Τεκτων

"Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon?"

- King James Bible, St. Mark, 6.3

The word used in the original Greek gospels for Jesus' profession is 'tekton' and has usually been translated as meaning carpenter or woodcutter. However if we ignore the translations and go by the original Greek this is what we get:

Τεκτων s.m. mason; Freemason. ~ονισμος s.m. freemasonry.

Freemason s. Τεχτονας . Μασονος m. 
Freemasonry s. Τεκτονισμός 

Carpenter s. μαραυχος μ. ~ry s. ξυλουρυιχη f.
Woodcutter s. ξυλοχοπος 
Stonemason s. Λιθοξοος

It seems that the term Freemason came from the idea of Jesus having been or belonging to an order of masons. 

We know that the Qumran community of Essenes to whom Jesus is supposed to have belonged had plans to rebuild Jerusalem after ending the Roman occupation of Judea. A plan which of course never came about and has lead to the utopian idea of "the new Jerusalem". Yet these plans seem to have been very similar in design to what eventually came about with the sudden building of the Gothic cathedrals of France in the 12th century, just at the time when the Knights Templar had supposedly rediscovered the Essenes scrolls buried under Herod's Temple.



On a purely symbolic level, regardless of whether we believe that there ever was a historical Jesus, things couldn't be clearer. The mythical Jesus represents god as some kind of architect of the universe, which is precisely how the deists came to understand him during the enlightenment period. Whatever we choose to make of the coincidence that modern freemasonry takes its name from Jesus' profession, it should be obvious why they understood the letter G of god as meaning geometry. The book of Enoch also shows us precisely what it was that the gods were getting up to. When Enoch is taken to the island home of the gods he asks what they are doing and the response he gets is unequivocal: they are measuring. Measuring the earth that is and engaging in some kind of antediluvian survey project. 

Ancient religions in this sense are absolutely correct in what they tell us about god bringing our world into being as the sun did in fact create the earth, albeit through the slow process of accretion. Our modern terms for parts of the earth such as tectonic plates also come from the Greek word tekton, so we should not be at all surprised. Jesus as a stonemason then could be understood as the solar deity forming the very earth itself. In hindsight there is no more appropriate job for Jesus to have had.

William Butler Yeats

The Two Trees

Beloved, gaze in thine own heart,

The holy tree is growing there;

From joy the holy branches start,

And all the trembling flowers they bear.

The changing colours of its fruit

Have dowered the stars with merry light;

The surety of its hidden root

Has planted quiet in the night;

The shaking of its leafy head

Has given the waves their melody,

And made my lips and music wed,

Murmuring a wizard song for thee.

There the Loves a circle go,

The flaming circle of our days,

Gyring, spiring to and fro

In those great ignorant leafy ways;

Remembering all that shaken hair

And how the wingèd sandals dart,

Thine eyes grow full of tender care:

Beloved, gaze in thine own heart.

Gaze no more in the bitter glass

The demons, with their subtle guile,

Lift up before us when they pass,

Or only gaze a little while;

For there a fatal image grows

That the stormy night receives,

Roots half hidden under snows,

Broken boughs and blackened leaves.

For all things turn to barrenness

In the dim glass the demons hold,

The glass of outer weariness,

Made when God slept in times of old.

There, through the broken branches, go

The ravens of unresting thought;

Flying, crying, to and fro,

Cruel claw and hungry throat,

Or else they stand and sniff the wind,

And shake their ragged wings; alas!

Thy tender eyes grow all unkind:

Gaze no more in the bitter glass.

The Ragged Wood

O hurry where by water among the trees

The delicate-stepping stag and his lady sigh,

When they have but looked upon their images -

Would none had ever loved but you and I!

Or have you heard that sliding silver-shoed

Pale silver-proud queen-woman of the sky,

When the sun looked out of his golden hood? -

O that none ever loved but you and I!

O hurry to the ragged wood, for there

I will drive all those lovers out and cry -

O my share of the world, O yellow hair!

No one has ever loved but you and I.

Neofolk Top Five...

Number Five...

Number Four...

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Number Two...

... and Number One...

Avebury

Avebury Henge, Wiltshire Britain.

"In order to be satisfied what is true religion, we must go up to the fountain-head as much as possible. The first religion undoubtedly is true, as coming immediately from God."

"We have seen by our description, that the plan of which Abury is built, that sacred hierogram of the Egyptians and other ancient nations, the circle and snake... The temple of old made in the form of a serpent, were called for that reason, Dracontia. The universality of this regard for serpents, shews the high antiquity of the symbol, and that it was antediluvian."

William Stukeley, Abury - A Temple of the British Druids, 1743.

Music: Lisa Gerrard

Drawings: William Stukeley

Painting: Paul Nash

Photos: Leigh David Cobley August 2014

Caesar's Messiah

Caesar’s Messiah is a book by Joseph Atwell about the probable origins of the character of Jesus and the real significance of the Christian religion. When such new theories come out they are usually described as being fanciful or outrageous yet they are usually just trying to understand in the most straight forward and down to earth way possible what it was that really took place in those times. It’s a sign of the state of permitted enquiry that the truly fantastical notion that Jesus was the son of God is accepted as a normal conclusion yet any attempt to understand what happened realistically is considered to be far out! What follows here is a brief overview of some of the most interesting points... 

Mary is a Hebrew word for rebel. In the time of the New Testament Judaea was occupied by the Romans. Like the Americans looking for Charlie in Vietnam, it was used as a code name for all Jewish women. This explains why all the women in the New Testament are all called Mary. As far as the Romans are concerned they're all just rebels!

The Romans destroyed all Jewish literature. The only account we had of the time was the New Testament, itself written in Greek not Hebrew, until the Dead Sea scrolls were discovered. The church tried to prevent their translation/ publication for good reason. They show what was really going on in Judaea at the time of Jesus' life. The Jews believed in a militaristic messiah who would defeat the Romans. The exact opposite of Jesus, whose pacifism amounts to being pro roman in the context of the times. Jesus' message to them is to just shut up and pay their taxes!  

Titus fulfils Jesus' prophecies. Vespasian (the guy who built the Colosseum) was emperor at the time of the occupation. His son Titus (the son of god no less!) was in charge of the Jewish war. He's famous for having destroyed the temple. In the New Testament Jesus' speaks in the third person of the coming of "the son of man" which refers to Titus not himself. Jesus tells his disciples that the temple's destruction would come to pass in a generation. Jesus said this just before he was crucified in 33. The Jewish conception of a generation was 40 years. Titus destroyed the temple at the end of the war in 73. A little too exact to be a coincidence? The Christians have always used this as evidence of Jesus' divinity, that he really saw the future. Of course we known that the New Testament was written later than the war in Judaea, so probably it was written to justify such a barbaric act. ("Jesus told me to do it!")

There is no written record of Jesus' existence except one mention by Josephus, which Atheists have always said is a fake. However in this context it finally makes sense. Josephus was a Jewish rebel during the war, but was captured and quickly switched sides. He worked for Titus and became the official historian of the war producing its only surviving account. He was adopted by Vespasian and became known as Josephus Flavius. It's deeply suspicious that the only guy to ever have mentioned Jesus was directly related to the Roman imperial family. So if his Jewish war is roman propaganda, what else?

There's plenty more which I'll let you discover for yourself. Of course if you've got better things to do with your time than worry about the existence of bearded ginger prophets there's always youtube..

Interesting? The full documentary can be seen here:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUgVCGdwS3M

Carcassonne

Vous êtes en pays Cathare!

"To approach Carcassonne for the first time is to dream with your eyes open. The turrets and bastions of the old city stand on a deceptive rise in the valley of the river Aude, so that the crenellated citadel appears suddenly, floating in the middle distance, a visitor from another time. "

- Stephen O'Shea, The Perfect Heresy.

"A chanter m'èr de sò queu no voiria,
Tant me rancur de lui cui sui amia;
Car eu l'am mais que nulha ren que sia
Vas lui no'm val Mercés ni Cortezia
Ni ma beltatz ni mos prètz ni mos sens;
Qu'atressi'm sui enganad' e trahia
Com degr' èsser, s'eu fos desavinens."

"Je dois chanter ce que je ne voudrais
Tant j'ai rancoeur de cet homme que j'aime,
Que j'aime plus que nulle chose au monde.
Ni ma beauté, ni ma vertu, ni mon esprit
Ne me valent de lui pitié ni courtoisie.
Je me découvre et trompée et trahie,
Comme il serait, si sans grâce j'étais."

- Je Dois Chanter (Occitan troubadour poem)

The Life and Times of Leonardo.

Leonardo was born in the small town of Vinci near to Florence in the Tuscan countryside of Italy. He has been considered to be one of the great geniuses of all time, but what can we learn about his genius from the life he lead?

Firstly, he was an illegitimate son and was never recognized by his father. He was deprived of the education he could have expected. One of the clues is in his hand writing. Leonardo wrote backwards! Why? Some people have suggested that it was to hide his ideas from getting into the wrong hands, but the answer is probably far simpler. Leonardo, like many creative people, was left handed. Until recent times left handed people were forced to write how teachers thought was best. In fact western culture has always had a disposition towards this perspective. For example in many European languages the word “right” is a synonym of “correct”, whilst in some languages, such as Italian the word for “left” (“sinestra” or “sinister”) literally means “strange” or “unusual”. We can now see the origins of these prejudiced attitudes towards the left! Precisely because he had never been “corrected” his mind remained outside of the box, free from the constraints of formal education.

Another clue is in the fact that  Leonardo never learnt to read Latin. Most of the scientific knowledge of his times was in the language of the church and strictly controlled by it. Scientific enquiry had not been about experimentation since the times of the ancient Greeks. This was mainly due to the presence of slavery in society. Investigation which required physical effort or “getting your hands dirty” came to be perceived as something vulgar. Only slaves used their hands! From the times of the Greek philosopher Plato science and philosophy became a “pure” pursuit of the mind. This was extremely damaging to the progress of science and lead to the end of classical culture and the beginning of the dark ages.

Leonardo came exactly at the end of these times and the fact that he couldn’t read Latin meant that he was the first person to start again with physical experimentation. He made lots of observations that may seem to be obvious, but most scholars had their heads in books that had been written hundreds of years in the past (usually full of mistakes!) and did not make the effort to observe the world themselves!

The method of scientific inquiry was reborn and would lead to the great discoveries of  scientists such as Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton. It also gave us the idea that there is no such thing as an “authority” in science. A theory must be proved with evidence and no matter how much we like it or are attached to an idea (probably because it is traditional to believe it!) we must question it and if necessary change our ideas along with the evidence.

Leonardo was fortunate to live in an era that was rediscovering the classical past. Florence was a city where new ideas could flourish. A place which attracted young talent with new ideas which would not have been tolerated in other places because of the church’s control over society. However the Italy of the renaissance was a dangerous place to live. Here are some of the most influential people of the era. 

Lorenzo de Medici

Lorenzo came from a family of bankers who took control of the city of Florence. However these bankers decided to use their wealth and influence to patronise the arts, science and literature. Lorenzo was different to most leaders as he was open to new ideas and embraced change. He was a humanist and wanted to encourage the best in people. He was one of the first to recognise Leonardo’s talent, translated ancient texts into modern languages and provided the money for most of what we now consider the renaissance or rebirth after the middle ages. His most important act was probably his discovery of a young boy who could make sculptures like the ancient Greeks. Lorenzo instantly took the boy into his own family and helped him towards greatness. That boy was called Michelangelo and he grew up to create the most famous statue in the world.

Pope Sixtus IV

Pope Sixtus was notorious for his policies of nepotism. He used his power to give land and riches to members of his family. He was Lorenzo’s main enemy as he was against the forward thinking progressive direction in which he was taking the city of Florence. There was a delicate balance of power in the Italy of his times. The Pope controlled no army, but had an alliance with the military city state of Naples to the south. 

Galeazzo Maria Sforza

Lorenzo didn’t control an army either, but he had an alliance with the northern Italian city state of Milan, which was controlled by the Sforza family (who Leonardo would go to work for later in his life) Galeazzo Maria was the head of the Sforza family and although he was a degenerate who ruled Milan with fear and intimidation, Lorenzo, a humanist, needed his protection against the threat of attack by the Pope and Naples.  It was a balance of power too fragile to last…

Watch the trailer for Da Vinci's Demons here. The series picks up during Leonardo's youth and plays loose and wild with his character. More adventure story than history, but still interesting to get the flavour of the times. This is Leonardo as we'd like him to be. You can instantly tell that it's by the same guy who wrote the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy! Yes, there's a totally unapologetic license taken with all the could have beens around Leonardo's enigmatic sketches fully realised as renaissance era gadgets!