Alchemical and rosicrucian compendium

Alchemical and rosicrucian compendium, c. 1760...

Very very interesting scene...Which proves that (at least some) people in 1760 knew the real meaning of griffin: complex animal calendar marker for autumn...

Let me explain why I think so:

On the left we see an adult sun (god) riding on a lion. I would suggest that this is Sun in Leo, Jul/Aug...Apollo...

If you want to know why I think so, check my article "Lions of Delos" first. It talks about the Lions of Delos, the burning destructive sun in Jul/Aug, Leo, and the fact that both Nergal and Apollo are linked to lions...

And then the rest of these articles about Apollo and his links to Nergal:

"Palil". About "Palil" a nickname of Nergal, the terrible, burning, destructive sun of Jul/Aug, Leo...And about the origin of the name Apollo and its meaning...

"Lord of the flies". About Nergal and Apollo as "The lords of the flies"...And about Jul/Aug, Leo, being the peak of the fly and fly born diseases season in Northern Hemisphere...

"Lions of Delos". About the Lions of Delos, the burning destructive sun in Jul/Aug, Leo, and the fact that both Nergal and Apollo are linked to lions. 

"Apollo and dolphins". About Jul/Aug, Leo being the "best time to sail in Eastern Mediterranean", and the link between dolphins and Lions...and Apollo...

"Marble throne of Apollo". About snakes (symbols of sun's heat), dragons (symbols of burning sun's heat) and terrible sun gods, Nergal and Apollo who are dragons themselves...

"Apollo and Python". About why Python followed Apollo after his birth? Cause snakes are solar animals...According to the Delphian tradition, Apollo was born on the 7th day of the month of Bysios (Jan/Feb)

"White raven". About the black and white raven legend which is found in both Nergal and Apollo mythology, Egyptian vultures and the twins that guard the gates of hell. And some other weird stuff...

"Threshing floor of Apollo". About the threshing floors as solar observatories/temples, about the threshing floor of Apollo from Delphi, about Jul/Aug, Leo, being the holy month of Apollo, and about solar bonfires...

"Apollo the great archer". About why Apollo was the terrible "far shooting" archer...About arrow and bow constellation from Mesopotamia, Ishtar, Sirius, and Jul/Aug, the season of Perseid meteor shower...

"Apollo Sminthius". About Apollo and peak infectious diseases season, Jul/Aug

Lion marks the period Jul/Aug because this is when the main mating season of Eurasian lions starts...Talked about lion as an animal calendar marker in many of my posts...

Lion/Leo marks the hottest time of the year on the northern hemisphere. After that the weather starts getting cooler. I talked about this in my post "Lion eating sun", in which I analysed this detail from the Alchemical and Rosicrucian compendium - c.1760...

Now back to our original image. 

On the right we see a baby with two faces, one looking forward and one looking backward, holding a shield with  the sun head identical to the one the lion rider has. He is riding on a griffin, whose front half is an eagle and the back half is a lion...

I would suggest that this is Janus, sun on Winter Solstice/New Year, at the time of death of the old Sun (Solar year) and the time of birth of the new Sun (Solar Year)...

I talked about Janus in my post "Janus"...

And I talked about his Sumerian predecessor Isimud in my post "Adda seal"...

The two faced one arrives in Europe after the end of autumn, Jul/Aug - Oct/Nov. This is what griffin represents, Autumn, the time between the mating of Eurasian lions (starts in Jul/Aug)

and mating of Eurasian Vultures (starts in Oct/Nov).

The oldest griffin that I know of is depicted on this 3000 BC Proto-Elamite seal.  

I talk about griffin as an animal calendar marker in many of my posts...

The riders point their lances at each other, Apollo points at the Janus's sun shield, and Janus points at Apollo's head, basically indicating that they are one and the same, just at two different points in time...

I am not sure what why Apollo carries moon shield...Maybe it is to depict the cooling which starts in Jul/Aug and which "brings" rains at the end of autumn? I talked about the link between moon and rain in my post "Moon god Nana Sin":

Why was moon (god) so important to Mesopotamians? This article tries to answer this question. Spoiler: Cause the moon that was worshiped was not just any moon. The moon that was worshipped was the crescent moon that points upwards, aka "wet moon"...

 Or maybe just to symbolise summer moons...

Anyway, I just thought this was interesting. What do you think? 

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...

Lion eating sun

A lion eating the sun. Detail from the Alchemical and Rosicrucian compendium - c.1760. Credit:  Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

The end of Jul - beginning of Aug, Leo, is the hottest time of the year in the northern hemisphere. From that moment on, the earth begins to cool...This is also the time of the year when the characteristics of the sunlight actually change...I talked about this in my post "Transfiguration"...

But there are other possible meanings of this image. In Mesopotamia Jul/Aug, Leo, is hottest and driest part of the year...

Which is why lion was the symbol of Nergal, the deified destructive "burning" sun in Leo, that brings drought, disease and death. He was actually depicted as a lion man and held a lion sceptre...

Talked abut him in my post "Winged superhuman hero"...

BTW, Jul/Aug is marked by a lion because the main mating season of eurasian lions starts in Jul/Aug...

In the "THE ASIATIC LION: A study of ecology and behaviour" by Paul Joslin we can read that based on the observation of the large number of wild lions, the mating season of the Asiatic lions starts in August and lasts until October. 

Jul/Aug is the middle of the hot dry half of the year (Apr/May - Oct/Nov), the old Sumerian summer. Which is why Sumerian dragons have lion body and seven snake heads. Snake being the symbol of sun's heat. I talked about this first in my post "Seven headed dragon" The oldest depiction of a Hero(es) killing a 7 headed dragon dragon...Mesopotamia, 2200BC...With 7 snake heads...One for each hot month of Mesopotamian summer...They are killing the 4th head. Apr/May, May/Jun, Jun/Jul, Jul/Aug...  

Leo...The time when Sirius rises with the sun..Do you see "The Lady" (of heaven), Inanna/Ishtar, standing under a star (Sirius) 🙂...

Here is Inanna/Ishtar, deified Sirius, which rises with the sun (morning star) in Leo, Jul/Aug, the hottest time of the year. Which is why she is depicted standing on a lion with the sun above lion's head and is known as "The Lioness of heaven"...

I talked about Inanna/Ishtar as Sirius in many of my posts...

Same girl, same beast (summer)...

Woman of the Apocalypse...I gave Full symbolic analysis of the Chapter 12 of the Book of Revelation in my post "Apocalypse"...

Here is another depiction of the lions eating the sun. See seven stars? Seventh month, Jul/Aug, Leo? Or seven months of old Sumerian summer, Apr/May - Oct/Nov? 

This is same "Beast" was also depicted like this...

I talked about this in my post "Angra Mainyu"...

The beginning of the Eurasian lion main mating season marks the beginning of autumn and the mating season spans the whole of autumn (Aug,Sep,Oct)...

Which is why lion is also the symbol for autumn. I talked about this in my post "Symbols of the seasons"... 

So on our original image, if the head of the lion represents Jul/Aug, the beginning of autumn, then the lion tail represents the Oct/Nov, the end of autumn...

Do you see all the birds flying away above the lion's tail? Autumn bird migration season starts in Jul/Aug and ends in Oct/Nov, the season marked by Leo...

But also, do you see that there are actually 7 birds. Could these be 7 doves of Pleiades, which become visible int the night sky in Oct/Nov, at the end of the summer. I talked about Doves and Pleiades in many of my posts...

Some people would ask what cold be the connection between Mesopotamian lion/sun symbolism and Medieval European lion/sun symbolism. 

The answer is Apollo, the terrible sun god, who was directly linked to lions and Nergal...

You should check my articles about Apollo if you want to fully understand what I am talking about here:

"Palil". About "Palil" a nickname of Nergal, the terrible, burning, destructive sun of Jul/Aug, Leo...And about the origin of the name Apollo and its meaning...

"Lord of the flies". About Nergal and Apollo as "The lords of the flies"...And about Jul/Aug, Leo, being the peak of the fly and fly born diseases season in Northern Hemisphere...

"Lions of Delos". About the Lions of Delos, the burning destructive sun in Jul/Aug, Leo, and the fact that both Nergal and Apollo are linked to lions. 

"Apollo and dolphins". About Jul/Aug, Leo being the "best time to sail in Eastern Mediterranean", and the link between dolphins and Lions...and Apollo...

"Marble throne of Apollo". About snakes (symbols of sun's heat), dragons (symbols of burning sun's heat) and terrible sun gods, Nergal and Apollo who are dragons themselves...

"Apollo and Python". About why Python followed Apollo after his birth? Cause snakes are solar animals...According to the Delphian tradition, Apollo was born on the 7th day of the month of Bysios (Jan/Feb)

"White raven". About the black and white raven legend which is found in both Nergal and Apollo mythology, Egyptian vultures and the twins that guard the gates of hell. And some other weird stuff...

"Threshing floor of Apollo". About the threshing floors as solar observatories/temples, about the threshing floor of Apollo from Delphi, about Jul/Aug, Leo, being the holy month of Apollo, and about solar bonfires...

"Apollo the great archer". About why Apollo was the terrible "far shooting" archer...About arrow and bow constellation from Mesopotamia, Ishtar, Sirius, and Jul/Aug, the season of Perseid meteor shower...

"Apollo Sminthius". About Apollo and peak infectious diseases season, Jul/Aug

Not convinced? Check this out:

 IONIA. Miletos. Circa 340-325 BC. Drachm. 

Front: Laureate head of Apollo. 

Back: Lion with eight-pointed star above

This coin, I think, confirms my hypothesis that Apollo was Sun in Leo...Basically, Greek version of Mesopotamian Nergal...

That's that. To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...

Apollo the Great archer

Apollo armed with bow and arrows. Why?

"I will remember and not be unmindful of Apollo who shoots afar. As he goes through the house of Zeus, the gods tremble before him and all spring up from their seats when he draws near, as he bends his bright bow..."

"Leto...then...unstrings his bow, and closes his quiver, and takes his archery from his strong shoulders in her hands and hangs them on a golden peg against a pillar of his father's house..."

This is an excerpt from "Homeric hymn to Apollo".

So, ever wandered why Apollo was known as the "far shooting" and why "bow and arrow" were his main symbols? Like for instance, on this Marble Throne of Apollo, Roman, late 1st c. AD. 

BTW, whoever made this, knew who Apollo really was and wanted to show Apollo in his true shape (serpent, dragon), sitting on his throne. With his bow and arrows. You can find the full analysis of this object and the explanation why Apollo is the Serpent/Dragon in my post "Marble throne of Apollo"...

Anyway, I did wander, and I couldn't figure it out. Until yesterday. Let me explain: 

I knew that Apollo "was a god plague and pestilence" just like Nergal. I wrote about this in my post "Lord of flies", about Beelzebub, the lord of the flies, who was identified by Jews and Christians with Satan...In this article I showed that behind this nickname hides the old Mesopotamian God of Death, Nergal, The Destructive Sun of Jul/Aug, Leo, the time of droughts, flies and epidemics...

Leo, which was also the time of the year dedicated to Apollo. I talked about this in my post "Threshing floor of Apollo" about Halos, the sacred threshing floor of Apollo in Delphi. And about Apellaios, Jul/Aug, the sacred month of Apollo...

But I couldn't understand why Apollo "was a god who could bring...deadly plague with his arrows". I couldn't connect the plague and arrow(s) in any way.

And then I read this paper "The Best of the Olympians: The Character of Apollo in the Homeric Epics and Hymns"...

And in it there was a bit about how Apollo persuaded Cretans to go to Crisa and become priests in his temple. He first turned himself into a dolphin (important) and jumped on their ship. I talked about it in my post "Apollo and dolphins" about this  490 BC Etruscan hydria from Vulci, which shows Apollo in the centre, holding his lyre, seated on the Delphic tripod...with a dolphin to either side of the tripod...

But then we reed that: "There, from the ship the far-working lord Apollo leapt, seeming like a star at mid-day: many sparks flew from him, and the beam reached to heaven"...

The author of the paper says that "We may contrast this image, where Apollo is like a star at mid-day, with the similes that describe Achilles at the peak of his antagonism toward this god at the end of the Iliad..."

"Where the beam from the flame emitted from his head reaches the sky, and where an image of asterism later compares the hero to the brightest star in the night sky, a baneful signifier of Troy’s eventual destruction and perhaps his own..."

"It is the most brilliant light, but it produces a deadly sign and brings much fever to wretched mortals." 

Wow. Apollo was actually directly linked to Sirius?

Now remember that I proposed that Apollo was actually Nergal,  the Mesopotamian god of war, pestilence and death, the personification of the destructive sun's heat in Leo, Jul/Aug?

I explained why Apollo was so terrible, and why everyone was so scared shitless when he was around, in my post "Lions of Delos" about the lions from the 600 BC Temple of Apollo from Delos and about why Apollo was linked to lions, and Leo, Jul/Aug...

Guess which star rises with the sun in Leo, Jul/Aug? Sirius...The morning star in Leo. Hence Inanna/Ishtar (personification of Sirius), also known as the lioness of heaven, standing on a lion, with sun above the lion, in Leo... I talked about it in my post "Inanna and Sukaletuda"...

Interestingly, in Mesopotamia, Sirius was seen as an arrow and the surrounding stars were seen as a bow...And they were stars of Jun/Jul/Aug...

I already talked about this in my post "The brightest star" about the link between Sirius and Inanna...

So Jul/Aug, the time of the year ruled by Nergal/Apollo, is the time when Sirius (bow and arrow) rises with the sun. Now I know why Ishtar, the lady that rides on lions, is armed with bow and arrows...BTW, Jul/Aug was also start of date harvest...Hence palm tree...

I talked about palms and lions in my post "Cylinder seal with a monster", about this Elamite seal (Iran), ca. 11th–9th century BC. 

See the Shamash cross above the lion? That is the sun cross. I talked about this in my post "The cross of Shamash"...

But why did Mesopotamians see Sirius as arrow? Remember my post "Invisible archer"? If arrows are shooting down from the night sky, there must be an [invisible] archer shooting them from up there...  

This article was about Orion and Orionids meteorite shower. Orionids shoot down on earth during Sep/Oct/Nov. But there is another meteroite shower that rains light arows down on earth in Jul/Aug. Perseid Meteor shower...

And guess when this meteor shower is most intense? When the most light arrows are being shot down on earth? Right before dawn. You can even see them at dawn, together with Sirius and the sun...Destructive sun of Leo, Nergal, Apollo...

And guess what coincides with the time when the far shooting Apollo is rising in the east, with his "bow and arrow" (Sirius) while his golden arrows rain down on earth? The pestilence season...As I explained in my post about the lord of the flies...

Interesting, right? So this is why Apollo was the feared archer whose arrows brought plague...

Also, remember this? Artemis was also armed with bow and arrows...

Also Artemis, of the original, archaic type, before people forgot her real meaning, from the Artemis temple in Corfu...She is the twin sister of the sun god, Apollo 🙂 

Gorgon...Interesting name...🙂 In Slavic languages it means "The burning one"...Check my post "Ognjena Marija", About the special incarnation of virgin (goddess) Mary, Burning Mary, which is celebrated in...Jul/Aug...

Ko razume shvatiće...🙂

Will write more about this soon...

That's it. To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...

Sacred marriage on the threshing floor

Vital to an agrarian community’s survival, threshing floors are agricultural spaces where crops are threshed and winnowed.

"...But the Hebrew Bible rarely refers to such agricultural activities taking place at such sites...

Instead, biblical narratives repeatedly depict threshing floors in ancient Israel as sites for mourning rites, divination rituals, cultic processions, and sacrifices...Kings consult prophets there; even the Solomonic temple was built on a threshing floor...

These originally agricultural sites were also considered sacred spaces connected to Yahweh, under his control, and subject to his power to bless, curse, and save and that Israel had a special ritual access to Yahweh in these powerfully symbolic sites..."

This is an intro to "Threshing Floors in Ancient Israel: Their Ritual and Symbolic Significance" by Jaime L. Waters... 

Now, we know that goddess Asherah was linked to "high places" where she was worshiped...These were holy grounds of sort, raised platforms where religious ceremonies were performed...Pic: High Place, Megiddo...

And you know how every "high place" had an "Asherah pole" made of wood..."which marked the place as sacred and was itself an object of worship"...And no one is really sure what this pole was or what it looked like...

Is it possible that originally these high places with a sacred wooden pole were just threshing floors with a central pole to which threshing animals were tied? 

Like this traditional threshing floor from Ithaka, Greece...Definitely a "High place" with a "Central Pole"...

BTW, this is what Homer says about Demeter, the goddess of grain harvest, and threshing floors:

"And even as the wind carries chaff about the sacred threshing-floors / of men that are winnowing, when fair-haired Demeter / amid the driving blasts of wind separates the grain from the chaff"...

You can find this quote in "A Compendium of Similes in the Iliad and Odyssey"...Which is why Eugene Vanderpool in "ΕΠΙ ΠΡΟϒΧΟΝΤΙ ΚΟΛΩΝΩΙ: The Sacred Threshing Floor at Eleusis" proposes that threshing floors were sacred to Demeter and were in fact her temples...

Here is another traditional threshing floor, this time from Croatia?

In the Balkans, among the Slavs, threshing floors were considered sacred until recently. They were platform where many religious ceremonies from the agricultural cult were performed...And sacrifices were made to the central pole until very recently...

I talked about this in my post "Bogovo gumno (God's threshing floor)"...

Including blood sacrifices...Serbs actually sacrificed a cock to the central threshing floor column at the end of the harvest, most likely as a replacement for a human sacrifice...Based on ritual tying of girls to the central threshing floor column...

I talked about it in my post "Cock bashing"...

In "The Threshing Floor as Sacred Space in the Hebrew Bible A Spatial and Anthropological Perspective" Tamara Prosic asks: "Is the building of the Yahweh’s temple on the Jebusite threshing floor just a Yahwehisation of the holy threshing floor?"

Considering that there are many indications that the First Temple was built by solar worshippers, and that threshing floors were used, among other things, as solar observatories, it is kind of obvious why the First Temple was built on the threshing floor...Right?

I talked about this in my post "Boaz and Jachin"...

Why would you care where the true east is? Well, if Sun is your god you'd want to face your lord properly, right? The royal seal of the Kingdom of Judah from the time of the King Hezekiah (739 - 687 BC) with the winged sun. Abut First Temple solar cult: 

I talked about this in my post "Sun god from the first temple"...

In the Balkans, threshing floors were not just centers of religious life, but also of communal life. People met there, celebrated weddings and funerals there. Cilipi, Dubrovnik.  Circular dance "kolo" danced on a threshing floor. 

Zetsko kolo, circular dance with a couple dancing in the middle of the circle imitating mating eagles, from Montenegro, danced on a threshing floor 

Dancing Linđo on an threshing floor in the village of Mrčevo, Croatia...High Places...In mountain villages threshing floors were usually the only flat platforms suitable for social gatherings...

The birthplace of Greek circular dance "horos" is said to be the island of Crete, were Rhea, the Mother of Zeus, taught the Curetes how to dance...Minoan "Dancers from Kamilari" dancing "horos" (most likely) on a threshing floor...

I talked about this in my post "Shield of Achilles"...

Threshing floors were used for religious ceremonies in Mesopotamia too. In the "Threshing floor in reality and metaphor" we can read that "The annual sacred marriage reenactment between Ea and Ishtar (Asherah) was performed on a threshing floor"... 

Ea, Enki was the god of water who every year ejaculated Tigris and Euphrates. It was his semen (water) that enabled grain agriculture in Mesopotamia...The water level in both rivers peaks in Apr/May...

Right when the sacred marriage ceremony was performed on the threshing floor, in the month of Iyyar (Apr/May)...Now look at this. Sumerian agricultural calendar. 

Interestingly, Inanna/Ishtar, was in "A song of Inanna and Dumuzid" described as: "Maiden, glossy mane, lovely beauty...colourful as a pile of grain, fit for the king, fit for Dumuzid! Maiden...a stack of...barley, fully developed in loveliness"...

This is Inanna/Ishtar speaking: 

"...Before my lord, Dumuzi,

I poured out plants from my womb.

I placed plants before him,

I poured out plants before him.

I placed grain before him,

I poured out grain before him,

I poured out grain before my womb..."

I talked bout this in my post "Mother of grain"...

This is Inanna again:

"...

As for me, Inanna,

Who will plow my vulva?

Who will plow my high field?

Who will plow my wet ground?

..."

Grain harvest starts in Apr/May (time of the year dominated by Enki/Ea), and ends in Jul/Aug (time of the year dominated by Ishtar/Inanna)...

Hence the sacred marriage between Ea/Enki and Ishtar/Inanna performed on the threshing floor...At the beginning of the harvest...

How do we know that Jul/Aug is the time of the year dominated by Ishtar/Inanna? Well she is the girl that loved posing on lions...Why?

Well...standing on a lion means "In Leo"...

And you know how everyone thinks that Inanna/Ishtar "The queen of heaven", "The morning star" is Venus...Well, when this "mythology" was developed, Sirius rose before the sun, in Leo (Jul/Aug), pretending to be "the morning star"...I talked about this in my post "Ninshubur"...

In "A hymn to Inana as Ninegala" we can read "Inana, great light, lioness of heaven..." Why? 

Well, this, combined with Inanna's obsession with standing on lions only makes sense if she is Sirius, rising with the sun in Leo...

And Jul/Aug is when Sirius starts rising with the sun in the morning...The real "Morning star"...Ishtar, Inanna...

Oh, and by the way, Leo marks the beginning of the main mating season of Eurasian lions, (Jul/Aug)...

By the way, this "Lady standing on a lion", "Lady sitting on a lion", "Lady standing between lions", "Lady sitting between lions", "Lady riding in chariots pulled by lions"...I surprisingly popular...I talked about her in my post "Assumption of Mary"...

Soo...Interesting...Right? Does this get us anywhere near to understanding why threshing floors were so important to Bronze and Iron Age Canaanites? And does this help us understand the link between "High Places", Asherah, Asherah Poles and Threshing Floors?

After everything I wrote in this article...What does "this" tell us about Mycenaeans? A pole between two lions (means in Leo)...Anything interesting?