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. Great to have you with me today. Welcome to all of our new listeners and all of the long time listeners. Great to have you with us. I hope you’re enjoying your summer. The aim of this podcast is to reconstruct the original religious tradition imparted to human beings in deep antiquity. To do this, we’ve structured the episodes sequentially so that each new episode builds off of the previous episodes.

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kind of like building a house, we’re building the ancient tradition from the ground up. So if you hear anything in this episode that’s new to you or that you wanna learn more about, go back and check out the earlier episodes because there’s a lot of great foundational information in those episodes that can help set the stage, not only for today’s episode, but for all of the episodes that are yet to come. Today’s episode is titled,

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and he went a little further. We’ve been talking quite a bit over the past couple of episodes about the significance of the Sacred Center, the nucleus, the heart, the hub, the bosom of the Selfless Son’s cosmic kingdom. The kingdom he received as his inheritance from his father for slaying the dragon, the rebellious son. It’s kind of impossible to overemphasize the importance

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and the sacredness of the supernal center in the ancient world and even in the religions that we see today. As astounding as this sounds, every single religion in the ancient world and nearly all of the religious traditions today are built upon the exact same theological concept, the theology of the sacred center. Now this just shouldn’t be the case

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There should be much, much greater theological variety than this. You know, how is it possible that every single religious tradition from Shintoism to Buddhism, to Christianity, to Native American folk traditions, to the ancient Canaanite religion, to the Chaldean religion, to Chinese folk religions, to Judaism and Islam, to the religion of the Maya and Aztecs and Olmecs, to the shaman of Mongolia have at their core.

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the same religious conception and theological emphasis on a supernally sacred center? That’s a very, very difficult question for archaeologists and anthropologists and theologians to answer. As you’re gonna soon see, there’s just so much evidence for this claim. You’re gonna actually probably grow a little weary of the examples that I give you.

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But stick with me because you’re gonna learn a lot and you’ll see that the sacred center is a stubborn bit par none, which to me is undeniable evidence that the religions of today sprung from a single original religious tradition in deep antiquity. Do you remember Rene Gounon? He’s the erudite French intellectual and metaphysician that we’ve talked about several times on the program.

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And he says this of the Sacred Center on page 57 of his seminal book, Symbols of Sacred Science. He says, quote, the center is of the greatest importance in all ancient religious traditions. The center is before all else, the origin, the point of departure of all things. It is the principle point.

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radiation all things are produced. Historian of religion, Marcella Eliotti, who we’ve also talked about several times on the program, writes on page 37 of his book, The Sacred and the Profane, quote, We everywhere find the symbolism of the center of the world. And it is this symbolism which in the majority of cases,

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explains religious behavior. And then he goes on on page 43 and he says, it seems an inescapable conclusion that the religious man sought to live as near as possible to the center of the world. He knew that his country lay at the midpoint of the earth. He knew too that his city constituted the navel of the universe and above all that the temple or the palace were veritably centers of the world.

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The man of traditional societies felt the need to live at the center always.

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Before I jump into all of the evidence for this in the upcoming episodes, I wanna say a few more things about the sacred center in early Christianity, which we learned over the past couple of episodes was marked by the foundation stone. In the previous episode, we examined the theology of the foundation stone among the Jews and the early Christians, which paralleled, we learned, the theology of the foundation stone found throughout the ancient world.

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The stone was believed to seal off or cap or work as a stopper to hold down the waters of chaos, to pin down the sea serpent, to close off the mouth of the Tehom or the gates of hell. Eliade relates the slaying or the pinning of the dragon to foundation-laying ceremonies that he’s seen around the world. And he writes this.

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This is on page 54 and 55 of the sacred and profane. Quote, before the masons lay the first stone, the astronomer shows them the spot where it is to be placed. And this spot is supposed to lie above the snake that supports the world. The master mason sharpens a stake and drives it into the ground exactly at the indicated spot in order to

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fix the snake’s head. A foundation stone is then laid above the stake. Thus, the corner stone is at the exact center of the world. But in addition, the act of foundation repeats the cosmogonic act, for to drive the stake into the snake’s head to fix it is to imitate the primordial gesture of Soma or Indra.

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when the ladder as the Rig Veda, so we’re talking about Hinduism here, expresses it, quote, struck the snake in his lair. That’s found in the Rig Veda 4.17.9. When his lightning bolt, quote, cut off its head, that’s found in the Rig Veda 1.2.10. As we said, the snake symbolizes chaos to behead it.

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is equivalent to an act of creation. Note how so much theology comes together in Eliade’s passage. Take special note that the foundation stone is directly tied to the slaying or pinning of the dragon. So this is very, very important. See, according to Eliade, among the Hindu, and also what we saw in Jewish legend and Japanese myth, the foundation stone is what slays

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or pins the dragon. A stone, in this case, the foundation stone, can symbolically represent a lot of things. But one of the primary meanings of lithic symbolism is immovable righteousness or rightness. So here we are back to the cosmic law of ma’a or tzedek. In the ancient world, when one’s referred to as a stone, a precious stone or a pillar,

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This is akin to saying that that person is a person of immovable righteousness. He or she is a person who completely upholds the cosmic law of rightness, which was what Christ was referring to when he renamed Simon Barjona Petros, a rock. And don’t forget it’s by abiding by the cosmic law of rightness that one is gifted the power and authority to establish order, to over…

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the cosmic wounds of disorder caused by the dragon. I have a lot I’d love to add to this point, but I want to save it for our discussion on Thrones. But you should be aware that the relationship between the foundation stone and the Cosmic Law of Rightness is explicit in the iconography of the ancient world. For example.

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In ancient Egypt, wherever we see depictions of Osiris seated on his heavenly throne, he’s always seated on a throne which rests atop a dais, an elevated mound. And you can see pictures of this on the web page for this episode. According to the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at UCLA, which publishes the Encyclopedia of Egyptology.

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We read this of the throne dais upon which Osiris sits and pay special attention to how the dais is directly connected to the creation and maat. It reads, quote, the king’s enthronization upon a dais was intended to recall and reenact the first time, which in Egyptian is zeptepe.

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the time of the establishment of cosmic order and equilibrium, Maat. When the sun god descended upon the primeval hill, which we’ve talked about a lot on the program, and created the world in its proper god-given state, this is why the throne could also be referred to as she who keeps alive Maat. In this explanation,

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We learned that the dais represents the Edenic primordial hill that rose out of the primordial waters, which came about as a result of cosmic order established by way of Maat. Thus the dais itself upon which Osiris’ throne sits symbolizes Maat. Osiris reigns by right of his immovable rightness.

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Maat. The association between the dais, the throne, and Maat is also found in the pyramid texts. And we can find it in pyramid text 503, which is found in King Pepe the First Pyramid. In this passage, note how the throne is connected to other things we’ve discussed on the program. The James Allen translation reads, quote, I am anointed with first class oil.

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and clothed in top class linen. And I sit, referring to the throne, on that which makes Maat live. So he the king sits upon Maat. He sits upon rightness. His kingdom’s built on rightness or righteousness. The Mercer translation of the same text, of Pyramid Text 503, reads, quote,

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and seat myself upon the throne of truth, which makes alive. I like how it says makes alive because it connotates the ability that Ma’at gives one to create, to make alive. Recall that the ancient Egyptians stylized the Primordial Hill in the form of the Benben stone, the foundation stone. So we could just as easily infer that King Osiris’ throne, which is called here in the pyramid text Ma’at,

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sat atop the ben ben stone, the foundation stone. Thus, we see a conflation here between the foundation stone and maat. The stone and maat are one and the same. Here, like we argued earlier, we see that the stone represents symbolically immovable rightness. That’s the foundation upon which the universe was created.

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This is in complete conformity with and more evidence for the argument that the entire cosmos, even down to the order of subatomic particles, operates according to the cosmic law of rightness. Rightness is the elusive grand theory of everything that astrophysicists have been searching for, as argued in episode number 28, Who is God? Lord of Ma’at.

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King of Zedek. While I was reading UCLA’s write-up on ancient Egyptian thrones, I noticed another really interesting reference to something else that we’ve talked about on the program. Listen to what it says about the lexical meaning of the ancient Egyptian words that were used for the throne. It says, quote, ST,

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connotate the throne, are derived from lexical roots denoting to rest or BHDW, HDB. Those are also Egyptian words that were used for the throne. Mean come to rest. Words semantically related to throne often show graphically like steps or a dais.

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and they indicate that the object was, quote, a place of rest. So fascinating. I’m always amazed at how everything we talk about on the program adds up. So here we see that Osiris reigns on a foundation of immovable rightness. Ma’at is the foundation stone upon which his kingdom is founded. That’s what’s fixed. That’s what’s immovable. It’s his rightness.

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That’s what the i-chronography conveys. And i-chronography is theology. And don’t forget that it was Osiris’ immovable rightness, his upholding of Ma’at, that enabled him to come off triumphant over the dragon. It’s all tied together. With this understanding, we can now easily see why the stone, immovable rightness, is the object that seals off the Tehom.

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that pins the dragon, that shuts the gates of hell. All of this brings me back to early Christianity. I wanna take you to the New Testament, to Matthew chapter 14. In this chapter, we learn of the famous story of Christ walking on the water. Now, there are many layers to what can be learned from what is written in the New Testament. But with the ancient Near Eastern background that we now have of the Primordial waters,

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the sea dragon that lurks in those waters, the ark, ma’at, and tzedek. Listen to the story anew. See if you can gain some new insights. Starting in verse 22, it reads, in straightway, Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, but the ship was now in the midst of the sea. So note that we’re talking about a ship, which could be akin to the ark.

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and that this arc is in the midst or the middle or the center of the sea. Here, tossed with waves for the wind was contrary. So you should hear echoes here of the Japanese Namatsu causing havoc and earthquakes. This is what the sea monster that lives in the water does. He wrecks havoc, causes horrific disorder, even in the natural world. And in the fourth watch of the night,

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Jesus went into them, walking on the sea. Now, what do you think is meant by Christ walking on the sea? What is Christ symbolizing by walking on the water? Well, this gets pretty interesting because now we’re getting into the symbolism of feet. As many of you know, Christ before his crucifixion washed his disciples feet. So this is not a trivial matter.

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Here, Jesus walks on the chaotic waters with his feet. We learned that after he walks on the waters and returns to the ship, the wind quote, ceased. The havoc stopped, the waters were subdued. To understand a little bit more of what’s going on here, we need to return to the Enuma Elish, the Mesopotamian epic of creation, tablet four. In this passage, the selfless son of the high God, Marduk,

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volunteers to battle the awful sea monster Tiamat who lurks in the terrible chaotic primordial waters. The rebellious monster that’s causing havoc to the high gods kingdom. Marduk with the help of special weapons gifted him by the high god takes the battle to the sea monster. We’ve covered this many times on the program but there’s an important point I want to make here. The passage reads quote he shot an arrow which pierced her belly

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split her down the middle and slit her heart, vanquished her and extinguished her life. But then listen to what he did next. The passage says, quote, he threw down her corpse and stood on top of her. Now, I envision Marduk here standing above the sea monster, a sword in his hand and a foot on the sea monster’s throat.

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This passage where Marduk, quote, stood on top of her conveys that the sea monster is under Marduk’s complete subjugation. In the iconography of the ancient world, we see many depictions of kings standing on the throat of their enemies. This was the quintessential way of depicting the king’s triumph or victory over the Leviathan or the enemies that threatened his kingdom.

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In the Matthew account, we get the same visual of Christ the King walking on the waters, subduing the terrible enemy. Christ has the power to do this because of his immovable rightness. So here we see symbolic parity between the stone and the foot. The stone pins the dragon, whereas the foot subjugates the dragon. In both cases, the dragon is conquered.

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by Maat or tzedek, by righteousness. We see a similar reference to this in the Old Testament in 2 Samuel 22. In this verse, King David praises the Lord. Note the connection in these verses between the rock, deliverance from enemies, ungodliness associated with water or floods.

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the subjugation of enemies underfoot, and the importance of righteousness. Starting in verse two, King David says this of the Lord, quote, the Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer. I will call on the Lord who is worthy to be praised. So shall I be saved from my enemies, the floods of ungodly.

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men made me afraid. He bowed the heavens and came down and darkness was under his feet. And the channels of the sea appeared. The foundations of the world were discovered at the rebuking of the Lord.” I like that, the rebuking of the Lord. There’s divine utterance again. He sent from above. He took me. He drew me out of many waters.

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He delivered me from my strong enemy. The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness. Thou hast given me the necks of mine enemies that I might destroy them. Then did I beat them as small as the dust of the earth. I did stamp them as the mire of the street. Blessed be my rock.

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and exalted be the God of the rock of my salvation.” Man alive! Everything is in there! There are quite a few parallels in this chapter, 2 Samuel chapter 22, between what happens to King David and what happens to Peter in the Matthew 14 account. Ultimately, they both realize that it’s the Lord who gives them the power to conquer the enemy. Or, as we’d say in Matthew chapter 14 vernacular,

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the power to walk on the water. Second Samuel 22 and Matthew chapter 14 are worth studying side by side. In these chapters, the Lord teaches King David and Peter that with his help, they too can conquer the dragon. So why is it that King David and Peter need Christ’s help to conquer the dragon? Why can’t they just do it themselves? For the answer to that,

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we need to return to the foundation stone. In the last episode, we established that in preparation for a sacrifice, both the patriarch Abraham and King David built an altar, and they built the altar right on top of the foundation stone on Mount Moriah. I’d like to pause here for a second and point out that this is another one of those stubborn bits that we see amongst virtually all of the religious traditions in the world.

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Have you ever wondered why virtually every single religious tradition builds and uses altars? Altars upon which adherents make sacrifices or upon which they make offerings. This is another one of those things that we just shouldn’t see. There’s absolutely nothing in the notion of religion itself that necessitates or demands the incorporation of or use of altars. What we should see is a myriad of different religious practices.

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with maybe a few altars and sacrifices here and there, but we should find that the vast majority of them don’t have altars or perform sacrifices. We should instead find incredible variety and diversity in religious practice. But again, we don’t. We see altars and sacrifices as core theological tenants, not ancillary niceties in virtually every single.

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religious tradition. It’s a striking, stubborn bit that we’re going to delve into more in a couple of months. I, of course, argue that this is because the religious traditions of today sprung from a single pure religious tradition that was revealed to human beings in deep antiquity. A religious tradition where sacrifices made on an altar were a primary theological tenet. So back to the altars.

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built atop the foundation stone on Mount Moriah. Most Christians probably recognize that the altar built by Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac and the altar built by King David on Mount Moriah were types of Christ’s sacrifice that was yet to come. These accounts foreshadowed that Christ’s sacrifice was to take place in the holiest realm of the cosmos in the

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the center of the universe, the center of the world. And how do we know that? We know that because that’s exactly where the foundation stone was laid and where Abraham and David built their altars. The stone marked the center of Christ’s kingdom where the creation of his kingdom was initiated. What most…

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Christians don’t realize is that there’s pretty sound biblical evidence to suggest that Christ performed his atoning sacrifice in the Holy of Holies of his royal temple For starters, it was upon the foundation stone that the selfless son planned to build a very very special and sacred building like we’ve seen in the annals of the ancient world a building where he could rest and dwell and reign it over his cosmic kingdom

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from the very beginning. The foundation stone was to serve as the foundation for a building, his royal temple. Just like we see in the material world, the foundation is always laid for a building. We see a clear foreshadowing that Christ would perform his atoning sacrifice in the holy of holies of his temple in Leviticus chapter 16.

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where we’re told that the high priest entered the Holy of Holies once a year on what we know today as Yom Kippur. And he did that to atone for the sins of the Israelite people. Leviticus chapter 16 verses 30 and 32 to 34 read, and this is the King James Version, quote, For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you.

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ye may be cleaned from all of your sins before the Lord. And the priest whom he shall anoint and whom he shall consecrate to minister in the priest’s office in his father’s stead shall make the atonement and shall put on the linen clothes even the holy garments and he shall make an atonement for the Holy Sanctuary and this shall be an everlasting statue unto you to make an atonement for the children of Israel for all their sins once a year.”

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and he did as the Lord commanded Moses. This rite was performed in the Holy of Holies. On Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, the priest would enter the Holy of Holies alone and he’d sprinkle the blood of the sacrificial animal on the mercy seat, God’s throne, to atone for the sins of the children of Israel. Did you note in these verses how the high priest was anointed? See, the high priest represented the Messiah.

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the anointed one whom the right foreshadowed would atone for the sins of the world. In the New Testament in Hebrews, and you know I love Hebrews, we’re told that Jesus is the great high priest. Hebrews chapter four verse 14 reads, quote, seeing then that we have a great high priest, Jesus, the son of God. In this verse, we’re told that Christ is the great high priest.

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And we know from Leviticus that it’s the high priest who enters the Holy of Holies to atone for the sins of Israel. But what about the actual description of Christ’s atonement in the New Testament? Is there anything in the New Testament biblical account that suggests Christ performed his atoning sacrifice in the cosmic center of his kingdom in the Holy of Holies of his temple? There is, and it’s some pretty compelling evidence.

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Let’s take a look at the Gospel of Matthew chapter 26. While I read this account, listen for clues in the text, the point to Christ having performed his atoning sacrifice in the Holy of Holies of his temple. Starting in verse 36, the King James Version reads, quote, then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane and saith unto the disciples,

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see ye here while I go and pray yonder. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith he unto them, my soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death, tarry ye here and watch with me. And he went a little further and fell on his face and prayed. Okay, after this we learn in Luke chapter 22 verse 44 that

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Christ sweat great drops of blood, similar to the brutal squeezing of oil out of olives as is done by an olive press. Okay, so you’ve probably, if you’re Christian, you’ve probably read these verses several times. So what are in these verses that I just read that point to Christ having performed his atoning act in the Holy of Holies? For starters, let’s note that we’re in a garden.

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not in King Herod’s temple. At the time of King Herod, the Holy of Holies was actually empty. The ark was not present. It had been lost or hidden during the Babylonian conquest. So if Christ did perform the atoning sacrifice in the Holy of Holies, it was not in the Holy of Holies of a brick and mortar building. It would have to have been in a holy sanctuary similar to the Garden of Eden sanctuary or the Mount Sinai mountain sanctuary.

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that we learned about in Exodus. In episode number four, did God reveal the ancient tradition in the Garden of Eden? We learned that in both of these cases, the Garden of Eden sanctuary and the Mount Sinai sanctuary that the biblical text indicated that the sanctuary was divided into three levels of holiness. In the Garden of Eden account, number one, you have Eden, number two, within Eden, you have a garden,

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And number three, in the center of the garden, you have the tree of life. The tree of life, of course, as we learned on the podcast, represents God seated on his throne in the midst of his garden temple. The closer and closer one got to the tree, the holier and holier the ground. Eden was holy, the garden was holier, and the tree of life was the holiest of all, the holy of holies.

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and we saw the same tripart division of holiness in the Mount Sinai account. In that account, we had number one, you had the Israelite people that were camped at the base of the mount. Number two, in Exodus chapter 24, verse one, we learned that Moses took Aaron and 70 of the elders of Israel with him partway up the mount. And number three, in verse two, we learned that the Lord commanded that Moses alone was to ascend to the top.

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where in verse 17 we learned that he saw God. It reads, and the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the Mount. See, Moses sees God in the holiest of all places, in the Holy of Holies. If you wanna learn more about the tripartite division of holiness, you can find it in episode number four. As always, it’s worth a listen.

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It’s also worth giving episode number 29, who is God a glorious being of ineffable light, a listen. In that episode, you’ll learn why God appears like devouring fire. The tripartite division of holiness that we see in these biblical texts is a clue that we’re talking about where God dwells, God’s royal temple. The question is, do we find any reference to a tripartite division of holiness in the Matthew 26 account?

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Christ’s atoning sacrifice. We do. So I’m going to read it again and see if you can pick up the tripartite division of holiness in the same thing I just read. Quote, then cometh Jesus with them and them here refers to as apostles and disciples unto a place called Gethsemane and saith unto the disciples sit ye

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while I go and pray yonder. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. Tarry ye here and watch with me. And he went a little further and fell on his face and prayed. Okay, so did you pick it up? I’m guessing that you did.

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In these verses, we clearly see a tripartite division of holiness. Number one, Christ takes his disciples to Gethsemane and he invites all of them, but Peter, James and John to sit. Now, I don’t know if they were inside or outside of the garden at this point, but I’m going to suggest that they may have been just right outside the garden. If they were where they sat would be directly akin to the land of Eden or the base of Mount Sinai.

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where the Israelites set up camp. This is holy ground. Number two, Christ then takes Peter, James, and John and goes, quote, yonder into the garden of Gethsemane. This would be akin to being in the Garden of Eden or partway up Mount Sinai like the elders of Israel. After proceeding yonder into the garden, Christ

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turns to Peter, James, and John and says, quote, “‘Tary ye here and watch with me.’ This is holier ground. Number three, after Christ asks Peter, James, and John to tarry at a certain location in the garden, the text says, quote, and he went a little further. Based on what we’ve learned from the Garden of Eden and Mount Sinai accounts,

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it’s safe to presume that Christ went, if not literally, at least symbolically into the midst, the very heart of the Garden of Gethsemane, where in the other two accounts stood the Tree of Life, or God who appeared as devouring fire, and there atoned for the sins of the world. This is the holiest ground.

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holiest of all ground, the Holy of Holies. And note that Christ is not only in a garden, he’s in a garden of trees, olive trees. So you should see a direct connection here between Christ, the tree of life, and the sap of the tree, the myrrh oil. The tripartite division of holiness in the Matthew 26 accounts pretty undeniable.

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It clearly indicates that Christ atoned for the sins of the world in the Holy of Holies of his temple. But why does this matter? Why does it matter where Christ performed his sacrifice? Well, that’s a great question. It matters because the Holy of Holies is different from anywhere else in the cosmos. And those differences have profound spiritual and theological implications in regards to his sacrifice.

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To shed a little light on this, we need to return to Oxford trained biblical scholar Margaret Barker, who I’ve mentioned before, wrote one of the best books that I’ve ever read titled The Great High Priest. It’s not an easy read. It’s not leisurely mind you, but it’s incredibly enlightening. On page 188 and 89 of this book, Barker notes that in the mosaic tabernacle and in King Solomon’s temple, a large curtain referred to as the veil.

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separated the holy place from the holy of holies. She writes, quote, the veil which screened the holy of holies was also the boundary between earth and heaven. Now, lots of Christian scholars know that there’s this curtain or veil that separates the holy place from the holy of holies.

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Here though, she helps us understand why that curtain was there. It was there because it was a boundary. It set the boundary between the earthly experience and the heavenly world. And this is a really important doctrinal point. The veil represented the boundary between the earthly world and the heavenly realm. And when one passed through the veil, one entered heaven. Now think about that in the context of Christ’s atoning sacrifice.

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Barker continues, quote, texts such as Psalm 11, which reads, quote, the Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven, suggests that the Holy of Holies was thought to be heaven. Those who entered the Holy of Holies were entering heaven. So for Christ to atone for the sins of the world in the Holy of Holies means that he passed through this veil into the

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Barker goes on to explain that the Holy of Holies or heaven, where God dwells, differs from this earthly realm in at least two very important aspects. Number one, as we’ve discussed previously on the program, where God dwells is not bound by terrestrial time. There’s no time as we know it there. The ancients knew this. In episode number 30, the grand primordial singularity, where we discuss the cosmic egg, which is

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symbol of the Holy of Holies, we noted that the ancients, just like modern-day astrophysicists, contended that time itself began only after the cosmic egg cracked open, the Big Bang, and filled the expanse with light. The ancients understood that the notion of temporal time did not exist before that moment. The ancients understood that where God dwelt, it was timeless. Barker writes,

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the Holy of Holies was beyond time. To enter the Holy of Holies was to enter eternity. In terms of Christ’s sacrifice, the implications of this are quite profound. If Christ performed his atoning sacrifice in the Holy of Holies as the biblical record attests, this would mean that his sacrifice would cover everyone in his kingdom, regardless of when they lived, past, present or future. It would truly be an eternal sacrifice.

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It would not be bound by time precisely because it was performed in the Holy of Holies in the eternal world. In Hebrews chapter nine, verses 11 to 12, we find even more textual evidence that he performed his sacrifice in the Holy of Holies. It reads, quote, but Christ being come and high priest of good things to come by his own blood

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He entered in once into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. This verse is quite clear when it says that Christ redeemed mankind by his blood, when he quote, entered in once into the Holy Place. Number two, the second way the Holy of Holies differs from the earthly realm is that it is not bound by space. On page 193, the great high priest Barker writes, quote,

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history seen in the Holy of Holies was history seen outside the limitations of space. So for Christ to enter the Holy of Holies to perform his sacrifice was for him to pass beyond what Marker calls the quote constraints of place. Do you remember in in episode number 26 of Cosmic Kingdom how we read in

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who was the Ugaritic selfless son, was told that upon defeating the rebellious son, Yam, he would inherit a quote, eternal kingdom. The same thing that we also find promised to Christ in Psalm chapter 145 verse 13. And eternal kingdom is a whole, whole, whole bunch of space. It’s basically infinite space, something that most of us can’t even wrap our brains around.

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So for Christ’s sacrifice to cover all of his creations, past, present, and future, his sacrifice must need be performed in a location where it would not be bound by the limitations or constraints of space, thereby making it a spatially eternal sacrifice. The Holy of Holies, where God dwells, is not bound by time or space, because those are temporal things.

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When you cross through the veil and you cross through that curtain, you enter the eternal world. It’s infinite then in every possible imagination of the word. Thus for Christ to perform his atoning sacrifice there in the Holy of Holies, his sacrifice too would be infinite.

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I know this is an incredibly difficult concept for our finite mortal minds to comprehend, but that’s what the theology of the Holy of Holies dictates. I hope you’re starting to appreciate the magnitude of the theology taught by the ancients. It’s here that I need to stop for a second to talk about how the Sacred Center is sometimes symbolized, which we’ll continue to do in our next episode as well.

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star was sometimes used to represent the center and the god who occupied that center. We see this as early as ancient Mesopotamia. Do you remember the high god An or Anu, the king of the gods, the father of the Anunnaki? Well guess how his name is written in cuneiform, the ancient Mesopotamian wedge-shaped writing system. Yep, as an 8-

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or eight wedged star. You can see a picture of it on the webpage for this episode. The name An or Anu is not only the proper name the Sumerians gave the king of the gods, but it’s also the name the Sumerians gave heaven. The word An or Anu meant either the king of the gods or heaven, the realm where the king of the gods dwelt, depending on the context. In both cases, the ancient Sumerians used an eight

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star to symbolize the word on or on you. Okay, so why an eight-pointed star? For starters, note that it’s a star. We’ve already discussed on the program how stars were used in ancient world to represent a deified king, which is clearly apropos here because the Sumerian god An is both a king and a god. If you recall,

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We saw the association between stars and deity quite clearly in ancient Egypt when we learned in the pyramid texts that a dead pharaoh, if he followed the proper rituals, would join the imperishable stars as a god in the afterlife. He’d reign as a heavenly king along with the other heavenly kings that filled the heavens. Eunice Taylor in the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada writes, quote,

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Light and darkness were symbolic of good and evil. And in all cuneiform and hieroglyphic languages, the sign for God was a star. Thus, from remotest antiquity, primitive peoples have looked with awe upon the stars. In episode number 29, Who is God? A Glorious Being of Ineffable Light, we learned that those who uphold Ma’at,

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the cosmic law of rightness actually shine. They become beings of ineffable light. So stars which shine are a beautiful expression of this. Okay, but why eight points? Well, they use the eight points to mark the center, the sacred center where God dwells. Don’t forget, this is exactly how the Sumerians are using it. They’re using the eight pointed star to designate heaven.

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where God dwells, which we know is the sacred center of the cosmos. In fact, if you check out the webpage for this episode, you’ll see a drawing of a ninth century BC depiction of a statue of Marduk, the Mesopotamian selfless son, where the top of the royal vestment that he’s wearing is covered in eight pointed stars. If you’ll recall, we’ve talked to numerous times on the program.

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about how our word temple is likely derived from the ancient Roman word temenos, which was the word that they used to name the spot where two perpendicular lines crossed. And we’ve also learned on this program that in the ancient world, the ancients used the four cardinal points to represent geographic totality, geographic space. So four of the points of the eight-pointed star make up an equilateral cross, where each arm

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points to one of the four cardinal points, north, south, east, and west. Where those arms cross, where the four geographical points come together, we have a temenos, we have a temple, a heavenly temple where God dwells. Four of the eight points symbolize that God dwells in the spatial center of all things. So what about the other four points of the star? What do those points symbolize?

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Any guesses? If you guessed time, then you’re starting to think like the ancients, because yes, the other four points represent time. But how? If you know the answer to that, then you are probably paying really close attention to episode number 30, the grand primordial singularity, when we talked about Stonehenge. If you remember, Stonehenge is oriented to the Solstice.

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If you draw a line through where the northern summer solstice sun and the southern winter solstice sun rise on the horizon to where the sun sets on the spring and fall equinox due west, it creates a diagonal cross across that widens or narrows depending on one’s latitude. In another episode, I may explain this in greater depth, but suffice it to say that this diagonal cross marked the center of the

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time. All over the world we find that the ancients aligned their temples to the Solstice or Equinox sun so that the sun’s rays would penetrate the very heart of the temple, the Holy of Holies, Stonehenge or wherever it may be, the sacred center with a glorious light. The four points of the diagonal cross create, yet again, a temenos, signifying that

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dwells in his temple in the center of time. When you put the equilateral and diagonal crosses together you get an eight-pointed star, a star that encapsulates the notion that God dwells in the center of both time and space, the sacred center beyond the constraints of time and space, the sacred center where the very notions of time and space dissolve.

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as Barker said, to enter there is to enter eternity. From this, we can clearly see why the ancients used the eight pointed star to represent not only the high God, but the Holy of Holies, where he dwelt in the cosmos. In the New Testament Revelation chapter one, we see the same thing. In verse eight, Christ says the same of himself. He tells us that he’s not bound by time.

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And I want to stress in this first that it’s Christ himself speaking. The verse reads, quote, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is and which was and which is to come, the Almighty. Did you notice how he mentions that all things are wrapped up in him, past, present and future? That’s what he’s saying when he says which is.

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and which was and which is to come. Interestingly, the modern day symbol for infinity, something that is unlimited, endless and without bound, is a figure that looks like the number eight lying on its side. This mathematical symbol for infinity was actually developed in 1655 AD by John Wallace, who was a professor of geometry at the University of Oxford.

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John Wallace never explained to anyone where he got this symbol or why he used it to symbolize mathematical infinities. So it’s purely conjectured to suggest that it has anything to do with the number eight, but the thought of it’s kind of fun to entertain. It may have just been that the symbol reflected the notion that one could travel endlessly and endlessly around each curve. But I personally still like that it shaped like the number eight. This brings me back to early Christianity.

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Is there anything in the early Christian tradition that suggests Christ was associated with the number eight and or the eight pointed snore? There is and it’s actually pretty interesting. For example, Christ was raised from the dead on the first day of the week, which was also the eighth day if one counted the days continuously. As such, the number eight came to represent resurrection, a new birth.

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or a new creation, which is why it’s also associated with baptism. All across the Christian world, you can find examples of baptismal fonts or baptismal basins built in the shape of an octagon. If it’s an indoor baptismal font or basin, and you happen to look up, look at the ceiling, you may even see an eight-pointed star directly above the font.

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Saint Augustine of Hippo, a fifth century AD theologian and philosopher, even directly connected the number eight to the notion of eternity, just like we just did. In Book 22 of Augustine’s monumental work, The City of God, he says, quote, The seventh shall be our Sabbath, which shall be brought to a close, not by an evening, but by the Lord’s day, as an eight and eternal day.

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prefiguring the eternal repose. There’s rest. This is what shall be in the end without end. For what other end do we propose to ourselves than to attain to the kingdom of which there is no end?” So here again we see the connection between where God resides, the number eight, the Holy of Holies, and eternity.

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What’s truly intriguing is how the name Jesus in Greek is connected to the number eight. In Greek, Jesus is Iesous and it’s spelled I-E-S-O-U-S. In parts of the ancient world, peoples like the Jews and Greeks used a system known as Dematria, where they assigned a numerical value to each letter of the alphabet. In Greek, Dematria, the letters of Jesus’s name, I-E-S-O-U-S.

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has the numerical values 10, 8, 200, 70, 400, and 200, which adds up to 8, 8, 8. So the numerical value of Jesus’ name in Greek was 888. We also see in Revelation chapter 22 verse 16, that Christ refers to himself as the quote, bright morning star.

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In the King James Version of this verse, it reads, quote, I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David and the bright and morning star. So note that Christ is referring to himself as a star, which again is in keeping with the ancient symbolic association between gods and stars. In biblical scholarship,

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It’s well established that the morning star here refers to the planet Venus, which is exceptionally bright and can be seen in the Eastern sky right before sunrise. The thing that’s interesting about Christ symbolically linking himself to the morning star is that every eight years, the orbit of the planet Venus traces out a perfect pentagram in the night sky. And you can see a picture of it on the webpage for this episode.

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We haven’t talked about this on the program yet, but the pentagram is a symbol for perfection because the specific proportions and angles of the pentagram are linked to the golden ratio, which is a mathematical ratio that’s associated with beauty and harmony. And it’s from the original angles that an infinite number of pentagrams can be reproduced. You take each point of the pentagram and you use those as a starting point to draw a smaller pentagram.

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And then from there it’s possible to make a smaller and a smaller and a smaller pentagram each time. And you can do that forever. So here we also get the notion of not only perfection, but also infinity. It’s an eternal pentagram. By Christ symbolically associating himself with the morning star, he’s emphasizing his divinity, perfection, and the infinite nature of his being and his kingdom.

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It’s worth noting though for us that it takes eight years, which symbolizes in part rebirth, to accomplish perfection, from which is produced an infinity of perfect stars. And there’s some profound theology there, which we’ll develop as the podcast progresses. So yes, there’s plenty in the ancient world to associate Christ with the number eight. And there’s actually a lot more than I’ve mentioned here, but I’m gonna save those.

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for an upcoming episode. My point in this episode is that in the Christian tradition, Christ performed his atoning sacrifice on the foundation stone, which symbolized that his kingdom was built on setic, his immovable righteousness. And this was done in the sacred center of his kingdom, the Holy of Holies, which was symbolized in the ancient world by the eight pointed star and represented

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eternal nature both unbound by time and space of his kingdom. I had hoped in this episode to explain why King David and Peter couldn’t slay the dragon on their own and why they needed Christ’s help, but we’ll tackle that in our next episode. I want to end this episode on one note of caution. You know, I’m always hesitant in these episodes to provide a one-for-one meaning for a particular symbol like the foundation stone or the eight point is dark because

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That’s not how religious symbols work. The ancients used symbols to express the contours of spiritual reality, precisely because symbols are not unilateral. Yes, unilateral is actually a word. In linguistic context, it’s used to describe where a single symbol represents a single letter, not more than one. Religious symbols do not work this way.

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The ancients used symbols to transmit knowledge about the spiritual realm precisely because religious symbols have the ability to pack multiple facets and layers upon layers of meaning into a single symbol. For example, we know the foundation stone symbolizes so much more than where God initiated the creation. Hopefully you now realize it symbolizes the sacred center of the selfless sun’s kingdom.

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It represents where the four corners of the earth converge. It represents where God dwells. It represents the Holy of Holies. It represents where the selfless sun reigns on his throne. It represents the founding principle of Maat, righteousness, and it represents the selfless sun himself. And probably a whole lot more that we haven’t even touched on.

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See, there isn’t just one meaning for the symbol of the foundation stone. There are layers and layers and layers there. But also note how they all reinforce and correspond with one another. That’s one of the ways that you can know that you’re on the right track. So when I argue that the eight-pointed star symbolizes the center of time and space, know that, yes, it does. But also know that there’s a whole lot more packed into that little symbol.

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that’s worth pondering. And some of it we will definitely hit upon in a future episode. This is why religious symbols are worth studying and pondering. There’s so much depth to them, if only you’re willing to take the time to do so. To close out this episode, I also wanna let you know that I’m be taking a couple of weeks off for summer travel, like I did last summer. I am anxious to get out into the national parks.

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and gaze upon the glorious night sky and the imperishable stars that are there. So the next episode will be delayed a week or two. With that, I leave you with the words of William Shakespeare, knowledge is the wing we’re with, we fly to heaven. And if you have time tonight, why don’t you walk outside and look upon the stars?

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I’m Jack Logan.

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