2 - Heavenly Bodies: The Gods of the Ancients

To further our quest in the understanding of secret societies we need to fully understand their background, both in belief and in history.

Because so many of today's secret societies express imagery and symbolism that revolves around the beliefs of our pre-Christian ancestors, we would do well to try and comprehend how and why these beliefs started and what the symbols that we see really mean. To this end, we need to investigate the realm of the "heavenly bodies" - the planets in the night sky.

I am always overjoyed when I visit a remote location, where the light from street lamps doesn't pollute and poison our vision of our heavenly partners.

To stand and stare on a crystal clear night at the twinkling stars and to be in awe at the incredible number of lights that reach our eyes is an experience everybody should have. Today we understand what these stars are - they are distant and sometimes long-dead suns. Our ancestors, without the orange glare of a suburban street, were unaware of the science behind the wonder.

For them these were the myriad eyes of the gods in heaven - the great Shining Ones in the sky.

The father sun and the mother moon were dominant due to their size and the seeming relationship they held to the very hormonal nature of man and woman - they literally controlled our lives. There is little wonder that the tales of these heavenly twinkling gods should remain with us in our religious fables, myths, and folklore.

Similar to the Pagan god Pan, whose name means "All," the Bible says that "Christ is all and in all." Did the early Christians and Gnostics understand man's relationship with the hidden forces of the larger universe?

One thing is sure, this understanding has been held like a baby in arms by the secret societies we shall soon discuss.

The questions of whether early man understood and utilized the effects of cyclic patterns, electromagnetic forces, and the closeness of his nature with plants and animals may be answered in the signs of the reverence he paid to these elements; his worship and ritualistic behavior surrounding some of these basic and fundamental parts of the "supernature."

Cyclic patterns and rhythms dominate our lives, from the day to night patterns to the seasonal changes and their effects upon us.

If we look at a few of the cycles that have become important to man, we can see how they affect us.

Day/night cycles are different in other parts of the world. Some have longer nights and shorter days, for example, and their nature has adapted accordingly. Seasonal Affective Disorder ( SAD) is purely the result of long nights.

On the equator, where the sun is stronger and is out for longer periods, SAD does not exist and is indeed refuted.

In several parts of the world, we have four seasons. Elsewhere, the seasons are different. Tropical regions have two seasons: wet and dry. Monsoon areas have three: cold, hot, and rainy. In polar regions, the temperature change from summer to winter is abrupt.

Man, animal, and plant life have adapted remarkably well to the different seasons they experience, and so too has their mythology.

The pineal gland actually measures the seasons and length of day. This is how we adapt to the various seasons around the globe. Many species, including some types of bird, can accurately predict the weather to help them plan migratory patterns.

The Orange Ladybird insect in the United Kingdom has never been wrong in its long-term winter predictions.

The Moon

The moon plays an important part in all the religions of the world and is hidden deeply in the secret societies.

Lunar cycles and human experience are intrinsically linked. The tidal flow of the world's oceans corresponds to the waxing and waning of the moon, as does the menstrual cycle, which has had a profound effect upon our early and later religious beliefs.

Menstruation (moon-struation) occurs only during the fertile years and had symbolic meaning amongst early cultures. The menstrual blood of women is considered with awe and fear and may have much to do with the use of Red Ochre by ancient man.

This blood is also derided and called unclean (even today, the women of Judaism go through a purification bath seven days after the end of the menstruation), a poisoning of woman for her sins by the great gods, although this appeared to be a much later addition as a result of the subtle battle of the religious sexes, as the earlier cults seem to have revered the blood, even to the point of drinking it.

Menstruating women were often kept away from the other members of their tribe or village.

This may be why the witches' Sabbath took place specifically on the day when the moon took rest, and was associated with evil. Ishtar, one of the Moon Goddess's titles, was said to be menstruating on this day. The menstruating woman is also seen as a symbol of fertility, and in some African cultures she is led around the home of one who wishes to become pregnant and asked to touch everything.

The onset of menstruation marks the move from child to woman and was celebrated with Earth Goddess or Mother Goddess rituals and, much later, within the taking of blood in the Eucharist.

The Sabbath (Heart-rest of the moon), the moon's day of rest, the seventh day, was later taken over by the Jews, who turned it into their day of rest and laid waste to the maternal, lunar religions, and inaugurated their paternal "sun god." Christians took this further, moving the day of rest to the Mithraic Sun-day - the original moon day being Monday. ¹

The sidereal lunar month is 27.32 days and the synodic lunar month is 29.53 days. Both have different paths and different meanings dependent upon your culture. In the sidereal lunar year there are 13 months per year. This is a matriarchal structure and is more than 3,000 years old.

The instillation of a 12-month period seems to have been an attempt by the solar patriarchal cultures to gain dominance, and thus we now have 12 months per year. The months are, in effect, symbols of the Zodiac houses.

Each "house" or "mansion" of the Zodiac is approximately 30 degrees, so the sun passes through each "mansion" every 30 degrees. Jesus, of course, as the symbol of the sun came of age at 30 and claimed that his Father's mansion had many rooms.

All of this was what is known as astrotheology - the theology of the stars - and all of this crept slowly into the hidden chambers of the secret orders.

The elimination of the 13-month period has come down to us today with the persecution of the witches' coven, which has 13 members, the number 13 being considered unlucky in the West, but more importantly the fact that Jesus had 12 disciples, therefore making up 13 in total, the hidden number of Mother Earth.

Indeed the very concept of Christianity is built around a celestial and solar worship:

Christ is the sun, which dies for three days in midwinter and is resurrected three days later; Mary being linked both in myth and etymology to the moon; and the 12 disciples representing the 12 star-signs.

The moon is tied up in many of our early cultures.

The names of its associated deities vary due to locality, language, and ethnic differences, but are all essentially of the same:

Aphrodite, Astarte, Badb, Brigit, Ch'ang O, Demeter, Persephone, Hecate, Inanna, Isis, Ishtar, Maja Jotma, Tsuki-Yomi, and all emerging as the Gnostic Sophia or wisdom.

Some of these designations have been carried on, kept alive behind the scenes by the secret cults while they were subtly battling or even creating the front lines of the new or growing solar and male-oriented popular gods such as Mithras and Yahweh.

They are all literal elements of a very real internal symbolism - the balance of the male and female sides of our own mind.

The terms "lunatic" ("moon-struck") and "mental" are both taken from the moon, under the impression that such effects are brought on by the lunar periods, usually the full moon. It is not surprising that the moon was denounced as the "mad" moon when we consider the patriarchal and matriarchal battles being fought across the continents.

The idea was put forward that the electrical energy of the body became drained at this time of the month, and caused the person to lose his or her faculties. Just 200 years ago, Lunacy was even covered by English law. Kleptomania, arson, and dangerous driving have been shown scientifically to increase at times of the full moon, so there may be some scientific reason for this matriarchal lost battle.

The Jewish Passover is celebrated on the lunar calendar; the Christian Easter (Eoster was the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring) is calculated from the full moon after the vernal equinox. The full moon at the autumnal equinox is celebrated as the harvest moon. The Jews had moon festivals, such as New Moon and Full Moon (see Num. 28,11:14). The eclipse of the moon is considered by many cultures to be the union of the Sun God and Moon Goddess.

There were 500,000 births measured in New York in 1948/57. The results revealed that more births occurred during a waning moon and the maximum after a full moon. In the North Sea coast of Germany, most births occurred at high tides as the moon passed overhead. More children are born in the Northern Hemisphere in May and June than in November and December, and vice versa in the Southern Hemisphere.

Size of offspring has also been mapped and shows a noticeable pattern dependent upon time of year.

In the 1960s, Eugen Jonas understood the lunar aspect of ovulation and successfully increased the effectiveness of contraception to 98 percent. When he was presented with the birth charts of 250 newborn children he successfully identified the sex of 87 percent of the babies from planetary information alone.

Frank Brown of Northwestern University, Illinois, found that oysters in his laboratory, 1,000 miles from their Connecticut shore, opened at the same time as their home shores' high tide, which, in turn, is related to the moon's orbital pattern. Brown also proved that potatoes, rats, and fiddler crabs are all governed by lunar periods. Within laboratories, the metabolisms of various creatures fluctuated in response to lunar patterns and geomagnetic factors.

Now, years later, research is proving that all known sea creatures, when taken from their natural homes, still obey the same lunar cycles. At the time, many scientists thought Brown to be dealing with the paranormal sciences and ignored his research. What it does show (and scientifically) is the effect of cycles and electromagnetic energy on the natural inhabitants of this planet - including humans.

It is no wonder the ancients saw in these planetary bodies the gods who controlled their lives.

The Sun

The Shining One, "great light of the world," is venerated all over the globe as the light of life, the giver of heat, and the most important cyclic symbol of all time.

Our ancestors knew that it meant life or death. It was essential for the sun to return every day, for its strength to be renewed again each Easter. We say the sun is wise, and therefore in mystery plays around the world, light equates to wisdom. The strength of the sun gave rise to its being considered the most powerful of the deities. In the early developed civilizations the sun is always there.

In Egyptian culture, and according to the Heliopolis cult, the sun was Atum, Ra, Re, Atum-Ra, or Ra-Atum. In the Memphis cult, the sun was known as Amun, or Amun-Re. The scarab beetle is often used to portray the sun in some aspects, a symbol of self-regeneration and the early ideas of reincarnation. The sun is generally male and outwits the lunar female goddess as well as mates with her.

We sacrifice, dance (almost always, significantly, in circles or cycles), travel hundreds of miles, and sing to the great light. We humanize it and give it names such as Apollo, and include him in dramas. This, of course, hides a deeper and more symbolic understanding that the initiated, the ancient Shining Priesthood of the sun knew how to decipher.

The cyclic pattern and life-giving nature of the sun is key to the secrets of the ancient Shining Ones.

The movements of the sun have inspired tales of where the sun god goes and why he comes back, of battles fought and death overcome. This last idea of overcoming death gives us the first hint at how man has used the sun god fables and mysteries to hide the secret ideas of how we could be reincarnated.

Thousands of years of begging the sun to return each day and be reborn each spring led ancient man to develop his own rebirth rituals and ideas of how to accomplish it. Now, with thousands of years of additional mystery and symbolism, we find it almost impossible to decipher the magic secret.

Everyday we rise with the sun. Our bodies release hormones, which waken, revive, and regenerate us. In summer, our endocrine glands release more hormones that bring a sense of well-being. By late afternoon we feel more relaxed as the sun's strength wanes. The secret police of many countries often choose this time of day to arrest people, as they are more easily subdued.

If today we understand how to utilize the power of the sun with the regenerative effects of holidays and by the dealings of the secret police, what did our ancient and supposedly less complicated ancestors do?

Sunspot activity affects our biorhythms directly in ways we do not understand. Evidence shows that it can be an irritant to our bodily functions and mental attitude.

The Foundation for the Study of Cycles has produced some interesting results with their long-term research, including some of the following:

There is a 3.86 year cycle in lemming suicides and North American lumber pine growth; an 11.1 year cycle of sun spot activity and serious upsurge in war and unrest.

The Black Death and the Great Plague coincided with this solar turbulence. There is also an increase in traffic accidents every 11.1 years, a rise and fall in hemlines, and an increase of volcanic and earthquake activity.

This last point will not be lost on those who already know that Yahweh was in fact a volcanic and solar god - an ancient linking of the two cyclic phenomena.

The Stars

The myriad Shining Ones also have an effect on us.

Michel Gauquelin, a French psychologist, placed the hypothesis that we are affected by the position of the planets at our time of birth firmly on the doorstep of science. He showed that the position of the stars had some indication as to what line of work one may enter later in life.

This was not related to the practice of astrology or the horoscopes in the daily newspapers, but a serious, scientific data analysis.

The psychologist Hans Eysenck said,

"How ever much it may go against the grain, I think we must admit that there is something here that requires explanation."

His results, however, only showed the astronomically aligned tendencies within the higher professionals, as the same response was not achieved with unskilled workers.

The study of the stars goes back thousands of years. Some say 4,000 B.C. Sumeria was the first to do so. Others put this even earlier and say that ancient man was studying the stars 32,000 years ago. ²

Their evidence is an engraved antler from Abri Blanchard, France, with a strange pattern of notches or calendrical phases of the moon.

With all the evidence on patterns, rhythms, and electromagnetism that affect our bodies, it is no wonder that modern science has taken another look at the ancient art of astrology, which has been neglected because of the widespread misuse of generic horoscopes.

Natal astrology deals with planetary positions at the time of our birth. Astrometeorology concerns the prediction of major earthquakes, climatic changes, and volcanic eruptions. There is much evidence to suggest that certain animals, which can predict such occurrences, are born at a specific time of year that corresponds to certain astrological predictions, and the reason is simple.

The movements of the planets cause changes in the subtle electromagnetic energy of the galaxy, and with such organs as the pineal gland, animals can indeed "read" this information. In my other work (The Serpent Grail), I have shown how this energy is indeed real and can, in fact, even be picked up by humans, when they revert back to their own superconscious.

Cosmobiology is the study of the balance between cyclic behavior, biological patterns, radiation, and gravitational effects upon us, and as any good scientist will tell you, gravitation is a wave and can affect our psyche.

Ancient peoples must have understood the precise mappings of these newly named sciences when they too predicted such things by the stars. It may be that ancient man was using both his "hidden powers," and the tools of the Earth around him. It may also be that the ideas and symbolism of alchemy were just a few more steps along this path.

The Indian sage, Parasar (circa. 3000 B.C.) used natal astrology in his work. Megalithic structures have many astrological and Earth alignments.

The Pyramids map the stars, obeying the Hermetic lore of "as above so below." Ziggurats, temples, floor paintings, carvings, and 40-mile-long lines etched into the ground all convey the ancient and global belief in astrological predictions.

The very earliest almanacs contained weather forecasts based upon astrological predictions. In the countries of Arabia, the position of the stars was consistent with the weather. The ancient priesthood would have appeared to be in the know all the time, and, therefore, would appear holy and godlike; it was little wonder that they became incorporated into the symbolic format and titles of the stars.

The term zodiac has a meaning pertaining to animals, possibly "animal map" or "circle of animals." This is seen more precisely in the ancient Chinese chart on which every star sign has an animal name. The Zodiac is the belt of the gods, which lies nine degrees to either side of the ecliptic plane, and contains the orbits of the moon and the major planets.

Each Zodiac is 30 degrees apart.

The sun originally traversed these minor gods on a regular path and the various signs of the zodiac were blessed with his arrival. All the god-man stories, from Jesusto Horus, can be shown quite easily to be this very progression of the sun through the heavens.

That the word zodiac pertains to animals explains why it contains animal symbols, such as the ram and fish. These ancient anthropomorphic beliefs were included into the sky, in the same way that Pagan gods were taken on as saints by the Christian Church.

Later on, the saints received their own stars and were painted with them in ecclesiastical fervor - they even took on the symbols of the animals, as they were nothing more than a Christian creation developed from astrotheological origins. This concept has been concealed from the general population, as Acharya S tells us in The Christ Conspiracy:

The cosmology or celestial mythos has in reality been hidden from the masses for many centuries for the purpose of enriching and empowering the ruling elite. Its conspiring priest-kings have ruled empires in full knowledge of it since time immemorial and have 'lorded' it over the heads of the serfs.

Here yet again we have other authors discovering the idea that since time "immemorial" the people of the world have been lied to for power.

In some of the world's zodiacs, such as the Chinese version, there is even a tree at the center representing the Earth's polar axis - and this is the real location of Eden, in the sky.

The Babylonians, and especially people in the Middle East, studied the stars mathematically and attempted, even as long as 5,000 years ago, to scientifically log the reactions and effects of the stars. They produced a calendar and perfect measures of time, essential for a people without clocks.

Carl Jung suggested that the Zodiac was an archetypal component of the psyche of mankind, and he linked it with the theory of the "collective unconscious."

The patterns and rhythms of the stars, with their gravitational and radiation activity, have enormous effects upon our universe, but could they also affect us individually and collectively?

The cosmic radiation hitting and passing through our planet is millions of years old. It comes in cycles, as does the solar wind. The cycles increase and decrease, but nevertheless there is a pattern. Our species has been on this planet, and life has been part of the vast universe, long enough for there to be some marked and observable effect.

There are a vast number of other cycles in which we are involved, such as urinary cycles, sexual cycles, stock market crashes, epidemics, and a host of other minor cycles. A study of history will show how generations experience the same mistakes, and successes, all in a cyclic pattern. Stock market crashes themselves make a profound analogy.

Those in the know and with the power or money can predict these things, so they can also increase their power and money exponentially. Those with the knowledge maintain the power - the knowledge of cycles.

The Buddhist Wheel of Life reflects the understanding the ancients had of this cyclic life of ours. The Wheel culminates in the 12 links in the chain of causation on the search for truth, and it depicts, amongst others, creatures of passion, stupidity, and hatred, and shows how we endlessly repeat the same things. These repeating patterns of life events, circumstances, and our thoughts and emotions that come round again and again, are just like the planets that orbit the sun at different rates of orbital frequency.

We could say that the orbiting movement of the planets in our solar system represent - and at the same time reflect - the same patterns that are going on within a person's internal dialogue, as if what is going on in outer-space reflects what is going on within our inner-space, and within the inner depths of our own psyche.

The Hindus also make a connection with reincarnation, as the life-death cycle is just another cycle of repeating patterns they believe are due to karma not yet worked out, and broken. It is said that the ultimate goal is to stop or break the Wheel of Karma.

If this is true, then every person's astrological chart will contain information about the present life and maybe even previous lives - that is, the "program" that each person holds within his or her own consciousness - and that an individual's chart or horoscope will also show the strengths and weaknesses of that person, and also those circumstances and events that are both rewarding and challenging. It will also show the stumbling blocks that we each have to overcome in order to move on.

If we are intelligent enough to study the cycle of the heavens and understand this, then it's possible that our own personal horoscope will, more or less, reveal to us the same patterns locked up in our DNA, being the path of our own life, and also the challenges that are set before us, which we are being encouraged to try and break.

It may even be possible to break the program or pattern entirely!

It has now been determined that the information one gets from a personal horoscope is usually about 75 to 80 percent correct, depending of course on the skill of the astrologer - adding that this statistic really stems from the fact that, in general, man has only a limited knowledge about astrology - as much knowledge as he has about everything else, if you take things to the highest level that man can understand at this present stage in his evolution.

Lack of knowledge about astrology is really due to certain prejudices people have in regard to the superficial and over-generalized version of astrology that is deemed acceptable both for and by society.

The astrology that we read in the newspapers and magazines and can learn from the books on the shelves in the Mind, Body, and Spirit section is the astrology familiar to society, and which has become too generalized and commercialized to be of any real use.

The planets themselves - and more importantly the position of the planets in the solar system at any one time - will give a different meaning for each individual. The different vibrational influences that radiate from each planet, and especially the changing vibrations that result from the changing positions of each planet in relation to the others in the solar system, are very subtle as to be hardly noticeable or measurable.

However, because of the continuous bombardment of these vibrations on the Earth, they are also deeply effective and far-reaching with regard to the consciousness of each individual on this planet, and so the meanings that can be read from them is based on the position of the planets at the exact time of every individual's conception or birth.

Seeing that most of us are conceived and born at different times this creates a wide variety of different beliefs, experiences, and outlooks. All this is reflected in the positions of the planets in the cyclonic, cycling motion of our solar system, which acts as a giant cosmic clock, containing within all its biorhythmic-like cycles the "blueprint" for each individual life on this planet.

So then, in a nutshell, an individual's astrological chart is a picture of that individual's life, and each planet (and the interactions between the planets) charts the repeating patterns in that life - the frequencies of the planets, creating the vibrational patterns that had been imprinted on the central nervous system while the fetus of the individual was growing in the womb.

The patterns of events that take years to repeat are linked to the larger, slower, outer planets - such as Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus. One's horoscope is really a representation of one's picture of reality, and the internal dialogue that creates this particular picture.

I am certain the ancients understood this, and this may have been one of the reasons why great emphasis was placed on the positions of the stars and the movements of the sun, moon, and planets.

The web that man has spread across the many thousands of years is complex and cluttered.

Historians would have us believe that various human achievements sprang up spontaneously and simultaneously across the continents. Mathematically, this is in error. There are too many coincidences, too many simultaneous eruptions of human culture and achievement, from the buildings that share a common purpose as solar and astral temples to the emergence of the ancient cross as a symbol - all of this is related to the resonant energy of the universe and is deeply entrenched in the emerging scientific idea of quantum entanglement.

This new theory, backed by scientists from Beijing University, actually shows how telepathy is possible and likely when the particles/waves of two individuals are entangled. The same effect occurs with any energy wave/particle. Through meditation the individual comes closer and closer to consciously understanding this energy - an amazing thought, and an amazing deception that this information has been kept from us.

Remember that there is no easy way to show everything that is linked, there is simply too much information and much is hidden in secret societies.

In 1957, Tom Lethbridge wrote a book called Gogmagog. He claimed that Druidism and Brahmanism were linked and shared a common origin. Lethbridge believed that their ancient religion was somehow related to and existed for the Earth Goddess, also associated with the Moon Goddess and often cross-linked.

This is true in that She was one of the deities worshipped by the ancient priesthood, to whom the Brahmins and Druids were related.

The Earth/Moon Goddess, or Mother, had many names, Gaia or Ge, Isis, Astarte, and eventually culminating in the Virgin Mary (Mother of God) or even Mary Magdalene, and leading to the cult of the Black Virgin, which itself seems to be related more to Mary Magdalene than the Mother of God. In essence they are all built around the same energy, the same very human and even universal pattern that is built into each and every one of us.

Lethbridge was so upset by the reaction to his hypothesis that he "retired" to Devon and took up dowsing, itself uniquely linked to the ancient Shining Ones' culture and to the idea of earth energy. Unfortunately, the effect of this was to fuel his adversaries' opinions of him, even though he discovered some remarkable facts, which to this day are highly regarded by dowsers.

Lethbridge showed that different substances or items produce different swing rates of the pendulum. The pendulum is well known for being the most accurate dowsing implement, and in Lethbridge's case this proved to be true. He found that the age of items gave a different rate, as did the surrounding emotions. A pebble thrown violently reacted differently from one thrown in a less aggressive manner.

Work carried out by other dowsers has shown that while the rates differ between dowsers, the principle remains the same. This difference may be due to the rate at which the dowser absorbs the emitted energy, but it is hard to understand why the rates are uniformly different. If there had been a pattern of irregular rates this would be sufficient evidence to ignore the practice; as it is, we have evidence enough to require further investigation.

Although some of the conclusions drawn by Lethbridge are open to debate, we are left wondering whether there is any evidence for humans being able to pick up energy. And I was to find there was. (See author's other work or www.serpentgrail.com)

As we have seen, electromagnetism is in all things and we are open to its power, as are animals. The theory is that we transfer this energy to the implements used in dowsing. This may explain why some dowsers have different rates, but still keep the same proportions as Lethbridge's work. In the Vietnam War and World War I, dowsers were used to help the Army find unexploded shells and locate mines. Modern oil companies use the skills of the dowsers to locate oil.

There is much evidence to show that ancient man practiced dowsing, or  radiesthesia, in one form or another. In the Tassilin-Ajjer caves in the Sahara of southeastern Algeria, there are ancient pictoglyphs, approximately 8,000 years old, which show what appears to be dowsing.

Thoth, the Egyptian god of wisdom and writing, and the Greek Daedalus, both closely associated, are credited with its invention.

The Chinese, the masters of Feng Shui, have also been credited with the invention of dowsing from the 3rd millennium B.C. In the Bible we find that Moses (the patriarch who, according to Acts, had all the knowledge of Egypt and whose name is linked to the sun and the snake) was adept at finding water with his rod. The writers of the Bible vehemently opposed the tradition of dowsing.

This was because just about any layperson could dowse and therefore could take the secret knowledge away from the priesthood and reduce their power.

Later,  the Inquisition of the Catholic Church found it necessary to stamp out dowsing once again, while many abbots continued the practice in secret and even wrote extensively on the subject, albeit symbolically. What would be the reaction of the Church if its people were to find out that their own prophets, including the supposed Savior, practiced divination?

Among the other forms of divination to look out for is  Bath-Kol: divination by means of the heavenly, divine voice.

By interpreting this sound, the ancient Jewish prophets could announce the Will of God to the people. If ever there was a tool to keep the sacredness of God within the elite, then this is it. This practice appears to be worldwide in all cultures but is carried out only by the initiated few.

That is not to say that those individuals were not in some way and through some form of formulated ritual actually getting involved in the quantum entanglement of the universal collective.

Necromancy, the art of raising spirits from the dead to discover answers, is another form of divination that has strong links with the Bible. The Witch of Endor, in 1 Samuel 28, summoned the spirit of Samuel for Saul to question. Saul paid the price for this sin, but this demonstrates the existence of this ancient practice, which stretches back to beliefs in the Underworld or place of the ancestors; a belief and a divination accomplished all over the globe.

Was this a practice common to the ancient priesthood who may have traveled the world?

The period fits well. But it is also part and parcel of the Shining Ones' attempt to contact those who have passed into the Duat or Underworld. The ancient priests actually believed that they could contact the spirits of the dead through meditation, drug-induced states, or even physical actions such as Dervish.

Astrology is a form of divination relating to the stars. This too was practiced globally at the same time as necromancy. ³

The interpretation of dreams, oneiromancy, is a worldwide custom and one which also appears within the pages of the Bible, as well as many other holy books from just about every other religion and culture from our ancient past. Sometimes the dreamer would choose a specific location and take a hallucinogenic substance to bring on a dream, which only the priest could interpret.

In the Bible, the one with the ability to interpret the dream was the chosen one of God - the Shining One, a special person or priest.

Scrying is the method of using a crystal or shining ball, mirror, or, more correctly and more ancient, a shining stone. Only a priest, or latterly clairvoyant, could read the message received. This art goes back to and even further than the Egyptians. Gypsies (the word is derived from "Egyptians") still use the crystal ball today.

Hebrew tradition has it that Adam received wisdom from a shining stone, and Nostradamus used a bowl of water, as did Zeus.

Geomancy is the ancient from of reading messages from the earth. The word comes from the Greek word for Mother Earth, Ge or Gaia, and mancy or magos, meaning knowledge. Ancient Greek, Latin, and Arab writers tell us about geomancy. This divination technique is also global and is referred to in the Bible, in some remarkable places, as we will see in later chapters.

The timescale of the spread of geomancy across the globe is much debated. There is, however, no doubt that it was universally used and shows the link of mankind to beliefs within the Mother Goddess, right through into Christianity - a survival of ancient traditions.

In geomancy, the earth is drawn upon by hand or with sticks and a response read. Special codes or symbols are used, which are known only by the initiated. The symbols are usually lines, dots, or stars. The final symbol is probably the one we should remember, as this includes the symbol of the fish, although not in modern geomancy techniques.

The Arabs used random marks and read these. In other parts of the world, earth was thrown into the air and the shapes it formed as it fell on the ground it were interpreted.

In China, the most complex form of geomancy was Feng Shui (literally, "wind and water"), the interpretation of the Earth energies (known as "Dragon Paths") and the use of this reading to discover where best to place tombs or temples. The Chinese use a similar technique on humans in acupuncture, a very popular and reportedly effective alternative medicine.

The Chinese called the powers of the Earth "Yin" (female, negative) and "Yang" (male, positive). As we know, everything, including energy, matter, and magnetism, has a positive and a negative, so once again, our ancestors were there before us. Modern-day dowsing has shown that sites such as Stonehenge, Glastonbury, Newgrange, the pyramids of Egypt, and the ziggurats of South America are all situated on these so-called ancient energy lines.

This is yet another example of the global aspect of these ancient beliefs, which spread through cultures without altering the ethnicity of the population, but fitting in with it. This ancient priesthood did not change or improve the lifestyles of the general population, which is why it has been so difficult for archaeologists to discover their existence; instead, they simply passed on knowledge, sharing the power amongst themselves and the few who were chosen to become Shining Ones.

There are subtle hints, missed by orthodox history, which are beginning to reveal the patterns of an antiquated hierarchy of special priests.

Once we are alerted to their existence, it becomes obvious that they were there all along. If we read any part of the Bible again and replace the words "Lord" or "God" with the "Shining Ones," it will become apparent how deeply rooted into our culture this priesthood really is.

There are many belief systems in the world, but they all come from one basic and undeniable core, invented and evolved separately by the Shining Ones. The same term is used across the globe due to the same enlightened aspect or illumination achieved and sustained by them, and a worship of the same solar globe seen everywhere.

These priests were the experts of self-mind-control - manipulating their own minds into the Shining world of the universe through energy cycles and magnetism.

With the use of drugs and physical and mental effort, they achieved the Holy Grail of existence. With the benefits to themselves being good health and knowledge of the world around them, they found the Elixir.

Instead of looking for great migrations of civilizations such as Atlantis, we should be looking toward the faith makers, the illuminated ones who spread throughout the peoples of the world and became gods among men.

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Notes

^1. Woman’s Mysteries. Esther Harding (Rider) 1971.

^2. Human Antiquity. Feder and Park (Mayfield Publishing) 1993.

^3. Stars and Snakes and Shining The stars are relevant to the story we have portrayed here, and they will take on more importance the deeper we probe into the history of the Shining Serpents. The major players have of course been immortalized themselves in the stars, and we can see with Ophiucus and Serpens their position in the sky was very important. The very act of placing them in the sky as gods with celestial power shows their importance. In fact it is highly likely that often the human on the ground was simply a mirror image of the pattern and movement of the celestial objects in the sky. Ophiucus is positioned between Sagittarius and stretches just east of the head of Hercules to Scorpio. Partly in the Milky Way, it is divided equally by the celestial equator. The classical scholars united Opiuchus (serpent holder) with Serpens (the snake) and created a great image in the sky of Aesculapius - the ancient snake healer. “He who holds the serpent...they will struggle forever, since they wage war on equal terms with equal powers.” One to poison and one to heal - the two opposites seen in the enlightenment experience and giving rise to the Shining.

Aesculapius was the ship’s surgeon on the Argo - associated with Jason and the Argonauts who went in search of the Golden Fleece, guarded by serpents/dragons and said to bring people back to life and bestow immortality. The word hygiene comes from Hygeia, one of the daughters of Aesculapius, and panacea, the cure-all, comes from his other daughter, Panacea.

Serpens was seen by the ancients as the healing one in the sky, and with Ophiucus he is one of the Psylli of Libya, the snake healers. Biblical writers said this constellation was Aaron with his serpent staff, or Moses.

The annual birth of the sun and therefore Christ/Dionysus/Krishna and many more solar deities, is accompanied by the bright star, which was Sirius or Sothis, or even the planet Venus. It is also joined by the 3 stars of Orion’s belt, which are the three wise men or Magi.

The sun enters each zodiacal sign at 30 degrees and so the sun king or god enters his ministry at 30 years. The sun is the carpenter that builds the mansions of the zodiac.

When it is said that Christ (or indeed the others) walked on water, this is a mirror of the sun, which appears to walk on water with its reflection.

The sun loses its strength at the end of the year, at the same time the Scorpio constellation is seen in the sky. Scorpio is Judas Iscariot - the backbiter, which is an analogy of the method that scorpions use to strike.

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