153 IN ENGLISH
Inspired by the gematrists I looked for insight into 153 using the simple English gematria code A=1, B=2, C=3. For instance, GOD =7+15+4 =26, THE = 20+8+5=33, etc., “The Kingdom of God” = 153 (33+73+21+26). So does “The Water of Life” = 153. (A remarkable list of 1717 153s is provided at http://asis.com/~stag/1531ist.html )
Catch this, 153 is also the number of fish caught by the apostles in John 21:11. “I’ll make you fishers of men,” proclaimed Jesus.Mat 6:33 What did these fishers do? For one thing they built a church. As the story of the building of the tower-church in Hermas reveals, the Early Christians interconnected the ideas of church and tower. The Good Christians, in turn, connected the church-tower with a circle or ring , and hence with the Round Towers.
Three tower watermarks of the Good people. Note that the one on the left is ringed and has the letters T and R at its top with the symbol for a star atop them. The T surmounted middle tower appears to be constructed of square stones (called ashlars) ala the stone tower of Hermas.
A study of the circle-ring-magdala-tower word connection gives us the following: church comes from kirk, or circe, meaning circle. The word spire, used to describe the antennas atop churches, is the root of spiral. One of the surnames of Apollo was Tortor (he is Taur, Thor or Thoth). All of these gods knew the Way, the path, the thorougfare to the heavens. They traversed this path. In Gaelic tor is a conical hill or castle, like Glastonbury Tor. The word tower is the same as the French tour, which also means a circle or wheel. The famous Tour Magdala of Rennes-le-Chateau in Southern France is the ‘Tower Magdala’ (Tower Tower). It features a circular turret and may properly be called a Fish Tower. T’ra is the Egyptian word for fortress. Tara is the Buddhist goddess of compassion.
E = SOLOMON’S KEY
And now to complete this circuit we note that there was a world-famous “E” inscribed over Apollo’s Oracle at Delphi. Because this letter is the fifth letter of so many alphabets, the Greeks considered it to be equivalent to the number 5. The five points of E caused it to be regarded as equivalent to the five-pointed Pentagram , the symbol sacred to Venus and known as Solomon’s Key.
The star pattern of the pentagram may explain why the five-pointed E was esteemed to be the letter of Light. In 1905 Einstein’s equation, E = mc2 re-affirmed this connection in the collective mind. E represents units of energy, m represents units of mass, and c2 is the speed of light squared, or multiplied by itself. Because the speed of light is a very large number and is multiplied by itself, this equation points out how a small amount of matter can release a huge amount of energy, as in a nuclear reaction. Is it by design or coincidence that the letter E formed the Key of Light?
In Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt Rundle Clark notes that during the Middle Kingdom the bennu bird, the heron, became the ‘soul’ of Osiris and the symbol of the planet Venus – the morning star. The heron delivers the vital essence from the ‘Isle of Fire’, which Clark calls ‘the place of everlasting light beyond the limits of the world’. This is where the gods were born and where they were sent into the world. Hence, the Key of Life of the heron and its message of light and life and Solomon’s Key are the same.
John Michell, an authority on ancient sacred science, proposes this five-pointed star with a dot and with the Hebrew letters J,R,S,L,M, is an ancient emblem for Jerusalem. In The Temple at Jerusalem: A Revelation he says that the dot at the center is Gulgotha. As we recall, Gulgotha means ‘the head’, ‘the stone’ and ‘the gate’. It is an oracular center, another Meru gateway between heaven and earth. Significantly, the pentacle was the logo for Pythagoras’ Mystery School. It represents perfect attunement with the Word or Life Force.
The pentagram spills over into legends of Jerusalem’s Temple of Solomon, which sits atop Mount Moriah, retold by Michell. He describes the Temple as an instrument of a mystical, priestly form of alchemy by which oppositely charged elements in the Earth and atmosphere were brought together and ritually mated. The product of the union was a ‘spirit’ that blessed and sanctified the people of Israel. The marriage itself was technical, potentially dangerous and involved physics and astronomy.
I propose the science practiced atop Moriah (like Meru) also involved chemistry, anatomy, physiology, astrology and cosmic rays from the galactic center.
In Refgue of the Apocalypse Elizabeth Van Buren observes that the highest point of a five-pointed star opens to reveal a hidden thirteen-pointed star. Points “1” and “13” are formed of point “1 ”. This reveals the way to the mystic center (Meru, Tula).
Astoundingly, one of the great secrets guarded by the Templars is that this symbol referred to a temple in the stars above Jerusalem. A similar ‘stargate plan’ has been perceived in the area of Rennes-le-Chateau in Southern France where five mountains form the shape of a pentagram. In the plan of this temple is Solomon’s Key to forgotten knowledge. This is made even more interesting when Greg Rigby’s research into the Gothic cathedrals as markers for the seven stars of Ursa Major is added in. It is traditional that Ursa Major points to the pole star Polaris. Rigby aligns Rennes-le-Chateau with the position that would represent the Pole Star.
The mystery phrase, “Et in Arcadia ego” (normally translated “I am in Arcadia”) associated with Rennes-le-Chateau also plays an important role in this line of thinking. Arcadia is the Greek name for paradise. It is the ‘home’ of Hermes. His tablet, it is believed, were hidden in Arcadia. In this context, it is interesting to note that the Latin prefix “area” means “a chest or box” (it is the root of the word arcane). What is kept in this box? Well, arcane secrets. Whose secrets? The secrets of the Arcadians or Arkades, who name also means “People of the Bear.” These “Bear people” are the people of the Great Bear, Ursa Major. Legends attached to Rennes-le-Chateau suggest that buried in this area is a “casket” or “chest” that plunged to earth from the Great Bear. Significantly, the earliest Sumieran sign for the Great Bear, where it was called the “Plough”, was the sign “AR”, which is a pentagram.
One final note. Numerous authors insist that the area of Rennes-le-Chateau, which is home to the famed Church of Mary Magdalene refurbished by Berenger Sauniere, is the entrance to the underworld. In Blue Apples I proposed it is perhaps even a star gate. In the next chapter we will explore Mary Magdalene’s revelation concerning this gate.
5.
THE FISH GATE
“And Mary answered and said to the Savior,’ Now we
know, O Master, freely, surely, plainly, that thou has
brought the Keys of the Mysteries of the Kingdom of
Light, which remit the sins of souls that they may be
cleansed and be transformed into pure light, and be
brought into the Light. ”
Pistis Sophia
According to Gnostic Christian belief recorded in the Gospel of Mary, written sometime in the second century and recovered in the 20th century, Mary Magdalene is presented as the Christian authority. In Grail vernacular she is the ‘ultimate fisher person’. She is 153, ‘the Tower’. Her high position is due to the perception that she was the closest to Jesus in life, his beloved, and received a special revelation, perhaps a blessed flash of illumination, from the risen Jesus that was hidden from the other apostles. The fact that Jesus had secret teachings he gave only to those who he had given healing power is clearly indicated in Matthew 13:10-11 and Mark 4:10-12 & 34. The exact nature of these teachings is unknown. However, Mary Magdalene is the key figure associated with them. They are straight out of the Egyptian mysteries of the heron.
The Gospel of Mary says MM was given a special transmission of knowledge (gnosis). This transmission came after Jesus’ resurrection and concerned the nature of matter, of salvation, and of the soul’s journey through the darkness of the astral planes to reach the realm, kingdom or empire of light (which may well be the center of our galaxy).
Mary’s revelation is in the form of a Gnostic dialogue. As Jesus’ chief apostle in life
Mary now questions the risen Jesus. The first question Mary asks is how one sees a vision. Jesus replies that the soul sees through the mind, which is the conduit between the soul and the spirit.
At this point the text breaks off. Sadly, four crucial pages of this dialog are lost. Only the beginning and end of the revelation are extant.
When the text resumes Mary is in the midst of describing Jesus’ revelation concerning the rise of the soul.
After recounting her illumination to the disciples Mary falls silent. Andrew is the first to speak. He refuses to believe her story. The hot-tempered Peter flies into a jealous fit. He questions if Jesus would really have revealed these secrets of a woman. Levi (‘love’) is sympathetic to Mary and plays the role of peacemaker. This confrontation is repeated in The Gospel of Thomas, Pistis Sophia, and The Gospel of the Egyptians. To the modern mind there’s a word for Peter’s behavior and his sexist attitude. One moment, let me fish for it. Oh yes, there it is: pathetic.
Mary Magdalene is clearly possessed of a superior spiritual teaching (The Pure Word = 153), one sympathetic to Jesus (The True Light = 153), and one that Jesus did not intend for certain of the apostles to know. A tantalizing reference to the nature of Jesus’ true teaching is provided in the Pistis Sophia. Jesus tells Mary:
“Do not cease seeking day or night, and do not let yourselves relax until you have found all the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Light, which will purify you and make you into Pure Light and lead you into the Kingdom of Light.”
Additional clues to the secrets of this special revelation and the means to transform oneself into a being of pure light in order to enter the Kingdom of Light is, conveniently, encoded in the number 153. As noted, 153 is identified with the almond-shaped symbol called the vesica piscis, which we will now take a moment to discuss.
To begin, this symbol, called the ‘fish’ or the “vulva,” always has attributes of feminine regeneration. The vesica is the Egyptian hieroglyph Ru, meaning ‘birth passage’, ‘doorway’. It is found in the word ute-rus or uterus, the gate through which the WORD is made flesh and bone, as well as Me-ru, the Tower of the East. It was a very ancient, even archetypal symbol for the Goddess. It was called the “holy of holies” and the “inner sanctum.”
The vesica piscis is the same as the mouth-shaped Egyptian hieroglyphic of Atum-Re, the Sun God who comes from the Abyss. It is also the same as the fish symbol of Jesus. In his book Sacred Geometry ,Robert Lawlor notes the relationship of the ‘mouth’ symbol and the path of a vibrating string. Both have a flattened, vesical form. Intriguingly, this football-shaped form is the Mayan hieroglyph meaning ‘galaxy’.
The Egyptian ‘mouth’ symbol of Atum-Re (left). The Mayan symbol for the Milky Way and love (right).
Interestingly, one of the 12 gates of ancient Jerusalem was known as the fish gate (2Chr33:v14-Neh3:v3-Neh12:v39-Zephl:v10). The fish were brought in this gate into Jerusalem from the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River. According to Jewish tradition, the Messiah will enter Jerusalem through the Eastern Gate, also known as the Golden Gate. To prevent this, the Muslims sealed the gate in the year 810. It has remained closed for 12 centuries. By English gematria Seek The Entrance = 153. The one that truly raises an eyebrow is Use The Fish Gate = 153.
A second great eyebrow raiser is the fact the vesica piscis is called the Vessel of the Fish. It was well known as Yoni in the ancient world. Yoni is an ancient Indo-Aryan word that means “Divine Passage,” notes mythologist Barbara Walker in The Woman’s Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects. In India, Meru is the yoni.
The yoni originally referred to a passage of stars that the child passed through. It therefore makes perfect sense why the term also came to be used by ancient physicians to refer to female genitalia.
“With an intentional double entendre,” notes Barbara Walker, “the mandorla was sometimes piously interpreted as a gateway to heaven,” says Walker.
This gateway is found in Christian paintings depicting the Transfiguration, the Ascension, the Last Judgment, the Harrowing of Hell, and in symbolic portrayals of the evangelists and Jesus in Majesty (Magesty). The Virgin Mary and the major angels were also shown enclosed in a mandorla or Fish Gate. Two examples are shown here. One portrays Mary delivering Jesus from this female-genital emblem. The other is the famed twelfth-century panel in Chartres Cathedral, which shows “Christ of the Apocalypse” within the gateway or the mouth of the fish .
Summing up, Magdala means ‘fish tower’ and the title Magdalene is the mystical fish number 153 by gematria. The symbol of the fish, the almond-shaped vesica , , is a fish mouth. The fish, in turn, is a symbol for a gateway, particularly for a (star) gateway through which souls pass. I can’t resist stating the obvious. Something fishy is going on here.
As a priestess of the Fish Tower, meaning the priestess who presided over the well or fountain of life, MM possessed the teaching which transformed us into mystical fish. (This well is located at the center of our galaxy.)
A midrash teaches that a miraculous ‘well’ accompanied the Hebrews throughout their journey in the wilderness, providing them with water. This ‘well’ was given by God to the Miriam to honor her bravery and devotion to the Jewish people. In a new and popular ritual some Jews place a “Cup of Miriam,” filled with water, beside the customary “Cup of Elijah” (filled with wine) during the Passover Seder. The cup represents the “living waters” of Miriam’s well and serves as a reminder of the Exodus from Egypt when manna fell from the sky like rain. We will explore MM’s connection to manna in a later chapter.
THE KINGDOM OF LIGHT
Let’s return to Jesus’ statement to MM in the Pistis Sophia:
“Do not cease seeking day or night, and do not let yourselves relax until you have found all the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Light, which will purify you and make you into Pure Light and lead you into the Kingdom of Light.”
This is an astounding statement I am certain the reader will wish to study in detail. It is vital to note that the idea of purity is not novel to Christianity. It’s Egyptian and Babylonian.
In Utterance 513 (an anagram for 153) from the Egyptian Pyramid Texts, for example, we read: ‘Be pure: occupy your seat in the Bark of Re: row over the sky and mount up to the distant ones: row with the imperishable stars, navigate with the Unwearying Stars’.
‘The Bark of Re’ is the Ship of the Gods. It is a fact that virtually all of the great gods of myth sail in a ship, though no one has yet offered a theory to account for the many unusual traits of this celestial vehicle, which is constantly portrayed as a dual-headed serpent ship moving across the waters of the sky.
The dual-headed serpent ship of the Egyptian gods. The stairs of the ship of the gods represented the Primeval Hill, the Mountain of Light or the Pure Mound of God.
The Egyptian scene depicts a pillar or tower of water that rises from the cosmic waters. This is remarkably close to the description of the Tower that arose from the waters in the Book of Hermas and became the Church. This connection is made explicit in early Christian art as a soul ship, the craft of the fisherman. Today, the main part of a church’s interior, the place where the people worship, is called a “nave,” from the Latin “navis” – ship. The main part of the Egyptian ship is a stairway (to heaven). The purification instructions or mysteries that enabled us to board the ship of the gods is nowhere to be found in modern Christianity.
Top. Ra rides the ship of the gods into a gate of stars. Bottom. A modern depiction of a stargate. The comparison of the shape of the ship of the gods with the shape of a wormhole is wildly suggestive.
We are reminded that Jesus spent 15-18 years in the temples of Egypt, Iran, Iraq and Central Asia, likely in search of the secrets of how a human is transformed into a being of pure light. In the 20th century documents were discovered in Central Asia that belonged to the Manicheans, the devotees of the Persian Master Mani who derived his teaching from the Magi and the Christians. In a teaching called the “Parinirvana of the Prophe
t” Mani is the Apostle of Light who takes off his armor and puts on a royal garment. When he sat down in a Ship of Light he received the Divine Garment, the diadem of Light, and the beautiful garland. And in great joy he flew together with the Light Gods along the Column of Glory, the path of the Light, (to) the meeting-place of the Gods.
That’s a Garment of Light, a Column of Glory (called the Perfect Man by Manicheans), and a Ship of Light.
Put on your Cathar shades . Look up to the night sky. Look at the Big Dipper, for instance. Can any human reach this dipper just by just walking a few steps? General relativity explained a mechanism to contract this huge distance into few meters. Albert Einstein called this mechanism ‘bridges’ in space-time. Today, scientists call them wormholes. A wormhole would act as a shortcut connecting two distant regions in the universe.
In fact, as I am the first to recognize, the Egyptian ark of the gods resembles a modern stargate or wormhole. Theoretically, physicists view wormholes as time machines that may open gateways to parallel dimensions. They are the subjects of intense scientific research in America and Europe.
A ring of life. www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/multimedia/artgallery/art_feature_0 01_CD1998_76634.html
As in this example from NASA, the concentric rings symbolize a two-dimensional expression of a three-dimensional experience: that of traveling through interstellar passageways called stargates or wormholes. This hypothetical spacecraft with a “negative energy” induction ring was inspired by recent theories describing how space could be warped with negative energy to produce hyperfast transport to reach distant star systems. In the 1990s, NASA Glenn Research Center lead the Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Project. NASA’s primary effort to produce near-term, credible, and measurable progress toward the technology breakthroughs needed to revolutionize space travel and enable interstellar voyages.
Mary Magdalene The Illuminator (v5.0) Page 5
