[Setting:
me: Okay, this is Saturn.
Death
Responsibility, Maturation, Discipline.
Time
3:12 PM Suffering and connection.
The passage of things that we believe to be permanent
The reminder that the sands in the hourglass of time will eventually swallow us all.
The realization of the insignificance of our corporeal bodies.
3:13 PM The Buddhists call much of the Saturnine gnosis "The First Noble Truth," and they summarize it rather succinctly as "To exist is to suffer."
3:14 PM You find this knowledge in Alchemy as the Nigredo, the detritus from which alchemical gold is born. You also find it in Christianity, as the trial of God, which tests those who God holds most dear.
3:15 PM This is the culling scythe, the harvesting blade, which bring reality to a head, which demarcates the passage of time, and makes plain that which has been occulted.
This is a cycle everyone goes through over and over throughout ones life.
It usually happens around the end of adolescence, then again at the end of the twenties, then again at mid-life, and then once more at the passage into old age.
3:16 PM And there are smaller cycles, happening over and over as all the planets cycle through
Now, you remember the emotional meditations you started doing?
Keno Ermis: yes
3:17 PM me: Today's meditation shall be on grief. Do not run from it. If fear comes to your door, then kiss fear and make it your hellion lover. If you stand your ground, you will come through. Do not shy away, do not neglect to stare death in the face, let yourself go in the grief. Weep, and if you allow yourself to fully grieve you will not have a choice. Weep like a child.
Scream and make noise and break things if you have to.
3:18 PM This shall not be a sitting meditation, but a running falling flailing meditation.
if you have to vomit, vomit
there is nothing safe, nothing comfortable, and nothing pretty about grief.
It is a fire that consumes all else, and it is a crucible that cleanses through purgation.
3:19 PM Now, we will also approach visualization exercises here.
KE: I cannot right now
3:20 PM me: That's fine
KE: I have class in 10 minutes
me: Yeah, not now now, but tonight
i want you to meditate on death.
KE: It's only a 50 minute class, so I should be back around 4:30
me: I want you to see it, feeling it, touch it, know it.
KE: and I have several other questions if you are free
me: i might be here, i can't say for sure.
KE: right right
me: But tonight, i want you to seek out the visage of Death
3:21 PM KE: ok
me: You live with it every day, it is the dual arisal of Life, the connection shared between the two
for they are sisters
3:22 PM The hand of a fetus in the womb is a webbed claw at first, and fingers only coalesce through the death of the connecting tissue. If the webbing didn't die away, we would all have flippers and claws
but we are shaped by death in this life
KE: I need to go. I'll read it when I get back. Thanks for doing this
me: We feed on it, we live beside it, we wear it like a halo.
no problem man
seriously, none at all.
3:23 PM hugs you it's alright to not be strong.
Nobody that has been there and faced it will think less of you for not being an unbreakable, placid surface.
3:25 PM There is nothing quite like death around you to really punch you out of your body, while immediately making its reality solid.
We are all children before Death. This much is clear to anyone who has passed close by her.
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34 minutes |
4:00 PM me: But in Saturn, there is a sense of continuance, and return as well.
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34 minutes |
4:34 PM me: He comes with the Earth-hewn assurance of sage ancestry, and the eternal passage of humanity through the Gates of Life and Death. He is the Heavy Metal King. He is the cool, dry trance of the Shining Skeleton, the Bone God of South American shamanic traditions. He stands at the borderline between echelons of existence, power, and order. He is a Gatekeeper; the gray, glowing-eyed Hermit in the moors, with his lantern. He is a keeper of time, a god of shadow (and thus, Light and Darkness), a bringer of bounty and pain. The Pusher of the Zodiac Wheel, and Abraxas. A god of Justice, Strength, Society and Regal lineage.
4:35 PM And he is also Terminus, who makes the lines. And holds them as stone.
4:39 PM He acknowledges the suffering, and he will stay it with you, and let it be okay to suffer deeply. He will also be there on the other side, to hold out a hand and bring you back up, lead you up through the inevitable pain of growth.
4:40 PM He will bring you to the Light; his knowledge and power lies with the Future.]
—
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Saturn
Saturn (Latin: Saturnus) was a major Roman god of agriculture and harvest. In medieval times he was known as the Roman god of agriculture, justice and strength; he held a sickle in his left hand and a bundle of wheat in his right. His mother’s name was Helen, or Hel. He was identified in classical antiquity with the Greek deity Cronus, and the mythologies of the two gods are commonly mixed.
Saturn’s wife was Ops (the Roman equivalent of Rhea). Saturn was the father of Ceres, Jupiter, Veritas, Pluto, and Neptune, among others. Saturn had a temple on the Forum Romanum which contained the Royal Treasury.
In Hesiod‘s Theogony, a mythological account of the creation of the universe and Jupiter’s rise to power, Saturn is mentioned as the son of Caelus (the Roman equivalent of Uranus), the heavens, and Terra (the Roman equivalent of Gaia), the earth.
Hesiod writes that Saturn seizes power, castrating and overthrowing his father Caelus. However, it was foretold that one day a mighty son of Saturn would in turn overthrow him, and Saturn devoured all of his children when they were born to prevent this. Saturn’s wife, Ops, often identified with the Greek goddess Rhea, hid her sixth child, Jupiter, on the island of Crete, and offered Saturn a large stone wrapped in swaddling clothes in his place; Saturn promptly devoured it. Jupiter later overthrew Saturn and the other Titans, becoming the new supreme ruler of the cosmos.
In memory of the Golden Age of man, a mythical age when Saturn was said to have ruled, a great feast called Saturnalia was held during the winter months around the time of the winter solstice. It was originally only one day long, taking place on December 17, but later lasted one week. During Saturnalia, roles of master and slave were reversed, moral restrictions loosened, and the rules of etiquette ignored. It is thought that the festivals of Saturnalia and Lupercalia were the roots of the carnival year.
Although Saturn changed greatly over time due to the influence of Greek mythology, he was also one of the few distinct Roman deities to predate and retain elements of his original function. As Thomas Paine wrote:
It is impossible for us now to know at what time the heathen mythology began; but it is certain, from the internal evidence that it carries, that it did not begin in the same state of condition in which it ended. All the gods of that mythology, except Saturn, were of modern invention. The supposed reign of Saturn was prior to that which is called the heathen mythology, and was so far a species of theism that it admitted the belief of only one God. Saturn is supposed to have abdicated the government in favour of his three sons and one daughter, Jupiter, Pluto, Neptune, and Juno; after this, thousands of other gods and demigods were imaginarily created, and the calendar of gods increased as fast as the calendar of saints and the calendar of courts have increased since.[1]
Mythic Saturn
In Babylon he was called Ninib and was an agricultural deity. Saturn, called Kronos by the Greeks, was, at the dawn of the Ages of the Gods, the Protector and Sower of the Seed and his wife, Ops, (called Rhea by the Greeks) was a Harvest Helper. Saturn was one of the Seven Titans or Numina and with them, reigned supreme in the Universe. The Titans were of incredible size and strength and held power for untold ages, until they were deposed by Jupiter.
Saturn, called Kronos by the Greeks, was, at the dawn of the Ages of the Gods, the Protector and Sower of the Seed and his wife, Ops, (called Rhea by the Greeks) was a Harvest Helper. Saturn was one of the Seven Titans or Numina and with them, reigned supreme in the Universe. The Titans were of incredible size and strength and held power for untold ages, until they were deposed by Jupiter.The first inhabitants of the world were the children of Terra (Mother Earth) and Caelus (Father Sky). These creatures were very large and manlike, but without human qualities. They were the qualities of Earthquake, Hurricane and Volcano living in a world where there was yet no life. There were only the irresistible forces of nature creating mountains and seas. They were unlike any life form known to man.
Three of these creatures were monstrously huge with one hundred hands and fifty heads. Three others were individually called Cyclops, because each had only one enormous eye in the middle of their foreheads. Then, there were the Titans, seven of them, formidably large and none of whom were purely destructive. One was actually credited with saving man after creation.
Caelus hated the children with the fifty heads. As each was born he placed it under the earth. Terra was enraged by the treatment of her children by their father and begged the Cyclopes and the Titans to help her put an end to the cruel treatment. Only one Titan, Saturn, responded. Saturn lay in wait for his father and castrated him with his sickle. From Caelus’ blood sprang the Giants, a fourth race of monsters, and the Erinyes (the Furies), whose purpose was to punish sinners. They were referred to as “those who walk in darkness” and were believed to have writhing snakes for hair and eyes that cried blood. Though eventually all the monsters were driven from Earth, the Erinyes are to remain until the world is free of sin.
With the deposing of his father, Saturn became the ruler of the Universe for untold ages and he reigned with his sister, Ops, who also became his wife.
It was prophesied that one day Saturn would lose power when one of his children would depose him. To prevent this from happening, each time Ops delivered a child Saturn would immediately devour it. When her sixth child, Jupiter, was born, Rhea had him spirited away to the island of Crete. She then wrapped a stone in his swaddling clothes. Her deception was complete when Saturn devoured it, thinking it was the child. When Jupiter was grown, he secured the job of cup-bearer to his father. With the help of Terra, his grandmother, Jupiter fed his father a potion that caused him to vomit up Jupiter’s five siblings, Vesta (Hestia), Ceres (Demeter), Juno (Hera), Pluto (Hades), and Neptune (Poseidon).
A devastating war that nearly destroyed the Universe ensued between Saturn and his five brothers and Jupiter and his five brothers and sisters. Jupiter persuaded the fifty headed monsters to fight with him which enabled him to make use of their weapons of thunder, lightning and earthquake. He also convinced the Titan Prometheus, who was incredibly wise, to join his side. With his forces, Jupiter was victorious and the Olympians reigned supreme. Saturn and his brothers were imprisoned in the Tartarus, a dark, gloomy region at the end of the Earth.
In Roman mythology,[2] when Jupiter ascended the throne, Saturn fled to Rome and established the Golden Age, a time of perfect peace and harmony, which lasted as long as he reigned. In memory of the Golden Age, the Feast of Saturnalia was held every year in the winter at the Winter Solstice. During this time no war could be declared, slaves and masters ate at the same table, executions were postponed, and it was a season for giving gifts. This was a time of total abandon and merry making. It refreshed the idea of equality, of a time when all men were on the same level. Christians adopted the feast and renamed it Christmas. When the festival ended, the tax collectors appeared and all money owed out to government, landlords, or debtors had to be accounted for.
This is another side to Saturn and its ruling sign, Capricorn: the settling of accounts. The time of the winter solstice is when the Sun enters the sign Capricorn.
Hesiod[3] wrote of the five ages of mankind: Gold, Silver, two ages of Bronze and an age of Iron. The Age of Gold was the purest age, when no labor was required and weather was always pleasant. It was virtually a place of pleasant surroundings and of abundance. Death was not an unpleasant eventuality and people occupied their time in pleasant pursuits. Cronus ruled over this Golden Age.
Saturn in Astrology
Astrological Saturn has always been associated with the letter of the law. Gnostics have identified Saturn with the god of Early Scripture, whom they regarded as a tyrannical father, obsessed with rigid enforcement of the law. There is a symbolic link between Saturn and the God of Early Scripture through the use of Saturday. Saturn’s Day, the seventh day of Scripture, the holy day of rest.
There is a symbolic connection between a Gnostic conception of the Trinity and Ouranus(Caelus), Saturn and Jupiter. Caelus, the first father figure, was the Roman version of Varuna, the Vedic creator god. Then Saturn castrated Caelus, ending his generative power. Finally, came Jupiter, who, like a Christ figure, was perceived as a savior, so that future generations would not be tyrannized by an obsessed deity.
Saturn’s function is contraction, which gives Saturn (called since ancient times “The Greater Malefic“) a somewhat polarized role against Jupiter (called “The Greater Benefic“) in astrology. In Vedic astrology Saturn and Jupiter are considered natural neutrals, but under closer relations become enemies (although William Lilly disagrees with this and considers them both friends). This makes sense as Contracting is the opposite principle of Expansion, Jupiter’s function. Similarly, Saturn is considered cold (slow) and dry (separate) whereas Jupiter is considered warm (speedy) and moist (inclusive). Where there is light Saturn brings darkness, where there is heat Saturn brings cold, where there is joy Saturn brings sadness, where there is life Saturn brings death, where there is luck Saturn brings misfortune (and sometimes heavy consequences for bad judgment or mistakes), where there is unity Saturn brings isolation, where there is knowledge Saturn brings fear, where there is hope Saturn brings skepticism and stalling. However these effects are not always negative. Saturn’s properties of contraction and crystallization are said to create solidness in the world and give lasting form to everything physical and principle. Saturn is considered the only planet that doesn’t cause over-expansion when negatively aspected with Jupiter, but rather causes Jupiter’s expansion to remit.
In medical astrology Saturn is said to rule the bones, knees and shins in particular, and probably treatments like Chemotherapy which destroys cancer (coincidentally the name of the opposite sign of Saturn’s rule) the disease where cell multiply at a dangerous rate and causes hair loss (hair is attributed to Leo, the other sign opposing Saturn’s rule), other treatments for inflammatory diseases, bone repair and hardening of the flesh. Death, particular in old age, has been associated with Saturn since ancient times. At times the freedoms created by the other planets are abused so that remorse follows. The principles of Saturn exist to prevent these transgressions from occurring or repeating through having learned lessons from them the hard way. Saturn’s color is black. The element associated with Saturn is lead.
Saturn often stands for the father in the natal chart, as does the Sun, however with Saturn it usually indicates problems with the father. Saturn indicates a tyrannical, domineering parent who seeks to mold his children in his own image and force them to live by his standards. Children often become “swallowed up” by such domination. Cronus became domineering and swallowed up his children in a need to control Fate. It was the fathering style he was taught, which modern day psychologists tell us is what happens in dysfunctional families. We learn how to parent from our parents. Zeus broke the pattern, which is the example which we ideally seek in dysfunctional parenting. To break the pattern, one must learn to develop the positive side of Saturn. Mastering Saturn as the inner teacher is a difficult task as it forces one to deal with the problematic side of Saturn as well.
Saturn is esoterically linked to Karma. Saturn intensifies feelings of isolation, sadness, depression, etc. Cronus spent the last of his life as a prisoner of Tartarus, a dark, gloomy place that can be described as a pit of blackness. Depression is often a pit of darkness to those who suffer from it. Saturn, badly aspected, gives us this feeling. But once the dark side of Saturn is recognized, his bright side can be brought into view and enhanced. Sadly, Saturn has been regarded only as miserable and attributed to despair and darkness, lending to the thought that there is no way to escape it’s confines. Feelings of shame, fear, guilt and humiliation shackle us and keep us confined to the pit of darkness. The way to get out of the pit is to stop placing blame on others and take personal responsibility for our situation in life.
Saturn, therefore, represents our limitations in power and control (by his rulership and its coming to an end), in confinement or isolation (by his banishment to Tartarus) and capacity (as Saturn’s placement as a planet, which until modern times was the boundary of our Solar System). Taking all this into consideration, it is no wonder we face difficulty when attempting to transform Saturn from a controlling force to a teaching force because we encounter all our limitations in every aspect of our lives.
Saturn’s connection with agriculture suggests the nature of time. Seeds must be sown at their proper times and harvest can only occur when their time of fruition has occurred. Chronos is derived from the Greek word Cronus meaning “time”. Cronus/Saturn represents limitations. He is the symbol for Father Time, for he brought all things to an end that have a beginning. Saturn’s domain is patience, stability, maturity and realism. Saturn effects us by delaying rewards until they are earned.
The Golden Years is a term used to describe the retirement years and Saturn rules old age. Those who have learned the lessons of Saturn; perseverance, confrontation of limitations, tyrannies, and inner darkness; who learn to accept the world around them with tolerance of others and self-acceptance, age with dignity and acquire wisdom.
Saturn represents our limitations, our restrictions,yet it is also our inner mentor and teacher. His lessons are manifested only over time, after which we go through inner rebirth and enjoy spiritual growth. The times these life changing events can occur are usually when Saturn returns and testing takes place within different disciplines. Saturn returns every 29 ½ years with appearances at age 29, when we face the discipline of maturity; at 58, when we face the discipline of acceptance and wisdom; and at 87, few people make it to the third return.
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Cronus
Cronus, Kronos or Cronos (Ancient Greek Κρόνος, Krónos) was the leader and the youngest of the first generation of Titans, divine descendants of Gaia, the earth, and Uranus, the sky. He overthrew his father and ruled during the mythological Golden Age, until he was overthrown by his own sons, Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon, and imprisoned in Tartarus. Before Cronus was sent to Tartarus, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades chopped him up into a million pieces.
As a result of his association with the virtuous Golden Age, Cronus was worshipped as a harvest deity, overseeing crops such as grains, nature and agriculture. He was usually depicted with a sickle, which he used to harvest crops and which was also the weapon he used to castrate and depose Uranus. In Athens, on the twelfth day of the Attic month of Hekatombaion, a festival called Kronia was held in honor of Cronus to celebrate the harvest. Cronus was also identified in classical antiquity with the Roman deity Saturn.
In the Alexandrian and Renaissance periods Cronos was interpreted with the name Chronos.[1] Another theory holds that it may be related to “horned”, suggesting a possible connection with the ancient Indian demon Kroni or the Levantine deity El.
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Chronos
In Greek mythology, Chronos (Ancient Greek: Χρόνος) in pre-Socratic philosophical works is said to be the personification of time. His name in Modern Greek also means “year” and is alternatively spelled Khronos (English transliteration) or Chronus (Latin spelling).
Chronos was imagined as an incorporeal god. Serpentine in form, with three heads—that of a man, a bull, and a lion. He and his consort, serpentine Ananke (Inevitability), circled the primal world-egg in their coils and split it apart to form the ordered universe of earth, sea and sky. He is not to be confused with the Titan Cronus.
He was depicted in Greco-Roman mosaics as a man turning the Zodiac Wheel. Often the figure is named Aeon (Eternal Time), a common alternate name for the god.
Chronos is usually portrayed through an old, wise man with a long, gray beard, such as “Father Time.”
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Abraxas
As an archon
Gemstone carved with Abrasax, obverse and reverse.
In the system described by Irenaeus, “the Unbegotten Father” is the progenitor of Nous, and from Nous Logos, from Logos Phronesis, from Phronesis Sophia and Dynamis, from Sophia and Dynamis principalities, powers, and angels, the last of whom create “the first heaven.” They in turn originate a second series, who create a second heaven. The process continues in like manner until 365 heavens are in existence, the angels of the last or visible heaven being the authors of our world. “The ruler” [principem, i.e. probably ton archonta] of the 365 heavens “is Abraxas, and for this reason he contains within himself 365 numbers.”
The name occurs in the Refutation of all Heresies (vii. 26) by Hippolytus, who appears in these chapters to have followed the Exegetica of Basilides. After describing the manifestation of the Gospel in the Ogdoad and Hebdomad, he adds that the Basilidians have a long account of the innumerable creations and powers in the several ‘stages’ of the upper world (diastemata), in which they speak of 365 heavens and say that “their great archon” is Abrasax, because his name contains the number 365, the number of the days in the year; i.e. the sum of the numbers denoted by the Greek letters in ΑΒΡΑΣΑΞ is 365:
- Α = 1, Β = 2, Ρ = 100, Α = 1, Σ = 200, Α = 1, Ξ = 60
As a god
Epiphanius (Haer. 69, 73 f.) appears to follow partly Irenaeus, partly the lost Compendium of Hippolytus.[4] He designates Abrasax more distinctly as “the power above all, and First Principle,” “the cause and first archetype” of all things; and mentions that the Basilidians referred to 365 as the number of parts (mele) in the human body, as well as of days in the year.
The author of the appendix to Tertullian De Praescr. Haer. (c. 4), who likewise follows Hippolytus’s Compendium,[5] adds some further particulars; that ‘Abraxas’ gave birth to Mind (nous), the first in the series of primary powers enumerated likewise by Irenaeus and Epiphanius; that the world, as well as the 365 heavens, was created in honour of ‘Abraxas;’ and that Christ was sent not by the Maker of the world but by ‘Abraxas.’
Nothing can be built on the vague allusions of Jerome, according to whom ‘Abraxas’ meant for Basilides “the greatest God” (De vir. ill. 21), “the highest God” (Dial. adv. Lucif. 23), “the Almighty God” (Comm. in Amos iii. 9), and “the Lord the Creator” (Comm. in Nah. i. 11). The notices in Theodoret (Haer. fab. i. 4), Augustine (Haer. 4), and ‘Praedestinatus’ (i. 3), have no independent value.
It is evident from these particulars that Abrasax was the name of the first of the 365 Archons, and accordingly stood below Sophia and Dynamis and their progenitors; but his position is not expressly stated, so that the writer of the supplement to Tertullian had some excuse for confusing him with “the Supreme God.”
As an Aeon
With the availability of primary sources, such as the those in Nag Hammadi library, the identity of Abrasax remains unclear. The Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit, for instance, refers to Abrasax as an Aeon dwelling with Sophia and other Aeons of the Pleroma in the light of the luminary Eleleth. In several texts, the luminary Eleleth is the last of the luminaries (Spiritual Lights) that come forward, and it is the Aeon Sophia, associated with Eleleth, who encounters darkness and becomes involved in the chain of events that leads to the Demiurge’s rule of this world, and the salvage effort that ensues. As such, the role of Aeons of Eleleth, including Abrasax, Sophia, and others, pertains to this outer border of the Pleroma that encounters the ignorance of the world of Lack and interacts to rectify the error of ignorance in the world of materiality.
Abrasax stones
A vast number of engraved stones are in existence, to which the name “Abrasax-stones” has long been given. The subjects are mythological, and chiefly grotesque, with various inscriptions, in which ΑΒΡΑΣΑΞ often occurs, alone or with other words. Sometimes the whole space is taken up with the inscription. In certain obscure magical writings of Egyptian origin ἀβραξάς or ἀβρασάξ is found associated with other names which frequently accompany it on gems;[6] it is also found on the Greek metal tesseræ among other mystic words. The meaning of the legends is seldom intelligible: but some of the gems are amulets; and the same may be the case with nearly all.
Anguipede
Engraving from an Abrasax stone.
In a great majority of instances the name Abrasax is associated with a singular composite figure, having a Chimera-like appearance somewhat resembling a basilisk or the Greek primordial god Chronos (not to be confused with the Greek titan Cronus). According to E. A. Wallis Budge, “as a Pantheus, i.e. All-God, he appears on the amulets with the head of a cock (Phœbus) or of a lion (Ra or Mithras), the body of a man, and his legs are serpents which terminate in scorpions, types of the Agathodaimon. In his right hand he grasps a club, or a flail, and in his left is a round or oval shield.” This form was also referred to as the Anguipede. Budge surmised that Abrasax was “a form of the Adam Kadmon of the Kabbalists and the Primal Man whom God made in His own image.”[7]
Some parts at least of the figure above mentioned are solar symbols, and the Basilidian Abrasax is manifestly connected with the sun. J. J. Bellermann has speculated that “the whole represents the Supreme Being, with his Five great Emanations, each one pointed out by means of an expressive emblem. Thus, from the human body, the usual form assigned to the Deity, forasmuch as it is written that God created man in his own image, issue the two supporters, Nous and Logos, symbols of the inner sense and the quickening understanding, as typified by the serpents, for the same reason that had induced the old Greeks to assign this reptile for an attribute to Pallas. His head—a cock’s—represents Phronesis, the fowl being emblematical of foresight and vigilance. His two hands bear the badges of Sophia and Dynamis, the shield of Wisdom, and the scourge of Power.”[8]
Hebraic names
These Abrasax-stones often bear Hebraic names of God: Iao, Sabaoth, Adonai, Eloai. The name ΙΑΩ, to which ΣΑΒΑΩΘ is sometimes added, is found with this figure even more frequently than ΑΒΡΑΣΑΞ, and they are often combined. Beside an Abrasax figure the following, for instance, is found: IAΩ ABPAΣAΞ AΔΩN ΑΤΑ, “Iao Abrasax, thou art the Lord”.[9] With the Abrasax-shield are also found the divine names Sabaoth Iao, Iao Abrasax, Adonai Abrasax, etc.[10]
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Orobouros
The Ouroboros or Uroborus[1] is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon swallowing its own tail and forming a circle.
The Ouroboros often represents self-reflexivity or cyclicality, especially in the sense of something constantly re-creating itself, the eternal return, and other things perceived as cycles that begin anew as soon as they end (compare Phoenix). It can also represent the idea of primordial unity related to something existing in or persisting from the beginning with such force or qualities it cannot be extinguished. The ouroboros has been important in religious and mythological symbolism, but has also been frequently used in alchemical illustrations, where it symbolizes the circular nature of the alchemist’s opus. It is also often associated with Gnosticism, and Hermeticism.
Antiquity
The notion of a serpent or dragon eating its own tail can be traced back to Ancient Egypt, circa 1600 BC. In the Pyramid of Unas dated between 2375 BC and 2345 BC, hieroglyphs on the west wall gable of the Sarcophagus chamber can be read: “A serpent is entwined by a serpent” and “the male serpent is bitten by the female serpent, the female serpent is bitten by the male serpent, Heaven is enchanted, earth is enchanted, the male behind mankind is enchanted” [4] From ancient Egypt it passed to Phoenicia where it was used as a symbol for Janus,[5] before it passed to the Greek philosophers, who gave it the name Ouroboros (“tail-devourer”).[citation needed]
In Gnosticism, this serpent symbolized eternity and the soul of the world.
Christianity adopted the Ouroboros as symbols of the limited confines of the material world (that there is an “outside” being implied by the demarcation of an inside), and the self-consuming transitory nature of a mere “worldly existence” of this world, following in the footsteps of the preacher in Ecclesiastes 3:9-14.
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Jörmungandr
Jörmungandr (pronounced [ˈjœrmuŋɡandr]), mostly known as Jormungand or Jörmungand, the Midgard Serpent, Midgårdsormen, or World Serpent, is, in Norse mythology, a sea serpent, and the middle child of the giantess Angrboða and the god Loki. According to the Prose Edda, Odin took Loki‘s three children, Fenrisúlfr, Hel and Jörmungandr. He tossed Jörmungandr into the great ocean that encircles Midgard. The serpent grew so large that he was able to surround the Earth and grasp his own tail. When he lets go the world will end. As a result he earned the alternate name of the Midgard Serpent or World Serpent. Jörmungandr’s arch enemy is the god Thor (See: Jupitur, lightning God).
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Ananke
In Greek mythology, Ananke or Anagke (Ancient Greek: Ἀνάγκη, from the common noun ἀνάγκη, “force, constraint, necessity”), was the personification of destiny, necessity and fate, depicted as holding a spindle. She marks the beginning of the cosmos, along with Chronos. She was seen as the most powerful dictator of all fate and circumstance which meant that the other Gods had to give her respect and pay homage as well as the mortals. She was also the mother of the Moirae, the three fates who were fathered by Zeus.
According to the ancient Greek traveller Pausanias, there was a temple in ancient Corinth where the goddesses Ananke and Bia (meaning violence or violent haste) were worshipped together in the same shrine.
She was worshipped until the creation of the Orphic mystery religion. Through the long process of the Orphic mysteries cult, it transpires that Ananke, symbolizing destiny and the inevitable, fell gradually into oblivion, until finally, she was replaced by the god Eros (the god of love), the force opposing fate and death. In Roman mythology, she was called Necessitas (“necessity”).
–Wikipedia. Saturn, Cronus, Chronos, Abraxas, Orobouros, Æon, Jörmungandr, Ananke, Nyx, Chaos, Ouranos, Planets in Astrology. February 15, 2010.
(Though separate, Saturn-Cronus/Chronos-Abraxas-Orobouros shares a primordial unity with his mate, Jörmungandr-Ananke. As Valentinian Aeons, these serpents form a syzygy.
And, in classic form, wearing the shamanic mask of the frost god he moonlights as in the wintery months, Saturn-via-Itztlacoliuhqui, it started to snow as soon as the mood set. These 32+ inches of snow are making more sense now.)
Pax,
VITRIOL/999/eleventhustwo
