Hermetic Garden & Mystery Tower
VIDEO: http://vimeo.com/13114505
Set to the music composed by St. Germain, walk in magician and philosopher St. Germain's footsteps in his last home, mystery school, temple and laboratory. He lived at Louisenlund in the later 1700s with his patron Landgrave Karl von Hessen-Kassel (1744-1836). They conducted experiments and initiations in the Hermetic Garden, among the megalithic stones and in St. Germain's Gothic alchemical tower - “All Brothers in Art”, Philosophers of Nature. All life is fire, the soul of things, the light that emanates from it is Our mercury and this all rises from the salt of the earth.
http://www.esoteric.msu.edu/VolumeV/Freemasonill.html
Set to the music composed by St. Germain, walk in magician and philosopher St. Germain's footsteps in his last home, mystery school, temple and laboratory. He lived at Louisenlund in the later 1700s with his patron Landgrave Karl von Hessen-Kassel (1744-1836). They conducted experiments and initiations in the Hermetic Garden, among the megalithic stones and in St. Germain's Gothic alchemical tower - “All Brothers in Art”, Philosophers of Nature. All life is fire, the soul of things, the light that emanates from it is Our mercury and this all rises from the salt of the earth.
http://www.esoteric.msu.edu/VolumeV/Freemasonill.html
In the Garden with St. Germain
VIDEO - St. Germain's Hermetic Garden & Tower
http://www.vimeo.com/12695519
By Iona Miller, ©2010
Walk in St. Germain's footsteps in his last home, temple and laboratory. He lived at Louisenlund in the later 1700s with his patron Landgrave Karl von Hessen-Kassel (1744-1836). They conducted experiments and initiations in the Hermetic Garden, among the megalithic stones and in St. Germain's Gothic alchemical tower. Despite legends to the contrary, he most likely died there in 1784 after contracting pneumonia, as local church records show. The host family are a nexus of masonic and red dragon lineage and now pervade European royalty http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t_SxrjNrm8&feature=related
SEX MAGIC? Karl von Hessen-Kassel, on the other hand, occupied himself almost exclusively with alchemy, theosophy, astrology, and high-occult science. Besides being a Regent in the Bavarian Illuminati, Karl was a Grand Master of Regular Freemasonry, the Strict Observance, and the Asiatic Brethren. The latter affiliation had brought him into contact with Frankism.
The Frankists - named after Jacob Frank (1726-91) - of whom many belonged to the Asiatic Brethren - were a continuation of the Jewish heretical sect of Sabbatai Zevi (1626-76). They practiced the Kabbalah and indulged in antinomianism, orgies, and sexual rituals reminiscent of the rites portrayed in Eyes Wide Shut.
Furthermore, as T. Allen Greenfield has observed, it "should be noted, and more than in passing, that Baron Frank's sexual movement among the Jews coincided with the birth and flourishing of the so-called 'Hellfire Clubs' of England and France, the Elect Cohens and later Martinists of France, and other communities with similar ideas and practices of sacred sexuality." (And it should also be noted that within these occult Orders, the nobility comprised a good part of its membership.)
PERPETUAL MOTION PATRONAGE?: http://thefutureofthings.com/column/1008/orffyreus-and-leibniz-part-2.html Despite Leibniz’s warm words, Prince Karl was still weary of deception. He agreed to the patronage, on the condition that he will be allowed to look at the wheel’s inner mechanism.
Orffyreus was in no financial state to refuse. After some bargaining with the suspicious inventor, Prince Karl agreed to pay him four thousand Thalers in exchange for the privilege of peeking through the leather cover. He also gave his word of honor that he will tell no one what he saw.
The prince inspected the invention, and became convinced that no deception was involved. It is unclear if Karl was knowledgeable in mechanics or physics. Some of the rulers in his time (similarly to some politicians today) were not educated people. Still, Karl wrote in his diary that he was surprised by the invention’s simplicity. “Even a carpenter’s apprentice can build such a simple device. I’m surprised no one had thought about this before.” But the honest prince kept his word and took the secrets of the wheel’s inner workings to his grave.
Orffyreus was given a workshop in Castle Weissenstein and started working on the biggest wheel he had ever built, some 4 meters across. Prince Karl stationed a guard at the room’s entrance, to keep the curious public out. Orffyreus, suspicious as ever, placed his own guards to watch over the prince’s guards. All of the guards, however, thought that working near the paranoid and nervous inventor was a nightmare, and the workshop guarding shifts were sometimes given as punishments to guards who had misbehaved.
At last, the big moment arrived and the new machine was ready. The crowds swarmed to the castle to see this wonder. Some of the visitors left the demonstration amazed and were convinced they had just witnessed a great wonder. Others thought that they were victims of some sort of cunning trickery.
There was great pressure on Prince Karl to prove this invention was authentic- his name and financial future depended on it. He declared the ultimate examination: the inspection that will remove any suspicions of wrong doing once and for all, in order to prove to the whole world that this wheel is in fact a Perpetual Motion Machine.
A Crucial Examination Orffyreus’s wheel
(Source: besslerwheel.com)
Prince Karl’s examination committee decided to test how long Orffyreus’s device could operate without an external source of energy. The concept of ‘energy balance’- measuring how much energy entered the system versus how much energy left it- was still unknown. Theoretically, a Perpetual Motion Machine should be able to continue working forever. Still, the committee members were highly suspicious of Orffyreus, and weary of deceit. All of the members were honest and respectable gentlemen. Some of them were excellent men of science, such as Johann Christian Wolff, a well known professor who was also the personal advisor of Czar Peter the Great in matters of science and technology.
After some debate it was decided that the test will be carried out in the following fashion: the wheel will be dismantled and transferred to a large room in the castle, a room with thick, strong walls and no windows. The machine will be placed in the center of the room, as far away from the walls as possible. A committee member will give the wheel its initial push and then everybody, Orffyreus included, will leave the room. The heavy iron door will be locked, and the lock covered with wax, on which Prince Karl will stamp his own personal royal seal, as well as the seals of the other committee members. This will make opening the door impossible without having to fake all the seals. Prince Karl placed a guard near the door, just in case.
Two weeks later, the committee decided spontaneously and without consulting the inventor, to check the wheel. The unbroken seals were checked, and the door was opened. The wheel was still turning at the same speed it had two weeks before.
They closed the door again, this time for well over a month. When the wheel was again checked, the result was the same. The committee members were very impressed. Despite all of their best efforts, they could not find even a hint of deception. Prince Karl was overjoyed from this success and made sure the examination’s results became widely known.
During the 18th century, freemasonry provided a social network for men of different walks of life, including many aristocrats, intellectuals, artists and architects. Membership of a masonic order was socially accepted at the time and it was even fashionable to make one’s membership subtly known to others, for instance through the use of domestic objects with symbolic decorations. Also the decoration of houses could be used in this respect.
In the same time period, garden design and landscape art incorporated classical, mythological and religious symbolism, and gardens became an expression of the status, personality and learning of their owners. It was not uncommon for a garden design to include ‘hidden’ symbolism, for the path through a garden to reflect a journey of initiation, or for architectural follies to be built in the shape of masonic temples. This symbolism was purposefully ‘hidden’, meant to be discovered by the initiated or to enlighten the visitor with new insights. Today, we are no longer familiar with common 18th century iconography and unable to read the visual clues to the meaning of such gardens.
Art historical approaches and heritage preservation policies are traditionally based on Christian iconography, and have largely overlooked the importance of masonic and esoteric symbolism to art, architecture and garden design. Recent academic studies, however, have shown the importance of masonic heritage to our cultural collective heritage and brought the hidden symbolism in historical gardens to the center of attention.
http://www.vimeo.com/12695519
By Iona Miller, ©2010
Walk in St. Germain's footsteps in his last home, temple and laboratory. He lived at Louisenlund in the later 1700s with his patron Landgrave Karl von Hessen-Kassel (1744-1836). They conducted experiments and initiations in the Hermetic Garden, among the megalithic stones and in St. Germain's Gothic alchemical tower. Despite legends to the contrary, he most likely died there in 1784 after contracting pneumonia, as local church records show. The host family are a nexus of masonic and red dragon lineage and now pervade European royalty http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t_SxrjNrm8&feature=related
SEX MAGIC? Karl von Hessen-Kassel, on the other hand, occupied himself almost exclusively with alchemy, theosophy, astrology, and high-occult science. Besides being a Regent in the Bavarian Illuminati, Karl was a Grand Master of Regular Freemasonry, the Strict Observance, and the Asiatic Brethren. The latter affiliation had brought him into contact with Frankism.
The Frankists - named after Jacob Frank (1726-91) - of whom many belonged to the Asiatic Brethren - were a continuation of the Jewish heretical sect of Sabbatai Zevi (1626-76). They practiced the Kabbalah and indulged in antinomianism, orgies, and sexual rituals reminiscent of the rites portrayed in Eyes Wide Shut.
Furthermore, as T. Allen Greenfield has observed, it "should be noted, and more than in passing, that Baron Frank's sexual movement among the Jews coincided with the birth and flourishing of the so-called 'Hellfire Clubs' of England and France, the Elect Cohens and later Martinists of France, and other communities with similar ideas and practices of sacred sexuality." (And it should also be noted that within these occult Orders, the nobility comprised a good part of its membership.)
PERPETUAL MOTION PATRONAGE?: http://thefutureofthings.com/column/1008/orffyreus-and-leibniz-part-2.html Despite Leibniz’s warm words, Prince Karl was still weary of deception. He agreed to the patronage, on the condition that he will be allowed to look at the wheel’s inner mechanism.
Orffyreus was in no financial state to refuse. After some bargaining with the suspicious inventor, Prince Karl agreed to pay him four thousand Thalers in exchange for the privilege of peeking through the leather cover. He also gave his word of honor that he will tell no one what he saw.
The prince inspected the invention, and became convinced that no deception was involved. It is unclear if Karl was knowledgeable in mechanics or physics. Some of the rulers in his time (similarly to some politicians today) were not educated people. Still, Karl wrote in his diary that he was surprised by the invention’s simplicity. “Even a carpenter’s apprentice can build such a simple device. I’m surprised no one had thought about this before.” But the honest prince kept his word and took the secrets of the wheel’s inner workings to his grave.
Orffyreus was given a workshop in Castle Weissenstein and started working on the biggest wheel he had ever built, some 4 meters across. Prince Karl stationed a guard at the room’s entrance, to keep the curious public out. Orffyreus, suspicious as ever, placed his own guards to watch over the prince’s guards. All of the guards, however, thought that working near the paranoid and nervous inventor was a nightmare, and the workshop guarding shifts were sometimes given as punishments to guards who had misbehaved.
At last, the big moment arrived and the new machine was ready. The crowds swarmed to the castle to see this wonder. Some of the visitors left the demonstration amazed and were convinced they had just witnessed a great wonder. Others thought that they were victims of some sort of cunning trickery.
There was great pressure on Prince Karl to prove this invention was authentic- his name and financial future depended on it. He declared the ultimate examination: the inspection that will remove any suspicions of wrong doing once and for all, in order to prove to the whole world that this wheel is in fact a Perpetual Motion Machine.
A Crucial Examination Orffyreus’s wheel
(Source: besslerwheel.com)
Prince Karl’s examination committee decided to test how long Orffyreus’s device could operate without an external source of energy. The concept of ‘energy balance’- measuring how much energy entered the system versus how much energy left it- was still unknown. Theoretically, a Perpetual Motion Machine should be able to continue working forever. Still, the committee members were highly suspicious of Orffyreus, and weary of deceit. All of the members were honest and respectable gentlemen. Some of them were excellent men of science, such as Johann Christian Wolff, a well known professor who was also the personal advisor of Czar Peter the Great in matters of science and technology.
After some debate it was decided that the test will be carried out in the following fashion: the wheel will be dismantled and transferred to a large room in the castle, a room with thick, strong walls and no windows. The machine will be placed in the center of the room, as far away from the walls as possible. A committee member will give the wheel its initial push and then everybody, Orffyreus included, will leave the room. The heavy iron door will be locked, and the lock covered with wax, on which Prince Karl will stamp his own personal royal seal, as well as the seals of the other committee members. This will make opening the door impossible without having to fake all the seals. Prince Karl placed a guard near the door, just in case.
Two weeks later, the committee decided spontaneously and without consulting the inventor, to check the wheel. The unbroken seals were checked, and the door was opened. The wheel was still turning at the same speed it had two weeks before.
They closed the door again, this time for well over a month. When the wheel was again checked, the result was the same. The committee members were very impressed. Despite all of their best efforts, they could not find even a hint of deception. Prince Karl was overjoyed from this success and made sure the examination’s results became widely known.
During the 18th century, freemasonry provided a social network for men of different walks of life, including many aristocrats, intellectuals, artists and architects. Membership of a masonic order was socially accepted at the time and it was even fashionable to make one’s membership subtly known to others, for instance through the use of domestic objects with symbolic decorations. Also the decoration of houses could be used in this respect.
In the same time period, garden design and landscape art incorporated classical, mythological and religious symbolism, and gardens became an expression of the status, personality and learning of their owners. It was not uncommon for a garden design to include ‘hidden’ symbolism, for the path through a garden to reflect a journey of initiation, or for architectural follies to be built in the shape of masonic temples. This symbolism was purposefully ‘hidden’, meant to be discovered by the initiated or to enlighten the visitor with new insights. Today, we are no longer familiar with common 18th century iconography and unable to read the visual clues to the meaning of such gardens.
Art historical approaches and heritage preservation policies are traditionally based on Christian iconography, and have largely overlooked the importance of masonic and esoteric symbolism to art, architecture and garden design. Recent academic studies, however, have shown the importance of masonic heritage to our cultural collective heritage and brought the hidden symbolism in historical gardens to the center of attention.
Nearer to the Great Architect in a Garden
Christopher McIntosh Studies Symbolism and Garden Design
The head of the Asiatic Brethren in the 1780s and 1790s was the Landgrave Carl von Hessen-Kassel, one of the most fascinating and influential figures at the time in the world of Masonry, Rosicrucianism and hermetic studies. He not only belonged to innumerable orders and rites, but he was a practicing alchemist and was a friend of the mysterious French alchemist, the Comte de St. Germain, whom he harbored during the last years of St. Germain’s life on his estate Louisenlund in what is now Schleswig-Holstein, which he turned into a great center of Masonic and esoteric activity.
The park at Louisenlund (about an hour’s drive northwest of Kiel) was laid out in the form of an initiatic journey that involved the candidate passing through a dense wood finding his way through a labyrinth and encountering various alchemical and allegorical images along the way.
In the park was an alchemist’s tower with a laboratory and a room where Masonic rituals were conducted. There was also a pond with a secret grotto concealed behind a waterfall, in which the most solemn rituals were held. Over the years, unfortunately, most of these symbolic features have disappeared. All that remains of the alchemist’s tower, for example, is this Egyptian stone doorway which was moved to a different position, and cemented into the wall of a stable building where it stands completely out of context. Today this property belongs to a private school.
At first sight you might not think that there is much of a connection between gardens and Freemasonry. Masonic symbolism is surely all about architecture, and gardening is about working with things that grow. Nevertheless there is a connection, in fact many connections, and if this seems far-fetched it may be because we need to widen our conception of both gardening and what a ‘masonic garden’ might be.
A garden, like a building, can convey a deliberate message. If, for example, you visit Chartres Cathedral, you experience not just a construction of stone and mortar but a kind of ‘book’ in which you can read the world view and beliefs of the medieval Christian mind. Similarly to visit, say, the gardens of the Alhambra or the Generalife at Granada in Spain is to catch a glimpse of the Islamic world view, in which gardens are intended to give a foretaste of paradise. In fact, the very word ‘paradise’ comes from an old Persian word meaning a walled garden. The thought expressed in the saying ‘nearer to God in a garden’ has a long history.
The idea of the garden as an image of paradise is one that goes back some 5,000 years to ancient Mesopotamia being mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh. This was largely an arid region, where people longed for green shady places with plenty of water. It was natural to think of the gods and the privileged human beings who had become immortal as dwelling in a garden. This idea mingled with the notion of a primal garden, the Garden of Eden, in which there were four rivers, which flowed out into the wider world from a central source: ‘Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads,’ states Genesis.
In the Koran these become rivers of water, wine, milk and honey, and this is reflected in the typical design of Islamic gardens with four water channels. In the center, where the channels meet, there is often a fountain representing the primal source of the four rivers. In the Islamic garden these elements are part of a whole symbolic pattern in which plants, buildings and other garden features all have their special significance.
The paradise garden tradition also has its echoes outside the Islamic world. One of the features of paradise according to the ancient writings is a sacred mound or hill, which stood in the center and was sometimes combined with a fountain or spring. At one time paradise mounds were a popular garden feature, and a few of them survive. Examples in England include those at Little Moreton Hall in Cheshire, Packwood House in Warwickshire and New College, Oxford.
Apart from the paradise garden tradition we can find many examples in different cultures of the use of gardens to convey a symbolic message. These include the gardens of China with their immortal rocks and careful balancing of earth energies, the serene Zen gardens of Japan, the gardens of Renaissance Italy with their rich mythological imagery, even the landscaped parks of England such as Stourhead, which symbolically reproduces the journey of Virgil’s hero, Aeneas, around the Mediterranean. There are also quite a number of striking modern examples such as the remarkable Tarot Garden in Tuscany, created by the French sculptress Niki de Saint Phalle featuring enormous figures representing the Tarot trumps, some of them as large as a house.
A visual language
While a garden can be made to contain infinite number of different messages, the visual ‘language’ used convey them has basically three different elements. First there is the overall form of the garden, the shape of the perimeter and the internal divisions, the compass alignments, the degree of symmetry or asymmetry. Secondly, there are the natural or man-made features: mounds, water channels, fountains, labyrinths, statues, monuments. Third, there are the plants with their symbolic associations.
A plant has many different meanings and associations depending on the region and cultural context. In the west we can think, for example, of the laurel, sacred to Apollo and symbolizing glory and poetic inspiration, the oak, sacred to Jupiter, the ivy and the vine, sacred to Bacchus, and of course the acacia, with its well-known symbolic associations in Freemasonry.
Considering that gardens have been used for so long to convey symbolic messages of one kind or another, it is natural to wonder if they have they ever been used to convey a masonic message, as the architectural historian James Stevens Curl argues in his book The Art and Architecture of Freemasonry. We would expect the ‘masonic garden’ to be filled with features that point to masonic ideas, creating what I have described as a ‘symbol-strewn landscape’. A landowner wishing to create such a landscape could turn to the pictures often found on masonic diplomas and aprons as well as in books on Freemasonry. Many of these depict landscapes full of things alluding to masonic tradition: ruined classical temples, pyramids, obelisks, broken columns as well as symbolic creatures such as lions, sphinxes and snakes.
Symbolic gardens
One place reminiscent of such a landscape is the Parc de Monceau in Paris, with its Roman colonnade, pyramid, stone archway, obelisk and other romantic follies. The park was originally laid out in the 18th century for the Duc de Chartres, a leading Freemason of the time, so it is tempting to see a masonic influence in its design. The same is true of another French 18th-century park, the Désert de Retz, near Marly, created by François de Monville, also a Freemason. The park featured, among other things, a grotto guarded by torch-bearing satyrs, a pyramid that served as an ice-house, and a house shaped like a gigantic broken column of the Tuscan order, in which de Monville himself lived. Several of the features found in one or other of these parks, such as the pyramid, the obelisk and the broken column, also appear in the early painted Master’s aprons.
Turning to Italy, we can detect masonic influences in the Torrigiani garden in Florence, created in the early nineteenth century by the architect Luigi Cambray Digny for the Marquess Pietro Torrigiani; both were members of the same Florentine masonic lodge. The original features of the garden, most of which have now vanished, included a statue of Osiris at the entrance, a Gothic basilica, a sepulchre, a huge statue of Saturn and a Gothic tower built on a high point of the garden.
The initiating journey
Common to the gardens just mentioned is that they are laid out so as to create an initiatory journey, a theme that features in Craft Masonry and in a number of the higher degrees, sometimes involving symbolic dangers and tests of endurance.
The motif of the initiatory journey is particularly striking in certain German gardens, notably the park of Wörlitz in the state of Sachsen-Anhalt, built around a salient of the river Elbe in the latter part of the eighteenth century by Prince Franz von Anhalt-Dessau and his architect. This park includes a Hermitage, a Mystagogue’s Cell, a Temple of Venus, a series of grottoes corresponding to the elements, and a labyrinth with tunnels through rock, twisting paths, false turnings and inscriptions containing advice to the wanderer. In this park we feel close to the world of Mozart’s Magic Flute, with its message of spiritual quest, its themes of darkness and light and its elemental initiations.
Although it is not recorded whether the Prince was a Freemason (he visited England and could have been initiated there), he was in contact with a number of prominent Masons including the poet Goethe, whom he visited at Weimar. Indeed, the park at Weimar, laid out along the banks of the river Ilm, was strongly influenced by Wörlitz. Goethe played an important part in the laying out of the park, and here again we find elements that suggest a masonic influence, such as a grotto with a sphinx, and a stone pillar encircled by a snake.
Even more striking in its imagery, is the New Garden at Potsdam. This was created for King Frederick William II of Prussia (reigned 1786-97), who had a strong interest in esoteric matters and belonged to the Golden and Rosy Cross Order, an exotic, high-degree masonic rite with a strong emphasis on alchemy. Charmingly laid out on the banks of a lake, the garden contains a number of objects redolent of Rosicrucian mysteries. Near the entrance is an orangery resembling an Egyptian temple, with a sphinx over the portico and two Egyptian gods in black marble guarding the doorway. Equally imposing is an ice-house (reminiscent of the one at Retz) in the form of a pyramid with a row of gilded alchemical sigils over the entrance. Other features have unfortunately disappeared, including a grotto and a hermitage with a ceiling painted with planetary images.
Further examples of masonic gardens include that of Schloss Louisenlund in Schleswig-Holstein, home of the Landgrave Carl von Hesse-Cassel (1744-1836), a leading Freemason, active in various high-degree rites and an ardent devotee of alchemy, who harboued the mysterious French alchemist, the Comte de Saint-Germain during the last year’s of the latter’s life. The park at Louisenlund contained an Alchemical Tower, a Grotto of Initiation and other features, now mostly vanished. In its heyday it must have been a place of potent magic.
These few examples should give an idea of what we might understand as a masonic garden or - more broadly speaking - a garden with a symbolic message. Such gardens are still being created, as the Tarot Garden shows. While not many people today have the resources available to the King of Prussia or other continental aristocrats, we can still draw inspiration from their visionary creations.
--Dr. Christopher McIntosh, Freemasonry Today.
Tales of the Round Tower & Gnostic Serpent
By Iona Miller, ©2010
Carl von Hessen
St. Germain's history with the estate Louisenlund begins with Prince Carl von Hessen (1744-1836). Carl was then governor appointed by the Danish Crown. He owed the estate of his wife Louise, daughter of Danish King Frederick V, there by her brother, Christian VII, the successor of Frederick to the Danish throne. Carl gave the caste to his wife as a wedding gift. The Castle was also his refuge and summer residence. Today, a prestigious boarding house school occupies Louisenlund. This traditional property of Duke Friedrich of Schleswig Holstein became a non-profit foundation in 1949.
His theosophical ideas were undoubtedly critical to the architectural planning and design of the property, the mystique of the medieval and ancient stones were translated into Freemasonry. A key role was played by the occult ideas of the ancient Egyptian high priests. Numerous monuments testify to this. Louisenlund was for a long time a center of science and Logentums, an active center of Freemasonry. A Lodge is a community whose basic attitude and humanity is built on tolerance. In a solemn ceremony members swear an oath to their Brotherhood.
Circle Watch Towers
Round towers are linked historically to The Watchers and ancient serpent/dragon cults. The "Shining Ones" were star watchers -- astronomers. The "watch tower" is a symbol of internal psychological ascent, the axis mundi - a ladder or gateway to heaven and the inner observatory of the Third Eye. The Axis Mundi of Earth pointed to Draco. The star door is the entrance or Phoenix Gate to the enlightened trance state. Typically, towers have an underground cave, mine, or passages and are close to a sacred spring.
In Egypt the ben-ben bird is called the phoenix and linked to the Ben-Ben Tower at the Temple of Heliopolis. Towers are both phallic and vaginal in their outer and inner essential nature, uniting male and female. Towers are a notable part of Templar buildings and function as giant storage batteries for virtual energy. Irish round towers were known as "snake houses.' The round temple, microcosm of the world, was a key architectural feature of the Knights Templar, which eventually gave rise to both the Rosicrucians and the Freemasons.
Templar Tower, Hyeres and Temple Church, London
Two Pillars
The Masonic pillars Jachim and Boaz are central to all their temples. The legendary mason Hiram is linked to the serpent, being from the tribe Naphtali or Dan, whose emblem is the serpent or basilisk. According to the Rabbis, Solomon's Temple was prefabricated by a giant serpent who could cut stones, perhaps with serpent-wisdom.
Symbolically, the Temple of Wisdom is built by the serpent, Kundalini energy -- a human electro-biochemical reaction. One's humanity is transmuted into gold through enlightenment. Thus, initiation is experiential and involves dangerous ordeals of life, death [of the ego] and catharsis. We awaken to a whole new world within us.
Rituals of secret societies have their origins in ancient rites of serpent-worship which literally and figuratively went underground in these groups with esoteric, gnostic and mystical leanings. The round tower is also related to the djed pillar or backbone of Osiris -- the kundalini serpent energy. Globally, many round towers have astronomical alignments.They also drew on the arcane knowledge of the serpent-worshipping Druids and Templars.
Serpent/Dragon Cult
Architect gods, such as Thoth and Hermes, are linked to the serpent wisdom cult. Thoth consecrated the linked species of dragons and serpents. The healing version of Thoth was symbolized by the serpent. Round towers are also huge resonant systems -- gateways to the other world.
Healing abilities of megalithic stones such as those found at Louisenlund are attributed to the serpent seen in the Phoenix Portal. The serpent/dragon is the symbol of eternity and immortality. The labyrinth -- the womb of the Mother Goddess -- is a stylized symbol of the initiatory serpentine way from death to resurrection. The path to the center leads to the hidden treasure -- the original self, the clear light or primordial awareness without content. In this state, time stops or is utterly suspended from its ever-cycling nature. The true temple is within.
Portals or gateways to the "land of serpents" were places of mystery and rebirth. One enters the serpent and goes through it to be resurrected, much like Osiris. Abraham's name is derived from Ab Ram, "exalted snake," and the same can be said of the magus Abramelin and Hiram, Ahi-Ram. Brahmin is not unrelated as a title, rather than a personal name. When Hiram was slain, his jewel was found and placed on a triangular altar in a secret vault under Solomon's Temple.
This shows Europe at the height of the Habsburg Empire, which stretched from Spain (the figure is on its side) right over to the Balkans. As you can see, Spain is portrayed as the head wearing a crown and right in the center—in the solar plexus—is Bohemia. Clearly, Bohemia was seen in some sense as the power center of Europe. The map, dating from the 17th century, is reproduced in the book Opus Magnum (The catalogue of a remarkable exhibition of the same name, which took place in Prague in 1997.)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/29698656/Secret-Societies-Gardiner-s-Forbidden-Knowledge-Malestrom
http://www.lapismagazine.org/charting-rosicrucian-europe-by-christopher-mcintosh/
Copyright © 2010-2015 Iona Miller, All Rights Reserved.
Copyright © 2010-2015 Iona Miller, All Rights Reserved.
[email protected]
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Copyright © 2010-2015 Iona Miller, All Rights Reserved.
[email protected]
FAIR USE NOTICE
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