5 - The Watchers

We must now move on to one of the earliest of all origins of secret societies from which is derived much of the terminology and symbolism still used today by the Freemasons, Rosicrucians, and many others - the Watchers - otherwise known as the "sons of God" and in Hebrew as Eyrim (Irim).

In doing so we shall be taking a look at the very origins of the first secret societies and the influences of astrotheology and serpent worship upon them.

Zecharia Sitchin in  The Stairway to Heaven, states:

The Akkadians called their predecessors Shumerians, and spoke of the Land of Shumer. It was in fact the biblical Land of Shin'ar. It was the land whose name - Shumer - literally meant the Land of the Watchers. It was indeed the Egyptian Ta Neter - Land of the Watchers, the land from which gods had come to Egypt.

So, Sumeria could mean "Land of the Watchers," and it is from this land that the Elohim or Shining Ones, who governed the Watchers, also came.

In The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, Julian Jaynes tells us something interesting about these governing gods:

Throughout Mesopotamia, from the earliest times of Sumer and Akkad, all lands were owned by gods and men were their slaves.

Of this, the cuneiform texts leave no doubt whatever. Each city-state had its principal god, and the king was described in the very earliest written documents that we have as "the tenant farmer of the god."

Let's just take a look at these Elohim for a moment to find out who these "gods" were that supposedly enslaved men and were in charge of the Watchers.

Elohim

This is the term used often in the Old Testament (and other texts outside of it, as in the Muslim Allah = Elah) for the Lord; an incorrect usage, as the term is plural and means "Shining Ones."

We can see this plurality in the text from Genesis 1:26:

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness."

And again in Genesis 6:2:

"The sons of god saw the daughters of men that they were fair."

This term "sons of god" is literally "sons of gods" and comes from ben ha-elohim, "sons of the shining ones."

• the Sumerian EL means simply bright or shining

• the Old Irish Aillil means shining

• Old Cornish EL means shining

• Elf means shining - hence Elves as tall/mysterious angelic beings

• Inca Illa is bright or to shine

• Babylonian Ellu is to shine,

...to name just a few that have sprung up worldwide from the same Sumerian source.

Baal, the deity often spoken of as the "Lord" in the Bible, is also seen as a shining one in the Old Testament and is called the Owner. At that time there were many "Owners" or shining ones; in fact, there was one for each village.

To these Hebrews the Elohim were nature divinities from ancient Sumerian times. According to General Albert Pike, the famous Masonic historian, in Morals and Dogma, the Elohim were the "host of heaven," ascending and descending to pass messages to and from god or leader (Yahweh). The host of heaven were of course the stars in the night sky humanized.

Some of the shining ones were termed Watchers and are akin to the angels of the Lord. Yahweh Elohim means simply "leader of the shining ones."

So now we have these plural Elohim or shining ones as gods, being above even the kings, and supplying Watchers - to watch over man, and as Sitchin pointed out, they were also in Egypt.

This Ta Neter that Sitchin mentions resembles the Egyptian Ntr, a name for Ptah and other gods, which means guardian or watcher. Ta Neter is also the name for the Red Sea straits, which connected Mesopotamia and Egypt and is known as the place of the gods.

The Neter or Ntr word means and is derived from the concept of neutrality and is simply the place between, the path between the pillars or the place between awake and asleep that we spoke of earlier in this chapter.

These Watchers were also known as Urshu and were classed as being less divine than the gods, although in this instance, as Graham Hancock points out in Fingerprint of the Gods, the Urshu speak of the Neteru (Ntr) as if it were they who were the gods and the Urshu the Watchers. Whatever the truth in this matter, it is no wonder that confusion has arisen over so many thousands of years.

The fact remains though, that the ancients spoke of a time when there were gods or shining ones who ruled up and down Sumeria and Egypt and who employed watchers over the ordinary folk. In the same way a Pharaoh of Egypt was a god-on-Earth, so too priests of the Elohim (stars) were stars-on-Earth.

The Egyptian Book of the Dead calls these Watchers:

Anubis and Horus in the form of Horus the sightless. Others, however, say that they are the Tchatcha, who bring to nought the operations of their knives; and others say that they are the chiefs of the Sheniu chamber.

So, even in ancient Egypt, by the time of the writing of the Book of the Dead, there was confusion.

According Sitchin in  The Wars of Gods and Men:

They had come to Egypt, the Egyptians wrote, from Ta-Ur, the "Far/Foreign Land," whose name Ur meant "oldest" but could also have been the actual place name - a place well known from Mesopotamian and biblical records: the ancient city of Ur.

We should note at this point that this Ur is the same place that the father of the world's three great religions, Abraham, is also said to have trained.

According to The Legend of Votan (note similarity with the Nordic Wotan who is said to have come from across the sea) from Mesoamerica, this Votan was the serpent who was a descendent of the race of Can and was called a guardian or watcher, amazingly similar to Canaan, as such people as Zelia Nuttal in Papers of the Peabody Museum has suggested.

These Canaanites are implicated in many places revolving around the Shining Ones and the original serpent priests - another name for the Shining Ones. ¹

The serpent was known in the language of Canaan variously as Aub, Ab; Oub, Ob; Oph, Op; Eph, Ev. In the Mayan language "Can" also means serpent, as in Cuculcan the bird serpent, and just as in the ancient Sumerian Acan and the Scottish Can for serpent (which is where we get the word "canny" like the wise snake).

Vulcan (sounding like Votan and Wotan), the Roman god of fire, comes from the Babylonian Can for serpent and Vul for fire, showing an etymological link across thousands of miles and oceans and meaning, therefore, that Vulcan is the shining serpent.

Indeed even the very center of the Christian world, the Vatican, comes from the words "vatis" for prophet and "can" for serpent, making the Vatican a place of serpent prophecy.

The Hebrews termed these Watchers as nun resh'ayin, meaning "those who watch." In the Greek this is translated as gigantes or giants, a race that even the 907 B.C. writer Hesiod featured as being monstrous (due to their serpentine aspect no doubt). Now we can understand the role of the giants ² seen across the world of folklore as the presence of the Watchers.

Enoch in 1 Enoch 20:1-8 even gives us the names of these Watchers, and I noted that they were all subtitled Shining Ones with the ending:

And these are the names of the holy angels who watch. Uriel, one of the holy angels, who is over the world and over Tartarus. Raphael, one of the holy angels, who is over the spirits of men.

Raguel, one of the holy angels who takes vengeance on the world of the luminaries. Michael, one of the holy angels, to wit, he that is set over the best part of mankind and over chaos.

Saraqael, one of the holy angels, who is set over the spirits, who sin in spirit. Gabriel, one of the holy angels, who is over Paradise and the serpents and the Cherubim. Remiel, one of the holy angels, whom God set over those who rise.

Note that Gabriel, the messenger who told of the birth of Jesus and who passed on wisdom to Mohammed, is in charge of the serpents. Remiel is over those who rise - those seeking enlightenment.

In the Testament of Amram (manuscript B) we have a remarkable insight into the aspect of these shining Watchers:

I asked them, "Who are you, that you are thus empowered over me?" They answered me, "We have been empowered and rule over all mankind." They said to me, "Which of us do you choose to rule you?" I raised my eyes and looked. One of them was terrifying in his appearance, like a serpent, his cloak many colored yet very dark.

And I looked again, and in his appearance, his visage like a viper, and wearing exceedingly, and all his eyes….I replied to him, "This Watcher, so is he?" He answered me, "This Watcher….and his three names are Belial and Prince of darkness and King of Evil."

The Mosaic Book of Jubilees was originally called the Apocalypse of Moses as it was supposedly written by Moses while on Mount Sinai and dictated by a Watcher or angel.

This book was intended as a history of the days of old and reveals the purpose of the Watchers:

For in his days the angels of the Lord [Elohim - Shining Ones] descended upon the earth [came down from their mountain stronghold] - those who are named Watchers - that they should instruct the children of men, that they should do judgment and uprightness upon the earth.

These Watchers, according to the Book of Jubilees, are the sons of god spoken of in Genesis, sent from their heavenly abode to instruct men. What seems to have occurred is that they fell from grace by mating with the daughters of men and were thus outcast - giving us the fallen angels we are familiar with today.

However, according to A Dictionary of Angels, not all these Watchers descended from the heavenly abode, and those that did not were termed holy Watchers, residing in the fifth heaven.

As Enoch himself had testified against these fallen Watchers he was protected by the ruling Shining Ones and transported to the Garden of Eden (Eden means plateau and is therefore a specific place):

And I Enoch was blessing the Lord of majesty and the King of the ages, and lo! The Watchers called me - Enoch the scribe - and said to me:

"Enoch, thou scribe of righteousness, go, declare to the Watchers of the heaven who have left the high heaven, the holy eternal place, and have defiled themselves with women, and have done as the children of the earth do, and have taken unto themselves wives: Ye have wrought great destruction on the earth: And ye shall have no peace nor forgiveness of sin: and inasmuch as they delight themselves in their children, The murder of their beloved ones shall they see, and over the destruction of their children shall they lament, and shall make supplication unto eternity, but mercy and peace shall ye not attain."
(1 Enoch 10:3–8)

According to Andrew Collins in From the Ashes of Angels: The Forbidden Legacy of a Fallen Race, the fallen Watchers swear an oath and bind themselves together.

The place of this action is called Ardis, the fabled summit of Mount Hermon, which derives from the Hebrew word for curse (harem). Following these actions of the fallen Watchers, the Shining Ones called down a great flood upon the Earth to destroy the offspring, and Noah is warned to build a great ship to escape the impending doom.

There was obviously some great battle between the dissenters and the Shining Ones and the loyal Watchers, which allowed Michael, Gabriel, and the others to slay the remaining fallen Watchers. The flood is the symbolic idea of the later cleansing of the land (and mind) and the restarting of the human race (or self) on track with the Shining Ones' ideals - a probable merging of a folk memory of some great catastrophe and the actual event.

There were other catastrophes written up as being the judgment of the remaining Watchers, which must simply be folk memories of actual catastrophes that occurred and were blamed upon the transgressions of the fallen Watchers.

Indeed, even the spirits of these fallen Watchers are blamed for future evils, as Enoch points out:

And the spirits of the giants afflict, oppress, destroy, attack, do battle, and work destruction on the earth, and cause trouble: they take no food, but nevertheless hunger and thirst, and cause offenses. And these spirits shall rise up against the children of men and against the women, because they have proceeded them.
(1 Enoch 12)

St. Michael and St. George - angelic watchers

Notable revelations admitted by the Watchers to the sons of man were knowledge of the signs of the earth: writing, meteorology, geography, and geodesy - all implying that these Shining Ones understood the energy and power of the Earth and its electromagnetism, not to mention the movements of the planets.

There are many fables of these times from across the world of great builders, architects, and magicians all relating entirely back to these Shining Ones' origins. We can see the similarity in the structures of Europe (and elsewhere) of the burial mounds with the fact that one of the fallen Watchers, Azazel, was cast into the desert where they placed upon him rough and jagged rocks.

Much of this myth of the Watchers is found to be within the tales of wars and merging of peoples across the Middle East - between Canaanites, Egyptians, Sumerians, and even Asian civilizations.

But the underlying current is a belief in the Shining Ones as leaders, with Watchers doing their bidding - evolving into God with his Angelic beings.

All of this so far is exactly what we have been saying about the secret societies, that they were in charge and maintained authority from a religious standpoint. We know that mankind deified the "men of renown," the same Anunnaki/Anakim to whom this refers, and therefore we know that these Shining Ones were mere men - the difference being that the hypnagogic state (the place between awake and asleep) had set them apart.

The terms Anunnaki, Anakim, and even Nephilim mean "those who came down to Earth from heaven" and is a reference to their position and location on the plateau of Eden (Eden means plateau). They looked down on the people below - watched. They represented the sun, moon, and planets, on Earth. It does not, as some would have us believe, imply that they came from the stars, but were representatives of the celestial deities.

The truth of the story of the Shining Ones and their Watchers has been the subject of a purging by many Jewish authorities, who were understandably concerned that the myths of these angels and their worship would distract people from the worship of the one god.

To this end, the book of Enoch and the book of Jubilees, mentioned previously, were stricken from the accepted list and are now known as Apocrypha or pseudepigrapha.

What we do know though, is that these Watchers continued in what has been described as the underground stream and were called egregors.

The Kabbalah names 72... national angelic regents, which the Hebrews call Elohim [Shining Ones]; the metaphysical technical term Egregors is also used for them. Derived from the Greek word egreoros, it means "watcher" or "guardian."

The office of a Watcher is to protect from outside pressures a region or ethnic group assigned to its care. The region is always measured off from another posing a threat of some sort to it. A given group of persons (the group of those being protected) is "tied" to a certain area of jurisdiction... Here, too, we meet the "riddle of the founding of cities and states..."

What is more, both the ancient Romans, and quite recently the Chinese, have recognized the existence of guardian spirits set over cities. Indeed, one author reports as follows on the occult war waged on enemy cities by ancient Rome:

"The Romans, when besieging a city, made a habit of carefully enquiring the name of the city and of its guardian spirit. When they knew these, they would summon the guardian spirit of the city and its inhabitants, and conquer it."
(Willy Schrodter, Commentaries on the Occult Philosophy of Agrippa)

Egregor

This term is Greek and means "to rouse from sleep," "be excited by passion," "to be awake," or "to watch" - incredibly etymologically linked to the enlightenment experience of the awakening or the place between awake and asleep.

The root of the word appears to be the Syrian ir or er, and reverts to Watcher and is also related to Ur, the home of Abraham. It also became a Gnostic and mystic term thought to mean "collective unconsciousness" but linked with the Watchers by M. Denning and O. Phillips in The Magical Philosophy.

Eliphas Levi (19th century magician and mystic) speaks of these egregors on numerous occasions, and even links them to the giants or Watchers spoken of in the book of Enoch, saying that they,

"take shape and have appeared in the guise of giants: these are the egregors of the Book of Enoch… Termed the celestial watchers or egregors, by the ancients."

Levi also calls these egregors the Anakim (Shining Ones, men of renown, giants) of the Bible, and that they are expressed in the myths of various cultures - just as we have been finding.

It therefore appears that Levi (and others) knew of these egregors or Watchers from the recently translated and widely (in mystic circles) available book of Enoch. Levi was well known to have Rosicrucian tendencies, and this movement too was aware of the meaning of the word. In fact, they believed that the egregors were still in existence and were in the background.

There are a whole host of 16th and 17th century mystics, including Dr.  John Dee, who were also aware of the Book of Enoch and plagiarized it extensively. Dee has been implicated as one of the founders of the Rosicrucians as well as being a spy of the realm under Queen Elizabeth. Dee's official number in court spying circles was 007 and Elizabeth was M. Like the later Illuminati, the Rosicrucians were a supposed response to the activities of the Jesuits.

All of this brings to mind the texts taken down by Dee and his cohort, Edward Kelly, that were dictated by angels!

These texts surprisingly deal with the "old ones." Some of the texts came into Dee's possession (and were therefore not given by angels) whilst he was in the service of Rudolph II in Prague.

Amazingly, the infamous Necronomicon tells us about a "fabulous city of Irem." Irem of the Pillars is part of Arabian magical lore and was built by the Jinn or angels and were possibly also Watch Towers - "towers of the Watchers."

The Hebrew Erim means to awaken.

The Pillars were built on the instructions of the Lord of the tribe of Ad (meaning eternity), who are referred to in Hebrew terms as Nephilim - the giants or Watchers of the Shining Ones, and referred to in the book of Enoch as Irim. According to Arabian legend this Irem is located in Rub al Khali, which means the empty quarter or the void. The void could be a real barren location or a term for the "space between" that we have been discussing. Archaeologists have identified the very spot of this infamous Irem as being the lost city of Ubar.

One further link with Enoch to the mysteries of the modern alchemists, mystics, and seers is seen in the 13th century texts of A. Bar Hebraeus, who spent many years investigating the ancient texts at the Library of Maragha and gives us this unique insight:

The ancient Greeks say that Enoch is Harmis Trismaghistos.
(The Chronography of Bar Hebraeus, translated by E.W. Budge 1932)

This is none other than Hermes Trismegistus, ³ the thrice great Hermes, whom all mystics hold in high esteem as having passed down ancient and profound secrets and who is seen as the father of almost all Western secret orders.

We also have here evidence that the book of Enoch was understood as far back and as late as the 13th century.

Whether or not the actual Shining Ones, Watchers, or egregor were actually physically around during this vast expanse of time is the subject debate still, but what this does show is that the ancient influence of the Shining Ones was certainly still in existence.

Even the Thesaurus Temporum translated into Latin in the mid 17th century gives us a chronology of events surrounding these egregors.

In 1000 B.C. they descended (primus egregorum descensus), and by 1487 B.C. they had taken Enoch to Paradise (Enoch transferatur in paradisum) due to the dissent of the fallen Watchers.

It seems then that the extremely ancient concept and story of the Shining Ones was still very much alive and being propagated secretly by the mystics of the last few hundred years. These were part and parcel of their hidden secrets. The question arises, why did they feel the need to hide such secrets?

Today the egregor is seen in occult circles as an energy form - akin to the kundalini!

According to the Rosicrucian Website:

Quickly, from the mystical point of view, Egregor(e) (a word of Latin origin) is the set of thought-forms produced by a group of individuals on the Astral plane. The Egregor(e) may change over time, according to the quality of the group's members.

Each group has a distinct Egregor(e). Any group which has the ability to get in synchronization with a specific Egregor(e) may claim authenticity and continuation from earlier groups which used or developed this egregor(e).

And the Martinist Order of the Knights of Christ, who claim to be heirs to the Rosicrucians and others, say:

Its goal is to set the human being free from the hold of the Prince of this World and of achieving the Mystical Union of the self-aware personality (conscience) with the individual profundity (superconscience).

Its members strive to have access to mastery by reuniting with the "Kingdom of the Center," propitious with the descent of the Paraclet, sent by Christ, in addition to the assistance rendered by the attachment, on the side of the Initiator with the Egregore, protector of the Secret Chain.

"An apostalic succession of power," suggests John Michael Greer in Inside a Magical Lodge, is,

"a basic function of the egregor."

"‘Worship me!" cries the Egregora. "I am the son of God; you are nothing but a worthless and sinful creature, damned from birth and destined to hell were it not for my sacrifice; and without me you will never reach heaven!"
(Marcelo Ramos Motta, Letter to a Brazilian Mason Unexpurgated)

The egregore is a group spirit that serves to remind the initiate of his or her goals. It informs and guides the individual and it protects the living chain of brotherhood. The living chain of brotherhood is entered into when a Setian performs a rite of their own creation intended to protect and enhance the Temple of Set.

The egregore protects the brotherhood by letting them know their enemies are there. A symbolic representation of the egregore is used to maintain a link to the Prince of Darkness.
(Sir Ormsond IV, Saturnian Principles)

The Sufi Saint, Mansour Al-Hallaj, is almost identical to the Masonic egregor, Hiram Abif, in respect to the circumstances of his death... In masonry, the Two-Headed Eagle is a cognate of Baphomet, a chimera-like composite animal that represents the Universal Force of matter. In some Gnostic Systems this would be the Demiurgios, or "Lord of this World."
(Malgwyn, from Yesidism, Zoroastrianism in Western Secret Societies)

Round Towers and Pyramids

One of the peculiar archaeological evidences we have of ancient "watchers" are the round towers.

What was being watched is a matter of some debate. It may have been the people or it may have been the stars. Indeed, it is highly likely they were built for both, as well as for the search for aggressors.

In symbolism, the round tower was the internal psychological ascent, the axis mundi (axis of the world), and has the symbolism of the ladder or gateway to heaven - just as does the cord ⁴ or rope said by Enoch to have been carried and used by the Watchers. Because these places and this internal process were inaccessible to many, the term "Ivory Tower" emerged.

The pyramid, as the Mountain of Heaven, was just the same as the round tower and the stupas of India - which themselves originated from the Kurgan mound builders of Nordic origin.

Both myself and others have found that the Great Pyramid of Giza was seen as a gateway for the mind/soul.

In his paper "The Great Pyramid Texts," Clesson Harvey points out that in the pyramids of Saqqara there are more than 3,000 columns of texts from the 5th and 6thdynasties, which he believes holds the secret to the pyramids use.

These texts include incantations and magical formulae that used to be invoked in certain locations around the pyramid but in the,

"upper passage, chamber, gallery and shaft... is an incredibly old, unmistakable megalithic glyph."

This glyph or phrase translates remarkably into "sar door" and "tunnel opening gate."

Because glyphs are sadly lacking from most pyramids, this information is a startling discovery; indeed, there was probably more information that has now been destroyed, such as when Herodotus was said to have visited Egypt in the 5th century B.C. - the outer casing of the pyramid was awash with writing.

Egyptologists claim that the "star" is mythological and leave it at that. I will not, however, and I say that this "tunnel" and "star door" is the entrance to the trance state - as "star" and "shining" are intimately linked in meaning, having emerged from the enlightenment state, which was seen as the connection point to the gods - the stars.

We already know that the Egyptians called Giza "Rostau" (ros in etymology means either "head" or "hros," which is horse; ros tau is therefore the "tau of the head" and tau means "hidden treasure").

Rostau also means "Gateway to the Other World."

But, I wondered, how did the pyramid work in this respect and in relation to the trance theory we have been discussing? And more than this, were there any further buildings or structures in the world that related to all of this? It was now time to take an alternative look at the possible science behind the earth structures.

Back in the 1970s and '80s, a scientist named Joe Parr decided it was time to take a look at the Great Pyramid, and pyramid shapes in general, and what he discovered is completely amazing.

In his experiments, Joe set up an aligned pyramid north-south and east-west, with flat coils placed on the north and south. A blown, 1 microfarad capacitor was sparked across the gap using a battery, resistor, and chart recorder. This was to simulate the electromagnetic energy of the Earth passing over the pyramid. The scientists registered the changes on a daily basis, recording the state of an energy bubble that surrounded the pyramid.

Strangely, the energy actually stopped all kinds of radiation, and the bubble showed attenuation to beta emitters, ion sources, and magnetic sources when in the bubble. Feeding negative ions into the bubble actually intensified the energy. The energy was also found to alter over the course of the year, and 13 years of experimentation gave good results. Most peculiar was the effect upon gravity, which is linked intrinsically to electromagnetic radiation.

It appeared that the bubble actually blocked out the force of gravity as well as electromagnetic energy, showing a 113,000 times increase in kinetic energy, leading the researchers to theorize that the pyramid actually moved in time and space - a place known to theoretical physicists as h-space.

Incredibly, when negative ions were fed into the bubble, the pyramid was drawn to the moon (positive ions moved it away) an amazing correlation with the feminine and, therefore, spiritually negative aspect of lunar worship.

But what relevance could this have on our work here? Well, if, as it appears, many secret societies point toward the Great Pyramid, then there has to be a reason (or two). I have stated my belief that the Pyramid was an entrance to the trance state, or Duat, and the pyramid texts as well as much more Egyptology evidence actually proves this point.

The effect caused within the brain, which releases the hormones required for the trance state, is basically electromagnetic and is affected by all manner of ion activity. I am firmly of the opinion that the ancient serpent cult or Shining Ones were on to this in their own way, perceiving energy as the serpent wave and worshipping this invisible god as a snake. Eventually, gathering sufficient knowledge of this serpent energy, they erected buildings that conducted the energy into a controlling element.

With the effect of the "plugs" in the air vents having a resonant effect also upon the electromagnetic energy, we can see how it was honed specifically to create the effect.

But there must be more evidence of ancient buildings with this peculiar in-built design - and there was.

One peculiar and little-written-about structure is the round tower. These are worldwide in the hundreds, and strangely are linked to the serpent in almost every instance.

Tall, elegant, round structures, built by cultures as diverse as the Irish Celts and early Christians, to the Hopi Indians and Egyptians - all of which are linked with serpent worship.

Even the Dead Sea Scrolls refer to "towers" protected by angels or Watchers. In the famous Qumran Community of the Dead Sea Scroll, the war between the Sons of Light (the Qumranites) and the Sons of Darkness (all those outside the sect),

"is to be conducted with acute awareness of the place of the angelic world in it..."

The Qumran War Scroll (1QM 9.10–16) even gives us details on the battle formations, which involve four "towers" ("Migdalot") that are units of soldiers with specifically long spears and shields. On each of their shields is written the name of one of the four archangels. This links the round towers or watch towers to the Watchers or the giants.

In Ireland there are over 65 round towers, many more than 100 feet tall, and claimed by academics to be no more than 1,000 years old.

However, as with most Christian buildings, they are generally built upon much more ancient religious ground, and, indeed, many of them can be proven to be older than first believed. Some even have churches built onto them, as if to attach the church to the ancient shining-serpent worship physically.

In fact, I have already shown in the Serpent Grail, how St. Patrick "kicked" out the serpents from Ireland, and that these serpents were indeed an ancient serpent worshipping cult - the whole story being symbolic of the Christian Church taking over.

Gradwell, writing in the 19th century pointed out that:

St Patrick and his followers almost invariably
selected those sacred sites of paganism, and built
their wooden churches under the shadow of the
Round Towers, then as mysterious and inscrutable
as they are to-day.

Some claim these structures were fire temples dedicated to sun worship, and it is easy to see why, when we discover that sun worship is connected to serpent worship and the enlightenment experience.

Others claim them to be "watch towers," which would relate nicely to the ancient term for the serpent cult as "Watchers."

In fact, Hargrave Jennings, author of Ophiolatraea, relates them to the obelisk, that ancient serpent-derived pillar to the heavens.

The towers are also found close to rivers, streams, and holy wells. Again, this was something we discovered in the Serpent Grail to be closely and intimately connected with the worship of the healing serpent. The water was the subterranean home of the serpent race and was the "entrance" to the Otherworld - which is where the enlightenment experience was intending to take you. But it is this association with water that seems to be important to such structures in terms of earth electromagnetic energy.

There may be an important link between round towers and the Phoenicians, who had similar structures dedicated to their rain and water deity Baal. There are thousands of these towers scattered across Sardinia, just north of the Phoenician city of Carthage, dating to at least 2,000 years before Christ.

But, as Ralph Ellis pointed out in his Jesus, Last of the Pharaohs book, the round towers are remarkably similar to the Ben-ben tower to be found in the Temple at Heliopolis, which links to the Phoenicians, as their very name comes from the Ben-ben bird, or better-known Phoenix. The Phoenicians would then, in our modern age, become infamous for spreading beliefs across the world via their many trade routes.

They were one of the most proficient sea peoples ever to have lived.

The round tower has also been related to the djed pillar or backbone of Osiris. This is the pillar or backbone up which the kundalini or serpent energy was to rise in India and is perfectly in line with the enlightenment concepts leading to "shining."

There are also those who believe that these towers served as astronomical tools, similar to Stonehenge, and this may be the case also. The tower in Iran called Radkan (rhad = serpent) is thought to be one of these, and like the European towers of a much later date, it has a conical cap.

In the Naga or serpent homeland of India the round tower became the stupa and in China the pagoda - both other forms of round tower. In Feng Shui, we get a glimpse of the real use of the towers - the pagoda and indeed the stupa are thought to trap negative energy or chi (dragon/serpent energy), what we would call negative ions.

Remember that these negative ions in the Parr pyramid experiments were thought to cause antigravity and anti-electromagnetic effects. The very tale of Lady White Snake is popular all over the world, and is ultimately due to this electromagnetic energy. It is the Lady White Snake or lunar snake that is trapped in the pagoda for a thousand years.

The Giant's Tower of Gozo near Malta has also been related strongly by many historians to the tower 20th century historian Captain Oliver said:

It may be conjectured, that these loculi [small holes] may have been intended to hold the small idols, whose trunks [headless], made of stone or clay, are not dissimilar to the conventional female figures of Hindoo representations, on the numerous large and small rudely shaped conical stones (possibly sacred symbols, analogous to the larger stone cones, on which female mammæ are found engraved in the ruined nuragghi of Sardinia) which are found in those ruins.

Somewhat similar small pyramidal cones, which by some have been supposed to represent the sun's rays, are to be seen in the hands of priests kneeling before the sacred serpent god in Egyptian paintings.

Further round towers can be found as far away as southern America, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Chichén Itzá, Africa, and many more. All are related to the serpent energy and serpent cult, and many have the same astronomical alignments.

Indeed the Hopi snake tribe actually refer to them as "snake houses."

The Hopi god of death and the Underworld is Masau'u, and he has to explain to the snake mother why her children cannot live in the house:

And Masau said,

"No, the snakes have no houses; because they have bitten and killed Hopi they should never again have a house, but should live under rocks and in holes in the ground."

But he also said the snake houses [the round towers] which were built for them should never again be destroyed and that all coming generations of people should know the snake's doom, never again to have a house.
(Alexander M. Stephen, The Journal of American Folklore)

Could this be an indication of the death of the snake cult? Could this be the Hopi version of St. Patrick's story? And if so, then it relates back to Ireland, where, again, there are hundreds of round towers connected with the serpent!

Remember that Baal was implicated earlier. Baal, being the Canaanite rain god, can also be related here, as the Hopi have a word for water - paal (they have no b and therefore it resolves into p. Paal also means broth and wonder).

If it is the case that these round towers or snake houses are seen across the Atlantic with the same religious and cultural grounding, then it is also true to state that the Anakim are also related in some way. Anak means "long neck" or "necklaces."

The Hopi too have a similar word, anaaq, meaning "necklace" or "earring" - it is also an expression used when in pain from snakebite!

But what about the science of the round towers? Is there anything that can be related to the energy discussed with the pyramids?

In the book Ancient Mysteries, Modern Visions, Professor Callahan relays his research, which amazingly shows that the round towers may have been designed as huge resonant systems for collecting and storing meter-long wavelengths of magnetic and electromagnetic energy. Sound fanciful? It did to me, so I looked deeper.

Basing the hypothesis of his work on insect antennae and the capacity to resonate electromagnetic waves, Callahan hypothesized that the tall round towers were made to be "earth antennas," and that similar buildings or structures around the globe could have been made for the same reason. He believed (before his time, I might add) that this energy would be passed on to those meditating at the site. It is my contention that this is true and that it spurs along the trance state and brings one closer to "god."

Full evidence of this is outlined in my book Gateway to the Otherworld.

Of the towers tested in Ireland, Callahan found that the iron-rich rock that they were made from indeed helped this effect along. The towers made from other materials, such as limestone and granite, were still "paramagnetic." Callahan goes on to show how the rubble within these towers, which has baffled people for decades, was truly there as a "tuning" implement, in much the same way I say the "plugs" in the "air vents" of the Great Pyramid are tuning plugs.

It is my opinion that further research should be carried out at all the round tower sites in Ireland and elsewhere before the ravages of time are allowed to destroy what could be a remarkable insight into the practices of the ancient serpent cult.

What we can see here is the extent of the influence of the first origins of secret societies, both in culture and texts, but also in the many fascinating and mysterious archaeological remains of the world.

These Shining Ones are the first on paper. They have a structure and a basis of authority. They rule over man and are all-wise, having their "Watchers" to ensure that their instructions are carried out.

Either the Shining Ones are still in power now, generations later, or the secret societies of the globe have copied the methods, structure, and symbols of these first few. The great religions of the world have all been created by some secret method. The early Christians met in secrecy and spread the word of "Christ" far and wide whilst the orthodox religions and powers of the day struggled to rout them out.

The same is true of Islam. Power then is derived from control of the masses, and here in Sumeria control was formed by those who possessed great knowledge, wisdom, and a seeming ability to access God. This has always been the lure of the secret orders and also that of orthodox religion.

One is open, one is not.

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Notes

^1. Shining Serpent In Genesis 3:1 the fundamentalist Christians believe incorrectly that they have sighted the first mention of Satan. He is to them called “the serpent.” One of the Hebrew words for serpent is nachash and means “to shine” or “shining, upright creature.” This is a positive indication that the nachash were not really snakes at all, but instead Shining upright beings and that serpent and shining go hand in hand. In Chaldee it means brass or copper, because of its shining, just as the word Nehushtan means “a piece of brass,” in 2 Kings 18.4. Note how it was the Lord who ordered Moses to lift up the Brass Serpent in the wilderness, so that people might be saved. Moses was indeed a Shining One. (Num. 21.8 - ”make thee a fiery serpent” or “make thee a shining serpent”). Nachash seems to be interchangeable with Saraph or Seraph, to shine. In 2 Corinthians 11.3 the Nachash that fooled Eve is spoken of as an angel of light or a shining one. Eve as the female serpent was responding to a Shining One. Adam too is implicated as a Shining One when we discover that in the Hebrew Genesis, “His skin was a bright garment, shining like his nails; when he sinned this brightness vanished, and he appeared naked” (Targ. Yer. Gen. iii. 7; Gen. R. xi.; Adam and Eve, xxxvii.). The Aztec Quetzalcoatl - the plumed serpent - is seen in many dialects of the area. In Itzan it was Cuculcan and in Quichuan it was Amaute. But what we find in all of these is the same etymology. In all instances he is the plumed serpent, but also wise teacher. He is also the “golden or shining serpent.” In Norse myth, and more specifically the work of Ulf, we have the serpent that Odin battles referenced:

“Vidgymnir of Vimur’s ford [Thor] struck the ear-bed [head] from the shining snake by the waves.”

The etymology of that other serpent creature the dragon also reveals some impressive insights. According to the Oxford English Dictionary (1966), dragon is derived from the Old French, which in turn was derived from the Latin dracon, which in turn was derived from the Greek spakov, which means “serpent” and is from the Greek verb spakelv or “to see clearly.” It is thus always related to sight. In the Sanskrit darc, which means “to see”; Avestic darstis means “sight,” Old Irish derc is “eye,” Old English torht, Old Saxon torht and Old High German zoraht, all meaning “clear,” “bright,” or “shine.“

The roots of the word can be traced back to early Indo-European tongues and right into the Indian continent - the home today of the serpent Kundalini enlightenment experience.

^2. Giant comes from ge genis meaning “from the earth.” Giants also comes from the word Gigantes, as in the Maltese giant stones Ggantija. So breaking the word down gives us gi gant. Gant is “stones” and Gi or Ga is “big” - giant is therefore “big stone.” The Watchers who were also called giants are therefore also big stones and are now associated through etymology to the big stones of the world. These stones were seen as stars on Earth, fallen like the meteors and worshipped by the likes of the Calani.

Anak was the giant of the Bible who spawned the Anakim, living on both sides of the river Jordan like the Rephaim. The Nephilim were the offspring of the sons of God (Watchers, Angels and giants) and ordinary women.

Charlemagne was said to be a giant and was so strong he could squeeze together three horseshoes. Goliath of Gath’s height was said to be 6 cubits. Og was the King of Bashan and the remnant of the Rephaim. Uranus and Gaia were hurled to the earth by Hercules and buried under Mount Etna. Scandinavian giants inhabited Jotunheim.

Jack and the Beanstalk is like the David and Goliath story of the Bible - a giant-slaying legend. Jack originated in Cornwall. According to tradition, he lived for 3,000 years and walked beside the ark (or even crept inside it).

Porus was an Indian Giant King who is said to have fought against Alexander the Great.

The Giant’s Causeway in Ireland is a natural formation of 40,000 basaltic columns projecting into the sea, fabled to be the beginning of a Giant’s road. Similar natural phenomena are claimed to be the doing of Giants such as:

Giant’s Loom, Giant’s Well, Giant’s Organ, Giant’s Peep-hole, Giant’s Eye-glass, and Giant’s Chair. The Giant’s Ring in County Down is a stone circle similar to Stonehenge. St. Michael’s Mount in Cornwall is said to have been built by the giants Cormoran and Cormelian.

War - the giants had a war with Zeus in Greek myth. This was a revolt by the giants against Zeus, which was put down with the aid of Hercules, who threw Uranus and Gaia to earth. It strangely matches the war in heaven between the Watchers and the Shining Ones - where Lucifer and other “angels” are cast down to earth.

^3. Taautus (Taut) or Hermes Said by Eusebius to be the originator of serpent worship in Phoenicia. Sanchoniathon called Thoth a god and says that he made the first image of Coelus and invented hieroglyphs. This links him with Hermes Trismegistus, also known as Thoth in Egypt. Taautus consecrated the species of dragons and serpents, and the Phoenicians and Egyptians followed him in this superstition. This Taautus could very well be a memory of the first group who began the worship of the serpent after the flood or end of th last ice age 12,000 years ago. The idea of Taautus links precisely with the stories of Thoth, who later became a great sage of Gnostic and alchemical beliefs. Thoth was deified after his death (a time that nobody knows) and given the title “the god of health” or “healing.” He was the prototype for Aesculapius and identified with Hermes and Mercury. All healers, all wise, all teachers, all saviors, all associated with the serpent for their powers, and all central to the belief systems of secret societies. Indeed, it was as the healing god that Thoth was symbolized as the serpent - whereas he is normally represented with the head of an Ibis and Baboon. The Letter or Symbol “Tau” is the first letter of Taautus, Tammuz and Thoth, and is thought to be the “Mark of Cain,” a symbol of hidden treasure.

^4. Cord

The cord is seen in many of the world’s religions and all have similar meanings. It can mean to tie oneself to the divinity, thus linking it to the other aspect of freedom from the bonds. The Golden Cord of Zeus holds the universe, and to connect to this universe is the prime directive of the Shaman. In the Iranian myths the cord is passed around the waist three times for good action, thought, and word.

The Shaman uses a cord to symbolize his own umbilical cord, and with it he can access “other worlds” - or the enlightenment aspect. The cord was also symbolic of the serpent encircling the globe. In the form of a rope the Tibetans saw it as a connective device between heaven and earth - as did several other groups. It was also seen as a ladder, a tree, and a bridge to heaven. In Hinduism, Gnosis was termed the “hidden rope of ascension.” In Babylonian and Sumerian myths, the rope was the bond or union between god and mankind, known as the mystical link.

The Knights Templar were accused of using a cord in their rituals: “Item, that they surrounded or touched each head of the aforesaid idol with small cords, which they wore around themselves next to the shirt or the flesh.”

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