EPISODE 32 - THE APOCALYPSE
That night at the Gazette was like all the rest of the “get togethers” over the years except for Peter Downing. There was something towards the end that reminded him of the Apocalypse in the way it sounded like earth’s final hour. This sent Hans back to his library to research the subject and have something to talk about with Peter that hadn’t been said that night.
On the top shelf was a smallish book simply titled “Paganism.” He lit two large candles on each side of his big stuffed chair and began reading…The presence of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus marked that city as sacred to the Mystery religion, for the Seven Wonders of the ancient world were erected to indicate the respositories of knowledge. Ephesus was the origin of Buddhistic, Zoroastrian, and Chaldean philosophy. Also the reported home of Artemis, Multimamma, the last domicile of the Virgin Mary, and the tomb of St. John the Divine. According to legend St. John did not depart from this earth in a usual manner but, selecting his vault, entered it still alive, and closing it behind him, vanished forever from mortal sight.
The Apocalypse is by far one of the most important and least understood of Gnostic Christian writings. The authorship was disputed from the first and by the third century Dionysius of Alexandria and Eusebius declared the Revelation and the book of St. John were written by one Cerinthus who borrowed the name of the great apostle to better foist his own doctrines upon the Christians. Later Jerome, Luther, and Erasmus questioned the authorship.
There are three possible reasons to suspect the authorship of Revelation.
First, the weight of the evidence of its own contents may well pronounce a pagan writing—one of the sacred books of the Eleusinian or Phrygian Mysteries, setting forth the profundities of Egyptian and Greek mysticism.
Second, it is possible that the Book of Revelation was written to reconcile the seeming discrepancies between early Christian and pagan religious philosophies. The initiated pagans transferred their symbols to Christianity, concealing those eternal truths. The Apocalypse shows clearly the resultant fusion of pagan and Christian symbolism.
Thirdly, is the possibility of unscrupulous members of a certain religious order to undermine Christianity by satirizing it. They hoped to show the new faith to be merely a restatement of the ancient pagan doctrines.
In the opening chapter of the Apocalypse, St. John describes the Alpha and Omega who stood in the midst of the heavens among seven golden candlesticks, surrounded by his flaming planetary regents. The Logos-figure has snowy-white hair of Kronos (Father Time), the blazing eyes of Zeus, thw sword of Arcs, the shining face of Helios, the chiton and girdle of Aphrodite, feet of Hermes’ mercury, and the murmur of the ocean’s waves, alluding to Selene, the Moon-Goddess of the four seasons and of the waters.
The seven stars carried by this immense Being in his right hand are the Governors of the world: the flaming sword issuing from his mouth is the
Creative Fiat, or word of power, by which the illusion of material permanence is slain. Here is represented, in all his symbolic glory splendor, the hierophant of the Phrygian Mysteries. Seven priests bearing lamps are his attendants and the stars carried in his hand are the seven schools of the Mysteries whose power he administers.
In the second and third chapters, St. John delivers to the “seven churches which are in Asia” the injunctions received by him from the Alpha and Omega. The churches are here analogous to the rungs of a Mithraic ladder, and John, being “in the spirit,” ascended through the orbits of the seven sacred planets until he reached the inner surface of the Empyrean. When related to the Eastern system of metaphysics, these churches represent the chakras, or nerve ganglia, along the human spine, the “door in heaven” being the brahmarandra, or the point in the crown of the skull (Golgotha), through which the spinal spirit fire passes to liberation. The seven churches also signify the Greek vowels, of which Alpha and Omega are the first and the last.
The fourth and fifth chapters describes the throne of God, surrounded by 24 lesser seats of elders in white garments and crowns of gold. Out of the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices; there were seven lamps representing the seven Spirits of God. In His right hand, a book with seven seals which no man in heaven or earth has been worthy to open. Then appeared a Lamb (Aries) which had been slain, it had seven horns (rays) and seven eyes (lights). The Lamb took the book from His right hand and four beasts and all the elders fell down and worshipped God and the Lamb. During the early centuries the lamb was universally recognized as a symbol of Christ. The Persians were the only people to put Aries at the first of the zodiac signs. The ancient pagans used the lamb as a sin offering. It has been highly venerated by Greeks, Egyptians, Scandinaviams, and used by Freemasonry as an apron symbolized by Typhon or Judas.
The sixth through eleventh chapters are the account of the opening of the seven seals on the book held by the Lamb. When the first seal was broken, there rode a man (birth) on a white horse wearing a crown and holding a bow. When the second seal was broken, there rode a man (youth) on a red horse and in his hand a great sword. When the third seal was broken, a man (maturity) rode forth with a pair of balances in his hand. And when the fourth seal was broken there rode forth Death upon a pale horse and hell followed after him. In Eastern philosophy these horsemen signify the four yugas, or ages, of the world which, riding forth at: their appointed times, become for a certain span the rulers of creation. The first horse represents fire ether, called Jupiter had wings, very fleet, highest place in the order, body had images of the sun, moon, stars, and all the bodies of the ethereal regions. The second horse represents the element of air called Juno, The side facing the sun became luminous signifying the diurnal and nocturnal conditions of air. The third horse signifying water was Neptune, who had a heavy gait and small circle. The fourth horse signified the static element of earth called Vesta, described as immovable and at the same time champing at the bit. In the end the fiery horse of Jupiter will consume the other horses, purified by reabsorption in the fiery ether, they will come forth renewed, constituting “a new heaven and a new earth.”
When the fifth seal was opened St. John beheld those who had died for the word of God.
When the sixth seal was broken there was a great earthquake, the sun became darkened, moon became like blood, the angels of the winds came forth, and another angel who sealed on their foreheads 144,000 of the children of Israel that they should be preserved against the awful day of tribulation. In the Pythagorean system of numerical philosophy, the number 144,000 is reduced to 9, the mystic symbol of man and also the number of initiation, he who passes through the nine degrees of the Mysteries receives the sign of the cross as a symbol of his regeneration and liberation from his infernal or inferior nature.
There was a small knock at the door. Hans said to enter and Matoaka came in with a tray of food as it was lunchtime. Corn beef sandwiches, cheese, crackers, and a bottle of Zinfandel were neatly arranged with a finger bowl and napkins. He invited her to stay and he would read out loud so they could discuss the Apocalypse as he read along. She was used to discussing topics of Rebecca’s editorials and enjoyed being asked her opinion. But Rebecca was writing about the Indians most of the time and she had insight into many of the customs that were being discussed. What Hans wanted to talk about would be foreign to her for the most part. She liked Hans and since she was caught up on her duties and Rebecca wasn’t due for another few hours she said she’d be happy to join in the hunt for knowledge. He went over the previous material in a quick summary of all he had read.
She listened to the entire catch up session, then she said she had a myth for him. This is Iroquois. but it has universal content. In the beginning there was no earth to live on, but up above, in the Great Blue, there was a woman who dreamed dreams. One night she dreamed about a tree covered with white blossoms, a tree that brightened up the sky when its flowers opened but that brought terrible darkness when they closed again. The dream frightened her, so she went and told it to the wise old men who lived with her in their village in the sky. “Pull up this tree,” she begged them, but they did not understand. All they did was dig around its roots, to make space for more light. But the tree just fell through the hole they had made and disappeared. After that there was no light at all, only darkness. The old men grew frightened of the woman and her dreams. It was her fault that the light had disappeared forever. So they dragged her toward the hole and pushed her through as well. Down, down she fell, down toward the great emptiness. There was nothing below her but a heaving waste of water. She would surely have been smashed to pieces, this strange dreaming woman from the Great Blue, had not a fish hawk come to her aid. His feathers made a pillow for her and she drifted gently above the waves. But the fish hawk could not keep her up all on his own. He needed help. So he called out to the creatures of the deep. “We must find some firm ground for this poor woman to rest on,” he said anxiously. But there was no ground, only the swirling, endless waters. A helldiver went down, down, down to the very bottom of the sea and brought back a little bit of mud in his beak. He found a turtle, smeared the mud onto its back, and dived down again for more. Then the ducks joined in. They loved getting muddy and they too brought beaks full of the ocean floor and spread it over the turtle’s shell. The beavers helped — they were great builders — and they worked away, making the shell bigger and bigger. Everybody was very busy now and everybody was excited. This world they were making seemed to be growing enormous! The birds and the animals rushed about building countries, the continents, until, in the end, they had made the whole round earth, while all the time they sky woman was safely sitting on the turtle’s back. And the turtle holds the earth up to this very day.
Hans listened then said he had a myth to tell her from his people on how the earth and man were created. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day. And God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” And God made the firmament and separated the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day. And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. And God said, “let the earth put forth vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, upon the earth.” And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a third day. And God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day. And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the firmament of the heavens.” So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day. And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds, cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and the cattle according to their kinds, and everything that creeps upon the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed which is upon the face of all earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all his work which he had done in creation.
She’d heard the Judeo-Christian myth before from Seabreeze when she first came to work for the family. But it did remind her of a Salish myth. Old-Man-in-the-Sky created the world. Then he drained all the water off the earth and crowded it into the big salt holes now called the oceans. The land became dry except for the lakes and rivers. Old Man Coyote often became lonely and went up to the Sky World just to talk. One time he was so unhappy that he was crying. Old- Man-in-the-Sky questioned him. “Why are you so unhappy that you are crying? Have I not made much land for you to run around on? Are not Chief Beaver, Chief Otter, Chief Bear, and Chief Buffalo on the land to keep you company?” Old Man Coyote sat down and cried more tears. Old-Man-in-the-Sky became cross and began to scold him. “Foolish Old Man Coyote, you must not drop so much water down upon the land. Have I not worked many days to dry it? Soon you will have it all covered with water again. What is the trouble with you? What more do you want to make you happy?” “I am very lonely because I have no one to talk to,” he replied. “Chief Beaver, Chief Otter, Chief Bear, and Chief Buffalo are busy with their families. They do not have time to visit with me. I want people of my own, so that I may watch over them.” “Then stop this shedding of water,” said Old-Man-in-the-Sky. “If you will stop annoying me with your visits, I will make people for you. Take this parfleche. It is a bag made of rawhide. Take it some place in the mountain where there is red earth. Fill it and bring it back up to me.” Old Man Coyote took the bag made of the skin of an animal and traveled many days and nights. At last he came to a mountain where there was much red soil. He was very weary after such a long journey but he managed to fill the parfleche. Then he was sleepy. “I will lie down to sleep for a while. When I waken, I will run swiftly back to Old-Man-in-the-Sky.” He slept very soundly. After a while, Mountain Sheep came along. He saw the bag and looked to see what was in it. “The poor fool has come a long distance to get such a big load of red soil,” he said to himself. “I do not know what he wants it for, but I will have fun with him.” Mountain Sheep dumped all of the red soil out upon the mountain. He filled the lower part of the parfleche with white solid, and the upper part with red soil. Then laughing heartily, he ran to his hiding place. Soon Old Man Coyote woke up. He tied the top of the bag and hurried with it to Old-Man-in-the-Sky. When he arrived with it, the sun was going to sleep. It was so dark that the two of them could hardly see the soil in the parfleche. Old-Man-in-the-Sky took the dirt and said, “I will make this soil into the forms of two men and two women.” He did not see that half of the soil was red and the other half white. Then he said to Old Man Coyote, “Take these to the dry land below. They are your people. You can talk with them. So do not come up here to trouble me.” Then he finished shaping the two men and two women — in the darkness. Old Man Coyote put them in the parfleche and carried them down to dry land. In the morning he took them out and put breath into them. He was surprised to see that one pair was red and the other was white. “Now I know that Mountain Sheep came while I was asleep. I cannot keep these two colors together.” He thought a while. Then he carried the white ones to the land by the big salt hole. The red ones he kept in his own land so that he could visit with them. That is how Indians and white people came to the earth.
Hans said white people were taken to Europe as well because that’s where most white come from. Matoaka said myths are like theories that explain what you can see and what you can’t. Hans enjoyed the stories but was anxious to return to his book. After a moment of silence he picked up where he had stopped when the knock at the door occurred.
When the seventh seal was broken, there was silence for the space of half of an hour. Then came forth seven angels, each with a trumpet, and sounded the seven-lettered Name of the Logos, and great catastrophes ensued. A star, named Wormwood, fell from the heaven, thereby signifying that the secret doctrine of the ancients had been given to men who had profaned it and caused the wisdom of God to become a destructive agency. And another star fell representing the false light of human reason and to it was given a key to the bottomless pit (Nature), which it opened, causing all manner of evil creatures to issue forth. There also came a mighty angel, clothed in a cloud, with a face like the sun, feet and legs like pillars of fire, with one foot upon the waters and the other upon the land. This angel gave St. John a little book, bidding him to eat it, which he did. The little book represents the secret doctrine of the wisdom of God and the hunger of his soul was appeased.
The twelfth chapter tells of a great wonder appearing in the heavens: a woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of 12 stars. The woman represents the constellation Virgo and Isis who is about to bear her child Horus who is attacked by Typhon in an attempt to slay the child predestined to destroy the Spirit of Evil. The evil dragon tried to destroy the Virgin and her son with a flood of false doctrines but the earth swallowed up the false doctrines and the Mysteries endured.
The thirteenth chapter describes a great beast which rose out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, the symbol of horror and destruction. The seven heads represent the seven stars in the Great Dipper, the ten horns are the ten primitive patriarchs and the ancient zodiac of ten signs. The number of the beast (Antichrist) 666 comes out to 666 no matter which analysis one uses. The Qabbalists, Greek, and Christian names for the Antichrist all come out to 666.
The fourteenth chapter opens with the Lamb standing on Mount Zion with the 144,000 that have the name of God on their foreheads. Two angels appear; one (Perseus) on a cloud with a bright sickle to reap the initiate who has reached the point of liberation, the other (Bootes) Death with a sickle (Karma) to reap those who have lived by a false light and cast them down into the winepress of the wrath of God (the purgatorial spheres).
The fifteenth to eighteenth chapters are the account of seven angels (the Pleiades) who pour their vials upon the earth, the contents are called the seven last plagues. Also introduced is the symbolic “harlot of Babylon”, a woman seated on a scarlet-colored beast with seven heads and ten horns, with purple and scarlet robe bedecked with gold, precious stones and pearls, holding a golden cup of abominations. This figure may be an effort to vilify Cybele, Artemis, or the Great Mother goddess of antiquity. Because the pagans venerated the Mater Deorum through symbols appropriate to the feminine generative principle the early Christians accused them of worshipping a courtesan.
The nineteenth and twentieth chapters describe the preparation of the sacrament called the marriage of the Lamb. St. John saw the heavens open up and a white horse, and the rider (the illuminated mind) which sat upon it was called the Faithful and True. Out of his mouth issued a sharp sword and the armies of heaven followed after him. Upon the plains of heaven was fought the mystic Armageddon—the last great war between light and darkness. Evil is vanquished and the beast and the false prophet are cast into a lake if fiery brimstone. Satan is bound for a thousand years. Then the last judgment arrives, when the books will be opened, including the Book of Life. At this time the dead are judged according to their works and those whose names are not in the Book of Life are cast into the sea of fire. To the Mysteries neophyte the war was between the Persian Ahriman and the forces of good under Ahura-Mazda representing the last struggle between the flesh and the spirit when, finally overcoming the world, the illuminated soul rises to union with its spiritual Self. The judgment signifies the weighing of the soul and was borrowed from the Mysteries of Osiris. The rising of the dead represents consummation of human regeneration. The sea of fire was for those who fail in initiation and fall back into the animal world.
The twenty-first and twenty-second chapters are telling of the new heaven and the new earth to be established at the close of Ahriman’s reign. St. John beheld the New Jerusalem descending as a bride adorned for her husband. The Holy City represents the regenerated and perfected world, the true ashlar of the Mason, for the city is a perfect cube. The foundation consisted of 144 stones in 12 rows. The transparent streets of gold are the streams of spiritual light along which an initiate travels towards the sun. There is no temple in the city, for God and the Lamb are the temple. And St. John beheld a river, the Water of Life, which proceeded out of the throne of the Lamb. There is also a Tree of Life (the spirit) bearing 12 manner of fruit, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations. Though initiates walk the earth as ordinary mortals, they are of a world apart and through their ceaseless efforts the kingdom of God is slowly but surly being established on earth. These illuminated souls are the builders of the New Jerusalem, and their bodies are the living stones in its walls. For this reason they declare that virtuous and illuminated men, instead of ascending to heaven, will bring heaven down and establish it in the midst of the earth itself.
Mato sat looking out the high, narrow windows with the stained glass on the top half. Although the pattern was not of anything in particular, she still saw the images in the random pieces of colored glass depicting the scene being described. Sunset threw a reddish glow on all the glass and she couldn’t pull her eyes away even when Hans had stopped reading. Hans stared at the Indian princess, she seemed to glow in the darkening room, alight surrounded her head and he felt unworthy to be in her presence.
TO BE CONTINUED