9. SCALA DEI

On the spring equinox of c. AD 33 the moon hung full over Jerusalem. It was the first Good Friday. A massive crowd gathered in the City of Peace to celebrate Passover at the newly constructed second Temple of Solomon.

That morning Jesus, the man who was called Christos, “Anointed,” was brought before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor.¹ After a quick trial Pilate had Jesus brutally whipped and flogged.² The soldiers wove a crown of thorns and smashed into his head and placed a purple robe on his shoulders, dressing him as a mock king.³

By 9:00 A.M. Jesus was taken outside the western gate of Jerusalem by Roman guards to Gulgotha, “the place of the skull,” a barren hillside northwest of the city.⁴ Weakened by the loss of blood, he could barely support the heavy wooden beam fastened by nails or by thongs to his hands and placed horizontally across his neck and shoulders. He was then led to the place of crucifixion. At noon he was raised and affixed to a vertical pillar, which, legend says was set up in the exact place where Adam’s skull was buried.

The Gospel of John explicitly states the Crucifixion took place in a garden.⁵ Jesus reinforces this locale when he appeared three days after the Crucifixion as ‘the Gardener’ to Mary Magdalene, the first person to see him after his resurrection.⁶ In Greek mythology the Gardener is known as the Green Man or the Oak King, the King of Tula.⁷

• Is this a coincidence?

• Or, is this our first tip-off that something other than has been portrayed by the Church was occurring at the Crucifixion?
   

GETHSEMANE
According to the Gospel of Matthew,⁸ the garden and tomb were the private property of Jesus’ wealthy uncle, Joseph of Arimathea. Described as one who was “looking for the kingdom of God,” ⁹ all four Gospels agree that Joseph was a member of the Sanhedrin and a secret disciple of Jesus. Scholars suggest his private garden and Jesus’ tomb was likely the Garden of Gethsemane, a favorite gathering place of the disciples with a clear view of the Temple on Mount Moriah or Sion (or Zion, the ancient name for Jerusalem).

The pillar upon which Jesus was hung stood between two thieves.¹⁰ Neither their names nor their exact crime is declared in the Bible. However, their transgression must have been significant to warrant such a horrific form of capital punishment.

On the other hand Jesus’ crime was explicitly stated. Above Jesus’ head Pontius Pilate wrote a title in Greek, Latin and Hebrew and put it on the pillar: INRI. Exoterically, this is translated as “Jesus the Nazorean, King of the Jews.”¹¹

This declared the official capitol charge against Jesus --declaring himself the one and only savior and challenging the sovereign authority of Tiberius Caesar -- and at the same time mocked him. This is the “King of the Jews?”

As noted, esoterically INRI is transcribed as: “By fire, nature is renewed whole.”¹²

‘Fire’ refers to frequency, vibration, knowledge. As it is the nuclear fires that renew creation, ‘fire‘ points in this instance refers to the a~tomic tradition which surrounded Jesus and is apparent to those ‘with eyes to see’.

At about the ninth hour (3 P.M.) the sky turned dark (Matthew 27:45). Jesus began reciting the opening lines of Psalm 22, “Eli, Eli, lama Saba Chtani? My God (Eli), my God, why hast thou forseaken me?”

Written by King David, Psalm 22 is part of trilogy that includes Psalms 22, 23, and 24. In Psalm 22, the good Shepherd gives his life for the sheep.¹³ It is a graphic picture of death by crucifixion. The lines that follow are most illuminating, saying

“I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.”

This worm is “poured out like water.”¹⁴ This ‘worm’ apparently inhabits a human body for the Psalm next tells us its bones are out of joint, profuse perspiration pours from its body, its heart is affected, its strength exhausted, its throat dry, the hands and feet are pierced.

The accompanying circumstances are precisely those fulfilled in the Crucifixion of Jesus. He even cried, saying ‘It is finished’, the last words of Psalm 22, and gave up the ghost.

What, exactly, the Gospel writers wish for us to understand about the connection between the worm who is poured out in Psalm 22 and the Crucifixion is uncertain. However, an intriguing possibility is presented by the Egyptian myth of Osiris.

In Sanskrit Hu is ‘he-who-is-poured out’. Hu-Siris was one of the Greek names for Osiris, the serpent-soul or worm who lived within the Pillar of Love.

The idea of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit or possibly the Holy Wisdom is echoed in the writings of the Hebrew prophets from Isaiah to Joel. These prophets said that at the last God will pour out his spirit, not upon the few initiates only, but upon all flesh.
 

THOMAS
The serpent is presented in the Bible as the Devil who tempted Eve to denounce Yahweh by eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.¹⁵ This makes it all the more strange that first Moses, who set a healing serpent on a pillar, and then Jesus would highlight this figure so prominently in their stories.

Jesus repeatedly refers to Moses. What is the explanation for Jesus’ action and statement:

“And as Moses lifted the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth may in Him have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son…?”¹⁶

In fact, the Chaldeans called the Brazen Serpent the WORD.¹⁷ It conveyed the idea of wisdom and language. The Word, I have proposed, is the a-tom or the A-ton.

A strange story told in Acts 28:1-6 is made clear by this understanding. In this story the Apostle Paul is visiting the 9-mile-long island of M-Alta (then called Melita), a center of serpent-soul worship beneath the southern tip of Italy. The underworld of the gods, it was claimed, was accessed from this island. Paul is bit by a serpent or viper on the island, and survived only by the power of the risen Jesus. Does this suggest Jesus was present at M-Alta to heal Paul? Or, does it mean Paul was ‘given wisdom’ during his stay there as evidence by his act of ‘holding the serpent’, and that the ‘risen Jesus’ emerged from within him? After seeing that Paul was unharmed, and could ‘hold the serpent’, the Maltese ’said that he was a god’.

As noted, in the Hebrew Bibles, all references to serpents are made by use of the word nahash (from the stem NHSH). This term does not relate to serpents in the way that we would know them --that is, reptiles. It relates to serpents in their traditional capacity as bringers of wisdom and enlightenment, and to souls, since NHSH is also the stem for the Hebrew Nashamah, or soul. The word nahash actually means ‘to decipher’ or ‘to find out’.

Serpent-souls, in one form or another, were always associated with wisdom and healing, and the Trees of Life and Knowledge are customarily identified with serpents. Indeed, the logo of today’s American and British medical associations is a copy of this image of a serpent-soul coiled around the Tree of Life --a depiction shown in the clay reliefs of ancient Sumer and identified as E.A’s personal logo.

When Jesus arrived at the beginning of the Age of Pisces to become the new Lord of the Temple (or A-Tum Pillar), he supplanted Tammuz who became the Doubting Thomas, the apostle who challenged Jesus’ claim to authentic apotheosis and resurrection in the flesh.

Thomas or Tammuz (E.A) apparently knew the real thing because he already was the real thing. The Gnostic Holy Book of the Invisible Spirit or The Egyptian Gospel affirms this.¹⁸ Composed before 350 AD, this Gospel contains the “true history” of the line of the Savior and tells of the Great Invisible Spirit who emanated from the “eternal light of the aeons.” Three powers emanated from it: namely the father, the mother and the son. Next, there emanated a great cloud of light, a living power, the mother of the holy incorruptible beings of great powers, the Moirothea (or Meru-thea), Greek meaning “divine part.”¹⁹

And she engendered that being whose name is uttered:

Thou art unique!
Thou art unique
Ea, Ea, Ea!

The Gospel describes E.A. saying, “inasmuch as Adam is light that has radiated… this being (E.A.) is the eye of light.”²⁰ This is the same eye of light that appears on the logo of the American enterprise.

The Gnostic Gospel of the Egyptians is divided into two parts. The first is a revisionist “true history” of Adam’s son Seth down to Jesus, the final incarnation of the Savior. The second part is a liturgical service book for gnostic baptism.

This book begins with a uranographic catalog (a list of structural elements of the universe) and concludes with a hymn spoken by the newly baptized gnostic.

This gospel describes the spiritual universe as a ‘throne room’. A Word of power, the Name of God, it says, is written on a “tablet” near the “throne of glory.”

This Word of power emanated from a Great Light (that would be Tula) along with seven powers (rays), which are the seven vowels: I,E,O,U,E,A,O. Before the baptism these letters are spoken as a hymn spoken by the newly baptized gnostic. After the baptism, when the “great name is upon me,” they are copied as a pyramid as follows:

A
E E
E E E
I I I I
O O O O O
Y Y Y Y Y Y
O O O O O O O O ²¹

Significantly, the seven-rayed Name or Word is the same as the “light” which the heron (the Egyptian savior) radiates from its perch atop the pyramid. This is the foundation of Rosicrucian philosophy. In mystic circles the Rosicrucian genius Francis Bacon is regarded not as a man, but rather as a bridge between an invisible world and the Earthly world.

Manly P. Hall states,

“In all probability, the keys to the Baconian riddle will be found in classical mythology. He who understands the secret of the Seven Rayed God will comprehend the method employed by Bacon to accomplish his monumental labor.”²²

In French the Language of the Birds is called ‘langue des oiseaux’. The word oiseaux, or bird, is one of the rare French words which contains all the vowels A, E, I, O, U.

Who is the ‘seven Rayed God’? One answer is the Egyptian heron. Another is Sarapis. We looked at Sarapis earlier. Sarapis was called the god with the name of seven letters. In their hymns to Sarapis the priests chanted the seven vowels. Occasionally Sarapis is depicted with horns or a coronet of seven rays.

Another candidate for the ‘seven rayed God’ is Jesus, who appeared in the Book of Revelation holding seven stars or rays in his hand.²³ According to Revelation, Jesus has a word of power written on his ‘thigh’.²⁴ There is a profound connection between the Seven Rays, the Word on the thigh of Jesus and the Palladium pillar.

The link is provided by the Egyptian artist who painted this illustration reproduced here. It is drawn from the rectangular zodiac carving which once graced the ceiling of the great temple Hathor at Denderah. It shows the first rays of the risen sun, Re or Horus (the Sun god) defeating the polar stars of Draconis and of the Ursa Major, the Plough.²⁵

The sunbeam or spear is pointed directly at the group of stars which we today call the Ursa Major or the Plough, but which the Egyptians called the “Thigh” or alternately the “Haunch of the Bull.”²⁶ What does this have to do with the thigh of the prophecy of the return of Jesus (and with the wounding of the thigh of the Grail King in Grail legend)?

The stars of the Plough, Ursa Major,

shown as the Haunch of the Bull
 

The Egyptian sun-god Re is an earlier version of the story of the Archangel Michael. He is here represented ‘slaying the dragon’ (the hippo was the ‘dragon’ of the Nile). The dragon in question could be the planet Tiamat, which was a member of the Pleiades, known as the Seven Hathors to the Egyptians, which are found in the constellation Taurus the Bull. Tiamat was destroyed in the heavens.

However, the Bull could also be Osiris, who was called the ‘Bull of Heaven’.²⁷ Does this suggest the real meaning of the mark on the “thigh” of Jesus, and the ‘word of power’, has something to do with Osiris and the Seven Stars of Ursa Major or the Pleiades? In this case the Bull or Thigh of Osiris would appear to be another name for the Pillar of Osiris.

In many of the myths of the appearance of the messiah we have seen the Golden Pillar featured as the storage device for the soul of the savior. We have associated this Pillar with Mount Meru. Incredibly, in Greek, Meros means thigh. In Greek myth the savior Bacchus was nourished in a thigh. The Greek historian Herodotus says that Jupiter (‘the shining god of light’, who is also Di Pater, Dis Pater or Ptah) carried Bacchus in his thigh to Nysa (Meru).

According to Budge, none other than Osiris built Nysa.²⁸ Osiris was known as the heron and he was a gardener.

In John 20:18, Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord in the Garden. He appeared to her as the Gardener, and spoke to her (no doubt in the Language of the Birds, the language of nature). When Mary went to embrace him, Jesus responded “Do Not Touch Me,” indicating his inability to be touched.

Biblical interpreters say Jesus was in his phantom body, and therefore, could not be physically touched. Later that day Jesus appeared to the rest of the disciples. He stood in the midst (or mist?), and said to them Peace be unto you.

Jesus then delivered the cleansing mysteries described in the Pistis Sophia that transformed the disciples into beings of pure light (in other words a ‘Cathar’ or pure one). The exact nature of this teaching is not disclosed in the Gospels.

No matter how bizarre these considerations and connections may at first seem, it appears Jesus’ innermost teaching included the Language of the Birds and the ability to transmute the elements.

With Jesus having just returned with the wisdom of how to achieve this light body or phantom body transformation the disciples were in no position to deny that he knew what he was talking about.

Thomas, however, was not present when Jesus came. He refused to believe Jesus was risen until he saw for himself.²⁹ Jesus reappeared eight days later. This time Thomas was present. Upon seeing Jesus he proclaimed him his god.³⁰ Afterwards Thomas went to Taxila in India in the year 40 AD to begin his ministry.

As we have noted, the Romans called Thomas or Tammuz Adonis (or A-ton), and said he was the chief god of the Jews. The fact that Jesus and Adonis shared the same name “Adonai” or “Lord” is beyond coincidental. The Syrian Acts of Thomas put a strange kink in this story. They declare that Thomas was Jesus’ twin brother, and that his full name was Judas Tammuz or Judas Thomas.

The Kor-An insists that Judas had the same face as Jesus and was crucified in his place. “A servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James authored the New Testament epistle of Jude (short for Judas).”³¹ James was Jesus’ brother. Does this make Judas Jesus’ twin brother Thomas as the Syrians and The Gospel of Thomas insist?

The Catholic Church has demonized The Gospel of Thomas like a bastard child. Does this explain why?

Judas is also the name of the father of the nation of Judah and of Jews or Judaei.³² The Judaei connection takes us straight to the Djed or Djedi Pillar or the Casket/Thigh of Osiris, the earthly dwelling of the serpent-soul. According to legend, Judas was sent out to sea in a chest or cista, a mystic casket that found its way to the isle of Iscariot, the source of his full name Judas Iscariot.³³

• A casket set out to sea?

• We are told that the palladium-lined Grail Pillar or casket is a ‘floating’ stone. Is it possible this is telling us that not only did Judas the A-tom live in the Pillar, but that it was capable of floating?

• Does that mean floating in water?

• In air?

• In space?

• In suspended animation?

• From place to place?
   

IT IS FINISHED
In the English language version of the story presented in the Gospel of Mark, immediately after the Crucifixion Joseph of Arimathea asked Pontius Pilate for Jesus’ body. Pilate is astonished that Jesus is dead so soon,³⁴ it usually took several excruciatingly painful days for the crucified to perish. That was the point.

The Gospels record that Jesus was suspended from the pillar at the sixth hour (noon), at the ninth hour (3 p.m.) he said he thirsted and was given a sponge soaked with vinegar by a Roman centurion (in fulfillment of Psalm 22:16 and Zecharia 12:10). When Jesus received the vinegar, which normally has a reviving effect, Jesus said, “It is finished: and bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.” ³⁵ By nightfall he was declared dead.

This is where medical doctors see trouble in the story of the Crucifixion. How is it possible, they wonder that a viral and powerful man such as Jesus (the image on the Shroud of Turin is that of man who was about 5’ 10” tall, 165 pounds) could have died so quickly?

Pilate also had reason to be surprised. Jesus’ legs were not even broken, the customary coup de grace which hastened death so that the dead bodies did not remain on the pillars on the Sabbath day.³⁶ The breaking of the legs prevented the crucified from straightening out their bodies. This assured suffocation within a few hours. Mallets broke the legs of the thieves. Jesus’ legs were left untouched because he was believed to be dead already. So how come he died so soon?

Pilate conferred on this matter with a Roman centurion who is named Longinus in the apocryphal Book of Nicodemus. According to the Gospel of John, he was the centurion who thrust his lance into the side of Jesus to confirm his death.³⁷ Blood and water flowed out.

None of the other Gospels mention Longinus’ action or the transformed blood and water of Christ. Yet in the Gospel of John this blood simultaneously verified Jesus was dead and that the faith of Christ is centered in his blood and water.

John states:

“And when he saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe.”

This blood is the blood of atonement described in Leviticus 17:11:

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.”

Longinus became an early hero of the first Christians for his actions that Good Friday in April 2,000 years ago. If Jesus’ legs had been broken his body weight would have crushed his lungs causing him to die from asphyxiation.

Most importantly, if Jesus’ legs had been broken, the prophecy of Exodus 12:46 “… a bone of him shall not be broken” would have been unfulfilled. Some say that in that moment, by his single action, Longinus held the destiny of the world in his hands. When he made the decision to pierce the side of Jesus he altered history.
 

LONGINUS AND THE SPEAR OF DESTINY
Longinus the centurion and his Spear are the subject of immense mystery. According to legend, he was nearly blind. In the apocryphal Acta Pilata, Longinus was the supervisor of the Crucifixion. Herod the Great is said to have possessed the Spear before Longinus.³⁸

He used it as the symbol of his power and authority when he allegedly ordered the death of every male child in Judea in order to eliminate the Christ child who would become the King of the Jews. The head of the Temple Guard assigned to order the breaking of Jesus’ legs later carried it. Longinus snapped it out of his arms and then pierced Jesus’ side with the Spear. A few drops of blood and water spilled on his face that restored Longinus’ vision, gave him spiritual sight and changed the history of the world.

Thus, his ordinary lance became known as ‘the Spear of Destiny’. Occult legend says that whoever possesses and understands the powers of the Spear, holds the destiny of the world in his hands.³⁹ As the symbol of the magical powers inherent in the blood of God’s ‘chosen people’, the Spear, it is said, stands at the gate between good and evil.

Christian legend also claims Longinus was a secret follower of Jesus. He is the same centurion who, transformed by the events that transpired at the Crucifixion, praised Jesus as the true Son of God.⁴⁰

He was also the centurion who confirmed the death of Jesus to Pilate, and who then released the body of Jesus to another of Jesus’ secret disciples, Joseph of Arimathea. It has even been suggested that Longinus was the Roman soldier who administered the ‘vinegar’ to Jesus.

In their carefully researched work, The Jesus Conspiracy,⁴¹ Holger Kersten and Elmar Gruber note that an error of translation was made when the word hyssos (‘short spear’) was taken for hyssopos (‘hyssop’). Through this error it is revealed that, instead of a spear, Longinus held up a sponge soaked in a narcotic substance that put Jesus into a cat-atonic state, giving him the appearance of death.
 

SOMA
The trouble with the description of Longinus’ piercing Jesus’ side and the blood spurting out is that it is medically impossible. Corpses do not bleed. In order for blood to spurt out Jesus would have had to be at least partially alive. Additionally, it has been argued for centuries that Longinus’ piercing and the wound it caused was not sufficient to kill Jesus. The wounds that appear on the body in the Shroud of Turin tend to support this. So, the question continues to be asked: is the Gospel of John indicating that Jesus was still alive after the Crucifixion?

Dead Sea Scroll scholar Hugh Schonfield,⁴² and the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail ⁴³ note that in the original Greek version of Mark’s Gospel, when Joseph asks for Jesus’ body he uses the word soma -- a word they propose applied to a living body. Pilate responds in the affirmative, but uses the word ptoma -- which means “corpse.” ⁴⁴

This is a perplexing state of affairs. Given the two different words, soma and ptoma, did Joseph receive a living or a dead body? This is the vital question of Christianity. 1 Corinthinians asks “If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching in vain, and your faith is also vain?” ⁴⁵

John’s Gospel says that, along with Nicodemus, Joseph pulled Jesus’ mangled body from the pillar. Without the knowledge or involvement of any of the other apostles they rushed the body to Joseph’s garden and went immediately to work. The two men treated the open cuts and wounds with a sticky gel made from over 100 pounds of aloe, myrrh and other medicinal herbs.⁴⁶ They wrapped his body in a linen shroud, and placed it in Joseph’s private tomb, sealing it with a large rolling rock. Were they preparing Jesus’ body for burial or healing the massive wounds?

Joseph came from Arimathea near the Samarian border. He returned there after the Crucifixion, suggesting he lived there.

The question thus arises:

• Why is Joseph’s family burial tomb in Jerusalem?

• Especially in a location so conveniently located to the site of Jesus’ Crucifixion?

• Was his burial place located there because Joseph considered Jerusalem sacred?

• Or, knowing that Jesus’ execution was imminent, unavoidable and indeed necessary for the fulfillment of prophecy, was this site’s proximity to the site of the Crucifixion pre-selected as part of an elaborate conspiracy for as a recovery area?

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