The Origin
Of
Our Belief In God
by Erik Langkjer
Part II: The Sun Hero
Epilogue
One of the painted walls from Catal Hüyük (www.smm.org/catal/murals/murlshw) shows different variations of the mystical cross, the symbol of the four corners of the world melting together into one. This mystical symbol is much later repeated in the symbol of the cherubim: four very different animal species united in one "living being". To the right a picture of the gate of the sun. In the open space between the two pillars there is room for the rain to fall and the rivers to flow. The letter m is originally the sign for water, Semitic: maim:
A very beautiful sculpture from Mesopotamia (now in Louvre, C.Contenau, L´art de l´Asie Occidentale Ancienne, 1928,p.47) shows the triple bull god guarding the gate of the sun and thereby securing fertility (the flowers and vegetation runners sprouting from the twined pillars). Such twined pillars decorated with symbols of vegetation are well known from St. Peter's cathedra in the church of St. Peter in Rome and are made after the model of a very special type of pillars supposed to come from the temple of Jerusalem; acc. to tradition Jesus was standing beside (between?) these pillars when casting out demons.
On two holy leopards from the temple walls of Catal Hüyük all the spots are turned into mystical crosses. That the cross is a symbol of mystical vision is seen from a later repainting of the leopard sculptures, where the spots are turned into eyes. (Mellaart AnSt 16,1966, pl.38.) The wheels in the vision of Ezekiel are symbols of cosmos and the four rims meeting in the centre, the hub, are a mystical symbol and therefore "full of eyes", Ez 1,18 cf. the "living beings" "full of eyes all over", Rev 4,8. They are all vision.
The longing for mystic vision is old in Israel and so is "the way to the deep silence in the desert". In my opinion this spirituality is already felt in the name of the mystic psycho-cosmic mountain, Horeb (= "wilderness", "deserted land"). The strong longing for the "fleshpots of Egypt" is the opposite longing.
The twined Heracles pillars are also seen on the little temple façade from the Dura synagogue, standing on each side of a central pillar marked out with seven discs (see the picture above in chap. 16).
In my opinion the central icon in the Mithraeum dug out at Dieburg (now in Dieburg Kreis- und Stadtmuseum) is not a picture of Phaeton getting permission from Helios to drive the sun's quadriga as normally presumed. The horses are unharnessed and taken away, not gathered together. The central figure on the throne surrounded by four women, the four seasons, the cosmic ring and the four winds is Aion-Saturn, enthroned on top of the heavenly vault, and the man approaching the throne is the initiated Mithras-believer, the heliodromos ("sun-runner") who by means of the sun's chariot has reached the highest goal. The bearded man under the cloak blown up by the wind is Caelus (= "heavenly vault"). Note the four twined sticks carried by the four men taking the horses away. They are the four twined Heracles pillars securing the passage of the sun in and out of cosmos through the gate in the east and the gate in the west.
That these four poles are taken away indicates that we have reached the mystical place beyond time and space and creation, where also the four corners of the earth disappear into the mystic eternity represented by Aion-Saturn. (Relief from 200 AC)
The front cover is a drawing by the artist Egil Lauridsen of a motif from a chalice from prehistoric Susa, now in Louvre, Paris, Mémoires de la Délegation en Perse,XIII,1912, tab.I,4. It shows the holy Capricorn with horns greatly enlarged, thereby becoming a symbol of the moon (producing the juice of life). In the centre a symbol of vegetation.
The back cover is by the same artist: the stele of Urnammu, 3,05m. Sumerian, 2111-2094 BC. At the top the mystic light as the union of sun and moon. Below the king is watering the tree of life in the presence of the enthroned high god (and building a pyramid?) Now in the University of Pennsylvania, Univ. Museum.
Disclaimer:
Some material presented will contain links, quotes, ideologies, etc., the contents of which should be understood to first, in their whole, reflect the views or opinions of their editors, and second, are used in my personal research as "fair use" sources only, and not espousement one way or the other. Researching for 'truth' leads one all over the place...a piece here, a piece there. As a researcher, I hunt, gather and disassemble resources, trying to put all the pieces into a coherent and logical whole. I encourage you to do the same. And please remember, these pages are only my effort to collect all the pieces I can find and see if they properly fit into the 'reality aggregate'.
Personal Position:
I've come to realize that 'truth' boils down to what we 'believe' the facts we've gathered point to. We only 'know' what we've 'experienced' firsthand. Everything else - what we read, what we watch, what we hear - is what someone else's gathered facts point to and 'they' 'believe' is 'truth', so that 'truth' seems to change in direct proportion to newly gathered facts divided by applied plausibility. Though I believe there is 'truth', until someone representing the celestial realm visibly appears and presents the heavenly records of Facts And Lies In The Order They Happened, I can't know for sure exactly what "the whole truth' on any given subject is, and what applies to me applies to everyone. Until then I'll continue to ask, "what does The Urantia Book say on the subject?"
~Gail Bird Allen
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Urantia Book, 44:0.11 - The Celestial Artisans
Never in your long ascendancy will you lose the power to recognize your associates of former existences. Always, as you ascend inward in the scale of life, will you retain the ability to recognize and fraternize with the fellow beings of your previous and lower levels of experience. Each new translation or resurrection will add one more group of spirit beings to your vision range without in the least depriving you of the ability to recognize your friends and fellows of former estates.
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Princess Bride 1987 Wallace Shawn (Vizzini) and Mandy Patinkin (Inigo Montoya)
Vizzini: HE DIDN'T FALL? INCONCEIVABLE.
Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. -
Urantia Book, 117:4.14 - The Finite God
And here is mystery: The more closely man approaches God through love, the greater the reality -- actuality -- of that man. The more man withdraws from God, the more nearly he approaches nonreality -- cessation of existence. When man consecrates his will to the doing of the Father's will, when man gives God all that he has, then does God make that man more than he is.
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Urantia Book, 167:7.4 - The Talk About Angels
"And do you not remember that I said to you once before that, if you had your spiritual eyes anointed, you would then see the heavens opened and behold the angels of God ascending and descending? It is by the ministry of the angels that one world may be kept in touch with other worlds, for have I not repeatedly told you that I have other sheep not of this fold?"
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Urantia Book, Foreword - 0:12.12 - The Trinities
But we know that there dwells within the human mind a fragment of God, and that there sojourns with the human soul the Spirit of Truth; and we further know that these spirit forces conspire to enable material man to grasp the reality of spiritual values and to comprehend the philosophy of universe meanings. But even more certainly we know that these spirits of the Divine Presence are able to assist man in the spiritual appropriation of all truth contributory to the enhancement of the ever-progressing reality of personal religious experience—God-consciousness.
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Urantia Book, 1:4.3 - The Mystery Of God
When you are through down here, when your course has been run in temporary form on earth, when your trial trip in the flesh is finished, when the dust that composes the mortal tabernacle "returns to the earth whence it came"; then, it is revealed, the indwelling "Spirit shall return to God who gave it." There sojourns within each moral being of this planet a fragment of God, a part and parcel of divinity. It is not yet yours by right of possession, but it is designedly intended to be one with you if you survive the mortal existence.
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Urantia Book, 1:4.1 - The Mystery Of God
And the greatest of all the unfathomable mysteries of God is the phenomenon of the divine indwelling of mortal minds. The manner in which the Universal Father sojourns with the creatures of time is the most profound of all universe mysteries; the divine presence in the mind of man is the mystery of mysteries.
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Urantia Book, 1:4.6 - The Mystery Of God
To every spirit being and to every mortal creature in every sphere and on every world of the universe of universes, the Universal Father reveals all of his gracious and divine self that can be discerned or comprehended by such spirit beings and by such mortal creatures. God is no respecter of persons, either spiritual or material. The divine presence which any child of the universe enjoys at any given moment is limited only by the capacity of such a creature to receive and to discern the spirit actualities of the supermaterial world.
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Urantia Book, 11:0.1 - The Eternal Isle Of Paradise
Paradise is the eternal center of the universe of universes and the abiding place of the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, the Infinite Spirit, and their divine co-ordinates and associates. This central Isle is the most gigantic organized body of cosmic reality in all the master universe. Paradise is a material sphere as well as a spiritual abode. All of the intelligent creation of the Universal Father is domiciled on material abodes; hence must the absolute controlling center also be material, literal. And again it should be reiterated that spirit things and spiritual beings are real.
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Urantia Book, 50:6.4 - Planetary Culture
Culture presupposes quality of mind; culture cannot be enhanced unless mind is elevated. Superior intellect will seek a noble culture and find some way to attain such a goal. Inferior minds will spurn the highest culture even when presented to them ready-made.
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Urantia Book, 54:1.6 - True And False Liberty
True liberty is the associate of genuine self-respect; false liberty is the consort of self-admiration. True liberty is the fruit of self-control; false liberty, the assumption of self-assertion. Self-control leads to altruistic service; self-admiration tends towards the exploitation of others for the selfish aggrandizement of such a mistaken individual as is willing to sacrifice righteous attainment for the sake of possessing unjust power over his fellow beings.
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Urantia Book, 54:1.9 - True And False Liberty
How dare the self-willed creature encroach upon the rights of his fellows in the name of personal liberty when the Supreme Rulers of the universe stand back in merciful respect for these prerogatives of will and potentials of personality! No being, in the exercise of his supposed personal liberty, has a right to deprive any other being of those privileges of existence conferred by the Creators and duly respected by all their loyal associates, subordinates, and subjects.
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Urantia Book, 54:1.8 - True And False Liberty
There is no error greater than that species of self-deception which leads intelligent beings to crave the exercise of power over other beings for the purpose of depriving these persons of their natural liberties. The golden rule of human fairness cries out against all such fraud, unfairness, selfishness, and unrighteousness.