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 great to be with you. We have a lot packed into today’s episode. I tried to stream it down a little bit but I don’t know if I succeeded. Before I get started though I wanted to make a correction. After putting together the last episode I realized that I incorrectly understood the Mayan Zulkan calendar and how it operated. I thought it worked similar to our months and days but it’s a little bit more

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So if you’d like to listen to a correct description of how the Zulkan calendar operates, I’ve posted a video on the webpage for episode 39. It does a really nice job of explaining it. None of this impacts the larger point that among the Maya, the world was created on Four King Day, which is remarkable evidence that key elements of the ancient tradition were alive and well in Mesoamerica. All right, if you are listening to this episode today,

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in the first or the second week of August 2024, then you know that we are in the thick of the Paris Olympics. If you’re new to the program, you’re probably not aware that the Olympic Games has its Genesis in the ancient tradition as well. If you’re interested in how the Olympic Games and the ancient tradition are linked, I recommend that you listen to a couple of back episodes, in particular the episodes that are on the sacred tree and on the Leviathan.

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If you’re looking for just a quick explanation, you can find that in episode number 25, the King of Kings. I don’t want to use up our valuable time today to go over it again, but keep in mind that the Greeks, by way of the Olympics, were using sport to act out, kind of like a grand symbolic play, the primary objective in the ancient tradition, which was that all of us must be like Heracles, the greatest of Greek heroes.

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and victoriously complete the labors assigned to us. Which for Heracles included slaying a number of terrible monsters, including the awful multi-headed serpent Hydra. If we’re to be crowned with an olive wreath made from the sacred tree. And we all know what a crown means. It means that one has been made a king. Or in the vernacular of the Greeks, an archon, which means ruler, which is derived from the same root as the word for monarch.

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See, the Olympics, if you know what you’re looking at, is a secularized version of the ancient tradition in a nutshell. So think on that the next time that you see an athlete receive a gold medal. And take note, all of you long time listeners, that even today, the Olympic victor is awarded his medal, which in ancient times used to be that olive leaf crown on a podium that looks like the summit of a mountain.

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which is also in complete conformity with what we’ve learned in the ancient tradition. I can’t make this stuff up. The reach of the ancient tradition is far and wide. All right, with that, let’s jump into today’s episode. So in our last episode, we talked about how the ancients placed a tremendous amount of importance on the sacred center. And in that episode, we covered two really important symbols of the sacred center, the circumpunked and the bendu.

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In today’s episode titled The Compass Stone and the Ring Dance, we’re gonna continue that discussion. This time focusing on how those symbols are directly connected to two other really important aspects of religious worship. The first thing that I wanna talk about is that in a couple of months, we’re gonna talk a lot more about sacred architecture. So I thought it’d be a really good idea right now to show you how an ancient symbol like the circum-punct, the circle with the dot in the center,

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which represents the sacred center of the cosmos, the Holy of Holies, was intentionally used in sacred temples, cathedrals, and mosques, and churches in architectural form to symbolize the same thing, the sacred or cosmic center. I wanna give you a couple examples of this. For example, we see this quite visibly in Italy in the magnificent Roman pantheon. Pantheon comes from the word pantheon, which means common to all the gods.

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or a place that’s sacred to all of the gods, a temple. The emperor Hadrian ordered this temple to be built sometime during the early part of the second century AD. The building, if you’ve never been there, features a circular rotunda. It’s about 145 feet in diameter. And that rotunda is surmounted by this just magnificent dome in the center of which is a 28 foot wide oculus.

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It actually opens right up into the open air. And this serves not only as the temple’s focal point, but it also provides an aperture so that natural light can stream right into the building, which of course symbolizes the light that emanates from the sacred center. When one stands in the very center of the rotunda and looks up, what one sees in architectural form is a massive, incredibly impressive

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awe-inspiring circumpunked. If you’d like to see a picture of the Pantheon you can find it on the web page for this episode. So why did the Roman architects use the circumpunked in the architecture of the Pantheon? Well they used it for precisely the reason that you think that they did. To convey to those who entered the building that they were no longer in the earthly realm. They wanted the worshippers to know that they’d left the earthly realm and then they were now in the realm of the gods.

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that they were in the temple in the sacred center of the cosmos. The architectural circumpunk signaled to worshipers that they had entered the heavenly realm. And there’s one more aspect of this that’s pretty interesting. See the building’s about 145 feet tall and 145 feet wide. So you could actually fit a giant 145 foot diameter sphere inside.

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So why would the architects make this possible? Well, the answer to that’s actually really interesting, but I’m gonna save that for a couple of months for when we talk about the architecture of the Great Pyramid of Giza, because they line up. Since we’re in the middle of the Paris Olympics, I thought I’d take you to Paris. Did you know that there is also a pantheon in Paris? Well, there is. It’s called the Parisian Pantheon, and it’s located along the left bank of the Seine River.

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pretty easy to find because the dome under which we’re going to find an incredibly beautiful circumpunked is visible from all over the city. If I’d been in charge of the Olympic opening ceremonies this would have been one of the buildings I would have highlighted. Originally the Pantheon was begun in 1757 AD and it was known as the Church of Saint Genevieve but during the French Revolution it was secularized and it was renamed the Parisian Pantheon where

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Voltaire, Rousseau, and Victor Hugo, the author of Les Mis. Now, the Parisian pantheon is really interesting because if you take a look at the floor plan, you’ll notice that it forms a perfect equilateral cross where the two arms of the transept are the same length. And this is significant because we’ve discussed this on the program, the equilateral cross is also an ancient symbol for the sacred center.

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In the Garden of Eden account in Genesis, if you remember a sacred tree, the Tree of Life stood in the midst in the very center of the garden and out of the garden flowed four rivers, one to the north, south, east and west, conveying that living water flowed out of the sacred center to every corner of the earth. If you entered the Parisian Pantheon and you stood in the very center of the Pantheon, which unfortunately you can’t do because Foucault’s pendulum is there.

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which was first demonstrated actually in the Pantheon in 1851. It stands in your way, so you can’t do that. But if you could stand in the very center of the Pantheon, it’d be standing in the very center of a circum-punct. It’d be standing on top of a perfectly circular yellow stone set in the center of an eight-pedaled flower. Yes, an eight-pedaled flower. An eight-pedaled flower that’s surrounded by several concentric circles that

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expand out from the center. If you look closely at the yellow stone that marks the center, which you should note is a stone, you’ll notice that it’s divided into four sections of an equilateral cross. And this far into the program, you should know why this is. The equilateral cross is there to draw your attention to the four cardinal points, which when brought together, mark the midpoint, the sacred center.

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And if you stand in the center of the flower on the Yellowstone, you’ll be standing symbolically right where the Tree of Life stood in the Garden of Eden. And when you looked up, what would you see directly above your head? You’d see a magnificent dome, which is decorated with an incredibly beautiful circumpt. See, symbolically where you’re standing, where the four cardinal points meet,

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the world. And it’s only in the very center of the world that the earthly realm can touch the heavenly realm. The circumpunk you see above you symbolizes the heavenly realm, the sacred center of the cosmos where God dwells. The architects, by placing the circumpunk directly above the spot where the four cardinal points meet, are conveying to you that you’re in a temple, that you’re in the heavenly realm, the house of God.

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which as we just mentioned is exactly what the word pantheon means, a temple of the gods. Standing in the center of the world, you look up and you virtually touch God who’s sitting on his throne in the sacred center of the cosmos. And this is what the architects want you to recognize and feel when they use the equilateral cross and the circumpunk symbols in architectural form. There’s another important aspect of the circumpunked in the Parisian pantheon that’s worth noting.

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Unlike the large oculus that you see in the center of the circumcumpunct in the Roman pantheon, the center of the circumcumpunct in the Parisian pantheon is decorated by this beautiful neoclassical painting by Antoine Jean Gros of the young Saint Genevieve. And this isn’t just any old painting of Saint Genevieve. During the fifth century AD, this 28 year old woman

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convinced Parisians not to abandon their city, even though Attila the Hun, along with all of his invading armies were on the move. Genevieve promised the people that Attila would not attack Paris, and he didn’t. And because of this, the church determined that Genevieve was endowed with the gift of prophecy. So 25 years later, along with a series of other pious acts that had been performed by Genevieve, the Catholic and Orthodox churches declared her a saint.

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In the painting that occupies the punct, the center of the dome, is a depiction of Saint Genevieve seated on a cloud. A lamb at her feet, cherubic angels waving bouquets of flowers on either side of her. The painting is titled The Apotheosis of Saint Genevieve. Now this is interesting. If you aren’t familiar with what apotheosis is, it’s a conjunction of the Greek word apo, which means from.

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and the Greek word theos, which means God. And when you put the two words together, it means to make a God of. Dictionary.com defines it as, quote, the elevation of a person to the rank of God. So the painting here, the painting in the center of the circumpunk is a painting of the deification of Saint Genevieve. She’s being deified right in the Holy of Holies, right where Enoch,

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was deified in chapter 22 of the Book of the Holy Secrets of Enoch. The deification of a woman is something that we also saw in the book of Joseph and Azanith. You remember that? When Azanith, the wife of Joseph of Egypt, after having conquered the dragon, was dressed in royal robes, coronated with a golden crown, and then took on the appearance of lightning.

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If you’re interested in listening to an audio recording of the Book of Joseph and Azaneth, you can find it on our sister podcast, the Ancient Tradition Audio Rit. And you can also find a discussion of the apotheosis of Azaneth in episode number 25, the King of Kings. So now you have two reasons to go listen to that if you haven’t. So back to the Parisian pantheon. The painting of the apotheosis of Genevieve is incredibly interesting for what it says about a theology of deification.

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before the Parisian pantheon was secularized, it was a Catholic church. So here in a Catholic church, we have a depiction of the deification of a human being who is female no less. So right in this church, we see a theology of deification being taught that included the deification of women, the notion that pious women could become gods, a pretty remarkable painting and a

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pretty remarkable theology. From the stuff we’ve covered in episode number 25, the King of Kings, it’s a theology that’s right in line with the ancient tradition.

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Although the architects of the Parisian Pantheon were highly schooled in the elements of sacred architecture and they used numerous architectural elements to portray the church as a temple, it, like I pointed out with the Westminster Abbey, was not in fact a temple. This is evident from the very simple fact that anyone was and presently is allowed to go inside the Pantheon.

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In fact, if Foucault’s pendulum wasn’t occupying the holiest side in the pantheon, where the transepts cross, literally anyone would be able to traipse around and through and across the most sacred spot in the pantheon, the sacred center, regardless of whether or not they themselves were pious people. They’d be polluting, profaning, and desacralizing the sacred center. And this is absolutely not how temples operated in the ancient world.

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In fact, letting anyone in would be absolutely contrary to what defined a temple as a temple. On page 10 of the sacred and the profane, Mercia Eliade writes, quote, “‘The sacred is that it is the opposite of the profane.'” And on page 25, he writes that a door is usually used to symbolize the separation between sacred and profane space. He says, quote,

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The threshold separates the two spaces, the profane and the religious. The threshold is the limit, the boundary, the frontier that distinguishes and opposes two worlds. We’ll talk about doors and thresholds more in coming days. But note in this passage how in the ancient world, the ancients always placed a boundary, and that boundary was usually depicted by a fence or a wall.

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around temple districts. This is precisely to separate the sacred from the profane. The boundaries separated chaos from order. It cut off the terrible dragon’s access, which is why God could find rest there on his throne. No profane dragons or those who allied themselves with the profane dragon were allowed to cross the threshold into holy space because if they did they would

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In fact, guess what the word profane actually means. If you look up the entomology of the word, you’re gonna find that the word profane comes from the Latin word pro, which means before or outside. And the Latin word phantom, which means temple. And when you put pro and phantom together, you get the Latin word profanus, from which our English word profane is derived, which literally means out.

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side the temple. The word profane literally means one who is not sacred, one who is not allowed to enter sacred temple space. That is what it means to be profane. It means to be one who has not met the criteria of holiness required to enter sacred space. In the ancient world, the threshold between the sacred and profane was strictly guarded. There were strict criteria over who could and who could

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the threshold into the temple court or who could or couldn’t enter into the temple proper. The ancients had a whole whole lot to say about this and we’ll talk a lot lot more about it in the future. For this episode though I want you to be aware that although the Parisian pantheon was built with architectural features which were meant to give one the impression that they were in a temple, in the Cosmic Temple, like the equilateral cross in the

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The Parisian pantheon is not, and it never was a temple as defined by the ancients. Had it been so, there would have been strict requirements regarding entrance, in particular, requirements regarding personal holiness. Else, the sacred temple itself would have become, like all space outside of the temple, profane. Temples are sacred space, precisely because they do restrict who

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can enter there. In English, we use the same word, profane, to distinguish language that’s vulgar, obscene, crude, or lewd, language that desecrates holy things in holy places. And as such, that’s why we call it profanity, language that is outside the sacredness of the temple. The awful dragon, who we’ve talked about so many times on this program, would like to make all space profane space.

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But God prevents the dragon and his minions from doing this by fencing or walling off sacred space from the profane world. And I have some great examples of this that we’ll get into down the line. And God calls that walled off space a temple. All right, I got a little bit off topic there, but the point is important and will become even more important in the days to come. The main point that I wanna make in this section though is that many of the symbols used by the ancients

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to represent the sacred center were used in the architectural design of sacred buildings as a way to teach many of the stubborn bits that we find in ancient tradition. We find the circumpunked in sacred buildings all over the world in Christian cathedrals, in Islamic mosques, in Hindu temples, in Buddhist temples, all of which symbolize the same thing, the sacred center.

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And if you’d like to see some examples of this, I’ve posted several on the webpage for this episode. What’s interesting is that sacred architectural design elements like the circum-punked were so impressive, so inspiring, so aesthetic, and so beautiful that architects began copying and using them in secular building projects. One of the most impressive examples of this,

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is the circumpunk that decorates the interior dome or rotunda of the United States Capitol. In the center of the U.S. Capitol dome, the eye of the circumpunked, we find a painting very similar to the apotheosis of Saint Genevieve that’s found in the Parisian pantheon. Yet this one depicts the apotheosis of George Washington. In the painting,

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created by Constantino Brumidi. Washington’s Seated on a Cloud. He’s surrounded by 13 women who represent the original 13 states. So you can clearly see how this is a secular adaptation of the Sacred Center motif. The painting itself is circled, making it a circum-punked by a series of five concentric circles. And each one’s made up of a circle of 36 octagon-shaped

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window-like rosettes. It’s one of the most stunning circum punks in the entire world and it’s absolutely worth seeing in person if you ever have a chance. But don’t lose sight of what this means because what this means is that in the very heart of the United States of America, the very heart right in the very center of the capital rotunda, we find evidence of the ancient tradition. We find architectural evidence which originated with the

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that attests that God dwells in the sacred center of the cosmos and that human beings can become divine.

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But what about the temple aspect? Well, don’t think for a second that the architects of the US Capitol didn’t know about the temple aspect of their architectural designs, because they absolutely did. And there’s evidence for it right in the building. If you stood in the very center of the Capitol rotunda, the first thing that you’d notice is that you were standing directly atop a bronze circular disc, a disc that marks the very center, the punct,

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of yet another circumpunked, a stone circumpunked that covers the entire rotunda floor. So like in the Parisian pantheon, you have one circumpunked above you in the heavens and one circumpunked below you on the earth, which is represented by the rotunda floor. This is the as above, so below idea that I plan to discuss in detail at another time.

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It’s what’s beneath your feet that betrays the architect’s greater knowledge of temple theology. Because directly below your feet, one floor down, is a crypt, known as the Capitol Crypt. And if you take a tour of the US Capitol, your docent will actually take you down there. If you go, the first thing you should notice in the crypt is that there is yet another circum-punked on the floor. And that in the very center,

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which is directly beneath the center of the two circumuncts above you, is a white star or sunstone. And the sun is a star, so this is sixes. This stone is called the compass stone. So note that it’s a stone, like a foundation stone, and note that it’s a star or sun-shaped stone. And this is important because remember that among the ancients, stars represent God or deified beings.

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And note that this star stone is shaped like a compass where four large rays extend from the center of the star to the north, south, east, and west. You can see a picture of it on the webpage for this episode. So many people have stood on that spot that it’s actually concave now. If you’re a long time listener, the second thing that you should notice is that the compass stone is surrounded by eight, yes, eight stone pillars.

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So architecturally, you get a star surrounded by eight pillars. What your docent will tell you next, if you’re a long time listener, is pretty darn jaw dropping. Your docents gonna tell you that the spot that you’re standing on, if you’re allowed to stand there, marks the very center of the US Capitol and the exact point.

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where the capital city of the United States is divided into four quadrants, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, and Southwest. You heard that right. The punct in the Capitol Dome and the punct on the rotunda floor and the punct on the crypt floor mark the center spot where the capital of the United States is divided into four quarters.

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The star on the floor literally marks the center of the four quarters, which is exactly in keeping with the ancient tradition, though in a very secularized form. And if you don’t find this particularly jaw-dropping, that’s because you haven’t listened to episode number seven, the King of the Four Corners yet. Give that a listen and your jaw might drop like ours. So if you’ve ever wondered why Pierre Lafont divided Washington DC into four quarters,

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or why the architects of the Capitol placed the center of the four quarters directly in the center of the Capitol’s circumpunk, now you know why. They borrowed heavily, very heavily from the auspicious theology of the ancient tradition. What’s even more, the docent will tell you that the vaulted space beneath the rotunda is called a crypt because they had originally planned to inter President Washington there when he died.

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which was never done. But this little tidbits in keeping with the temple design of the Capitol too. We haven’t discussed this on the program yet, but we will and we’ll do it pretty soon in the coming months. See, according to the ancients, the temple was the one place on the planet where heaven, the earth and the underworld could connect. I’ll develop this a lot more in coming episodes, but it’s worth noting that we find this clear temple design in the US Capitol.

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The circumpunked in the dome represents the heavens where God dwells. The circumpunked on the rotunda floor represents the center of the earth, the only place a true temple can be built. And the circumpunked on the crypt floor, the compass stone represents the underworld, the world of the dead, which is why they planned to bury Washington there. If you wanted to, you could draw a straight line

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from the center of the punct in the Capitol dome, straight through the center of the circum punct on the rotunda floor, straight through the compass stone in the crypt, like a giant cosmic pole connecting all three realms, heaven, the earth and the underworld together. And that, as you’re gonna see in future episodes, is exactly what the ancients taught was the constitution and the purpose of a temple.

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The architectural design we see in the US Capitol is in complete conformity with this theology, as is the Persian pantheon. See, directly below the Persian pantheon, we also find a crypt. In fact, this is why we find subterranean crypts under all kinds of important churches, cathedrals, pyramids, and mounds all over the world. Those crypts represent the underworld, the world where the dead go after this life.

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The temple design, the connecting of heaven, earth, and the underworld, which we find in the Roman pantheon, the Parisian pantheon, and in the U.S. Capitol, completely conforms with the theology taught by the ancients in the ancient tradition. It’s just amazing. Preserved there in stone. Okay. So I can’t leave this section on architecture without talking about my

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favorite secular circumpunked on the entire planet and it’s not that far from the capital of the United States. In fact, it’s right across the street or straight through the capital’s southeastern pedestrian tunnel, which will take you directly to the Library of Congress. You shouldn’t be surprised at all that my favorite secular circumpunked is found in a library. One of the most beautiful libraries in the world.

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If you’ve ever been to the Library of Congress, then you know that the library’s crown jewel, the main reading room is absolutely spectacular. For most visitors, the only way that you’re gonna get a glimpse of the reading room is by climbing to the third floor overlook and peering through several plexiglass windows. And what you’ll see when you look from that vantage point is that there is a giant circum-punked

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on the reading room floor. In the center of the floor, you’re gonna see a punct, which is a circular desk. And this is the desk that the librarians use to distribute books to patrons. From that center, you’re gonna see three concentric circles. Each circle’s made up of reading desks. And you should note that each desk is highlighted by a reading lamp. Lamps that look from the height that you are, like stars.

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From above, the whole arrangement looks like angels circumambulating the throne of God. When you look a little closer, because you’ve been listening closely to this program, you’ll notice that there are eight pathways emanating from the librarian’s center desk to the outskirts of the room, dividing the reading desks into eight sections. From above, the whole design looks like an eight-pointed star superimposed atop a circum-pug.

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Theologically, this makes perfect sense because God, who is symbolized by an eight-pointed star, resides in the sacred center of all things. When you take a step back, you’ll notice that the entire reading room is formed in the shape of an octagon, which reinforces the eight-point motif. When you finally look up, you’ll see another spectacular circumference.

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And this one like the one on the reading room floor is divided into eight sections. Against the backdrop of circles and circles of golden rosettes forming the circum-punct, the entire dome looks like an eight-pointed star radiating a glorious light. And when you look at the dome and then down at the reading room floor, you’ll notice the as above, so below motif again.

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It looks like the human beings down there on their reading room floor are trying to replicate on earth the sacred center in the heavens. If you turn back to the dome, to the punct, you’ll see a magnificent blue painting in the very center. And it looks really similar to the apotheosis of Genevieve and the apotheosis of Washington. But the docent will tell you that the figure you see there doesn’t represent God, but represents quote,

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understanding. This seems a bit perplexing, but then you remind yourself that the architects and painters have, I don’t know, ignorantly, ironically, or maybe even purposely usurped the theology taught by the ancients and replaced it with secular imitations. And this becomes even more noticeable when you notice that several figures surround the central figure, human understanding. And when you

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If you quietly count the number of figures, you realize that there are 12, 12 circling the one. And you find this suspiciously similar to our discussions on the Council of the Gods, the High Council of 12, and Christ and his 12 apostles. The docent will tell you, however, that the 12 figures that you see represent countries or epics

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At this point, the secular usurpation of the theology of the ancient tradition is unmistakable. As you get ready to leave, you take one last look at the center of the dome, and you notice something interesting. It’s quite faint and even a little difficult to make out, but you’re pretty sure that the figure in the center of the dome, human understanding, is encircled by a zodiac. And you wonder why that is.

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As you take it all in, admiring the way that the architects have elevated your thoughts and aroused in you a sense of majesty, you wish that you could actually go inside the reading room, not just admire it through a plexiglass window. And when you ask the docent what one needs to do to be able to go inside this secular temple, she tells you that you must be at least 16 years old.

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You must register for a reader identification card, and you must deposit all of your personal items in a locker. Then you think to yourself, man, that’s interesting. That’s another secularization of the temple idea. They don’t let just anyone inside the reading room. People have to meet a whole set of criteria before they’re allowed in. And only those who meet the criteria are allowed to enjoy

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the true majesty of the reading room. As you think about this, you wonder if there’s anything below the librarian’s circular desk in the center of the reading room floor. You know, something like a secular crypt. So you ask the docent. The docent smiles and says, yes, yes, there is. The docent.

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points through the plexiglass to an area just to the right of the circulation desk and says, if you were standing in the reading room right here, you’d see a door leading to a set of stairs. And those stairs lead down to an octagon shaped room, the hub of the library, where librarians load requested books onto a small elevator. That elevator transports the books up to the reading room floor. Books go up,

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and down that little elevator all day long. When you think about this for a moment, instead of people or angels moving up and down between worlds, between the underworld and the earthly realm, here, it’s books. The architects of the Library of Congress, John L. Smithmire and Paul J. Peltz, were incredibly clever. They took some of the most profound

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theological doctrines in the world and incorporated them into the greatest library in the world. On the one hand, I personally love this. I love books and all the amazing things I’ve learned in books. Knowledge, as I say when I quote William Shakespeare at the end of each episode, is an absolutely critical element in our pursuit of the divine. But purely secular knowledge can never on its own get us where we want to go. We must acquire spiritual knowledge too.

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So although I appreciate Smith-Meyers and Peltz’s work, which I absolutely do, in fact, the main reason I find the reading room so stunning is precisely because these gentlemen used the theology of the ancients in their architectural design, a theology which always inspires, always lifts and always edifies, all things that the reading room absolutely does. But I think their work gives the faults

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secularized impression that secular knowledge is all that we need. These architects clearly make this implication when they replace God, who the ancients taught rules from his throne in the sacred center of the cosmos with a figure in the center of the reading room dome who represents quote human understanding. It’s like Smithmire and Pelts used the ancient theology

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inspire and edify, yet they turn right around and deny its efficacy. So whenever I visit, I just have to block that contradiction out of my mind and just enjoy the aesthetics. I hope you can see from these examples that the ancients used symbols like the circumpunked and the equilateral cross to represent key elements of the ancient tradition. Then architects took those elements and they incorporated them in architectural design.

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developing them into key architectural features. Those architectural designs were so aesthetically pleasing that secular architects took those designs and used them in secular building projects like civic buildings and libraries and banks. Yet all of these, whether they’re religious or secular, attest they are architectural testimonies of

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the original theology taught within the ancient tradition. These examples clearly demonstrate that the symbols the ancients were given. Remember how the golden one taught the old yellow one how to find the cardinal directions in the midpoint? Started right with those symbols, which represent key aspects of the ancient tradition were then incorporated into architectural design.

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The second thing that I want to demonstrate is how these ancient symbols are linked to religious rites, to religious ritual. I want to preface this section by saying that it’s my contention that the rituals, at least the original rituals, were not an outgrowth of the development of symbols. I do not believe the symbols came first and the rituals came second. I believe the original symbols and the original rituals came together.

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not of my own musings, but I take it directly from what the ancients themselves tell us in their myths and in their writings. For example, in episode number one, our very first episode, I gave you an account of the aboriginal peoples in New South Wales who claimed that the rituals that they performed in their sacred ceremonies were the same rituals that had been given to the first ancestors in the beginning. In their legends,

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The Aboriginals tell how Bayami, the creator god, after the creation imparted to the first ancestors a religious tradition characterized by initiation rights. The account they give is an account of the creator performing rituals in his sacred abode with the first ancestors. The creator himself imparts the religious tradition to the first ancestors directly through sacred rights.

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If you remember in that episode, Bayami, the great creator god, explained to the first ancestors that those sacred rituals were to be performed only on sacred ground in a sacred place. Sacred ground, which the Aboriginal people refer to as the Bora. Now, I know that episode was a long time ago, but do you remember the shape the sacred Bora took? A circle.

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You can find pictures of several boras on the webpage for episode number one. These boras are called rings, bora rings. Archaeologists have found these rings all over Australia. I’ve posted an aerial shot of several bora archaeological sites on the webpage for this episode, just so you can get a feel for how ubiquitous they are.

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You got the Mogul ring, the Kippur ring, the Palin Creek ring, the Glenor Grove ring, the Tukey ring, there are literally hundreds, perhaps even thousands of these borer rings all over Australia. Many of which are actually astronomically aligned to where Bayami was believed to dwell in the cosmos. So we’ve got that as above, so below thing again. And listen to this, an anthropologist by the name of Lindsay Winterbotham

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who studied the boras in Australia, notes that borer rings were, quote, always oriented towards the points of the compass, the larger ring to the north and the smaller ring to the south. Within the borer rings, the tribes would perform their most sacred ceremonies or religious rites, one of which was an initiation rite that involved dancing in a circle, known as a circle or ring dance.

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All you have to do is look up circle dance on Wikipedia to find that the ring dance was performed all over the ancient world by primitive peoples and still practice today by modern peoples all over the globe. Wikipedia says the following of ring dances, quote, the circle dance is a style of social dance done in a circle. Circle dancers are in physical contact with each other. The connection is made by hand to hand, finger to finger,

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or hand on shoulders, being probably the oldest known dance formation. Circle dancing is an ancient tradition common to many cultures for marking special occasions, rituals, strengthening community, and encouraging togetherness. The evidence for the ring dance is extensive. We find it mentioned in ballads. Drawings of it can be found on frescoes.

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Medieval songs mention it authors describe it painters painted it. We can even find evidence of it on tombstones We find the ring dance almost everywhere in Scandinavia and the Balkans in Denmark Sweden in Macedonia in Central Europe in the Czech Republic and Poland in the Middle East in Lebanon Syria Palestine Jordan and Turkey in Asia in India Pakistan and Nepal in Mesopotamia in Sumer and Babylon

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in Egypt, in Greece, among the Jews, among nearly every Native American tribe, and in Eastern Europe, in Serbia, and Bosnia. I could keep going, but you get the picture. A European traveler by the name of Salomon Schweiger attended a Greek wedding in Constantinople in 1577 AD. And this is how he described the ring dance he witnessed. Quote, they joined arms one upon the other.

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made a circle, went round the circle with their feet stepping hard and stamping. One sang first with the others following after. From Solomon’s description, it sounds like the wedding guests danced in a circle, then one would sing, and then the rest of the guests in the circle would sing after him or her like a chorus would do. And this is quite interesting because when we study the etymology of the English word chorus, we learned that it is derived from the Greek word kouros.

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which actually means, quote, round dance, or accompany a person in a play under a leader who take part in a dialogue with the actors and sing their sentiments at intervals. Our English word chorus also is derived from the Latin word coros, which means, quote, a dance in a circle, the person singing and dancing. The online etymology dictionary suggests the Greek word coros has its origin in the root.

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G-H-E-R meaning to grasp or enclose. What this means is that our modern day understanding the English word chorus, which we understand today to mean an organized company of singers or a refrain of a song, actually has its origin in the ring dance. When people would dance together in a ring and one would sing and then the rest would sing after. Which is quite intriguing.

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But here’s where it gets really intriguing, especially in relation to our discussion on the circumpunked symbol. Listen to what Richard G. Krauss says on page 33 and 34 of his monumental work, History of the Dance in Art and Education. He says, quote, “‘Among the American Plains Indians, “‘the dancing ground frequently was laid out “‘so that it had four sacred places, “‘the four cardinal points of the compass.’

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After a number of secret rites were carried out to purify and prepare the initiate, there was a ceremonial search for a center pole. Now that’s interesting. Among the American plains Indians the floor on which they performed their dances was divided into four quarters. And after they did this they went and searched for a pole. Now what center pole were they searching for?

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thought of the line that we could draw from the top of the US Capitol Dome to the bronze circle on the floor of the rotunda to the compass stone on the floor of the Capitol Crypt like a pole then you are absolutely correct. That’s exactly the pole that we’re talking about here. That’s the pole the Plains Indians were looking to dance around. Now listen to what the authors say about the search for the pole. Quote.

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There was a ceremonial search for a center pole for the dance. When the proper tree was found, it was felled, brought to the camp, and erected. Okay, so hold on a second. We need to talk about this. The Plains Indians, before they could perform their dance, needed to erect a pole in the center of their sacred dance ground, which had been squared to the four cardinal points.

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And what did they use for the center pole? A tree, a tree. You long time listeners should know exactly why it’s important that the Plains Indians used a tree as the pole and place that tree in the center of the cardinal points.

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Several years ago, I saw a similar thing when I visited the ancient Mesoamerican site Tulum in the Yucatan. We were out waiting for the bus and we were graced by this amazing dance. In this dance, four male dancers climbed to the top of a really, really high pole. I’d estimate it was about 50 feet high. And on the top, there was this square contraption. Each of the four dancers sat on one of the four sides.

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and it began to spin. They’re on the top of this pole spinning around on the square contraption and then they suddenly lean back you know into the awe of the audience. They lean back and the rope that’s attached to the pole unfurls and they are in the air spinning around the center. I’ve posted a video of this dance on the web page for this episode. This dance is known as the dance of the flyers and it is absolutely a remnant of the ancient tradition.

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It’s one of the most amazing displays of the ring dance that you’ll find. And you could just as easily call this dance the dance of the circum punct because that’s what it is. The dance around the sacred center. In elementary school, did you ever participate in the maypole dance? Well, that dance is the dance of the circum punct to the dance of the sacred center. Patty Wiggington, who wrote about the maypole dance says this of the ritual, quote,

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Usually performed in May, the folk custom is done around a pole, garnished with flowers and ribbon to symbolize a tree. Practiced for generations, the maypole tradition dates back to the dances ancient people used to do. Sometimes the ring dance is performed around a pole, but other times it’s performed around a central fire or a central altar rather than a pole.

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but the symbolism is essentially the same. Now, we need to figure out why all these people were dancing around the pole, the fire, or the altar, which symbolized the Sacred Center. For some insight on that, we need to turn to a Hellenized Syrian by the name of Lucian Samasata, who lived between 125 and 180 AD, because he wrote this really, really interesting work titled The Dance.

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And under section seven, Lucian writes this of the origin and meaning of the dance, quote, you, and he’s speaking to a person named Credo here, seem to be quite ignorant of the antiquity of the Panto-mimic art. So he’s referring to the dance here as Panto-mimic. And I think that’s really interesting that he calls it a Panto-mimic act. There’s mimicking involved. Is it not a new thing? It does not date from today or yesterday.

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The best antiquarians, let me tell you, trace dancing back to the creation of the universe. Okay, again, this is super interesting. Lucid is claiming that the ring dance dates all the way back to the beginning of creation, something that so many of the ancients tell us. He continues, quote, it is coeval, if you’re not familiar with what coeval means, it means to be of the same age or the same date of origin.

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It is co evil as Eros who was the beginning of all things. In Greek mythology, Eros or love is what the Greeks believed, quote, reduced the eternal chaos to order. They believed that love initiated the creation of the material world. Lucian continues, quote, in the dance of the heavenly bodies, in the complex involutions whereby the planets are brought,

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in harmonious intercourse with the fixed stars. What Lucian is saying here is really interesting because he seems to indicate that the dance is connected to the time or the ordering of the cosmos. When the primordial waters were transformed from a state of chaos to a state of order. The order that keeps the present stars and planets in their proper revolutions around the sun, which is obviously a type of the circum-

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Right? Lucene is telling us that according to the best antiquarians he knew in the second century AD, the ring dance was a replication of a cosmic dance that took place in the heavens at the time of the creation and which was attested to by the orderly revolutions of the stars and planets. The stars and the planets are an echo of this dance that took place at the time of creation. There’s so much I’d love to talk about here, but we’ll save that for when we get into

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religious rites more. We get a little more insight from the early Christian theologian who lived right around the time as Lucian Somosita between 150 and 215 AD. Clement says this is the ring dance in his address to the heathens and he’s speaking of the dance quote, if thou wishest mayest let thyself be led then shalt thou dance in a ring

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together with the angels, around whom is without beginning or end, the only true God, the God’s word is part of our song. Interestingly, Clement prefaces this statement by telling the heathens that this dance was one of the early Christian mysteries. And by mysteries, he means religious rites, a rite that was so sacred that it was guarded by sacred silence.

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The author of the book, Religious Dances in the Christian Church and in Popular Medicine, E. Louis Backman, a 20th century Swedish doctor, wrote on page 19 the following about Clement’s ring dance statement. He says, quote, Clement’s remarkable final words should also be interpreted quite literally. If you are inducted into the Christian mysteries, then you must perform a ring dance around the altar with the sacrament.

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not only with the other novitiates. Now a novitiate is a novice. So we’re talking about new initiates. So clearly he’s associating this with initiation mysteries or initiation rituals, but also with the angels. They are present and participate in the mystery. There’s some really remarkable stuff there and this got me wondering.

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Was there any evidence in early Christian writings of Christ performing a ring dance? Believe it or not, there’s actually several passages in the early Christian writings that speak of Christ performing a ring or a circle dance. And I obviously don’t have time to go into it here because I’m already over time, but I want to share one poignant example. It’s found in a Gnostic text titled the Book of Second Jew, dated to sometime around the third century AD. In this text,

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We read the following in chapter 42. Quote, Jesus said to his disciples who were gathered to him, the 12 with the women disciples, surround me, my 12 disciples and women disciples, so that I say to you the great mysteries of the treasury of the light. Nor can the aeons of the invisible God bear it when you perform them, because they are the great…

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mysteries of the treasury of the innermost of the innermost. And then in chapter 43, Christ tells the apostles and their wives not to share this mystery, this religious right with anybody. The text reads, quote, these mysteries which I shall give to you, guard them and do not give them to any man except he is worthy of them.

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Do not give them to father or mother or brother or sister or relative or for food or for drink or for a woman or for gold or for silver or for anything at all of this world. Guard them and do not give them to anyone at all for the sake of the goods of this world. So according to this text, this rite was so incredibly important and sacred

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that the apostles were commanded by Jesus to not share it with anyone or for any reason. They were to guard it with strict, sacred silence. In chapter 45, we get a little more information about what Jesus did in the center of this circle. It reads, quote, “‘Jesus with his disciples turned “‘to the four corners of the world. “‘He commanded them that each one of them “‘should place his feet

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together. He spoke the prayer, Amen, Amen, Amen.” So here we see the circumcised again. We see the four corners of the world. We see Christ standing in the middle, circled by his apostles and their wives. And we see Christ leading a prayer, which we assume was the so-called hymn that was sung. In a New Testament apocryphal

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In circulation, as early as the second century AD, we get a similar thing. This ritual is referred to by Christ in this text as a quote dance, a dance of which he again tells them to keep silent, saying quote, keep silence about my mysteries. This idea that certain religious rights were to be preserved and kept secret, this idea of sacred silence, it’s something that we see all over in the ancient world.

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And when we get into religious rites more, we’ll develop this aspect of it more. In Greek and Roman Orthodox churches, when a couple gets married, the priest and the bride and the groom, they join hands and they circle the altar three times. And we see something similar to this in Orthodox Judaism when a couple gets married and the guests perform what is called the Hora dance. I don’t know if you’ve seen videos of these. I love them.

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The guests lift the newlyweds in the air and then their family and friends dance around them, holding hands in this choreographed step. And it’s a wonderfully joyous ring dance. Something that looks so wonderful and so joyous and so celebratory. Sometimes I admit I’m a little bit envious when I see them. I wish I could join in. And I wish all weddings were this much fun and had that much joy. All of the wedding receptions I’ve ever been to have really paled in comparison. You can see a video of a horror dance on the webpage for this episode.

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As you should be able to see now, the ring dance is directly connected to the circumpunked. It’s the circumpunked in motion. The human beings in the circle, when they dance, they are circumambulating God’s throne in the sacred center of the cosmos. And in some way, this dance was an incredibly important and sacred ritual. And I’ll have a little more to say about that in the beginning of our next episode.

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In this episode, I hope you’ve seen how the symbols the ancients used to teach the theology of the ancient tradition were incorporated into sacred architecture and are directly linked to sacred religious rituals, because we’re only going to see that more and more as the podcast continues. If you’re looking for something to do this weekend, why don’t you consider touring a cathedral or a mosque or even a civic building or library to see

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if you can find remnants of the ancient tradition embedded in the architecture there. But of course, if you find them in a secular building, you’ve got yourself a secular temple, which is by definition an oxymoron. Well that’s it for me. I’ll leave you with the words of William Shakespeare, knowledge is the wing we’re with, we fly to heaven. I’m Jack Logan.

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