About the Pleiades

In every civilization there is a reference to the Seven (visible) Stars of The Pleiades.

The Seven Stars are connected with  the Female Principle, the Symbol of Peace and Love, The Heart, The Center of the Galaxy and the Precession of the Equinox.

The Pleiades are also related to water and the start of the rainy season, a theme associated with them around the world. Water is the essential of Aquirius (The Water Bearer). We are entering this Constellation.

The Pleiades are an important reference point in Calenders. The famous Mayan Calender the Tzolkin was based on the cycle of the Pleiades. The Pleiades were seen as the tail of a rattlesnake called, Tz’ab (the Milky Way).

The Mayas and other Civilizations are highly interested in a very special conjunction of the Cross of the Zodiac and the Center of our Creation, the Pleiades. They believed like many other ancient Civilizations that the Humans originated from the Pleiades.

The main cycle of the Pleiades was the Cycle of the Precession of the Equinoxes. The Pleiades were also associated with a 52 year cycle (The Kondratiev Cycle).

The Mayas believed that the world would end by a Flood at the end of a 52-year cycle in the beginning of November (All Saints Day). When this moment was passed they started the Fire Ceremoney.

On this evening, priests and a warrior chosen by the King began their 20 kilometer procession to the Hill of the Star. At the proper moment of alignment in the heavens, wood bundles representing the past 52 year cycle were lit, the heart sacrifice of the warrior was enacted and the new fire built on his chest.

Watching from afar, the citizens also cut and bled themselves and celebrated as the fire was brought back to the Great Temple. Priests and emissaries from outlying towns came to fetch the fire to bring back to their people, so that all could share in the marking of the time.

The Mayans and the Aztecs knew the world was already destroyed and re-created Four Times in the past and waited for the Fifth destruction.

The Heart, Fire and Blood are the Symbols of the Holy Spirit and the Resurrection.

The Temple of Hathor in the ancient city of Denderah was dedicated to the goddess of Love and the stars of Hathor: the Pleiades.

A star clock in the Temple celebrates the Pleiades, marking the greater center on which our solar system revolves, taking 25,827.5 years to complete one cycle.

In Egypt, in the year 2170 BC, on the first day of spring, at precisely midnight. the Pleiades were visible through the south passageway of The Great pyramid. Cheops contains fascinating mathematical correlations to the Pleiades including, the seven mystical chambers.

The Seven visible stars of the Pleiades have been referred to by many names, such as the Seven Sisters, Krittika, Kimah, Flock of Doves, Hens, Virgins of Spring, Sailor’s Stars and the seven Atlantic Sisters. The Seven Sisters are Alcyone (Queen who wards off evil), Asterope(Twinkling), Electra (Flowing), Maia (Grandmother), Merope (Bee-Eater), Taygeta (Long-necked) and Celaeno (Swarthy). Their father was Atlas, The Axis Mundi, The World Pole.

The Dove is the symbol of Sufism and other Gnostic Believe Systems. The Dove was also the symbol of early Christianity until it was taken over by the Cult of Mitrash (The Male Principle). The Dove is the Holy Spirit or the Shekinah in Hebrew. In India the Pleiades are related to Agni (The Holy Fire) and another magical bird, The Peacock, the Egyptian Benu Bird. The Benu Bird was the Bird of the Egg of Creation of a new Universe.

In the Bible the Pleiades are called the Seven Stars. They are mentioned Seven Times in the Old and the New Testament. In Hebrew the Pleiades are called Kimah which means Tablet, or Cup. The Sumerian name for the Pleiades is dimmena, which means Foundation or Faithful.

The Pleiades represent the Spirits of Seven Churches in Asia Minor, which existed when John wrote the Revelation. Interesting enough the pattern of the Seven Churches looks like the pattern of the Pleiades. The map of the Pleiades is painted in the first Churches of Christ.

The Pleaiades are also associated with the Seven Golden Lampstands. The original Jewish Lampstand, the Menorah, contains 7 branches.

The number 7 (-3,-2,-1, 0, 1,2,3) is the symbol of the Trinity that voids itself in the Center, The Foundation. 7X7=49 means 13 (=4, The Four Forces) in the counting system of the Bible that is based on 9.

Amos 5:8 is the key. It associates the Pleiades with the resurrection (turning the shadow of death into the morning). Orion is associated with the darkness (occultism) that darkens even the day. The last player in the Biblical Story of the Pleiades is the Bear. As we will see later the Bear is the Symbol of Control.

The Pleiades are now part of the constellation of the Bull. The Bull contains the Orion-System which is called Kesil, the Fool, In Hebrew. It is said that once the constellation may have referred to the Messiah, but that Nimrod (Orion, The Hunter, The Trickster, The Fool) took it to himself.

Nimrod, King Menes, created his own Religion after the Great Flood. In this Religion the God of Love was replaced by the God of Revenge.

It seems that the Pleiades are the Center of the Influence of Peace, Compassion, Love and Water. This influence was removed by a Fool who moved the Constellation of the Pleiades into the Bull.

Mitrash was the fighter of the Bull. He was related to the Sun and later to the Archangel Michael. The Cult of Mitrash took over Eearly Christianity. All the Symbols and procedures of Mitrash can be found in the Symbols and Procedures of the Church of Rome.

Mitrash was the Cult of the Soldiers of the Roman Empire. Its history goes back to the time of Zoroaster (Persia). Mitrash was the Governor of the Cycle of the Sun.

The theme of the Fool shows itself in many civilizations. In a myth of the Maori one of the Seven Sisters was raped by the fool Kidili. In the Myths of the Greek the same story is told.

 One day the Great Hunter Orion saw one of the Pleiades (Merope) as they walked through the countryside. He pursued here for Seven Years, until Zeus (Anu) answered her prayers for delivery. He transformed Merope and her Sisters into Doves and placed them among the Stars. Later on, when Zeus killed Orion, he was placed in the Underworld.

Merope married a mortal man, Sisyphus, and hid her face in shame at being the only one not married to a god and from shame at the deed; she alone of the sisters hides herself in the sky (the star does not shine). Sisyphus founded the city of Ephyre (Corinth).

Merope (also called Melissa) is a Bee-Eater and is most likely to have been a little She-Bear, a representative of Artemis. The goddess was pictured primitively with a she-bear’s head herself, and the bear remained sacred to Artemis into classical times. At a festival called the Brauronia, pre-pubescent girls were dressed in honey-colored yellow robes and taught to perform a bear dance. Once they had briefly served Artemis in this way, they would be ready to be married.

Merope is a Young Female Bear (a Virgin) who is raped by the Big Bear. The Big Bear and the Little Bear relate to two Starsystems Ursa Major (The Big Dipper) and Ursa Minor (The Little Dipper).

The Little Dipper contains The Pole Star. The Pole Star was the “Old” center of the Galaxy until the scientists of the old civilizations discovered the Precession Cycle. At that time the Sun Cycle and the Cycle of the Axis Mundi were balanced.

In early Greek mythology, the seven stars of the Little Dipper were considered to be the Hesperides, also daughters of Atlas. They were Nymphs who were protecting the Seven Apples in Paradise. Someday a Fool (Heracles) stole the Apples and the World got into big trouble because Atlas could not hold it anymore.

The Old Center of the Universe, the Pole Star, was Moved into the Bull by a Fool.

The central star of the System is called Alcyone. Many ancient traditions state that Alcyone was the Central Spiritual Sun, the Mother Sun that emits creative Light, that which births great teachers of Light into the world.

The early Arabs called her Al Jauz, the Walnut; Al Jauzah or Al Wasat, the Central One; and Al Na’ir, the Bright One; In Babylonia she was called Temennu, the Foundation Stone. The Mayas call her the Goddess. She is related with Compassion and the Womb (Rebirth).

Alcyone was a Greek goddess who was changed into a kingfisher by the gods after she threw herself into the sea upon finding the body of her drowned husband Ceyx washed up on the shore. Ceyx was also transformed into a kingfisher.

Cherokee myth describes the kingfisher as a wannabe water bird without webbed feet or a good fishing bill; the animals held a council and decided to give the bird a long sharp spear with which to fish. They fastened the spear onto the front of the bird’s mouth, and the kingfisher used it to dive from the trees and catch fish, becoming the best fisher of all.

A myth from the Andaman Islands off the coast of Thailand has the kingfisher stealing Fire (The Holy Ghost) from the gods and bringing it to the people.

Another legend claims the kingfisher was the second bird Noah sent to scout for land (the first was a dove), but she flew too high and scorched her breast, thus accounting for her blue back and rust-colored breast feathers.

Noah, exhibiting his wrath in the grand tradition of his Old Testament god, punishes her by making her catch her food from the water: thus the bird’s beauty and skill become a bad thing. Note that in this particular legend the bird is specifically female: kingfisher males do not have rust-colored breast feathers.

In Arthurian myth, the Holy Grail is held in a remote castle by a custodian known as the Fisher King. The Fisher King is wounded through the groin. He cannot be healed until the Grail (the Cup, The Pleiades) is brought back into the world.

fisher kingThe Symbol of the Bear returns into the figure of King Arthur (the Bear) and his Twelve Knights. The magician Merlyn is forced to play the role of Thoth but he refuses. Merlyn is a White Magician who did not wanted to use the Black Magic of Morgan Le Fey.

The seven days preceding the Winter Solstice and the seven days after it are know as the Halcyon Days, named after Alcyone.

It was during this time, according to ancient Greek mythology, that Alcyone kept the Waters Peaceful and calm so that she could build her nest upon the surface of the sea and sit on it until her Eggs hatched.

The last link I want to make is the link to Mary Magdalena. Mary is of the town Magdela or Migdal which was known as the Village of the Doves, a place where Sacred Doves were bred for the Goddess Temple of Isis.

Isis has many names like : The Brilliant One in the Sky, The Star of the Sea and She Who Knows How To Make Right Use of the Heart. Her dance of the Seven veils corresponds with the seven stars of the Pleiades.

The worship of Isis was merged into the Church of Rome by the worship of Mary and Mary Magdalena, the Black Madonna. In contrast with the male dominance of the Cult of Mitrash the cult of Isis was open to the “lower classes (the poor)” and females.

Again we see a relationship between the number Seven, Water, Fish (Christianity), The lost Female principle and an Evil force that has killed the Fisherman. The Fisher King is a symbol of Christ.

A very important event is the Great Flood, the moment when the Anunaki’s tried to destroy mankind. Christ, The Force of Love, is waiting until somebody finds the lost Cup, The Grail, The Pleiades.

This Force will return when the three cycles of the Sun (Mitrash, Church of Rome), the Pole Star (The Star of the Shaman in Siberia) and the Pleiades (The Mother Goddess) are balanced. According to the Mayas this will happen in 2012.

There is much more to say about the other (five) sisters of the Pleiades. The stories of all of them weave a complicated web of hidden codes. At this moment I don’t want to explain all of them. I want to “jump to a conclusion“.

What happened???

To find out what happened we have to move to a brilliant Cabbalist called Luria.

Rabbi Isaac Luria (1534-1572) was a Jewish Mystic in Safed.

At the moment of creation the Ein Sof (Without Ending) concentrated (Tzimtzum) Himself. From this concentration proceeded the Infinite Light. This Light enfolded itself into ten circles or vessels (kelim) called the Sefirot, (Circled Numbers).

The Three outermost circles were able to bear the light, the inner six were unable to do so, and burst.

As a result of this cosmic catastrophe, the Sefirot, are shattered and out of place, and the world within which we reside, is composed of the shards of the broken values. Six of the Ten Sefirot were fully shattered. Malchut (Earth), the 7th vessel was broken partially.

Humans are on this Earth to repair the Universe. We are here to raise the sparks of the Light (our Souls) to repair the broken vessels.

We raise the sparks when we act out of Love, our Heart. The Sparks are a symbol for our relationship with the Infinite Light.

The Sparks are also represented by the Flames of a Menorah.

The Sparks are helped by the Holy Spirit (In-Spiration).

The First Triangle is in balance but the next step in the Tree of Life, The Square is out of balance.

The Square is a symbol of the Four Forces and represents The Infinite Game of Creation.

The four Forces act on all the Levels. I want to move to the level of the Human to give you a “complete” picture.

The Four Forces are moving around the Centre. The Centre of the Human is the Heart. The Seven Sisters are implemented in the Seven Chakra’s. The Heart Chakra is in the Middle.

The Center of Control is situated in the “Head”.

When we want to Control we want to manage our Expectation (Hope) and be sure that everything happens according to our plans.

We are without any Faith about the Future. We are Thinking all the Time. The Head and the Governor can be found in the Star System The Great Bear or Ursa Major.

The Chinese astrologers named Ursa Minor “Prime Minister“, “Big Sun Governor“, “Minister of State“, “the 3 Dukes“, “Factory Chief“, along with many other ministers, chiefs, generals and people of high rank within the Imperial Court. The Bear is the symbol of Control.

When the vessels were broken the link between two forces called Control (The Sun, Mitrash, Apollo, Artemis, The Great Bear (Ursa Major)) and Desire (Ego, The Bull, Orion, Black Magic) became unstable. Mitrash is always Fighting the Bull. The Bull Fights in Spain are a simulation of this Fight. Humans are afraid to lose Control and when this feeling of Fear increases they become Paranoid.

In the myth of Mitrash the Bull was finally killed. Control took over Control.  Many of the Religions that emerged out of Mitrash forced their members (all male!) to do many rituals to get rid of Desire.

The Roman Church invented the concept of Sin and Penetance to force the believers to fight their Impulses. The force of Desire is related to the Impulses and the lower chakras. It is about Sex without Love, Violence and all kinds of Addictions.

The Force of Control defines Rules and the force of Desire (the Ego) fights the Rules. Both of them are Extremes. They are Male/Male and Female/Female.

The two other forces are Male/Female. They are bisexual and related to Spirit (The Force of Creation) and Soul (The Force of Love, The Pleiades). They are not aggressive and unable to fight because they are non-violent.

The Star System of the Pleiades is sending the Force of Love and this Force is not a Strong Force. It Knocks at the Door of Your Soul and it Whispers in your Ear. It asks you to take care of Your Self and the Other. It asks you to become Conscious and to look at the World. It only asks you to act in you’re own context and to give unconditional love.

I end with a Piece of Poetry send by Paul to the City of Merope, Corinth; It will Help her to find Rest and to forget the acts of the Big Bear of Control who lost his temper when he was taken by the Bull of Desire. She and her six Sisters have to lead us back to Paradise.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails.

But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.

When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.

Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.

Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.

But the greatest of these is love.

(1 Corinthians 13:1-13)

About The Rose

roseBetween 1969 and 1975 I was a student at the University of Leiden.

At that time the Flower Power Movement started. I was 18 years of age. I came out of a very protected secure environment.

My parents were very poor, totally not educated and also very religious in their own way.

My life changed in every aspect you can imagine. People were using LSD, Opium and Marihuana. I got into contact with people from all over the world, new religions and theories. We anticipated the end of all war and “peace on earth”.

The most important factor in our life was MUSIC. It was the time of Jimmy Hendrix and Woodstock. The MUSIC was connected to POETRY. We not only listened to the sound but we also listened to the Lyrics. We studied them (Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen) and discussed them.

My favourite group was Pearls Before Swine. The music of Tom Rapp was the ultimate combination of MUSIC AND POETRY.

When I look back at that time I feel nostalgia. I want to return to the time when everything that was positive was possible. I wonder how we were able to transform an expectation of Paradise into an expectation of the Apocalyps. Let us have a look at The Song About A Rose.

(The Lyrics of Thom Rapp).

“Song About A Rose”
By Tom Rapp

This is a song about a rose

Or perhaps it’s a song about the shadow of a rose

In the morning the apple sellers congregate on corners of their own

But you and I we sing our song about a rose or perhaps the shadow of a rose

With the children of Fribourg and the good thief standing by

We consort in silent rendezvous and call the world a lie

When our song is but a candle that will one day burn away

The children of Fribourg cannot hear what we say

This is a song about a rose

Of lonely caravans whispering to God

To chain the world in prose

But people are not singers and life is not a song

And even God can only guess

Why or where or when or if

The answers all belong

And you and I we sing our song about a rose

Or perhaps the shadow of a rose

The song of the Rose of Tom Rapp is a tribute to Arabic Culture. He is unable to convince the children of Fribourg, a Swiss Town, that there were “lonely caravans whispering to God to chain the world in prose”. They were singing the Song of the Rose or the Shadow of the Rose.

The Rose is a very old mystical symbol. It is the symbol of purity and a symbol of passion, heavenly perfection and earthly passion; virginity and fertility; death and life. The rose is the flower of the goddess Venus but also the blood of Adonis and of Christ. It is a symbol of transmutation – that of taking food from the earth and transmuting it into the beautiful fragrant rose. The rose garden is a symbol of Paradise. It is the place of the mystic marriage. In ancient Rome, roses were grown in the funerary gardens to symbolize resurrection. The thorns have represented suffering and sacrifice as well as the sins of the Fall from Paradise.

Numerologically, the Rose represents the number 5, The Centre. This is because the wild rose has 5 petals. And the petals on roses are in multiples of five. Geometrically, the Rose corresponds with the pentagram and pentagon.

The Rose is the Symbol of the Heart Chakra.

The Rose is the symbol the Centre of the Whole. A Return to the Centre is not possible without Pain and Blood (Thorns). The Shadow of the Rose is the movement away from the Centre to return to the Centre (The Cycle).

That is why Scientists of the University of Fribourg “cannot hear what we say”. “They call the world a lie” and see that “our song is but a candle that will one day burn away”.

Everything will burn away and change into Ashes. Ashes can be used by A Jeweler to make Old Golden Coins Shine Again. The Jeweler cannot repair the scratches. He knows that even new coins have scratches. Nobody is perfect. The Jeweler smiles.

Ashes are also used to give the power of fertility to the Soil (Mother Earth). The Soil covers the the Seed of The Rose in Winter and gives it the Strength to Rise in Spring again. The Rose is helped by the Shining Golden Coin in Heaven, The Sun. The Rose always returns and the Song of The Rose always returns in many ways.

“The Jeweler”
By Tom Rapp

The jeweler has a shop on the corner of the boulevard

In the night, in small spectacles, he polishes old coins

He uses spit and cloth and ashes

He makes them shine with ashes

He knows the use of ashes

He worships God with ashes

The coins are often very old by the time they reach the jeweler

With his hands and ashes he will try the best he can

He knows that he can only shine them

Cannot repair the scratches

He knows that even new coins have scars so he just smiles

He knows the use of ashes

He worships God with ashes

In the darkest of the night both his hands will blister badly

They will often open painfully and the blood flows from his hands

He works to take from black coin faces the thumbprints from so many ages

He wishes he could cure the scars

When he forgets he sometimes cries

He knows the use of ashes

He worships God with ashes

At this moment Arabic Culture is highly associated with Violence and Power Plays (Oil). Many people don’t know that Western Culture really started when The Arabic World gave the old sciences and philosophy back to the West. The old sciences also contained the Secret Knowlegde of The Rose.

At that time the Arabic Culture was producing artefacts of immense beauty like the Alhambra. The walls of the Alhambra are full of calligraphic decoration, cursive and kufic writings with sentences such as “Only God is victor” (apparently by Zawi ben Zirí, founder of the Nasrid dynasty) and poems by three poets of the Court of Granada, Ibn al-Yayyab (1274-1349), Ibn al-Jatib (1313-1375) and Ibn Zamrak (1333-1393). Of course it contained a beautifull Rose Garden, the symbol of Paradise.

The mystic part of the Islam is called Sufism. They were the People who are “whispering to God”. They created poetry and music and knew the Secret of The Rose. The Sufis are the Gnostics of the Islam. They are comparable to the Essenes in the Judiac Religion.

Rumi was the founder of the Mawlawi Sufi order. He was born in Wakhsh (Tajikistan) under the administration of Balkh in 30 September 1207 to a family of learned theologians. Escaping the Mongol invasion and destruction, Rumi and his family traveled extensively in the Muslim lands, performed pilgrimage to Mecca and finally settled in Konya, Anatolia, then part of Seljuk Empire.

When his father Bahaduddin Valad passed away, Rumi succeeded his father in 1231 as professor in religious sciences. Rumi 24 years old, was an already accomplished scholar in religious and positive sciences. He was introduced into the mystical path by a wandering dervish, Shamsuddin of Tabriz. His love and his bereavement for the death of Shams found their expression in a surge of music, dance and lyric poems.

In The Arc Of Your Mallet

Rumi

Don’t go anywhere without me.

Let nothing happen in the sky apart from me,

or on the ground, in this world or that world,

without my being in its happening.

Vision, see nothing I don’t see.

Language, say nothing.

The way the night knows itself with the moon,

be that with me.

Be the rose

nearest to the thorn that I am.

I want to feel myself in you when you taste food,

in the arc of your mallet when you work,

when you visit friends, when you go

up on the roof by yourself at night.

There’s nothing worse than to walk out along the street

without you.

I don’t know where I’m going.

You’re the road, and the knower of roads,

more than maps, more than love.

Tom Rapp wrote “But people are not singers and life is not a song. And even God can only guess why or where or when or if the answers all belong“. We have to do it our selves. We are left alone on the street because even God does not know all the answers.

To Rumi God “Is the Road and the Knower of the roads“. He asks God to walk with him and to show him the way. The poems of Rumi are Love Poems. They apply to Godly Love and Human Love. You understand them the best when your love has left you and you are desperately looking for the answer why this happened.

The Song of the Rose is about a longing to return to the Centre of The Whole. To restore the Balance that once was. I imagine we could start this process by creating new songs about the beauty of the Whole.

Let’s start to whisper again and ask for in-spiration.

LINKS

Song about the Rose