Intrigued by the first "Symbols of an Alien Sky" video, I've started watching "Symbols of an Alien Sky, Episode 2: The Lightning Scarred Planet Mars," which is, insofar as a layman can judge, makes a very strong case that the face of Mars was shaped by electrical discharges on an enormous scale. Starting at 18:39, there is even a reference to the question that inspired my first post on the Tower, "What is the House of God?" -- the connection between lightning and "thunderstones," or meteorites.
We have proposed that in a former epoch of planetary instability electric discharge excavated the Martian surface miles deep, throwing massive quantities of rock into space. This would mean that most of the Martian rocks reaching Earth would have come from well below the surface and would not even bear the atmospheric signature of the planet. So, it is not unreasonable to suspect that the planet Mars was not a small contributor but the greatest contributor to meteoric bombardment of Earth in ancient times.On this question, ancient testimony holds a surprising answer. Worldwide accounts describe apocalyptic wars of the gods punctuated by lightning and falling stone. Rocks from space falling on the Earth have no connection to lightning and thunder in our own time, but the ancient connection is clear. In many different languages meteorites and exotic rocks were called thunderstones, or thundereggs, said to have fallen in the great wars of the gods.
Could this ancient connection have survived in oral tradition all the way down to the French peasants of the 20th century, who, René Guénon reports, "say, in fact, that thunder falls in two ways, 'in fire' or 'in stone'"? Could there really be any connection between this
and this?
7 comments:
Sounds plausible - at any rate, the link in earth language between lightning/ thunder and meteorites (and supposed meteorites) seems solid; which seems sufficient to explain the Tarot.
So, did I open a good can of worms, or a bad can of worms?
Craig, I never met a can of worms I didn't like.
Now the synchronicity fairies have dragged me into this one.
At the same time I read this and the previous post on the House of God/Tower card last week, I was researching the historical route of the Mormon Road from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles as it existed in 1849. Tonight I recalled seeing something somewhere about British "wizard" John Dee and followed a whim to look up Mormon pioneer John D. Lee, who was famously executed in 1877 for his role in the 1857 Mountain Meadows massacre of emigrants traveling along the Mormon Road to reach California.
Traveling down a rabbit-hole of Wikipedia pages (Mormon Road -> Johnson Springs/Enoch, UT -> Order of Enoch/James Brighouse) led to a page about the subject of an 1832 prophecy of Joseph Smith, referred to as "one mighty and strong." The article cites a portion of the prophecy:
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In a letter written to William W. Phelps on November 27, 1832, Joseph Smith transcribed a revelation that he said he received from Jesus Christ:
"[I]t shall come to pass, that I, the Lord God, will send one mighty and strong, holding the sceptre of power in his hand, clothed with light for a covering, whose mouth shall utter words, eternal words; while his bowels shall be a fountain of truth, to set in order the house of God, and to arrange by lot the inheritances of the Saints, whose names are found, and the names of their fathers, and of their children enrolled in the book of the law of God: while that man, who was called of God and appointed, that putteth forth his hand to steady the ark of God, shall fall by the vivid shaft of lightning.... These things I say not of myself; therefore, as the Lord speaketh, He will also fulfill."
Smith never publicly revealed the identity of the "One Mighty and Strong" referred to in this prophecy.
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It took me until the "vivid shaft of lightning" before I realized what was happening. Then I noticed "house of God." Then I noticed "holding the sceptre of power in his hand, clothed with light for a covering," which ties directly to your post about the Hermit, including the quote from Waite about the lamp no longer being "enveloped partially in the mantle of its bearer, who blends the idea of the Ancient of Days with the Light of the World." Note that the One Mighty and Strong article includes a list of claimed identifications of the subject, and among them are Adam (in his prophesied return to Adam-ondi-Ahman) and Jesus Christ.
Finally I pulled up the text of the prophecy as found in the current section 85 of the Doctrine and Covenants to see what was elided around the "vivid shaft of lightning" bit. It reads "...shall fall by the shaft of death, like as a tree that is smitten by the vivid shaft of lightning." This is a striking match with the imagery of the Viéville and Vandenborre versions of the the 16th trump.
I don't recall ever reading anything about Joseph Smith coming across Tarot. I wanted to search Kerry Shirts' site but the only one I could find appears to be abandoned and is largely nonfunctional.
Ben, I haven't finished reading your comment yet. I only got as far as the reference to John Dee!
Earlier this afternoon, I was listening to an old conspiracy podcast from a few years back, and they mentioned they mentioned the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics, where Queen Elizabeth II had come out accompanied by Daniel Craig as James Bond. They said this mirrored the relationship between Queen Elizabeth I and John Dee (who used to sign his letters "007").
I realized I knew very little about Dee and should probably read up on him a bit. (I read his Monas Hieroglyphica back in 2008 but didn't find it particularly interesting.) I downloaded a biography of Dee from archive.org and have just started reading it.
You posted the above comment at 6:27 p.m. Taiwan time. Checking my browsing history and email, I find that I entered "john dee" into archive.org at 1:26 p.m. and sent the biography to my Kindle at 1:30. I have no way of checking precisely when I started reading it, but it was a minute or two later -- and if I know anything about how the sync fairies operate, it must have been at precisely 1:32 -- 4 hours and 55 minutes (455 = DEE) before your comment.
And now I see I'm typing this at 10:15: "JO".
Ben, those are some impressive connections!
The Tarot, originating in Italy and France, did not become established in England until the 1870s and didn't come to America until the early 20th century, long after Joseph Smith's time. I'm sure a few decks must have existed in America in his day, brought over by the French, but it seems unlikely that he would have encountered them.
I'm curious whether other Tarot imagery appears in Joseph Smith's letter to Phelps/section 85, especially in light of Joseph's probable unfamiliarity with the Tarot.
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