The Ancient Tradition

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Music

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You’re listening to the Ancient Tradition. A Wonk Media Production. Music provided by Joseph McDade. He is your host, Dr. Jack Logan.

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Welcome to The Ancient Tradition. I’m your host, Jack Logan. A special welcome to all of our new listeners. It’s great to have you along with us. And as always, if you’re a long time listener, it’s great to have you back. I think we’re gonna learn a lot together today. Before I start though, I wanted to let you know about our episode show notes. We’re working on those. You can find them on our website, The Ancient Tradition. If you click on show notes up in the menu, you’ll find a full transcript for each episode.

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And that includes some links and pictures and full quotations if you’re interested. I also failed to let you know that you can now find a full recording of the Mesopotamian Ansoobird myth. And you can find that on our sister podcast, the ancient tradition audio writ. That’s the myth about the monster who stole the tablets of destiny from Enlil. And we talked about it quite a bit in episode number 22, the wounded hero. So if you’re interested in that myth, be sure and check it out.

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Today’s episode is, Oh Christmas Tree. We’re not gonna really get into the Christmas tree until the very end of today’s program, but everything that we discussed in today’s episode is relevant to the Christmas tree, so keep that in mind. Today we’re gonna pick up right where we left off in our last episode. For the past couple of episodes, we’ve been talking about the Primordial Theomache, and most of you know what that is. It’s the battle that took place in the divine council before the earth was formed.

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Two episodes ago in episode number 22, the wounded hero, we noted that one of the most important features of the theology of the ancient tradition is the wounds that are sustained by the beloved son during his battle with the rebel son. And as well, the wounds that are sustained by the earthly king or the hero or the popper or you and me in our battle with the dragon. In most accounts,

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Whether that account is found in the myth or in scriptures or legends or folktales, we learned that the wounds that the dragon inflicts are so grievous that in the climax of the battle, it appears as though the hero is doomed to defeat. It appears as though the evil dragon was going to come off triumphant. Usually though, the defeat’s temporary and then the hero miraculously recovers. He’s fully healed from the wounds that were inflicted by the dragon.

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wields his special sword and he thrusts it into the hideous dragon’s scaly flesh and then the dragon drops to the ground dead. The hero has slain the dragon and goods triumphed over evil. In our last episode however, in episode number 23, the troubling death of Osiris, we saw that that’s not always the case. Sometimes the beloved son is murdered by the rebel son.

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that son, he wants nothing more than to usurp his innocent brother’s throne. And this murder is pretty troubling. In fact, it’s very troubling because it seems to suggest that evil has the ability to triumph over good. And if that is a possibility, that should really trouble everyone. Because in a spiritual sense, what are we to do with Osiris’s murder? Because in earthly battles, nothing signals defeat more poignantly than death.

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To die is to lose the battle, so by all appearances, it looks as though Osiris has lost the battle, that evil has triumphed. It appears as though all is lost. And like I said, the possibility of that is very troubling. We learn later in the myth, though, that Osiris’ death is not permanent. We learn that the gods, because they adhere to the laws of heaven, or ma’at,

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and will always have greater power than the rebel’s son. Evil will never triumph over good. By the power that comes from abiding by the laws of heaven, Osiris is resurrected. He’s brought back to life. His death is not permanent. His defeat, like we see in all combat narratives, is temporary. You know, many in the modern world consider resurrection to be an impossibility.

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And others, even if they do believe in the possibility of resurrection, they have no idea how it’s accomplished. But the ancients did. If you didn’t get a chance to listen to episode number 23, the troubling death of Osiris, or you didn’t get a chance to listen to it all the way to the end, be sure and do that because it’s in that episode that you will learn how it’s possible that Osiris could be raised from the dead. And it’s one of the most profound theological tenants inherent in the ancient tradition.

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I want to take a second here and talk about the nature of myth. When many modern day scholars and lay persons read the ancient myths, they usually find them kind of entertaining, sometimes fanciful. And a lot of people are enamored with the fancy weapons and the exotic locales and exciting adventures and fierce battles. But what they don’t realize is that just like parables, myths were used by the ancients to house sacred knowledge.

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Philip Wilkinson and Neil Philip who wrote a lot of books on mythology they say this quote myths are sacred stories the sacred quality of myth is its most central characteristic often the full version of a myth or its inner meaning may be known only to priests shamans or initiates

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I hope as you’ve been listening to the podcast, you’re starting to see this. You’re starting to see that myths like the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Myth of Osiris, the Epic of Anzu, the Myth of Pata and the Shabaka Stone and the Enuma Elish contain deeper meanings. They contain profound esoteric knowledge about the unseen spiritual world. For example, if we read in myth that a hero is wounded, his eyes ripped out or his arms ripped off or an arrow.

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pierces his flesh. And then we leave our analysis and interpretation there. We’re gonna miss so so much of what the ancients were teaching. Myths are sacred. They have inner meanings. So when the ancients talk of quote wounds in their myths, we know there’s so much more they mean by these wounds than meets the eye. They’re teaching us about more than just physical wounds. Last week I read a

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some of the myths I’m studying, and in nearly all of them, the scholars were attributing the origin of the myth to some feature in the natural world, like the rising sun or the waxing and the waning moon. You know, and I shook my head, I was like, they are completely missing the sacred inner meaning of these myths. Now, that’s not to say that such and such a myth couldn’t be connected to the phases of the moon, but what the researchers fell to see is that the ancients used the phases of the moon

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as a symbol to represent something about the spiritual realm, something that was much more significant spiritually. In the particular myth that I was studying, the ancients were using the moon to symbolize the spiritual concept of rebirth. They’re using the waxing and the waning of the moon to represent the death and the rebirth of the new man.

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A lot of academic scholars fail to see the inner meanings. They don’t think they’re there or they just don’t see them. They can only see the surface meanings. When that’s all they can see, then myths seem fanciful and fictitious and naive. They’re like, yeah, there’s no such thing as sea serpents or monsters named Humbaba or magic shields or a dragon’s venomous breath. But when we understand the inner meanings, we decipher those.

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we conclude the opposite. The ancients appear especially erudite and sophisticated and enlightened. Sea serpents and monsters, we find, represent the malevolent rebel sun. Magical shields represent the special spiritual protection gifted to the hero by God. The dragon’s venomous breath represents every single kind of wound the rebel sun inflicts on the universe.

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and the spiritual destruction that he can inflict in the lives of human beings. With that understanding, let’s move to the eighth event in Forsyte’s table, which, if you remember, outlines the 12 events that scholars see showing up time and again in the world’s ancient combat narratives. In the sixth event, the hero’s gravely wounded. It appears that defeat is imminent. In the seventh event, like we saw in ancient Egypt with the enemy god Set.

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The enemy temporarily ascends and rules over a usurped kingdom. And while he’s reigning, the eighth event takes place. The hero recovers from his devastating wounds. The hero’s wounds are healed. This aspect of the con man myth is an absolutely critical element of the theology of the ancient tradition. Because without the healing of the hero’s wounds, the hero is indeed doomed

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to defeat. Without healing, there is no way for him or you or me to survive the dragon’s onslaught. In our last episode, we explained how and why it’s possible for the sick to be healed and the dead to be raised and the aging process to be stopped. But we didn’t really go into how the wounded hero can access the healing power, how he can obtain the healing for his wounds. So we’re gonna do that in this episode.

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If you’re a long time listener to the podcast, you probably already figured out how the hero obtains healing. But if you haven’t, I’ll give you a clue. It comes from a tree. In the ancient record, we learned that the hero obtains the healing balm for his wounds from the sacred tree. Just like what we saw in the last couple of episodes where the hero obtained the special staffer sword from the sacred tree.

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So too the hero obtains the healing balm for his wounds from the tree. In fact, you’re gonna see in this episode that the sacred tree is truly a giving tree. It offers the hero a number of truly magnificent gifts. Before I jump into that though, I want to stress that the sacred tree, the tree of life, it’s sometimes referred to by scholars as the world tree or the cosmic tree. It’s some of the best empirical evidence that we have that the religious traditions of today sprouted

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from a common source. The sacred tree literally shows up all over the globe. It shows up as a key feature in nearly every single religious tradition. And we just shouldn’t see this unless the religions of today sprung from one original source. Now, you might be thinking to yourself, well, it seems easily explainable that religions would use a tree from the natural world to explain certain religious ideas. So…

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That could explain why it shows up so often. Seems plausible enough. And I’ll give you that. But just one problem, and it’s a pretty big problem because regardless of where we go in the world, the peoples understand the cosmic and theological significance of the sacred tree in almost identical ways. It would be one thing if one religious tradition used the tree to represent a ladder.

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And then we had another tradition use the tree to represent sacred writings and another one to have it represent fertility. But that’s just not what we find at all. We find that there is remarkable similarity and practically universal correspondence in the way the tree is understood, what it represents and what it gifts to human beings. But what does vary is the type of tree.

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that’s used to symbolize the sacred tree. It tends to be a tree that’s native to the particular culture’s geographical locale. For example, in Norse mythology, the sacred tree was understood to be this immense ash tree. In ancient Egypt, it was either a Perseia tree or a date palm. In Rome, it was an olive tree. In Latvia, it was a birch tree. Among the Maya, it was a seba tree. Among the Slavs and Finns, it was an oak. Among the Gnostics, it was a cypress.

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Among the Sumerians, it was a willow tree. Among many Native Americans, it’s a spruce tree. Among the Mongols, it was a beech or poplar tree. In China, it was a mulberry tree. Among the Hindu and Buddha, it’s a fig tree. You get the picture. The particular species of the sacred tree varies by culture and geography. But what doesn’t vary?

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is the cosmology and the theology that’s associated with the sacred tree. It’s virtually identical everywhere we go in the world. And that’s remarkable. Among the ancients, the tree was of utmost significance. In fact, the sacred tree, as you’re going to see as the podcast progresses, is the literal focal point of the ancient tradition. When we look at and examine what the ancients wrote,

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we learned that every single component of the sacred tree is associated with a gift or a number of gifts. The timber, the trunk, the branches, the bark, the leaves, the sap, the blossoms, the fruit, and even the fragrance in the shade of the tree. So in today’s episode, we’re gonna focus on the leaves and the sap because those are consistently shown to be associated with the healing properties of the tree.

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But I’m also gonna touch a bit on the importance of the king’s name and special armor again, because those are also strongly connected to the tree’s leaves, which is by no means unassociated with healing. While we go through these, try and think about what these gifts mean theologically, because after all, the ancients are teaching us that the hero or you and me can’t defeat the dragon without the special gifts that the tree offers. So let’s start with the leaves.

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In ancient Egypt, when the king was enthroned, he was given five new names. And these were known as the royal titulari. The god Thoth would write the king’s new names on the leaves of the sacred Ished tree, which was a Perseid tree. Melitsa Matthew, who’s a Russian Egyptologist, said this in the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology. Quote.

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It is known that at the coronation the name of the new king, or rather the whole of his new titillature, was solemnly proclaimed and then written by the gods on the leaves of the sacred Perseia of Heliopolis. This moment, like that of placing the crown on the king’s head, was one of the most important in the ceremony. With this rite was probably connected the presentation of the king’s name to the god.

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The importance of the king’s presentation of his name to the god is very great. We have but to recall the prominent place held by name Heka in ancient Egypt to realize the significance of this rite. The knowledge of the name of a god or of a man gave the god complete power over him. The supreme importance of the inscribed name as a means of procuring eternal life

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is universally known. In other words, by the king giving God his new names, his new royal names, which were symbolized by writing his name on the sacred tree on those leaves, the king obtained the gift of the tree, eternal life. Let’s go to Christianity now. In the very last chapter of the New Testament, in chapter 22 of Revelation, John the Revelator sees the New Jerusalem,

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quote, and he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. He goes on to say, quote, the throne of God,

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and of the Lamb shall be in it.” Be sure to note here how the text points to God and the Lamb as two separate beings. It says the throne of God and the Lamb. And as a quick aside, you should also note in these verses the pretty explicit connection between the high God, the Father, and his beloved Son, the Lamb, the Tree of Life, and kingship.

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and kingships reflected in the mention of thrones. Our focus though is on what these verses say of the leaves. The passage says that the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. These verses speak of the healing that’s gonna take place in the end times, which we surmise represents both the healing of the cosmic wounds inflicted by the enemy, the restoration of everything to its perfectly ordered state, the full restoration of mother earth,

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the removal of all sickness and disease, and the annihilation of death and aging, and the ability of the tree to heal the nation’s spiritual wounds. Okay, but what did the leaves of the tree represent? We’re talking about religious symbols here, so the leaves of the tree in this verse are figurative. They’re symbolic. In the ancient world, sometimes the leaves of actual literal trees were used for medicinal purposes, kind of like how we use the cactus-like leaves

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aloe vera plant to soothe sunburns or cuts. So the ancients were likely trying to teach how the leaves of the tree of life can do the same thing for the nations. Remember that religious symbols are used to teach us about spiritual reality. They’re meant to teach us what God has the power to do. So the leaves of the tree could represent a number of things. They could represent the balm of righteous people to heal the nations. Recall that just a minute ago we pointed out that in

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who was expected to uphold Ma’at, wrote his name on the leaves. The leaves could also represent the word of God, which is exactly what it says in the Hindu scriptures in the Bhagavad Gita 15.1 to three. And it reads, it is said that there is an indestructible tree. Its roots above, its branches below, its leaves, the hymns of the Veda. Whoever knows it,

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knows the Veda also. Sri Aurobindo who wrote essays on the Gita, the three Purushas, said this, quote, the hymns of the Veda are compared to leaves and the man who knows this tree of the cosmos is the Veda-knower. The knowledge the Veda gives us is a knowledge of the gods, of the principles and powers of the cosmos.

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In Hinduism, the Vedas are the most ancient of all Hindu scriptures. So here among the Hindu, the leaves of the trees represent the scriptures. Scriptures that Sri Aurobindo says gives one quote, knowledge of the gods, of the principles and powers of the cosmos. Sri’s statement is pretty intriguing because it suggests that by reading the scriptures, which were given by God, one can understand the principles by which God

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orders the cosmos and defeats chaos. And as we learned in our last episode, such cosmic ordering is the full restoration of all things physical and spiritual to their proper order. It’s the total defeat of chaos. Among the ancient Hebrews, we can find another important reference to the leaves in Genesis chapter three verse seven. In this chapter, Adam and Eve have partaken of the

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and they suddenly realized that they’re naked. And this is what the passage says happens next. And the eyes of them both, being Adam and Eve, were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. Now, this is really interesting. We’ve mentioned in previous episodes that naked here is likely meant to be understood symbolically.

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but it could also be literal too. And I don’t claim to know. It may just be one of what one of my students once said, that naked is literative. It’s a word that he made up to combine the idea that something could be both literal and figurative at the same time. If however naked is meant to be symbolic, then like all religious symbols, it could take on layers of meaning, just kind of depending on what the aspirant ponders about and needs to learn.

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A couple of episodes ago, I proposed that one possible interpretation of naked could be that upon taking the forbidden fruit, which we’re told gave Adam and Eve the ability to know good and evil, suddenly recognize that they were completely unprotected from evil, from Satan and his onslaught. If this interpretation is valid, then what they did next is pretty important. The text says that they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.

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So here we have Adam and Eve taking the leaves of a tree, a fig tree, to cover up their nakedness. Now, there’s a lot of debate in the ancient world and even among modern scholars as to whether or not these fig leaves came from the tree of life or from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. I’m gonna argue here based on everything I’ve learned about the ancient tradition and the fact that it’s in complete conformity with what we see in the ancient world.

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where the sacred tree or the tree of life is the source of all gifts, that the fig tree from which Adam and Eve picked the leaves to make aprons represents the tree of life. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, whether the tree of life is conceptualized as a fig tree or an olive tree or whatever tree it might be, could just depend on what it is that the evangelist or even Jesus himself wants to emphasize about the tree. In fact,

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An interesting little exchange between Nathaniel and Jesus in John chapter 1 verses 46 to 49 seems to indicate that Jesus thought of the tree of life as a fig tree, at least in certain occasions. In this exchange, Nathaniel, who has never met Jesus, walks towards him. When Jesus calls him an Israelite, Nathaniel is surprised. He wants to know how Jesus knows that. And the passage reads, quote,

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Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to him and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. Nathaniel saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree I saw thee. Don’t miss the deeper meaning here. Jesus is telling us that he knows Nathaniel.

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and he knows what he’s like, he’s a man without guile, because of where Nathaniel hangs out. And where does Nathaniel hang out? Under the fig tree, under the tree of life. It’s like saying that Nathaniel is known because he abides or abided close to God. And this becomes quite evident in the next verse when Nathaniel recognizes Jesus as the son of God.

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And as a quick aside, don’t miss the connection in the verses I just read and the verse I’m about to read between God, the tree, and kingship again here. The verse reads, quote, Nathaniel answered and said unto him, Rabbi, thou art the son of God, thou art the king of Israel. Nathaniel recognizes Jesus is the king.

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And if you haven’t had a chance to listen to episode number six, the King and the Tree of Life, be sure and check that out because it’s in that episode that we decipher the strong connection between the King and the Tree of Life. And these verses right here in John are in complete conformity with that. If as I’m arguing that the fig tree in the Genesis account is meant to be understood as the Tree of Life, then it’s hugely significant that it’s from the fig tree.

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that Adam and Eve take leaves to make aprons for themselves. And don’t miss the underlining meaning here either. The ancients are teaching that the aprons Adam and Eve don are of divine origin. And that’s just like what we saw with Sigmund when he pulled the special sword from the barn stoker tree. We see Adam and Eve pull the leaves from the fig tree. We’re supposed to recognize that the tree represents God.

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and that it’s God who gave Sigmund the special sword and it’s God who gave Adam and Eve their special aprons. So these aprons appear to be some of that special armor that we talked about in episode number 21, the cloak of invulnerability. Adam and Eve are clothing themselves with the tree of life. They’re clothing themselves in God’s armor.

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And that interpretation is further substantiated in the Bible in Exodus chapter 28 verse 4, where it describes the clothing that’s worn by the high priest Aaron. This is what it says of the high priest’s liturgical clothing, quote, and these are the garments which they shall make a breastplate and an ephod and a robe. And it goes on to describe the rest of the clothing. But I want to focus here on the clothing.

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called the ephod. So what is this ephod that Aaron wore? If we turn to the anchor Bible dictionary, it says this of the ephod, which is worn by the high priest, quote, “‘It apparently was an apron-like garment suspended from the waist level downward.'” So here, just like what we saw in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, who wore aprons made from the leaves of the tree of life, the high priest in ancient Israel also wore an apron.

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as part of the high priestly clothing. In both cases, we’re meant to understand that these aprons are of divine origin. This is further substantiated 13 verses later when we’re told that God himself made coats of skins for Adam and Eve and quote, closed them. So if we had any doubt that the clothing Adam and Eve wore, be it fig leaf aprons or the coats of skins came from God, we don’t now.

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They were clothed in divine clothing. If you want to learn more about the Hebraic links between the coats of skins and priestly clothing, be sure and check out episode number four, Did God Reveal the Ancient Tradition in the Garden of Eden? It’s towards the end of that episode. And also check out the episode art for episode number six, The King and the Tree of Life, where King Charlemagne is portrayed wearing royal robes and an apron with a tree of life depicted on the front.

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When all is said and done, they were wearing the Tree of Life. They were wearing godly clothing. That’s some pretty special armor. Elizabeth Moynihan of the Smithsonian found a similar motif among shaman. She writes, quote, “‘Often a shaman’s ritual garments were decorated with the Tree of Life to aid him.'” And we should note that shaman were known as medicine men.

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because they had the ability to heal, which they obtained from the sacred tree. We find a similar account among the forest-dwelling indigenous Byagya people of the Mandolin Hills of central India. And scholars believe that these people lived in central India for thousands and thousands of years. In this account, known as the legend of Nanga Byagya,

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and Nangi-Bhiyaga, Bhagawan or Bhatta Dev, which means big deity or God, seeks the help of Nanga, and Nanga means nude, Bhiyaga, of Nanga-Bhiyaga, which is the Indian version of Adam, and Nanga-Bhiyagen, who’s the Indian version of Eve. They are found to be without clothing.

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So the Gond people led Bhagawan, the big deity, know. And here’s the account as summarized by Philip Wilkinson in his book, Mythology. Seeing the Byaga had no clothes, the Gond sent to Bhagawan, who tore his own garment in half and sent it to them. Nanga Byaga and Nanga Byagan dressed and began to travel the world.

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Bagoan called all the tribes together to select a king. Everyone came dressed in fine clothes, except Nanga Biaga, the Indian Adam, who was dressed in leaves. Bagoan wanted to make him king over the world. This is another one of those counts that I find super fascinating. I tried to find a date for this myth,

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historical record is hazy here. Still the same, I’m quite astounded that in this myth, we have the Indian Adam dressed in leaves and the statement that Bagoan, the big deity, wanted to make him a king. See, even in the Judeo-Christian tradition, almost no adherents of Judaism and Christianity know the doctrine that Adam was a king. So how did this aboriginal tribe that dates back thousands and thousands of years

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and who primarily lived in the forest, know that God wanted to make the Indian Adam a king. I find this just astounding. And of course, we’re seeing all of the same motifs that we see together everywhere else. We have the tree and the leaves of the tree and the clothing made from the tree and kingship. Now let’s turn to the sap of the tree. In the ancient texts, it’s primarily sap.

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sometimes which is referred to as dew or oil or spit saliva milk or even honey That’s most often used to heal the wounds the hero incurs in his or her battle with the dragon And we covered a lot of these examples in episodes number eight and number nine The fragrant dew of paradise and the green eye of Horus and I don’t want to duplicate what I covered in those episodes But I want to point out that one of our best examples of the healing of the wounded hero

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by way of the sap of the tree is found in the account of the ancient Egyptian god Horus, whose eye, you’ll recall, was ripped out by the evil god Set when they engaged each other in battle. Several pyramid texts tell us that Horus’s wounded eye was healed by anointing oils that were infused with the fragrance of trees. Pyramid text number 72, which is found in King Eunice’s pyramid, reads,

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quote, Osiris Unis, I have filled for you your eye with oil. And then the text goes on to tell us that Eunice is anointed with several oils, pine oil and first class cedar oil, et cetera. Pyramid text number 75 reads, quote, Osiris Unis, except Horus’s eye, which he rejoined. Now rejoined means healed, made whole.

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In the Pyramid Text, these oils infused with the fragrance of trees is referred to as the quote, ointment of Horus. Pyramid Text 25 connects the scent of the ointment or anointing oil with Horus’s healed eye and it reads quote, Osiris Unis, I have given you Horus’s eye. Provide your face with it. Let the scent of Horus’s eye disseminate to you.

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Okay, the theology that’s being taught here is really important. The text is basically telling the dead King Unas that the oil imbued with the fragrance of sacred trees, the same oil that healed Orus’s wounded eye, can heal King Unas’s wounds. Wounds which, like Osiris, were so grievous they ultimately led to King Unas’s death.

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can not only fully restore Horus’s wounded eye, but it can also fully restore the dead king’s body. The oil can restore the dead king back to a perfect ordered state, which we call resurrection. It’s the oil of the sacred tree that has the power to heal the hero’s wounds, even if they’re fatal.

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And let’s not forget that in our previous episode, we learned that a tree grew around the benevolent Osiris’ dead body. From this, we’re to understand that the god Osiris is the tree. It’s his oil that’s being smeared on the forehead of the dead king, which by the way, will make him an quote Osiris Unis, just like he’s called at the beginning of each of the pyramid texts that I just read.

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In ancient Egypt, Horus’s ointment, the anointing oil of the tree, was smeared on the forehead of the dead king. Pyramid text 77 reads, quote, ointment, ointment, where should you be? You on Horus’s forehead, where should you be? You were on Horus’s forehead, but I will put you on this, Eunice’s forehead. As a quick aside, I want to draw your attention to the performance of

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religious ritual. I hope you can see the link here among the ancient Egyptians between the healing power of the oil of the tree and the performance of rituals which symbolize that theology and may even formally actualize that theology. In other words, ritual is theology. By ritually smearing the oil of the tree on the forehead of the dead king,

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the ancient Egyptians were expressing the profound idea that the tree, which symbolizes Osiris, has the power to heal all wounds, be they physical or spiritual. You might be asking yourself why they smeared the oil on the forehead of the dead king. And there’s a really important reason why they did this, but we’ll have to save that for a future discussion. Before I close out this episode though, I want to share one more account with you from the ancient world.

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that illustrates the healing power of the oil of the tree. This account comes from a text titled Joseph and Azaneth. This refers to Joseph of Egypt in the Bible and his wife, Azaneth. Scholars believe that the text was originally written in Greek and that it was written sometime between 200 BC and 280. So that gives you an idea.

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In this account, Azaneth, who’s the daughter of an Egyptian priest of On, falls in love with Joseph of Egypt, who’s an Israelite. Joseph rejects her affections because she worships idols. So Azaneth dresses in sackcloth. She fasts from bread and water, and she seeks forgiveness for her sins, which she does for seven days. Note the number seven there.

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And this is what the text says, and I’ll be reading from sections of chapters nine to 15. And this is the HFD Sparks Translation that was published by Oxford University Press. And Azanath was left alone, and she was listless and wept until sunset. She ate no bread and drank no water. She opened her wardrobe and took out a black and somber tunic. She put on the black one and tied a rope around her waist.

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and she removed the fillet from her hair and sprinkled herself with ashes, and she fell down upon the ashes. She wept bitterly and groaned all night until the morning. And in the morning, Azaneth got up and looked, and lo, the ashes underneath her were like mud because of her tears. Okay, so then Azaneth wakes up the next morning and offers this prayer. Oh, Lord, my God.

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To thee will I cry, hear my supplication, and unto thee will I make confession of my sins, and unto thee will I reveal my transgression of thy law. I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned. I have transgressed thy law and acted impiously.” So this is a pretty candid expression of repentance, and it goes on for a while. I didn’t read all of it to you.

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But then something really interesting happens. And listen to what happens next. The text reads, and I’m in chapter 13 now, quote, and there came a man from heaven and stood at her head and he called to her, Asenath. And she said, who called me? For the door of my room is shut and the tower is high. How then did anyone get in my room?

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And the man called her a second time and said, Asenith, Asenith. And she said, here am I, my Lord, tell me who you are. And the man said, I am the commander of the Lord’s house and chief captain of all the host of the most high. His face was like lightning and his eyes were like the light of the sun and the hairs of his head like flames of fire.

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and his hands and feet like iron from the fire. As a quick aside, note that the divine messenger who appears to Azanath in her bedroom is described as a man. He has anthropomorphic features just like a man, yet he’s clearly a glorified man as his face was like lightning. And also note that he seems to know her. He calls her by name. So there’s the importance of names again.

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And listen to what happens next, he says, quote, and Azaneth looked at him and she fell on her face at his feet in great fear and trembling. And the man said to her, take heart, Azaneth, and do not be afraid. Okay, now think back, where have we heard this before? If you thought of the account in the book of the Holy Secrets of Enoch, you’re correct. We saw all the same things. We saw two messengers appeared at the foot of Enoch’s bed,

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They called him by name. He was afraid. And the first thing the divine messengers told him was to be not afraid. That’s pretty interesting. In chapter 15, after a lot of really interesting and important things happen, Azanath desires to make the divine messenger something to eat before he’s got to go on his way. And this is what happens next. And keep in mind that the oil of the tree was sometimes symbolically represented as honey in the ancient world.

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And this is what it says. And the man said to her, bring me please a honeycomb. And Azanath said, let me send someone my Lord to my family estate in the country and I will get you a honeycomb. And the man said to her, go into your inner room and you will find a honeycomb there. And Azanath went into her inner room and found a honeycomb lying on the table. And the comb was as wide as snow and full of honey.

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and its smell was like the breath of life. And Azanath took the comb and brought it to him. And the man said to her, why do you say there is no honeycomb in my house? And lo, you have brought me this. And Azanath said, my Lord, I had no honeycomb in my house, but it happened just as you said. Did it perchance come out of your mouth? For it smells like myrrh. Wow.

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What did we just read? This honeycomb smelled like myrrh? If you have no idea why I’m so excited by the fact that this honeycomb smelled like myrrh, you definitely have to listen to episode number eight, the fragrant dew of paradise. It’s hugely significant here that the honeycomb the divine messenger wants Azenith to consume smells like myrrh, because myrrh comes from the sap of a tree. See,

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The Kamaphora myrrh tree, when wounded, secretes a reddish-brown colored sap. And when that sap hardens, it forms a rock-like resin that has a warm, earthy, kind of slightly sweet aroma. In ancient Egypt, and in ancient Mesopotamia, and in ancient Israel, this myrrh resin was infused in oil, and it was used in those traditions for their most important religious rituals. It’s this myrrh-infused honey.

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which is symbolically equivalent to oil, that we’re gonna see heal Azaneth’s spiritual wounds or sins, the sins that she’s so desperately desiring to be forgiven. And before I jump into that part of the narrative though, I wanna point your attention to what Azaneth is thinking here. See, she asks the divine messenger, quote, did it, the honeycomb, perchance come out of your mouth for it smells like myrrh?

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She’s obviously asking this question because the divine messenger himself smells like myrrh. So either we’re to understand that this messenger is the divine being, God, who gifted the world the myrrh oil or he’s a divine messenger who himself has been healed by the myrrh oil and thus made whole. So let’s listen now to what the divine messenger did with the myrrh smelling honeycomb. And the text reads, quote,

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and the man stretched his hand out and placed it on her head. Yep, you heard that right. The divine messenger placed the myrrh-infused honey on her head, just like what we saw the ancient Egyptians do when they smeared the oil of a tree on the forehead of the dead king, Unus. After the divine messengers smeared the honey on Azanus’ forehead, listen to how she is transformed, or.

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healed. Quote, You are blessed, Azanath, for the indescribable things of God have been revealed to you. And blessed too are those who give their allegiance to the Lord God in penitence. And Azanath went into her room and opened her wardrobe, and she took out her finest robe that shone like lightning. And she put it on.

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and she tied a resplendent royal girdle around her waist. And then a lot more happens there, which I can’t get into into this one, but we’re gonna definitely talk about it in our next episode. But don’t let it be lost on you that now after having been smeared with the myrrh honey, she appears similar to the divine being who appeared to her. Her robes shine like lightning. And that’s exactly what was said of the divine messenger’s face, that it shone like lightning.

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So her black somber tunic has been replaced with a splendid robe of lightning. Her spiritual wounds have been completely healed. Before the divine messenger leaves Azanath, he performs a very interesting ritual. One that if you’ve listened to episode number seven, the King of the Four Corners, you might recognize. And the text reads, quote, “‘The man stretched his hand out “‘and put his finger on the edge of the honeycomb.

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and faced eastwards, and the path of his finger became like blood. And he stretched out his hand a second time and put his finger on the edge of the honeycomb that faced northwards, and the path of his finger became like blood. And the man touched the honeycomb, and fire went up from the table and burnt up the honeycomb. And as it burned, the honeycomb gave out a refreshing fragrance that

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filled the room. And of course, from the text, this fragrance had to have been myrrh. So the divine messenger stands at each of the cardinal points, though the text only tells us of two, but I’m pretty darn sure the ritual was conducted to all four cardinal points from all of the other examples that we see in the ancient world. And he holds the honeycomb out and then blood comes out of his finger. So what does this ritual mean?

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From this, the reader’s supposed to see the association between the honey, the myrrh, the blood-colored resin of the tree, and the blood sacrifice of Christ. In fact, it’s very likely that the divine messenger that appeared to Azanath here could have been Christ himself. And as you long-time listeners know, the number four in the ancient world symbolized geographic totality.

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and point to the four directions of the world and have blood come from his hand, symbolized that his blood sacrifice had the ability to atone for the cosmic and spiritual wounds inflicted on the entire world. That’s some powerful symbolism. All of this brings me to the Christmas tree. And you’ve probably already surmised in this episode that the Christmas tree is a modern day expression or symbol.

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of the Tree of Life. The actual origin of the Christmas trees is a bit hazy, but scholars are pretty confident that it’s a descendant of the worldwide phenomenon of the sacred tree in the ancient world. The encyclopedia Britannica says this, quote, evergreen trees became part of Christian rites in Germany. And in the Middle Ages, quote, paradise trees began to appear there, meant to represent the Garden of Eden.

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These evergreen trees were hung with apples. Other decorations were added. Martin Luther reportedly first hung lighted candles on a tree in the 16th century. And paradise trees evolved into Christmas trees. As we’ve seen in the ancient world, the sacred tree symbolized God.

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So whether Christians recognize it or not, the Christmas tree standing in their living room is meant to be a symbol of Christ. He is the tree. If you’re a Christian, this Christmas, as you gaze upon your Christmas tree, give a little thought to the gifts of the tree, especially the gift of the tree, it’s leaves and sap to heal the king, the hero, and…

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hoppers’ wounds. That’s it for me. In our next episode, we’ll unlock the meaning of the Christmas wreath and the partridge in the pear tree and maybe even the mistletoe. For now, I’ll leave you with the words of William Shakespeare. Knowledge is the wing wherwith we fly to heaven. I’m Jack Logan.

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You’ve been listening to the Ancient Tradition. A Wonk Media Production.