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The rejected stone, the Shepherd the door, and the Harrowing of Hell

The prophecies about the coming Jewish Messiah, spoke of his death and resurrection‘. . . he was cut off from the land of the living. . . he was assigned a grave with the wicked. . .Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief; when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days. . .’ Isaiah 53:8-11.

 There is this account in Psalms:

‘I shall not die, but live,

And declare the works of the Lord,

The Lord has chastened me sore;

But he hath not given me over unto death,

Open to me the gates of righteousness;

I will go into them. . .

Into which the righteous shall enter. . .

The stone which the builders refused

Is become the head stone of the corner,’ 118:17-23  

In masonry, the cornerstone, also called the foundation stone, is highly important, for all other stones are laid in reference to it; and it will determine the position of the whole edifice. According to Wikipedia, in the ancient world, the importance of this stone was shown by animal sacrifices being made at its setting, and the blood then smeared over it; or offerings of grain, oil or wine being placed upon it. The significance of the cornerstone is still recognized in modern times, mainly at the construction of important buildings, when there is a ceremonial setting of the stone, usually by an important (often considered important by the wrong people, for all the wrong reasons) person laying their hand upon the stone or spreading a little mortar with a special trowel.  

The Messiah’s overcoming death in his resurrection, results in the opening of the gates of righteousness. Relating the stone to this, would mean the rejected stone symbolic of his death, has been transformed by his resurrection into the precious foundation stone of the gate. If this stone was imagined in the shape of a cube, then it does indeed hold in its make-up the symbolism of a gateway, suffering, death and resurrection.

If you unfold a cube it takes on the form of a tau cross Plate 2 figure 3. The Greek Tau is associated with the letter Theta or T, it was an emblem of death. Robert Graves writes: ‘Men weep, and bewail their lot, and curse Cadmus (the Greek inventor of the alphabet) with many curses for introducing Tau into the family of letters; they say it is his shape that they imitated, when they set up the erections on which men are crucified…Now with all these crimes upon him, does he not deserve death, nay, many deaths? . . . And in the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas. . . the same theme recurs in a dispute between Jesus and his schoolmaster about the letter T. The schoolmaster strikes Jesus on the head and prophesies the crucifixion.’ 64

In biblical times the tau cross was associated with Tammuz, upon his annual death his mourners marked their foreheads with this cross. A death, of course, that was then translated into rebirth as the sun child.

Tau is the final letter of the Hebrew alphabet and esoterically, it is said to represent a gate or opening that is symbolic of death, viewing the Hebrew letter, it does look like a portal resembling the letter n.

The stone and gate of the Jewish Messiah, lies behind Jesus calling himself the door. I mentioned earlier, when Jesus said this, in preaching to those following him, they hadn’t a clue what he was talking about. He called himself the door, in connection with calling himself the Shepherd, and those who would follow him his sheep. ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. . . I am the door. If anyone enters by me he will be saved. . .I am the good Shepherd. The good Shepherd gives his life for the sheep. . .My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life. . .’ John 10:7-18.

He the door which will lead to eternal life, mirrors the gate in Psalms created by the Messiah’s overcoming death. His linking his role of the door, to the Shepherd king of Israel, relates also to the Messiah, who was to be a kingly Davidic one. The king the Shepherd is also, it will be remembered, the stone of Jacob; a World Pillar, that will be in alignment with that celestial door to immortality, the Corona Borealis stargate, which I’m sure the Naaseni understood, when they called him the True Gate.

Jesus connecting himself to a kingly stone, his tau of sacrifice, and a door to eternal life, was evoking the gate created by overcoming death and the stone of the kingly Messiah in Psalms, he was asserting to anyone who had the understanding, that he indeed was the coming Messiah.

As I already related, the temple priesthood, perhaps lacking his initiate training, or his amazing intellect and erudition, and original rethinking of ancient truths – this is the man who as a child could talk on a par with the learned in the temple – failed to understand what he was talking about.

From evidence in the Bible, it would have been highly dangerous for him to openly declare himself the awaited Messiah, the priesthood found his teachings blasphemous and offensive in the extreme, as did other Jews. They also feared the power of his presence, erudition, and preaching; that was attracting more and more followers, and wanted him dead. It was a danger Jesus constantly faced, for instance, when he wanted to journey into Judea to be by the side of Lazarus, his disciples cautioned him against it: ‘Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee; and goest thou hither again?’ St John 11:8-9. There are chances he would have been stoned to death on the spot (there are other incidents of such mob justice), if he had openly proclaimed himself.  

Being the living door to eternal life, he also became the gateway for the dead, who existed since the beginning of the world, to be awakened to their own immortality (the narrative is in Titan country, the dead are always there).  ‘. . . when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given him authority to execute judgement also, because he is the Son of man.’ John 5: 25-27.

This also accords with the Jewish prophecies of the Messiah ‘Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.’ Isaiah 27:19-20.

This was the role of every cosmic king before him, but of course, he transcended the role and gave all the dead access to the door, no special treatment for the elite in Hyperborea. All the feeble, ghostly shades, lingering in the gloomy, subterranean vaults of Sheol and the Mesopotamian Underworld. The better off dead in the Greek Hades, who because they are worshipped by and still communicate with the living have not faded into gloomy wraiths, those in the Asphodel Fields, the initiates in the Elysium Fields. The immortal kings, heroes and poets in Hyperborea are in for a shock, the streets of the sidereal castle will soon be teeming with the souls of lesser mortals. In one amazing swoop he made all souls equal in death, proclaiming the immortality of the human soul anew to a New Age.

This aspect of his role is found in the popular early Christian belief, of his Harrowing of Hell, although it is noticeably absent from the deliberations of the Council of Nicea. It had greater prominent in the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church, that commemorates the event as part of the Easter service to this day.

‘Harrowing’ is derived from the Middle English verb harry, meaning ‘to despoil or persistently carry out attacks’. Hell, in this case is thought to mean Hades, for part of his task was to release the righteous men and women of the Old Testament who resided there. But as every good Greek Christian would know, hell or Tartarus was a suburb of that Underworld realm, so Christ could have paid both places a visit at one go.

This feat was accomplished between his crucifixion and resurrection and is alluded to in all the Gospels ‘. . . so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.’ Matthew 12: 40-41. Sheol, the Jewish underworld, as I have explained, was in the centre of the earth.  ‘. . .He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long.’ Peter 3 18-20.

The main body of evidence is found in works, not accepted into the body of the New Testament by the Roman Church. In the Apocryphal of Bartholomew, Christ is said to have vanished from the cross, and gone to Hades, bringing out Adam and all those with him. It is found in the Acts of Pilate, the Gospel of Nicodemus, the Acts of Peter and Paul. The Harrowing of Hell was taught by theologians of the early Church including Tertullian, Hippolytus and Origen. Melito of Sardis died c180 in his ‘Peri Pascha’, wrote these words about it:

‘It is I’ says Christ

I am he who destroys death

and triumphs over the enemy,

and crushes Hades,

and binds the strong man,

and bears humanity off to the heavenly heights.’ Pasha 10264

In many depictions of the Harrowing of Hell, particularly from the Eastern Church, Christ descending into the realm of the dead, is shown standing on an equal-armed cross, made from the doors of the underground realm, that he had torn down; exposing its inhabitants eager to clamber out. In mainly western depictions, the cross adorns a halo over his head.

The equal-armed cross, as I previously mentioned, is an ancient solar symbol, which relates to the cross-beams of heaven marking the waxing and waning powers of the sun; and a cross in a circle represents a sun wheel. The presence of such a cross in relation to Christ, must represent his solar powers (also a vital part of early belief), the regenerating light shining in the darkness of death Alban Arthuruon.

I next want to consider the traditions about Christ’s cross and its location, which will reveal their origins in his World Pillar role.

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True cross and Golgotha

The ‘Legenda Aurea’ ‘The Golden Legend’ by Jacques de Voraigne printed in 1517 (originating in the thirteenth century), a compilation of legends and myths about various Christian saints (a bestseller of its time), included a ‘Vita Christi’ ‘Life of Christ’; in which there was this tradition about the cross on which he was crucified.

Adam near to death, instructed his son Seth, to go to the Garden of Eden, and ask for a balsam (an aromatic medicinal resin exuded by various trees) to prevent his demise. Seth eventually arrives in the garden and the Cherub, guarding it, can offer no reprieve from death’s dark shadow, instead giving him three seeds from the Tree of Life to place in the mouth of his father’s corpse, and then bury him.

Seth follows the Cherub’s instructions, and eventually three trees grew up from his grave, that gradually intertwining became one. It was beneath this tree that David sat and sang of his sorrows, and his son Solomon eventually cut it down, to be incorporated as the main pillar in his temple. But the wood, magically changing size during several attempts, to Solomon’s rage, was finally rejected.

It lay neglected for a while, until it was used for a bridge over a stream, and when the Queen of Sheba passed over it, she recognized its true qualities, removing it from its place. But Solomon buried it, near the pool of Bethsheba. During the time of Christ, the waters of the pool spreading, dislodged the wood and it rose to the surface, eventually being used to make the cross upon which Christ suffered.

This tale obviously originates in Christ’s role as the Son of Man, the Second Adam. The wood being from the dead body of Adam and the Tree of Life, represents that in the death of the first man, representative of the whole Adamic race, lies the seeds of their resurrection, transformation as the second; made possible by the suffering role of Christ. His suffering represented by the wood being rejected, as he was rejected as the stone.

This creation of a new humanity, lies behind the belief in early Christianity, that Adam’s skull was buried at the place where Christ was crucified, called Golgotha. A Christian theologian and bishop, Basil of Caesarea 329-379 AD, said that there was an unwritten tradition about this belief in the early Church; which most probably means it arose from the secret teachings.

Golgotha, from the Aramaic gagûltā is derived from the Hebrew word for skull, and so it became known as the place of the skull ‘And they bring him (Christ) unto a place called Golgotha; that is to say, a place of a skull. . .’ Mark 15:22.

In one tradition, the blood dripping down from the crucified Christ, seeped into the earth below, and bathed Adam’s skull. Blood from the time of Moses, was called the life of a person ‘For the life of the flesh is in the blood…’ Leviticus 17:11, so here we have the life of Christ transforming the consciousness, symbolized by the skull, of the old Adamic humanity. I also find it meaningful that the skull is cave-like.

Christ’s role as World Pillar, lies behind the belief that Golgotha, was at the centre, the navel, of the earth. ‘An unusual part of the legend. . . (is) that the tomb of Adam was in the centre or navel of the earth; and this position is assigned to Golgotha by writers who do not connect that place to Adam. Thus Cyril of Jerusalem calls it ‘the very centre of the earth’ Didymus Alexandrinus (AD 309-394), ‘the centre of the universe’; Victorinus of Poitiers ‘like the middle of the whole earth’ Sophronius (circa AD 564-637) ‘the navel of the earth’; and Andreas Cretensis (Archbishop of Crete, AD 675) ‘the middle of the earth’.65

I think calling the site where Christ was crucified, the place of the skull, is a symbolic reference, rather than descriptive of an actual location. This fact, would account for the difficulty encountered by those trying to identify it; the actual location is still in dispute. The descriptions in the New Testament of where it was situated aren’t very helpful: it was outside a city gate, but doesn’t say which one, near a frequented road because people passing by mocked him. Simon the Cyrenian, a traveler on the road, was forced to help Jesus carry the burden of his cross; the site was in a garden where nearby a rock hewn tomb belonging to Joseph of Arimathea was situated, in which they laid Christ’s dead body. 

 In attempting to locate this place, the place of a skull, it was speculated this one skull, referred to the bleached skulls of previous victims of crucifixion, littering an established execution spot. Or the place was where a skull-shaped rock was found.

This uncertainty about the location continued, until 325 when Helena, the mother of the emperor Constantine, came on the scene, and made a determined attempt to find it. In one account having reason to believe a Jew named Judas knew of the site, she denied him water until driven by the torments of thirst, he identified the site as a small hill (even though no mention of a hill was made in the Bible) outside Jerusalem – where a temple of Aphrodite had been built by the emperor Hadrian. In another account Judas, under divine inspiration, showed the searchers the spot, which other Jews had concealed with stones, was highly praised by Helena and became a Christian convert and later a saint.

 She then discovered the tomb of Christ on the site, and the cross upon which he was crucified. Obviously, a resourceful woman. Well, she unearthed three crosses (of course, Christ was said to be crucified in the company of two others) but ascertained the real one by bringing them to the sickbed of a dying woman, getting her to touch each cross in turn; when she touched the true cross, she recovered her health.

So, Golgotha had been found, but as C. W. Wilson remarks in ‘Golgotha and the Holy Sepulchre’ ‘. . . there is no indication in the Bible that Golgotha was skull-like in form, or that Christ was crucified on a hill. . . that no Greek writer uses the expression ’mount’ in connection with the spot; and that the skull-like appearance and elevation of Golgotha are apparently fancies from the West.’66

Eventually, on the spot she officially claimed was Golgotha, her son built the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Beneath the Calvary Chapel which is said to contain the upper portion of the rock, lies a chapel referred to as the tomb of Adam, where there is this inscription: topas kraniou paradeisas gegonon ‘Golgotha has become paradise.’ A pity the earth didn’t as well.

I wondered how symbolic was the account of Christ’s crucifixion by the Romans? Did it actually happen?  Evidence from non-Christian sources, which carry more weight than later tampered Christian ones, support Christ having been crucified by the Romans.  Josephus in his ‘Antiquities of the Jews’ written c93 AD, wrote of the crucifixion of Jesus a wise man, ordered by Pilate. Despite later alterations to this work, the account concerning Jesus is considered genuine. Tacitus c56-c120 the Roman historian writing in ‘The Annals’ in c116 stated: ‘Christus, from whom the name (Christian) had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilate.’ 67 In a letter written c73 AD by Mara bar Serapion the stoic philosopher to his son, he mentions the murder of a number of wise men by tyrannical men, which resulted in the perpetrators being punished with natural catastrophes. He included the murder of a wise king of the Jews, after which the kingdom of the Jews was abolished by the Romans. So, as far as Mara bar Serapion is concerned, those ultimately responsible for the death of Jesus, are the Jews not the Romans.

Considering his crucifixion, a real event, the biblical account of Pilate’s reluctance to condemn Jesus, may be based on his recent reprimand by the emperor Tiberias for his mishandling of Jewish affairs. Philo of Alexandria c20BC-c50, the Jewish philosopher, wrote of Pilate’s insensitivity to Jewish custom causing several near-insurrections, his confiscation of temple gold to build an aqueduct, resulted in a riot.  So, Pilate would have at that time, been concerned not to create more problems for himself, in the affairs of the Jews.  

His reluctance may also be based upon his belief, that Jesus and his followers posed no real danger to the security of the Roman province, under his command. If they had, he would have hunted them all down to their death, as in previous rebellions against Roman rule; even after the death of Christ, Christians were not persecuted.

The temple priesthood on the other hand, had ample reason for wishing Jesus dead. ‘Caiaphas (the high priest) and his father-in-law regarded Jesus’ proclamation of the dawn of the kingdom of God and the implied messianic claim, as well as the ensuing critique of the Temple cult, as a threat to their position and their authority over the Jewish people.’ 68  Caiaphas remained in office throughout Pilate’s time as prefect, this is thought to imply they had established a good working relationship; which he may have put to beneficial use at the end, in overcoming the perfect’s objections, and getting him to agree to the execution of Jesus. It may have been achieved by saying that Christ was calling himself King of the Jews, which in relation to his Messiahship was true, but spoken of in terms of a genuine earthly threat to Roman rule, capable of formenting insurrection; hence the inscription on his cross: Jesus the Nazarene King of the Jews.

Pilate needed to order the execution of Jesus, because according to John’s Gospel, the priesthood could not order the execution of Jesus, the right to enforce capital punishment resided in the Roman authorities. Although this is in dispute, and some scholars think they had full rights in this area, before the first Jewish Roman War in 66-73 AD. Others think they only had power to enforce the death penalty in Jewish religious affairs, when it concerned their own people.

David Instone-Brewer in his ‘Jesus of Nazareth’s Trial in the uncensored Talmud’, concludes there was a core tradition, from its earliest source, in the Talmud, that Jesus was crucified by the Romans. A matter obscured by later explanatory comments found within the rabbinical discussions, trying to relate it to a Jewish form of punishment, because according to the Talmud the Jews are allowed only four methods of capital punishment: stoning, fire, decapitation and strangling. In second century Judaism, there was a strong movement for all Jews to uniformly conform to the rabbinical judgements of how Jews should act, this state of affairs they projected onto the past; and tried to deal with the embarrassment of the unJewish nature of Christ’s death. But as David Instone-Brewer comments: ‘. . . Jews living in the First Century would not be embarrassed by a tradition which said they had used a Roman form of execution, because they had a more realistic understanding of what was possible, and they knew the Romans were in charge of capital punishment.’ 69

If one concludes, that Pilate’s reluctance in the New Testament has a basis in historical fact, then it is possible to view John’s remark that the Jews were not allowed to order capital punishment, as also showing the true state of affairs at that time; the priesthood was forced to get Pilate’s consent in the matter.

At some point before his arrest and horrific murder, Jesus would have performed a powerful royal World Pillar ritual, with the aid of his disciples, in all its majesty. As powerful as the transfiguration he underwent on the high place, when Moses and Elias appeared.

The date established for Christ’s crucifixion – using biblical, historical, archaeological and astronomical evidence – is the 3rd April 33 AD. The astronomical researches of Miguel Antonio Tiol of the University of Winconsin-Madison have established, that in the year 33 AD, from mid-March until the middle of April, an alignment between the Earth, Saturn, Uranus, Jupiter and Venus, took place, creating a pentagram in the heavens. So, it is highly likely, that Jesus would have chosen a date between these times, his magical alignment with the heavenly pentagram, reflecting the earthly pentagram of a perfected humanity he wanted to establish on earth. News of this ritual, most probably became the catalyst, that brought opposition to him to a head; and resulted in his arrest and death.

In the New Testament, Christ is flogged on his way to execution and made to carry his cross, which being too great a burden, the passing Simon of Cyrene is forced to carry. In popular imagination (promoted by the Catholic Church), this cross is thought of as the crux immissa the Latin cross V. The New Testament was originally written in Greek, and later translators in seventy-four instances, have translated ‘stauros’ as ‘cross’. Stauros means ‘an upright pale or stake’. There are also five instances of xulon whichmeans anything from a piece of wood or timber to a living tree, being translated as a ‘tree’ upon which Jesus hung ‘. . . who his own self bares our sins in his own body on the tree.’ 1 Peter 24-25.

Viewing Christ as having died on a stake rather than a cross, ties in with the Roman mode of crucifixion, described in accounts by Dionysus of Halicarnassus c60-7 BC, a Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric; and Plutarch 46-120 AD, the Greek biographer and essayist. In these accounts the condemned was made to carry a beam of wood to the site of execution, being flogged (as Christ) along the way. At the site, was fixed in the earth, an upright stake. The beam was then fitted onto the stake, or a peg protruding from its top, and became the cross-beam upon which the arms of the person about to undergo this awful death, were tied. Then with their legs straddling the upright stake, their feet were nailed to either side of it. The fixed nature of the stake, and removable nature of the cross-beam, makes the original Greek understandable, in that he was crucified on a stake. I imagine the beam was then recycled for the next victim, particularly in the case of Judea, where timber was scarce; and the same stake would have been reutilized. Also, the biblical account of Christ’s crucifixion near a frequented path, mirrors the Roman practice of crucifying people where as many people as possible could view it, such as by the side of a road – it thereby acting as a deterrent against other malcontents and criminals.

This Roman cross is then tau-shaped crux commissa, and in a graffiti, found in a wayside tavern, dating from the time of Trajan 98-117 AD or Hadrian 117-138, depicting a crucifixion the cross is tau-shaped. A tau-shaped cross being used for the crucifixion of Christ, is reflected in the earliest Christian writings and is found in the Roman catacombs, where the early Christians secretly gathered to worship. In the Epistle of Barnabas, dating from the first century (thrown out of the New Testament by the Synod of Ariminum) and in the writings of Origen, the cross was likened to the Greek T or tau. Tertullian c155-c240 AD (joining the brotherhood of the banned at the Synod of Ariminum) a Christian writer, also identifies the cross as T-shaped. He calls Christians crucis religiosi meaning ‘devotees of the cross’, writing of the practice of making the mark of the cross on their foreheads. This tracing of a tau cross upon their foreheads, evokes the same cross marked on the forehead of mourners of Tammuz, mentioned earlier, this is most probably one of the reasons why the Church, in wanting to distance the faith from this pagan connotation, banned so many early works. Particularly, as many early Christians would relate Christ’s solar role, to the sun child Tammuz.

The thing that preys on my mind, is the tau-shaped cross of the Romans, and the esoteric cosmic tau cross of his sacrifice, mirroring each other; means it was always going to end this way, that his irrevocable destiny would lead him to suffer in extremis on an earthly tau cross. The heavenly mirrored in the earthly.

Jesus didn’t fulfill his great cosmic role in this death – his true suffering was to bear the burden of being the World Pillar – his violent death was the result of his challenging, in so many ways, those long established in positions of religious power; which always involves power in secular matters. ‘Having control over what happened in the Temple, including supervision of the trade with sacrificial animals and the exchange of foreign currencies, Caiaphas, together with Annas’ (his father-in-law) entire aristocratic family, must have been able to build up a considerable fortune, which would have been used to consolidate and expand dominance in the affairs of Judea.’ 70

   From all that has been revealed, can be seen the cosmic wonder of his role, the last Titanic king to suffer on the World Pillar. In the final third part of this book, I want to consider the survival of this Christ and the secret teachings he imparted to his disciples; his role’s true legacy, which under the oppressive pitiless shadow of the early Roman Church was forced underground; but still managed to play a massive part in Western thinking.

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PART THREE

THE UNDERGROUND STREAM

Esoteric Arcadia

Virgil’s Arcadia, did not sink into obscurity after his death, it continued to be lauded in later works as the land of perfect love (and it is a halcyon image still alive today). I believe this occurred, because initiates of early Christianity, understood that the ancient legacy Arcadia represented, was tied to the cosmic role Christ fulfilled; his secret teachings, and the rites of initiation he instigated.

This is apparent in an early Christian work ‘The Shepherd of Hemas’. I have already mentioned it, despite it having great authority in the second and third centuries AD, it was nevertheless thrown out of the New Testament, by the early Roman Church.

It was probably written in Greek c140-154 and deals with five visions granted to a former slave Hermas. He experiences his first vision on the way to Cumae. In one of the visions, he is taken to Arcadia, described as a golden virtuous place of rustic delights. Where spotless virgin maidens entertaining Hermas the live long night, think only of dancing, joy and prayer. According to the biblical scholar J Rendel Harris 1852-1941, the description of cyclopean masonry, and the nature of the landscape, in the work, corresponds to the actual Arcadia.

Hermas witnesses a tower being built and is told its gate is symbolic of the Son of God, with the added remark that the gate is recent, but the rocks from which it is built are ancient. Those who wish to be saved, to be perfected, can enter through the gate into God’s kingdom.

The gate is clearly a reference to Christ the door, and remarking that the gate is new, but the stones are old; embodies the understanding that the model for Christ’s role is based on an earlier, ancient one. Whoever wrote it, was clearly an initiate. One can understand why, the early Roman Church, removed it from the New Testament.

 I have already written about Virgil’s Cumae prophecy of the marvelous coming child, who would usher in a new age. If one considers, both Christ and Daphnis embodied the World Pillar and Divine Child, therefore it is not surprising they bear a striking resemblance to each other. Daphnis the shepherd, loves peace, Christ the Shepherd is called prince of peace. Daphnis loves his fellow men as did Christ, and they both ascend to the stars and become god-like. In Isiah’s prophecies about the coming Jewish Messiah, the wonderful age he will bring into being, resembles the one brought into being by Virgil’s Daphnis: ‘The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid: and the calf and the young lion and fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the suckling child shall play on the hole of the asp (A highly venomous African or Asian snake, also called a cobra).’ 11:6-9. It appears the prophecy of the Cumean Sibyl, about the coming redeeming boy and the new world he would bring into being, was foreshadowed by Daphnis, fulfilled by Jesus the Christ.

But to return to Arcadia. I believe, ‘Arcadia’ became a sort of code word, a secret way of referring to the true Christ and his teachings. Similar to the Jewish writers living under the oppression of the Romans, not openly referring to them, when they wanted to write of their divinely destined destruction; but using instead the code word Babylon. In Revelations the Beast, an evil force opposed to God and Christ, is also thought to be a code name for Rome, its seven heads representing the seven hills; upon which that great city was founded. The Essenes also used a code word for the Romans, referring to them as the Kittin.

The power of the Roman Church, remained the greatest force in Christendom, for a great span of time; its hold over Christian doctrine exhibited as late as 1834, when the last person to be tried for heresy by the Church, the schoolmaster Cayetano Ripoli; was hung in Valencia. It should also be pointed out, that under Protestant Church authorities, who accepted the Roman Christ (although it would not have been viewed in that manner), there were persistently trials for heresy, the last execution for this ‘crime’ occurring in England in 1612. So, it continued to be dangerous to openly espouse the Christ of the secret teachings, during this great swathe of time.

 After Virgil’s Eclogues, it is many centuries later, when the theme of a pastoral Arcadian ideal, emerges into the open again. In the 1460s and 1470s from a group of gifted artists, including Leonardo de Vinci, and writers, under the patronage of Lorenzo de Medici 1449-1492; the wealthy ruler of the Florentine Republic, in west central Italy.  In Lorenzo de Medici’s ‘Nencia de Barberino’, Luigi Pulci’s ‘Beca da Dicamano’, and Poliziano’s ‘Stanza’.

Florence, since the time of Cosimo de Medici 1389-1464, had become the nexus for the Renaissance: the revival of interest in classical antiquity. This was fuelled further by the availability of ancient texts carried by scholars, fleeing the fall of Constantinople and the overthrow of the Byzantine Empire, by the Ottoman Turks in 1460.

This influx of ancient knowledge involved the religious and philosophical Hermetic writings, Neoplatonic writings based on the works of Plato, magic, astrology, alchemy and the Kabbalah (mystical Jewish system). It also melded with later Gnostic works. Also flowing into Florence, came Chaldean Oracles and Hellenic or Greek mysticism, and late Orphic and Pythagorean literature. This stream of knowledge had a seminal influence on Western esoteric thinking, and Florence was a safe place, from which to bring hidden things into the open.

Six years after Pope Sixtus IV, burnt a thousand heretics in Andalusia in 1482, the Italian poet Jacopo Sannazaro 1458-1530, completed his work ‘Arcadia’. It is thought to have exerted a pivotal influence, in establishing idyllic Arcadia, within the body of western literature. In Sannazaro’s Arcadia, Sincero a poet residing in Naples, is disappointed in love and retreats to Arcadia, and its ideal pastoral pleasures. A powerful dream beckons him back to Naples, and traversing a dark tunnel, he arrives to discover his beloved has died. He then carries her body back to Arcadia, and enshrines it in a tomb, bearing an inscription that refers to her haughty, rigid nature, now humbled in Arcadian stone. Her humbling is incurred, when her lack of lovingness, is set against the perfect love Arcadia represents.

The next major work is Philip Sidney’s ‘The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia’ or the ‘Old Arcadia’ in 1581. Possibly the beginning of 1582 he began a revision, that remained unfinished at his death in 1586, and it became known as the ’New Arcadia’. Later his sister Mary the Duchess of Pembroke, published his ’New Arcadia’ together with the third, fourth and fifth books of ’The Old Arcadia’; which is often referred to as the ’Composite Arcadia’.

Philip Sidney 1554-86 the English poet, courtier and soldier, is thought to have been a member of a Hermetic group, centred around the occultist, alchemist, astrologer, Hermeticist John Dee 1527-1608. He was a known associate of Giordano Bruno 1548-1600 – the last person the Roman Church burnt at the stake – philosopher, mathematician, poet and cosmological theorist. Bruno, according to the scholar Francis Yates, was heavily influenced by Arab astrology, Neoplatonism, Hermeticism, and writings concerning the Ancient Egyptian god Thoth.

In the ’Old Arcadia’, a stranger plagued by misfortunes, is rescued by two Arcadian shepherds, he is entranced by their virtuous conduct; and they bring him to the house of Kalander. Kalander assures him, there is no concern for the exaltedness of his lineage or estate, but rather his virtues and the quality of his mental cloth. These things are valued most highly in a land, whose shepherds are like the learned of other nations. Arcadia has become the image of a perfect society.

But then darkness enters the tale, for this land, where the unrequited in love come to find perfect peace and love’s joys; has become disordered by the actions of their ruler Basilius. He, fearing the realizing of a prophecy by the Delphic oracle, that he would have his throne stolen, commits adultery, loses his elder daughter and witnesses his younger embrace an uncouth love; has retreated to an isolated abode.

But events are moving to overturn his defenses, and a wretched pantomime ensues of mistaken identities, the concealing of true identities and the upheavals of love at first sight. Arcadia the land of perfect love, has become the playground of Venus’s unruly children, Eros and Cupid.

When hunting online for information about Arcadia, I came upon a 1517 woodcut named ‘The Garden Grove’, reproduced in the work of Abraham Cowley, and now in the Special Collection of the University of Virginia. The woodcut depicts a scene of shepherds around Daphnis’ tomb from the Eclogues. Plate 1 figure 1

There are three shepherds, kneeling around the flower strewn tomb, which bears a cross on its lid. The inscription on the tomb Daphnis Ego in Sylvis means ‘I, Daphnis in the woods’. This refers to the fifth Eclogue:

‘And make a mound (for Daphnis) and add above the mound a song

Daphnis am I in woodland, known hence as far as the stars.’

The verse refers to Daphnis’ unique bond with the land, when he dies it becomes a wasteland, when he ascends to the stars it becomes a fertile paradise. The woodcut also depicts a river in the background, emerging from an underground source, which I take to be the Styx, the Arcadian river of the Underworld. In the background are two more male figures with names attached, which identify them as the two shepherds, from Virgil’s Eclogues. In the Eclogues there is no specific reference, to three more shepherds, in connection to Daphnis’ tomb or mound.  

What is intriguing, is that in a later 1630 painting by the French Nicolas Poussin 1594-1665, an avid admirer of Virgil; three shepherds are again shown around a tomb in Arcadia. Plate 1 figure2  On this tomb, the words Et in Arcadia Ego are carved, which has been translated as ‘And in Arcadia I’ or ‘Even in Arcadia I’. This term is often referred to as a memento mori, meaning a reminder of our mortality, that even in life, death’s shadow looms; even amidst the pleasures of perfect Arcadia.

Poussin’s phrase is clearly paraphrasing the line in the Eclogues, so is Daphnis in both tombs? But seeing as Daphnis ascended to heaven, is it an empty tomb honoring him, and the fount of fertility he represents.

When I was looking at Poussin’s Et in Arcadia Ego, something immediately struck me about one of the shepherds, and led to the thought, that the real reason there were three shepherds around the tomb; was because there was a hidden astrological meaning to the painting, which required three figures. Astrological meaning connected to those, oh so important northern star constellations, at the centre of the mysteries of the First Religion and Christ.

Before I continued to explore the hidden aspects of the painting, I should mention that this painting was brought to prominent in the 1982 book ‘The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail’, as possibly hiding esoteric secrets. The authors were led to this belief about the painting by their investigation into the activities of the enigmatic Berenger Saunière, priest or abbé of the village of Rennes le Château in south-west France.

He, they believed, had come into possession of secret documents, regarding a bloodline of Jesus, children from his union with Mary Magdalene; which had become established in France. Saunière, was said to have come into possession of these documents, while renovating the church of St Magdalene in the village. He discovered them, secreted in a cavity in a pillar, which the authors maintain, had been placed there by Saunière’s predecessor, the Abbé Antoine Bigou. Bigou had been entrusted with them, by a dying noble woman Marie de Négri d’Ables, the last of her line, Abbé Bigou had acted as her chaplain. The Abbé then hid the documents, also erecting a stone slab on her tomb, containing among other inscriptions a combination of Greek and Latin letters: ETINAPXADIEGW, separated into ET IN APXADIA ETW, which translated into Latin Et in Arcadia Ego.

According to the authors, Saunière took the documents to Paris, to be verified by a paleographer (deciphers and dates historical manuscripts). He then visited the Louvre, to view Poussin’s painting Et In Arcadia Ego, which hung there. It is after this event, that Saunière became possessed of considerable funds, and among other things, embarked upon a building program in the village.

The authors identified the tomb in the painting as based on a real one in France, the inscription on it Et In Arcadis Ego, being a code for ‘In it I hold the secrets of God’ and suggests Poussin was referring to the Holy Grail, which they interpret as representing the French bloodline of Jesus.

As regards Poussin, much is made of an enigmatic letter written by Abbé Louis Fouquet to his brother Nicolas, in which he disclosed he had discussed certain things with Poussin, which will give his brother ‘advantages’, ‘advantages’ which even kings could not draw from Poussin; and which it is possible, no one else will ever discover in the centuries to come.

Judging by the nature of the hidden meaning, incorporated into two of his paintings, the ‘advantages’ being alluded to, may be those gained by admittance into a secret but influential society, perhaps a Masonic one, or a Rosicrucian one. Both, I will reveal later in this section of the book, issued from the underground stream of the cosmic Christ, his secret teachings, and the ancient legacy attendant upon it. The ‘advantages’, may allude to spiritual ones, through a transformative life-benefiting initiation – similar to those, recorded earlier, experienced by ancient participants in the mysteries. Perhaps Poussin telling Fouquet, the source of the advantages would remain hidden, was an assurance that there was no danger in such secret activity being discovered.

Returning to the painting Et in Arcadia Ego, on viewing it I was immediately drawn to the kneeling bearded shepherd, his outstretched arm, creating a horseshoe-like shadow on the tomb. Plate 1 figure 2a This instantly made me think of the kneeling Hercules star constellation, which guards the horseshoe-shaped Corona Borealis stargate. The stargate, a portal to immortal life, being depicted on the tomb in this way, transforms it and the person in it, into a gateway to eternal life. And the one person, who was such a ‘gate’ or ‘door’, was Christ. Elements within Poussin’s other painting ‘The Adoration of the Shepherds’, also reveal its subject matter is Christ the door. Remembering at this point ‘The Shepherd of Hemas’ and the Arcadian ‘gate’ of the Son of God; it could be speculated this is the esoteric origins of Poussin’s painting.  

This also brings up the consideration, does the ‘The Garden Grove’ woodcut carry the same symbolism? It would make understandable, the cross upon the tomb, and the unobtrusive flower-head on the base of the tomb, resembling a five-pointed, rayed star.

But returning to the painting Et in Arcadia Ego. The other two shepherds, I believe, represent Ursa Major and Minor. Boötes/Christ who guarded the stargate, was in the tomb, but is no longer there; because he like Daphnis rose again. I identify them as Ursa Minor and Major, because with the female figure accompanying them, who I believe represents the northern constellation Cassiopeia – they create further symbolism, that supports the supposition that the entire painting is about Christ the door.

Cassiopeia, with Ursa Major represented by the shepherd standing at the further end of the tomb, are the constellations that define the upper arm of a celestial tau cross (because remember, everything on earth in this thinking, has a celestial template). Exactly in the middle of this arm, lies Ursa Minor, represented by the shepherd standing between them, and the pole of the pole star, creating the vertical arm. The invisible celestial tau cross positioned over this tomb, relates to the rejected stone Christ, in whose sacrifice, it became the door to eternal life. It’s very clever indeed, how Poussin has interrelated the symbolism, to create powerful layers of meaning.  

 There is, I believe, a reference to Cassiopeia in the painting, and that is the W created by one arm of Hercules; and the arm of the Ursa Minor shepherd, who is looking directly at her; because the star pattern of the Cassiopeia constellation, creates a W, in the heavens. Again, the symbolism is created in a very clever way, the look towards her, of the Ursa Minor shepherd; who is creating part of the W is so simple, but powerful symbolically.

As I have written, I believe the subject matter of Poussin’s ‘The Adoration of Christ’, Plate 1 figure 3 is also about Christ the door. In it is found the same Hercules figure from Et in Arcadia Ego, in exactly the same pose; but this time he is indicating the baby Jesus. Plate 1 figure 3a This carries the same symbolism, as when he was pointing at the tomb, for the baby will one day be the stone that is rejected, and then through his sacrifice, become the ‘door’ to immortal life.

There is another reference, to Christ the rejected stone, in the painting. Behind Mary’s right outstretched arm, and at the side of Jesus, is a cubic stone. I consider it cubic, because with Joseph standing behind it, it clearly is not rectangular. I have already shown the esoteric significance of a cubic stone, in relationship to Christ, and positioned beside the Jesus child, I think this stone represents him: the stone to be rejected, that will then become the cornerstone; the foundation stone of the new humanity.

To further support this interpretation, Poussin has cleverly wrought, in the background, a horizontal tau cross between two flanking pillars, which creates a gateway. This is symbolic of the coming sacrifice of the child, and the doorway he is destined to create.

Staying with this theme of building work, I next want to consider Freemasonry, as another expression of the secret teachings of Christ.