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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to the ancient tradition. I’m your host Jack Logan. It’s great to be with all of you today. If this is your first time listening in we welcome you to the program. For the past couple of episodes we’ve been looking at who the ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians and Canaanites and Hebrews and Zoroastrians tell us that God is. And we found that they universally tell us that

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God reigns as a celestial king over a celestial kingdom. And we just shouldn’t see this. Considering we’re talking about different civilizations, I mean we’re talking about the Egyptians and the Persians and the Canaanites, we should expect to see much, much greater variability in how God is described. But we just don’t. They all tell us the same thing, that the God in heaven

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reigns as a king. It’s an incredibly important stubborn bit that we can trace all the way back to the very onset of human civilization where we find it talked about in the world’s earliest written documents. When we can do this, when we can trace something like God’s royal nature as a king all the way back to the dawn of time, I argue that it constitutes an original, pure, or dare I

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of the original religious tradition, which we call on this program the ancient tradition, that the ancient Talos was imparted to them in the very beginning. Here’s the thing. Scholars have no idea where the notion of kingship as a form of government and kingship rights came from. They just suddenly show up at the same time that writing and written records show up around 3000 BC.

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Today, we take kingship as a form of government for granted. We are familiar with it. We know what it looks like. We know how it works. And whenever we get familiar with something, we tend to stop thinking critically about it. We stop asking questions. And here, like questions like, where did kingship come from? Why didn’t other forms of government take hold like kingship did?

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In other words, why was the ancient world dominated by kingship? And a very, very important question for the purposes of this program, why was kingship so intimately connected to religion? So much so to be virtually one in the same concept. See, in the ancient world, there was no such thing as secular kingship. Kingship was

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always associated with a very sophisticated and rich religious theology. Why? We need to think more critically about this. We can’t take it for granted that kingship was inevitable nor that it was inevitably associated with religion because neither of those two things are inevitabilities. You know the notion of government arose from someone and somewhere.

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Modern scholars don’t know where or from whom kingship arose. They don’t know the origin of kingship. But the ancients did. And I’ll talk more about this in a couple of episodes when I talk about the period of time known among the ancient Egyptians as the reign of Re. It’s pretty interesting stuff. When we become so familiar with an idea, in this case kingship,

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we start to assume that it’s the normal or intuitively natural way of doing things. In this case of governing, but I want to challenge that assumption. There’s nothing normal about kingship as a form of government and even less so of it being the dominant form of government in the ancient world. This is particularly evident when we take a look at kingship rituals. See,

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In the ancient world, kingship was inseparably connected to ritual. There was a ritual bath, an investiture, an anointing, an oath, and naming rights. Why? Why was any of this necessary? It makes no sense. Why would the ancient Egyptian, Sumerian, Hittite, and Hebrew kings need to be anointed?

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I mean, we don’t anoint the president of the United States. We don’t anoint prime ministers or chancellors or governors. We don’t anoint legislative bodies. So why do we anoint kings? Why do we have this right? And where did this right come from? These are great questions. These are questions that we should be asking because rituals are used in part

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teaching tools. They’re used to teach us profound theological principles and doctrines. And I’m convinced that the anointing is the key to unlocking the entire theology of the ancient tradition. It’s the key that ties all of the religious traditions we see today, these religious traditions that look markedly different on the outside, together into one grand cohesive

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consistent theology. A theology which has of course over time been lost and degraded and even corrupted but which we are trying to reassemble by tracing the stubborn bits which have persisted across continents and across centuries. One of these stubborn bits is the anointing ritual and we’re going to continue to develop this as the podcast progresses.

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If you’re new to the program and you’re interested in learning more about the anointing ritual and the sacred anointing oil, be sure and give the back catalog a listen. The podcast is set up kind of like a college course where each episode builds on the previous episode. So if you’d like a much more comprehensive view of the theology taught by the ancients, then you kind of need to start with episode number one and work your way forward.

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I know there’s a lot of content in the back catalog, but it’s got some really interesting stuff in there and I think it’ll be very much worth your time. The ancients tell us that this theology was given to them in the very beginning in its pure unadulterated form. If this is the case, and I personally believe it is, then this is the theology that every

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needs to know about. And is a pretty mind-blowing theology at that. If what the ancients are teaching us here is true, then nothing could be more worth our time.

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Alright, so in the past couple of episodes, we’ve established that the ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians and Canaanites and Hebrews and Zoroastrians universally attested that God reigns in the heavens as a celestial monarch. Now, theologically, this characteristic of God is incredibly important. Among the theologians that I’ve read, I haven’t come across very many who

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truly wrangle with the theological implications of this doctrine. They tend to speak in general terms about God’s supreme authority, his sweeping sovereignty in his vast kingdom, but they tend to avoid several other important implications, two of which I want to mention just briefly here.

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exists in heaven. Yes, a government. When I hear people talk about heaven and what heaven’s going to be like, I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone mention that there is a government there. In the modern day, heaven is conceptualized as a as this transcendent realm where one can spend one’s day in complete peace and tranquility and free of labor and toil, free to pass away one’s days,

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eating bonbons in this state of ultimate freedom. Now the ancients may not disagree with some aspects of this description, but they didn’t teach this. They taught that a civil government exists in heaven and that it’s a monarchy built upon the cosmic law. This means that even in heaven, we’re not free to do whatever we please, whenever we please. We’re bound by a celestial civil law.

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which of course is the cosmic law, which is why God’s throne sits on a dais that represents the cosmic law. Number two, this means that heaven is socially stratified. To be socially stratified means that individuals in that particular society, in this case in heaven, are hierarchically arranged according to rank. It’s one thing to believe that God as a king is naturally

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higher rank than we are. That seems to make sense. But it’s another thing altogether to conceive of the people in heaven as also ordered according to rank. Now we might interpret this to mean that the people in heaven are unequal, but that would depend on how the rank in heaven is established. And since everything else in heaven seems to be tied to the cosmic law, my guess is that heavenly rank is established by

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one’s compliance to the cosmic law. The more one complies, the more power and authority one’s given. So it’s not about unequalness or unfairness. It’s about the level to which one complies with the cosmic law. We’ll talk about this more, but virtually all of the major civilizations taught that heaven was stratified. They taught that God reigned as a king and that beneath him

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reigned vassal kings and visors and judges and angels. Remember in ancient Mesopotamia, the high god Anu reigned over a court or a council of lower ranked gods, his sons. And we found the same thing in ancient Canaan. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, we find varying ranks of angels. And as you’ll see today among the ancient Chinese and Hindu,

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that we find this same stubborn bit that there’s a social hierarchy in heaven, which is directly tied to heaven’s civil and religious orders. The ancient record gives us a lot of details about how heaven is rank ordered, which we’re gonna get into down the line. But suffice it to note here that the ancients tell us that the social hierarchy in heaven is built entirely in reference to God as a king, where God appoints or decrees

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particular individuals to fulfill important positions in his kingdom. In the ancient world, the theology of God as a heavenly king is absolutely central, and the implications of this doctrine, many of which we’ve discussed on the program, are quite breathtaking. Today, we’re going to take a look at whether or not this conception of God as a celestial king shows up amongst the Chinese and the Hindus.

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Let’s start with the Chinese. Now, Chinese mythology is kind of difficult. On the program, I like to read directly from the primary sources and then couple that with experts in the field as much as I possibly can. I like to read directly from the ancient texts themselves. And this is a little bit harder to do in China. Much of Chinese mythology was passed down orally and it changed from century to century. And not only that, there were a lot of alterations

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place when the Buddhists and the Taoists got their hands on the myths. And what is actually written down in ancient texts like the Shang oracle bones, which are quote the earliest written records of Chinese civilization dated to 1200 BC, contain really little more than hints and references to the myths. They don’t contain a full account of a particular myth. And then we got later texts like

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which in English means classic of the mountains and seas. It’s considered China’s oldest surviving book of mythologies dated to the fourth century BC. Has a lot of myths in there, but they’re very, very short. They’re not much longer than about a single paragraph. But despite all of this, despite the hints and the short stories and the passing of the centuries and all of the alterations, we still find several stubborn bits persisting in Chinese mythology.

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which is precisely why I call these bits stubborn. They persist from generation to generation and they can be traced all the way back to the dawn of the historical record, to a single fount from which scholars like Rene Gunon and Marcea Eliade argue sprung the religious traditions we see today. Chinese scholars believe that

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Chinese mythology was established around the same time as the Shang dynasty, China’s first historical dynasty, which is the time of the Shang oracle bones, which I just mentioned, around 1200 BC, which in terms of world history is a little bit late, but if these scholars are correct, it still makes Chinese mythology at least 3,200 years old. Dr. Anne Beryl.

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She’s an expert in Chinese mythology who taught at Cambridge University and wrote a book titled Chinese Myth and Culture. She argues on page 26 that Chinese cosmogonic or origin myths were likely derived from the ancient Near East. She writes, speaking of Chinese mythology, quote, I call attention to parallels with Egyptian and Akkadian cosmogony.

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My reason for doing so is to point toward the possibility of a cultural transference of cosmogonic myth from the ancient Near East to China in antiquity. What Dr. Burrell’s arguing here is kind of important because she’s doing the same thing that we’re doing on this program, tracing the stubborn bits in the myths back to the ancient Near East.

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where scholars like Lord Raglan argue, quote, a complex religious system came into existence. Before I move on to the stubborn bits relevant to today’s topic, I wanna point out one other important statement Dr. Burrell makes. It’s unrelated to today’s topic, but it’s important in terms of points that we’ve made in the previous episodes. On page 27, speaking of Chinese beliefs about how the universe was created,

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She writes, quote, Chinese ideological. Now, ideological refers to the study of the cause of, okay. Chinese ideological myths of cosmogony, which explain the origin of the universe, describe how the world came to be ordered out of chaos. These myths are ways of conceptualizing the universe at the moment when it was created in illotempore, or,

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in the beginning of mythological time. Chinese cosmogonic myths fit the general patterns of myths worldwide in the sense that they do not describe creation ex nihilo, which means creation out of nothing. In Chinese mythology, the cosmos is created from some already existing matter. So.

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There you go. Chinese myths too. Like we see all over the rest of the ancient world a test that the universe was made out of preexisting matter, not out of nothing. All right, let’s get to the gist of today’s episode. The question is, do the ancient Chinese also attest that God reigns in the heavens as a king? And the short answer to this is yes. They…

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They absolutely do. Today, the supreme god of the Chinese pantheon is Hu Wang, also known as Hu Di, the Jade Emperor. I say in short because Chinese mythology has a long history and previous to the Jade Emperor, at least two other supreme deities ruled, Shang Di and Uwen Shi Tien Tzu.

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Yuan Shi Tiansu is important because in Taoist theology, three gods, three gods constitute the upper echelon of the Taoist pantheon. They’re known as the three pure ones or the three pristine ones. Each of these gods is considered to be a pure emanation of the Tao, which we’ve learned in this program is the Chinese conception of the cosmic law. The foremost,

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of these three pure ones is the aforementioned Uenshi Tien Tzu. Each member of the Taoist Trinity who are Uenshi Tien Tzu, Lingba Tien Tzu, and Daoda Tien Tzu are believed to be primordial gods, and each one is believed to rule over a particular heaven. In fact, the Appalachian Tien Tzu actually means Lord of Heaven.

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Yuanchi Tiansu actually means Yuanchi, Lord of Heaven. Yuanchi Tiansu rules over the first and highest heaven known as Yuching. And just guess where the highest heaven is located. In the top of a mountain, a mountain known as Jade Mountain. As we’ve seen on this program, and as you’re gonna see in coming weeks, across the ancient world,

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The heavenly or divine realm of the gods is almost uniformly described as existing in the top of a sacred mountain. Now, there’s some very, very important theological reasons why the ancients used a mountain to symbolize where God resides, and we’ll take a deep dive into that in the coming months. Just note that here in China, the supreme God, Yuan Shi Tietzu, also resides in the top of a mountain, a mountain called the Jade Mountain.

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Okay, why jade? For the answer to this, we need to turn to the Minneapolis Institute of Art. They have a large collection and one of their prized pieces in this collection is a magnificent 200 year old carving of Jade Mountain. And it’s actually a carving that’s made entirely out of jade. It weighs like over 600 pounds or something. It’s considered the largest piece of carved jade in the Western Hemisphere.

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The carving was commissioned by Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty and it was completed sometime around 1784 AD. You can find a picture of it on the webpage for this episode. This is what the Minneapolis Institute of Art says about the significance of jade in China. Quote, the Chinese considered jade to be the most sacred and treasured of all precious stones.

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Their word for jade is yu, which is Y-U, meaning pure, precious, noble, and right, R-I-G-H-T. So take note that one of the meanings of jade in China is right, R-I-G-H-T. The Institute continues, quote, its physical characteristics were believed to express the greatest virtues of mankind, soft, smooth, and glossy like benevolence.

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fine, compact, and strong, like intelligence, angular, though not sharp or cutting, like righteousness, internally radiant, like faith, pure of sound when struck, like wisdom. I like how the Chinese use this precious stone to symbolize all that’s noble and good. Okay, but again, why

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I mean, there’s a lot of different precious stones out there that they could have used. So why jade? Well, guess where jade is normally found. Let’s take a guess. Yep, in high mountains, in high mountains. Now you’re starting to see how it’s all tied together. If the Supreme Being abides in the top of a high mountain and the precious stone that’s found in high mountains is jade,

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then jade becomes a symbol for that realm, for God, for the spiritual essence of those who dwell there, for the place itself. The Chinese actually believed that the spiritual essence of the divine realm was manifest in jade itself, which is why they used it in a lot of their rituals, and they made pendants and beads and even funerary masks out of it. During the Han dynasty, which was

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between 202 BC and 220 AD. The emperors weren’t just buried with a jade mask, they were actually completely covered in a jade suit. They took one to two inch square plates of jade, hundreds and hundreds of them, and they sewed them together with gold thread and covered the entire deceased emperor. You can find a picture of this on the webpage for this episode. When we understand jade’s connection to the mountain,

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where the supreme deity Yuan Shi Tiansu dwells, then we can understand why emperors during the Han dynasty were buried in jade. To be buried in jade meant the emperor had or could become immortal like the gods who dwelt on Jade Mountain. The jade suit they wore was believed to ensure their immortality in the afterlife. It was believed to prevent mortal decay and to preserve the physical body after death.

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couple of theological points are worth making here. First, note that the ancient Chinese believed, just like the ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians, that the terrestrial king could become immortal and join the celestial king, Yuan Shi Tietzu, in the abode of the gods. And second, note that the ancient Chinese, especially during the Han Dynasty, went

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to great lengths to preserve the physical body of the deceased king, just like the ancient Egyptians did, because they believed that by doing so, that this was an important part of the king gaining immortality. All right, so now you know why the mountain where Tietzu resides is called Jade Mountain, and why Jade took on such extraordinary spiritual significance amongst the Chinese.

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significance that’s directly linked to the ancient tradition which you’ll see down the line, the mountain. Okay, let’s return to the supreme deity, Yuanshi Tiansu. As I mentioned earlier, in Taoist theology, Yuanshi Tiansu reigns in the heavens with two other gods, Lingba Tiansu and Daodei Tiansu.

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teach a really interesting theology. They teach that each of these gods reigns over a particular level of heaven. Yuan Shi Tietzu rules over the first and the highest heaven, which is known as Yuqing. Ling Ba Tietzu rules over the second heaven, known as Shangqing, which is located below the first heaven. And Daode

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rules over the third heaven known as Tai Ching which is located below the first and second heavens. Keep this information about the Chinese three pure ones and the levels of heaven in your back pocket because we’re going to revisit this again when we examine the notion of multiple heavens and Mesopotamian cosmic geography down the line. You’re going to see that the Mesopotamians taught the exact same thing.

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Now when we look at the iconographic depictions of these three gods, they’re almost always depicted enthroned on diocese, reigning as celestial kings. You can find pictures of this on the webpage for this episode. All of this brings me to Hu Huang, also known as Hu Di.

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August Jade Emperor or Hu Huang Da Di, August Personage of Jade. Note how Yu, which is the word for Jade, is mentioned in his name, Hu Huang or Hu Di. Di is actually the Chinese word for Emperor or King. So Yu Di means the Emperor of Jade or the Jade Emperor. Today in China, he’s the most important god in the world.

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Taoism and the Chinese folk religion. He’s regarded as the supreme ruler of heaven. Okay, so how is he linked to the head of the Taoist Trinity Yuan Shi Tiansu? And note that he’s got you in his name too, Yuan Shi. Well, according to Taoist beliefs Yuan Shi personally chose the Jade Emperor as his successor.

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and today he’s worshiped as the Chinese high god. According to Chinese writer Wu Mingren, in Chinese folk religion, quote, the Jade Emperor is regarded as the celestial equivalent of the Chinese Emperor. Now that’s really interesting because this belief reflects the cosmological principle as above, so below. Chinese folk religion adherents

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the Jade Emperor as the celestial equivalent of the terrestrial Chinese Emperor. Now I love Chinese imperialist theology and I love the architecture of Chinese Imperial palaces and temples precisely because they so explicitly and deliberately seek to mirror on earth the pattern of kingship in heaven. I’ll hit on this a bit here but this will become a lot more apparent down the line. There’s some fascinating stuff yet to come. All right.

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So one of the objectives of this episode is to find out who the Chinese tell us God is. Do the Chinese also attest that God reigns as a celestial king? And then as we pointed out earlier, yes, they absolutely do. In fact, I don’t know that there is any civilization or religious group in the world that more overtly attests that God reigns as a heavenly king than the Chinese. I mean, all we have to do is look at the name the Chinese give God.

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and the archinography that they used to depict God to see that the characteristic the Chinese want to stress more than any other about God is that God reigns in the heavens as a king, an emperor. That’s the central message the Chinese convey in every single drawing and painting and sculpture of him. When we look at how the Chinese refer to God, we don’t see that the Chinese refer to him in general terms as God or Lord, like we see other places around the world. Instead,

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The Chinese in formal settings always refer to God by the title emperor or king. God is the Jade Emperor or the pure August Jade Emperor or when they get really fancy, the highest author of heaven of the whole universe of human destinies of property of rights, R-I-T-E-S, and of the way, which is the Tao.

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cosmic law. Very August 1, Grand Sovereign of the Heavens. So in each one of these, emperor or sovereign is right in the name. In other words, whenever the Chinese formally refer to God, they always do so in direct relationship to his role as king. And I really like that last fancy title because it refers to so many things we’ve discussed on the program. The title connects God

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not only to kingship but to the decreeing of human destinies, the ritual system, and the Dao, the cosmic law, the same things that we’ve seen across the ancient world. But how did the Chinese refer to God? Informally, how was God the Jade Emperor referred to? And I really like this one. Informally, he’s referred to as Tiāngōng, which means heavenly grandfather.

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So whenever the Chinese refer to God, they stress two characteristics, that God reigns as a king and a father. Iconographically, God, the Jade Emperor, is always portrayed anthropomorphically as a man. He’s got arms and legs and hands and feet. He’s usually depicted as a middle-aged man with a thin mustache and this long, sagely goatee.

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Nearly always he’s seated on a royal throne, which is usually raised on a dais. And he’s usually decked out in full imperial costume in this long, beautifully embroidered robe. And he’s always depicted wearing a mian, which is the Chinese word for crown. It’s a really nice imperial headdress of some sort. And they vary.

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but often he’s portrayed wearing the sheer leomian, which is the 12 tasseled crown, which was worn exclusively by emperors. Sometimes the crown was referred to as the emperor’s 12 chained crown. And if you haven’t seen this type of crown before, it’s pretty unique. Basically, it starts with a cylindrical shaped hat, which raises about six to eight inches above the head. And then,

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they place a flat board. It’s about seven inches wide and 12 inches long across the top of the hat. And the longer ends of the board protrude out the front and the back. And across the front and the back of the board are hung 12 rows of colored beads. 12, you ask, why 12? Well, that’s a great question. Scholars think that the 12 rows hold

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cosmological significance, linking the emperor to the 12 months of the year and the 12 divisions of heaven, which is the zodiac and cosmic order. If you’d like to see what this looks like you can find a picture of the jade emperor wearing the sheer loomian on the webpage for this episode.

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You may not know this, but the Jade Emperor was also accredited with creating the Chinese zodiac. The myth tells that the Jade Emperor was working on ordering the cosmos and he wanted to create a calendar. So he invited all of the creatures on earth to participate in a race and he told the creatures that the first 12 animals to cross over a particular river, which I’m sure has cosmic significance, would be the first to appear in the calendar.

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and he promised to name a year after each animal in the order that they crossed the river. And I bring that up because the zodiac actually plays an important symbolic role in the ancient tradition, which you’re gonna see down the line. All in all though, the iconography of the Taoist and Chinese folk religion high god, the Jade Emperor, unequivocally attests that God reigns as a king.

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in this case a celestial king who’s depicted in cultural terms as a Chinese emperor. Like we see elsewhere in the ancient world, Chinese Taoists also tell us that the Jade Emperor resides in the highest heaven in a grand majestic palace. And he lives there with his wife, Tianxiang Shengmu, the Jade Empress. And they have lots and lots of children along with a court.

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of ranked gods and royal administrators and officials. Just like we’ve seen elsewhere in the ancient world, the Jade Emperor’s palace serves as the cosmic seat of power, the administrative center of the cosmos. And it’s from there that he manages a vast bureaucracy composed of various deities who oversee different aspects of the cosmos, ensuring that cosmic order is maintained.

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that the Jade Emperor’s celestial palace is guarded. It’s guarded by a celestial official named Ling Kuan. He’s the protector of sacred space. He’s the guardian of the palace temple. Whenever we see depictions of him, he’s always decked out in armor or military attire, and he’s wielding a sword, which according to Chinese scholar, Chao Kuan Hu,

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befits his status as quote a celebrated general of the celestial realm. Lin Kuan is actually a pretty significant figure in Taoism and we’ll talk about him more down the line when we talk about the guardians who protect sacred celestial space. These guardians are another prolific and very important stubborn bit. If you would like to see pictures of Lin Kuan you can find him on the web page for this episode.

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One of the things that’s really important to note here is that the Chinese imperial system on earth looked a whole, whole, whole lot like the Jade Emperor’s imperial system in the heavens. And this was on purpose. The terrestrial Chinese emperors were consciously trying to replicate the Jade Emperor’s celestial government on earth as above, so below.

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Just as the Jade Emperor ruled as a monarch, so too the Earthly Emperor ruled as a monarch. Just as the Jade Emperor oversaw various gods who managed different aspects of the cosmos, so too the Earthly Emperor oversaw a network of officials and ministers who administered provincial and local governance. The Earthly Emperor was modeling his court after the Celestial Court.

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The earthly emperor’s primary objective was to replicate the structure of heaven on earth. If the Jade Emperor brought about order and prosperity in the cosmos by upholding the Tao and by ruling as a king according to the Tao, then it followed that order and prosperity could best be brought about on earth by doing the same thing, by upholding the Tao, ruling according to the Tao,

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and by instituting the same form of government, a monarchy as it was done in heaven. Again, as above, so below. And not only that, this is exactly what the Jade emperor demands that the earthly emperor do, to pattern his rule after the Jade emperor’s celestial rule. In ancient China, the earthly emperor’s right to rule, like we’ve seen elsewhere in the ancient world, was divinely granted.

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The ancient Chinese referred to it as the Mandate of Heaven. During the Zhou dynasty, which dated from 1046 BC to 256 BC, the earthly emperor was known as the son of Tian Di. Remember, Tian in Chinese means heaven, and Di means king. So the son of Tian Di, the earthly emperor,

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was the son of the king of heaven. In other words, the earthly emperor was the son of God. So there’s that sonship stubborn bit again, and we’ll get into that in greater detail down the line. The emperor as the son of heaven was expected to follow the laws of heaven and maintain order in the world just like the heavenly king did. If the emperor failed to govern justly, he risked losing

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like we’ve seen elsewhere in the ancient world. Most recently in Persia, where Hurmazda was the one who granted the earthly Shah and Shah the right to rule by granting him the ring of power. Here, the earthly emperor was the one who granted the earthly emperor the authority to rule, the heavenly mandate. This point that God serves as the prototype for the monarchy, for this type of rule.

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this point that it’s God who serves as the prototype for the monarchy, that it’s God who instituted the monarchy, and that it’s God who sanctions this type of rule is a really important one, especially in terms of our discussion of what the ancients tell us happened in the first time, in the beginning, when earth was in heaven’s embrace, which I hope to return to you very soon on the podcast. It’s clear from all of this that when we ask the question of

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They give us the same answer as the rest of the ancient world. They clearly tell us that God reigns as a celestial king in a celestial palace in the highest heaven. Now before I leave this section, I have to ask one more question. How did UD become a heavenly king? The pure August Jade Emperor. Did he become a heavenly king in the same way that Ray, Osiris, Marduk, Baal?

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Jesus and Ahura Mazda became heavenly kings? Well, that depends on who and when you ask. The Chinese offer up a couple of accounts on how UD became the king of heaven. Some accounts tell how he was initially a mortal man who successfully passed through hundreds of trials until he fully cultivated the Tao, upon which he was granted the status of golden

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deity, the status of jade emperor. Others tell of how he battled and vanquished a terrible monster after which he was crowned king. Now these two accounts sound incongruent, but if you’re a long time listener to the program you know that both accounts are telling us the exact same thing. To fully cultivate the Tao is the same thing as slaying the awful monster.

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So regardless of how it’s described, the ancient Chinese are telling us that the Jade Emperor achieved his status as a heavenly king in the exact same manner that all of the other ancients did by slaying the awful dragon. It’s the same theology. Listen to the creators of mythical arcana describe the battle between the Jade Emperor and the great demon.

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The Jade Emperor’s reign is rich with stories that highlight his virtues and the challenges he faces in maintaining celestial order. From vanquishing evil to overseeing the creation of the world, these tales reveal the depth of his character and his unwavering dedication to the well-being of all beings.

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In the distant past, a time when the realms of Heaven and Earth were still finding their balance, a terrible threat arose. The Great Demon, a being of immense malevolence and ambition, sought to overthrow the Celestial Order and cast the universe into chaos. This Demon thrived on discord and darkness, and its power grew as it spread fear and destruction. The Jade Emperor, ruler of Heaven and Earth, could not stand idly by as the Demon wreaked havoc.

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From his celestial palace, he summoned his divine army, a legion of celestial beings known for their bravery and strength. Leading them were the four heavenly kings, each a master of the four cardinal directions, and the powerful deity Erlang Shen with his piercing third eye. As the demons’ forces amassed at the gates of heaven, the Jade Emperor prepared for the battle. His presence inspired his troops, instilling in them a sense of purpose and unwavering resolve.

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The skies darkened as the two great armies clashed, their battle cries echoing through the heavens. The demon, wielding dark magic and immense strength, was a formidable foe. It summoned storms and earthquakes, trying to unseat the celestial order. But the Jade Emperor, with his divine wisdom and unmatched power, orchestrated a strategy that would turn the tide. He instructed Erlang Shen to use his third eye to find the demon’s weakness.

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while the four heavenly kings coordinated the defense and counterattacks. After a fierce and prolonged battle, Erlang Shen discovered the demon’s vulnerability. With precise coordination, the Jade Emperor directed his forces to exploit this weakness. The Celestial Army’s might, combined with the Jade Emperor’s strategic brilliance, overwhelmed the Great Demon. In a final, decisive confrontation, the Jade Emperor himself faced the demon,

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using his scepter to channel his divine power and deliver a fatal blow. With the demon defeated, its dark influence dissipated and peace was restored to the universe. The skies cleared and the natural order was reestablished. The Jade Emperor’s victory was celebrated across the realms and his leadership was revered by gods and mortals alike. This triumph solidified his position as the protector of the universe, a guardian against all forces of evil.

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Pretty interesting, huh? Keep the four kings, the four heavenly kings of the cardinal points mentioned in that account in your back pocket, because they’ll be important down the line too. Because of the Jade Emperor’s great benevolent deed, because he vanquished evil, he was proclaimed the supreme sovereign, the emperor, the king of heaven.

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If you’re a long time listener, I hope you aren’t beginning to take these consistencies for granted. We just shouldn’t see that the ancient Chinese taught the same thing about who God is and how God became a heavenly king as we do elsewhere in the world. But we do, and that’s remarkable. Now, let’s turn to the Vedic tradition. As many of you may know, there are several important gods in Hinduism.

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theology evolved over time. However, one Vedic god sticks out, the god Indra. In the Rig Veda, which is the oldest known Vedic scripture, scholars date it to between 1500 and 1000 BC. Indra is the most respected and revered god. If you’re not familiar with the Rig Veda, it’s essentially a collection of hymns, and each hymn is addressed to a particular god.

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And in the Rig Veda, more than 250 of the hems, which is about 25% of them, are addressed to Indra, which is way more than any other god. So for comparison, only 10 hems in the Rig Veda are addressed to the god Varuna. So Indra is by far the most significant god in the Rig Veda. For today’s episode, we wanna know whether or not the Vedic Indra,

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like we see elsewhere in the ancient world, was also understood to be a heavenly king. And the answer to this is yes, he absolutely was. Let’s start with his name because it’s pretty darn interesting. According to entomologists, now entomology is the study of the origin of words, Max Mueller, and this is found on page 119 of Edward Perry’s article, Indra in the Rig Vita,

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published in volume 11 of the Journal of the American Oriental Society. The name Indra comes from the Sanskrit stem, in do, which means drop or sap. Drop or sap. You long time listeners out there, what does this make you think of?

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Did any of you think of the sap of the Kamaphora muratri, mur? Cause I sure did. But keep listening because it gets even more intriguing. Entomologically, indu comes from the root und, which means to flow or issue out. Now, here is where it really gets interesting. In Sanskrit, indu refers

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specifically to a drop of soma, a drop of soma. And what is soma? We’ve talked about this on the program before. If you don’t remember, soma is the milk or juice of a special plant that gives one immortality. In the Rig Vita 8.48.3, it says that the one who drinks the milk that issues from this plant

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will become immortal. The Rigveda says, quote, we have drunk the soma, we have become immortal, we have gone to the light, we have found the gods. I hope you can see the theological parallel here between soma and myrrh. In both cases, the essential ingredient issues out of some type of flora. Soma milk,

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issues out of a special plant and mer sap issues out of a tree. The milk is the gift of the plant. The sap is the gift of the tree. It’s this gift that makes one immortal and allows one to quote find the gods. Don’t forget this is the entire objective of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh wants nothing more than to discover the secret to immortality.

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and like Utnapishtim become like the gods. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet 11, Gilgamesh says to Utnapishtim, tell me, quote, how you came to stand in the gods’ assembly and sought eternal life. Utnapishtim then says to Gilgamesh, quote, let me reveal to you a closely guarded matter, Gilgamesh, and let me tell you the secret of the gods.

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plant whose root is like camel thorn. If you yourself can win that plant, you will find and then the tablet is broken here. But considering the context scholars believe it finished you will find eternal life and this is corroborated towards the end of tablet 11 when Gilgamesh tells the boatman Ershonabi that quote with it the plant.

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a man may win the breath of life. Its name shall be an old man grows into a young man.” Now you can just imagine there are all kinds of people out there in the world who have tried to identify out of the millions of species of plants out there, which specific plant was used to produce this very special soma. Well, I can tell you right now that they will never find it.

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And that’s because when you understand the language of the ancients, you realize that the soma plant is symbolic. Because remember, in the ancient world, the tree symbolized God. The soma plant symbolizes God. And the drop or sap that issues from the plant or tree symbolizes some type of very special gift.

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that issues from God, which is then given to those who are willing to drink from the plant or who are willing to be anointed with the sap of the tree. And this gift ultimately gives those individuals eternal life. Chapter 9 verse 20 of the Vedic Bhagavad Gita says, quote, those who drink of the juice of the pure soma plant are cleansed.

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and purified of their past sins. This makes sense because to stand in the God’s assembly, like Gilgamesh desires, one would have to be like the gods, free from violations of the cosmic law. I wanna make one more observation about Indra’s name in Soma.

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In our last episode, I mentioned that I had no idea how the Magi, the Zoroastrian priests who sought after the Christ child knew about the importance of myrrh, why they gave him the gift of myrrh. Well, I have a much better idea now. I didn’t realize this until I started putting this episode together and I’d probably just forgotten. We actually cover a lot of material on this program. It’s hard to keep it all in the brain. But Zoroastrians also talk.

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And most of this is found in Zoroastrian scriptures in the Yasna, that if one drank from a divine plant, the Homa, H-A-O-M-A, Homa, which is a cognate of the Vedic soma. Now cognate means that they share a common linguistic origin. They would be strengthened, healed, and that their body would be invigorated.

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The Yasna 9.17 says, and this is speaking of the Homa, quote, I make my claim on thee for strength. I make my claim on thee for health and healing. I make my claim on thee for vigor of the entire frame and for understanding. And verse 19 continues, speaking of immortality. O Homa, thou that drivest

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death afar. Verse 22 continues, speaking of Homa’s ability to increase wisdom. Listen to this. Quote, Homa grants to those who have long sat searching books more knowledge and more wisdom. And listen to what verse 30 says about the ability of Homa to ensure one’s victory over the awful dragon.

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And yes, the L.H. Mills English translation actually says dragon. Speaking of the homa, verse 30 reads, quote, “‘At the aroused and fearful dragon, “‘green and belching forth his poison, “‘for the righteous saint that perishes, “‘yellow homa hurl thy mace.'” And mace here is M-A-C-E, it’s referring to weapon. It’s telling the homa to hurl its weapon at the dragon.

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That’s some great stuff. Now verse 32 is really interesting too, because it says the homa even has the power to help one withstand the temptations of the harlot. It reads, quote, against the body of the harlot with her magic minds overthrowing, with intoxicating pleasures, to the lusts of her person offering, whose mind is vapor waivers as it flies before the wind.

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for the righteous saint that perishes, yellow homa hurl thy mace. To have the power to thwart the harlot’s temptations, the homa is obviously a very powerful drink that issues from a very powerful plant. There is actually a lot more great stuff in chapters nine to 11, which I wish we had time to talk about.

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Maybe I’ll put a recording of them on our sister podcast, the Ancient Tradition Audio Rit.

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guess, just guess, where this special Homa grows. If you had to guess, where would you guess it grows? On the summits of mountains. Of course it does. Listen to the Yasna, chapter 10, verses 3 and 4. Quote, I praise the cloud that waters thee and the rains which make thee grow on the summits of the mountains.

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and I praise thy lofty mountains where the Homa branches spread. The springs of righteousness most verily thou art.” Wow, it teaches a lot of great stuff about the power of the Homa and what the Homa helps human beings be able to do. All right, James Darmestetter, whose translation of the Avesta I used in the last episode, wrote the following of Homa. It’s a really interesting

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the vidas and the avesta, call it the king of healing herbs. Zoroastrian scriptures say the Homa is of two kinds, the white Homa and the painless tree. Could it be that Soma is the tree of life, the giver of immortality? Well, that’s a great question, Mr. Darmistetter. I’m arguing that yes, that yes, they are the same idea conceptually.

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just different cultural expressions of a single, very, very important theological principle. Karl Gledner, a German linguist, an expert in both Zoroastrian and Vedic scripture, showed that the word Homa was derived from the Indo-European root SAU, S-A-U, from the Proto-Indo-Iranian word Salma, which means to pound or

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press. The Zoroastrians would prepare the Homa drink by pounding or pressing the twigs of a plant. Now this is interesting because if you remember in our last episode I pointed out that the Shah-on-Shah or the Persian king of kings carried a sacred bundle of twigs in his hand like a scepter. The bar-some. Well scholars believe the bar-some is closely related to the Homa ritual.

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and may have originally consisted of Homa stocks, twigs, branches of a tree of some sort. In a peer-reviewed article on Homa culture, the author, Macaulay Bilgiscy writes, quote, in ancient times, the Homa twigs were probably part of the Barsam bundle. Now, from what we’ve seen in the ancient world, theologically, this makes complete sense.

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Remember the scepter that was given to King Emma Duranki in ancient Mesopotamia? It was the branch of the sacred Qisqanu tree. And here Zoroastrians are using sacred twigs holding them like a scepter. And what’s more, Zoroastrians use the milk pressed from these twigs, much like the myrrh pressed from a tree. And they find that it strengthens, heals, helps one become victorious.

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grants one immortality. Theologically it’s very consistent. We probably aren’t far off on our thinking. Macaulay Bilgesi, who I just mentioned, also connects the Zoroastrian Homa to the Judeo-Christian tree of life. On page 166 he writes the following, quote, the Homa plant is an emblem of immortality. It reminds one of the tree of life of the Christian scriptures in the Garden of Eden.

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As the tree of life is guarded by the cherubim, so the homa isophed, or the white homa, is guarded by 99,999 fervashes, or guardian spirits.

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If Bill Gisse is correct, then it really wouldn’t be that surprising after all that the Magi would know and understand the theological significance of myrrh among the early Christians. Okay, I took a bit of a detour there. I just wanted you to see all of the nifty connections in Indra’s name. It basically means a drop or sap of soma. The anointing.

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Back to how the God Indra is understood in Hinduism. In the Rig Veda, hymn 32 verse 15, Indra is referred to as a king. The verse reads, quote, “‘Indra is king of all that moves and moves not, “‘of creatures tame and horned, “‘the thunder wielder over all living men. “‘He rules as sovereign.'”

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So that verse clearly indicates that Indra is understood to reign as a celestial king over all people and all things. He is the divine sovereign. Now what’s interesting about this text, the placement of this declaration that Indra reigns as a king in the Rigveda is really important. Why? Because this statement is made right after the text tells us he slayed the awful dragon

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Yep, right after. Just like we see across the ancient world, it’s only after the hero has slain the dragon that the hero has made a king. The Rig Vita is in complete keeping with this kingship theology. Indra has made a heavenly king precisely because he slayed the dragon. That’s why he’s king. I’ve mentioned Indra’s defeat of the Awful Vitra several times on the program, but I haven’t actually read the original account.

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which is recorded in the Rig Vita. So I wanna do that here. It’s actually kind of long, so I’m only gonna give a couple sections of it. It’s a nice account. In this account, Vritra, who’s often depicted as a serpent or a dragon-like being, is holding back the waters crucial for life, rendering the earth barren and dry. Indra actively volunteers to take on the task of defeating Vritra.

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This account is found in the Rig Vita, HEM 32. It reads, and this is the Ralph Griffith translation. I’m gonna add a little commentary here and there, which mostly comes from Ralph Griffith himself. Quote, I will declare the manly deeds of Indra, the first that achieved the Thunder Wielder. He slew the dragon. It’s actually serpent in Sanskrit. Then disclosed.

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the waters and cleft the channels of the mountain torrents. He slew the dragon lying on the mountains. His heavenly bolt of thunder, Vashtar fastened. Now Vashtar is the artisan god. He’s the one who fashions the special weapons and in this case the special weapon Indra used to battle Vritra. Impetuous as a bull, he chose the Soma and in three sacred beakers drank the juices.

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So to prepare for his battle with Vritra, what does Indra do? He drinks three beakers full of the Soma. Just like what we read earlier, the Soma prepares him and helps him in the battle. Magavan. Now Magavan means wealthy or Lord beautiful. So this is actually an epitaph that’s given to Indra. Grasped the thunder for his weapon and smote the death, the firstborn of the dragons.

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When Indra, thou hast slain the dragons firstborn, and overcome the charms of the enchanters. Now, the charms of the enchanters here refers to Vritra, and the demons supernatural powers. Then giving life to sun and dawn in heaven, thou foundest not one foe to stand against thee. Indra with his great and deadly thunder, smote into pieces Vritra, worse of Vritras.

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As trunks of trees, what time the axe hath failed them, low on the earth so lies the prostrate dragon. So he’s taken down like a tree is taken down. He, in this part, refers to Vritra, like a made-weak warrior, challenged Indra, the great impestuous mini-slaying hero. From here, the hymn goes on to describe how Indra, after slaying the dragon, let loose the waters of life.

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The hymn ends proclaiming Indra’s victory. It says, when Indra and the dragon strove in battle, Mahagavan gained the victory forever. And what is the verse that comes right after this? Right after Indra has triumphantly slain Vritra? Well, it’s this, quote, Indra is king of all. That’s where he’s declared king, right after the battle. So here we see Indra, the king of all.

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who’s also referred to as the King of the Divas, the King of the Gods, obtains his kingship as a heavenly king, just as we would expect after having conquered the dragon. I wanna point out here too, that this account is cosmogonic. What that means is that this account, in line with the Mesopotamian enuma liege, teaches that the earth was created as a result of conquering the dragon. It’s only when Vritra is conquered that the life-giving waters are unleashed.

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waters that produce life and fertility and abundance. Okay, let’s look at the iconography now. Iconographically, Indra is portrayed as the king of the gods. He’s always portrayed anthropomorphically as a man. He’s usually shown wielding the Vajra, the thunderbolt, the weapon that Vashtar created for him, which he used to destroy Vritra. The weapon represents

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not just his capacity to destroy enemies, but it reinforces his position as the institutor of and protector of cosmic order. And in these representations Indra is often seated on a throne in his heavenly abode in Amravati surrounded by other deities. This emphasizes his role as the sovereign ruler of the heavens and he’s

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frequently depicted wearing an elaborate crown or tiara. My favorite is when he’s depicted wearing a crown called the Kharit Mukut, the Kharit Mukut crown. If you look at the Mukut, it looks like he’s wearing a mountain right on the top of his head. And that’s because that’s exactly what he is wearing on his head, a mountain. The Mukut crown is meant to represent the sacred mountain, Mount Maru.

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And we’ll talk about Mount Meru more in coming days. But you’ll not be surprised to learn that in Hindu tradition, Mount Meru is considered the center, the sacred center of the universe. And it’s the sacred location where, surprise, surprise, the gods reside. It’s there in Trams Dimsa, heaven, located on the peak of Mount Meru.

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that Indra resides in a magnificent celestial city named Amravati in a stunning palace named Vayayanta made of gold and precious jewels. It’s from this palace that Indra rules as a celestial king. You can find images of Indra wearing the Makut crown on the webpage for this episode.

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As you can see, pretty much everything we’ve learned about Indra’s kingship on this episode matches up with the stubborn bits we’ve covered on the podcast. And that doesn’t even include a discussion on Indra and the cosmic law Rita. There’s great stuff there too, but we just don’t have time to cover it in this episode. To close out this episode though, I wanna share one last stubborn bit, a stubborn bit that is truly breathtaking.

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in terms of its cosmological, theological, and heavenly kingship implications. It’s a stubborn bit that corroborates several theological arguments that we made on the program over a year ago. In a Vedic text known as the Brahma Vavarta Purana, we find this amazing account of Indra who becomes excessively proud and needs to be taught a lesson about the consequences of pride.

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Now it’s important to point out that this text was written much much later than the Rig Vita, which we pointed out earlier was written sometime between 1500 and 1000 BC. Scholars believe this text, the Vavarta Purana, was written sometime between the 3rd and 10th centuries AD, though they believe some portions of it could have been written earlier. And I point this out because by this time in Vedic history, Indra had lost status.

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He was still considered the king of the gods, but other gods like Vishnu and Shiva had risen in prominence. In these late Puranas, Indra is often portrayed as flawed, jealous, insecure, and they portray him sometimes as acting in morally ambiguous ways. And that’s how he’s portrayed in this account. Now, that’s not why I’m sharing this account with you. It’s the cosmology that’s taught in this account that I’m interested in sharing with you here. Just know that the historical context of the account

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is a flawed Indra, which we know is theologically unlikely, considering that earlier texts emphasize his role as the protector and enforcer of Rita, which was illustrated in his victory over Vritra. And from what we’ve learned from the ancients, we know that Indra was only able to conquer Vritra because he upheld the cosmic law. He wouldn’t have had the power to do so otherwise. So.

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This becomes another example of the deterioration of some of these theologies over time. Okay, to the account. In this account, which is found in chapter 47, Indra, the king of the gods, after defeating the dragon Vritra, becomes consumed with pride, and he wants nothing more to build an extraordinary palace on the peak of Mount Maru. And he commands Vishvakarma,

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the divine architect to construct the most ostentatious palace that he can think of. As Vishpa Karma works on the palace, Indra makes more and more extravagant demands. About this time, a young Brahmin boy, who we learn later in the text is actually the god Vishnu in disguise, visits Indra’s ostentatious palace. And the boy says to Indra, and I’m reading from the

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quote, Oh best, Oh gods, no Indra before you was capable of affecting such a construction. Indra infatuated with the wine of prosperity and hearing the words of the boy laughed loudly. Indra doesn’t quite seem to pick up that Vishnu isn’t really praising his construction. His statement is actually an indictment of Indra’s pride. Indra does, however,

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pick up on the fact that Vishnu said, no other Indra before you. No other Indra? This meant that there were other Indras. That Indra was actually a title and not just a one God phenomenon. So Indra questions him. Quote, oh Brahmin boy, please reveal to me how many Indras you have seen and about how many you have heard.

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Indra wants to know how many Indras, how many cosmic kings are out there. And this is Vishnu’s response, quote, Oh, king of the gods, indeed, no one can say how many kinds of creation or universes or ages are there. And in each universe, how many Brahmas, Vishnus and Sivas? None can calculate those universes, each of which contains a Brahma.

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Vishnu and Shiva. Whoa! Vishnu tells Indra that there are so many universes out there that nobody can say how many there are. You know, universes beyond universes. There’s a whole episode out there on that. And then he tells him that nobody can say how many Brahmas and Vishnus and Sivas are connected to those universes.

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This is significant because Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva make up what is known in Hinduism as the Trimudi. In Hinduism, these three gods make up the Trinity of supreme divinity. So what Vishnu is saying is that there is a Trinity of gods associated with each and every universe and that because there are innumerable universes, there are innumerable Trimudi in the cosmos.

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Vishnu’s statement is mind-blowing on a number of levels, but especially in terms of how three gods seem to be associated with each universe. This is so interesting. Vishnu continues speaking to Indra, Oh, King of Gods, the servants hold that it is possible to count the particles of sand or the currents of rainwater, but no one can count the Indras.

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Again, whoa. Here Vishnu answers Indra’s original question. How many Indras or heavenly kings are out there in the cosmos? And what does Vishnu say? He says, hey, it’s possible to count the grains of sand, but it is not possible to count the number of Indras or heavenly kings that exist out there in the cosmos. Jaw dropping.

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just jaw-dropping because this theology is the same theology I’ve been arguing all along that the ancients have been teaching. Vishnu continues, quote, child not to talk of the number of Indras there are no end of those Brahmas the universes are countless which contain many gods like myself.

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quote, as an artificial boat floats on the waters of the world, so the Brahmins float on the pure water. If you’re a long time listener, you should know why what is said here is so significant. Vishnu is talking about a boat floating on water. Where have we heard this before? Well, all over the ancient world.

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floating on the waters. He’s of course talking about Brahma floating on the primordial waters. When God appeared in the chaotic elements and instituted order in the chaos, when he formed a universe. The universe, the sacred space God created in the waters is the boat. Remember how the Egyptian God Ray rules on a throne from a boat? This is the same thing. The boat is the place of safety in the cosmic.

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chaotic waters. Stick with me. Remember how R.T. Rundle Clark on page 35 of Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt argued that the primordial waters don’t actually have a surface? That really the ancients were talking about God creating a vast cavity of sacred ordered space in the profane waters like a bubble? Well that’s what Vishnu was talking about here when he says quote, as an artificial boat floats on the waters of the world

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So the Brahmins float on the pure water. It’s the same theology. He’s talking about innumerable sacred air bubbles called universes floating in the primordial waters, each one governed by an Indra, a heavenly king. That’s a lot to think about. That’s it for me.

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I’ll leave you with the words of William Shakespeare, knowledge is the wing we’re with, flight of heaven. I’m Jack Logan.

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