“The wind blows out candles and kindles fires.”

This past month has been difficult for me. Hopefully, within this new lunar cycle and month of April, I’ll return more to myself and be able to feel Pagan again (This ‘spiritual’ stuff doesn’t come as naturally to me as I’d like it to). Starting today, I am committing myself to daily meditation. A few months ago I created a “mediation wheel,” based on the eight phases of the moon. So far I haven’t managed a complete cycle. I’d like to write about it in the future if I stay with it, and (most importantly) it works.

I’m reading (finally!) The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft by Ronald Hutton. It’s on loan from the public library and I’m unable to renew it, so I’ll only manage to read it once, although It’s the kind of book that wants to be read multiple times, so I’ll have to buy a copy eventually. I have requested three books on myth from the collage library, Myth and Cosmos, Myth and Philosophy and Myth and Reality, which should keep me busy next month and give me plenty to think (and hopefully blog) about.

I’d like to finish my brief series of posts Joining the End to the Beginning before the end of march. I basically know what I want to write, just need to do a small amount of research and get on with it. Also, I want to make a start on Altar Symbolism (3).

Amidst my turmoil, the first day of spring came and went. The snow had melted, the sun was shining. That night (or the following) it rained for the first time in months. I’m not used to no rain over the winter. It was wonderful.

I bought a pentangle pendant and now wear it proudly where ever I go (although I admit I hid it when visiting Shanny’s grandma a couple of weeks ago, so as not to cause her any heartache (Shan’s gran is a wonderful Christian lady).

Woke up 3 hours ago from a dream. I was back at my school (why I wanted to go back there I don’t know. It’s been 20 years and I hated it) and I had snuck into an empty classroom located at the basement of a stairwell. A teacher (or someone) discovered me and grabbed me by the hand to drag me away. Their hands were tiny, more like a child’s than and adult. She then began to impress me with her juggling skills and I told her that she was wasting her talent. I woke up at that point. Interesting dream. Worth recording. I really should get into the habit of recording my dreams.

Haven’t worked much with the Tarot. Another thing I’d like to change this moonth.

That’s it for now, I guess. I intend to meditate for a while and then steal some more sleep.

Joining the End to the Beginning (4/5)

A widely dispersed African myth tells that long ago Heaven and Earth were connected by a rope or ladder (or some other link) forming a primordial state of paradisical oneness between divinity and humankind. In the Nuer version of this myth human beings dwelt in the sacred presence of Kwoth. As long as they were able to climb the rope to heaven they could be rejuvenated at the point of death and descend to live their lives over again. This golden age eventually came to an end when Hyena (chaos beast) cut the rope. And so, due to this cosmic rupture, sickness, old age and death came to be. And as far as I can gather, the mythology fails to provide a way of divine return.

According to James Frazer, this state of death forevermore is also expressed in another prominent myth of the serpent that steals the lunar power of rebirth:

Many… …believe that, in virtue of the power of periodically casting their skins, certain animals and in particular serpents renew their youth and never die. Holding this belief, they tell stories to explain how it came about that these creatures obtained, and men missed, the boon of immortality.

Folk-Lore in the Old Testament:
Studies in Comparative Religion, Legend & Law: Chapter 2 – The Fall of Man: The Story of the Cast Skin (James Frazer)

Again, we find a similar myth in the Akkadian Gilgamesh Epic. After the Death of his beloved friend Enkidu, Gilgamesh heads out on a pilgrimage to overcome the horrors of death, only to discover, upon reaching the island of immortality (populated by the immortal Flood Hero Utu-napishtim and his nameless wife), immortality was a gift usually and exclusively reserved for the gods. However, Gilgamesh learns from Utu-napishtim and his wife, who prompted her husband to tell of a plant of rejuvenation that grows at the bottom of the ocean. Gilgamesh retrieves the plant, though not without wounding his hand (Wound Motif) as he picks it. After obtaining the plant…

Gilgamesh went down and was bathing in the water.
A snake smelled the fragrance of the plant [of rejuvenation],
silently came up and carried off the plant.
While going back it sloughed off its casing.’
At that point Gilgamesh sat down, weeping,
his tears streaming over the side of his nose.

The Epic of Gilgamesh: Tablet 11

Gilgamesh’s failure to obtain the serpentine boon of rebirth, accepting that all things must die without much hope of a paradisical afterlife, bears some relation to the myth of the Serpent (collected by Frazer) who, as the gods covet the boon of solar-immortality, hordes the power of lunar-rebirth. I wonder if this was the case in earlier mythologies of the serpent’s power? Certainly this wasn’t the impression given in the Mysteries:

A fragment of Pindar, quoted by Clement of Alexandria (Miscellanies [Stromateis] 3.3.17), further focuses upon the happiness of one who has attained enlightenment through the Eleusinian mysteries: “Blessed is one who goes under the earth after seeing these things. That person knows the end of life, and knows its Zeus-given beginning.”

Meyer, Marvin W., 1999, ‘The Ancient Mysteries: A Sourcebook of Sacred Texts’, p.5 (University of Pennsylvania Press)

Joseph Campbell (Occidental Mytholgy: p, 10-11) sees the Mesopotamian serpent deity not as thief of the boon of rebirth, but instead, “the serpent…is generally favourable to those who, with due respect, approach the boon of his sanctuary.”. He also cites an Akkadian seal, apparently dated around 2350-2150 B.C., that according this his interpretation, depicts the serpent deity in human form holding aloft the lunar cup of rebirth to an initiate/devote, who is surely expected to drink to obtain the mysterious boon of lunar-rejuvenation (in whatever form that may of took).

I think there are many iconographic examples of the serpent as a cosmic manifestation of both the lunar-cosmic circle, and of course, there’s no shortage of symbols and myths of serpents associated with trees (of knowledge, life, healing, prosperity, et cetera.) that bestows a multitude of divine gifts upon mankind.

This image is taken from a Syrian cylinder seal (1000 BC), depicting two figures (the figure on the right holding what appears to be a serpent, identifying it with the Tree) flanking a type of Sun and Moon Tree (or standard). It’s in the form of a pole surmounted with a pair of lunar crescents containing an orb, that represents the sun (in other mythologies, especially in Hindu Texts, is a gateway to the gods).

The Origin of Iron (African Myth)

The Babel myth contains many elements comparable to various cosmogonic destruction-creation myths. Rather than the destruction of the tower (That can be understood as a cosmic centre/axis-mundi.), we have the confusion of speech from one primordial language into many languages, mirroring the creation motif of the one that becomes many. In the African myth the tower is a cosmic manifestation that crashes into chaos. And again, of the one (tower) becoming the cosmic many (like the serpent of rebirth shedding its skin of many scales), symbolized by the individual mortars used in it’s doomed construction.

Cernunnos’ Path: Joining the End to the Beginning (3/4)

I discovered a wonderful African aetiological* myth (Bunyoro, Uganda) explaining the origin of iron. It appears to be another variation on the theme of the cosmogonic destruction-creation myth of the One that becomes Many, as mentioned in the previous post relating to both the African tower constructed of mortars and Biblical Tower of Babel.

According to Peter Ridgway Schmidt (Historical archaeology in Africa: p.127, 2006) an Iron bar—functioning as both an axis-mundi and a divine link between heaven and earth—was removed by the creator god Ruhanga and his brother Nkya, causing heaven to ascend, severing the connection with the terrestrial realm. As the iron bar crashed to the ground it scattered into many pieces, providing Humankind with “tools and bracelets.”

*(Greek: ‘aitia’ meaning ‘cause’)

Joining the End to the Beginning (3/5)

An African (Ashanti) myth records that God separated himself from Mankind after an old woman carelessly injured him [wound motif] with her pestle. In a futile attempt to reunite heaven and earth, the old woman gathered together all her children, and stacking large numbers of mortars, one on top of another, constructed a tall tower.

Only a single mortar was needed to bridge the gap between heaven and earth, but because there were none left, the old woman ordered that the bottommost mortar should be removed and placed at the top. Of course, the tower collapsed and many people lost their lives.

Cernunnos’ Path: Reuniting heaven and earth

First off, the myth bears a resemblance to the Tower of Babel story as found in the book of Genesis. According to the Biblical version, Yahweh came down to put an end to the earthbound dream of a unified humanity and it’s collective desire to reach heavenward: “Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth” (Gen 11:4).

The Babel myth contains many elements comparable to various cosmogonic destruction-creation myths. Rather than the destruction of the tower (That can be understood as a cosmic centre/axis-mundi.), we have the confusion of speech from one primordial language into many languages, mirroring the creation motif of the one that becomes many. In the African myth the tower is a cosmic manifestation that crashes into chaos. And again, of the one (tower) becoming the cosmic many (like the serpent of rebirth shedding its skin of many scales), symbolized by the individual mortars used in it’s doomed construction.

It seems to me that the attempt of unifying God and Humankind, as illustrated in both Biblical and African myths, is doomed to failure, without the aid of the sacred-divine force. Lacking this integral spiritual insight, the old woman and her children, here experiencing a divine divorce, attempt to reach the High God’s realm solely through human effort. The foundational mortar is displaced and transferred to the top (joining the end to the beginning), but without the cohesive force of the sacred inherent in the current cosmic manifestation, the project is doomed to forever fail.

This problem of death, I believe, is further illustrated by Alcmaeon of Croton’s enigmatic saying that;

Men die because they cannot join the end to the beginning.

Alcmaeon of Croton frag.2DK

We find the same basic problem (and the solution) expressed in the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, written sometime before the third century A.D.:

The disciples said to Jesus “tell us how our end will come to pass.” and Jesus said, “Then have you laid bare the beginning, so that you are seeking the end? For the end will be where the beginning is. Blessed is the person who stands at rest in the beginning. And that person will be acquainted with the end and will not taste death.”

Gospel of Thomas 18

Here, Jesus is directing his disciples minds towards Eden: the otherworldly realm of the divine presence that transcends and unites the comic opposites, binding and sustaining the universe, through which the sacred principle flows. The divine gift or ambrosial boon/s that can be experienced here and now. Awareness of the divine cosmos and that the divine dwells within, through myth, symbol and the teaching of divine truths can arise that while we cosmically exist in a state of paradoxical union and division with the divine, the remedy is surely the realization that the “the kingdom is within you and it is outside you” (Gospel of Thomas 3).