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. It’s good to be back with all of you. It’s been a couple of weeks. It’s been a couple of fun weeks, but it is good to be back. Today’s episode is titled symbols of the sacred center, the circum punct and the bindu. In our last episode, I mentioned that in this episode that we’re going to try and tackle why it was that Peter in Matthew chapter 14 needed Christ’s assistance to walk.

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on the water to conquer the dragon. But I’ve decided that I’m not going to do that in this episode because there’s just so, so much in the ancient record that we still need to cover before an explanation of that’s going to make any theological sense. So I’m going to hold off on that. And before I actually jump into the core of today’s topic, I actually want to share a couple of neat things that I read while I was out traveling. Things that are directly connected to our discussions on the foundation stone. So I’m going to do that first.

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So while I was out, I read David Leeming’s book, The World of Myth. I’ve mentioned Dr. Leeming a couple of times on the program because he’s my go-to source for world myths. Dr. Leeming was trained at Princeton University in NYU, and he’s written a lot of books on mythology, in particular comparative mythology. If you’re interested in learning more about Dr. Leeming, he’s listed on our companion website, thea under Scholars.

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In episode 37, Petra, the Lit of Hell, I mentioned an interesting passage in the Zohar, which is a group of books on Judaic mysticism that are dated to about 1240 AD, which tell of God casting a stone into the abyss. In the Zohar volume 1, 231A, we read, quote, the world did not come into being until God took a certain stone, which is called the foundation stone.

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and cast it into the abyss so that it held fast there. And from it, the world was planted. This is the central point of the universe and on this point stands the Holy of Holies. Now compare this to what I read on page 32 of Leeming’s The World of Myth. In the passage that I’m gonna read, the God Cronos spews up a stone, which he thinks is one of his sons.

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So note too here how we’re getting the connection between the stone and the sun. Leeming writes, quote, the first he, and this is Cronos, spewed out was the stone. Now listen to what Cronos’ son Zeus does with the stone. The passage continues, quote, Zeus fixed it in the wide path earth on Holy Pytho in the glens of Parnassus to be a monument thereafter and a thing of wonder for mortal men.

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So what does Zeus do with the stone that Cronus spews out of heaven? He quote, fixes it on earth. But where on earth? On a mountain. But on which mountain? On Mount Parnassus. And what was Mount Parnassus? Mount Parnassus was the spot where the two eagles that Zeus dispatched, remember that? One to the west and one to the east, it’s where they met. So it was the mountain that marked the very center of the earth.

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Zeus fixed the stone there. So we’re talking about the Amphalos stone, the naval stone, the stone that marked the center of the world and the stone on which Apollo built his temple. In this myth I think it’s pretty intriguing that the stone was spewed out of heaven and that’s similar to what it says in the Zohar where we learned that the stone was cast from heaven. Not to mention that in both accounts the stone serves as the central point of the earth and or the universe.

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And do you remember in episode 35, Allah, al-Din, Ruwaq and Mecca, how we learned that Muslims believe that a black stone fell from heaven. So note again how the stone comes out of heaven again, and it marked the spot where Adam and Eve were to build an altar. Now listen to this account in China of the first man, the Chinese Adam, who’s referred to as the old yellow one.

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So on page 27 and 28 of Li Ming’s The World of Myth, Li Ming gives us the following Chinese account, which is dated to around 200 BC. Li Ming writes, quote, “‘As the first man watched the patterns of the sun, moon and stars, a gold being came down and stood before him.'” Okay, you know I gotta stop here. In this account,

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we learn that the Chinese atom known as the old yellow one already understands a few things about astronomy. He’s watching the movements of the sun and the moon and the stars, and he’s noticing patterns in the movements. And while he’s doing this, quote, a golden being came down. And by came down, we’re assuming that he came down from heaven.

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but also know how this being is referred to as a gold being. This should remind you of glorious beings of ineffable light, a being who upholds ma’a or tzedek. And since we’re talking about China here or one who upholds the way of the Tao. Individuals who do this, as we learned in episode number 29, take on more and more light until as the ancients say, they take on the appearance of fire or gold.

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So the one who came down to speak with the old yellow one, Chinese Adam, was a celestial being or a messenger of some sort. Now listen to what this being did. Li Ming writes, quote, the gold one taught the man now named the old yellow one. So what does the angelic being or messenger do? He teaches the Chinese Adam.

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Let me say that again. The gold one teaches the Chinese Adam. This should conjure up in your mind the main premise of this entire podcast, that God revealed a pure religious tradition to human beings from the very beginning, from the start to the first man. In this account, the Chinese are telling us that a gold-like being appeared to the first man and taught him things.

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And what did the Chinese tell us the Gold One taught him? Let’s continue. Li Ming writes, quote, the Gold One taught the man, now named the Old Yellow One, how to stay alive and how to read the sky. So from this account, we learned that this angelic messenger taught the Chinese Adam, quote, how to stay alive. And this of course could refer to how to stay alive physically like

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by what to eat and what to drink. But it could also refer to how to stay alive spiritually, which would be the ancient tradition that he teach him how to do that, which you’ll see is inferred in just a minute. And this angelic messenger also taught the Chinese Adam how to quote, read the sky. So this account attests that an angelic messenger taught the first man the principles of astronomy.

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you could see how this would be a really important thing to understand or to know, especially in terms of agriculture and cultivating the food that would be necessary to stay alive. This indicates that from the very onset of human history, that human beings understood the principles of astronomy. A fact that’s actually consistently corroborated all over the world. And we see this in innumerable archaeological sites like Stonehenge, Newgrange,

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Machu Picchu, El Castillo, and Chaco Canyon. Archeoastronomers have uncovered hundreds and hundreds of ancient sites that unequivocally established that the ancients had and used the principles of astronomy. They understood. This Chinese account is fascinating, but let’s keep reading. What else did the angelic messenger teach the Chinese Adam? Quote, he, the angelic messenger,

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explained the beginning of things to the old yellow one. So here it sounds like the angelic messenger also taught the Chinese Adam about the creation. Quote, the beginning of things. He continues, quote, he explained how the life force that flows through us was created. Now,

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This should remind you of the Shabaka stone where the ancient Egyptians taught the Ptah is in everybody and everything. I continue. He, the angelic messenger, explained how the sun and the moon trade light, how this act causes the passing of time, and how it creates the four directions. Oh, I gotta stop again. I’m not sure if you caught what we just read. It’s just amazing.

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We just read that the sun quote, causes the passing of time and quote, creates the four directions. I’m absolutely astounded by what the Chinese are telling us here. Cause here we learned that an angelic messenger came down from heaven and taught the first man, Adam, how to use the sun to establish time. And that by doing this, Adam could establish the four directions. So,

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Why am I so excited about what it says here? Why does Adam need to know how to establish the four directions? I’m sure that each of us can think of a number of reasons why this would be some good practical information to know. But if we keep reading, I think you’ll see that this angelic messenger is giving him this information for much more than practical purposes. Leeming writes, quote, he, the angelic messenger,

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explained how the sun and the moon trade light, how this act causes the passing of time and how it creates the four directions and the mid point.

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Now, that’s interesting. The angelic messenger wants the Chinese atom to be able to locate the midpoint where the four directions meet. Well, why? Why would the angelic messenger want the Chinese atom to be able to locate the midpoint, the center of the cardinal directions? If you’re a long time listener to this program, you should have a very good idea why.

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And it really has nothing to do with practical purposes, but everything to do with theological purposes. And this becomes especially clear when we keep reading. Leaning writes, quote, he, the angelic messenger, explained how the sun and the moon trade light, how this act causes the passing of time and how it creates the four directions in the midpoint. The gold one, the angelic messenger, told the old yellow one,

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the Chinese Adam, about a great stone in the earth’s center and about the poles that support the earth. He told how the waters of earth, and he’s talking about the primordial waters here, surround it the way the flesh of fruit surrounds the seed. Now that is really compelling what he’s saying there and we’ll develop that some other time.

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But it’s clear here that the angelic messenger wants Adam to understand the principles of astronomy so that he can better understand the theology that he’s trying to teach. The angelic messenger is using astronomy as a teaching tool, as a way to teach Adam about the cosmology of the heavens. The word cosmology comes from two Greek words, cosmos, which means to order or to bring about order, and logeia, which means the study of.

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And when you put cosmos and logia together, you get cosmology, which means the study of order. So here the angelic messenger, by using astronomy, is trying to teach the Chinese atom how the heavenly realm is structured or ordered. And how is it ordered? It’s ordered in such a way that God resides in the very center, the supernally sacred center of his kingdom. He resides in the midpoint.

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in the most sacred, the holiest realm in the cosmos, in the Holy of Holies. And all light and all life flow from that center. It is the navel of his kingdom. The theological importance of the midpoint is pretty explicit when the angelic messenger connects the midpoint to the foundation stone. It said, the gold one told the old yellow one about a great stone in the earth’s center.

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Based on what we see in the ancient world, it’s absolutely apparent that astronomical principles were directly tied to and used to teach and reinforce theological principles. We see astronomy used in this way all over the ancient world. The ancient Egyptians used the principles of astronomy to align the Karnak temple’s main axis so that on the summer solstice, a glorious beam of light emanating from the rising solstice sun would penetrate the sacred center of the Karnak temple.

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Reinforcing to all who were privy to witness it that God resided in his glory in the sacred center of the cosmos All over the ancient world whether it’s in the eastern or the western hemisphere We find that sacred sanctuaries or temples are directly aligned to the solstice and the equinox sun Precisely so that the sun on those days can shine directly in the very center of the sanctuary From this Chinese account

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It appears that from the very beginning, astronomy was used as a way to teach the doctrines and principles inherent in the ancient tradition. At some point we’ll get into this more, but it suggests that the sun, the moon, and the stars themselves were intentionally created and placed in a certain order in the temporal world to reflect the order inherent in the spiritual world, as suggested by the Hermetic adage, as above.

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so below. Before I move into a discussion on the symbols of the Sacred Center, I want to say one more thing about the Chinese account we just read. I want to point out that Adam is referred to in this account as both old and yellow. When we get into a more detailed discussion of Adam down the line, the reference to his age is going to be important. But why do the Chinese refer to him as yellow? Great question.

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Simply put, yellow is associated with sunlight. So it’s symbolizes something about the spiritual constitution of the person of whom it refers. So to call the first man the old yellow man is to suggest that he was one who followed the way of the Tao and as such was full of light. Zhu Tingni in her book, Chinese Miss, I’ve mentioned it several times on the program, makes this additional very intriguing point about the color yellow in China.

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page 60, Nees says, quote, bright yellow is a color reserved only for the emperor. I’ve already provided some evidence on this program that the first man, Adam, was understood to be the first earthly king. And here we see the Chinese implying the very same thing by calling the first man the old yellow one.

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Another Chinese author explains it like this, quote, among the rich palette of Chinese colors, yellow stands out with its unique status and profound cultural significance, earning the title, the color of emperors. In Chinese feudal society, yellow was designated as the exclusive color of the royal family, symbolizing supreme authority and status.

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The emperor’s dragon robe was often yellow and the glazed tiles of the Imperial Palace were golden yellow, reflecting the importance of yellow as a symbol of imperial power. I’ll have a lot more to say about the old yellow one when we talk about Adam. There’s a lot of intriguing stuff the Chinese have to say about him. For this episode, I just want you to be aware that the Chinese have an account that from the very beginning,

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The first man was taught by an angelic messenger and that that messenger taught him how to use astronomy to find the sacred center. The center where lay the foundation stone. The fact that we find an account of this, all of which perfectly conforms to what we’ve discussed to this point on the program in China is pretty astounding to me. Like I pointed out in the last episode,

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It’s really not possible to overemphasize how important the Sacred Center was in the ancient world and still is in the religions of today. Like we read, René Gounod said, quote, the center is of the greatest importance in all ancient religious traditions. And Mercia Eliade pointed out in his book, The Sacred and the Profane, that because of the incredible importance of the Sacred Center, we quote, everywhere.

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find the symbolism of the center of the world. So in today’s episode, I wanna walk you through the written symbols, like the eight pointed star, that the ancients used to represent the supernally sacred center. So I’m talking about the symbols that we see written or sketched on rocks and paper and buildings. And why do this? Number one, because the vast majority of us have no idea what ancient symbols mean. And as long as we don’t know what they mean,

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The theology behind those symbols will remain forever hidden from us. And number two, I’m willing to bet that many of you will recognize some of the symbols that we’re gonna talk about over the next couple of episodes, but I’m also willing to bet that many of you will have completely erroneous interpretations of some of the symbols. And this is no fault of your own, mind you, but it’s because the symbols were usurped.

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by powerful people in a way that the original sacred meaning of those symbols were lost. And third, because I want to demonstrate to you just how ubiquitous the symbols of the Sacred Center are in the ancient world, which of course reinforces the supreme importance the ancients placed on the Sacred Center. To begin, I want to introduce you to a Belgian scholar by the name of Eugene Goblet de Aviel.

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De Avella worked as a professor at the Free University of Brussels, and he’s notable for his contributions to the study of religion, mythology, and the history of ideas. He authored a lot of influential works on religious symbolism. In particular, he wrote a book titled The Migration of Symbols, which even today remains a significant text in the field of comparative religion and anthropology. In this book, De Avella, like,

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So many of the other authors we’ve discussed on this program found so many correspondences, whether one was in China or the Yucatan, the Eastern Hemisphere or the Western Hemisphere, in this case among written religious symbols. So much so that he concluded that they must have migrated across continents and civilizations having their origin in deep antiquity.

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On page nine of the introduction to the migration of symbols, it says, quote, the general conclusion arrived at by Goblet de Avila is that the religious symbols common to the different historical races of mankind have not originated independently among them, but have for the most part been carried from one to the other in the course of their migrations, conquest and commerce.

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And his specific achievement is to have demonstrated this fact by an overwhelming induction of ancient and modern instances. So not only does Dea of Yella make the claim that written religious symbols had their source in deep antiquity, but he lays out loads of evidence of how they originated in the ancient world and then migrated from place to place, kind of like we did on this program with the double-headed eagle.

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how we tied the double-headed eagle on the Russian Kota arms back to the story of Zeus, sending those eagles to the east and the west. But Dehaviela goes back even farther and he ties the double eagle back to Mesopotamia, to the Assyrian Nisrock, and to Hittite sculptures in the city of Eyuk. And of course, to the two cherubim guarding the Tree of Life.

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What’s really interesting to me is that dea viella found that there actually weren’t that many written religious symbols in antiquity, but that over time people altered and changed and added to the original symbols. So today it looks like there are just loads and loads of symbols, but this is an illusion because there really weren’t that many from the very beginning. On page eight and nine of the introduction, it says, quote,

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One of the most unexpected results of the critical study of these symbols is the establishment of their essential paucity. Now if you don’t know what paucity means it means few in number or a small amount. It’s essentially akin to the word scarcity. The introduction to De Aviales, the migration of symbols continues quote, one of the most unexpected results of the critical study of these symbols is the establishment of their essential paucity.

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They undergo alike, de-evolution and evolution, and a sort of ceaseless inter-fusion also, infinite permutations of both type and meaning. But in their earliest monumental forms, they are found to be remarkably few. So what would you guess those remarkably few ancient religious symbols look like or depicted?

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Well, if you guessed that they depicted the theology inherent in the ancient tradition, then you’re spot on. The religious symbols Dea Viela traced back to deep antiquity all speak to the exact same things we’ve been discussing on this program. There isn’t a single symbol Dea Viela presents that radically differs from the ancient theology we’ve been reconstructing on this program. It’s all the same stuff. In fact, the written symbols attest.

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They are testimonies of the doctrines we’ve been discussing on this program. It’s just more evidence that a widely consistent and holistic doctrine was taught in deep antiquity, just like we learned in the Chinese account of the golden one coming down from the heavens and teaching the old yellow one, the Chinese Adam, in the very beginning. And what was one of the things the golden one taught the yellow one?

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he taught him how to find the four cardinal points and the midpoint. So if I were a betting person, I’d bet that some of the earliest monumental forms de Aviela found depict the four cardinal points and the midpoint, the sacred center. And that’s exactly what we find. The first symbol of the sacred center that I wanna talk about is called the circumpunk.

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If you’re not familiar with the circum-punked, it’s a circle with a single dot in the center. Everything about the symbol draws your attention directly to the center. The word circum-punked is a conjunction of the Latin word circum, which means to surround or to encircle. And the Latin word punctum means point.

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So the word circumpunk means to surround or to encircle the point. And this is a quite important symbol because as you’re gonna see, it serves as the fundamental template behind much religious architecture, as well as mandalas, labyrinths, circumambulation rites, and the cosmic dance. So let’s take a look at some of the places we see the circumpunked in the ancient world and the meanings that those people assigned to it.

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The earliest place we see the circumpunked in written form is in ancient Egypt. And we find it there quite often because the circumpunked is actually the hieroglyph for the sun god, Ra. The god the ancient Egyptians conflated with the god Atum, who, if you recall from Pyramid Text 600, was the creator god who stood on the top of the primordial mound as it rose out of the primordial waters on the day

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the material universe was initiated. And don’t forget that a stylized stone version of that mound was venerated in the ancient Egyptian city of Heliopolis, which the ancient Egyptians revered as the sacred center of the world, the Ben Ben stone. So there are clear associations here between the creator god, the Ben Ben, the foundation stone, the sacred center, and this symbol as well, of course.

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as the primordial mound. And let’s not forget that Atumrah reigned on his throne from the top of the primordial hill, tying the sacred center directly to kingship. In ancient Egypt, the same hieroglyphic symbol, the circle with a dot in the center, also symbolized the sun. And that’s not surprising, right? Because as we’ve mentioned, the ancient Egyptians used the most magnificent, brilliant light that they could find, the sun.

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to symbolize Atum Ra’s resplendent glory. When three lines were drawn down from the bottom of the circum-punked, like sunbeams, the hieroglyph also meant sunshine or light. So the symbol thus represented the source of light. The sun is the source of physical light, which was an echo of Atum Ra’s the source of spiritual light.

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Interestingly, a similar glyph known as the kin glyph was also used by the Mesoamerican Maya. And what did it represent? Well, you guessed it, the sun god, as well as radiant resplendent light. So the same thing. This glyph depicts three concentric circles

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And in the middle of those circles is a four-petaled flower with a dot in the center. On page 153 of Andrea Stone and Mark Zender’s book, Reading Maya Artstone, they write, speaking of this symbol, quote, the Maya symbol of the sun is a flower with four petals, a number intrinsic to solar cosmology.

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Indeed, the head of the sun god personified the number four, invoking both the four world directions established by the sun’s east west path and the Tzolkin date of world creation on four Ehau. Okay, there’s a whole lot in what Stone and Zender just said that I got to break down for you so that you can grasp just the amazing significance of what they’re saying. So first,

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Note that the Maya used essentially the same glyph the ancient Egyptians did, the circum-punked. And they used this to represent the sun god, just like the Egyptians, but they changed it a little bit. And they changed it by placing the dot in the center of a four-petaled flower. So why did the Maya do this? Well, Stone and Zender tell us they did it to represent, quote, the four world directions. And why would they do that?

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This far into the program, you should know. Just as we saw with what the golden one taught the old yellow one, it’s by way of the four directions that one can establish where the midpoint or sacred center is. The Mayan knew what they were doing when they placed the dot in the center of a four-petaled flower. This was just another way to emphasize or reinforce the notion that the dot represented the supernally sacred center. Now we’re gonna talk about

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why it was a flower in another episode, but the flower is important too. So here we have a Mayan glyph associated with the sun god and the number four. And did you catch the last part? Did you catch how the Maya associated the glyph with quote the date of world creation? This is just amazing. So here just like we saw in ancient Egypt, the Maya tie this glyph right

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back to the day the world was created. But here’s what’s really remarkable about what Stone and Zen are saying. See, the Maya believed that the world was created on the Zulkan. Now, Zulkan is the Mayan religious calendar on the Zulkan date for Ehau. See, the Zulkan calendar was made up of 13 what we would essentially call months, but their months were only 20 days long.

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And the Maya gave the 20 days in the month a name, kind of like we do with the days of the week. The last day of the month, the 20th day, they called Ahau. The Maya believe the world was created on four Ahau, which would be the last day of the fourth month. So note the number four here of their calendar. The really interesting part though comes,

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when we take a look at what the Mayan word, ehau, actually means. Wikipedia says this, quote, ehau denoted a meaning variously rendered as leader, ruler, lord, king, or queen. So according to the Maya, the world was created on Four King Day. You long time listeners should see where I’m going with this.

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Remember episode number seven, the King of the Four Corners? Remember how the king sits in the center of the four corners and he reigns over the four corners of the world or his kingdom? Well, we’re definitely getting the same thing here in Mesoamerica. It’s all tying back to kingship when the world was created on Four King Day. And interestingly too, this is the day in which all of the kingship rites are performed, which should hearken back

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to the Akitu festival in Mesopotamia when on the day of creation we had the coronation rites. But there’s more. Listen to this. The authors write referring to the Mayan circumcumpct glyph. Quote, a highly compact version of this cosmic realm is a stone seat from Copan showing a personified mountain with kin glyph eyes. So

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The glyph is also associated with a stone seat and a personified mountain? What? This sounds suspiciously like Pyramid Text 600 where we’re told that Atum rose as the Primordial Mound, that Atum is the personification of the mound, that he and the mountain were indistinguishable. Yet here we are clear across the Atlantic in a different hemisphere.

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From this artifact, it sure looks like the Maya were associating the Sun God with the sacred mountain that rose on the Day of Creation. This makes you wonder whether the Maya had the same religious conception of mountains as holy sanctuaries like we see in the ancient Near East. So I kept reading. On page 139, the authors write this of the Mayan conception of mountains. Quote, Although the lowland Maya,

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were basically flatlanders, the concept of the sacred mountain was a fundamental tenant of their religion, since it was rooted in pan-Meso-American traditions that transcended local topography. Mountains were conceived as residences of gods. The Maya viewed mountains as pyramids. Wow, so now we’re getting the primordial mound too.

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I kept reading and then I just started chuckling because I just couldn’t believe what I was reading. On the bottom of page 139, the authors write, quote, conceptually mountains overlapped with thrones and images of them often merge. Thrones? If you recall in ancient Egypt, a tomb took his seat, his throne on the top of the primordial mound.

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As unbelievable as it may seem, the Maya here are teaching the same theology as did the ancient Egyptians. The theology that we refer to on this program as the ancient tradition. The authors continue, quote, conceptually mountains overlapped with thrones and images of them often merge. For instance, the Dresden Codex pictures chalk

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sitting on a personified mountain that also bears the symbol for the cushioned throne, labeling the mountain as Chalk’s Seat. So here we have the sacred mountain associated directly with kingship, just like we’re seeing all over the place. This is jaw-dropping stuff to me. Sometimes I wonder if Egyptian archaeologists and Mayan archaeologists ever talk to each other or study

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Could you just imagine what the world would know? We’d know that the stubborn bits in each location were teaching a unified religious theology. Things like this absolutely demand more academic interdisciplinary collaboration. The authors conclude, quote, although not pictured here, the ruler is positioned above a compositional strategy for associating kings.

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with sacred mountains.

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There you have it. Amongst the Maya, kings and kingship were associated with sacred mountains where gods dwelt. Okay, but let’s not lose sight of why we’re talking about this. We’re talking about this because the Kenglyph, which is a variation of the circumpunked, represented the Mayan sun god, resplendent light, the day of creation, the sacred mountain, thrones, and kingship.

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All things that align perfectly with what we’ve learned on this podcast are associated with the sacred center. Some of you, probably many of you have seen a picture of the Aztec calendar stone, which is actually based on the Mayan calendar system. If you have, you’re gonna notice that it follows the circum-punked template. There’s a depiction of the Aztec sun god, Tonatiuh, pictured in the very center of the stone. Where the dot?

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would be. And he’s surrounded by four figures. Outside of that, four rays of the sun point to the four cardinal directions, and then four additional rays, making an eight-pointed star, point to the four intercardinal directions, all of which expand out across a large circular stone. And you can see a picture of this on the web page for this episode. If you look

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And this is the serpent Shukadal. And it surrounds the entire circumference of the stone. And we haven’t had a chance to discuss this particular stubborn bit yet, but we’re gonna. It’s important and it’s gonna come up relatively soon. But I wanted to point it out to you here so that it’s on your radar. The Mayan Kengliff and the Aztec calendar stone both attest to the importance of the sacred center in Mesoamerica. Among the Hindu,

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We find the circumpunked along with many of the same interpretations that we’ve just covered as well as a couple of new insights. In Hinduism, a variation of the circumpunked is known as the Shuryantra. You can see a three-dimensional projection of the Shuryantra called the Mahamaru on the web page for this episode. The 3D projection looks like a tiered mountain, which is why it’s called the Mahamaru, Mount Maru.

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In Hinduism, Mount Maru is the sacred golden mountain that stands in the very center of the universe, where of course, the Hindu gods dwell. It’s the abode of the gods. Mount Maru is also considered the sacred center of the Buddhist and the Jainist universe. In the 3D projection, if you look at it on the website, note that there are seven levels from the circular base to the circle

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the dot at the apex. The Hindu call this the bendu. In Sanskrit the word bendu actually means point or dot. You should also note that there’s an eight leafed lotus that encircles the middle tier. Dr. Madhu Khanna, an Indic scholar out of the University of Oxford, writes this of the bendu, the dot, on page 71 of her book Yantra.

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the tantric symbol of cosmic unity. She writes, quote, the primal symbol of the cosmos, the bendu, which rests in the center of the Shuryantra, the point which is that first form to emerge on the surface of the void. So she’s referring to the primordial waters here, is holy transcendent, the germinal state of the world.

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So here among the Hindu, we see the same interpretation of the dot in the center of the circum-punct, or as they call it, the bindu. And it represents the day of creation. Quote, the first form to emerge from the surface of the void, the germinal state of the world. What she’s saying is that the creation emerged out of the sacred center, or as we said a couple of episodes back, that emerged out of the holy of holies.

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On page 76, Connor writes, and she’s referring to the Bindu here, quote, “‘There emerges the primordial cosmic womb.'” This reference here to the Bindu, the sacred center as the cosmic womb, should conjure up thoughts in your mind of the cosmic egg, the Hindu Hiranyagarbha, which, when it cracked open, initiated order in the primordial universe. It’s from this point that all creation

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expanded. Have you ever seen a mandala? Whether you realize it or not you’ve probably seen one. You may just not realize what you were looking at. Mandalas are basically colorful geometric sketches of the cosmic realm or of the cosmos. Adherents of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Shintoism use them as cosmic maps and they use them as an aid for meditation.

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In all of these mandalas, the bindu is the central focus of the drawing. Most mandalas look like an aerial view of a mountain, Mount Maru, of course, with either concentric circles or concentric squares descending from the top, from the the bindu point. And where does the principal deity sit on his throne? Right on the apex of the mountain, in the center of the mandala, right on top of the bindu.

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the dot right where the ancient Egyptian god Atum-Roth sat on his throne and right where the Mayan and Aztec sun gods sat on their thrones. In most mandalas, the four cardinal points are emphasized by four gates, often symbolized by towels or these T-shaped doors which open at the base of the mountain. And more often than not, the Buddha or the god who sits on the Bindu is encircled by

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leafed lotus or eight figures or eight geometrical objects or shapes. All of this is significant and we’re going to talk about each of these in future episodes. If you’re interested in looking at a couple of mandalas you can find them on the webpage for this episode. Needless to say the Indian bendu and the mandalas that depict the bendu are in complete conformity to what we’ve been seeing today among the ancient Egyptians and among the Mesoamerican Maya.

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and everything else that we’ve learned about the Sacred Center on the podcast to this point. You may have noticed that some Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist women and sometimes men wear a small red dot in the center of their forehead between their eyes. You may have wondered why they do this. Why they wear that particular ornament. Well, it has everything to do with the Bindu. In fact,

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That red dot is actually called the bindi, which is a derivative of the word bendu. The red bindi dot they wear actually represents the bendu, the sacred center of the cosmos. Or as would be said in Judeo-Christian tradition, the holy of holies. They’re wearing the sacred center right on their forehead. And they do this for a number of reasons.

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They do it to declare their faith, as a reminder to keep God at the center of their thoughts. They do it to ward off evil, to improve healing, to access wisdom, to guide them towards enlightenment, and most importantly, as a third eye, an eye that allows them to see and to access the spiritual realm. Now.

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All of these Hindu beliefs about the Bindi sound remarkably similar to me to the ancient Egyptian beliefs about the Eye of Horus. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to episode number nine, the Green Eye of Horus, give that a listen and you’ll see what I mean. In that episode, we learned that after the awful monster set ripped out Horus’s eye, Horus was anointed with oil that had been infused with myrrh, which I remind you,

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tinted the oil brownish red like blood. And where was one of the places Horace was anointed? Right on his forehead. In Pyramid Text 77, we read, referring to the anointing oil, quote, ointment, ointment, where should you be? You on Horace’s forehead, where should you be? And when this was done, what happened? Horace was healed.

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His sight was restored. And this was speaking of more than just physical sight. It was speaking of spiritual sight too. He’d no longer be spiritually blinded by set. And as we read in Pyramid Text 77, those who wore the anointing oil on their forehead were, quote, ockified. Pyramid Text 77 continues, speaking of the anointing oil, quote,

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wearing you. You shall Occify him wearing you.” Occify meant to become like the gods. An inscription in the tomb of King Tut said that anointed ones had the ability to, quote, behold Ray. They had the ability to see God. All of the eastern religions that we’ve been talking about today, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism,

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believe that the ultimate spiritual realization is enlightenment, where the One is united with the Divine Center. Something that the Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist adherents believe the Bindi, the mark on their foreheads, can help them accomplish. And don’t forget that the ancient Egyptians believed the anointing as represented by the Eye of Horus gave them power to fight off evil.

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or in the vernacular of this program, power to conquer the dragon, which is similar to the Hindu belief that the bindi can help them ward off evil. Very interestingly, some scholars believe the, quote, custom of wearing a bindi has roots in ancient rituals offering blood sacrifices. It remains a common practice for Hindu priests to mark the foreheads of both men and women

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powder as they enter a temple. This practice of marking the foreheads of Hindus entering a Hindu temple with red powder is known as the talik, which is actually the Sanskrit word for mark, which is incredibly interesting because we read in the Judeo-Christian tradition in Ezekiel chapter

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from the unrighteous by placing a mark on their forehead. In this passage, the Lord commands the holder of the ink horn to mark the righteous. Verses three and four read, quote, “‘And he called, he being the Lord, “‘called to the man clothed in linen, “‘which had the rider’s ink horn by his side.’

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the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.” So those people who are just weeping because there’s so many abominations in Jerusalem, mark them on the forehead. In the Bible, men clothed in linen were

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So the holder of the ink horn that Ezekiel sees in vision is a priest in God’s holy temple. And the text says that the man clothed in linen had a quote, rider’s ink horn. This is interesting because we learn in ancient Israel that the holy anointing oil was stored in a horn, in the horn of a bull. In 1 Samuel chapter 16 verse 13, we read the following about the anointing of King David.

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The verse reads, quote, “‘So Samuel took the horn of oil “‘and anointed him in the presence of his brothers. “‘And from that day on, the spirit of the Lord “‘came powerfully upon David.'” Nowhere in the Bible do we find actual ink stored in horn. In the Bible, it’s always oil that’s stored in the horn, which is housed in the ancient Israelite temple. So I argue it’s pretty safe to contend that the, quote, ink

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the horn Ezekiel saw is actually the anointing oil, but it’s referred to as ink because it has the ability to mark God’s people. And where did the priest mark God’s people? The righteous? Those who upheld Setic? On their foreheads. And again, I remind you that the holy anointing oil used in the Mosaic

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was infused with myrrh, the resin of a tree which tinted the oil the color of blood. And if you don’t know why that’s connected to blood, you have some past episodes you need to listen to. It’s my contention here that the marking of individuals with red tika powder on their foreheads when they enter a Hindu temple is a remnant of this temple rite.

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A rite also practiced in ancient Egypt and ancient Mesopotamia, in which I argue was originally taught to human beings in the very beginning. I’m about out of time, but before I close out this episode, I want to point out how in the circumpunked symbol, the circle circumscribes the sacred center, the point around which all else revolves. We find this principle

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acted out ritually all over the world, like we saw in Mecca with the Tawaf ritual. If you remember, true adherents of Islam are required to circumambulate the Kaaba, the temple of Allah, seven times at least once during their lifetime. And when you take an aerial view of Muslims doing this, circumambulating the Kaaba, it creates a giant circumcumpunt. And you remember in episode

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how Hindus circumambulate the Putu, the sacred termite hill. It too, from an aerial view, creates a circumpunk. Or what about the tradition in Germany called the Tanzum den Viennachsbaum, which translates into English to the dance around the Christmas tree.

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You know that spirited circle dance where Germans dance around the Christmas tree that stands in the center plaza of their city, the center plaza. They sing O Tannenbaum and dance merrily around the tree. This too creates a giant circum-punked. And you long time listeners know what the Christmas tree represents. I hope you’re starting to get a feel for just how important

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the sacred center was in the ancient world and how its importance reverberates right through the religious traditions of today. All of which suggest a sacred religious tradition was revealed to the old yellow one in deep antiquity. That’s it for me. Until next time, I’ll leave you with the words of William Shakespeare. Knowledge is the wing wherewith

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fly to heaven. I’m Jack Loge.

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