So, what we have here is this: the shem was a ‘heavenly shining fire-stone’ while the Nephilim, i.e. the ‘fallen angles’ (also called the ‘Shining Ones’), were the ‘people of the shem’. The shem also figures in the tale of the Tower of Babel:
Again, the shem is directly associated with heaven, and here it is additionally linked with the top of a tower – which makes the shem very much comparable to the Egyptian Benben Stone which too is thought to have been a meteorite and was placed at the very top of a pyramid or obelisk. It may also be noticed that the Babel story conceptually parallels the saga of the 'fallen angels' who were punished by ‘God’ for overreaching just as was the case with the builders of the Tower. The Benben Stone connection then brings us back to Osiris, the husband-brother of Isis, as ancient Egyptian theology equated the heavenly stone with the soul of Osiris as well as the phoenix. Since the phoenix signifies the concept of resurrection, it may be inferred that the Benben/shem is symbolic of Osirian resurrection which mythologically takes place with the help of Isis. And similarly, Jesus -- in theory, the biblical Osiris -- is identified in the New Testament with the cornerstone of the Temple that the ‘builders rejected’:
This notion of a rejected cornerstone can easily be compared to the ‘rejected’ capstone/benben of the greatest Egyptian ‘Temple’, the Great Pyramid. Combined with a cornerstone’s significance as the transition from the underground realm to the upper realm, the rejected cornerstone even echoes the Benben Stone being symbolic of Osirian resurrection (thus further reinforcing the Osiris-Jesus identification).
Osiris was considered the ruler of the Golden Age known to the ancient Egyptians as the Zep Tepi, or 'First Time'. This mythical realm in turn has been often associated with the supposed great antediluvian civilization that Plato called 'Atlantis'. In Plato's accounts of this lost world, the only clear reference to its geographical position is that it was situated beyond the 'pillars of Hercules' (an ancient name for the Straits of Gibraltar at the western end of the Mediterranean Sea). Osiris, correspondingly, was often depicted in the shape of a pillar by the ancient Egyptians. Could the two 'pillars of Hercules' that represented a gateway to the paradisiacal realm be now considered analogous to the Tower of Babel/'gate of the god' or more specifically the twin towers/pillars of NYC destroyed in the 9-11 terrorist attacks? The imagery of two pillars is also clearly evocative of the two pillars of Jachin and Boaz (symbolizing individual power and life) that stood at the entrance to Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, the home of the Ark of the Covenant. They were made of brass (1 Kings 7:15) - which has a most fitting implication as brass/bronze is considered to signify 'the indissoluble compact between Earth and Heaven and the pledge of the everlasting stability of this covenant' (Chevalier & Gheerbrant, Dictionary of Symbols, "column"). Representations of these pillars are still found in lodges of Freemasonry, a large semi-secret and esoteric organization which carries within its mysterious tradition that of the medieval warrior-monks, the Knights Templar. After its sudden dissolution initiated by the French king Philip the Fair in 1307, the Templar survivors apparently made their way into Scotland where they and their tradition found a sanctuary and were maintained by certain interlocking families including the Sinclairs, the patron of Scottish Freemasonry, who had a close connection with the Templar knights. Among the Templar legacies were almost certainly things they had obtained at the site of Solomon's Temple which they had been allowed to use as their headquarters. It is known that the knights excavated the site and probably found something of great importance which may have contributed to the rapid rise to the top of the power structure in Christendom. So it was quite obviously through the incorporation of Templarism that Freemasonry came to adopt the Solomonic twin-pillar symbolism. That these pillars are relevant to our discussion is effectively confirmed by the imagery on one of the tarot cards called the 'High Priestess' or 'Papess' which shows a high priestess/female pope along with the pillars of Jachin and Boaz marked 'J' and 'B'.
The Papess almost certainly represents none other than Mary Magdalene (= Isis, Babylon, tower, etc.) who actually had a power struggle with Peter the first pope according to Gnostic Gospels. Also, tellingly, the term ‘prostitute’ (a description often applied to the Magdalene), as hierodulae, would refer to the ‘sacred women’-- or 'priestesses' -- of the temple of the Goddess who performed a ritual practice resembling the anointing of Jesus by Mary of Bethany (often equated with Mary Magdalene). In ancient times, anointing of the king was a ritual – called the ‘Sacred Marriage’ in Greek – performed by a royal bride; the implication being that Mary Magdalene married Jesus, just as Isis was the wife of Osiris, resulting in the 'Holy Grail' which is the 'Blood Royal'. The pillars of Jachin and Boaz also nicely relate back to the themes of the Flood and Atlantis as originally these Masonic pillars represented the 'Antediluvian Pillars' erected by Enoch, Noah's great-grandfather, who is considered one of Freemasonry's founders. According to legend, Enoch had the foreknowledge of the coming Deluge and constructed nine hidden vaults in which he concealed certain knowledge. He then placed two columns at the site upon which were inscribed the 'seven sciences' of mankind and such. The vaults were later found by Solomon while building his Temple. Enoch, therefore, can be viewed as a prototype of Noah and the vaults/pillars are another form of the Ark containing antediluvian, or Atlantean, 'knowledge'. It is interesting to point out here that it is the 'Book of Enoch' that contains the most detailed account of the affairs of the 'fallen angels'/'Watchers' briefly mentioned in Genesis. Also, that the number of Enoch's vaults was nine, combined with the twin pillars visually forming the number '11', raises the possibility that the date of the terrorist attacks on the NYC twin towers (9-11) was in reference, at least in part, to the Antediluvian Pillars and its connection to the WTC 'pillars'. Seemingly supportive of this, numerically, also is the fact that there are exactly 111 days left in the year after 9-11. As it happens, the Sumerian version of Noah's Ark "was a cube - a modest one, measuring 60x60x60 fathoms, which represents the unit in the sexagesimal system where 60 is written as 1" (Hamlet's Mill, p.219). In other words, the original Ark could be considered to have measured 1x1x1 or '111'.
On the Etemenanki website, I have long pointed out the persistent symbolic connection that apparently exists between high-impact world events -- especially airplane crashes -- and the theme of the Ark-Grail (see 1999: The Ark of Sirius for example). The '911' event involving airplane crashes, needless to say, fits the pattern very well. After some contemplation, I have now finally found a reasonably sound explanation as to why such a symbolic link exists. An 'airplane' is a perfect vehicle to carry the notion of the 'air-plane' as in the 'dimension of air' that is sandwiched between the planes of earth and heaven. Its relative position therefore is implicative of the familiar theme of the unification or 'gate' of earth and heaven. In support of this interpretation, we find that in ancient Egypt it was conceptualized that the air god Shu was sort of a pillar that held the vault of heaven above. This imagery is strikingly evocative of Atlas of Greek mythology who was condemned to bearing the heaven on his shoulders for eternity after the great war with the Olympians. Atlas, in turn, is said to have been the first king of Atlantis and in effect the embodiment of this legendary civilization! Airplane crashes would therefore be analogous to the destruction of the antediluvian world, i.e. none other the the Great Flood, which may be conceptually thought of as the collapse of great pillars/towers/gate -- and that is exactly what took place at the World Trade Center in NYC! The planes crashing into the WTC towers and the Pentagon was of course like no other plane crashes. The magnitude of devastation and symbolic coherence was off the scale. Does this imply something? Why so strong an echo of the 'Atlantean' destruction in 2001? Could it be that like Osiris and the phoenix, Atlantis is getting ready to rise again from its ashes now? Is the Ark about to be opened? Is the discovery of the fabled Atlantean 'Hall of Records' imminent? In 2000, an underwater city with pyramidal structures was detected off the coast of Cuba. Researchers have been quietly examining this most enigmatic archaeological find behind the scenes. We are at this time simply awaiting the news of this paradigm-shattering revelation to break. Could this be relevant? It seems so. Indeed, long before the '911' attacks I had already detected a curious pattern. In the 'View from Here' section of the Etemenanki website, for example, I have made the following remarks:
Along with these I had also noted how this
theme appeared to be entangled with Mars at which NASA's latest probe, Mars Odyssey,
just arrived on Oct. 23, '01. It cannot be ignored that NYC, where the 'Atlantean
pillars' stood, is situated at ~40.8�N latitude which happens to be the very latitude of
the Martian 'monuments' in Cydonia. What are we to make of all these and other connections? Atlantis... Mars... Was Atlantis on (gasp) Mars? Did mankind first started on the Red Planet before the "Flood"? One telling clue is the fact that the humans ‘free-running circadian rhythm’ (i.e. the natural sleep-awake cycle without any external time cues such as sunrise, sunset, clock, daily routine, etc.) is not 24 hours as expected, but about 24.7 hours long instead – that is, almost precisely the length of a Martian day. Did man 'fall' to Earth in an "Exodus" from the Red Planet like a life-seeding meteorite and knowledge-providing 'fallen angles'? The shem was a 'fire-stone' - isn't this a potent allusion to Mars, the planet/'stone' of fire? What was placed in the Ark of Moses, according to some scholars, were actually meteorites. Could the tale of Moses and his Ark, then, be another version of Noah and his Ark? Was the 'Exodus' of the Israelites led by Moses, then, actually a parabolic story about an interplanetary migration of man in the forgotten past? The 911 event being a symbolic reenactment of the Flood (i.e. destruction of 'Atlantis'), wouldn't the pattern dictate that the next event be a mass 'Exodus'? Could it be just a coincidence that I conceptually equated President Bush with Moses in The Two Suns of Election MM last year? But where would be the destination of this 'Exodus'? Where is our 'Promised Land'? You guessed it: Mars.
The world events today appear to be symbolically anticipating mankind's imminent migration to the Red Planet on which will likely be found enough water to sustain a full-blown civilization soon (this is probably where Mars Odyssey comes in). We are going back to our Genesis, the First Time, the Golden Age, the Age of Osiris. America is no longer the 'New World'. Mars is. And this is actually part of what I had in mind when I stated in early 2000:
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According
to tradition, the Tower of Babel was built in the ancient city of Babylon - in fact
'Babel' and 'Babylon' are practically interchangeable terms. How fitting is it that it was
the twin towers -- by far the tallest in the city -- of the modern Babylon, i.e.
NYC, that were destroyed in the recent terrorist attacks? NYC is the ultimate melting pot
of all peoples of this planet where they interact in harmony (well-exemplified by NYC
being the home of the United Nations) and produce something great -- just like the
builders of the Tower of Babel. And even the designation of 'whore' is quite applicable as
at the entrance to NYC is found the welcoming Statue of Liberty, a great woman symbolizing
the great city.
All summer long, Mars was very close to Earth -- in fact, closest in over a
decade -- and was a dominant object in the night sky. And since 1998, Mars Global
Surveyor had been giving us new photographs of the controversial Cydonia
"monuments" on Mars in an attempt to confirm or refute the claim of the Cydonian
structures being artificial - a question that still has not been settled but is getting
more and more intriguing. Perhaps Odyssey will help solving the enigma soon.
And
one of the most intriguing Cydonia structures happens to be a pentagonal pyramid
called the 'D&M Pyramid' which is very much evocative of the Pentagon hit by a plane
on 9-11. The Martian Pentagon is even partially collapsed to reflect the US Pentagon, or
vice versa.