Saturn Returns to Le Figaro

On December 19th, I had the pleasure of attending a meeting of the New York Mythology Group. This is an informal group led by Phil Robinson which is created through Meetup.com, a website devoted to having meetings of like-minded people all around the country. Meetup.com is not limited to groups based on mythology. You can probably find a meetup group devoted to any interest you have.

I’ve always been interested in mythology as a little kid. I loved the Edith Hamilton Mythology book, and was a big collector of the volumes of modern heroes and heroines – i.e. comic books. As I grew older, myths recessed deeper and deeper into my consciousness, until I heard of Joseph Campbell whose mastery of history, religion and mythology fired up the love of mythology again in a different way. This time, instead of seeing colorful stories, I was able to see the importance of these myths, what they were supposed to represent and how they are relevant today.

The NY Mythology group meets approximately every six weeks. This last meeting focused on the myths of Saturn which corresponds to Saturnalia, an ancient Roman festival that occurs from December 17th – 23rd(ish!). Anyone who is familiar with astrology is familiar with Saturn as in the dreaded Saturn Return. However in early mythology, Saturn was the ruler of the Golden Age and represented abundance. The Lecturer named Emily quoted from a wide range of authors spanning cultures as well as millennia, such as Hesiod (700-ish BC), the Persian poet Nizami (1141-1209), Omar Khayyam (1048-1131), Plutarch and Plato. I learned a lot of things that I never knew before such as the relationship of King Arthur to Saturn, the meaning of the Ziggurat structure, etc. It definitely gave me some food for thought and new directions to think about and consider.

The discussion was held at Le Figaro Café on Bleecker St. After the discussion people hung around and discussed topics such as astrology, existentialism, and rebirth.

The next one is happening on January 16th and will be discussing the mythology of the Adversary, i.e. the Titans, Satan, Tiamat, etc. Hope to see you there!

Happy Saturnalia!!!

Saturnalia is the feast at which the Romans commemorated the dedication of the temple of the god Saturn, which took place on 17 December. Over the years, it expanded to a whole week, up to 23 December.

Saturnalia became one of the most popular Roman festivals. It was marked by crazy antics and reversal of social roles, in which slaves and masters switched places.

The Saturnalia was a large and important public festival in Rome. In time, it became one of the most popular Roman festivals. It involved the conventional sacrifices, a couch (lectisternium) set out in front of the temple of Saturn and the untying of the ropes that bound the statue of Saturn during the rest of the year. Besides the public rites there were a series of holidays and customs celebrated privately. The celebrations included a school holiday, the making and giving of small presents (saturnalia et sigillaricia) and a special market (sigillaria). Gambling was allowed for all, even slaves; however, although it was officially condoned only during this period, one should not assume that it was rare or much remarked upon during the rest of the year. It was a time to eat, drink, and be merry. It was license within careful boundaries; it reversed the social order without subverting it. It was also an opportunity for men to be completely free with their fellowmen, sometimes evolving into homosexual and sometimes also pedophilic relations. The toga was not worn, but rather the synthesis, i.e. colorful, informal "dinner clothes"; and the pileus (freedman's hat) was worn by everyone. Slaves were exempt from punishment, and treated their masters with disrespect. A Saturnalicius princeps was elected master of ceremonies for the proceedings.

The customary greeting for the occasion is a "io, Saturnalia!" — io (pronounced "yo") being a Latin interjection related to "ho" (as in "Ho, praise to Saturn").

Reevaluating Egypt Part 5 - The Climax

Although I skipped a lot of events in this journey, the main ones that stuck out to me I recorded. The last one I remember was when all of us went up into the Great Pyramid of Giza for our coronation ceremony. The pyramid was difficult to get into, mainly because you had to alternate between getting on your knees and standing up in single file for a long time. Up inside the pyramid was nothing really remarkable, except for the huge sarcophagus towards the back.

All of us made a circle around the sarcophagus along the wall and sat due to the fact that the ceremony would be over an hour long. During that time we all chanted tones which we tried to harmonize. One of the members of the group was a very large man simply known as Abdul. He was very friendly, but a bit of a loner when he was with the group. Maybe he wasn't and just didn't connect with us, or maybe he had a problem with the heat, but he never completely jelled with the group, mainly on his side. However, one-to-one he was very warm, friendly and positively openhearted. He attuned me to level 2 Reiki, which I am forever grateful and never realized that my destiny was to receive higher Reiki energies in the land of the Pharaohs. Anyway he was with us in the room of the pyramid and while we all where chanting simple words such as AH and OH, he started to chant Remember. We all dropped what we where chanting and began to chant Remember as well. In that moment we all realized that the purpose of the trip was not to learn something new but to bring into our consciousness what we already are. This realization came upon us like a gentle breeze. We were and are now pharaohs but we let our chattering minds and protective egos get in the way. Everyone in the room followed him immediately realizing and allowing ourselves to be challenged to remember who we are…

The sarcophagus was empty, except for we who would be placed in them. One by one we were led blindfolded to the sarcophagus whose walls were about 3 feet up from the ground and hallowed out, so we had to go up a foot ladder to be lowered in. All of this while being blindfolded. After being laid down into the sarcophagus, we were told to place our arms folded across our chests much like the pictures you see of the mummies. After laying there for a few minutes, the leaders would chant something above us, and raise us up out of the sarcophagus as a symbol of our resurrection.

I don't know if this is really what happens on the path, but apparently I have gone through many several resurrections in my existence on this planet. Even though the terminology and the location maybe different, the essence of dying and resurrecting is still the same. It seems to me that life is just a series of resurrections and remembrances. We walk this earth shedding layers and layers of what is not true until we are ready to drop the final layer which is our actual bodies and realize that we are eternal, infinite beings.

Book Recommendation: The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

I've been reading The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, by Sogyal Rinpoche
and its been turning my insides around. Every page is filled with beautiful,
simple wisdom on the fact of death, change, and impermanence which is so hard to grasp in
our western culture and especially in NYC.

This book is especially relevant in our post-9/11 world view.

What does Hooters and the Virgin Mary have in common?

According to Lenora Claire, if the Virgin Mary was alive today and got knocked up, she would work
for Hooters!!!

http://laist.com/2007/11/28/merry.php

Reevaluating Egypt part 4 -The Temple of Horus

This was my favorite temple experience for no other reason than my own attachment/interest in Horus. Horus was the son of Osiris and Isis. The basic story is Osiris was deceived, killed and dismembered by his brother Set (who I am sure evolved into Satan) who spread Osiris’ body parts all over the world. When finding out what happened, his wife Isis searched the heavens and the earth for the pieces of his body. After finding and putting all the pieces together, the sun god Horus was magically conceived. After a long fierce battle Horus defeated Set.

The name Horus is derived from the word Heru which is the name of the Egyptian or Kamitic version of the Tree of Life in the Qabalah. From the word Heru, we get hero, and we get characters such as Hercules, etc. In any mythology, religion or spiritual practice, if you have a character that dies and is resurrected, or through death is brought back in a higher form, he is considered a ‘solar deity’ because he is similar to the sun that rises and sets every day. Consequently, Jesus is considered a solar deity, Dionysus, and Buddha whose was human and became enlightened – the light shining from his soul. Without getting too complex, you can see similarities in other ways, for instance there is a connection between the twelve disciples of Jesus, the twelve tribes of Israel, the twelve labors of Hercules, etc.

Edfu is located on the west bank of the River Nile between Esna and Aswan. The temple of Horus was built in the Ptolemaic Dynasty approximately 237 -57 B.C. If gender identification is possible with temples, I would say that this temple looks more ‘masculine’ than the others. The walls surrounding the temple are approximately 50 feet high and 145 feet wide. The massive size of the temple reflected the prosperity of the dynasty. The outside courtyard of the temple looked like a huge dam. On the outside wall, there is a huge line drawing of Horus in a victorious battle against Set. When you go through the courtyard, you are visited by a huge metallic statue of Horus. Horus is usually represented by a falcon wearing a crown that represents his ruling of Upper Egypt. On one side of the Inner Sanctuary of the temple was a hieroglyph of Alexander the Great drawn as a pharaoh. The priests of the god Ammon declared him the son of Zeus, so he was called Zeus- Ammon.

Inside the vast temple, we did a ritual inside the section known as the Holy of Holies. I remembered when I was a Christian the stories in the Old Testament, where people were struck dead by the presence of the Lord if they entered the Holy of Holies and were not priests. I wondered how much of the Old Testament was influenced by Ancient Egyptian practices. This was the beginning of the expansion of my world view – seeing the connection of all myths, stories and practices. I began to see that there was a continuum of beliefs that are engrained in our collective consciousness that will be there as long as humankind exists. I imagine that 2000 years into the future, we will have these same stories even though the actual mechanisms of the stories may change.

As we surrounded the inner sanctuary, we were about to perform a ritual that was to resurrect the hero within us, the fiery determination to say ‘Yes’ to our lives and to defeat the darkness of fear that would keep us small. We envisioned what we wanted to create in our lives and did a loud, hard dance that represented our victory! We claimed it to be so and so it was!