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. If you’re new to the program, Jack is short for Jacqueline. Before I jump into today’s program, I wanna let our listeners know about our website, theancienttradition.com. If you go there, you’ll find all of the evidence and quotes and citations and everything that we refer to in this episode. But if you’d rather watch the episode, you can also check out our YouTube channel where you’ll find a YouTube video dedicated to each episode.

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Keep in mind though, right now there’s about a four week lag between the podcast and the YouTube videos. If you’re interested in the YouTube videos, just search for the ancient tradition. We have a great program today. It’s titled, The Coronation of King Charles III and Camilla, The Fragrant Dew of Paradise. And we’ll start where we left off in the previous episode and continue our examination of the coronation ceremony as it will happen on May 6th, 2023.

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The majority of this echoes really important features of the ancient tradition. In this episode, we’ll uncover a coincidental connection between the coronation oath, the Judeo-Christian Moses and Great Britain. And we’ll also travel back in deep, deep antiquity to unravel the mysterious meaning of the anointing of kings. The trail will take us back once again.

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to the book of the holy secrets of Enoch and back to the fertile crescent of ancient Mesopotamia, back to the sands of Egypt and all the way back to paradise, which is no surprise because the anointing is an extremely important tenant of the ancient tradition. In the previous episode, we established that the architects of Westminster Abbey, who’d been commissioned by King Henry III, designed the church which they knew would be used for the express.

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purpose of coronating British monarchs to symbolically represent the Garden of Eden. And this is most evident in the crucifix form of the church which architecturally reproduces four distinct arms to the four cardinal points which was to be reminiscent not only of Christ’s cross but also the four rivers of living water that would pour out of the Garden of Eden. And I didn’t mention it in the previous episode but the Garden of Eden theme is also

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abundantly portrayed in architectural form by the massive pillars which dominate the interior of the church. And if you take a good look at these pillars, it’s pretty evident that each pillar is meant to represent a sturdy tree whose branches join with the branches of the other trees in the church to form this beautiful, Edenic garden canopy over the congregants. In essence, the architects wanted to architecturally immerse

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the entire congregation in the life-giving abundance of the Garden of Eden. They wanted to place the congregants right in the Garden, in God’s holy sanctuary. And the architects did a wonderful job of associating the sanctuary with the Garden of Eden. And combining the two concepts makes Westminster Abbey a garden sanctuary, just like we saw in the Genesis account that we discussed in episode number four.

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And why did the architects of Westminster Abbey design the church to be a garden sanctuary? Well, because it was in the garden sanctuary recorded in Genesis that God gave Adam the power and authority to reign over his earthly creation as the world’s first earthly king. And God did this, he pointed Adam, the first earthly king in the midst or the sacred center of the garden sanctuary where God dwelt on his holy throne.

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which is symbolized in Holy Writ over and over and over again as the tree of life. All of these sacred elements come together in Westminster Abbey when we examine the literal spot in the Abbey on which King Charles III and the 39 British monarchs before him will be coronated. And as we saw in the previous episode, he’s to be coronated directly above a unique stone, the Cosmati Anx stone.

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the stone which marks the sacred center of the Abbey, the exact spot where the north south and the east west arms of the Abbey cross. And King Charles is to be symbolically coronated the new Adam in the sacred center of the garden sanctuary. And as we saw with the ritual of the King of the Four Corners, which will be performed on May 6th, that King Charles, like Adam, will be symbolically crowned the new earthly King of the Four Corners.

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for the world. And to drive home this point, if one examines the Cosmati Ankhstone, they’ll see that it’s a beautiful rendering of the earth. All true kings are coronated in the sacred center of the world in God’s holy garden sanctuary. All of this brings me to today’s episode. After the ritual of the King of the Four Corners, Charles will be asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury, who some of you may have already surmised.

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represents God in the Garden of Eden account. The future king must make an oath directly with God. He must promise to keep God’s law if he’s to be made king. He must submit his reign to the subordination of God’s laws. The oath that Charles will make here with God has kind of been tailored specifically to the realm of the United Kingdom. Charles is first asked by the archbishop who we just established.

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represents God if he’s willing to take the oath. I think it’s really worth it to take a moment here and pause and think about this. Why would God do this? Why would he ask the future king if he’s willing to take the oath? Why not just start right in and administer the oath? And there may be a lot of reasons for doing this. But I think by asking the future king if he’s willing to take the oath,

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God is presenting the King with a choice. He can either choose to take the oath or he can choose not to take the oath. The choice is the future Kings. God will not compel anyone to keep his law. By God asking the direct question, are you willing to take the oath? The future King has to use his agency and make the choice for himself. And whichever choice he makes, his decision is a declaration to God about how he plans to use his agency.

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to follow God’s laws or not. And by asking this question, are you willing to take the oath? God is giving the future king a little more time to reflect and think and ponder over his decision whether or not to commit, to fully commit his life and his reign to following God’s laws, all of God’s laws. So by God asking the question, the king has to make a choice.

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If the future king is a man of integrity, which we don’t always see, his word is his oath. If he says he’s willing to take the oath to follow God’s laws, he means it. And as we’ll see in the ancient world in future episodes, when one makes an oath with God, if they do so without integrity or if they rebelliously break the oath, they face really terrific consequences.

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So the question that precedes the official coronation oath, are you willing to take the oath, is a really important one, one that the king should genuinely ponder and give a lot of reflection to. The notion of making an oath with God in his holy sanctuary and his sacred abode, the temple, is really a pretty widespread motif in the ancient world. And I don’t have time to go into all of the evidence for this in this particular episode.

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But I will remind you of one of the most prominent examples of this in the Judeo-Christian tradition. If you recall in the Bible, in the book of Exodus chapter 19, that the Israelites fled Egypt and took refuge in the Sinai desert. And there the Israelites camped at the base of the tall mountain Mount Sinai. Verses two and three in the King James Version read, for they, speaking of the Israelites, were departed from Rephidim.

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and were come to the desert of Sinai and had pitched in the wilderness. And there Israel camped before the mount. And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel. If you recall in episode number four, Did God reveal the ancient tradition in the Garden of Eden?

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that in the ancient record, including Holy writ like the Bible, mountains are almost always a synonym for God’s temple, the place where God dwells. And we definitely see that connection here. God resides on the summit of Mount Sinai. The imagery in these verses is meant to convey that Mount Sinai was a mountain sanctuary, a mountain temple. And Moses climbs to the summit of Mount Sinai because that is where God abode on the sacred summit in the sacred center.

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The location is important here because what happens in the next couple of verses takes place on the summit of the mountain sanctuary. So he’s in the center of God’s temple. So as we saw in the verse I just read, Moses ascends to the mount and God tells Moses that he has something he wants Moses to tell the people, the house of Israel. Well what did God want Moses to tell the Israelites? Let’s continue reading in verses four and five.

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ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians and how I bear you on eagles wings and brought you unto myself. Now therefore if you will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant then ye shall be a peculiar people unto me above all people for all the earth is mine.” Here we see the connection between God’s temple and the making of an oath or as it’s referred to here the making of a covenant.

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God is asking Moses to tell the people that if they will covenant to obey God’s voice and keep His commandments that God will make them a peculiar treasure, a people that’s different than all of the other people on the earth. Well different how? And for that answer we have to keep reading. In verse 6 we read, And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and in holy nation.

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These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.” All right, there’s so much in this verse. It’s pretty astounding. Let’s pay close attention to the words. God tells Moses that the people who make a covenant with him will be different because they will become a kingdom of priests. The word kingdom here should stick out to you by now. Why? Because kingdoms are governed by a king.

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priests. So here we have again kings and priests. God will make those who keep his covenant sacral kings. So here we see the same pattern, a mountain temple, the making of a covenant, and kingship. When Charles III is asked, are you willing to take the oath, he undoubtedly is going to reply, I am willing, declaring his choice to follow God’s law.

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From here, the Archbishop who represents God administers the coronation oath. In the first part of the oath, Charles III will swear to govern or reign as civil authority over the peoples of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. In the second part of the oath, he’ll swear to keep God’s law. And these are the words of the oath. Quote, will you to the utmost of your power maintain the laws of God and the true profession of the gospel?

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If Charles chooses to do so, he’ll reply, all this I promise to do. And at this point, Charles will be escorted up to the high altar and then he’ll kneel there. The archbishop will then present to Charles an open copy of the Holy Bible, which leaves no doubt as to what constitutes God’s law. And Charles will place his hand on the Bible and he’ll swear the following. Quote.

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The things which I have here before promised, I will perform and keep. So help me God. And then he’ll sign a written copy of the oath. The oath then between God and the king will be complete. We see a similar pattern in the Exodus account that I just mentioned in Exodus 19 verses 7 and 8. Moses gathers Israel together and tells the Israelites of God’s covenant. It reads.

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quote, And Moses came and called for the elders of the people and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him and all the people gathered together and said all that the Lord hath spoken we will do and Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord. So the words here are very similar to what Charles will say. The Israelites said all that the Lord hath spoken we will do.

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At this point, God reveals to Moses his law, the Ten Commandments. Exodus 24 verse 12 reads, And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount and be there, and I will give thee tablets of stone and a law and commandments which I have written. And let’s not forget that all of this takes place in God’s temple at the summit of the mountain. God’s laws come out of his sacred abode, his temple.

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The parallels between the Moses account and what happens in the British coronation ceremony are pretty clear. From here, Charles will be presented with the Bible and told, here is wisdom, this is the royal law, these are the lively oracles of God. And after that, Holy Communion has begun. They sing several hymns and a prayer is said and some scriptures are read. As a quick side note, the name Britain of Great Britain,

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comes from Pythias of Massalia, who was a Greek explorer who traveled to British Isles around 325 BC. And he recorded as he traveled the local names of the places that he visited. And one of the Isles was known as the people of Bretoniki, or Bretoniki. The word Bretonni came from this. This was shortened to Breton, and today the people of Great Britain are often referred to as Brits. And coincidentally, and this is

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purely coincidence. There’s no etymological connection here. The Hebrew word Barit, spelled B apostrophe R-I-T, means covenant. And it’s used more than 270 times in the Hebrew Bible to refer to the binding covenant God makes with his people, as we saw in Mount Sinai with Moses. So although this is coincidental,

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I do think it’s interesting that the Brits, more than any other nation state, have done an extraordinary job of preserving that link between making a covenant with God and kingship. But again, the connection between Britain and the Hebrew Brit for covenant is just a coincidence. But it’s a fun coincidence at that. Let’s return to the coronation ceremony. At this point in the ceremony, the choir sings the anthem, Veni, creator, spiritus.

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Holy Ghost, which is meant to serve as a prelude to the Holy Anointing. And if you’re not paying particularly close attention, the name of the anthem might escape you. But don’t let it because it’s a major clue to the spiritual significance of what’s about to take place during the Holy Anointing. And we’ll talk about that more in our next episode. Before I jump into the Anointing, I want to point out the important sanctity of the Anointing ceremony.

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You’re gonna learn in a moment that the anointing is one of the most sacred rituals performed during kingship rites. And as such, it’s also one of the most sacred rituals within the ancient tradition. It’s important to keep this in mind as we walk through the ceremony. After the song, Come Holy Spirit, the Archbishop of Canterbury stands before the high altar and recites a prayer based on a very old prayer named the Deus Electrum Fortido.

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which was used during the anointing of French kings. In the prayer, the archbishop says the following, quote, “‘O Lord and heavenly falter, the exalter of the humble and the strength of thy chosen, whom by anointing with oil didst of old make and consecrate kings, priests, and prophets to teach and govern thy Israel.'” In this prayer, we learned that the anointing of British monarchs comes from or is

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directly based off of passages in the Bible where God takes humble people and exalts them through the anointing oil to the exalted stations of king, priest, and prophet. In other words, the Brits aren’t claiming they anoint kings because the Franks did it or other European nations anointed their kings. They’re tying the origin of the anointing of kings to passages directly in the Bible. And we can see this in passages like 2 Samuel,

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chapter two verse four which speaks of the anointing of King David and it reads and the men of Judah came and there they anointed David King over the house of Judah we can also see this in Exodus chapter 29 verses 5 and 7 where Aaron the brother of Moses is made a high priest and note in this passage the similarities between the coronation of a king and the ordination of a high priest because it will matter when we talk about royal vestments

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the next episode. The passage reads, and thou shalt take the garments and put upon Aaron the coat and the robe of the ephod and the breastplate and gird him with the curious girdle of the ephod and thou shalt put the mitre upon his head and put the holy crown upon the mitre. Then shalt thou take the anointing oil and pour it upon the head and anoint him. There are many more passages in the Bible that point to the anointing as a really important

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essential preparatory right for those whom God exalts to king, priest, or prophet. Let’s return to the coronation ceremony. After the archbishop offers the prayer of anointing, the choir sings Handel’s anthem, Zadok the priest. And again, I want to focus your attention on the name of the anthem, Zadok the priest. Keep this in mind as it will become relevant towards the end of today’s episode.

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While the choir is singing the anthem, King Charles is divested of the crimson robe, if he follows British tradition, which we don’t know if he’s going to do, which is replaced with the anointing gown. And the anointing gown is an unadorned white garment. Queen Elizabeth wore an unadorned white pleated dress for her anointing. After the investment of the anointing gown, Charles will move to the coronation chair to King

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Edward’s chair and we’ll talk about this chair in a coming episode, but you might find it interesting that King Edward Originally ordered the coronation chair to be made of bronze But then he later changed his mind and ordered it to be made of wood. I Don’t know of any explanation in the British record for why? Edward changed his mind But as we noted in the previous episodes the coronation chair sits in the very center of Westminster Abbey a

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garden sanctuary and it sits on the exact spot that stood the tree of life in the Garden of Eden. So it seems especially fitting that King Edward would order the coronation chair to be made from the wood of a tree. Doing this, like we mentioned in episode number six, the King and the Tree of Life directly symbolizes the new king is to be understood as a vassal king of the King of Kings, the true King of the Four Corners, the Tree of Life.

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God himself. Pretty fun story. Once seated on the coronation chair, four nights of the garter enter the cosmotic pavement and they cover the king with a golden canopy. They do this to conceal the sacred anointing ceremony from public view and when Queen Elizabeth was anointed, the royals and clerics, they prohibited this portion of the coronation ceremony from being televised or photographed.

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And it’s at this point I have another one of those mind boggling moments. Where did the Brits get this? The compunction to screen this portion of the coronation ceremony, the anointing from public view. I have a pretty good explanation for why they do it. I just don’t know if they know why they do it because you see in deep antiquity, the anointing was almost always performed. You guessed it in a temple setting in a garden sanctuary.

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Only persons who met certain qualifications of holiness could enter the temple sanctuary and view or participate in the rites that took place there. The rites were so sacred, they were virtually never performed in public view. They were considered mysteries or holy secrets, rites which only the holiest of God’s people could participate. So when the Brits shroud the king with a golden canopy,

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They may not realize that the reason that they do this is because their rite is a remnant, a remarkable echo of the original rite that was performed by the ancients in God’s garden temple. I’m truly astonished when I see the Golden Canopy because whether the Brits realize it or not, they’re recreating a supernal sacred space, a holy of holies. And to me, it’s truly mind-boggling that these elements of the ancient tradition have

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persisted into the 21st century. It’s astonishing. Once the king is concealed beneath the canopy, the Dean of Westminster will pour consecrated oil from an eagle-shaped flask, and he’ll pour it onto a filigree spoon for the archbishop. We need to stop here and talk about this special oil, because it is yet again another potent echo of the ancient tradition.

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The particular oil that the Archbishop will use was prepared and consecrated in Jerusalem in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and that’s considered by many Christians to be one of the holiest sites in Jerusalem. It’s the special formula of the oil, however, that I want to focus on here. According to the Royal website, the formula for the oil includes oil pressed from olives near Bethlehem and a number of perfumed essential oils, which include sesame,

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Rose, Jasmine, Cinnamon, Amber, and Orange Blossom. And this particular formula, according to the palace, has been used by the crown for hundreds of years. And what the crown may not realize is that this formula has actually been used for thousands of years. It’s of extremely ancient origin, which by now should come as no surprise to you. Why?

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because the anointing oil and the special recipe needed for it was a key feature of the ancient tradition. And to see this, we need to head back to the dawn of civilization to the fertile crescent of Mesopotamia. The anointing of kings and queens in ancient Mesopotamia was typically done with a special oil known as mashku. And the recipe for mashku varied depending on the time and the region, but it generally

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of aromatic and medicinal plants. The exact ingredients used to prepare the mashkyu are not known in detail because the recipe was a closely guarded secret, a theme which reoccurs wherever we encounter anointing oil in the ancient record. However, we do find some important clues in what is known as the Hymn to Inanna, an important Sumerian goddess. This hymn dates to 2285.

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BC so it’s over four thousand years ago and this passage gives a few of the ingredients included in the oil and it reads Quote my queen your power is great and terrible. Your beauty is like the rising Sun my queen the myrrh Cypress cedar and juniper are yours. You love the smell of myrrh and cypress You are the one who loves the smell of cedar. You are the one who loves the juniper whose fruits are white

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My queen, your priests and priestess praise your name. They sing your praises from the temple rooftops. They offer sacrifices of meat and wine to you. They anoint you with oil and mashku. My queen, your power is absolute. You are the mistress of all creation. You are the queen of heaven and earth.” So this passage indicates that mashku was essentially a mixture of oil that had been infused with

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plant-based ingredients such as myrrh, cedar, cypress, and juniper. Did you catch that? Three of the ingredients mentioned in this passage refer to trees and the first tree mentioned is a cedar tree. Do you remember the significance of the cedar tree in Mesopotamia? If you recall in episode number six the cedar, the kiskanu tree,

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was the radiant tree that appeared like Lapis Lasuli that grew in the pure place in Eridu where kingship was first established by the god Enki. The Kiskanu cedar tree was the Mesopotamian tree of life. In other words, the Mesopotamians infused the oil with which they anointed their kings with the wood of the sacred cedar tree, the tree of life. Think on that for a moment. The spiritual significance of this is quite profound.

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And let’s not forget the myrrh. The Mesopotamians infused their anointing oil with a rich, complex scent of myrrh. And if you’ve never smelled myrrh, it has this warm, kind of earthy, slightly sweet aroma. And in the ancient world, myrrh was highly prized for its medicinal and aromatic qualities. But what exactly is myrrh? Well, it’s a sappy-like substance or resin that’s secreted from a particular tree.

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the Kamaphora Mura tree. When this tree is wounded, the tree secretes resin. It bleeds. And some of you may already see the connection here between Mura and Christ in the Judeo-Christian tradition. The word Mura is actually derived from the Hebrew word Mura and the Arabic word Mura, which means bitterness.

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For some of you, this may conjure up yet again, a connection to Christ who by paying for the sins of the world with his blood, drink the bitter cup. And to add to this connection, when myrrh is soaked in oil, it produces a reddish brown color, very similar to the color of blood. Thus myrrh is an exceptional symbol of the Judeo-Christian God Christ, who in the Garden of Eden account resides in the center of the garden and is symbolized by the tree.

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So to infuse the anointing oil, which is used to anoint earthly kings with the reddish brown resin of the muri tree, is to symbolically declare that the new king is able to reign only because of the blood sacrificed in his behalf by the tree, by God. There’s a lot to think on there. I hope you’re starting to see a pattern here.

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Just as the king’s scepter is a symbolic representation of the king holding the branch of the tree of life, the myrrh oil with which the king is anointed is a symbolic representation of the gift given by the tree of life. It gives its blood, a gift which enables the prince to be exalted to the station of a king. All of the rites and royal regalia of kingship serve one end, to point one to the profound import

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the tree of life, the King of Kings. The use of Mashku oil for anointing kings was widespread and a long-standing practice in Mesopotamia. The Mesopotamians believed this special oil imbued the king with divine power and legitimacy. And we can see this on a cuneiform tablet known as the standard inscription of Asher Nasir Paul II.

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The royal inscription of the Assyrian king gives us one of the most detailed descriptions of the ancient Mesopotamian coronation ceremony. And it reads, I am Asher Nasirpal, the great king, the powerful king, king of the universe, king of Assyria. I was anointed with the mashku of divinity and the kingship was bestowed upon me by the command of the God Asher, my Lord.

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So here the anointing oil is referred to as the Moshku of Divinity, the oil of divinity. Very interesting. If you live in London or you’re planning to visit London, you can check out the standard inscription of Asher Nasher Paul II at the British Museum. It’s on display in the Assyrian Gallery and it dates to about the 9th century BC. If we move to the sands of Egypt, we can find even

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earlier references to a special oil in the ancient Egyptian pyramid texts which were inscribed on the walls of several of the pyramids of the Old Kingdom and these texts are extremely ancient and date from about 2686 to 2181 BC So nearly five thousand years ago and they’re considered some of the oldest known sacred texts in the world in these texts We’ll see a similar connection between this sacred oil kingship and divinity

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Let’s start with King Unus. King Unus reigned as the last ruler of the fifth dynasty. So this is between 2345 and 2315 BC. In his pyramid, we find pyramid texts, 72 to 78, and they refer to seven sacred oils which were used. And I’ll explain more in the next episode, but here we see the connection between the anointing oil, kingship, and divinity.

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In the James P Allen translation, pyramid text 77 reads, ointment, ointment, where should you be? You on Horace’s forehead, where should you be? You were on Horace’s forehead, but I will put you on this, Eunice’s forehead. You shall make it pleasant for him wearing you. You shall occupy him wearing you. In ancient Egypt, Horace, the god symbolized by a falcon,

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was, as Henry Frankfurt notes in his seminal work, kingship in the gods, generally referred to as the great god, the lord of heaven. So in pyramid 77, it appears as though the priest is searching for the anointing oil he needs to anoint king Unus, and he finds that oil on the forehead of the great god Horus. This indicates that Horus is to be understood as an anointed god. The priest says he’s going to take the

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to anoint King Unus. It is only by using the anointing oil that came from the great God that King Unus can be anointed a legitimate king. And I wanna take a moment here and point out a couple of very important parallels between the ancient Egyptian God Horus and the Judeo-Christian God Christ. As I mentioned in Pyramid Text 77, the priest emphasizes the great God Horus is anointed. He has the anointing oil on his forehead.

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In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the moniker Christ is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Messiah. And you guessed it, the word Christ in Greek means the anointed one. So whenever anyone refers to Jesus as the Christ, they are probably, without realizing it, emphasizing the point that Jesus is the anointed one, the anointed God. Let’s reread Pyramid Text 77.

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ointment ointment where should you be you on Horus’s forehead where should you be you were on Horus’s forehead but I will put you on this Eunice’s forehead you shall make it pleasant for him wearing you you shall occupy him wearing you so the priest in this text points out that by wearing the anointing oil that was on Horus’s forehead the new king is wearing God on his person

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Think about that for a moment when you reflect upon the use of myrrh in the anointing oil. The new king is wearing the wounds of the tree of life on his person. Pretty rich doctrine there. I want to focus on one more line in Pyramid Text 77. The priest says, you shall make it pleasant for him wearing you, which likely refers in part to the beautiful scent of the oil. The priest continues,

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wearing you. Pyramid text 214 says a very similar thing. It says, quote, climb to the place where your father is, where Geb is, and he will give you what is on Horus’s brow. You shall become Ock through it. To be Ockified in the ancient Egyptian religion meant that one had become like the gods. To be Ockified meant King Eunice had taken on the divine nature. And this is the same motif we saw in Mesopotamia with the Mashku anointing oil.

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King Ashurpanisar Paul II said, quote, I was anointed with the moshku of divinity. Pyramid text 59 says, quote, put it at your forehead in its identity of first-class oil. You should glisten with it among the gods. When the word aak is used in reference to the afterlife, it means to be bright and it’s directly connected to light. As the priest says in pyramid text 59, to glisten

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among the gods. And remarkably, we find all of these same motifs in chapter 22 of the book of the Holy Secrets of Enoch. If you’ve never read this book, you can listen to a full audio recording of it on our sister podcast, The Ancient Tradition Audio Rit. And you can find it wherever you listen to your podcast. In chapter 22, Enoch ascends to the highest heaven and there he sees God seated on a supremely wonderful throne.

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God issues a command to the archangel Michael and it reads, the Lord said to Michael, go and disrobe Enoch from his earthly clothes and anoint him with my delightful oils and put him into the clothes of my glory. Michael did as the Lord commanded him. He anointed me, which was Enoch, and dressed me. The oil was bright as the rays of the sun,

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I saw myself and I saw I was like one of his glorious ones and there was no observable difference. Wow, we have all of the same elements. Enoch is anointed with a delightful oil, an oil that was bright like the sun and smelled like myrrh. And through that special oil, Enoch becomes like the glorious ones. There is so much rich doctrine here that we’ll have to parse out over the next year.

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but it’s all there in the book of the Holy Secrets of Enoch. Like the Mesopotamians, the Egyptians guarded the formula used to produce the anointing oil. It was a sacred secret, so we don’t know the exact recipe the ancient Egyptians used. However, ancient Egyptian texts show it included many of the same ingredients as the anointing oil in Mesopotamia, frankincense, cinnamon, cassia, cardamom, and myrrh. We see the specific mention of myrrh

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Pyramid Text 318 which says, I receive myrrh and become beautified with myrrh. Again there’s an association here between myrrh and the transformation of a human being into something beautiful and bright. It’s also worth noting in this passage that Enoch refers to the special oil with which he was anointed as dew. And keep that in your back pocket because we’ll hit on it in a couple minutes.

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At this moment, you might be wondering about the ingredients the Israelites used to anoint their kings, priests, and prophets. And before I read a verse in Exodus 30, I need to tell you the context. In this section of Exodus, we read that God revealed to Moses every single aspect of the tabernacle or desert sanctuary that he was to build so that God would have a place to dwell with the Israelites. In Exodus chapter 25, verses 8 and 9, we see this emphasized. It reads,

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and let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them according to all that I shoe thee after the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.” In this passage, we learned that the temple-based religion practiced by the Israelites was given to them by God. It was God revealed. And as part of that revelation, God showed the Israelites the architectural prototype they were to follow when they built the tabernacle.

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along with every single aspect of temple worship. And this is super intriguing because if you’re a regular listener, this is the third time we’ve read about God revealing a temple-based tradition in the Judeo-Christian tradition. We saw him reveal it to Adam in the Garden Sanctuary, and we saw him reveal it to Moses, and we saw it in the Book of the Holy Secrets of Enoch. He revealed it to Enoch. I’m digressing a little bit, so back to Exodus.

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The holy anointing oil was an important feature of the temple tradition that was revealed to Moses. And from the passages I’m about to read, God revealed the formula for the temple oil to Moses. The oil was so holy that the Levitical priests were prohibited from using it anywhere outside of the temple. So speaking of the anointing oil, Exodus 30 verses 31 and 32 read, and now shalt speak unto the children of Israel saying,

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This shall be a holy anointing oil unto me throughout your generations. Upon man’s flesh shall it not be poured, neither shall you make any other like it after the composition of it. It is holy and it shall be holy unto you. Whosoever compoundeth any like it or whosoever putteth any of it upon a stranger shall even be cut off from his people.

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So it’s clear in these verses that the holy anointing oil was not to be used outside of the mosaic tabernacle or temple. And there were pretty severe consequences for those who tried. They were cut off from the people. God apparently took the use of the holy oil that was used in his temple very seriously. We won’t tell King Charles this, but this confirms much of what I’ve argued to this point in the podcast. The British coronation rights are a remarkable echo.

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or is a remnant of temple rituals that the ancients claim were revealed to them by God in the beginning, the ancient tradition. Verses 22 through 25 give us the formula that God gave Moses for the anointing oil, and it reads, Moreover, the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take thou also into the principal spices of pure myrrh, five hundred shekels, and of sweet cinnamon, half so much, even two hundred and fifty shekels.

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of sweet calumus 250 shekels and of cassia 500 shekels after the shekel of the sanctuary and of oil of olive and hin and thou shalt make it an oil of holy ointment an ointment compound after the art of the apothecary it shall be a holy anointing oil so from the context of these verses the connection between the holy oil and the temple tradition is clear

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Did you catch the chief ingredient in the oil? Myrrh, 500 shekels of myrrh. In the Song of Solomon, chapter four, verse six, we read, until the day breaks and the shadows flee away, I will go my way to the mountain of myrrh. And if you’re a regular listener, you know in Holy Writ that mountain is often used as a synonym for God’s temple. So this passage could just as easily have read

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the Temple of Myrrh. The ancient mosaic tabernacle could be understood as a temple of Myrrh. The profound symbolism here is worth pondering. All of this brings me to a really intriguing story found in a text known as the Apocalypse of Moses. The Apocalypse of Moses is an ancient Jewish text and scholars believe that it was written sometime during the first century

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It’s considered part of what’s referred to as the Old Testament pseudepigrapha, and this refers to a collection of Jewish and early Christian writings that were not included in the Jewish or Christian biblical canons. So even though these writings were not included for various reasons in the canon or considered authoritative, they still played a really important role in Jewish and Christian thought. So for us, they’re particularly valuable because they contain many important remnants

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the ancient tradition. So in this story, Adam and Eve are expelled from the garden sanctuary and sent into the world. Adam pauses just outside of the garden and he’s standing opposite the cherubim, the angels guarding the tree of life or God. And at this point the text says that Adam weeps. He’s distraught about being expelled from God’s temple, from the presence of God.

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Thus spake the Lord and ordered us to be cast out of paradise But your father Adam wept before the angels opposite paradise and the angels said to him What wouldest thou have us to do Adam and your father sayeth to them? Behold you cast me out. I pray you allow me to take away fragrant herbs from paradise So that I may offer an offering to God after I have gone out of paradise that ye hear me

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And the angels approached God and said, J.L., eternal king, command my Lord that there be given to Adam incense of sweet odor from paradise and seeds for his food. And God bade Adam go in and take sweet spices and fragrant herbs from paradise. Later sources give a similar account of Adam taking frankincense and myrrh out of paradise with them. These texts associate the paradise of Eden

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a distinct, beautiful fragrance, or as referred to in the Apocalypse of Moses, the sweet odor of paradise. And do you recall what myrrh smelled like? If you don’t, it was a warm, earthy, slightly sweet aroma. The fragrance of paradise was really the fragrance of God’s garden sanctuary, God’s temple, the fragrance

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When Adam wept and begged the angels to let him take the fragrant herbs out of paradise, he was begging to take the elements of the temple with him, which God allowed him to do. One of the sweet odors of paradise is myrrh. I don’t know if the Garden of Eden sanctuary literally smelled like myrrh. This is where I think a lot of people get hung up or miss the point. Myrrh is used here symbolically to represent something.

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much, much more profound than a beautiful fragrance. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the use of myrrh is meant to conjure up in the minds of Christians the blood sacrifice of the wounded tree, the tree of life in the center of the Garden of Eden temple, the anointed one himself, Christ. And every time an Israelite smelled the sweet odor of paradise, a fragrance that saturated every particle of air,

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It was meant to remind them of the all-encompassing love and sacrifice of the Tree of Life, Christ. What’s truly remarkable is that all three of the earliest civilizations, Mesopotamians, Egyptians, and the Israelites, anointed their kings with oil, the primary ingredient of which was myrrh. What’s even more remarkable is that all three civilizations claimed the myrrh oil

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had incredible transformative powers. It had the ability to exalt a humble prince into a king, a glorious being who was indistinguishable from the gods. It’s from evidence like this that we’re compelled to consider the possibility that these traditions sprouted from a common source, from a religious tradition revealed by God to human beings in the beginning as so many of the ancients.

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claimed. In several places in Holy Writ, this fragrant oil was referred to as dew, the dew of paradise. If you recall, Enoch referred to it as the quote, sweet myrrh oil, which shone and was like dew. In the Oaths of Solomon, which is a collection of hymns that were believed to have been written in the first or second century AD, hymn number 11 reads, quote, My eyes were enlightened.

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and my face received the dew and my soul was refreshed with the pleasant fragrance of the Lord. One of the most poignant references to the sacred dew comes from Psalm 110 known as one of the royal Psalms of King David and it reads, the Lord said unto David, sit thou at my right hand until I make

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So there’s the scepter from the tree of life. Of the strength that of Zion, rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning. Thou hast the due of thy youth. Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Here the due of paradise is referred to as the due of youth.

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it’s my contention that the elixir of life or the fountain of youth is a mythological remnant or memory of the dew of paradise the anointing oil that transformed kings into bright glorious useful beings and did you catch the last part of psalm 110 after the dew the lord calls david a priest after the order of malchizedek

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And we haven’t had a chance to really talk about Melchizedek yet, but the name Melki means King in Hebrew, and the name Zedek should ring a bell. Do you remember when we heard the name Zedek or Zadok in the British coronation ceremony? If not, I’ll give you a little reminder. After the Archbishop gives the prayer of anointing, the choir sings the anthem, Zadok the priest. Zadok was the biblical figure who served during the reigns of King David and King Solomon.

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the High Priest. His name means righteousness. So for King David to be anointed and told he is now a priest after the order of Melchizedek, God was telling David that he was not only a priest but a king of righteousness. God declared in that moment that David was now a sacral king and all of that was only possible because of the sacred myrrh oil.

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I know I’m way over time again, but I can’t leave without sharing one last insight. In the New Testament, in John chapter 12, we read an account of Mary taking a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointing Christ with it. Verse 3 says, quote, and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.

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on a pound of Spiknard, which was a Roman pound, and so it was equivalent to about the size of a can of soda. In the John account, she uses the entire bottle to anoint Christ’s feet. In other accounts, she breaks the bottle and pours it on Jesus’s head. Either way, Mary used an entire bottle of Spiknard to anoint Christ. This would be kind of like using an entire bottle of perfume on one person in one sitting.

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I’m sure that Lazarus’ home was just saturated with the fragrance. To me, Mary was declaring in the best way she knew how, that the tree, the tree of life in paradise was in her home. And if others didn’t recognize it, they would now because he was literally soaking in the fragrance of the tree of paradise. That wraps up this edition of the Ancient Tradition.

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Thank you for joining me and I hope in this episode that you learned something new and that you’ve been given something to ponder. As always, I leave 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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