AtDTDA: (8) 226 Renfrew and Werfner

[Glenn Scheper]

> they may be "not really different at all."

Religion seems to be doubled as if seen through Iceland Spar.
Maybe that is the very unrevealed core metaphor of Pynchon.
Maybe in fact it is some irresolvable duality in the unity.

I believe in Jesus (assuming he even existed) but beyond that, it's a
Mexican standoff between all these doctrinal inheritances and schisms:
light-only vs. light-and-dark; chastity vs. fecundity;
Apollonian vs. Dionysian; Aton vs. JHVH; JVHH vs. Baal;
hierarchy vs. network (rhizomes); Paul vs. everybody;
initiated vs. lay; grace/works justice/mercy and tons more...

The following is really great, throws lots of fuel on the fire.
Though Blavatsky like Crowley is made out to be so much fluff,
I'll be reading her text yet many days, and again and again:

ISIS UNVEILED: A MASTER-KEY TO THE MYSTERIES OF ANCIENT
AND MODERN SCIENCE AND THEOLOGY. BY H. P. BLAVATSKY
  -- http://www.phx-ult-lodge.org/Isis_Unveiled.htm

In particular, I was surfing Hystaspes, who turns out to be Darius,
and his father; for some gospel or apocalypse by Hystaspes is said
to be a close precursor to some of the elements of Revelation.

While trying to sorting out these choices, or at least their labels
N layers removed from them, at Darius, even Blavatsky looks confused:

Er or Eros, whose vision is related by Plato in the Republic, is declared by 
Clement to have been Zordusth. While the Magus who dethroned Cambyses was a 
Mede, and Darius proclaims that he put down the Magian rites to establish those 
of Ormazd, Xanthus of Lydia declares Zoroaster to have been the chief of the 
Magi! Which of them is wrong? or are they all right, and only the modern 
interpreters fail to explain the difference between the Reformer and his 
apostles and followers?
  -- http://www.phx-ult-lodge.org/Isis_Unveiled.htm

Jaxartes. Apollonius of Tyana crossed the Caucasus, or Hindu Kush, where he met 
with a king who directed him to the abode of the sages perhaps the descendants 
of those whom Ammianus terms the "Brahmans of Upper India," and whom Hystaspes, 
the father of Darius (or more probably Darius Hystaspes himself) visited; and, 
having been instructed by them, infused their rites and ideas into the Magian 
observances. This narrative about Apollonius seems to indicate Kashmere as the 
country which he visited, and the Nagas after their conversion to Buddhism as 
his teachers.
  -- http://www.phx-ult-lodge.org/Isis_Unveiled.htm

Let us first recall to our mind that which Ammianus Marcellinus, and other 
historians relate of Darius Hystaspes. The latter, penetrating into Upper India 
(Bactriana), learned pure rites, and stellar and cosmical sciences from 
Brahmans, and communicated them to the Magi. Now Hystaspes is shown in history 
to have crushed the Magi; and introduced or rather forced upon them the pure 
religion of Zoroaster, that of Ormazd.
  -- http://www.phx-ult-lodge.org/Isis_Unveiled.htm

There is another hypothesis possible, which is that Zero-Ishtar was the high 
priest of the Chaldean worship, or Magian hierophant. When the Aryans of Persia, 
under Darius Hystaspes, overthrew the Magian Gomates, and restored the Masdean 
worship, there ensued an amalgamation by which the Magian Zoro-astar became the 
Zara-tushra of the Vendidad. This was not acceptable to the other Aryans, who 
adopted the Vedic religion as distinguished from that of Avesta. But this is but 
an hypothesis. And whatever Moses is now believed to have been, we will 
demonstrate that he was an initiate.
  -- http://www.phx-ult-lodge.org/Isis_Unveiled.htm

Plato states that the mystic Magian religion, known under the name of 
Machagistia, is the most uncorrupted form of worship in things divine. Later, 
the Mysteries of the Chaldean sanctuaries were added to it by one of the 
Zoroasters and Darius Hystaspes. The latter completed and perfected it still 
more with the help of the knowledge obtained by him from the learned ascetics of 
India, whose rites were identical with those of the initiated Magi. Ammian, in 
his history of Julian's Persian expedition, gives the story by stating that one 
day Hystaspes, as he was boldly penetrating into the unknown regions of Upper 
India, had come upon a certain wooded solitude, the tranquil recesses of which 
were "occupied by those exalted sages, the Brachmanes (or Shamans). Instructed 
by their teaching in the science of the motions of the world and of the heavenly 
bodies, and in pure religious rites . . . he transfused them into the creed of 
the Magi.
  -- http://www.phx-ult-lodge.org/Isis_Unveiled.htm

the centripetal and centrifugal forces, and are necessary to each other. If one 
is arrested, the action of the other will immediately become destructive. This 
personification, denominated Satan, is to be contemplated from three different 
planes: the Old Testament, the Christian Fathers, and the ancient Gentile 
altitude. He is supposed to have been represented by the Serpent in the Garden 
of Eden; nevertheless, the epithet of Satan is nowhere in the Hebrew sacred 
writings applied to that or any other variety of ophidian. The Brazen Serpent of 
Moses was worshipped by the Israelites as a god;* being the symbol of 
Esmun-Asklepius the Ph nician Iao. Indeed, the character of Satan himself is 
introduced in the 1st book of Chronicles in the act of instigating King David to 
number the Israelitish people, an act elsewhere declared specifically to have 
been moved by Jehovah himself. The inference is unavoidable that the two, Satan 
and Jehovah, were regarded as identical. Another mention of Satan is found in 
the prophecies of Zechariah. This book was written at a period subsequent to the 
Jewish colonization of Palestine, and hence, the Asideans may fairly be supposed 
to have brought the personification thither from the East. It is well-known that 
this body of sectaries were deeply imbued with the Mazdean notions; and that 
they represented Ahriman or Anra-manyas by the god-names of Syria. Set or 
Sat-an, the god of the Hittites and Hyk-sos, and Beel-Zebub the oracle-god, 
afterward the Grecian Apollo. The prophet began his labors in Judea in the 
second year of Darius Hystaspes, the restorer of the Mazdean worship. He thus 
describes the encounter with Satan: "He showed me Joshua the high-priest 
standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to 
be his adversary. And the Lord said unto Satan: 'The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; 
even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand 
plucked out of the fire?' " * 2 Kings, xviii. 4. It is probable that the fiery 
serpents or Seraphim mentioned in the twenty-first chapter of the book of 
Numbers were the same as the Levites, or Ophite tribe.
  -- http://www.phx-ult-lodge.org/Isis_Unveiled.htm

The "Avesta" describes the serpent Dahaka, as of the region of Bauri or 
Babylonia. In the Median history are two kings of the name Deiokes or Dahaka, 
and Astyages or Az-dahaka. There were children of Zohak seated on various 
Eastern thrones, after Feridun. It is apparent, therefore, that by Zohak is 
meant the Assyrian dynasty, whose symbol was the purpureum signum draconis the 
purple sign of the Dragon. From a very remote antiquity (Genesis xiv.) this 
dynasty ruled Asia, Armenia, Syria, Arabia, Babylonia, Media, Persia, Bactria, 
and Afghanistan. It was finally overthrown by Cyrus and Darius Hystaspes, after 
"1,000 years" rule. Yima and Thrataona, or Jemshid and Feridun, are doubtless 
personifications. Zohak probably imposed the Assyrian or Magian worship of fire 
upon the Persians. Darius was the vicegerent of Ahura-Mazda.
  -- http://www.phx-ult-lodge.org/Isis_Unveiled.htm

HEZEKIAH THE EXPECTED MESSIAH. there being an interregnum in Israel (2 Chron., 
xxx. 1, 2, 6; xxxi. 1, 6, 7). It was successful, but resulted in an invasion by 
the king of Assyria. But it was a new regime; and all this shows the course of 
two parallel streams in the religious worship of the Israelites; one belonging 
to the state religion and adopted to fit political exigencies; the other pure 
idolatry, resulting from ignorance of the true esoteric doctrine preached by 
Moses. For the first time since Solomon built them "the high places were taken 
away." It was Hezekiah who was the expected Messiah of the exoteric 
state-religion. He was the scion from the stem of Jesse, who should recall the 
Jews from a deplorable captivity, about which the Hebrew historians seem to be 
very silent, carefully avoiding all mention of this particular fact, but which 
the irascible prophets imprudently disclose. If Hezekiah crushed the exoteric 
Baal-worship, he also tore violently away the people of Israel from the religion 
of their fathers, and the secret rites instituted by Moses. It was Darius 
Hystaspes who was the first to establish a Persian colony in Judea, Zoro-Babel 
was perhaps the leader. "The name Zoro-babel means 'the seed or son of Babylon' 
as Zoro-aster rtXa-wrc is the seed, son, or prince of Ishtar." * The new 
colonists were doubtless Judai. This is a designation from the East. Even Siam 
is called Judia, and there was an Ayodia in India. The temples of Solom or Peace 
were numerous. Throughout Persia and Afghanistan the names of Saul and David are 
very common. The "Law" is ascribed in turn to Hezekiah, Ezra, Simon the Just, 
and the Asmonean period. Nothing definite; everywhere contradictions. When the 
Asmonean period began, the chief supporters of the Law were called Asideans or 
Khasdim (Chaldeans), and afterward Pharisees or Pharsi (Parsis). This indicates 
that Persian colonies were established in Judea and ruled the country; while all 
the people that are mentioned in the books of Genesis and Joshua lived there as 
a commonalty (see Ezra ix. 1).
  -- http://www.phx-ult-lodge.org/Isis_Unveiled.htm

Finally, and to return again to the nazars, Zaratus is mentioned by Pliny in the 
following words: "He was Zoroaster and Nazaret." As Zoroaster is called princeps 
of the Magi, and nazar signifies separated or consecrated, is it not a Hebrew 
rendering of mag? Volney believes so. The Persian word Na-zaruan means millions 
of years, and refers to the Chaldean "Ancient of Days." Hence the name of the 
Nazars or Nazarenes, who were consecrated to the service of the Supreme one God, 
the kabalistic En-Soph, or the Ancient of Days, the "Aged of the aged." But the 
word nazar may also be found in India. In Hindustani nazar is sight, internal or 
supernatural vision; nazar band-i means fascination, a mesmeric or magical 
spell; and nazaran is the word for sightseeing or vision.
  -- http://www.phx-ult-lodge.org/Isis_Unveiled.htm


One thing I do trust are my dreams and visions either elicted or spontaneous,
and all the rest has to stand back. Or, as some comedian announced in a movie,
"All the virgins on the right side of the room, All the non-virgins on the left."
Or maybe, Kill them all. God will recognize his own.


Thomas Edison was also interested in the supernatural, attending several 
meetings with the famous theosophist Madame Blavatsky[23] and speaking openly 
about his belief in an afterlife.
  -- http://www.hauntedink.com/ghost/ch1.html

Another big gem:
T H E O S O P H Y by Annie Besant
  -- http://www.theosophical.ca/TheosophyAB.htm

Yours truly,
Glenn Scheper
http://home.earthlink.net/~glenn_scheper/
glenn_scheper + at + earthlink.net
Copyleft(!) Forward freely.