Stargates Part 4

Stargates,              Ancient Rituals, And Those Invited Through The Portal (Pt. 4)

Metaphysical nonsense, or high-tech mechanisms built by "the gods"?

By Thomas Horn

Not long ago a man whom I've come to              know as a friend wrote a book called The Nephilim and the Pyramid              of the Apocalypse.

Patrick Heron published his study              after delving into the history of the pyramids, seeking to explain              who built the structures, how they acquired such mathematical and              astronomical knowledge, and what advanced technology was used in the              construction.

The answer he came up with was astonishing: the              pyramids were built by the Nephilim.

After reading Patrick's (Paddy's)              explanations, I pointed out to him that the prophet Isaiah was most              probably discussing the Great Pyramid when he prophesied, "In that              day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of              Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord. And it shall              be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land              of Egypt:" (Is. 19:19-21a).

The Great Pyramid was the only "pillar"              standing on the old border dividing Lower and Upper Egypt in              Isaiah's day, but why would the prophet point to it as a Last Days              sign unto the Lord?

Patrick answered me with the "shape"              of things to come, as in the New Jerusalem, and his dialogue made me              wonder if the builders of Stargates including those from Sumeria              hadn't stolen big ideas that later were adopted by Hittites,              Babylonians, Assyrians, Egyptians...

... and then came the Greeks

Following Egyptian dominance, the              Dorians came out of the north by the tens of thousands. They were              nearly invincible Indo-European invaders riding in horse-drawn              chariots of war.

Between BC 2800 and 2000, they conquered most of              the indigenous inhabitants of the Middle East—from the inland people              of Asia Minor to the Macedonians and beyond—and they did it in the              name of their sky god, the thunderous and fearsome Zeus.

The              Dorian mix of Sumerian legend included Mycenean and Minoan              interpretation as well, blending original concepts into an              influential society of gods known as the Olympians.

Later, as the famous (and sometimes              infamous) gods of Greece dwelt above the towering Mount of Olympus              in the north, the gods took various roles under Zeus, including Hera,              Poseidon, Hades, Demeter, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Hermes,              Athene, Hephaestus, and Hestia (later replaced by Dionysus). A              complex system of lesser deities also developed beneath the              principle gods including Adonis, Selene, Hypnos, Asclepius, Eros and              Hercules.

Keeping with our theme we find              particular interest in the character of the king of the gods--Zeus.              There was scarcely any part of Greek life that Zeus was not involved              in.

He was Zeus Herkeios (protector of the house), and Zeus             Ktesios ("the Acquirer"). He was Zeus Hikesios (friend              of the fugitive), and Zeus Polieus (guardian of the city).

His firmly held position as the supreme and high god within the              Greek religion was easily verified by archaeology, not the least of              which testimony was the discovery of the great temple of Zeus, a              masterwork that stood in the southern part of the precinct of Zeus              at Olympia (the Altis), and exhibited the famous gold and ivory              colossus of Zeus by Pheidias (destroyed in AD 462), a masterpiece              estimated to be the greatest work of art in all of antiquity and one              of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world.

His              principle oracle stood at Dodona—the chief city of Epirus and the              "land of the oak trees"—where a shrine to Zeus had existed since the              second millennium BC.

In addition to being the king of the              gods, Zeus was a powerful presence in everyday cult and ritual.

For a while the Dodona oracle even rivaled              Apollo's famous one at Delphi.

At Dodona, Zeus provided inquiring              mortals with divine guidance by whispering through the leaves of              sacred oak trees attended to by bare-footed priests called Selloi.

At other times Zeus communicated through the splashing of water in a              nearby sacred spring, or through the cooing of sacred pigeons.

Eventually his answers were simplified and divination came through              the casting of lots or by interpreting the echoes of a gong.

But it              was the oak-tree oracle at Dodona that claimed to be the oldest in              Greece and the "father of gods and men."

The connection between Zeus              and the tree oracles probably began with certain prehistoric              religious ideas from Crete and undoubtedly refers to the earliest              marriage of the Dorian Zeus and the Minoan/Cretan willow goddesses.

In Hagia Triada, Zeus was called Zeus Welkhanos, which means              the "god of the willow-tree."

He was also known by the name              Welkhanos at Gortyna and at Phaistus where he was somehow ritually              associated with his lover Leto.

The cult worship of Zeus and Leto in              Phaistus was curious in its own right because it connected the              ancient elements of earth worship (the children of Gaia conversing              through various nature manifestations, i.e., the willow-tree) and              transexualism.

In fact, the worship of Zeus was sometimes              overshadowed in Phaistus by the cult of Leto as the Cretan youths              cast off their boyish garments during their initiation into manhood.

The festival was called the Ekdysai ("Casting off") and was              associated with the myth of Leucippus—a peculiar legend in              which a baby girl (Leucippus) was born to a woman named Galatea who              prefered instead to have a son, and so she persuaded Leto to let the              girl change her sex into that of a boy when she grew up.

During the              Cretan initiation the young men lay down beside a statue of              Leucippus in the temple of Leto where the blessings of growth and              fertility could be invoked.

In              Pergamum, perpetual sacrifices were offered to Zeus upon his              towering and famous 40-foot high altar—the same artifact that now              stands inside the Berlin Museum.

Some scholars believe Antipas, the              first leader and martyr of the early Christian church in Pergamum,              was slain for resisting this altar worship of Zeus.

Tradition holds              that Antipas was slowly roasted to death inside the statue of a              bull—the symbol and companion of Zeus—and some claim that the              passage in Revelation 2:13 is a reference to the cult worship of              Zeus at Pergamum.

We read: "I know thy works, and where thou              dwellest, even where Satan's seat is....wherein Antipas was my              faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth."

Others believe this passage refers to Caesar worship, while others              contend the phrase in Revelation 2:13 is a reference to the cult              worship of Asclepius, the Greek god of healing.

Nonetheless the              argument could be made for a Pergamum connection between Zeus and              the biblical Satan, as both were considered descending gods of              thunder—Zeus in antiquity and Satan in modern times.

Zeus was also              known as the king or "prince" of the air, as was Satan. (See Eph.              2:2)

Altars were discovered near Pergamum dedicated to Zeus              Kataibates, which most accurately means "Zeus who descends",              reminiscent of Jesus who said, "I beheld Satan as lightning fall              [descend] from heaven" (Luke 10:18).

The references of "Zeus who descends" and the Hebrew opinion of this as testimony to Lucifer’s fall is interesting in light of Hesiod's Theogony and those sections describing the place of imprisonment of the Titans.

(ll. 736-744) And there, all in their order, are the sources and ends of gloomy earth and misty Tartarus and the unfruitful sea and starry heaven, loathsome and dank, which even the gods abhor.

It is a great gulf, and if once a man were within the gates.... There          stands the awful home of murky Night wrapped in dark clouds. In front of          it the son of Iapetus stands immovably upholding the wide heaven upon          his head and unwearying hands, where Night and Day draw near and greet          one another as they pass the great threshold of bronze.... And there the          children of dark Night have their dwellings, Sleep and Death, awful          gods. The glowing Sun never looks upon them with his beams, neither as          he goes up into heaven, nor as he comes down from heaven....

Hesiod's Theogony and Homer's Iliad take on mysterious ramifications        when one considers that the Bible characterized the place of imprisoned        rebel angels using the same words as Hesiod and Homer employed to describe        the place of Titan gods--Tartarus and the Bottomless Pit.

Couple this with        eerily similar discoveries on the actual moon Iapetus, and you have a        growing number of academics pondering whether Iapetus is, as it appears to        be, artificial.

In Greek mythology Iapetus was the son of Uranus and Gaia, and father        of Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Menoetius. Because Atlas was a        "father of mankind", Iapetus was understood in myth to be a progenitor       of man, of Homo Sapiens, a creator god, winking at man as his light        dimmed then brightened every 40 days.

Italian astronomer and engineer Giovanni Domenico Cassini discovered        Saturn's moon Iapetus [eye-AP-i-tus] in 1672 using his small refracting        telescope. Giovanni correctly deciphered the disappearing and reappearing        act of Iapetus as due to the moon synchronously rotating with one        hemisphere continuously facing Saturn.

Iapetus is also divided by a great        gulf formed by a giant walled threshold at its equator.

Look again at Hesiod: It is a great gulf.... murky Night          wrapped in dark clouds. In front of it the son of Iapetus.... where          Night and Day draw near and greet one another as they pass the great          threshold of bronze.... And there the children of dark Night have their          dwellings, Sleep and Death, awful gods. The glowing Sun never looks upon          them with his beams, neither as he goes up into heaven, nor as he comes          down from heaven....

The giant wall of Iapetus was not even discovered until NASA's Cassini        spacecraft flew by and photographed the 1300 kilometres (808 miles) long        and 20 kilometres (12 miles) high rim stretching over one third of the        moon's equator. No other moon in the solar system has been found with such        a stunning feature... literally a 60,000 foot high wall.

In       The Search for Life in the Universe, Tobias Owen, the man at NASA        who discovered the face on Mars, and Donald Goldsmith wrote  that,        "This unusual moon [Iapetus] is the only object in the Solar System which        we might seriously regard as an alien signpost - a natural object        deliberately modified by an advanced civilization to attract our        attention...."

Former NASA consultant Richard Hoagland also raises a number of significant questions about artificiality on Iapetus here.

Some of Hoagland's comments        question how science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke could have written        about these mysteries before they were discovered, and why Clarke included        a monolith stargate, through which creator beings had passed for millions        of years.

Recently, David Flynn made an interesting point about this in an email        he sent me:

Tom, you are intrepid enough to address an issue many are afraid to          investigate.... And you are right about gates [and that various beings          have come through them]...

[Dave then quotes from Revelation 9] "And he opened the bottomless          pit.... And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth.... and          the shapes of the locusts [were] like unto horses prepared unto battle;          and... their faces [were] as the faces of men. And they had hair of          women, and their teeth were as of lions..."

[He continues] Here is described an army of beings with mixed          genetics [transgenics], but all species of terrestrial origin. The          similarities between the "locusts with faces of men" and the modern          reports of "insectoid" aliens [descending through dimensional gates]          stands out in John's prophecy....

It is assumed that the locusts of          Revelation 9 "ascend" from a bottomless pit somewhere on earth because          the story of the locust invasion begins with a "star" falling from          heaven to earth and an angel with a key.

The Greek word translated          "fall" is Pipto, which means to "descend from a higher place to a          lower".

If the star itself IS the bottomless pit, Revelation 9 could be          describing an extraterrestrial object--a mother ship--moving into orbit          around earth with myriad beings.

From this same place in Scripture the          word "bottomless" is bathos, often translated as "height" and the          word "pit" is Phrear. A phrear in Greek mythology is an orcus, a          deep chasm bound by a gulf where fallen beings are imprisoned....

Revelation 12 explains the surety of Satan and his angels coming down          from heaven to the earth in the future. For now, they wait... somewhere          out in space.

Back to the future

In the second part of this series we        discussed how scholars believe sky, sea, and physical earth contain        extra-dimensional ("spiritual") entities described as locked away or        contained behind barriers of some type--as in gates--with warnings to        humans about seeking their communion.

When contact has been desired,        beings of startling similarity have materialized from sky, sea, or beneath        the earth's surface, as they did in the biblical narrative of 1 Samuel        where they ascended from "out of the earth" and were interpreted as gods.

Ancient Greeks brought the gods through in similar ways

Dionysus, the Thirteenth God of the Greeks,        was the divine son of Zeus and of the mortal Semele. He was often depicted        as the inventor of wine, abandon, and revelry, but this description seems        inadequate in that it refers only to the basic elements of intoxication        and enthusiasm which were used by the Bacchae (female participants        of the Dionystic mysteries; also known as Maenads and Bacchantes) in their        rituals to incarnate Dionysus.

Followers of Dionysus believed he was the       presence otherwise defined as the craving within man that longs to        "let itself go" and to "give itself over" to baser earthly desires. What        some might resist as the lustful wants of the carnal man, followers of        Dionysus embraced as the incarnation of power that would, in the next        life, liberate the souls of men from the constraints of the present world        and from the customs which sought to define respectability through        obedience to moral law.

Until that day arrived, worshippers of Dionysus        attempted to bring themselves into union with the god through a ritual        casting off of the bonds of sexual denial and primal constraint by        inviting him through to them via a state of ecstasy.

According to myth, the uninhibited rituals        of ecstasy (Greek for "outside the body") brought followers of        Dionysus into a supernatural condition that enabled them to escape the        temporary limitations of body and mind and to achieve a state of        enthousiasmos, or, outside the body and "inside the god."

In this        sense Dionysus represented a dimensional dichotomy within Greek religion,        as the primary maxim of the Greek culture was of moderation, or, "nothing        too extreme." Yet Dionysus embodied the absolute        extreme in that he sought to inflame the        forbidden passions of human desire.

Interestingly, and most students of        psychology will understand, this gave Dionysus a stronger allure among        Greeks who otherwise tried in so many ways to suppress and control the        wild and secret lusts of the human heart. Dionysus resisted every such        effort and, according to myth, visited a terrible madness upon those who        denied him free expression.

The Dionystic idea of mental disease        resulting from suppression of inner desire, especially aberrant sexual        desire, was later reflected in teachings of Sigmund Freud. Thus        Freudianism might be called the grandchild of the cult of Dionysus.

Such mythical systems of mental punishments and        physical rewards based on resistance and/or submission to Dionysus, were        both symbolically and literally illustrated in the cult rituals of the        Bacchae, as the Bacchae women (married and unmarried Greek women had the        right to participate in the mysteries of Dionysus) migrated in frenzied        hillside groups, dressed transvestite in fawn skins and accompanied by        screaming, music, dancing, and licentious behavior.

When,        for instance, a baby animal was too young and lacking in instinct to sense        the danger and run away from the revelers, it was picked up and suckled by        nursing mothers who participated in the hillside rituals. But when older        animals sought to escape the marauding Bacchae, they were considered        "resistant" to the will of Dionysus and were torn apart and eaten alive as        part of the fevered ritual.

Human participants were sometimes subjected to        the same orgiastic cruelty, as the rule of the cult was "anything goes".

Later versions of the ritual (Bacchanalia) became so debauched that        eventually it was outlawed. Until then, any creature that dared to resist        such perversion of Dionysus was often subjected to sparagmos ("torn        apart') and omophagia ("consumed raw").

In B.C. 410, Euripides wrote of the bloody rituals of the Bacchae in his famous play, The Bacchantes:

...the Bacchantes....with hands that bore no weapon of steel, attacked our cattle as they browsed. Then wouldst thou have seen Agave mastering some sleek lowing calf, while others rent the heifers limb from limb. Before thy eyes there would have been hurling of ribs and hoofs this way and that, and strips of flesh, all blood be-dabbled, dripped as they hung from the pine branches. Wild bulls, that glared but now with rage along their horns, found themselves tripped up, dragged down to earth by countless maidens hands.

The tearing apart and eating alive of a        sacrificial victim refers to the earliest history of Dionysus.

Ancient and        violent cult rituals existing since the dawn of paganism stipulated that,        by eating alive, or by drinking the blood, of an enemy or an animal, a        person might capture the essence or "soul-strength" of the victim.

The        earliest Norwegian huntsmen believed this idea, and they drank the blood        of bears in effort to capture their physical strength. East African Masai        warriors also practiced omophagia, and they sought to gain the strength of        the wild by drinking the blood of lions. Human victims were treated in        this way by head-hunters of the East Indies in an effort to capture their        essence.

Today, omophagia is practiced by certain Voodoo sects as well as by cult Satanists [excerpt from Ahriman Gate where fictional character believes in, practices occult omophagia].

Theologians point out that eating human flesh and drinking        human blood as an attempt to "become one" with the devoured is today, in        many cases, a demonization of the Eucharist, or Holy Communion.

Yet        sparagmos and omophagia, as practiced by followers of Dionysus, was not an        attempt of transubstantiation (as in the Catholic Eucharist), nor        of consubstantiation (as in the Lutheran communion), nor of a        symbolic ordinance (as in the fundamentalist denomination), all of which        include the common goal of elevating the worshipper into sacramental        communion with God.

The goal of the Bacchae was the opposite: The frenzied        dance; the thunderous song; the licentious behavior; the tearing apart and        eating alive; all were efforts on the part of the Bacchae to capture the        essence of the god (Dionysus) and to bring him through the portal into an        incarnated rage within humans.

The idea was more of possession by Dionysus then communion.

Hebrews believed        demonic possession actually occurred during the mystery rituals of        Dionysus.

They considered Hades (the Greek god of the underworld) to be        equal with Hell and/or the Devil, and many ancient writers likewise saw no        difference between Hades (in this sense the Devil) and Dionysus.

Euripedes        echoed this sentiment in the Hecuba, and refered to the followers        of Dionysus as the "Bacchants of Hades."

In Syracuse, Dionysus was known        as Dionysus Morychos ("the dark one") a fiendish creature; roughly        equivalent to the biblical Satan, who wore goatskins and dwelt in the        region of the underworld.

In the scholarly book, Dionysus Myth And Cult, Walter F. Otto connected Dionysus with the prince of the underworld. He wrote:

The similarity and relationship which Dionysus has with the prince of the underworld (and this is revealed by a large number of comparisons) is not only confirmed by an authority of the first rank, but he says the two deities are actually the same. Heraclitus says, "...Hades and Dionysus, for whom they go mad and rage, are one and the same."

But the Hebrews considered the magic        ceremonies of the Bacchae to be the best evidence of Dionysus' "Satanic"        connection.

While most details are no longer available because Dionysus        was a mystery god and his rituals were thus revealed to the initiated        only, the Hebrew prophet Ezekiel described the "magic bands" (kesatot)        of the Bacchae, which, as in the omophagia, were used to capture        (magically imprison) the souls of men.

We read, "Therefore, thus says the Lord        GOD, "Behold I am against your magic bands [kesatot] by which you hunt        lives [souls] there as birds, and I will tear them off your arms; and I        will let them go, even those lives [souls] whom you hunt as birds" (Ez.        13:20 NAS).

In Acts 17:34 we read of a man who may have been similarly liberated from control of Dionysus:

"Howbeit certain men clave unto [Paul], and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite..."

To carry the name of Dionysus typically        meant one of two things: 1) the parents were devotees of Dionysus and thus        the child was "predestined" to be a follower of the god; or 2) the        individual was under the spell of the kesatot.

The       kesatot was a magic arm band used in connection with an orca        or container called the kiste.

Wherever the kiste is inscribed on        sarcophagi and on Bacchic scenes, it is depicted as a sacred vessel (a        soul prison?) with a snake peering through an open lid.

How the magic        worked and in what way a soul was imprisoned is still a mystery. Pan, the        half-man/half-goat god (later relegated to devildom) is sometimes pictured        as kicking the lid open and letting the snakes (souls?) out.

Such loose        snakes were then depicted as being enslaved around the limbs, and bound in        the hair, of the Bacchae women.

Such imagery of Pan, the serpents, the        imprisoned souls, and the magic Kesatot and Kiste, have never been        adequately explained by available authorities, and the interpretation of        them as a method for producing zombies is thus subject to ongoing        scrutiny.

Yet since the prophet        Ezekiel spoke of the efforts of the Bacchae to mystically imprison the        souls of men through the magic bands of Dionysus; and since Pan was most        beloved of Dionysus because of his pandemonium ("all the devils")        which struck sudden panic in the hearts of men and beasts; and as the        serpent was universally accepted by the Hebrews as a symbol of occult        devotion; it can be easily surmised that the iconography of Dionysus        represented tenacious effort on the part of the Bacchae to employ symbolic        and imitative magic--based on deeply held ancient beliefs about orcas,        pits and containers--to incarnate the god through dimensional openings.

In our next entry we will look at elevated snakes and        heavenly gateways through which some see the return of the gods.

Stargates Part 4

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