egyptian boat illustrated below (fig. 97). The steps, as the most common
Egyptian symbol of the Primeval Hill, here replace the ships mast. And it is no accident, for while the Egyptian
khet means steps
(Primeval Hill), khet also means ships mast (Primeval Hill = steps = mast =
Primeval Hill). The symbolism becomes all the more fascinating when one discovers that the Hindus identified
the steps or pyramid as both the polar Mount Meru and the mast of the ship Argha.

97. Two Egyptian versions of the cosmic ship and Primeval Hill
Such integrated symbolism underlines the fundamental relation of the crescent-ship to the cosmic mountain.
Faber thus concludes: Here we may perceive the reason why the pagans deemed those mountains peculiarly
sacred, which branched out at their summits into either two or three smaller peaks or tumuli. They considered
them, in the one case, as naturally shadowing out the holy hill with the navicular Moon resting on its top, and in
the other case, as still being a physical copy of the same holy hill surmounted by the Moon, but the Moon now
rendered complete by the addition of the centrical mast or pilot . . . 1454
It follows from this line of evidence that the Egyptian mountain signs
and
offering a natural
representation of the two- or three-peaked summitmust have possessed the same import as the ship of
heaven; both the ship and the cleft summit had their reference in the crescent, visually united to the celestial
column so as to form the image
. The ship on the mountaintop merges with the two peaks of the right and
left. Consistent with this overlapping imagery are those prehistoric Egyptian vase paintings depicting the
cosmic ship bearing the mountain sign

.1455

It is, of course, the universal opinion of Egyptologists that the mountain glyph
peaks real or imaginary, from which the solar orb rises each morning.

represents two geographical

But if the analysis set forth here is correct, the twin peaks of the Mount, being synonymous with the ship of
heaven, must have revolved daily around the sun-gods enclosurein flagrant contradiction of natural
geography!

98. The twin-peaked Khut

, depicted as an inseparable part of the cosmic ship.

Could the Egyptians have believed that the cleft summit sailed with, or as, the cosmic ship? Actually, it was not
uncommon for the Egyptian artists to place the Khut (Mount of Glory
) within the revolving ship,
proclaiming the essential identity of the two images (fig. 98). Of this identity Clark provides two examples. In
each case the Aten rests between the peaks of the right and left, which in turn sit squarely in the cosmic ship.
Responding to the first instance, Clark calls the cleft hill
the eastern horizon, adding that this hill is
incongruously placed in the solar boat.1456 In the second illustration the Aten rests on the twin-peaked
mountain of sunrise. Against all verisimilitude this figure, mountain and all, is being conveyed across the
waters of the heavenly ocean in a boat. 1457 As bizarre as this sailing mountaintop may appear to conventional
mythologists, it is, to us, one of several independent proofs that the mountain sign
means simply the
revolving Saturnian crescent, here rendered naturalistically in its mythical form as two peaks. When the texts
say that the god sails round about in the Khut
, they mean literally that he sails within the cleft peak as
in a ship. Of course, to reckon with these concepts one must abandon once and for all the standard translation of
Khut as horizon. The twin peaks are anything but a fixture of the local landscape. (Though the most common
position of the mountain image is upright, some illustrations depict it in an inverted position
, again
contradicting geography. Moreover, the distinction between the upright and inverted positions of the revolving
twin peaks is crucial to the symbolism of the archaic day and night, as I shall show.
Equally important is the relation of the ship to the cosmic twins. The image
tells us that the ship itself
divides the enclosure into two portions of light and shadow. Accordingly, though the Egyptian word At denotes
the boat of heaven, the same word means to divide, bisect. The language conforms precisely to the
cosmology of the crescent-enclosure, half dark, half light.
But the Egyptians also identified the ship with the twins Isis-Nephthys, the two eyes (the left
and right
1458
positions of the revolving crescent). Thy right eye is in the Sektet boat, and thy left eye is in the Atet boat,
declares the Book of the Dead.1459 In the ritual for the deceased, a chapter of the Book of the Dead is to be said
over a Bark of Re coloured in pure green. And thou shall place a picture of the deceased at the prow thereof.
And make a Sektet boat on the right side of it and an Atet boat on the left side of it.1460 Together, the boats of
the left and right compose the protective enclosure or bond, represented by the shen sign

In its every feature, then, the great gods ship conforms to the revolving Saturnian crescentenclosing the
central sun, resting upon the cosmic mountain, and dividing the circumpolar enclosure into divisions of light
and shadow.

The Crescent-Arms
To terrestrial observers gazing up the axis-pillar, the Saturnian crescent appeared as two outstretched arms
reaching around and holding aloft the crescent enclosure

No one considering the image of the sun-in-crescent resting atop the cosmic pillar
will have any difficulty
understanding why the crescent came to be viewed as the outstretched arms of the great mother, or of the
heaven-sustaining god.
Of course, it is only in combination with the central sun and pillar that the crescent could acquire this
significance. Nothing in our crescent moon, for example, could possibly suggest the upraised arms of a humanlike figure. In ancient art, however, the crescent is often located behind the shoulders of a divinity (as suggested
by the form

) and in certain cases replaces the arms. (In fig. 99 I offer several examples from the Americas.)

In fig. 100 the Hindu twins Jagan-Nath and Bal-Rama, bearing the respective black and white countenances of
Shiva and Vishnu (with whom they are identified), stand to the right and left of the goddess Subhadra, a form of
Devi. The body of each of the three deities appears to be composed of two eggs ([twofold] egg = body);
upon the bodies of Jagan-Nath and Bal-Rama rests a crescent-like form and in each crescent appears the head of
the deity. Commenting on this image, Faber writes: The crescent itself exhibits the rude semblance of arms, as
the twofold egg does that of a body: but a sort of standard attached to the frame on which the three divinities are
seated, sufficiently shows that the apparent arms are really a lunette, for the standard displays in a black
background the mystic crescent with a circular ball within it representing the head of the deity.1461

99. (a, b) Columbian pictographs; (c) Bolivian pictograph; (d) Brazilian pictograph; (e) Arapahp sign for
person; (f) North American goddes

100. Hindu twins, Jagan-Nath and Bal-Rama, with semicircular arms, stand to the right and left of the
goddess Subhadra.
A more pure form of the crescent- or horned-arms occurs in Scandinavian rock drawings, repeatedly exhibiting
the image
along with numerous variations which present the semi-circular shape alternately as horns or as
outstretched arms of more human-like forms (fig. 101). This mixture of images, in fact, leaves the
archaeologists undecided as to whether, in the simple form
, it is arms, or horns, that are horn-like arms, or
arms extended upward to form a crescent. In other instances, the human figure does not stand in the boat, but
holds the boat aloft on upraised arms (fig. 101a, b). Moreover, in some cases the ship rests on the human
shoulders in such a way as to replace the arms (fig. 101c, d).

101. (a, b, c, d) In numerous Scandinavian rock drawings the cosmic ship either rests on the upraised
arms of a Heaven Man or actually forms the gods arms; (e, f) In other drawings from the same religion a
pillared crescent stands in the ship.

102. Prehistoric Egyptian images of the cosmic ship alternately show the Heaven Man (with upraised
arms) or the pillared crescent standing in the ship.

103. Predynastic Egyptian figurines

104. Cretan mother goddess

105. Symbols of the Phoenician goddess Tanit

106. Hittite image

The cosmic divinity with upraised arms will be found in all quarters of the world (figs. 103, 104, 105 & 106).
Most crucial are the associations of such figures with the axis-pillar and enclosure. The mythical Afrite of
Arabian myth was an apostate angel, tall and black (Saturn = black planet), whose trunk formed a vast
pillar, his arms stretching heavenward.
Compare the description of the Hindu Manu, the glorious sage and first king: With arms uplifted and poised
on one leg, he, the king of men, practiced hard austerities in the Badari forest, named Vishala. And there he did
arduous penance for ten thousand years with his head downwards and his eyes unwinking.1462
Of the Iranian Mithra, the Zend Avesta declares: With his arms lifted up towards Immortality, Mithra, the lord
of wide pastures, drives forward . . . in a beautiful chariot [the world wheel] that drives on, ever-swift, adorned
with all sorts of ornaments, and made of gold.
I pose the question: are the upraised arms an accidental convention, or an integral component of the Saturnian
image

? A conclusive answer is provided by Egyptian sources.

The Ka-Arms
One of the most familiar Egyptian terms is ka, the symbol for which is two upraised arms
. Though the
word ka occurs with great frequency in the hieroglyphic texts, few writers can agree on a tangible meaning.
Budge confesses the general lack of agreement on the subject: The exact meaning of this word [ka] is

unknown, but it has been translated by double, image, genius, subconscious self, natural disposition, abstract
personality, character, mind, etc.; all these meanings are suggested by their contexts, but the real meaning of the
word has yet to be discovered.1463
The closest approximation to the Egyptian notion of Ka is vital force, writes Frankfort. The qualification
vital frees it from the precision of the natural sciences, which would, of course, be an anachronism: and the
combination vital force may stand for a somewhat vague popular notion without mechanistic implications.
The Ka, according to this view, should be impersonal and should be present in varying strength in different
persons or in the same person at different times.1464
In none of the common interpretations is the Ka regarded as a visible power. Instead, the experts tend to treat
the Ka as a hidden source of life. Clark tells us that the Ka is a symbol of the transmission of life power from
the gods to man. But it is not only the act, it is also the source of this power. Everyone is a receiver of divine
power and everyone is an individual, so each has his own Ka.1465
I am not prepared to argue that these modern-sounding definitions are wholly wrongonly that they focus on
derived, rather than concrete meanings. In its original sense the Ka is exactly what its glyph indicatestwo
upraised arms
! The ancients saw the two arms of the Ka, and every aspect of the symbolism springs from
a once visible relationship of these arms to the great god and his dwelling.
In recording the Saturnian configuration
nothing could have been more natural than the interpretation of the
crescent as two arms, straining upward. To present the arms in human form, is, of course, the only possible
way to express pictorially this mythical interpretation of the crescent (just as the only way to depict the
crescents mythical form as horns was to draw it as horns
or to place the crescent-enclosure on the head of
a Bull).
To test the proposed connection of the Ka-arms
investigation:

with the Saturnian image

, several questions require

Do Egyptian sources locate the central sun within the Ka-arms? Are the cosmic ship and horns identified with
these outstretched arms? Do the Ka-arms reach around the enclosure? Do the arms constitute the cleft summit
of the world mountain? Is the Ka one half of a twin circle?

107. (a) The Ka; (b) The Ka resting on the primordial perch; (c) The Ka embracing the royal name.

108. The arms of the Abyss supporting the Aten.

On each of these questions, Egyptian sources yield a clear-cut reply.
1. While most analyses discuss the Ka as a (hidden) dimension of the human personality, Egyptian sources
consistently locate the Ka not in this world, but among the gods. The point is noticed by Breasted: . . . The ka
was not an element of the personality, as is so often stated. It seems to me indeed from a study of the Pyramid
Texts, that the nature of the ka has been fundamentally misunderstood . . . It was in the world of the hereafter
the he [the Ka] chiefly if not exclusively had his abode . . .1466
When the king dies he goes to his Ka in the sky, 1467 and here, in heaven, the Ka protects him from the
destructive demons of Chaos.1468 But why is this protective genius portrayed as two outstretched arms
? The
reason is that the heaven attained by the deceased king is the dwelling of the central sun, who resides within the
embrace of two shining arms raised aloft in the Abyss. This god is like this, states one mythological text:
Two arms guard the body of this god.1469 Another invokes Atum shining forth from the arms of Aker. 1470
The great god Re is like this on the arms of the Mysterious One. 1471 The Aten is in the Tuat. The arms of the
Mysterious Face come out and lift it up.1472 reads another text.
Thus Osiris rests within the two arms of the Ka: Hail, O Osiris, thy ka hath come unto thee and . . . thou
resteth therein in thy name of Ka-Hetep.1473 Thy father Tatunen lifteth thee up and he stretcheth out his two
hands behind thee.1474
In truth, the saying to go to his ka means to attain heaven and thus to reside in the protective embrace of the
heaven-sustaining god

O Re-Atum, your son comes to you, the King comes to you; raise him up, enclose him in your embrace . . .1475
It is pleasant for me . . . within the arms of my father, within the arms of Atum.1476
O Atum, set your arms about the King . . . O Atum, set your protection over this King . . .1477
Go up on high, and it will be well with you, it will be pleasant for you in the embrace of your father, in the
embrace of Atum.1478
To represent the union of the king with the outstretched arms of heaven the Egyptians depicted the Ka enclosing
the cartouche or royal name of the Horus-king (fig. 107c). In the hieroglyphs the Ka-arms
signify to
embrace and to protect. The royal Ka put his arms around the Horus name to protect it from harm, notes
Clark.1479 There is no need to seek out hidden metaphysical implications in this symbolism, for the Ka was in
every way an emblem of the visible enclosure, the protective rampart in heaven.
2. That the Ka-arms pertain to the embracing crescent will explain why the sun-god sails on the two arms; the
same text which describes Re like this on the arms of the Mysterious One, declares, This Great God sails
over this cavern [the hollow of the Tuat] on the arms of the Mysterious One.1480
A spell from the Coffin Texts has the king appearing in the bark of the morning . . . in the arms of Anup. 1481
And Osiris sails on the two arms of Horus in his [Horus] name of Henu-bark.1482 This equation of the ship
and the outstretched arms finds repeated illustration in the cosmic scenes depicted on coffins and papyri.
It follows from this identity, of course, that the arms of the Ka
are synonymous with the luminous horns of
the celestial bull. And here lies the simple explanation why the Egyptian word for bull is also ka, written with
the same arms
Heaven.)1483

, to which the determinatives

are added. (The subject is the generative Bull of

I know the secret of Hieraconopolis.

It is the two hands of horns and what is in them.1484
The embracing hands or arms mean the same thing as the horns.

3. If the outstretched arms, as suggested by the configuration

, reach around the circumpolar enclosure, then
to go to his Ka must signify the kings rebirth in the primeval womb. Did the Egyptians identify the Ka-arms
with the mother goddess?
When the dead king was placed in his coffin, writes Piankoff, he was placed between the arms of his mother
Nut.1485 The kings return to the mother womb is expressed in the Pyramid Texts:
Thou art given to thy mother Nut, in her name coffin;
She embraces thee, in her name sarcophagus.1486
Nut, the coffin, means Nut, the womb of primeval birth (or rebirth). And to dwell in the womb is to reside
within the embracing arms of the goddess. Thus, the very goddess in whose womb shines the central sun is also
described enclosing and protecting the sun, or king, with outstretched arms.
I am thy mother Nut. My arms encircle thee in life and health.1487
The arms of Nut who bore you are about you so that your beauty may be upraised.1488
Words spoken by Isis the Divine:
I have come, I encircle my son with my arms . . . I shall be his protection eternally.1489
. . . The goddess Maat embraceth thee.1490

109. Nut embracing the Aten with outstretched arms.

In apparent defiance of nature, the texts proclaim that the Ka-arms give birth to the sun-god. The Pyramid Texts
extol the Great One who came into being in the arms of Her who bore the god. 1491 In the Instruction of
Ptahhotep appears the statement, He is thy son, whom thy Ka hath begotten for thee. 1492 And elsewhere we
read: Thy mother bringeth thee forth upon her hands, that thou mayest give light to the whole circumference
which the Aten enlighteneth.1493
In the tomb of Tut-Ankh-Amon appear four gold coffins containing the extracted viscera, each coffin being
represented by a goddess, and symbolically enclosing one of the Four Sons of Horus. The inscriptions upon the
lids of the coffins leave no doubt as to the identity of the enclosing arms and the protective womb:
Words spoken by Isis: I close my arms over that which is in me. I protect Imesty who is in me, Imesty, Osiris
King Neb-Kheperu-Re, justified before the Great God.
Words spoken by Nephthys: I embrace with my arms that which is in me, I protect Hapy of Osiris King NebKheperu-Re, justified before the Great God.
Words spoken by Neith: I encircle with my arms that which is in me, I protect Dua-mutef who is in me, Duamutef, Osiris King Neb-Kheperu-Re, justified before the Great God.

Words spoken by Selkit: My two arms are on what is in me. I protect Keb-senuf who is in me, Keb-senuf,
Osiris King Neb-Kheperu-Re, the justified one.1494
The inscriptions explicitly declare that the arms of the goddess enclose the god-king within the womb. That the
goddess (womb) is the arms, and that these arms are those of the Ka, is confirmed by a design in the funerary
temple of King Seti I (fig. 110). The design shows a female figure embracing the king. On the head of the
goddess stands the two arms of the Ka within which is written the goddess name.1495
In depicting the Ka, Egyptian artists were obviously constrained by the awkwardness which would result from
the human-like representation of the image
as a man-child within the arms of a god or goddess. In our world
one does not embrace a child with uplifted arms. To accommodate the primal image to a natural
anthropomorphic mode of representation, the artists showed the arms twicefirst, as the arms of the human, or
personified Ka, embracing and protecting the man-child; and second, as upraised arms placed upon the head of
the Ka-divinity. It is the latter representation which expresses the cosmic form of the protective embrace.
Hence, the goddess Isis, often depicted enclosing her son Horus upon her lap (womb), is also shown standing
erect with arms held aloft (fig. 111). Since the uplifted arms, by Egyptian symbolism, mean

110. The divinized Ka embraces the man-child

111. The Egyptian goddess Isis, whose upraised arms enclosed the central sun.
protect and embrace, one can be certain that the raised arms of Isis pertain directly to Isis role as the
protectress of the sun-god. Cosmic symbolism was not determined by what is natural in the human world
so much as by the literal form of the Saturn apparition

The outstretched arms of the Egyptian great god or goddess hold aloft and encircle the celestial earth.

O King, you have enclosed every god within your arms, their lands and all their possessions. O King, you are
great and round as the circle which surrounds the Hau-nebut.1496
The earth is raised on high under the sky by your arms, O Tefenet.1497
An identical picture occurs in the Iranian Zend Avesta, where Mithra, with arms lifted up towards
immortality, encloses the boundary of the earth.
And do thou, O Mithra! encompassing all this around, do thou reach it, all over, with thy arms.1498
Pointing to the same relation is the common Egyptian phrase house of the Ka. 1499 To dwell in the cosmic
temple is to rest within the arms, and the texts thus speak of the two arms of the temple.1500
4. Among the Egyptian gods none is more often depicted with upraised arms than the pillar-god Shu, between
whose arms rests the primeval sun Atum, or Re. Egyptian reliefs regularly portray Shu standing erect and
sustaining the body (womb) of the goddess Nut with his arms held in virtually the same position of those of the
Ka-symbol

. The arms which enclose the sun-god belong to the cosmic mountain. Thus we read:

The mountain will hold out its arms to him and the living Kas will accompany him.1501
The hieroglyphic symbol of the Shu-pillar or mountain is called the two pillars of heaven. The two pillars,
in other words, are really one pillar, with two arms. Hence Re, who shines between the mountain peaks of the
right and left, also rests atop the forked pillar of Shu, whose two secondary supports are the embracing arms of
the Ka. Thou seest Re upon the pillars which are the arms of heaven, reads the Book of the Dead.1502
In the Papyrus of Mut-hetep the embracing arms are those of Tatunen, the acknowledged personification of the
Primeval Hill. Thy father Tatunen, placing his hands behind thee, raiseth thee up. 1503 What are these two arms
of the Primeval Hill other than the two peaks of the right and left?
Most relevant in this connection is the hieroglyphic symbol for living Re . The image not only shows the
sun-god resting within the upraised Ka-arms, but presents the arms as an extension of the heavens pillar, so that
the entire configuration suggests a human form virtually identical to that of Shu in the above-mentioned
illustrations. The same image in yet more human form is offered by the hieroglyph

, symbol of the

elevated god and the cosmic summit. And in the glyph

the Egyptians depicted the personified pillar
holding aloft the symbol of heaven
. What is clear from a survey of the related texts and symbols is that
the Egyptians conceived the arms of the Mount or god in visible terms. When the king, in a Pyramid Text,
beseeches the god, O Shu, may your two arms be behind Teti, one witnesses the influence of things seen, not
abstract speculation.
In the signs , , and
, we have three closely related ways of representing the prototypal form
, and it
is this prototype which enables one to see why the Egyptians celebrated the Ka-arms as the two peaks of the
Mount of Glory. The Ka-sign
and the mountain sign
gave pictorial expression to two equally
compelling interpretations of the pillared crescent. Once one perceives this underlying identity of the arms and
the twofold peak, it is impossible not to notice that the Egyptians themselves remembered the connection
through many centuries (even if they did not understand it perfectly). Repeatedly the artists showed two arms
extended upward from the cleft peak (fig. 112). As is usually the case with the most significant symbolic
relationships, the union of the arms and two peaks is set forth in spite of its seeming mockery of the natural
order.

112. Kheprer, residing in the Aten, appears between the two arms, which correspond to the two peaks of
the Khut.
The equivalence of the Ka-arms and two peaks is confirmed by other symbols also. One of the Egyptian names
of the twofold Mount of Glory was Aker, drawn as a twin-headed lion
.1504 Just as the Aten rests on the
two peaks of the Khut
, so also does it lie on the back of Aker. In one text the sun-god Re commands
Aker, O, give me your arms, receive me . . . I give light for you, I dispel your darkness. 1505 The arms of Aker
can be nothing other than the two peaks from which the sun-god shines forth each day, for the Book of Caverns
says that the One of the Tuat goes forth [shines] from the arms of Aker.1506 The same source also invokes:
Duati, the Infernal One, who comes out of the arms of Aker.1507 Atum, who comes out of the arms of Aker.
Ifeny, who comes out of the arms of Aker.1508
Though the terminology will offend the modern ear, it is perfectly consistent with the cosmic image
to
speak of the two arms of the mountain, and this is exactly what the Egyptians meant by the phrase the arms
of Aker.
5. It remains to be asked, then, what was the relationship of the crescent-arms to the cosmic twins. Certainly
one cannot ignore the fact that the Egyptian ka
is often translated double or twin. The ka of the king
is his twin; it accompanies him through life as a protective genius, it acts as his twin and his protector in
death.1509
The imagery of the king has its origin in the image of the Universal Monarch. If the arms depicted by the Ka
sign

refer to the Saturnian crescent, reaching halfway around the circumpolar enclosure, this in itself is

sufficient to explain the Kas designation as the twin. In the configuration

is the two arms.

the twin (or half the enclosure)

In accord with the counterpoised positions of the revolving crescent (

and
, or
and
), Egyptian
representations of the arms show alternating relationships to the central sun. While the upright position of the
arms is very common in Egyptian art, one finds innumerable instances in which the arms embrace the Aten
either from the right or left, or from above. Of the latter instance I give three examples (figs. 87, 113, 114). Like
so many Egyptian representations, all of these examples juxtapose different mythical versions of the crescent.
In the first (fig. 81) we see the man-child sitting upon the mountain symbol
and resting within the
enclosure of the Aten, here presented as a circular serpent with tail in mouth. This circle, in turn, rests upon the
horns of a bull whose head is placed between the twin lions Shu and Tefnut, representing the peaks of the right
and left. But reaching around half of the serpentine band from above are two armsclearly the same arms
which elsewhere embrace the Aten from below.

113, 114. To depict the full cycle of the day Egyptian artists showed the outstretched arms embracing
the Aten alternately from above and from below.
It is my contention that such symbolism represents alternate phases of the archaic day, each day being marked
by a full revolution of the crescent around the enclosure, as it passes from its position below
to an inverted
position above
and back to below again.
As figures of the revolving crescent, the upright and inverted arms are synonymous with the cosmic twins, who
personify the above and below (as well as the right and left). Just this connection of the arms with the twins is
indicated in the Papyrus of Pa-di-Amon (fig. 113). The illustration shows the Aten in the centre flanked by the
two goddesses. Two male figures are also present, one above and one below, each reaching around the Aten
with outstretched arms, so that together the upright and inverted arms compose a complete enclosurethe
circle of the cosmic twins.1510 The same relationship of the upright and inverted arms to the circle of the Aten
will be seen also in the Papyrus of Khonsu-Renep1511 (fig. 114).
Closely related are the symbolic representations which portray the arms alternately reaching round the Aten
from the right and left. One such example occurs in the Papyrus of Khonsu-mes A. Here the arms are explicitly
connected with the symbols of Abtet and Amentet, the two divisions of the celestial kingdom1512 (left-right).

115. The twin goddesses Isis and Nephthys stand to the right and left of Osiris-Re, forming an enclosure
with their arms.
Clearly, the counterpoised arms denote the cosmic twins, revolving daily round the Aten. The texts say as much
when they locate the great god within the arms (or hands) of the twins. In a Coffin Text Atum recalls the
beginning:
[At first] I lived with my two children, my little ones,
the one before me, the other behind me . . .
I rose over them, but their arms were around me.
Similarly, one finds:
The arm of Horus is about you [and] the arm of Thoth, the two great gods have supported you.1513
You are raised aloft on the hands of Shu and Tefnut . . .1514

Isis and Nephthys salute thee, they sing songs of joy at thy rising [coming forth] in the boat, they protect thee
with their hands.1515
Together the counterpoised arms of the twins form the protective enclosurethe womb giving birth to the
central sun.
. . . The god is given birth by the sky upon the arms of Shu and Tefnut.1516
The symbolism of the outstretched arms meets every test of the Saturnian crescent. The arms take the form of a
crescent enclosing the central sun. They are inseparable from the cosmic womb; they constitute the two peaks
of the world mountain; and they are identified directly with the celestial twins.

The Crescent-Wings
The same crescent which appeared to the ancients as upraised arms also received mythical interpretations as
the extended wings of the great god or goddess.
Ancient Sumerian myths recall a monstrous bird called Imdugud hovering over the primeval waters, its wings
outstretched. Imdugud (the Akkadian winged dragon Zu) was a form of Ningirsu or Ninurta, the planet
Saturn.1517
In this primordial wind-bird or thunder-bird scholars recognize the prototype of the Teutonic Hraesvelgr, the
winged god of the storm, and the Hindu eagle Garuda, whose wings were so great as to affect the cosmic
revolutions. According to the Athapascans of North America a raven hovered over the waters generating claps
of thunder by the movement of his wings.1518
Natives of Hawaii say that at the beginning of time, when only the ocean existed, a great white bird appeared in
the highest heaven, the egg of the world resting between its outstretched wings.1519 Very similar is the Hebrew
mythical bird Ziz, standing in mid-ocean. The Ziz was as monstrous as Leviathan, for while his ankles rested on
our earth, his head reached the sky.1520
Though the relation is sometimes forgotten, the primeval winged beast originally appears either as the great god
himself or as the gods vehicle. When the Orphics celebrated the Sun that soarest aloft on golden wings, they
hearkened back to an age-old tradition. Among all of the great gods of antiquity it would be difficult to find a
single figure who neither possesses wings nor rides upon wings.1521
If the Hebrew Yahweh rides upon the wings of the wind, the Hindu Vishnu is carried about on the shoulders
of the eagle Garuda. The Hindu Agni, Mithra, Varuna, and Yama receive the title Suparna, meaning strongwinged. It is said that the outstretched wings of the Suparna embrace the Cosmos.1522 Also presented as winged
gods are the Persian Mithra and Zurvan, the Hebrew and Phoenician El, the Greek Kronos, and all of the
leading deities of ancient Egypt.
Anyone willing to look beneath the surface will find that the great gods wings are much more than a contrived
convenience enabling him to fly. To thoughtful observers the special role of the winged god presents many
enigmas. In Egypt, for example, the hieroglyph for the great god Horus is a falcon, but the wings of the falcon,
in early Egyptian art, do not convey the sense of flight (as one should expect, if the god acquired his wings
for a natural purpose). Rather the wingsalways outstretcheddefine the limits of the Cosmos, and it is not
easy to see how the Egyptians could have arrived at this consistent notion through observation of what we call
the natural world today. Horus is the venerable bird in whose shadow is the wide earth; Lord of the Two Lands
under whose wings is the circuit of heaven [the Cosmos]. 1523 Concerning this image of Horus, Frankfort writes,
. . . The central problem, the relation between god and falcon, seems entirely insoluble.1524
What powers did the ancients seek to represent by the spread wings of the divine eagle, hawk, or falconor the
extended wings of the purely mythical thunder-bird described around the world? The Egyptians called the
cosmic island of beginnings the Great Foundation Ground of the Ruler of the Wing 1525 almost as if the Wing
possessed a character of its own. The divinized Wing marched around the island, according to the texts.1526
Few comparative mythologists seem to have recognized that a common image of the cosmic bird prevails
throughout the world, and this image corresponds directly to the pillared sun-in-crescent

. Rather than

portray the winged beast either in flight or in a seemingly normal resting position, the artists regularly depicted
it virtually standing on its tail feathers, with its wings spread upward to form a crescent.

116. Examples of the winged divinity on the cylinder seals of western Asia.

117. The primeval eagle, from the Mesopotamian city of Lagash.

118. Egyptian eagle, with symbols of life.

120. The American Indian thunder-bird.

In figs. 116, 117, 118 & 120 I include examples from Western Asia to the Americas. The reader will see that
certain of the instances are virtually indistinguishableand all present the sacred bird in the same unnatural
way.
In Homers hymn to Selene, the poet extols the long-winged Moon. 1527 But does the lunar crescent alone
suggest extended wings? It is only in connection with the cosmic form
that the crescents role as wings
takes on meaning. And this is the very crescent which the ancients also knew as the sacred horn, the ship, and
the upraised arms.
As seen in fig. 121, the wings of the cosmic falcon enclose and protect the deified king, in precisely the same
fashion as the Ka-arms. A review of the artistic tradition shows that the wings of the great god or goddess melt
into the divinitys extended arms in such a way as to become indistinguishable from them. The identity is also
confirmed in Egyptian texts, where the arms of Re are called the two birds of Ptah. 1528 A text from the tomb of
Ramesses VI invokes the great gods two wings, the arms of Tay.1529

121. The cosmic falcon

122. The winged goddess Nut

123. Zuni winged goddess

124. Spartan goddess Artemis Orthia

Adding to the unnatural character of the winged divinity is the continual association of wings and horns. The
great god may be called either a winged bull or a horned bird. Moreover, it is clear that the combination of the
two images did not result from syncretism (a later merging of incompatible or once independent traditions).
Frankfort acknowledges the simultaneous validity of these views of the king, insisting that the winged and
horned aspects of the god are a primitive feature and not the product of the syncretism of later times. Noting
this dual aspect of the god Horus and his mother-spouse Hathor, Frankfort writes: The mingling of the falcon

and cattle images in the relationship of Horus and Hathor is not due to syncretism. It recurs in the case of the
war-god Monthu of Thebes, who was conceived as a falcon but was also manifest in the Buches bull. The royal
titulary shows it, too, for after Thutmosis I the name which is crowned with the falcon and is called the Horusor Ka-name regularly includes the epithet strong bull. The palette of Narmer illustrates how little ancients
were disturbed by this simultaneous use of the two images. It shows the kings victory three times, once as a
man destroying the enemy chief with his mace, once as the Horus falcon holding him in subjection with a rope
passed through his nose, and once as a strong bull demolishing enemy strongholds.1530
If the Egyptians were not bothered by this paradoxical duality, it was for a simple reason: the great gods
shining horns were also his wings! This is why the Apis bull was pictured with outstretched wings upon its
back1531 (fig. 76a) and why the portrait of the Bakha bull shows a vulture extending its wings over the bulls
hindquarters1532 (fig. 76b).
The same winged bull, of course, is common to Mesopotamian ritual (fig. 126) and passes into Hebrew
cherubim, protectors of the divine throne. The wings of the cherubim reached from one end of the world to the
other.1533

126. Assyrian winged bull

Further evidence is provided by the winged ship, which occurs in almost every segment of the world. 1534 While
it may not be immediately clear from the later, more fanciful versions of the bird-ship, it is abundantly clear in
the earliest sources that the wings and the ship are the same thing. In the Egyptian Pyramid Texts, the expanded
wings constitute the ship of the godsjust as the image

suggests:

O you gods who cross over on the wing of Thoth to yonder side of the Winding Waterway.1535
. . . Ferry me over, O Thoth, on the tip of your wing as Sokar who presides over the Bark of Righteousness.1536
O wings of Thoth, ferry me across, do not leave me boatless.1537
O Thoth . . . put me on the tip of your wing on yonder northern side of the Winding Waterway.1538
Surely it is no coincidence that the symbol of Thoth, the master of the wing-ship, was the crescent-enclosure
. The wings of the winged god or goddess answer to the illuminated portion of the circumpolar band. The
subject is a winged circle, as one discerns in numerous representations of the primeval suns dwelling. Whether
it is the Egyptian Aten, or the Assyro-Babylonian enclosure of the sun, the Greek wheels of Ixion, Dionysus, or
Triptolemus, the Hindu world wheel or Chakra, the Mexican shield of the sun-godthe enclosure

consistently appears with wings and/or tail feathers. If the ancients soon forgot the special form of the winged
enclosure (i.e.,

), they did not lose the general idea.

127. The Egyptian winged Kheprer, the Turning One

128. The Assyrian winged circle

129. The Hindu Chakra or winged wheel of the sun

130. Inscription at Mehterhane, the Central Prison of Constantinople

131. Drawing from a thirteenth-century window in Auxerre catherdral

132. Mexican winged bird

133. Detail from fig. 74 showing enclosed sun on back of bird

134. (a) Persian Ahura Mazda, dwelling in the winged enclosure; (b) Assyrian winged god Asshur, in the
winged enclosure. Note that both the Assyrian and Persian examples connect the gods skirt with the tail
feathers. In the ancient Mesopotamian pictographs the skirt mean mountain.

135. Aztec shield, with tail feathers

136. Mesopotamian winged circles confirm (a) that the band encloses the sun-cross and (b) that the band
displays a crescent.

137. Isis, protecting the sun-god with her extended wings

The relation of the wings to the enclosure is vital to any meaningful interpretation of the winged god or
goddess. Surely we are not simply dealing with a venerated bird gradually translated into a god (as many
authorities propose). From the beginning, the wings belonged to the Saturnian band. In many instances the
artists show the great god residing within or issuing from the winged circle (figs. 134a & b).
In the symbolism of the Egyptian goddess Nut one sees the underlying identity of the outstretched wings and
the cosmic womb. Though Nut personifies the band of the Cosmos, she is often depicted standing erect with
arms and wings extended outward and upward (fig. 122) in striking accord with the prototypal form
. The
spread wings are those which enclose and protect the central sun, for the king beseeches the goddess: Mother
Nut, spread thy wings over me, encircle (me) with thy arms in health and life that I may be inside thee, that
thou (mayest) be my protection.1539 To be embraced by the outspread wings is to dwell within the great
goddess, in the womb. Daily the goddess conceives you, she bears you, she puts you within her wing. 1540
Nothing could be more futile than attempting to resolve the enigmatic language in conventional (or natural)
terms. But when referred to the overlapping images of the Saturnian configuration
, the ritual terminology
acquires an extraordinary precision. The outstretched and upraised wings actually do enclose the sun within the
celestial womb.
No less remarkable is the location of the all-seeing Eye upon the crescent wing or wings:
The Eye of Horus gleams upon the wing of Thoth.1541
The Eye of Horus is placed on the wing of his brother Set.1542
All figures of the primeval bird reveal a common feature: they dwell upon the cosmic mountain. Indeed, as
already observed, it is the Mount, rendered as the tail feathers, which makes intelligible the common
interpretation of the polar crescent as outstretched wings.
Egyptian myths say that at the dawn of the world the great god took the form of the Bennu bird or Phoenix,
radiating light from its extended wings and perched atop the Primeval Hill. The Bennu was the Soul of Re,
which means that it issued directly from Re, congealing out of the primeval matter, or waters. (Thus bennut
means matter or issue, while bennu means the bread of the gods, the primeval matter organized into a
circle.)

138. Prehistoric Hopi image of winged earth mother.

139. Mesopotamian eagle supporting divine figure between its wings.

The relation of the Primeval Hill to the Phoenix or Bennu is summarized by Clark: Since the waters were in
absolute darkness the emergence of God meant the coming of light, the first morning. For the Heliopolitans
morning was marked by the shining of light on an erect pillar or pyramidion on a support which could reflect
the rays of the rising sun. At the beginning a light-bird, the Phoenix, had alighted on the sacred stand, known as
the Benben, to initiate the great age of the visible God. The rising of the mound and the appearance of the
Phoenix are not consecutive events but parallel statements, two aspects of the supreme creative moment. 1543 To
the same elementary image belongs the winged Khepera, resting upon the tet or pillar of the Cosmos, and
supporting the Aten with outstretched wings.1544 The Pyramid Texts speak of the Mountain of the zehzehbird,1545 or the Pillar of the zehzeh-bird,1546
Similarly, the Sumerian Imdugud, who looks down upon the mountain, 1547 was said to have his home on the
northern Mount Masius; while his counterpartsthe Persian Saena or Simurgh and the Hindu Garuda dwelt
upon the polar mountains of Hera Berezaiti and Meru.1548 Accordingly, the Assyro-Babylonians consistently
located the winged circle of the sun atop the cosmic pillar.1549 The natives of Northwest Siberia fix upon their
symbols of the world pillar a wooden figure of a bird sometimes with two heads. The winged figures which so
often adorn the summit of American Indian totem poles provide an obvious parallel.

140. Mesopotamian cylinder seals indicate the close relation of the sun-birds wings to the two peaks of
the cosmic mountain.
Like all figures of the crescent, the expanded wings, alternately embracing the central sun from the left and
from the right (or from above and below), appear in the role of the twins. The goddess Nut may be presented in

the primary form ; but two secondary divinities flank the goddess to the right and left, extending their wings
toward each other so as to form a complete enclosure. These winged twins are equivalent to Isis and Nephthys,
the two kites who, standing to the right and left, together enclose the sun-god within their wings.
A spell of the Coffin Texts reads:
Isis comes and Nephthys comes, one of them from the west [literally the right] and one of them from the east
[literally the left], one of them as a kite and one of them as a screecher . . . They prevent Horus of the Two
Lands from putrefying.1550
Compare this line from the Pyramid Texts:
. . . This King has become pure through the eye of Horus, his ill is removed by the Two Kites of Osiris.1551
To be purified and protected within the Eye
is to be made strong by the Two Kites of the left and right (
, ), whose counterpoised wings shadow out the full circle of the Eye. The same twin birds compose the
crown:
O you two kites who are on the wings of Thoth, you two who are on the crown . . .1552
Thus the goddesses Isis and Nephthys are said to have placed themselves upon the head of the great god as the
two kites and these, in turn, are identified as the two uraei serpents and the two Eyesall figures of the
bisected womb or enclosure.1553 And the proof of this identity is the very name of the two kites. They are the
Tcherti, which means nothing more than the two halves of the tcher, the enclosure or boundary, of the Aten
.

Interconnected Symbols
A comprehensive discussion of the Saturnian crescents wide-ranging mythical forms would require vastly
more space than available here, but a brief summary should be sufficient to indicate the breadth of the
symbolism. Supplementing the imagery discussed above are the following mythical versions of the crescent.

The Plant of Life

Egyptian sources relate that the original dwelling of the solitary god took the form of a shining lotuscalled
the Great Lotus that issued from the pool in the Island of the Two Flames, the Province of the Beginning. The
lotus initiated light at the First Occasion in the High Hill at the Beginning of Coming into Existence.1554
According to the legend, the lotus sprang up from the watery abyss, emerging from the Khu (luminous matter)
erupting from the creator. One of the Egyptian names for this plant of life was Nefer Tem (the young or
beautiful Tem), a personification of the North Wind or breath of Re. In Chapter CLXXIV of the Book of the
Dead, the deceased announced I grow bright like Nefer-Tem, who is the lotus at the nostrils of Re, when he
comes forth in the Mount of Glory each day. Re is thus that great god who is within the lotus bud of gold.1555
Inscriptions at Dendera show the king offering a lotus to the god Horus with the words, I offer thee the flower,
which was in the beginning, the glorious lily of the great water. Thou camest forth from the midst of its leaves
in the town of Chmun (Hermopolis magna) and didst lighten the earth, which was still wrapped in darkness.1556
Parallels to the Egyptian cosmic lotus, as the home of the great god, will be found in all sections of the world,
including the Americas. The Mayans knew the flower as the form of the moisture of heaven, the substance of
heaven, the yellow blossom of heaven.1557 Looking back to the creation a Mayan text recalls, Then it was that
the flower sprang up, wide open . . . Thereupon the heart of the flower came forth to set itself in motion. Fourfold [can-hek, literally four-branched] was the place of the flower and Ah Kin Xocbiltun was set in the
centre.1558

141. The primeval suns birth in the lotus

142. The man-child Horus on the lotus blossom

Much the same tradition occurs in Mesopotamia, where a Babylonian text depicts the plant of life emerging in
Eridu, the dwelling on the cosmic sea:
(In) Eridu a stalk grew over-shadowing: in a holy place did it become green;
its root was of white crystal which stretched toward the deep;
(before) Ea was its course in Eridu, teeming with fertility;
its seat was the central place of the earth: its foliage was the couch of Zikum (the primeval mother).
Into the heart of its holy house which spread its shade like a forest hath no man entered . . .
In the midst of it was Tammuz.1559

143. Tut-Ankh-Amon, presented in the form of Nefer-Tem.

This bright plant which grows up from the apsu [the cosmic sea]1560 is clearly an early prototype of the
famous Hindu soma and Iranian haoma plants both recognized as belonging originally to the gods in heaven. 1561
(Thus the haoma is the first of the trees planted by Ahura Mazda in the fountains of life.)1562
Egyptian, Hindu, and Buddhist sources either show the head of the great god emerging from a lotus or depict
the god in a resting position in or above the lotus.
It is logical to refer such imagery of the lotus-seat to the archetypal sun-in-crescent and all the more so
because the plant of life is regularly identified with the crescent moon. 1563 The soma and haoma plants are
widely discussed as figures of the moon. The Mayan Book of Chilam Balam refers to the moon as the
flower of the night.1564 Similarly, the Sumero-Babylonian crescent of Nannar or Sin is the lofty plant,
magnificent, whose abundance never ceases.1565
We have seen that the Babylonians depicted the crescent of Sin as the support, or lower half, of the world wheel
. The relationship illuminates Hindu and Buddhist symbolism of the cosmic wheel resting in the expanded
leaf of a lotus (fig. 144). The lotus supports and reaches around the celestial land and is thus always identified
with the mother goddess, the female personification of the wheel. In the ritual of the Satapatha Brahmana a
lotus leaf becomes the birthplace of Agni and the symbol of his womb. Upon the symbolic lotus leaf the
priest lays a round gold disk said to represent the sun. The lotus means the Waters, and this earth is a leaf
thereof . . . and this same earth is Agnis womb, reads the text. 1566 It is imagery of this sort which yields such
epithets of the Hindu great god as lotus-born, lotus-seated, or lotus-navelled.1567
The connection of the lotus and lotus-born god with the sun-in-crescent
is equally evident in the equation
of the lotus and the cosmic ship. In the Egyptian system the ship and the lotus are synonymous: the great god
sails in a lotus-ship, which the artists illustrate either by a lotus blossom in the centre of the ship or by a lotus
terminating either one end or both ends of the vessel.1568

144. Hindu world wheel resting in lotus leaf.

145. Lotus blossom = ship as mythical image of the Saturnian crescent

And the same equation occurs among the Hindus, who tell us that the cosmic ship Argha was the lotus on which
the great god sailed in the beginning.1569
Now if the blossom of the plant of life is the circumpolar crescent, one can assume that the stem is the cosmic
mountain. The Egyptians represented the great gods sceptre as a lotus

and in both the hieroglyphs and in

art this sceptre becomes the pillar upholding heaven

.1570 Lotus-pillars are often depicted supporting the
gods shrine or throne,1571 while at other times the great god is depicted resting upon a lotus column.
But the plant of life was also represented as a papyrusand called the Gleaming Sceptre of Papyrus. 1572 A
text published by Dumichen says Thou art the Eye of Re, at the tip of the papyrus-stem. 1573 Of course other
texts say that it is the light-pillar Shu which holds aloft the Eye, but there can be no contradiction: the Egyptian
word shu means both light-pillar and papyrus.
The identity of the two powers is also explicit in Hindu iconography. The soma plant, to which many hymns of
the Rig Veda are devoted, is the stabilizer and supporter of heaven. 1574 The introductory verse of the
Dasakumaraccrita includes as a figure of the world axis the stalk of the lotus where Brahma resides. 1575 Of
the cosmic lotus in Buddhism, M. Mus writes: The prolongation of the stem, which is the axis of the sensible
world, bears at the summit of the universe the spiritual lotus-throne . . . 1576 Thus does the cosmic Mount Meru
become the lotus-mountain,1577 and in the same way the Iranian haoma plant appears as the imperishable
pillar of life.1578

146. The Lotus column surmounted by the Horus-falcon

147. Egyptian Eye (= crescent enclosure) supported on the lotus column

148. Saturn riding on his serpentine chariot and wielding his scythe (from Poeticon Astronomicon,
Venice, 1485).

Sword
Saturn comes to power wielding his curved sword or scythe, which writers generally connect with the crescent
moon. The Greek Kronos carries as his special weapon the curved harpe and it has often been proposed that
this weapon lies behind the relatively late astronomical sign of Saturn,
. The harpe and the winged harpies
(birdlike female monsters) surely trace to the same root. (That is, sword and wings refer to the same cosmic
form.)
In a Sumerian hymn, Ninurta, or Saturn, invokes the sickle of my Anuship [i.e., of kingship] and the weapon
is called at once sharur and shargazboth names of Sin, the crescent moon.1579 Sin is the sickle and the
curved sabre of the great god.1580

The Egyptians knew the sword as the khepesh, written with the signs

and

, or as the ma, whose

sign,
, depicts a sickle fashioned from the jawbone of an animal. The Pyramid Texts identify the great
gods sword as a sharp strong horn1581 (sword = horn). But khepesh also means the shoulder or two arms
of heaven. And here the symbolism meshes precisely with that of the Babylonian system, which declares the
sickle of Sin to be the two arms of Enlil, the cosmic mountain.
That the sword shares in the coherent imagery of the Saturnian crescent is suggested by other traditions also. In
Genesis 3:24, Yahweh is said to have placed in front (translators say to the East) of the garden of Eden
kerubim and the flaming blade of the sword which turns, to keep the way of the tree of life. If the thesis
presented here is correct, the winged kerubim refer to the same revolving crescent as the turning sword. Many
scholars logically connect the Hebrew kerubim with the Assyro-Babylonian kirubi, the winged and horned
beasts who in the form of twins guard and define the limits of the great gods enclosure. In the Assyrian
vocabulary, kirub means bull, while kirubu designates a large species of bird of prey. The revolving sword

of Genesis, on the other hand, is the khereb, a curved sickle, recognized as the Hebrew counterpart of the
Greek harpe and the Egyptian khepesh.1582

The Altar
For reasons which I intend to examine at length in a subsequent volume, the Saturnian crescent was the
receptacle of a primordial sacrifice. Together the crescent and cosmic mountain
World.

formed the Altar of the

Egyptian hieroglyphs record the altar by the sign

. Upon the altarcalled the Altar of Hetep (rest) or
Altar of the Uatchet (Eye)rests all the food and drink of the celestial habitation.
In the Book of the Dead, the great god comes forth in the city of Annu, upon the altar of the lady of the two
lands, and it is clear that the Egyptians conceived the altar as supporting and embracing the entire celestial
domain (or twin lands).1583 Hence the sign
resting on the altar.

glyph of the holy domainshows the womb of Nut

Always, the altar conveys the same significance as the primordial world. Among the Hindus, notes Eliade,
the building of the altar was conceived as a creation of the world. The water with which the clay was mixed
was the same as the primeval waters.1584 As large as the altar is, so large is the earth, reads the Satapatha
Brahmana.1585
The same altar may be termed the navel of the earth . . . the lap [womb] of Aditi, in close correspondence
with Egyptian symbolism.1586
Hebrew and Muslim thought, according to Wensinck, considered the altar as a symbolic representation of the
earth.1587 A Midrash asks, Where is the navel? In Jerusalem. But the navel itself is the altar. 1588 Of the
primeval altar, tradition says, Its top reached to heaven.1589
The god upon the altar is simply the sun resting in the pillared crescent
. (Hence the image of the sun-increscent upon the Sabaean altar in fig. 63.) Early prototypes of the altar throughout the ancient world not only
connect it with the central pillar of the Cosmos 1590 but suggest a radical association with the cosmic bull, while
altars from Persia to Crete to Africa were either decorated with horns or given the shape of horns. The horned
altar and the horns of the altar were, of course, common phrases among the ancient Hebrews.

Above and Below, Left and Right

More than once, in discussing common translations of ancient sources, I have had occasion to refer to the
inappropriate use of the phrases east and west, north and south. and heaven and earth. Such terminology,
I have suggested arises from the habit of reading solar imagery into non-solar texts and of interpreting the great
gods cosmic dwelling in terrestrial terms.
Without attempting to provide a complete analysis of the problem (which I intend to explore in a separate
volume on Egyptian religion), I shall simply indicate the manner in which the question can be resolved by
reference to the Saturnian configuration.
Of course, there can be little progress toward an improved understanding of ancient religious texts until the
translators and commentators acknowledge the celestial character of the imagery. From start to finish the hymns
and liturgies deal with cosmic figures and cosmic events. And when these mythical figures and events are
connected with a primordial land it is imperative that one understand this land as the enclosure of the
original great god, who is Saturn. The texts deal, not with geography, but with cosmographythe map of the
celestial kingdom. In relation to Saturns dwelling the words which translators render as east and west
actually mean something quite different. And while the modern phrase heaven and earth suggests little
concrete meaning, the archaic terms so translated convey a very specific sense.

In the Egyptian language the word rendered as east is Abtet (Abt or Abti), while the word translated west is
Amentet (or Amenti). To what did the Egyptians refer by these words?
If the first mistake of the translators is to assume that Abtet and Amentet are geographical terms, the second is to
assume that they necessarily refer to opposite regions, or directions. Standard translations are based on the
premise that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Yet to anyone following this logic ancient Egyptian
texts will leave the impression that the priests were continually forgetful of the place of sunrise and sunset. If
Amentet was the west, why did the Egyptians repeatedly describe the great god coming forth or renewing
himself in Amentet? I cite below a few conventional translations:
Behold the coming forth from the West.1591
Osiris, He who arises in Health, He at the Head of the West.1592
The arms of the inhabitants of the West receive thee in thy forms of glory and rejuvenation.1593
I make myself young (in) the fair West.1594
When thou comest forth in peace there arise shouts of delight to thee, O thou lord of heaven, thou prince of the
West.1595
Of such imagery as this, Kristensen writes: What was meant is evidently that the sun, when it goes down does
not die but reaches the hidden fountain of life. 1596 But one naturally remains skeptical of such conjecture. Do
the hymns cited above portray the solar orb when it goes down? The truth is that if we substituted east for
west in these lines they would appear to solar mythologists as perfectly reasonable descriptions of the rising
sun. Rather than the west, Amentet is simply the Holy Land, the primeval enclosure. The head, or governor,
of Amentet is the central sun, which does not rise or set, but goes in and out (i.e., grows bright and
diminishes) with the full cycle of each day. The great gods coming forth in Amentet signifies the
beginning of the day. (An equivalent phrase, coming forth by day, occurs repeatedly in Egyptian texts). Thus
Chapter CVII of the Book of the Dead is The Chapter of Going Into and Coming Out from the Gate of the
Gods of Amentet.1597 Chapter XVII extols the great gods coming out and going in within Amentet1598.
It is the same thing to say that the god grows bright and diminishes within the womb of the mother goddess.
There was, in fact, a goddess Ament whom the Egyptians equated with Isis, while Isis herself was the Divine
Mother, Lady of Amentet.1599 The phrase has no original connection with geography; it simply refers to Isis as
the womb or enclosure of the Holy Land above. Hathor is the same goddess: Hathor, Lady of Amentet . . . ,
Lady of the Holy Country. 1600 Elsewhere the texts identify Amentet as the circumpolar Tuat, the womb of
Nut.1601 There is no association with the geographical west.
To reside within the Holy Land of Amentet is to rest in the mother-womb, which goes by many names. In text
after text the priests seek to show that the various names of the Holy Land signified the same enclosure. When
the Book of the Dead calls Osiris the mighty one who comest forth from Nut, thou king in the city of Nifu-ur,
thou Governor of Amentet, thou lord of Abtu (Abydos), 1602 the reference is not to different dwellings but to
different names of the same dwelling.
What has caused so much confusion is the fact that the Holy Land is a bisected circle. The central sun is he who
unites the two Tuats, the two regions of Amentet.1603 Here one must reckon with the paradox of the celestial
twins. In naming the two divisions of the Holy Land the Egyptians brought together two independent names for
the enclosure as a whole, pairing them as opposites.
This development of the language stands out in the case of Isis and Nephthys, both of whom, independently,
denote the full circle of the Aten
. Isis is the house, chamber, or throne of the central sun, while
Nephthys is the Lady of the House (or simply Lady-House). As a pair, however, Isis and Nephthys
personify two halves of the circle, the left and the right, suggested by the counterpoised positions of the
revolving crescent , .
In the same way the Egyptians paired the name Amentet with another name of the same dwellingAbtet
yielding the dual kingdom of Amentet-Abtet.1604 When joined as opposites, Amentet and Abtet are precisely
synonymous with the twins Isis and Nephthys. By this union, Amentet acquires the literal meaning region of

the right and Abtet, region of the left. The idea that the god-king, standing in the centre of the enclosure,
balances the divisions of the left and right will be found repeatedly in both the texts and in art. That translators
commonly use the terms east and west has caused a major confusion in conventional translations.
Like Amentet, in other words, the Egyptian term Abtet (conventionally translated east) may refer either to the
entire celestial kingdom or to one of its two divisions. Fundamentally, Abtet is the sacred land at the centre and
summit. The king, in the Pyramid Texts, seeks to attain this dwelling, with the words, May I ascend and lift
myself up to the sky as the great star in the midst of Abtet. I have come into heaven, and I embrace my seat
which is in Abtet, reads a line from the Book of the Dead.1605 Here, any connection of Abtet with the east or
the solar orb exists only in the mind of the translators.
The same inappropriate use of terms is evident in the phrase heaven and earth recurring in virtually all
accepted translations. The universe as a whole was referred to as heaven and earth, states Frankfort. 1606 The
two terms in question are pet (translated heaven) and ta (translated earth).
Literally, the phrase pet and ta means the above and below. Numerous Egyptian illustrations indicate that,
together, the two divisions composed an enclosure around the sun-god. As opposites the pet and ta mean the
celestial twins, here personifying the revolving crescent in its alternate positions above and below the
stationary god.
But this does not mean that pet necessarily denotes above any more than ta necessarily means below. As a
matter of fact, many signs extol two pet, one above and one below (denoted by the sign
and its inverse
). And few phrases are more common in Egyptian sources than the two ta, explicitly referring to the
upper and lower divisions of the celestial kingdom. Fundamentally, the pet is the twofold circle of Saturns
Cosmos, and the ta is the same circle, conceived as an enclosure of land around the central sun. It is only as a
pair that pet and ta acquire the meaning above and below. And in no sense does the translation heaven and
earth convey the tangible significance of the terms.
The Egyptian circle of above and below is the womb of Nut, the holy abode (written with the sign
).1607
Yet Nuts identity with the full circle did not prevent the Egyptians from pairing Nut with another goddess,
Naunet, so that together they represented the two halves of the circle, represented by the signs of the above
(Nut
) and the below (Naunet
). In the same way the priests joined Nut with the male figure Geb,
identifying Nut with the upper half of the enclosure and Geb with the lower. According to tradition the
separation of the portions was carried out by the god Shu, the pillar with outstretched arms. Indeed, it was the
arms of Shu (i.e., the Saturnian crescent) which divided the circle into upper and lower regions, according to
the original tradition.
The division of the enclosure into male (lower) and female (upper) halves gave rise to two interrelated signs of
masculine and feminine connotation. The sign
depicts the male power (usually translated lord) while
the same semicircular image inverted (and in smaller scale)
signifies feminine. Together the upper and
lower hemispheres compose the complete circle of the Aten or shen bond. To translate masculine and feminine
divisions as heaven and earth simply destroys the interrelated symbolism of the enclosure.

149. Nut and Geb, as the Above and the Below.

The terminology in question (left and right, above and below) concerns celestial regions marked out by the
revolving Saturnian crescent, which is the ever-turning face of the central sun (or the two faces of the twin
god). This is why the sign
, which may also be presented inversely
, means, among other things,
heru, or face. The herui are the two faces of Horus, or of Horus and Set, acknowledged personifications of
the Upper Land and the Lower Land.

Pertaining to the same imagery is the notion of two semicircular mounds joined so as to form a full circle.
The Egyptian mound sign
is nothing more than one half of the quartered womb of Nut
. Its
meaning is division of the holy abode. The central sun may be designated either the Great One in the
Mound or the dweller in two mounds.1608
The two mounds are the two atenti or aterti, the two halves of the Aten. Atent, written with the sign
(one
half of the elongated shen bond, or cartouche
), signifies a division into opposite regions. The texts
speak of an atert meht, the lower half of the Aten; and an atert shema, the upper half. Any attempt to
understand such terminology in terrestrial terms can only yield confusion.
The divisions of the right and left and above and below are not only manifestly cosmic, their special
character derives from the relation of the revolving crescent to the stationary god and his enclosure. When the
crescent passes below the god
it supports him, and when it arches above
, it bows to him. Thus the
texts say of the cosmic twins: The two mistresses of Buto [the celestial city] accompany you to the right and
left . . . , they support you and bow to you.1609 The same thing is said of the twin regions:
The two regions of Abtet [the left] and Amentet [the right] make adoration unto thee, bowing low and paying
homage unto [sethes, supporting] thee.1610
O luminary, the lower and upper halves of Heaven [pet] come to thee and bow low in adoration.1611
That the bowing region means the upper half of the enclosure (in opposition to the supporting region below
) is demonstrated by the symbolism of Nut. While Nut, in her relationship to Geb represents above, this
quality of the goddess may be represented either by the sign
significance

or another sign of precisely the same

depicting the above as a bowing goddess.

Saturns Day
In the revolving crescent we possess the key to Egyptian symbolism of the day and night, for the crescents
position simply reflected the position of the solar orb in relation to the terrestrial observer. One should think of
the revolving crescent as Saturns ship, in which the god voyaged around the four regions (above
, left
, below
, right ), all the while standing in one place. The four positions (regions) will correspond to
four segments of the archaic day.
1. The cycle began with the descent of the crescent as it moved from its position above
(solar orb directly
overhead) to its position directly to the left of Saturn
(solar sunset). On reaching the region of the left,
Saturn and the crescent began to grow bright, due to the darkening of the heavens as the solar orb sank below
the horizon. Hence, in the general symbolism of the left and right (Abtet and Amentet) the left is the region of
dawn or growing bright.
The cosmic ship, on reaching Abtet, the left, became the Matet ship, whose name means becoming strong.
It was, in other words, a descending ship which grew brighta fact which has frustrated many solar
mythologists, who would have expected the dawn or morning to express itself in a rising solar bark. I
descend in the ship of the morning, states the god.1612
Including the polar mount, the image of the dawn is

. The Egyptians gave human form to the image in the

hieroglyph
, symbol of the tua or morning. Mythically, the god awakens, and the spirits of the celestial
city come to life, praising and supporting the god with the descending crescent-arms. It was these aspects
of the archaic dawn which supplied the Egyptian pillar-sign
awaken, to praise, to support.

with its interconnected meanings: to

2. The supreme moment of the day was that at which the Saturnian crescent sat squarely upon the central
pillar, the two horns of the crescent reaching equally to the left and right
. At this moment the solar orb stood
directly beneath the terrestrial observer, and the entire Saturnian configuration shone its brightest.
3. As the crescent traveled toward the region of the right
(which it reached at the solar sunrise) Saturns
brilliance began to diminish. The gods vessel became the Semktet ship, or the ship of becoming weak. The
god sails upstream in the Semktet ship (again, a surprise to solar mythologists). In the dual kingdom of AbtetAmentet the region of Amentet (the right) is thus the domain of declining, or going in.
4. The cycle was completed with the return of the crescent to the position above
(solar orb directly
overhead). This point in the cycle, when Saturns light was most subdued, was the archaic night.
The cycle of the day and night is one of the most pervasive themes in Egyptian art, and the key is the revolving
crescent. In connection with the cosmic twins, I have already noted that the primal pair has its origin in the
alternating positions of the crescent around the central sun, and that this symmetrical opposition is depicted in
illustrations of the daily cycle. The artists often showed a pair of arms (= crescent) reaching around the Aten
alternately from above and below, or from the left and right. These are not only pictures of the dual regions, but
of the cycle of coming forth and diminishing.
Around this cycle the Egyptians built an impressive range of symbols, and the underlying connection with the
revolving crescent reflects itself in two basic rules.
1. All symbols of the day (in opposition to night) have their origin in the image of the crescent below.
This is why the signs for the lower region generally overlap with signs for the day. In fact, a number of
interrelated ideas converge on the same celestial image ( ,
,
,
): below, lower, day, coming
forth, life, existence, awake, support, celebrate, masculine power.
2. Similarly, the symbols of the night generally coincide with the symbols of the above, all taking their
meaning from the inverted crescent ( ,
,
,
), The meanings include: above, upper, mound,
night, diminished, negation, absence, asleep, concealment, bowing, feminine, arrival (at the
top), and completion (of the cycle).
Here are a few of the key signs:
1.
,
. The signs not only portray the Khut or Mount of Glory, they signify the coming forth of the
sun-god, who shines between the two peaks of the right and left. In this sense the signs have exactly the same
meaning as the image

, i.e., the day. But the mountain sign

also means the below.

While Egyptologists like to think of the two peaks as fixed on our earth, the Egyptians themselves knew that the
great god sailed in the Khut or revolved round the Aten in the Khut. This is why the artists not only placed
the two peaks in the revolving ship, but often depicted them in an inverted position
above the Aten. The
inverted peaks simultaneously mean the above and concealment or obscurity. Together, the upright and
inverted peaks represent both the full cycle of the day and the full circle (above and below) of the celestial
kingdom.

150. Khut and Ankh, interchangeable symbols of the twin-peaked mountains

151. (a, b) Egyptian illustrations of the Ankh, with outstretched arms holding aloft the Aten. The Ankh
issues from the Tet, the pillar of stability.
2.
. No Egyptian sign is more familiar to the modern world than the Ankh. In Egyptian symbolism the
Ankh corresponds in fundamental meaning to the Khut, or Mount of Glory. To convey this equation the artists
either superimposed the Ankh on the two peaks (fig. 150) or showed the Aten resting, not on the Khut, but on
two arms extending upward from the Ankh (fig. 151a & b).
The Ankh (whose origins the experts have long debated) is but a conventionalized image of the polar
configuration during the period of coming forth, or life. We have already seen that the image of the
crescent-enclosure
the central pillar.

passed into the related forms

. The Ankh

merely adds

Just as the central sun comes forth in the Mount of Glory, so also does it come forth in the Ankh literally,
in the Mountain of life. As a figure of the sun-gods period of brilliance or activity the hieroglyph came to
signify life generally.
3.
. This sign for the upper face of the sun-god takes its meaning from the crescent in its position
above
. i.e., the night-time position. Thus, in addition to its meaning as the upper region the sign also
denotes obscurity, concealment, and night.
To show the relation of above and below (night and day), the artists often placed the sign
over the cleft
peak
, so that together the two images present an enclosure, signifying the full circle of the Aten.

152. Together, the above and the below (the upraised arms) form the enclosure of the above and
below.

153. Nut, the Above, held aloft by Shu. (Arms of Shu = ship = twin peaks as figures of the Below).

4.
, ,
,
,
. Upraised arms, in Egyptian symbolism, signify the crescent below
,
and thus possess the full range of meanings associated with Saturns day. The Ka-arms, commonly shown
supporting the Aten, convey the sense of life, coming forth. support, and masculine power (below =
male principle). The sign
(or
meanings to support, to celebrate.

) denotes living Re, while the sign

carries the interrelated

But numerous illustrations also show the Ka-arms embracing the Aten from above (figs. 113, 114). Here they
denote the upper region, the region of the night. Hence the related signs and (inverted arms) means
cessation, absence, negation, and completion.

5.
,
. In illustrations of the daily cycle, these signs of the upper region (corresponding to the
crescent above
) are interchangeable with the image of the inverted cleft peak
. They mean hidden,
concealed. and by extension, mysterious, secret.

(Concerning the sign

, however, an additional significance deserves consideration. The twofold enclosure,
or circle of the cosmic twinspertaining to symmetrically related positions of the crescentis a circle half
light and half shadow. In one character, the twins simply represent the light and dark divisions, so that the
inverted semicircle
might represent, not the night-time crescent, but the shadow in the day-time
configuration
. It is thus highly significant that the sign
, read Khaibit, means shadow. As the female
[upper] portion of the circle, the Khaibit comes to be conceived as the consort of the male power [lower
region]. Of course, one could hardly expect the Egyptians to rigorously maintain the distinction between the
shadow and the inverted crescent.)

6.

. As earlier noted, all symbols of the Aten resting in the horns signify coming

forth and below. But in the sign

meaning is concealed, mysterious.
7.

the horns are inverted over the central sun and pillar. The signs

. All of these images of the primeval mound depict the upper region, marked out

by the crescent at the completion of the daily cycle. Thus the mound sign
the top), to complete the journey (or cycle). Closely related is the sign
mound signs refer to the region of sleep, death, or diminished light.
The reverse of these mound signs is
golden or brilliant.

(or
) means to arrive (at
, to arrive. Generally the

suggesting the crescent in its day-time position. The glyph means

8.
,
. While the sign
denotes the masculine power of the Cosmos (the below) the inverse
image
denotes the feminine (the above). When the crescent reaches the below the celestial kingdom is in
celebration. Hence the sign
means celebration, festival of life.
Though many additional aspects of the Egyptian twofold kingdom and the related circle of day and night
need to be explored, I cite the above simply to indicate how the Saturnian configuration can illuminate certain
Egyptian images which have long remained unexplained.
Concerning the relation of the Egyptian system to the language and symbols of other nations, I offer no
steadfast rule. But there is every reason to believe that certain general principles can be applied elsewhere. In
ancient Sumerian thought, for example, the Cosmos is designated by the term an-ki. (Jensen renders the word
as the All.)1613 The most common translation of an-ki is heaven and earth. But the symbol of the All is
, and the literal meaning of an-ki is above and below, suggesting a noteworthy parallel with the Egyptian
circle of pet-ta. And just as the Egyptian goddess Nut forms the circle of above and below, so does the
Sumerian goddess Inanna encompass the an-ki.
To unravel the symbolism of the dual kingdom, or of the quartered kingdom, the first requirement is to put
aside prevailing geographical interpretations. The language originated in connection with the celestial dwelling.
In the original imagery the phrase heaven and earth is meaningless. There is no north, south, east, or
west, There is simply the above and below, the left and right, the regions of coming forth and declining. As to
the capacity of this principle to resolve numerous enigmas of ancient speech I have no doubt.

Conclusion
In the foregoing pages I have attempted to show that the oldest motifs of ritual and myth focus on a coherent set
of ideasand that these ideas bear no relationship to the present world order. What modern man views as
creations of a fragmented and irrational imagination actually pertain to a vision of exceptional simplicity. The
Cyclopes, dragons, and one-legged giants speak not for unconstrained speculation, but for once visible powers.
To modern writers, seeking to penetrate the language of myth, it is as if early races contrived their fantastic
symbolism in conscious disdain for later efforts to understand. Anyone who has ever entered the labyrinth of
an archaic cultures mythical compendia (the Pyramid Texts, the Vedas, the Theogony) can testify to a desperate
suspicion that there is no thread of objective reality, confessed one classicist. Such a suspicion is difficult to
dispel in the face of such primitive imagery as golden mountains reaching heaven, revolving islands and
temples, winged goddesses, cosmic bulls, circular serpents, and descending rivers of fire. Mythologists quickly
despair of rational explanation.
But it is the thesis of this book that the confusion results chiefly from the failure of the modern age to discern
the underlying cosmic order to which the myths refer. Our reconstruction of this order includes the following
elements:
1. In the earliest age recalled by man the planet Saturn was the dominant celestial body. Ancient races the world
over record that there was once a Golden Agea kingdom of cosmic harmony ruled by a central light god.
Numerous sources identify this light god as the planet Saturn.
2. Accounts of Saturns appearance suggest that the planet hung ominously close to the earth. In early ritual and
astronomy Saturn appears as the primeval sun, described as a figure of terrifying splendour. Today, Saturn
appears as a bare speck of light following the same visual path as the solar orb. But during the legendary
Golden Age, Saturn stood in the north. Legends from every continent depict the primeval sun as an immense,
fiery globe at the north celestial polethe visual pivot of the heavens. Unlike the rising and setting solar orb,
the primeval sun remained fixed in one place.
3. The modern age has misread the ancient accounts of the beginning. These accounts speak of a creator, a
first man, and a first kingall referring to the same cosmic figure. It is impossible to understand these accounts
in any conventional sense because the ancient terminology carries meanings radically different from the
modern. The legendary creator, first man, and first king was Saturn.
4. The subject of the global creation legend is a spectacular cosmic event actually witnessed by the ancients:
massive quantities of cosmic debris exploded from Saturn, clouding the heavens and eventually congealing into
a vast band around the planet. In mythical terms this band was Saturns created land in heaven. Saturn ruled
this celestial kingdom as both the Universal Monarch and Adam, the Primordial Man.
5. The ancients drew pictures of Saturn incessantly, and these pictures will be found around the world. Ancient
papyri, clay tablets, monuments, artifacts, and rock drawings consistently show a central orb surrounded by a
circle. This symbol of the enclosed sun is the original hieroglyph for the planet Saturn.
6. Images of Saturn in his enclosure occur on every page of ancient texts. The band is Saturns spouse, the
mother goddess. But it is also his revolving temple, city, or island in heaven. It is the stationary, but everturning world-wheel recalled by almost every ancient race. Saturn wears the band as a golden girdle, collar,
or crown. He dwells in it as the pupil of the all-seeing Eye. The same band receives mythical interpretation as
Saturns throne, a receptacle of cosmic waters, and an encircling serpent.
7. Four primary streams of light appeared to radiate from Saturn, dividing the Saturnian band into quarters. The
symbols of these four streams are the sun-cross
and enclosed sun cross
. Mythically, these are the four
rivers of the lost paradise, the four winds, and the four pillars of Saturns Cosmos. The enclosed sun-cross is
thus the universal image of the unified state on our earth, for every terrestrial holy land was a copy of the
ideal kingdom above.
8. The same records which describe Saturns band and its four-fold division depict a pillar-like stream
ascending the world axis and visually seeming to sustain Saturns dwelling. Two primary images of this

cosmic mountain are

and
. In the myths this column appears as the great gods single leg, a vertical
stream of water or air (the North Wind), and the erect serpent or dragon of the deep.
9. Receiving light from the solar orb, the Saturnian band acquired a brightly illuminated crescent, which, as the
earth rotated on its axis, visually revolved around Saturn each day. The light and dark portions of the band
found expression in the black and white cosmic twins, while the alternating positions of the crescent produced
the twins of the right and left or above and below.
10. In the polar configuration
the ancients saw, at once, the cleft summit of the cosmic mountain, with the
central sun standing between the peaks of the right and left; the cosmic bull supporting Saturn between its
horns; Saturns crescent-ship on the mountaintop; the heaven-sustaining giant with out-stretched arms; the
winged god or goddess; the plant of life; Saturns turning sword; and the altar of the world. It was the relation
of the Saturnian crescent to Saturns period of brilliance which produced the original symbolism of the four
directions and of day and night.
In the earliest age the Saturnian configuration was the exclusive focal point of religious rites. But when Saturns
Golden Age passed away, mankind drew on all aspects of nature to commemorate his reign. The solar orb, the
moon, meteorological forces, various animals, mountains and riversall manifest some special quality of the
creator-king. And where no representative powers were available in nature, the ancients fashioned their own
monuments in earth and stone.
The first requirement, then, is to distinguish between the primeval, cosmic forms on the one hand, and, on the
other hand, the representative images chosen to depict those forms in ritual and myth. We must separate the
archetype (concealed reality) from the symbol (analogy or representation of reality).
In examining the world of symbolism our predicament is much like that of the dwellers in Platos allegorical
cave, who can discern the nature of things only through the shadowy specters cast on the wall. Most of the
caves inhabitants take the shadows for the real world, but occasionally a wiser man recognizes that the
shadows are merely the blurred image of a more coherent reality.
So it is with ancient myth and ritual. One must not confuse the shadow with its source, the symbol with the
thing symbolized.
If the Egyptians came to regard the bull as sacred it was only because this animal was the natural counterpart to
the Bull of Heaven, whose horns, supporting the very vault of the Cosmos, shone like day. If the eagle was
similarly venerated, this was because its expanded wings seemed to mirror a special quality of the winged
creator, or the winged goddess.
The same principle applies to the symbolism of the constellations. The vital powers depicted by constellation
figures date back to an era long before men began imposing anthropomorphic and zoomorphic forms on star
groups. But eventually the ancients sought to represent diverse aspects and traditions of the great god by
sketching them out in the heavens.
Could a patternless group of stars have inspired the history of mighty Orion? Rather, the story of Orion
preceded astrology. (In fact, Orion is widely acknowledged to be the Greek version of the Babylonian TammuzNinurta, the planet Saturn) And when priest-astronomers finally projected Orion onto the starry dome, they
received only the most feeble assistance from the stellar patterns themselves.
Likewise, our sun, contrary to long-standing opinion, never inspired the idea of a supreme god and never
produced an original myth of creation. Only in later times did the poets and historians confuse the solar orb
with the great god of beginnings. But that such a confusion did occur is crucial to an understanding of the
development of ancient religion. In Egypt, for example, the original ritual of the central sun was eventually
transformed into eulogies to the solar orb; and the devotion to the celestial kingdom passed finally into a
veneration of nature as a whole. (the most decisive shift occurred in the time of Akhenaten.) One could trace
similar developments among numerous races, as priests, philosophers, astronomers, and more practical-minded

generations became ever more preoccupied with this world, recasting Saturnian imagery within the context of
a less spectacular cosmic order.
Rather than attempt to follow the complex process here, I ask the reader to await treatment of the subject in the
second volume of this work (entitled The Cataclysm). The fact is that the traditions reviewed in previous
sections supply only the preface to the Saturnian drama. In these pages I have sought only to demonstrate the
reality of Saturns polar configuration, reserving discussion of the ultimate calamity for the subsequent volume.
Saturns death or fall, we will discover, constituted the prototypal catastrophe, recounted by the ancients in
numerous forms and elaborations. The collapse of the celestial kingdom; the world-destroying deluge; the battle
with the serpent-dragon of the deep; the birth of Jupiter; the Child-Hero; the resurrection and transformation of
Saturn; and Saturns eventual departure to the distant realmthese are key elements in a story of incalculable
impact on ancient imagination.
But to decipher the myths of the great catastrophe one must have clearly in mind the nature of the celestial
order brought to an end with Saturns fall. For those willing to pursue the question in an objective spirit there is
the promise of dramatic discoveries about mans past.

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Endnotes

A number of Vails papers have been collected and published by Donald Cyr, Annular Publications, 25 West Anapamu
Street, Santa Barbara, California
2

A general and less-than-convincing survey of mythological evidence will be found in H. S. Bellamy, Moons, Myths
and Man
3

This is not the place to recount the details of the Velikovsky affair or to recite the many unexpected space age
discoveries weighing in Velikovskys favor. The story receives comprehensive coverage in the recent book Velikovsky
Reconsidered, a series of papers by scholars acknowledging substantial scientific evidence in support of Velikovskys
claims.
4

Spencer, The Principles of Sociology; Tylor, Primitive Culture and Researches into the Early History of Mankind;
Frazer, The Golden Bough.
In 1934 E.A. Wallis Budge published his From Fetish to God in Ancient Egypt, whose very title indicates the influence
of the evolutionary theory on specialists. Budge writes (p.56): Animism must have preceded the magical cults of the
predynastic Egyptians, and it, in its turn, was succeeded by the cults of animals, birds, reptiles, trees, etc., which after
animism formed the predominant part of the later religion of the Egyptians. The great merit and fact that it embraced a
qualified totemism and fetishism and prepared the way for the higher classes of spirits to become gods.
Yet one looks in vain for evidence of this assumed evolution among the Egyptians.
5

Pyramid Text 1040.

Clark, Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt, 40, from Chapter 85 of The Egyptian Book of the Dead.

Clark, op. cit., 94.

Ibid., 95.

Ibid., 74. Elsewhere the texts employ the phrases while he was still alone, (77), when I [Atum] was still alone in
the waters . . . 38.
10

Muller observes, for example, that within the capital of each of the forty-two names, the original patron god was
extolled as though he was the only god or was at least the supreme divinity. Egyptian Mythology , 17-18.
11

Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods , 37.

12

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead , Introductory Hymn to Re.

13

Lenormant, Chaldean Magic, 80.

14

Ptah is le dieu splendide qui existait tout seul au commencement. Il ny a pas son pareil, celui qui sest cr au
commencement sans avoir ni pre ni mre. Il a faonn son corps tout seul, celui qui a cr sans tre cr, celui qui
porte le ciel comme le travail de ses mains. Hassan, Hymnes Religieux du Moyen Empire, 160-61.
15

Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians,Vol. I, 131 ff., 400, 501: also Budge, From Fetish to God in Ancient Egypt, 4-5,
138-39.
16

Hassan, op cit., 24, 27; Budge, Gods , Vol. II, 14.

17

Langdon, Semitic Mythology , xviii.

18

Ibid., 93. Les pithtes laudatives insisteront sur son caractre de dieu des cieux, pre des cieux, et surtout de roi des
cieux. Il trne au sommet de la vote cleste. Dhorme, Les Religions de Babylonie et dAssyrie , 23.
19

The iconography of such dieties, states Frankfort, reveals a single underlying idea. Op. cit., 282. According to Van
Dijk, les diffrents dieux des panthons locaux sont les Erscheinungsformendes formes pluralistesdune mme
divinit. Le Motif Cosmique dans la Pense Sumrienne, 4.
But Jeremias in his discussion of these monotheistic streams described the supreme god as an invisible divine
power. It is difficult to imagine a less appropriate description of An or any of his representative deities. In the texts An
is not only the light of the gods, but a light of terrifying glory. Alfred Jeremias, Handbuch der Altorientalischen
Geisteskultur, 227. Also Jeremias, Monotheistische Strmungen . . .
If only one god prevailed in the beginning, how did the Sumero-Babylonian religion acquire its almost endless number
of deities? Langdon writes: By giving special names to the functions of each deity [or representative of An] the
theologians obtained an enormous pantheon, and by assigning special functions of the three great gods to their sons, and
again giving special names to their functions the parent tree became a forest of gods and minor deities. Op. cit., 91.
20

Langdon, op. cit., 124.

21

Pyramid Texts 1039-40

22

See especially the section on The Circle of the Gods.

23

See the discussion of the Egyptian Unmoved Mover.

24

Clark, op. cit., 79.

25

Piankoff, The Shrines of Tut-Ankh-Amon , 121.

26

See the section on the cosmic womb.

27

Evelyn-White, Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns and Homerica, 11.

28

Op. cit., 103.

29

Budge, Osiris; the Egyptian Religion of Resurrection , 1-23.

30

Budge, Gods , Vol. I, 131.

31

Of Osiris Budge writes, His Body formed the circle of the Tuat . . . Osiris enshrined within himself all the cosmic
gods or gods of nature. From Fetish to God , 183.
32

Les Origines de lHistoire , 58.

33

Gods, Vol. I, 329.

34

Quoted in The Cambridge Ancient History , Vol. I, Part 2, 102.

35

Langdon, op. cit., 194.

36

Ibid., 105.

37

Ibid., 119.

38

Van Dijk, op. cit,, 16ff.

39

Ibid., 23. Van Dijk writes (p. 32): Cette pense que le jour de lorigine est devenu le prototype des autres jours o,
tant dans la mythologie que dans lhistoire sumrienne, de grandes catastrophes se sont produites, se trouve perptue
dans lexpression . . . comme dans les temps lointains.
40

Alexander, Latin American Mythology, 66.

41

Perry, Lord of the Four Quarters, 195. Burland, The Gods of Mexico , 33, 47.

42

Len-Portilla, Pre-Columbian Literatures of Mexico , 40-41.

43

Quoted in Burland, op. cit., 149.

44

Alexander, op. cit., 69.

45

Perry, op. cit., 196.

46

Guenon, Le Roi du Monde , 13ff. Perry, op cit., 126ff.

47

Fluegel, Philosophy, Qabbala and Vedanta, Vol. I, 179. Of Vishnu, the inscription on the famous Iron Pillar of Delhi
declares, The beauty of that kings countenance was as that of the full moon [candra ];by him, with his own arm,
sole world-wide dominion was acquired and long held; and although, as if wearied, he has in bodily form quitted this
earth, and passed to the other-world country won by his merit, yet, like the embers of a quenched fire in a great forest,
the glow of his foe-destroying energy quits not the earth . . . Vincent A. Smith, The Iron Pillar of Delhi,6.
48

Carnoy, Iranian mythology, 304-5; Darmesteter, The Zend-Avesta , lxv, lxxxviii, 10-11.

49

Faber, The Origins of Pagan Idolatry, Vol. II, 139; Ferguson, Chinese Mythology , 21.

50

Davidson, Gods and Myths of Northern Europe, 92ff., 56, 202ff.; MacCulloch, Eddic Mythology , 32, 39, 113-14,
133.
51

Les Origines de lHistoire , Vol. I, 58.

52

Kingship, 7.

53

Op. cit., 148.

54

Ibid., 149.

55

Ibid., 51.

56

Canney, Ancient Conceptions of Kingship, 74n.

57

Aus dem Anspruch des Gottknigtums ergibt sich der des Weltimperiums. Der Heros Ninib wird in einem
zweisprachigen Text als Knig eingefhrt, dessen Herrschaft bis an die Grenzen Himmels und der Erde leuchten
soll . . . Dasselbe gilt vom historischen Knig. Naramsin besteigt als Eroberer den Weltberg. Wie jeder Kult als

kosmisch gilt, so wird jede Stadt, jedes Land, jedes Reich als Kosmos angesehen. Nicht die Grsse des Territoriums,
sondern die Idee ist massgebend. Auch ein Stadtkonig nennt sich in diesem Sinne lugal kalama, Weltknig. Die
Lnderbezeichnungen und Knigstitel sind in diesem Sinne kosmisch gemeint: ar kibrt irbitti Knig der vier
Weltteile, ar kissati Knig des Weltalls. Handbuch, 178.
58

Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion, 405.

59

Canney, op. cit., 74.

60

Ridgeway, Dramas and Dramatic Dances of Non-European Races, 6. Compare the role of the Irish king: Prosperity
was supposed to characterize every good kings reign in Ireland, perhaps pointing to earlier belief in his divinity and the
dependence of fertility on him; but the result is precisely that which everywhere marked the golden age. MacCulloch,
Celtic Mythology , 137-38.
61

Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis , 258.

62

J. Eric S. Thompson, Maya History and Religion, 232.

63

Ridgeway, The Origin of Tragedy; and Dramas and Dramatic Dances.

64

Graves and Patai, Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis, 61; Ginzberg, The legend of the Jews, Vol. I, 59.

65

Ginzberg, op. cit., 60.

66

The Book of the Secrets of Enoch 31:3, in Charles, The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the old Testament, Vol. II,
450.
67

Jung, op. cit., 398-99.

68

Ginzberg, op. cit., 64; Graves and Patai, op. cit., 62.

69

Quoted in Cirlot, A Dictionary of Symbols, 4.

70

Adam-Kadmon ist nach der Kabbala der erste Mensch, der Urmensch, die erste aus dem Unendlichen, der absoluten
Vollkommenheit (En Sof), unmittelbar hervorgehende Emanation, in der ltesten hebrischen Mystik Gott selber.
Schwabe, Archetyp und Tierkreis, 9.
71

El insnul-qadim, cest--dire lHomme primordial, est, en arabe, une des dsignations de lHomme universel
(synonyme dEl-insnul-kamil, qui est littralement lHomme parfait on total); cest exactement lAdam Qadmon
hbraique. Guenon, Formes Traditionelles et Cycles Cosmiques, 64n.
72

Les Ophites ou Nahassniens, dans les premiers sicles du christianisme, avaient adopt cette ide due Adam
Qadmon dans leur Adamas . . . quils appelaient lHomme den haut, traduction exacte du titre de la Kabbale, lAdam
suprieur. A leur tour, les Barblonites, qui taient une branch drive des Ophites, disaient que Logos et Ennoia, par
leur concours, avaient produit Autognes (Qadmon), type de la grande lumire et entour de quatre luminaires cosmique
. . . Remarquons que dans un des morceaux cosmogoniques, cousus maladroitement les uns au bout des autres, que nous
offrent les extraits du Sanchoniathon de Philon de Byblos, tels que nous les possdons, Epigeios ou Autochthon, cest-dire dm (avec la mme allusion a admth que dans le texte de la Gense), nait lorignine des choses due dieu
supreme Elion, et est identique Ouranos . . . Lenormant, Les Origines de lHistoire, 41n.
73

Drower, The Coronation of the Great ilam , IX.

74

Lenormant, Les Origines De lHistoire, 170.

75

Carnoy, op. cit., 293ff.

76

Dresden, Mythology of Ancient Iran, 342.

77

Dixon, Oceanic Mythology, 23-27.

78

Hocart, Kings and Councilors, 53.

79

Alexander, North American Mythology, 105-6.

80

Uno Holmberg, Siberian Mythology , 316.

81

De Santillana and von Dechend, Hamlets Mill, 130.

82

Uno Holmberg, Der Baum des Lebens, 59-60.

83

Ancient Egypt, Vol. I, 437-38.

84

Jung, op. cit., 385, 409.

85

Pyramid Text 148-49. Man kann hier wohl sogar soweit gehen dass alle anderen Gtter in Atum beschlossen sind,
Writes L. Grevan, Der Ka in Theologie unb Knigskult der gypter des Alten Reichs , 15.

86

Budge, Gods , Vol.I, 111.

87

Ibid.

88

Clark, Myth and Symbol, 61-63

89

Sturluson, The Prose Edda.

90

Zaehner, Zurvan: A Zoroastrian Dilemma, 137.

91

Uno Holmberg, Siberian Mythology, 372.

92

Zaehner, op. cit., 140.

93

Faber, op. cit., Vol. II, 172.

94

Ibid., 42.

95

Fluegel, op. cit., k203-4.

96

Ibid., 202.

97

Allegro, The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, 21.

98

Frazer, The Golden Bough, abridged edition, 675.

99

Ovid, The Metamophoses, 33-34.

100

Quoted in Campbell, Occidental Mythology, 322-23.

101

Hildegard and Julius Lewy, The Origin of the Week and the Oldest West Asiatic Calendar.

102

Faber op cit., Vol. II, 235. Klibansky, Panofsky, and Saxl, Saturn and Melancholy, 152.

103

Die Kosmologie der Babylonier, 136-37.

104

Langdon, op. cit., 55; Jermias, Handbuch, 137, 278.

105

Handbuch, 92, 137.

106

ONeill, The Night of the Gods, 77.

107

Patai, The Hebrew Goddess, 32-33; Faber, op. cit., 223.

108

Faber, op. cit., 491; Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, 248-49n.

109

Konig Yima and Saturn, 95aff.

110

ONeill, op. cit., 778-79.

111

De Santillana and von Dechend, op. cit., 129.

112

Makemson, The Morning Star Rises, 47ff.

113

Collitz, op. cit., 102; Faber, op. cit., 167; ONeill, op. cit., 778.

114

Quoted in de Santillana and von Dechend, op. cit., 222.

115

Ibid.

116

Campbell, Occidental Mythology, 118. On the meaning of an-ki, usually translated heaven and earth, see here.

117

Origin and Significance of the Mgen Dwd, 356-57.

118

Ibid., 354-56

119

Zaehner, op. cit., 222.

120

Ibid., 112.

121

Ibid., 112-113, 136.

122

Jung, op. cit., 409.

123

Ibid., 409, 493, 335; also Jung, Aion, 197, 208.

124

De Santillana and von Dechend, op. cit., 147.

125

Orphic Hymns, no. 13.

126

De Santillana and von Dechend, op. cit., 130.

127

Schwabe, op. cit., 8.

128

Olcott, Myths of the Sun, 141-42.

129

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, 627.

130

Ibid., 76.

131

Boll, Kronos-Helios, 343, R8.

132

Bouch-Leclerq, LAstrologie Grecque , 93, note 2.

133

Hyginus, Poetica astronomica II, 42.

134

This explanation is tentatively accepted by Bouch-Leclerq, op. cit., 93, note 2.

135

Allein seither ist vllig klar geworden und wohl auch allgemein zugestanden, dass die Gleichsetzung von Kronos,
dem Gotte des Planeten Saturn, mit dem Sonnengotte weit vor jedem mglichen griechischen Missverstndnis liegt: es
handelt sich um ein altes und durch Keilinschriften vollkommen sicher bezeugtes Stuck des babylonischen
Sternglaubens . . . Boll, op. cit., 343.
136

Plato, Epinomis, 987c.

137

Ibid.

138

Ich habe seitdem die gleiche Variante noch an verschiedenen Stellen beobachtet: in Ptolem. Tetrab, p. 67, 8
schreiben die zwei alten Ausgaben Kronon whrend die beste Hs. V (Vatic. 1038) hlion hat; bei Rhetorios in Catal,
codd. astrol. VII 203, 9 steht in dem Hss. R V Kronon, in T hlion: gemeint ist hier wie bei Ptolemaios der Planet Saturn.
auffallender und wohl kaum ursprnglich ist die gleiche Variante in dem Pinax des Kebes, wo die 3. Hand des sehr
spten Cod. C (XV. Jahr.) und dije Hs. Meibojms am Rande zweimal (p. 1, 1.2, 7 Pr.) den Namen (Kronon) des Gottes,
dem der Tempel mit jenem Pinaz geweiht ist, durch Hlion ersetzen. Op. cit., 344.
139

So viel ist aber sicher, dass nach einer oft bezeugten Vorstellung der Babylonier und Syrer Kronos und Helios eine
und dieselbe Gottheit sind, die sich in den zwei mchtigsten Gestirnen des Tages und der Nacht offenbarte, Ibid., 34546. It must be emphasized, however, that the proposed distinction between day and night sun is unnecessary. There is
only one primitive sun: Kronos-Helios.
140

Diodorus II. 30-33.

141

Jastrow, Sun and Saturn , 163-78

142

Ibid., 171.

143

Semitic Mythology, 55.

144

Albright, The Mouth of the Rivers, 165.

145

Jastrow, The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria , 57.

146

Hildegard Lewy, Origin and Significance of the Mgen Dwd, 335.

147

Die Kosmologie der Babylonier , 115-116, 136ff.

148

Klibansky, Panofsky, and Saxl, Saturn and Melancholy , 129.

149

Schwabe, Archetyp und Tierkreis , 492.

150

This is, for example, the opinion of both Boll and Jastrow, in the articles cited above.

151

Chapter II.

152

E. Neumann, for example, speaks of a presolar ritual in which the reckoning of time begins and ends with nightfall.
Even in Egypt the evening is the time of birth, and the morning, when the luminous world of the stars vanishes, is a
time of death, in which the day-time sky devours the children of night. This conception, which was universal among
early mankind, becomes understandable if we free ourselves from the correlation day=sun. The Great Mother, 26.
One of the many peculiarities of the Egyptian sun-god is that he not only brings the day, but shines at night. The Book
of the Dead reads, I am that god Re who shineth in the night. To the father of the gods the Egyptians sang, . . .
thou lightest up the habitation of the night . . . Re Harmachis, in the Dendera temple inscriptions appears as the
shining Horus, the ray of light in the night. Budge, op. cit., Chapter CXXXI; Jung, Symbols of Transformation, 269;
Brugsch, Thesaurus Inscriptionum gyptiacarum, 16.
In this connection one cannot fail to notice the number of ancient gods whom scholars customarily deem night sums.
Egypt is a good example. The popular god Osiris is almost always termed a sun of night, as in Ptah Seker. Budge, op.
cit., 7n, follows a well-established practice when he designates Atum a form of Re and the type of the night sun. The
same appellation is given to the Sumero-Babylonian Tammuz, the Hindu Varuna and Yama, the Iranian Yima, and the

Greek Dionysus to name a few of many examples. In the conventional view Saturn, for reasons which remain
unspecified, is the planetary representative of the night sun.
153

On the original priority of the night among the Hebrews and Arabs see Ignaz Goldziher, Mythology Among the
Hebrews, 62-74. In Babylonia it was in later times that the reckoning of time was altered to the extent of making the
day begin with sunrise, instead of with the approach of night. Jastrow, The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria , 78.
154

Faber, The Origins of Pagan Idolatry, Vol. I, 236-37.

155

Albright, op. cit., 165-66.

156

Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians, Vol.II, 102.

157

An Encyclopedic Outline of Masonic, Hermetic, Qabalistic and Rosicrucian Symbolic Philosophy, LXXIX.

158

See Uno Holmberg, Die Religisen Vorstellungen der Altaischen Vlker, 37.

159

Quoted in Faber,A Dissertation on the Cabiri, Vol. I, 134.

160

Schlegel, LUranographie Chinoise, 630-31.

161

Ibid., 631.

162

De Saussure, Le Systme Cosmologique Sino-Iranienne, 235-97; La Srie Septnaire, Cosmologique et

Plantaire, 333-70; see discussion of de Saussures findings.
163

Langdon, op. cit., 94.

164

On Anu as the ruler of the celestial pole, see also Jensen, op. cit., 17-19.

165

Ibid., 136.

166

Quoted in Campbell, Occidental Mythology, 243 [my italicsD. Talbott].

167

Quoted in ONeill, The Night of the gods, 737 [my italicsD. Talbott].

168

Schlegel, op. cit., 631.

169

Makemson, The Morning Star Rises , 5.

170

Alexander, North American Mythology, 95.

171

Coomaraswamy and Nivedita, Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists, 378.

172

Langdon, Sumerian Liturgical Texts , 137.

173

Lenormant, Origines de lHistroire , Vol. I, 393.

174

Schwabe, op. cit., 8, 388.

175

Op. cit., 748.

176

The Tree at the Navel of the Earth, 124.

177

Clark, Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt, 59.

178

Ibid., 41.

179

Budge, Gods , Vol. I, 309.

180

Piankoff, The Shrines of Tut-Ankh-Amon, 36.

181

Les Origines de la Gense et lEnseignement des Temples de lAncienne Egypte, 20-21, n.2.

182

Clark, op. cit., 58.

183

Ibid., 58.

184

Renouf, The Egyptian Book of the dead, 147.

185

Faulkner, The coffin Texts, Spell 257.

186

Budge, From Fetish to God in Ancient Egypt, 394.

187

Pyramid Texts 1016.

188

Pyramid Texts 1168-70

189

Quoted in Piankoff, Mythological Papyri, 29.

190

Hence Re not only comes out in the Tuat, but rests there also. Piankoff, The Litany of Re ,25.

191

Budge, The Book of the Dead, 398.

192

Ibid., 644.

193

From Fetish to God, 190.

194

Renouf, op. cit., 120.

195

Budge, The Book of the Dead, 260.

196

Renouf, op cit., 7.

197

Budge, The Book of the Dead, 388-89.

198

Ibid., 251.

199

Budge, The Papyrus of Ani, 123,134.

200

Ibid., 105.

201

Budge, Gods, Vol, I, 332.

202

Pyramid Text, 854.

203

Massey, Ancient Egypt, 426.

204

nel, op. cit., 117.

205

Budge, A Hieroglyphic Vocabulary to the Theban Recension of the Book of the Dead, 174.

206

Budge, Gods, Vol. I, 508-9.

207

Renouf, op. cit., 151.

208

Ibid., 67.

209

Ibid., 45.

210

Ibid., 113.

211

Piankoff, The Tomb of Ramesses VI, 106.

212

Piankoff, The Litany of Re, 40-41.

213

Budge, From Fetish to God , 401.

214

Jensen, op. cit., 11.

215

Ibid.k, 16-19; Brown, Researches into the Origins of the Primitive Constellations, Vol. I, 269; Vol. II, 191.

216

Langdon, Semitic Mythology, 94; Jensen, op. cit., 17ff. I certainly cannot accept, however, Jensens identification of
Anu with the pole of the ecliptic.
217

Sayce, Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion, 482.

218

Op. cit., Vol. II, 184, 190.

219

Lenormant, op. cit., 393. Ea (Eriki) was the king of destinies, stability and justice. ONeill, op. cit., 490.

220

Langdon, Sumerian Liturgical Texts, 137.

221

Lenormant, Chaldean Magic, 172.

222

Sayce, op. cit., 177 note 1.

223

Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, 387.

224

Sayce, op. cit., 177 note 1.

225

Ibid., 173.

226

Op. cit., Vol. II, 191.

227

Jastrow, op. cit., 638-41.

228

Akkadian Genesis , 24, quoted in ONeill, op. cit., 78.

229

Nuttall, Fundamental Principles, quoting an article in the London Standard, October 19, 1894, entitled A prayer
meeting of the star-worshippers.
230

Bhagavata Purana, Chapter 4.

231

Eggeling, Satapatha-Brahmana IV, 3, 4, 9. emphasis added.

232

Agrawala, Sparks from the Vedic Fire, 82-83.

233

Velanker, Rgveda Mandala VII, 147.

234

Agrawala, op. cit., 66.

235

Chatterji, The Bhagavad Gita, 145.

236

tudes sur lHindouisme, 19.

237

Keith, The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads, Vol. I, 96; Coomaraswamy, A New Approach to the
Vedas, 8, 60-61, 92, note 71.
238

Perry, Lord of the Four Quarters, 122.

239

Ibid., 121-22.

240

Whitney, Atharva Veda, XIX, 45.4.

241

Eggeling, Satapatha Brahmana III, 6.3.15.

242

Quoted in de Santillana and von Dechend, Hamlets Mill, 138.

243

Velanker, op. cit., 219.

244

Op. cit., 40, citing Rig Veda X.82.6.

245

Ibid., 70.

246

The Thousand Syllabled Speech, Vol. I, 112.

247

Eggeling, Satapatha Abrahmana II.5.1.14; see also note 4, p. 36; Coomaraswamy, A New Approach, 68.

248

Coomaraswamy, Elements of Buddhist Iconography, 42-43. Ibid., 43-45, 52, 55.

Comparable to the firmly seated position of the Egyptian great god is the position of the resting or meditating
Buddha. The Buddha sat himself down cross-legged in an unconquerable position, from which not even the descent of
a hundred thunderbolts at once could have dislodged him. Quoted in Campbell, Oriental Mythology, 16.
249

Schlegel, op. cit., 507.

250

Jung, Alchemical Studies, 20.

251

Ibid., 25.

252

Seelische Fhrung in Lebenden Taoismus, in Yoga und Meditation im Ostem und im Westen, 193.

253

Op. cit., 631.

254

La Srie Septenaire, Cosmologique et Plantaire, 342.

255

Origine Chinoise de la Cosmologie Iranienne, 305.

256

Op. cit., 161, emphasis added.

257

Ibid., 42, 56, 95; Burland, The Gods of Mexico, 94.

258

Op. cit., 77; see also p. 80.

259

Alexander, op.cit., 95-96.

260

Stevenson, The Zuni Indians, 46, 80.

261

Darmesteter, The Zend Avesta, Miher Yast XII, 49-50.

262

Le Systme Cosmologique, 292-3.

263

Studies in The Iconography of Cosmic Kingship. 13.

264

Bloch, Le Symbolisme Cosmique et les Monuments Religieux dans lItalie Ancienne, 24-25; sell also LOrange,
op. cit., 29.
265

Op. cit., 28-29.

266

The Ideas of the Western Semites Concerning the Navel of the Earth, 55.

267

Isaiah 14: 13-14.

268

Aion, 135.

269

Jung, Alchemical Studies, 209 note 8.

270

Ibid., 226.

271

B.L. Goff, for example, discusses the sign as an explicit solar form in Mesopotamia. Why explicit? Because it is
surrounded by rays. Goff, Symbols of Prehistoric Mesopotamia, 22.
272

This has, in fact, become the popular explanation of the Egyptian Aten.

273

Reymond, The Mythical Origin of the Egyptian Temple, 12-13, 65-67, 86.

274

Ibid, 12-13.

275

Ibid., 185; Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods, 38 note 21.

276

Faulkner, The Coffin Texts, 100.

277

Lacau, Traduction des Textes des Cercueils du Moyen Empire, 30.

278

Budge, The Gods of the Egyptian, Vol, I, 340.

279

Lacau, op. cit., 43.

280

Faulkner, op.cit., 43.

281

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, 382. Tem is also the dweller in his disk. Ibid., 94.

282

Piankoff, The Shrines of Tut-Ankh-Amon, 11.

283

Gods, Vol. II, 69.

284

The Hebrew Shekinah was a cloud of glory, recalled as the visible dwelling of God. Patai, The Hebrew Goddess,
138-40.
285

A Dictionary of Symbols , 40. This is what a Babylonian text recalls as the veil of gold in the midst of heaven; the
texts compare it to a crown. Sayce, Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion, 274. To the Hindus this was the
Khvarenah, the Awful Royal Glory. Perry, Lord of the Four Quarters, 143.
286

Brown, Researches into the Origins of the Primitive Constellations, 185.

287

Lenormant, Les Origines de lHistoire , Vol. I, 13. The Babylonian sun-god rises within the enclosure, but sets
within it also. Sayce, op.cit., 171,513. The subject is the central sun.
288

Best, The Astronomical Knowledge of the Maori, 35-36.

289

Faulkner, op. cit., 102.

290

Ant. Rom. lib. i cap. 23 quoted in Faber, A Dissertation on the Cabiri, 66.

291

ONeill, The Night of the Gods, 32.

292

Ibid., 32.

293

Massey, Ancient Egypt, 373.

294

See ONeill, op. cit., 32-35, 615ff. Guenon, Formes Traditionelles et Cycles Cosmiques, 38; Le Roi du Monde .

295

Clark, Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt, 74.

296

Major Sandman Holmberg, The God Ptah, 119.

297

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, 577.

298

Ibid., 493.

299

Renouf, Egyptian Book of the Dead, 108.

300

Ibid. ., 133.

301

Op. cit., 56.

302

Guthrie, Orpheus and Greek Religion, 137, citing Orphic Hymn 71.

303

Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion, 413.

304

Agrawala, Sparks from the Vedic Fire, 23ff.

305

Op. cit., 413-415.

306

Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis, 46-47; Alchemical Studies , 82.

307

Budge, The Egyptian book of the Dead, 104.

308

Frankfort, op. cit., 44.

309

Gods, Vol. I, 291, summarizing the research of Brugsch.

310

Reymond, op. cit., 66.

311

On the rite of stretching the cord see Ibid., 239, 308ff.

312

Semitic Mythology, 109.

313

De Santillana and von Dechend, Hamlets Mill, 132-133, citing Orphic Hymn 13.

314

Onians, The Origins of European Thought, 317.

315

Budge, The Papyrus of Ani, 182.

316

Renouf, op. cit., 203.

317

Op. cit., 239.

318

Piankoff, The Litany of Re, 52.

319

Faulkner, op. cit., 126.

320

Zaehner, Zurvan: A Zoroastrian Dilemma, 111ff.

321

Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis, 11, 12, 44ff.

322

Renouf, op. cit., 51.

323

Ibid., 258.

324

Piankoff, The Wandering of the Soul, 12.

325

Renouf, op. cit., 264.

326

Piankoff, The Wandering of the Soul, 27.

327

Piankoff, Shrines of Tut-Ankh-Amon, 34.

328

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, 189.

329

Faulkner, op. cit., 4.

330

Hassan, Hymnes Religieux du Moyen Empire, 100/

331

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, 644.

332

Hassan, op. cit., 54.

333

Pyramid Text 732.

334

Piankoff, Mythological Papyri, 14.

335

Budge, Gods , Vol. I, 309.

336

Ibid., 308.

337

Ibid., 314.

338

Piankoff, Wandering of the Soul, 87.

339

Piankoff, The Tomb of Ramesses VI, 192.

340

Reymond, op. cit., 119.

341

Thus, the Litany of Re invokes the god as the One Joined Together.

342

Clark, op. cit., 74.

343

Renouf, op. cit., 39.

344

Budge, The Egyptian book of the Dead, 561.

345

Renouf, op. cit., 116.

346

Budge, The Papyrus of Ani, 29.

347

Piankoff, The Tomb of Ramesses VI, 29; see also Piankoff, The Litany of Re, 29.

348

Lacau, op. cit., 33.

349

It can hardly be doubted that the assembly in heaven served as the prototype of all sacred assemblies on earth: just as
the king represented the Universal Monarch, his councilors or assistants answered to the circle of secondary divinities
around the central sun. Among the Greeks, notes Onians, a circle appears to have been the ritually desirable form for a
gathering. Op. cit., 444. Similarly, the Sumerian GIN, to assemble, possesses the sense to circle, turn, enclose.
Langdon, A Sumerian Grammar, 216. This aspect of the sanctified assembly is, of course, universal. (Even today we
speak of a circle or band of assistants, followers, or companions without really knowing why.)
350

Campbell, Occidental Mythology, 43.

351

The Great Mother, 227.

352

The Origins of Pagan Idolatry.

353

Allegro, The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, 92.

354

Agrawala, The Thousand Syllabled Speech, 115.

355

Coomaraswamy, Elements of Buddhist Iconography, 23.

356

MacCulloch, Eddic Mythology, 174.

357

Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis, 281.

358

Best, op. cit.,

359

Eggeling, The Satapatha Brahmana, Part II, 394.

360

Brown, op. cit., Vol. I, 268.

361

Preface to Perry, op. cit.

362

Thousand Syllabled Speech, 127.

363

Die Schpterische Mutter Gttin, 221-324.

364

Patai, op. cit., 239.

365

Evans-Wentz, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, 127.

366

Pyramid Text 838.

367

Budge, Egyptian Book of the Dead, 4.

368

Bleeker, Hathor and Thoth, 48.

369

Budge, From Fetish to God, 30; see also Pyramid Text 1607.

370

Brugsch, Religion, 324.

371

Mythological Papyri, 6.

372

Piankoff, The Tomb of Ramesses VI, 92.

373

See, for example, the use of the sign O in Budge, Papyrus of Ani, 71.

374

Faulkner, op. cit., 258.

375

Pyramid Text 990.

376

Pyramid Text 532.

377

Pyramid Text 1416.

378

Pyramid Text 1688

379

Renouf, op. cit., 148.

380

Budge, From Fetish to God, 416.

381

Budge, Gods , Vol. II, 260.

382

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, 180.

383

Frankfort, op. cit., 177.

384

Budge, Gods, Vol. I, 431.

385

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, 134.

386

Frankfort, op.cit., 180.

387

Ibid., 177.

388

Budge, Osiris: the Egyptian Religion of Resurrection, 68.

389

Pyramid Text 1505.

390

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, 337.

391

Frankfort, op. cit., 42.

392

Pyramid Text 532.

393

Pyramid Text 1416-17.

394

Frankfort, op. cit., 177.

395

Ibid., 177; see Pyramid Text 782.

396

Ibid., 177.

397

Ibid., 180.

398

Ward, The Cylinder Seals of Western Asia, 154.

399

Onians, 182.

400

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, 134.

401

Piankoff, Mythological Papyri, 6.

402

Renouf, op. cit., 265.

403

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, 594.

404

Ibid., 392.

405

Faulkner, op. cit., 125.

406

Renouf, op. cit., 205.

407

Pyramid Text 108.

408

Budge, Gods , Vol. I, 451.

409

De Santillana and von Dechend, op. cit., 147.

410

Clark, op. cit., 41.

411

nel, Les Origines de las Genese et lEnseignement des Temples de lAncienne Egypte, 13 note 4.

412

Ibid., 11ff.

413

Piankoff, The Litany of Re, 54.

414

Schafer, Altgyptische Bilder der Auf- und Untergehenden Sonne, 20.

415

Origins, 165.

416

Patterns, 423. See also Eliade, Myth of the Eternal Return.

417

Virgil, Georgics , ii. 173ff.

418

Jensen, Die Kosmologie der Babylonier, 189ff.; Langdon, Semitic Mythology, 99.

419

De Saussure, Le Systeme Cosmologique Sino-Iranienne.

420

The Gods of the Egyptians, Vol. II, 94.

421

Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride, XII.

422

Jensen, op. cit., 188ff.; Langdon, op. cit,. 102.

423

The Collection of the Sumerian Temple Hymns, 136.

424

Van Dijk, Le Motif Cosmique dans la Pense Sumrienne, 49.

425

Op. cit., 199.

426

Lenormant, Les Origines de lHistoire, Vol. II, 21.

427

Guenon, Le Roi du Monde, 95.

428

Clark, Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt, 58-59, 222.

429

Ibid., 58-59.

430

De Saussure, Origines Chinoise de las Cosmologie Iranienne, 303.

431

Renouf, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, 193-94.

432

Budge, op. cit., Vol. II, 119.

433

Pyramid Text 1215-20.

434

Budge, op. cit., Vol. I, 340.

435

Reymond, The Mythical Origin of the Egyptian Temple, 84.

436

Budge, Gods, Vol. II, 7. But one of the Egyptian phrases for the sacred land is Neter-ta-Mehti, rendered by Brugsch
as das nordliche Gotteslandthe northern land of the gods, This, states Massey, was the polar paradise in heaven,
not an elevated part of our earth. See Massey, Ancient Egypt, 378.
437

Gaster, Myth, Legend and Custom in the Old Testament, 24.

438

Melville, Children of the Rainbow, 10.

439

See for example the review by Gaster, op. cit., 24ff.

440

Op. cit., 18.

441

Coomaraswamy, Elements of Buddhist Iconography, 27.

442

Ibid., 42.

443

Ibid., 52.

444

Perry, Lord of the Four Quarters, 131.

445

Zaehner, Zurvan: A Zoroastrian Dilemma, 111-13, 136, 222.

446

De Santillana and von Dechend, Hamlets Mill, 86ff.

As soon as one compares the imagery of Saturns revolving wheel with corresponding images of the Saturnian isle, egg,
cord, and girdle, one is forced to think beyond coincidence. The varied symbolism hearkens to a singular form. When
Snorri Sturluson speaks of Amlodhis churning wheel as the Island Mill, he preserves (probably unwittingly) an
important connection: in the original myth the turning island and the mill wheel were the same thing.
447

Magoun, The Kalevala, 55-61.

448

De Santillana and von Dechend, op. cit., 111.

449

Keith, Indian Mythology, 138.

450

Cook, Zeus: A Study in Ancient Religion, Vol. I, 215, 225.

451

Ibid., 290.

452

Ibid., 298.

453

LOrange, Studies in the Iconography of Cosmic Kingship, 48ff.

454

Scholem, Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism and Talmudic Tradition, 26.

455

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, 189.

456

Reymond, op. cit., 5, note 23.

The Throne, as observed by nel, is not merely the seat of the god, but an enclosure. The primeval sun dwells in his
throne. Les Origines de la Gense, et lEnseignement des Temples de lAncienne Egypte, 221. The most common
Egyptian word for throne is ast, often written with the determinative
which means chamber, abode. Ast
signifies the gods placenot just any place, but the placethe ast ab (place of the heart), ast urt (great place),
ast hetep (place of rest), or ast maat, (place of regularity).
457

Op. cit., 83.

458

Ibid., 84.

459

Clark, op. cit., 59.

460

Ibid., 177.

461

Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods, 380 note 21.

462

Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament.

463

Budge, From Fetish to God in Ancient Egypt, 273. The name of the celestial city of Pe means simply seat or
throne.
464

Op. cit., 53.

465

Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts, 47.

466

Op. cit., 13,20.

467

Langdon, Sumerian Liturgies and Psalms, 297.

468

Sjberg and Bergmann, op. cit., 2.

469

Ibid., 89.

470

Kramer, From the Tablets of Sumer, 87.

471

Langdon, Semitic Mythology, 195. The same can be said of the celestial city of Eridu, which like Dilmun served as
the primeval home of Enki. Eridu, teeming with fertility, floated on the cosmic sea Apsu, and more than one writer
has asserted, with Pinches, that Enkis city was as a garden of Eden. Sayce, Gifford Lectures, 386; Albright, The
Mouth of the Rivers. Pinches comment is quoted in Thompson, The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, lvi.
472

Revelation 21:11.

473

Psalm 48:2.

474

The Origins of Pagan Idolatry, 350-51.

475

Ezekiel 27: 3-4; 28: 13 (RSV).

476

Darmesteter, The Zend Avesta, I, 16-19.

477

Faber, op. cit., 326, 341.

478

See the discussion of the Chinese polar mount Kwen-lun.

479

Alexander, Latin American Mythology, 114, 178.

480

Pyramid Text 188.

481

Cook, op. cit., Vol. I, 271. Cooks entire discussion (Vol. I, 253-83) assumes the wheel to be synonymous with the
solar orb.
482

Nuemann, The Great Mother, 238.

483

Ibid., 98.

484

Hocart, Kingship, 80. The significance is too often missed: after informing us that the throne was the glyph of Isis,
Budge continues, but we have no means of connecting it with the attributes of the goddess in such a way as to give a
rational explanation of her name, and all derivations hitherto proposed must be regarded as mere guesses. Budge,
Gods, Vol. II, 202. But is it a mere guess to connect the Isis-throne with the enclosure of the primeval womb? (The
Egyptian ast, throne, means enclosure, as we have seen.)
485

Pyramid Texts 178, 1605.

486

Accordingly, the sun in the cosmic womb appears as the boy in the city. Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead,
274.
487

Jastrow, The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, 59.

488

Graves, The Greek Myths, 223.

489

Allegro, The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, 133.

490

Revelation 17: 1-2, 5, 18.

491

Op. cit., 95.

492

Patterns in Comparative Religion, 19-20.

493

The Myth of the Eternal Return, 8-9.

494

II Baruch IV: 2-4.

495

Patterns in Comparative Religion, 9.

496

Tucci, The Theory and Practice of the Mandala, 23.

497

Ibid, 23.

498

Op. cit., 9ff.

499

Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion, 15-16.

500

Jung and Kerenyi, Essays on a Science of Mythology, 12.

501

Many Egyptologists, however, make no distinction between the cosmic and the local cities. Thus Budge, speaking of
the actual Egyptian city of Henen-su (Herakleopolis), tells us that this habitation is often referred to in the Book of the
Dead, and a number of important mythological events are said to have taken place there. Thus it was here that Re rose
for the first time when the heavens and the earth were created, and it was this rising which formed the first great act of
creation . . . Osiris was here crowned lord of the universe . . . In this place the souls of the beatified found a place of rest
in the realm of Osiris . . . Budge, Gods, Vol. II, 58-59. That these were cosmic, not geographical places and events,
should be obvious.
502

Frankfort, op. cit., 90.

503

Roscher, Omphalos; Neue Omphalosstudien; Der Omphalosgedanke bei Verschiedenen Vlkern; Muller, Die Heilige
Stadt.
504

Brown, Eradinus: River and Constellation; de Saussure, Origins Chinoise de la Cosmologie Iranienne.

505

W.T. Warren, Paradise Found, 141 note 3; ONeill, The Night of the Gods, 359.

506

Uno Holmberg, Siberian Mythology, 308.

507

Guenon, op. cit., 79.

508

Makemson, The Morning Star Rises, 10; Heyerdahl, Kon-Tiki, 141.

509

Nuttall, Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilization, 133.

510

W.T. Warren, op. cit., 248, note 1.

511

Faber, op. cit., Vol. III, 83.

512

Roscher, Omphalos, 20ff.

513

Op. cit., 235.

514

Lon-Portilla, Pre-Columbian Literatures of Mexico, 63.

515

Sayce, Gifford Lectures, 386.

516

Op. cit., 178.

517

Faber, A Dissertation on the Cabire, Vol. I, 73.

518

Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts V, 214ff.

519

Wensinck, The Ideas of the Western Semites Concerning the Navel of the Earth, 36.

520

Ibid., 15.

521

Ibid., 55.

522

Jung, Aion, 125.

523

Roscher, Omphalos, 43.

524

The Tree at the Navel of the Earth, 39.

525

Op. cit., 127.

526

Der Baum des Lebens, 95.

527

Faber, Origins of Pagan Idolatry, Vol. III, 90.

528

Ibid., 92.

529

Coomaraswamy, Elements of Buddhist Iconography, 19.

530

Ibid., 18.

531

Perry, Lord of the Four Quarters, 184.

532

Onians, The Origins of European Thought, 316.

533

Sayce, Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion, 478.

534

Wensinck, The Ocean in the Literature of the Western Semites, 25.

535

Herodotus iv, 36.

536

Herodotus iv, 45.

537

In the Orphic description of the primeval Nous or Mind, the circling ocean was his belt. See our chapter II.

538

Evelyn-White, Hesiod 229ff.

539

Clark, Myth and Symbol, 86.

540

Budge, The Papyrus of Ani, 187.

541

See Pyramid Texts 77 and 512.

542

Piankoff, The Tomb of Ramesses VI, 152.

543

Clark, op. cit., 117.

544

Maj Sandman Holmberg, The God Ptah, 106.

545

Op. cit., 142.

546

Kees, Kulttopographische und Mythologische Betrge, 151.

547

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, 97; Reymond, op. cit., 152.

548

Op. cit., 80.

549

Budge, Egyptian Book of the Dead, 170.

550

Langdon, Semitic Mythology, 105.

551

Sayce, Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion, 487.

552

Jeremias, Handbuch der Altorientalischen Geisteskultur, 31.

553

Langdon, Semitic Mythology, 309.

554

Jensen, op. cit., 248-467.

555

Genesis 2:10

556

Gaster, Myth, Legend and Custom in the Old Testament, 27-28; Wensinck, The Ocean in the Literature of the
Western Semites, 59-60; see also our section on The Foundation Stone.
557

Alexander, North American Mythology, 159.

558

W.T. Warren, Paradise Found, 129; ONeill, The Night of the Gods, 909.

559

Lenormant, Les Origines de lHistoire, 26.

560

Ibid., 19-21.

561

Ibid., 27-29.

562

Uno Holmberg, Die Religisen Vorstellungen der Altaischen Vlker, 86-87; Ser Baum des Lebens, 71ff.

563

Albright, The Mouth of the Rivers, 189.

564

Brown, Eradinus: River and constellation, 46.

565

Budge, From Fetish to God in Ancient Egypt, 173.

566

Albright, The Goddess of Life and Wisdom 261.

567

Gaster, op. cit., 27.

568

Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, Vol. II, 706.

569

Gaster, op. cit., 27.

570

Brown, op. cit., 46.

571

A Dictionary of Symbols, 127. The mystic idea is confirmed and reinforced when it is portrayed in architectural
plans: whether in the cloister, the garden or the patio, the fountain occupies the centre position, at least in the majority
of architectural works built during periods within the symbolist tradition, as in Romanesque or Gothic edifices.
Furthermore, the four rivers of Paradise are denoted by four paths which radiate out from the region of the cloister

towards a clear space, circular or octagonal in shape, which forms the basin of the fountain. Ibid.,113.
572

ONeill, op. cit., 184.

573

Delatte, Etudes sur la Litterature Pythagoricienne, 153-54.

574

Rig Veda, IX. 74.6; IX. 113.8.

575

De Saussure, Les Origines de lAstronomie Chinoise, 159-60, 230.

576

Dejourne, Burning Water, 72.

577

Budge, op. cit., 226; W.M. Muller, Egyptian Mythology, 46, 95, 112.

578

Pyramid Text 497.

579

Gaster, op. cit., 5.

580

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, 414.

581

Faulkner, The Coffin Texts. 1. Often the Egyptians represented the four streams by four vases or four crocodiles.
(The crocodile is an Egyptian symbol of flowing water.) Renouf, The Egyptian Book of the dead, 78. The four
crocodiles live by the Words of Powerthat is, they come to life through, or as, the outward-flowing speech of the
creator. On attaining the heavenly kingdom, the deceased king beseeches the crocodiles (rivers): Let not thy fiery water
be inflicted upon me. Ibid., 79. As figures of the four life-bearing streams the crocodiles were identified with the four
quarters of the Cosmos. Ibid., 97.
582

Campbell, Oriental Mythology, 78.

583

Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians, Vol. II, 55.

584

W.T. Warren, op. cit., 179.

585

Renouf, op. cit., 113.

586

Budge, Gods, Vol. I, 452.

587

Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, 62.

588

Hildegard and Julius Lewy, The Origin if the Week and the Oldest West Asiatic Calendar, 5.

589

Ibid.

590

Tallquist, Himmelsgegende und Winde, 106.

591

Jeremias, Handbuch der Altorientalischen Geisteskultur, 252.

592

ONeill, op. cit., 184.

593

Jeremias, op. cit., 12.

594

Ibid., 13.

595

Jensen, Die Kosmologie der Babylonier, 167-69.

596

Ibid., 472. Saturns streams of light illuminate the interior of the Apsu (cosmic sea). As in Egypt, the explosive
shafts of light were interpreted as four streams of speech radiating to the four corners. The four winds and four
world directions, according to Jeremias, correspond to the creator. Op. cit., 148.
597

Quoted in W.T. Warren, op. cit., 179-80.

598

The Thousand Syllabled Speech, Vol. I, 158.

599

Whitney, Atharva Veda, III.iii.

600

Eggeling, Satapatha Brahmana III, 5.3.14-16.

601

Die Heilige Stadt, 124.

602

Ibid., 145ff.

603

De Saussure, op. cit., 160, 230.

604

Jung Mandala Symbolism, 74.

605

Schlegel, LUranographie Chinoise, 146.

606

Cosmogonie du Monde Dresse Debout et du Monde Renvers, 109.

607

LOrange, Studies in the Iconography of Cosmic Kingship, 13; see also W. Muller, op. cit., 130ff.

608

W.T. Warren, op. cit., 233.

609

W. Muller, Die Heilige Stadt, 21.

610

Alexander, op. cit., 19.

611

Burland, The Gods of Mexico, 131.

612

Nuttall, Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilization, 160-161.

613

J. Eric S. Thompson, Maya History and Religion, 257.

614

Op. cit., 223.

615

Ibid., 280.

616

Lon-Portilla, Mythology of Ancient Mexico, in Kramer, Mythologies of the Ancient World, 449-50.

617

Roys, The Book of the Chilam Balam, 67.

618

See, for example, J. Eric S. Thompson, op. cit., 270-71.

619

Nuttall, op. cit., 255.

620

Ibid., 198.

621

Ibid., 274.

622

Roy, op. cit., 125.

623

Ibid., 125.

624

Indianapolis, Indiana, Historical Society, Walum Olum, 11.

625

Ibid., 11.

626

Ibid.

627

Melville, Children of the Rainbow, 18.

628

Ibid., 18.

629

Ibid., 40, 126,140.

630

Campbell, op. cit., 78; Jung, Aion, 198.

631

Herodotus, I.11.2-3.

632

Quoted in Budge, Gods, Vol. I, 85.

633

Ibid., Vol. II, 65.

634

Whitney, Atharva Veda, 52.

635

Keith, Indian Mythology, 110.

636

Ibid., 52.

637

Ibid., 41.

638

Suhr, The Mask, the Unicorn and the Messiah, 89.

639

Ferguson, Chinese Mythology, 31.

640

Cook, Zeus: A Study in Ancient Religion, Vol. II, 379.

641

Cited in Faber, The Origins of Pagan Idolatry, Vol I, 166.

642

Alexander, op. cit., 176-77.

643

Perry, Lord of the Four Quarters, 200.

644

Langdon, Semitic Mythology, 69. The reference is to Marduk, who has four eyes which behold all things even as he
(Ea).
645

Derk Bodde, Myths of Ancient China, in Kramer, Mythologies, 374.

646

An Encyclopedic Outline of Masonic, Hermetic, Qabalistic and Rosicrucian Symbolic Philosophy, cviii.

647

Ibid., ccviii.

648

Kingship and the Gods, 153.

649

Ibid.

650

nel, Les Origines de la Gense et lEnseignement des Temples de lAncienne gypte, 30.

651

Cited in Jung, Alchemical Studies.

652

Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis, 437.

653

Ibid., 446-47, citing Kabbala denudata I, Part 1, 16.

654

Ibid., 447n, citing Zohar I, 231a.

655

Patai, Man and Temple, 85.

656

Vilnay, Legends of Jerusalem, 17.

657

Wensinck, The Ideas of the Western Semites Concerning the Navel of the Earth, 34.

658

Isaiah 28: 16.

659

W. Muller, Die Heilige Stadt, 38ff.

660

Ibid., 94.

661

Ibid., 198.

662

Ibid., 198-99.

663

Ibid., 198-99.

664

Ibid., 145. Such traditions illuminate the image of Oedipus sitting on a stone where the ways part into many roads.
ONeill, op. cit., 393.
665

At resurrection day, the Kaba Stone, which is in holy Mecca, will go to the Foundation Stone in holy Jerusalem,
bringing with it the inhabitants of Mecca, and it shall become joined to the foundation Stone. Vilnay, op. cit., 17.
666

Wensinck, Ideas of the Western Semites Concerning the Navel of the Earth,18. As is well known, the stone of the
Kaba is black (the black stone). But it was not always so, for the legends claim that before Adam left Eden, it was a
white hyacinth. This is, in fact, a theme which occurs elsewhere: the white stone (or god) loses his radiance, becoming
black. Though I intend to review this theme in a subsequent volume, it is appropriate to note here that, in a
widespread myth, Saturn, the primeval sun, passes into a figure of death and darkness, a prototype of Satan. Saturn
becomes the black planet. (Saturn is frequently called the black or dark planet, observes Hildegard Lewy, Origin
and Significance of the Mgen Dwd, 339.)
667

Hildegard Lewy, op. cit., 360.

668

Ibid., 362.

669

Ibid. The myth of the four rivers flowing from the Foundation Stone and defining the four quarters of the world
proves to be most tenacious. ONeill, for example, cites the following from an old magazine, The Post Angel, which
published a section called Answers to Correspondents, in 1971:
Q.Why does the needle in the sea-compass always turn to the North?
A. The most received opinion is that there is under our North Pole a huge black rock, from under which the Ocean
issueth in 4 currents answerable to the 4 corners of the Earth or 4 winds: which rock is thought to be all of a loadstone,
so that by a kind of affinity it draweth all such like stones or other metals touched by them towards it. ONeill, op. cit.,
129.
Even when the cosmic imagery has become confused with geography, the central features are the same as in the
Egyptian version expressed thousands of years earlier.
670

Budge, Gods, Vol. I, 497.

671

Pyramid Text 158.

672

Eggeling, op. cit., 5.3.14.

673

Book of Enoch 18: 1-3.

674

Cirlot, op. cit., 18.

675

Melville, Children of the Rainbow, 33.

676

Butterworth, The Tree at the Navel of the Earth, 53.

677

Faber, op. cit., Vol. II, 16.

678

Ibid., 15.

679

ONeill, op. cit., 909.

680

Lenormant, op. cit., Vol. II, 19-21.

681

Uno Holmberg, Die Religisen Vorstellungen, 86-87; Siberian Mythology, 358-59.

682

Nuttall, op. cit., 293.

683

Alexander, op. cit., 287.

684

Jung and Kerenyi, Essays on a Science of Mythology, 15.

685

De Saussure, La Srie Septnaire, Cosmologique et Plantaire, 340.

686

Ibid., 333-70; Le Systme Cosmologique Sino-Iranienne, 235-97; Origine Babylonienne de lAstronomie Chinoise,
5-18.
687

De Saussure, Le Systme Cosmologique Sino-Iranienne, 277.

688

Origine Babylonienne de lAstronomie Chinoise, 18.

689

Ibid., 16-17.

690

La Srie Septnaire, 358.

691

Kramer, Sumerian Mythology, 63.

692

Gragg, The Ke Temple Hymn, 170-71.

693

Kramer, op. cit., 63.

694

Combe, Histoire du Culte de Sin, 121.

695

Gragg, op. cit., 169.

696

Sjberg and Bergmann, The Collection of the Sumerian Temple Hymns, 13.

697

The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, 632.

698

Ibid., 641.

699

The same meaning attaches to the Babylonian Esharra, the dwelling which the creator measured out on the cosmic
sea. Jastrow calls Esharra a poetic designation of the earth. The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, 431. Jensen
relates the term especially to the earth as it appeared at the creation. Die Kosmologie der Babylonier. 188ff. The literal
meaning is house of fullness or house of fertility.
700

Op. cit., 158.

701

Ibid., 23.

702

Sjberg and Bergmann, op. cit., Temple Hymn 39.

703

Gragg, op., cit., 174.

704

Ibid., Temple Hymn 25.

705

Ibid., Temple Hymn 18.

706

Ibid., Temple Hymn 15.

707

Ibid., Temple Hymn 21.

708

Langdon, Semitic Mythology, 190-91.

709

Melville, Children of the Rainbow, 21.

710

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, 638.

711

Ibid., 404.

712

Ibid., 51.

713

Ibid., 17.

714

Lacau, Traduction des textes ses Cerueils du Moyen Empire, 45.

715

Reymond, The Mythical Origin of the Egyptian Temple, 311.

716

Ibid., 311.

717

Ibid., 311.

718

Ibid., 305.

719

The Ideas of the Western Semites Concerning the Navel of the Earth, 15.

720

Patai, Man and Temple, 116.

721

Ibid., 84-85.

722

The Great Mother, 159.

723

Allegro, The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, 25.

724

Bleeker, Hathor and Thoth, 25.

725

Budge, Osiris: the Egyptian Religion of Resurrection, Vol.II, 272.

726

Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians, Vol. I, 462.

727

Levy, Religious Conceptions of the Stone Age, 117.

728

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, 260.

729

Cited in Bleeker, op. cit., 25.

730

Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts, 5.

731

Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods, 67.

732

The Litany of Re, 25n.

733

Sjberg and Bergmann, op. cit., 32.

734

Langdon, Sumerian Liturgical Texts, 115.

735

Ibid., 141.

736

Langdon, Semitic Mythology, 347.

737

Ibid., 155.

738

Ancient Near Eastern Texts, 62.

739

Kramer, The Sacred Marriage Rite, 28.

740

Langdon, A Sumerian Grammar, 253.

741

Levy, op. cit., 100.

742

Jastrow, op. cit., 327. Of the goddess Belit-ekalla, Belit of the palace, Jastrow writes: it must be confessed that the
precise force of the qualification of Belit of the palace escapes us. Ibid., 227. To one aware of the root meaning of the
gods house the title can hardly pose a mystery.
The identity of womb and house occurs in every section of the globe. Simplicus reports that the Syrian goddess
Derceto or Atargatis wss the habitation of the gods, just as Orphic doctrine styled Vesta the house of the gods. Faber,
The Origins of Pagan Idolatry, III, 49. The Hindu Rig Veda states: They conduct him to the hut of the consecrated; the
hut of the consecrated. Keith, Rigveda Brahmanas, 108. The same meaning of the sacred house prevails in China,
according to Hentze, Das Haus als Weltort der Seele, 73.
The Mayans knew the goddess Ix Ahau Na, rendered by Roys as Palace Ladyan appellation exactly equivalent to
the Babylonian Belit of the Palace and the Egyptian Lady of the House (Nephthys). In the Mayan language Na
means both mother and house. See J. Eric S. Thompson, Maya History and Religion, 245.
With this understanding of the cosmic temple, one can better appreciate the sacred marriage rites so often conducted in
sacred chambers. The king or high priest signified the god, while the queen or priestess represented the goddess and
thus the temple itself, the cosmic receptacle housing the seed of abundance. Symbolically the temple was the spouse of
the king, and the kings union with the temple maiden reenacted the primal marriage.
. . . It is from the temple, states Patai, that the blessings of fertility issued forth the whole world . . . The temples of
many an ancient people were regarded as the Nuptial Chamber in which the divine powers of fertility, the Father God
and Mother Goddess, celebrated their great annual wedding feast for the purpose of ensuring the fruitfulness of the earth
and the multiplication of man and beast. Patai, op. cit., 88.
743

Clark, Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt, 103.

744

Quoted in Brown, Researches into the Origins of the Primitive Constellation, Vol. I, 32.

745

Drower, The Coronation of the Great ilam, 13.

746

Muller, Egyptian Mythology, 129.

747

Langdon, Sumerian Grammar, 21.

748

The Origins of European Thought, 445, 450-460.

749

Budge, Gods, Vol. II, 344.

750

Piankoff, The Shrines of Tut-Ankh-Amon, 117.

751

Piankoff, The Wandering of the Soul, 22.

752

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, 253.

753

Quoted in Frankfort, op. cit., 108.

754

Lacau, op. cit., 22.

755

Budge, Egyptian Book of the Dead, 248.

756

Clark, op. cit., 177.

757

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, 345.

758

Pyramid Text 910.

759

Pyramid Text 729, quoted in Frankfort, op. cit., 174.

760

Budge, Gods, Vol. II, 213.

761

Hassan, Hymnes Religieux du Moyen Empire, 46.

762

Frankfort, op. cit., 107, 174; Clark, op. cit., 219.

763

Op. cit., 107.

764

Op. cit., 176.

765

Sjberg and Bergmann, op. cit., 21.

766

Ibid., 45.

767

Gragg, op. cit., 169.

768

Hentze, op. cit., 96.

769

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, 93.

770

Sayce, Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion, 81.

771

Langdon, Semitic Mythology, 19-23.

772

The Spinning Aphrodite, 146.

773

Op. cit., 127.

774

The Evolution of the Dragon, 181.

775

Neumann, op. cit., 128.

776

Albright, The Mouth of the Rivers, 173.

777

Op. cit.

778

Nuttall, Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilization, 105.

779

Neumann, op. cit., 124.

780

Pyramid Text 437.

781

Agrawala, Sparks from the Vedic Fire, 21.

782

Darmesteter, The Zend Avesta, Part II, 225.

783

ONiell, The Night of the Gods, 923.

784

Jung, Mysterium Coniunctinis, 348.

785

Nuttall, op. cit., 100.

786

Ibid., 284.

787

Ibid., 96.

788

Op. cit., 132.

789

M. S. Holmberg, The God Ptah, 46.

790

Ibid., 46.

791

Pyramid Texts 1184-85. In Numerous ancient rites reviewed by Hentzefrom China to Mexico to Italythe
deceased, or their ashes, were placed in vases which possessed the shape of a house; and these house-urns, in each
cult, symbolized the Earth-Mother. Artists in China and Peru depicted the house-urn containing an unborn child. The
vase sheltered the deceeased as the womb, giving birth (that is, rebirth) to him in the land of beginnings. Neumann
describes similar symbolism of the house-urn in the Aegean cults of the Bronze Age, where the dead man lies in the
vessel as a child in the attitude of an embryo. The practice of enclosing the dead within house-like vases symbolizing
the mother-womb does not explain itself. The union of womb, house, and vessel hearkens back to the primordial order
and the original dwelling of the great father. See Hentze, op. cit.:Neumann, op. cit., 163.
792

Op. cit., 227.

793

Ibid., 218.

794

Rudolf Anthes, Mythology in Ancient Egypt, in Kramer, Mythologies of the Ancient World, 87-90.

795

Lacau, op. cit., 177.

796

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, 178.

797

Ibid., 638.

798

Lacau, op. cit., 65.

799

Lenormant, Chaldean Magic, 103.

800

Budge, Papyrus of Ani, 219.

801

Renouf, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, 164.

802

Budge, Gods, Vol. I, 344.

803

Budge, Papyrus of Ani, 219.

804

Vandier, Iousas et (Hathor)-Nbet-Htpet, 31, 83.

805

Budge, Egyptian Book of the Dead, 415.

806

Pyramid Text 195.

807

Pyramid Text 320.

808

Renouf, op. cit., 97.

809

Budge, Gods, Vol. I, 354, 422, 430, 443, 447, 517; Vol. II, 213, 279.

810

Op. cit., 227.

811

Budge, The Litany of Funerary Offerings, 135.

812

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead 178.

813

Clark, op. cit., 150. That the Eye, though female, belongs to the great father (as the Eye of Horus, Eye of Ra, or

Eye of Nu) agrees fundamentally with the character of the enclosed sun
already examined. The sun and its
enclosure constitute the primordial Androgyne or Father-Mother. A common idea underlies the mythical recollections
of birth from the great gods navel, thigh, or eye; the imagery focuses on the simple and universal form of the primal
parents

814

Frankfort, op. cit., 152.

815

Sjberg and Bergmann, op. cit., 41.

816

Budge, Gods, Vol. I, 186.

817

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, 209.

818

Piankoff, The Tomb of Ramesses VI, 166.

819

Frankfort, op. cit., 127.

820

Pyramid Text 635.

821

Pyramid Texts 844-45

822

Pyramid Text 1234.

823

Pyramid Text 2274.

824

Pyramid Text 1816.

825

Gods, Vol. II, 113-14.

826

Budge, Papyrus of Ani, 96.

827

Clark, op. cit., 95.

828

ONeill, op. cit., 464.

829

MacCulloch, Celtic Mythology, 50.

830

ONeill, op. cit., 464.

831

Ibid., 464.

832

Cook, Zeus: A Study in Ancient Religion, Vol. I, 186.

833

ONeill, op. cit., 464.

834

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, 56.

835

ONeill, op. cit., 464.

836

MacCulloch, op., 169.

837

As an example of contemporary analyses I note the explanation of the Cyclopes offered by Robert Graves: The
Cyclopes seem to have been a guild of Early Helladic bronzesmiths. Cyclops means ring-eyed, and they are likely to
have been tatoed with concentric rings on the forehead, in honour of the sun . . . Concentric circles are part of the
mystery of smith-craft: in order to beat out bowls, helmets, or ritual masks, the smith would guide himself with such
circles, described by compass around the centre of the flat disk on which he was working. The Cyclopes were one-eyed
also in the sense that smiths often shade one eye with a patch against flying sparks. Graves, The Greek Myths, 32. In
one paragraph Graves offers three differentand equally unsatisfactoryexplanations of the ring-eyed god.
838

Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, Vol. I, 703.

839

A Dictionary of Symbols, 48.

840

Faber, op. cit., Vol. I, 194.

841

Nuttall, op. cit., 26.

842

Ibid., 26.

843

Clark, op. cit., 50.

844

Ibid., 51.

845

Ibid., 51.

846

Pyramid Text 2289.

847

Quoted in Budge, Gods, Vol. II, 443.

848

Frankfort, op. cit., 180.

849

Albright, The Goddess of Life and Wisdom, 273.

850

Handbuch der Altorientalischen Geisteskultur, 21; R. C. Thompson, The reports of the Magicians and Astrologers of
Nineveh and Babylon, Vol. II, 249.
851

Collum, Die Schpferische Mutter Gttin, 249, 274; Neumann, op. cit., 18, 153; Faber, op. cit., vol. II, 456;
Burland, The Gods of Mexico, 133.
852

Sayce, op. cit., 116.

853

Quoted in Onians, op. cit., 250.

854

Ibid., 332.

855

Quoted in Budge, Gods, Vol. II, 266.

856

Ibid., 332.

857

Horapollo 1.c.2.

858

R. C. Thompson, Reports, 249.

859

Wensinck, Ideas of the Western Semites, 61ff.

860

Brown, Researches, Vol. II, 105.

861

Clark, op. cit., 50.

862

Sayce, op. cit., 281.

863

Wensinck, The Ocean in the Literature of the Western Semites, 25.

864

Graves and Patai, Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis, 51-52

865

MacCulloch, Eddic Mythology, 328.

866

Onians, op. cit., 249-51

867

Alexander, Latin American Mythology, 57.

868

Wensinck, Ideas of the Western Semites, 62.

869

Ibid., 63.

870

Ibid., 63.

871

Cook, op. cit., Vol. I, 221, 229.

872

J. Eric S. Thompsom, op. cit., 268.

873

Emerson, Indian Myths, 347.

874

I intend to take up such imagery in greater detail in the second volume of this work.

875

Langdon, Sumerian Liturgies and Psalms, 316.

876

Wensinck, Ideas of the Western Semites, 65.

877

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, 377.

878

ONeill, op. cit., 735.

879

J. Eric S. Thompson, op. cit., 212-14.

880

Nuttall, op. cit., 522.

881

Wensinck, Ideas of the Western Semites, 64.

882

Clark, op. cit., 53.

883

Pyramid Texts 195-98.

884

Pyramid Text 900.

885

Op. cit., 93.

886

Sjberg and Bergmann, op. cit., 29.

887

Pyramid Text 585.

888

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the dead, 481.

889

Ibid., 400.

890

The Egyptian Book of the Dead, 248 note 7.

891

Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods, 154.

892

Reymond, The Mythical Origin of the Egyptian Temple, 48-49.

893

Pyramid Text 1022.

894

Op. cit., 51-52.

895

Clark, Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt, 46.

896

Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians, Vol. I, 309.

897

Ibid., Vol. II, 159.

898

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the dead, 606,624, 627.

899

Budge, Gods, Vol. I, 309.

900

Clark, op. cit., 86.

901

Ibid., 83.

902

Faulkner, The Coffin Texts, 226.

903

Ibid., 230-31.

904

Pyramid Text 1559.

905

Clark, op. cit., 41.

906

Ibid., 178.

907

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, 388-89.

908

Ibid,. 251.

909

Frankfort, op. cit., 153.

910

Clark, op. cit.,59.

911

Ibid., 41.

912

Budge, From Fetish to God in Ancient Egypt, 243; see Pyramid Text 794c.

913

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the dead, 582.

914

Op. cit., 236.

915

Ibid., 237.

916

nel, Les Origines de la Gnese et lEnseignement des Temples de lAncienne gypte, 117.

917

Schafer, Altgyptische Bilder der Auf-und Untergehenden Sonne, 19, note 7.

918

Budge, Egyptian Book of the Dead, 388-89.

919

Faulkner, op. cit., 176.

920

Ibid., 148.

921

Moret, Le Lotus et la Naissance des Dieux in gypte, 501.

922

Massey, Ancient Egypt, 363.

923

Compare Budge, The Egyptian Book of the dead, 104.

924

Compare Piankoff, The Tomb of Ramesses VI, 320.

925

Compare Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, 11.

926

Compare ibid., 481.

927

Compare ibid., 393.

928

Compare ibid., 400.

929

Compare ibid., 446.

930

Compare ibid., 71.

931

Quoted in Piankoff, Mythological Papyri, 29.

932

Budge, Gods, Vol.I, 354.

933

Frankfort, op. cit., fig. 39.

934

Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, 7.

935

Op. cit., 376.

936

Clark, op. cit., 134.

937

Budge, Gods, Vol. II, 117.

938

Piankoff, The Wandering of the Soul, 103.

939

Budge, Gods, Vol. II, 17.

940

Op. cit., 150.

941

Ibid., 154.

942

Ibid., 152.

943

Agrawala, Sparks from the Vedic Fire, 82-83.

944

Kramer, Sumerian Mythology, 81.

945

Langdon, Semitic Mythology, 99; Sayce, Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion, 360.

946

Langdon, op. cit., 119.

947

Op. cit., 360.

948

Ibid., 515.

949

Kramer, op. cit., 98.

950

Langdon, op. cit., 209.

951

Toward the Image of Tammuz, 118.

952

Sayce, op. cit., 449.

953

Langdon, op. cit., 209.

954

Op. cit., 361.

955

Chaldean Magic, 152.

956

Ibid.; see also Lenormant, Les Origines de lHistoire, Vol. I, 126-127.

957

The Tree at the Navel of the Earth, 124.

958

The Gates of Sunrise in ancient Babylonian Art, 242.

959

Researches into the Origins of the Primitive Constellations, Vol. I, 184.

960

Ibid,. 185.

961

Jensen, Die Kosmologie der Babylonier, 11.

962

Langdon, A Hymn to Eridu, 64.

963

Sjberg and Bergmann, The Collection of the Sumerian Temple Hymns, 51.

964

W. T. Warren, Paradise Found, 166-69.

965

The Natural Genesis, Vol. II, 21.

966

Les Origines, Vol. II, 17.

967

Ibid.; Faber, The Origins of Pagan Idolatry, Vol. III, 201.

968

Wilson, Vishnu Purana, Vol.II, 110ff.; Guenon, Le Roi du Monde, 85; ONeill, The Night of the Gods, 400.

969

Lenormant, Les Origines de lHistoire, Vol. II, 19.

970

Ibid.

971

Ibid.

972

Eggeling, Satapatha Brahmana, III, 7,1, 14.

973

Ibid., III, 6, 1, 15; Eliade, Le Chamanisme el les Techniques Archaques de lExtase, 362-63.

974

Satapatha Brahmana, I, 2, 1, 10.

975

Ibid., Part IIn 140-43, 454, note 3.

976

Eliade, op. cit., 363.

977

Elements of Buddhist Iconography, Figs. 1-5.

978

Ibid., note to Fig. 2.

979

De Saussure, Les Origines de lAstronomie Chinoise, 231,249.

980

Rig Veda X, 89, 4, in Coomaraswamy, op. cit., 29.

981

Ibid., 28-29.

982

Ibid., 34.

983

ONeill, op. cit., 400.

984

Ibid., 400.

985

W. T. Warren, op. cit., 146-47.

986

Ibid., 143-44.

987

Ibid., 128.

988

Massey, Ancient Egypt, 349.

989

Warren, op. cit., 129.

990

Ibid., 147.

991

ONeill, op. cit., 521.

992

Nuttall, Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilization, 288.

993

ONeill, op. cit., 226. ONeill Summarizes the Ki as follows: Placed in the middle, it is (like the pivot, like the king,
like the Pole star) the center and the Terminus; or like the upper poimt of the post of a house, which is the center, and
supports all . . . The Ki, the supreme Pole, is the centre of the heavens and of the Earth. Ibid., 520. Again, the center
coincides with the summit.
994

Darmesteter, The Zend Avesta, Part II, 175.

995

Ibid., Part I, 225, including note I.

996

West, Bundahish XX.

997

Darmesteter, op. cit., Part II, 131-32.

998

Ararat and Eden, 41.

999

Dresden, Mythology of Ancient Iran, 359.

1000

Les Origines, Vol. I, 30ff.

1001

Darmesteter, op. cit., Part II, 101.

1002

Wesr, op. cit., xii, 6.

1003

Warren, op. cit., 243.

1004

Darmesteter, op. cit., Part II 175.

1005

Ibid., 33, note 1.

1006

Warren, op. cit., 156-57.

1007

Uno Holmberg, Die Religisen Vorstellungen der Altaischen Vlker, 80.

1008

Siberian Mythology, 333.

1009

Ibid.,341.

1010

Ibid., 342.

1011

Uno Holmberg, Die Religisen Vorstellungen, 59.

1012

Uno Holmberg, Siberian Mythology, 337. Though the cosmic pillar is explicitly polar, the Siberians (like so many
other races) connect it with the primeval sun. The Ostiaks describe the celestial binding post as standing on the side
of the sun. Certain tribes deem the celestial pole the Pillar of Gold, the Pillar of Fire, or the Pillar of the Sun.
Eliade, op. cit., 236.
Some traditions describe the binding post as made of iron. The Voguls recall the holy iron pillar of god erected for the
tethering of the holy animal with many-coloured thighs, while others often depict it as a shining nail serving as the
axis and support of the cosmos. The Samoyeds, for example, speak of a polar nail of the sky, round which the
heavens revolve. Uno Holmberg, Siberian Mythology, 221. Among the Finns and Lapps the conception of the world

pillar as a golden nail was very common. Holzmayer describes the belief as follows: In the middle of the sky, or in the
north, the heavens are affixed to a nail in such a manner that they are able to revolve round the nail, the revolving
causing the movement of the stars. This nail is at the same time conceived as the support or foundation of the sky. Ibid.
The Altaic Nail of the North was the axis of the world mill. The Ostiaks sang: There is a mill which grinds by itself,
and scatters the jdust of a hundred versts away. And there is a golden pole with a golden cage on top which is also the
Nail of the North. De Santillana and von Dechend, Hamlets Mill, 96. We can now understand this mill as the everturning cosmic wheel supported by the golden pole or axis-pillar

1013

In one Such wooden post described by Leem an iron nail was stuck in the jtop as an obvious symbol of the world
nail. Uno Holmberg, Siberian Mythology, 221-22.
1014

Uno Holmberg, Die Religiosen Vorstellungen, 47-48.

1015

Ibid., 62.

1016

Ibid., 75-88.

1017

Lenormant, Les Origines,Vol. I, 146.

1018

Dionysius Halicarnass, I, 34; II, 1.

1019

Cook, Zeus: A Study in Ancient Religion, Vol. I, 101, 114-15.

1020

Plato, Critias, 120; Lenormant, Les Origines de lHistoire, Vol. I, 146.

1021

Cook, op. cit., Vol. I, 116.

1022

Quoted in Warren, op. cit., 182.

1023

Ibid., 212.

1024

Revelation 21:10.

1025

Wensinck, The Ideas of the Western Semites Concerning the Navel of the Earth, 1-10.

1026

Ibid., 16.

1027

Ibid., 13.

1028

Psalm 48: 1-2.

1029

Gaster, Myth, Legend and Custom in the Old Testament, 758.

1030

Psalm 48:2, as translated by Gaster, op. cit., 758.

1031

Isaiah 14:13-14.

1032

Clifford, The Cosmic Mountain, 162.

1033

Psalm 50: 2-3.

1034

To Come.

1035

Psalm 48:1.

1036

Psalm 76:2.

1037

Ezekiel 12: 13-15.

1038

See also the Book of Jubilees 8:19.

1039

Op. cit., 14.

1040

Clifford, op. cit., 131.

1041

Ibid., 97.

1042

Ibid., 68.

1043

Ibid., 77.

1044

Ibid. Complementing Hebrew traditions of Zion are the Muslim tales of the world mountain Kaf. According to the
commentary of Thalabi, Allah created a large mountain of green emerald, from which the green colour of the sky is
derived: it is called mount Kaf and it surrounds the whole earth. Wensinck, op. cit., 5. The mount served as a stable
support and enclosed the world, This is exactly the image of the enclosed celestial earth forming the summit of the

primeval hill
Muslim cosmology knows the holy city of Mecca as the summit of the worlds highest mountain. Ibid., 12, 25. The
throne of Allah on the mountaintop or world summit stood at the celestial pole. The highest point and the center of
heaven is the Polestar, states Wensinck. Ibid., 47.
Western Semitic races claim that the creator dwelt in a celestial tent, reflected in imitative tents on earth. The central
pole of the terrestrial tent corresponds to the world mountain. The Arabs called the cosmic mountain itself the Central
Pole of the Tent, while the Arabic name for the pole star, Al-rucaba, gave the Spanish arrocabe, the kingpost of a
roof. ONeill, op. cit., Vol. I, 226.
The polar mount also finds symbolic expression in the Arabic minaret or light house, a slender and lofty tower
atached to a Muslim mosque. On the balcony of the minaret the muezzin calls the people to prayer. The worlds largest
minaret is the Qutb Minar at Delhi, standing over 240 feet high and described by one observer as resembling a
cyclopean red telescope. Ibid., 206-8. The Quth (of Qutb Minar) is, as we have seen, the pole or axis of the
universe. The minaretcommemorating the axis-pillarthus corresponds well with the sacred poles and pillars of
other nations. (I earlier proposed that the prototype of the minaret was the Egyptian Mena-uretthe Great Mooring
Post.)
1045

Op. cit., 247.

1046

Masey, Ancient Egypt, 588.

1047

Krickerberg, in Pre-Columbian Religions, 41; Fay Diego Duran, Book of the Gods and Rites, 161, translators
footnote.
1048

Sejourne, Burning Water, 89.

1049

Lon-Portilla, Pre-Columbian Literatures of Mexico, 56-57.

1050

Alexander, North American Mythology, 178.

1051

Ibid., 107.

1052

Ibid., 8.

1053

Latin American Mythology, 277.

1054

Alexander, North American Mythology, 8.

1055

In Pre-Columbian Religions, 163.

1056

Ibid., 166. The Mexican national temple of Tlaloc and Vizilputzi (Tlalocs brother) stood in the center of the city of
Mexico, whence four causeways radiated in the four direction. In the center of the temple stood a richly ornamented
Pillar of peculiar sanctity, noted Warren, op. cit., 247 note 1. Since the intersection of the crossroads symbolized the
cosmic center and summit, the pillar clearly represented Tlalocs celestial mountain at the navel of the world.
The center and capital of the Peruvian city of Cuzco stood at the intersection of four great highways running to the
north, south, east, and west, each traversing one of the four provinces or vice-royalties into which Peru was divided. In
the central temple was a circle and in the center of the circle stood a sacred pillar, Ibid., note 2.
1057

Op. cit., Vol. I, 55-56.

1058

Kramer, The Sacred Marriage Rite, 54.

1059

Frankfort, op. cit., 257.

1060

Kramer, Sumerian Mythology, 81.

1061

Jastrow, The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, 399.

1062

Clifford, op. cit., 30.

1063

Der Ithyphallus, der auf der elamischen Vase realistisch dargestellt ist, entspricht in der mythischen Symbolik der
Weltberg. Jeremias, Handbuch der Altorientalischen Geisteskultur, 24.
1064

Renouf, op. cit., 115, note 1.

1065

Ibid., 54.

1066

Quoted in ONeill, op. cit., 201.

1067

Faber, op. cit., Vol. I, 331.

1068

Coomaraswamy, op. cit., 54-5; 66, note 15; 88, note 132.

1069

Whitney, Atharva Veda, 680.

1070

Philippi, The Kojiki, 50.

1071

Ibid., 398-99, citing Hirata, Pure Shinto, 67.

1072

Faber, op. cit., Vol. III, 203.

1073

Ibid., 30ff., 201ff.

1074

The cosmic mountain was the masculine source of universal generation, a fact reflected in the pronounced phallic
atributes of the mountain-god. Enlil, the Mesopotamian great mountain, raises aloft the goddess Ninhursag, the
queen of the cosmic hill, and implants the male seed (Saturn) within the celestial womb.
The Babylonian Bel (Canaanite Baal) receives the title lord, the mightly mountain Bel. Allegro informs us that the
god derives his name from a Sumerian verb Al, bore, which combined with a preformative element BA, gave words
for drill and penis and gave Latin and us our word phallus. The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, 24. Bel, the
mighty mountain, was the generative pillar of the heavens. The phallic mountain was also the bore because it was the
turning axle.
The Egyptian Shu, personifying the Light Mountain, is lord of the Phallus and appears in one text (Pyramid Text 642)
to be equated with the male organ of Atum. More generally the pillar-god represents the phallus of Geb, brother and
husband of Nut. Egyptian art depicts Shu standing on the recumbent Geb and supporting the curved and star-stubbed
body of Nut with outstretched arms. Elsewhere, however, the artists replace Shu by the phallus of Geb. These
illustrations, coming from the late period of Egyptian history, yet preserve a vital idea, whose origins will be found in
the simple configuration
. The identity of Shu, the heavens pillar, with the phallus of Geb, illuminates these lines
from the Coffin Texts: As Geb I shall impregnate you [Nut] in your name of sky. I shall join the whole earth to you in
every place. O high above the earth! You are supported upon your father Shu. Quoted in Clark, op. cit., 49.
1075

Evelyn-White, Hesiod the Homeric Hymns and Homerica, 117.

1076

Pindar, Pythian Odes iv, 289.

1077

Ovid, Metamorphoses, 168

1078

Frazer, Apollodorus, II. V. II.

1079

Ibid., 221 note 2.

1080

Hyginus, Poetic Astronomy ii. 3.

1081

Graves, The Greek Myths, 144.

1082

Oldenberg, Vedic Hymns, 49.

1083

Ibid., 61.

1084

Op. cit., 65.

1085

Ibid., 10.

1086

Rig Veda V, 3, 160.

1087

Whitney, op. cit., 347.

1088

Eggeling, op. cit., III, 5, 3, 14.

1089

Campbell, Oriental Mythology, 208.

1090

Nikhilananda, The Upanishands, 18. We also saw that the Hindu skambha, or universe post, acquired the form of a
cosmic giant sustaining the heavens. See here.
1091

Coomaraswamy, op. cit., 10; 68, note 30; see plates I and II; see also ONeill, op. cit., 194.

1092

Eliade, op. cit., 239.

1093

Uno Holmberg, Siberian Mythology, 234-35.

1094

Lenrot, The Kalevala, 5.

1095

Cumont, The Mysteries of Mithra, 116.

1096

De Santillana and von Dechend, op. cit., 158-59.

1097

Emerson, Indian Myths, 338-39, 438. Atlas was the cosmic mountain personified. Thus both Euripides and Aristotle
relate the pillar of Atlas to the world axis. Warren comments: The upright axis of the world is often poetically

conceived of as a majestic pillar, supporting he heavens and furnishing the pivot on which they revolve. Op. cit., 122.
1098

Amos 5:26.

1099

Ancient Egypt, 670.

1100

Goetz and Morley, Popul Vuh, 81-84.

1101

Ibid., 82, note 7.

1102

Lon-Portilla, op. cit., 65.

1103

Harris, Boanerges, 33.

1104

Coomaraswamy and Mivedita, Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists, 388.

1105

Rhys, Arthurian Legend, 594.

1106

MacCulloch, Celtic Mythology, 190.

1107

Werner, African Mythology, 138.

1108

Op. cit., 214.

1109

Ibid., 216.

1110

Bodde, Myths of Ancient China, in Kramer, Mythologies of the Ancient World, 374-76.

1111

Budge, The Papyrus of Ani, 118.

1112

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the dead, 370.

1113

Ancient Egypt, 311.

1114

Cited in Neumann, The Great Mother, 224.

1115

Suryakanta, The Flood Legend in Sanskit Literature, 4.

1116

Keith, Indian Mythology, 113.

1117

Nikhilanda, op. cit., 221ff.

1118

Schwabe, Archetype und Tierkreis, 34.

1119

Agrawals, op. cit., 41, 70. Yet strangely, while observing the connection of the one foot and motionlessness,
Agrawala never mentions the celestial poleand even more strangely, he identifies Aja Ekapad as the solar orb (page
42).
1120

Coomaraswamy and Nivedita, op. cit., 388-89.

1121

Ibid., 378.

1122

ONeill, op. cit., 501. The identity of the single leg as the world pillar finds additional confirmation in the
symbolism of sacred structures, mythical and historical. In the Japanese Kojiki the mythical emperor Jimmu encounters
a palace which appears to rest on a central post. Chamberlain renders the description as a palace which could be
entered with one stride. But the most literal translation, according to Chamberlain, would be a one-foot-rising
palace. As is so often the case the literal rendering is superior to that chosen by the translators. That the palace rises on
a single foot or leg is confirmed by the Nihongi reference to the same palace: here, instead of ashi, foot, we have
hashira, pillar. The native commentators seem to agree that the single pillar supported the whole weight of the palace,
observes ONeill, op. cit., 224.
1123

Frazer, The Golden Bough, Vol. I, 230.

1124

Cook, op. cit., Vol. I, 422.

1125

ONeill, op. cit., 230. This leads us to the suggestion that the fabulous polar mountain of Meru must in some sense
have been the leg or thigh of the great god. There is a well-known classical tradition that Zeus gave birth to Dionysus
from his thigh (which reminds us of the Egyptian god-king issuing from the cosmic leg). The Greek thigh is
meros, and the Greek Mount Meros wea [sic] the Hindu Meru, the starting point of creation and mythical birthplace of
gods and man. Birth from the leg or thigh is equivalent to cosmic birth atop the mountain of the world. (We must
remember that the feminine thigh or womb composed the summit of the mount or leg and thus an inseparable part of
the androgynous Heaven Man.)
1126
1127

Coomaraswamy and Nivedita, op. cit., 388.

Perceiving the influence of astral symbolism, ONeill recognized the leg-pillar as the polar axis. In Mailduins
Voyage he came to an island called Aenchoss, that is One-foot, so called because it was supported by a single pillar in

the middle . . . , reports ONeill. A curious form of the palace on one foot occurs in a Russian tale, relating how four
heroes who are wandering about the world come to a dense forest in which an izba or hut twirls round on a fowls leg.
The youngest, prince Ivan (our Jack) makes it revolve with the magic word Izbushka. This supplies the idea of cosmic
rotation which is absent in the Japanese myth. ONeill, op. cit., 225 The mythical dwelling raised on a single leg
echoes a cosmic tradition. No one has even seen, on our earth, an island supported by a pillar or legor a house
revolving on a leg. The leg was the central pillar seeming to sustain the primeval suns cosmic dwelling.
1128

Dixon, Oceanic Mythology, 159-60.

1129

Ibid., 161.

1130

Coomaraswamy, The Symbolism, of the Dome, 19.

1131

Uno Holmberg, Siberian Mythology, 310.

1132

Nuttall, op. cit., 262-63.

1133

Krickerberg, in Pre-Columbian American Religions, 47.

1134

Budge, Gods, Vol. II, 249.

1135

Ancient Egypt, 304.

1136

Kramer, Sumerian Mythology, 76.

1137

Before Olympos, 81.

1138

Ibid., 87.

1139

Ibid., 85.

1140

Ibid., 84. Sacred pillars claimed to have been fashioned by the companions of Quetzalcoatl also received the form of
serpents, as did sacred pillars in Ireland. ONeill, op. cit., 378.
1141

Op. cit., Vol. II, 89.

1142

DAlviella, The Migration of Symbols, 29.

1143

Pyramid Text 2128.

1144

Cook, op. cit., Vol. I, 359.

1145

Hans Henning Van Der Osten, Ancient Oriental Seals in the Collection of Mr. Edward T. Newell, 113.

1146

Patterns in Comparative Religion, 165-66.

1147

Op. cit., 27.

1148

Cook, op. cit., Vol. II, 494; Guthrie, The Greeks and Their Gods, 78.

1149

Gods, Vol. II, 87.

1150

Ibid., 91.

1151

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the dead, 625.

1152

Ibid., 503.

1153

Ibid., 65.

1154

Ibid., 391.

1155

Ibid., 373.

1156

Budge, Gods, Vol. II, 90.

1157

Hassan, Hymnes Religieux du Moyen Empire.

1158

Pyramid Texts 277, 1551.

1159

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the dead, 401.

1160

Ibid., 625.

1161

Piankoff, The Shrines of Tut-Ankh-Amon, 115.

1162

Pyramid Text 1158.

1163

Kramer, Sacred Marriage Rite, 32.

1164

From the Tablets of Sumer, 72.

1165

Coomaraswamy, A New Approach to the Vedas, 96, note 92b.

1166

Coomaraswamy, Symbolism of the Dome, 35, citing Rig Veda IV, 6, 2-3.

1167

Ibid., 53.

1168

Wensinck, The Ocean in the Literature of the Western Semites, 18.

1169

Cook, op. cit., Vol. I, 759, note 6.

1170

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the dead, 327.

1171

Budge, Gods, Vol. II, 88.

1172

Pyramid Text 1871.

1173

Budge, Gods, Vol. II, 90.

1174

Ibid., 90.

1175

Renouf, op. cit., 165.

1176

Albright, The Mouth of the Rivers, 178.

1177

Kramer, Sumerian Mythology, 46.

1178

Symbols, 8. Though many writers on comparative mythology note the common belief in a celestial riverthe
mythical source of all terrestrial watersno one seems to have perceived the root identity of this famous stream with
the Primeval Hill. Darmesteter, however, comes close when he writes (of the Iranian celestial river): Waters and light
are believed to flow from the same spring and in the same bed: As light rises up from Hara Berezaiti [the polar
mountain] so waters spring up from it and come back to it. Darmesteter, op. cit., Part I, 225.
Similarly, Clifford reports that Ugaritic texts and seals depict the Canaanite cosmic mountain as the paradisiacal source
of water that gives fertility. The Mount, he states, joins the upper and lower worlds; in it is contained a super
abundance of life, of water; it is the throne of the deity. Op. cit., 97.
Thus can the Japanese Kojiki announce: That down river which is like a mountain of green leaves, looks like a
mountain but it is not a mountain (Philippi, op. cit., 222), and the northwestern American Indians can speak of the river
leading to the end (summit) of the world as a vast pole ascended by the souls of the dead. Alexander, North American
Mythology, 248-49.
1179

Kramer, Sumerian Mythology, 45.

1180

ONeill, op. cit., 866.

1181

Schlegel, LUranographie Chinoise, 208.

1182

Clifford, op. cit., 78.

1183

Op. cit., 6-7.

1184

Psalm 36: 7-8.

1185

Gaster, op. cit., 27.

1186

Ibid., 7.

1187

Op. cit., 68.

1188

De Santillana and von Dechend, op. cit., 208-9; MacCulloch, Eddic Mythology, 333.

1189

Gaster, op. cit.; Rig Veda ix 74, 6; ix, 113, 8.

1190

The Biblical Fountain of Life, states Gaster, has abundant parallels in folklore. In the Koran, for example, we read
of the wondrous paradisiacal fountains, Salsabil and Kauthar (Abundance); while the North American Indians knew . .
. of a Fountain of Youth and Vigor on the paradisal island of Bimini (or Boiuca). A hula chant from Hawaii likewise
makes mention of such a fountain; while in Celtic belief it was held that in the midst of the island of Avalon flowed a
rill from which a sprang a fountain the waters of which gave life to the spirits of the departed. An old French poem
speaks in a similar vein of a fountain of perpetual youth in the land of Cocagne; all who bathe in it are at once
rejuvenated. In Pseudo-Callisthenes version of the Alexander legend, the hero goes in search of the Fountain of
Immortality; and it need scarcely be added that the Fountain of Youth, Beauty, or immortality is a very common feature
of European folktales. Op. cit., 27.28.
1191

The central spring or fount comes alive each night, appearing as a river of fire. This was the nature of Ammons
legendary Fountain of the Sun and of the spring of Zeus at Dodona. At midday, Pliny reports, the spring of Zeus fails

altogether, but it soon increases till it is full at midnight, from which time onwards it again gradually fails. Ammons
pool (the Fountain of the Sun), cold by day, is hot by night.
The tradition is noted by Cook, who cites the reports of Herodotus, Lucretius, Ovid, Diodorus, and others to the effect
that the Fountain of the Sun grows colder each morning until midday, but that as the day declines the fount grows
warmer becoming tepid at sundown and fairly bubbing with heat at midnight. It may seem strange that such a spring,
increasing with the setting of the solar orb, was the Fountain of the Sun. Among the chroniclers of the fount the
current explanation was that by night the sun went below the earth and there boiled the water. Cook, op. cit., Vol. I, 868.
In truth, the cosmic fountain rose to the central sun at the pole, becoming a fiery stream each night (day, in the earliest
ritual). Pliny says that the spring of Zeus at Dodona kindles torchesobviously no characteristic of a terrestrial spring.
The mythical imagery pertains to the archetypal fountain of the sun, the fiery, ethereal stream of Shu, to which the
Egyptians gave pictorial expression in the hieroglyph

1192

Kerenyi, Prometheus, 51.

1193

Combe, Histoire du Culte de Sin, 11-12.

1194

Die Kosmologie der Babylonier, 191.

1195

Rawlinson, Herodotus, Essay X.

1196

Handbuch der Altorientalischen Geisteskultur, 96.

1197

Combe, op. cit., 146.

1198

Ibid., 114.

1199

Jastrow, Sun and Saturn, 143.

1200

The Gods of the Egyptians, Vol. II, 36.

1201

Ibid., 37.

1202

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the dead, 228.

1203

The Egyptian Book of the Dead, 263-64.

1204

Faulkner, The Coffin Texts, 131.

1205

The Tree at the Navel of the Earth, 109.

1206

The Mothers, Vol. III, 82.

1207

Op. cit., 127.

1208

The Evolution of the Dragon, 56.

1209

Ibid., 56.

1210

Suhr, The Spinning Aphrodite, 57.

1211

Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis, 177.

1212

Ibid., 129.

1213

The Origins of Pagan Idolatry, Vol. II, 3.

1214

Ibid., 5.

1215

Ibid., 6.

1216

Op. cit., Vol. III, 61.

1217

Ibid., 61.

1218

Ibid., 61

1219

Faber, op. cit., Vol. III, 13.

1220

Ibid., 18.

1221

Faulkner, op. cit., 224.

1222

The Ideas of the Western Semites Concerning the Navel of the Earth, 13.

1223

Jeremias, op. cit., 57.

1224

Wensinck, Tree and Bird Cosmological Symbols in Western Asia, 19, citing Nonnus, Dionysiaca, XI, 407 sqq.

1225

Butterworth, op. cit., 55.

1226

Der Baum des Lebens, 62.

1227

Lenormant, Les Origines de lHistoire, Vol. II, 204-5.

1228

The Earth, The Temple and the Gods, 11.

1229

Ibid., 22, 203.

1230

Op. cit., Vol. III, 202.

1231

Ibid., 203-4.

1232

Ibid., 204.

1233

Ibid., 204.

1234

Percy E. Newberry, Two Cults of the Old Kingdom, 24ff.

1235

Faber, op. cit., Vol. III, 204.

1236

Quoted in Cook, Zeus: A Study in Ancient Religion, Vol. I, 114.

1237

Op. cit., vol. III, 204-5.

1238

Hans Henning van Der Western, Ancient Oriental Seals in the Collection of Mr. Edward T. Newell, fig. 6, no. 217.

1239

Pindar, Nemian Odes, 10.148ff.

1240

Op. cit., Vol. II, 440.

1241

Ibid., Vol. II, 432-33.

1242

Ibid., Vol. II, 433.

1243

Ibid., Vol. II, 434.

1244

Ibid., Vol. II, 435.

1245

Ibid., Vol. I, 771.

1246

Ibid., Vol. II, 378.

1247

Eisler, Weltenmantel und Himmelszelt.

1248

Cook, op. cit., Vol. II, 435.

1249

Neumann, The Great Mother, 205.

1250

Sparks from the Vedic Fire, 42-43, 62ff.

1251

Patterns in Comparative Religion, 52.

1252

ONeill, The Night of the Gods, 836.

1253

Graves, The Greek Myths, 243, note 2.

1254

Cook, op. cit., Vol. II, 442-43.

1255

Quoted in Cook, op. cit., Vol II, 376.

1256

Ibid., 335.

1257

Op. cit., Vol. II, 381.

1258

Alexander, North American Mythology, 235.

1259

Massey, Ancient Egypt, 375.

1260

Pyramid Text. 1089.

1261

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, 6.

1262

Lacau, Traduction des Textes des Cercueils du Moyen Empire,52.

1263

Ibid., 37.

1264

Pyramid Texts 1690-91.

1265

Pyramid Text 1375.

1266

Pyramid Text 289.

1267

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, 261.

1268

Renouf, op. cit., 108.

1269

Lacau, op. cit., 48.

1270

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, 261.

1271

Ibid., 229.

1272

Faulkner, op, cit., 61.

1273

Ibid., 168.

1274

Pyramid Text 804.

1275

Pyramid Text 1375.

1276

Pyramid Text 262.

1277

Piankoff, Mythological Papyri, 210.

1278

Pyramid Text 996.

1279

Pyramid Texts 1292-93.

1280

Faulkner, op. cit., 232.

1281

Ibid., 237.

1282

Pyramid Text 1100.

1283

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the dead, 108.

1284

Pyramid Text 1087.

1285

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the dead, 594.

1286

Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods, 27.

1287

Ibid,. 21-27.

1288

Pyramid Text 1297.

1289

Op. cit., 19-20.

1290

Pyramid Text 373.

1291

Piankoff, The Shrines of Tut-Ankh-Amon, 118.

1292

Pyramid Text 310.

1293

Frankfort, op. cit,. 27.

1294

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the dead, 87.

1295

Ibid., 583.

1296

Ibid,. 72.

1297

Pyramid Text 901-2.

1298

Pyramid Text 263.

1299

Pyramid Text 33.

1300

Piankofff, Shrines of Tut-Ankh-Amon, 51.

1301

Piankoff, The Tomb of Ramesses VI, 324.

1302

Pyramid Text 406.

1303

Pyramid Text 666.

1304

Pyramid Text 234.

1305

Op. cit., 101.

1306

Like the Egyptian Horus and Set the Babylonian gates of the right and left are the twin fighters. Sayce, Lectures
on the Origin and Growth of Religion, 492; Jastrow, The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, 285.

1307

Wensinck, The Ideas of the Western Semites, 64.

1308

Agrawala, The Thousand Syllabled Speech, 106.

1309

Briffault, op. cit., Vol. III, 62, 163.

1310

Cook, op. cit., 49.

1311

Wensinck, The Ideas of the Western Semites, 169.

1312

Clifford, op. cit., 49.

1313

Briffault, op. cit., 192.

1314

Budge, Gods, Vol. I, 157; Budge, From Fetish to God in Ancient Egypt, 409

1315

Piankoff, The Litany of Re, 24.

1316

Ibid., 13.

1317

Renouf, op. cit., 107.

1318

Faulkner, op. cit., 243.

1319

Hassan, Hymnes Religieux du Moyen Empire, 72.

1320

Conrad, The Horn and the Sword, 102.

1321

Ibid., 39.

1322

Ibid., 38.

1323

Gelling, The Chariot of the Sun, 81-82; Bailey, The God-Kings and the Titans, 192;

1324

Whitney, Atharva Veda, Vol. II, 547.

1325

Campbell, Occidental Mythology, 204-5; Briffault, op. cit., Vol. III, 191.

1326

Brown, Researches into the Origins of the Primitive Constellations, Vol. II, 183; Cook, op. cit., Vol. III, 554.

1327

Op. cit., Vol. I, 3n.

1328

Clark, Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt, 88.

1329

Piankoff, Tomb of Ramesses VI, 125.

1330

Piankoff, Shrines of Tut-Ankh-Amon, 6.

1331

Concerning the Horned Cap of the Mesopotamian Gods, 319. See Hans Henning Van Der Osten, op. cit., fig. 22,
no. 114, 116, 128, 153, 168.
1332

Kramer, Sumerian Mythology, xii.

1333

Jeremias, op. cit., 99, fig. 70.

1334

Conrad, The Horn and the Sword, 89.

1335

Whitney, op. cit., Vol. II, 714.

1336

Darmesteter, The Zend Avesta, Part II, 237.

1337

Bleeker, Hathor and Thoth, 48.

1338

Pyramid Text 705.

1339

Piankoff, The Wandering of the Soul, 10.

1340

Lenormant, Chaldean Magic, 149.

1341

Kramer, The Sacred Marriage Rite, 59.

1342

Sayce, op. cit., 256.

1343

Eggeling, Satapatha-Brahamna II, Part II, 33.

1344

Pyramid Text 389.

1345

Piankoff, Litany of Re, 26.

1346

Pyramid Text 280, in Piankoff, The Pyramid of Unas.

1347

Pyramid Text 282-83.

1348

Newberry, Two Cults of the Old Kingdom, 24ff.

1349

Op. cit., fig. 26.

1350

Faulkner, op. cit., 148.

1351

Langdon, Semitic Mythology, 99.

1352

Brown, op. cit., Vol. I, 56.

1353

Lenormant, Les Origines, Vol. I, 116.

1354

Ibid.

1355

Uno Holmberg, Siberian Mythology, 331-2.

1356

Wensinck, The Ocean in the Literature of the Western Semites, 3.

1357

Perry, Lord of the Four Quarters, 182.

1358

Piankoff, Shrines of Tut-Ankh-Amon, 84.

1359

Renouf, op. cit., 114-15.

1360

Mackenzie, The Migration of Symbols, 18.

1361

Pyramid Text 425.

1362

Pyramid Text 1266. Another text reads: See among whom this King stands, the horns on his head being those of
two wild bulls, for you are a black ram, the son of a black ewe, whom a white ewe bore. Pyramid Text 252. In this
hymn one discerns the two primary forms of the cosmic twins. The twins, as the two wild or fighting bull, are simply
aspects of a singular horned god, whose horns alternately face opposing directions. But the twins also have to do with a
circle half light and half shadow, and this bisected enclosure is the womb of the great gods birth. Hence he is the son of
a black ewe, whom a white ewe bore.
1363

Lenormant, Les Origines, Vol. I, 114. In the symbolism of the Hindu Rig Veda it is the universal Bull and Cow who
together compose the primeval womb. They are like two inverted bowls uniting to form a common womb, writes
Agrawala. Thousand Syllabled Speech, 106.
1364

Op. cit., Vol. II, 495.

1365

Cited in Ibid.

1366

Ibid.

1367

Jastrow, Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, 654.

1368

Langdon, op. cit., 106.

1369

Brown, Eradinus: River and Constellation, 12.

1370

Brown, Researches, Vol I, 39.

1371

Philippi, The Kojiki, 115.

1372

Whitney, op. cit., Vol. I, 227.

1373

Dixon, Oceanic Mythology, 20.

1374

Melville, Children of the Rainbow, 37.

1375

Alexander, North American Mythology, 52.

1376

Winkler, Rock Drawings of Southern Egypt, no. 17, 22, and inset, pl. xxxiii; Piankoff, Tomb of Ramesses VI, 153.

1377

Campbell, Oriental Mythology, 69-70.

1378

Jeremias, op. cit., 243.

1379

Pyramid Text 792.

1380

Pyramid Text 1433.

1381

Faulkner, op. cit., 279.

1382

A Dissertation on the Cabiri, Vol I, 177-78.

1383

Op. cit., 576.

1384

Piankoff, Mythological Papyri, citing a text from the Shrines of Tut-Ankh-Amon.

1385

Faulkner, op. cit., 149.

1386

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the dead, 488.

1387

Ibid., 411.

1388

Vanderburgh, Sumerian Hymns from Cuneiform Texts in the British Museum, 44.

1389

Compare Budge, The Egyptian Book of the dead, 83.

1390

Pyramid Text.

1391

Budge, Gods, Vol. I, 443, citing the Book of the Dead, Chapter LXVI.

1392

Piankoff, Shrines of Tut-Ankh-Amon, 72.

1393

Lacau, op. cit., 33.

1394

Piankoff, Wandering of the Soul, 27.

1395

Budge, From Fetish to God, 401.

1396

Piankoff, The Tomb of Ramesses VI, 250.

1397

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the dead, 410.

1398

Ibid., 398.

1399

Piankoff, The Tomb of Ramesses VI, 239.

1400

Renouf, op. cit., 86.

1401

Ibid., 193.

1402

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the dead, 97, 135, 515, etc.

1403

Renouf, op. cit., 131.

1404

Pyramid Text 303.

1405

Budge, Osiris: the Egyptian Religion of Resurrection, Vol. I, 118.

1406

Op. cit., 61.

1407

Ibid., 60, 89.

1408

Faber, Origins, Vol. III, 24-27.

1409

Kramer, The Sacred Marriage Rite, 59, 64.

1410

Jastrow, Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, 655.

1411

Faber, Origins Vol. I, 330, 385; Vol. III, 43, 63.

1412

MacCulloch, Eddic Mythology, 275.

1413

A Dissertation, Vol. I, 106.

1414

Faber, Origins, Vol. I, 330, 363, 384.

1415

Ibid., Vol. III, 28-33.

1416

Piankoff, The Tomb of Ramesses VI, 153.

1417

Faber, Origins, Vol. I, 330; Vol. III, 30, 230. So also does the world navel appear in the form of a ship. Cook, op. cit.,
Vol. I, 355ff.;
1418

Faber, Origins, Vol. III, 222-27, 40-41, 89ff.

1419

Ibid., Vol. II, 263.

1420

Kerenyi, Asklepios, 5, fig. 3.

1421

Piankoff, Shrines of Tut-Ankh-Amon, 66.

1422

Piankoff, The Tomb of Ramesses VI, 273.

1423

A Dissertation, Vol. I, 177-78.

1424

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the dead, 13.

1425

Gragg, The Kes Temple Hymn, 168.

1426

Ibid.

1427

Faber gives several examples of ship-temples from India, Italy, and Ireland. Origins, Vol. II, 288-89.

1428

ONeill, Night of the Gods, 585; see references in Nibley, Tenting, Toll, and Taxing, 602, note 19.

1429

Origins, Vol. I, 195; see plate I, fig. 11, 22.

1430

Ibid., 192; Guenon, Le Roi du Monde, 92, note 4.

1431

Piankoff, Wandering of the Soul, 14.

1432

Ibid., 28.

1433

Pyramid Text 124.

1434

ONeill, op. cit., 820.

1435

Ibid.

1436

Neumann, op. cit., 256.

1437

Piankoff, Litany of Re, 64; Pyramid Texts 437, 1185.

1438

Asiatic Researches, Vol. III, 134.

1439

MacCulloch, Eddic Mythology, 157.

1440

Faber, Origins, Vol. III, 91-92, 177.

1441

Pyramid Text 336.

1442

Budge, The Egyptian jBook of the Dead, 230.

1443

Op. cit., 117, note 1.

1444

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the dead, 297.

1445

Faulkner, op.cit., 186. The close connection of the ship and the Mount of Glory is apparent in another hymn from
the same texts: The Great Ones who are in the Mount of Glory appear, the Followers of the Lords of all rejoice, the
crews and servants of the bark are glad, and those who are in the Mount of Glory are happy when they see you in this
dignity of yours. Ibid., 39.
1446

Pyramid Text 710-11.

1447

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the dead, 478.

1448

Faulkner, op. cit., 261.

1449

Renouf, op. cit., 166. A widespread association of the ship and the axis-pillar is noted by Cirlot: . . . Many
primitive peoples place ships on the end of a pole or on the roof of a house . . . all these forms, then, represent the axis
valley-mountain, or the symbolism of verticality and the idea of height. An obvious association here is with all the
symbols of the world-axis. A Dictionary of Symbols, 295.
1450

Origins, Vol. II, 20.

1451

Ibid, 382.

1452

Coomaraswamy, Symbolism of the Dome, 18. The mast of the cosmic ship of Life coincides with the vertical
axis of the house and the axle-tree of the chariot, writes Coomaraswamy. Ibid., 11.
1453

Sjberg and Bergmann, The Collection of the Sumerian Temple Hymns, 21, 67, 151.

1454

Origins, Vol. III, 205.

1455

Newberry, The Petty-Kingdom of the Harpoon and Egypts Earliest Mediterranean Port, 18n.

1456

Op. cit., 252.

1457

Ibid., 251.

1458

Pyramid Texts 1981-82

1459

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, 507.

1460

Renouf, op. cit., 259.

1461

Origins Vol II; see plate I, fig. 16.

1462

Suryakants, The Flood Legend in Sanskrit Literature, 4.

1463

Quoted in Perry, op. cit., 138.

1464

From Fetish ot God, 328.

1465

Op. cit., 62.

1466

Op. cit., 231.

1467

Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, 52.

1468

Ibid., 53; Pyramid Text 1431.

1469

Thus the dead king Pepi lives with his ka; he [the ka] expels the evil that is before Pepi, he removes the evil that is
behind Pepi, like the boomerangs of the lord of Letoplis [the cosmic city], which remove the evil that is before him and
expel the evil that is behind him. Pyramid Text 908, translated in Breasted, op. cit., 53.
1470

Piankoff, Mythological Papyri, 212

1471

Piankoff, The Tomb of Ramesses VI, 71.

1472

Ibid., 94.

1473

Ibid., 376.

1474

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, 388.

1475

Ibid., 86.

1476

Pyramid Text 160.

1477

Pyramid Text 151.

1478

Pyramid Texts 1653-54.

1479

Pyramid Text 212.

1480

Op. cit., 232.

1481

Piankoff, The Tomb of Ramesses VI, 93.

1482

Lacau, op. cit., 31.

1483

Hassan, op. cit., 12.

1484

Newberry, Two Cults of the Old Kingdom, 28.

1485

Piankoff, The Pyramid Text of Unas, 43.

1486

The Tomb of Ramesses VI, 21.

1487

Ibid., 21, quoting Pyramid Text 616.

1488

Ibid., 114.

1489

Faulkner, op. cit., 54.

1490

Ibid., 83.

1491

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the dead, 4.

1492

Pyramid Text 258.

1493

Erman, The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians, 59.

1494

Renouf, op. cit., 24.

1495

Piankoff, op. cit., The Shrines of Tut-Ankh-Amon, 19.

1496

Frankfort, op. cit., 67.

1497

Pyramid Text 847.

1498

Pyramid Text 1405.

1499

Darmesteter, op. cit., Part II, 146; Perry, op. cit., 138-39.

1500

nel, Les Origines de la Gense et lEnseignement des Temples de lAncienne gypte, 211.

1501

Piankofff, The Shrines of Tut-Ankh-Amon, 125.

1502

Clark, op. cit., 233.

1503

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the dead, 587.

1504

Budge, From Fetish to God, 401.

1505

The reader will have no difficulty seeing that the Aker glyph simply translates the image

1506

Piankoff, The Tomb of Ramesses VI, 71.

1507

Ibid.

1508

Ibid.

1509

Frankfort, op. cit., 69.

1510

Piankoff, Mythological Papyri, 37.

1511

Ibid., 39.

1512

Ibid., 38.

1513

Pyramid Text 1570-71.

1514

Pyramid Text 1353.

1515

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the dead, 17.

1516

Pyramid Text 1443.

1517

On the connection of Imdugud with Ninurta, see Jacobsen, Toward the Image of Tammuz, 4.

1518

Gaster, Myth , Legend and Custom in the Old Testament, 5.

1519

Melville, op. cit., 32.

1520

Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews Vol. I, 28-29; Graves and Patai, Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis, 55.

1521

Cook, op. cit., Vol. I, 342, citing Orphic Frag. 49, 3.

1522

Agrawala, Sparks from the Vedic Fire, 52-55.

1523

Frankfort, op. cit., 37.

1524

Ibid., 143.

1525

Reymond, The Mythical Origin of the Egyptian Temple, 16.

1526

Ibid., 120-21.

1527

Evelyn-White, Hesiod, The Homeric Hymns and Homerica, 459.

1528

Piankoff, Litany of Re, 54.

1529

Piankoff, The Tomb of Ramesses VI, 368.

1530

Op. cit., 173.

1531

Budge, I 74.

1532

Budge, Gods, Vol. I, 437.

1533

Patai, The Hebrew Goddess, 122; Lenormant, Les Origines, Vol.I, 112ff.

1534

Gelling, The Chariot of the Sun, 120ff.; Magoun, The Kalevala, 37-38; ONeill, op. cit., vol. II, 1,009, 1,012.

1535

Pyramid Text 595.

1536

Pyramid Text 1429.

1537

Pyramid Text 1176.

1538

Pyramid Text 1377.

1539

Piankoff, Shrines of Tut-Ankh-Amon, 46.

1540

Pyramid Text 1370.

1541

Pyramid Text 976.

1542

Pyramid Text 1742

1543

Op. cit., 39.

into leonine form.

1544

ONeill, op. cit., 220.

1545

Pyramid Text 389.

1546

Pyramid Text 2243.

1547

Sjberg and Bergmann, op. cit., 99.

1548

Albright, The Goddess of Life and Wisdom, 268, note 3.

1549

Van Buren, Symbols of the Gods in Mesopotamian Art, 96-99.

1550

Faulkner, op. cit., 68.

1551

Pyramid Text 312.

1552

Pyramid Text 1254.

1553

Budge, The Papyrus of Ani, 32.

1554

Reymond, op. cit., 68.

1555

Clark, op. cit., 67.

1556

Mariette, Denderah, 1, 55a.

1557

Roys, The Book of the Chilam Balam, 131.

1558

Ibid., 105.

1559

Sayce, op. cit., 238.

1560

Albright, The Mouth of the Rivers, 193.

1561

See, for example, the discussion in Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion, 290.

1562

Briffault, op. cit., Vol. I, 130.

1563

Ibid., 131.

1564

Roys, op. cit., 94.

1565

Combe, op. cit., 99.

1566

Coomaraswamy, Elements of Buddhist Iconography, 19-20.

1567

Ibid., 17-18.

1568

Morez and Schhubert, Der Gott auf der Blume, 38.

1569

Faber, Origins, Vol. II, 217; vol. I, 19. In Egyptian ritual there is also a fascinating relationship of the plant of life
and the outstretched arms of heaven (the Ka). Pyramid Text 544a has the king proclaiming himself to be the flower
which issued from the Ka.
1570

Budge, Gods, Vol. I, 413, 439.

1571

See example in Budge, Egyptian Book of the Dead, 29.

1572

Clark, op. cit., 163.

1573

Quoted in ONeill, op. cit., 467.

1574

Bhawe, The Soma Hymns of the Rig Veda, 82.

1575

Coomaraswamy, Elements of Buddhist Iconography, 89, note 139.

1576

Quoted in Ibid., 55.

1577

ONeill, op. cit., 400.

1578

Ibid., 290.

1579

Combe, op. cit., 11; Langdon, Semitic Mythology, 91.

1580

Langdon, op. cit., 27.

1581

Pyramid Text 240.

1582

Lenormant, Les Origines Vol. I, 129ff.

1583

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the dead, 476.

1584

Patterns 372.

1585

Eggeling, op. cit., Part I, 86.

1586

Ibid., 213, note 2.

1587

The Ideas of the Western Semites, 10.

1588

Ibid., 11.

1589

Ibid.

1590

Schwabe, Archetype und Tierkreis, 377ff.

1591

Piankoff, The Tomb of Ramesses VI, 217.

1592

Piankoff, Mythological Papyri, 76.

1593

Ibid., 37.

1594

Ibid.

1595

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the dead, 85.

1596

Quoted in Piankoff, Mythological Papyri, 30.

1597

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the dead, 314.

1598

Budge, The Papyrus of Ani, 27.

1599

Piankoff, Mythological Papyri, 93.

1600

Ibid., 79.

1601

Hail Re! His resting place is the Tuat; what he traverses is the Beautiful Amentet. Piankoff, Pyramid of Unas, 30.
The disk is in the Tuat, the disk rests in Amentet. Piankoff, Tomb of Ramesses VI, 376. The souls of Re in Amentet
are exalted, and in the zone of the Tuat the souls . . . cry out in their songs of exultation unto the soul of Re who
dwelleth therein . . . O yet Hetepu gods, grant yet that I may enter into the Tuat, and let me make a way into the
beautiful Amentet. Budge, Egyptian Book of the Dead, 612-13.
1602

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the dead, 387.

1603

Piankoff, The Tomb of Ramesses VI, 76.

1604

Pyramid Text 1038.

1605

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the dead, 516-17.

1606

Op. cit., 19.

1607

Nut encompasses and is heaven and earth, states Neumann. Op. cit., 223.

1608

Piankoff, Litany of Re, 169.

1609

Lacau, op. cit., 37.

1610

Budge, The Egyptian Book of the dead, 85.

1611

Ibid., 80.

1612

Coffin Text 118; see also spell 302.

1613

Op. cit., 1-3.