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Note: The following letters are reprinted with
permission.
On the Forbidden Letters - by Julius Breitner
Part 1 - Ningizidda
'On the Hydra seal they are the seven heads of the serpent God
Ningizidda.
On this reading there seems to be something there that is related to the
kundalini metaphysics of the serpent power as the moving force of the
universe.'[2002:271]
On page 274 of his excellent 2002 book The Shape of Ancient
Thought Thomas McEvilley opines that the caduceus, who is found
almost world-wide, was first represented in the Mesopotamian temple
of Ningizzida. That deity Ningizzida is commonly seen...
'...in conjunction with a fire altar.'[2002:271]
He/she was 'sometimes depicted as a serpent with a
human head,'[Ibid.] and considered 'the earliest known symbol of snakes
twining around an axial rod, predating the Caduceus of Hermes, the Rod of
Asclepius and the staff of Moses by more than a millennium..'[Wikipedia]
As a deity 'addressed as "Lord of the Tree of Life" he
stood at the gate of heaven,'[Lindemans] (just like Peter did, the disciple
who represents the Stone of Transmutation). McEvilley concludes then that the
iconography of kundalini yoga must be a mix of Mesopotamian and
Egyptian models: 'The icons of copulating serpents entwined around a pole
inside the human body (....), the eagle-serpent combat (...), the eight-petaled
lotus or rosette, the seven headed serpent power, the ascent up the spine,
they all have clear Bronze Age, Near Eastern antecedents.'[2002:270]
Yet, a clear medicinal
understanding of kundalini yoga and its
serpent, so typical for Alchemy from the second century BC on, was not
found in that Age. And such an understanding of Alchemy can naturally
only be explained if its goal is not otherworldly, but earthly. If, in other
words, Alchemy is about physical and not about transcendental immortality. As
Girardot put it, in Alchemy...
'...salvation is
more a matter of the healing of the man to the fullness of cosmic life, than
it is a saving from the world.'[1983:198]
This is particularly true
for Chinese Alchemy. And although it is impossible to demonstrate actual
historical connections between Chinese and Western alchemical traditions
(China knows nothing about the Stone for example), 'it does seem that both
traditions are rooted in a similar mythological understanding of nature and
significance of creation.'[1983:298] Both Chinese and Western Alchemy are
'based on a purely cosmological vision.'[1967:73]
In Western Alchemy Sol and Luna are united, in Chinese Alchemy
they are called yin and yang. And where the alchemical tradition of
the West tells of Thoth/Hermes, the Far East tells of the Yellow Emperor,
originally...
'...a patron god or totemic ancestor of certain prefeudal
traditions of metal working.'[1983:198]
Metal working was 'just a facade'[2006:236] of course. The
Royal Art revolved not around metals, it revolved around the
'transformation of the body into spirit in the quest for immortality.'[Ibid]
The practitioner 'had to undergo an inner death and resurrection, a baptism
of fire, holding out the prospect of rebirth into immortality.'[Ibid] He
shall 'not taste death.'[Gospel of Thomas]
Part
2
-
The
Labyrinth,
the
Phoenix and
the
Underworld
'Looking
in
the
divine
mirror,
what
kind
of
daimon
does
the
Hero
overcome?
Whose
identity
does
this
person
see?'[1986:187]
'God
is
so
unknown
because
he's
right
in
our
face.'[John
Raven
on
the
Forbidden
Letters]
In
his
spring
2007 comment
on
the
Forbidden
Letters
Jay
Reed
Armstrong proposes
that
the
labyrinth
represents
the
alchemical
phase
of
the
Night
of
the
Soul.
Armstrong:
'Finding
the
Grail
will
then
most
likely
be one
of the
most
delicate
things
a man
can do
psychologically.
And
putting
that
Grail
to
work
afterwards
in the
Night
of the
Soul
perhaps
one of
the
most
unpleasant.
(...) In
the
labyrinth
of
that
Night
our
beast,
the
dark
side
of our
Self,
the
Minotaur,
is
freed,
fought
and
transmuted
by the
Alchemist
into
light
bit by
bit.(...)'
Ariel
Golan has information
on the labyrinth
suggesting that Reed
Armstrong could very
well be right. In his
1991 book Myth and
Symbol Golan tells us
that 'something of the
meaning of the
labyrinth can be
understood from its
appellations. The
ancient Greeks
referred to it as the
labyrinthos. And the
double-side axe,
typical of Cretan
cult, was called
labris.'[1991:180] Now,
it was shown by Güntert
'that these words
originated from a
pre-Indo-European word
which meant
stone.'[Ibid.] This is
interesting since 'no
ancient labyrinths
were ever built of
stone.'[Ibid.] Stone
was though...
'...the
symbol of the god of the
underworld.'[Ibid.]
Paleolithic
monuments featuring labyrinth-like elements often even have
'a spiral, the symbol of the serpent.'[Ibid.] And
American Indians 'call the labyrinth "the House
of Tkunu." A mythical personage who let people out
of the underworld.'[Ibid./emphasis and underscore
added]
The
labyrinth indeed then seems to symbolize the Night of the Soul:
the ascent of the chaos of the underworld to the
upper world of consciousness in the second part of the Work of
the Sun. The first part of that Work involves an encounter between
these worlds too, but this time in fire, and through descent.
That
fire is represented by the Phoenix and it was already pointed out at World
Mysteries that in myth the bird in general represents the soul.
The immolation of the Phoenix thereby is the immolation of 'soul-tissue.'
(This even accords with ancient Egyptian language where 'a
representation of a bird was a hieroglyph for the word soul.'[1991:139])
But
back to the underworld. Was the Phoenix in myth related to that world below too?
After all, the details on the resurrection given by the Paris 4 tell us that one
is descending ablaze.
Golan suggests
that the Phoenix indeed belonged to the underworld, because it's name...
'...seems
to come from the name of the underworld god f.n (...).'[1991:144]
Furthermore,
the ancient Hebrews 'called the Phoenix Sul. This word Sul, resembling the
Indo-European word sol (sun), may be taken as pointing to the solar nature
of the Phoenix . However, it also resembles the word Seol, the Hebrew word for
underworld.'[Ibid.] Golan concludes therefore that the Phoenix ...
'...was originally an image of the
underworld god.'[Ibid.] And that god is but a representation of the 'dark side
of the (human) Self.'[Armstrong]
Part
3 - The Golden Thigh
Introduction
'In any case, after this fight with Set, but in the same
ceremony, Horus hands the thighbone of a sacrificed ram to his father who is
symbolically present, and says, "Behold, I plucked the thighbone from
Set." Yet, it was not Set's thighbone, but his testicles that were taken
from him. At this point in the ceremony, the thigh seems to have become a
disguised or surrogate genital.'[2002:668]
'Our gay man is, as we wrote earlier, Anfortas too. Meaning that
he has that mysterious pain in his left testicle. That pain started a few
months before his Kundalini. It is described by von Eschenbach in his Parzival.
Especcialy the part about the wound getting cold as ice is correct (there is
no visible wound on our gay man though). During the months that lead up to the
resurrection the pain gets worse and worse. In the end he had difficulties of
walking even. This pain made it impossible for our man to have sex. And there
we have the famous sperm-saving-theory from Tantra. '[The Paris
4/verbatim]
'In Plato the kundalini power is especially embodied in
semen.'[2002:209]
'Semen is the raw material and fuel of every psychochemical
transformation.'[David Gordon White]
In his October 2007 article on the
Forbidden Letters at World Mysteries Guido Popp discusses the Solar Wound of
the Grail King, meaning the alchemist. That wound, according to myth, can be
found in such places as the foot, the thigh or the groin.
Through the Forbidden Letters we now have
strong reasons to assume that the thigh is indeed a disguise for the
genitals. And Wolfram von Eschenbach appears again to be the only one with the
correct details here: the wound is in the genitalia.
This displacement of genital to thigh
'occurs frequently in Grail myth'[2002:669] and apparently has antecedents in
older myths about the Solar Hero. In ancient Greece for instance the
Golden Thigh of Pythagoras was also a Solar Wound in disguise. As Walter
Burkert informs us:
'Antiquity understood this Golden Thigh as
a sign of divinity, but we find no explanation of just how this is
so.'[1972:159]
And then Burkert all of a sudden gives this
on the Solar Wound:
'The myths tell over and over of the
favorite of the Great Mother being wounded in the thigh, as also of the thigh
wounds of those who attempt to
make their way into the underworld.
Only he who bears this sign (i..e. the testicle-wound) can
descend into the pit with impunity.'[1972:160/emphasis
and underscore added]
Most scholars are of the opinion that these
myths point to fertility, where they actually point to the road to
terrestrial Paradise. McEvilley:
'If this reading of the mythologem is
correct, then the thigh wound, which, as Burkert noted, allows the visitor
to enter Hell, is a symbolic castration wound indicating that this
individual no longer has the power to create life (fertility-motif/Breitner),
and therefore may suitably enter the land of the dead.'[2002:669]
Because for most people, unfamiliar with
alchemy as they are, a katabasis (descent) into the Underworld or
Hell is not a katabasis into Rebirth, the End of Time and Life
Eternal, but a katabasis simply into 'the land of the dead.' -
However, in one, very old Indian myth
the Thigh is linked to the End of Time and in quite an
alchemical way on top. In Harivamsa's story of the offspring of the sage
Aurva, Aurva produces...
'...from this "thigh" the
flame that would burn up the world at the age's end.'[1953:pp.32
ff./emphasis added] - And that ax, according to Matthew 3, 'is
already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good
fruit' will be cut down and thrown into that 'flame.'
'It is strange that, as Eleazar says, this earth is mingled
with fire.'[Jung]
'Jesus said, "I have cast fire upon the world, and look,
I'm guarding it until it blazes." - '[Gospel of Thomas 10]
'You, Christ, who are all fire, have mercy on
me.'[Ephraem the Syrian, quoted by Jung]
© Julius Breitner 2008
References
-
McEvilley, T., The Shape of
Ancient Thought: Comparitive Studies in Greek and Indian Philosophies,
Allworth Press, New
York, USA, 2002
-
Burkert, W., Lore and
Science in Ancient Pythagoreanism, Harvard University Press, USA, 1972
-
Dowson, J., A Classical
Dictionary of Hindu Mythology; and Religion, Geography, History and
Literature, 8th ed., Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1953
-
Pollard, J., & Reid,
H., The Rise and Fall of Alexandria, Penguin Books Ltd, London, 2006
-
Burckhardt, T., Alchemy,
Penguin Books, Baltimore, USA, 1967
-
Girardot, N.J., Myth and
Meaning in Early Taoism, University of California Press, Berkeley,
Ca., USA, 1983
-
Golan, A., Myth and
Symbol, Symbolism in Prehistoric Religion, Publisher n.n., Jerusalem,
Israel, 1991
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