I hope this post helps you understand what is happening in our MODERN world. The truth is that NOTHING is new here folks. I know we like to believe that we are so more advanced than any other civilization the world has known. IT IS A LIE!!
THERE IS NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN. This post got started when God showed me the Tower of Babel upside down… From there everything started to build and come together.
As usual, I like to bring you the information and let you process it for yourself. I try to add only a little bit of my own comments. My hope is that the Holy Spirit will lead you and reveal TRUTH to you. You may see even more than I do, as the Spirit leads.
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BRICKS VS STONES
Bricks are an abomination to GOD. That was one of the offenses of the TOWER of BABEL, building with bricks, when GOD commands us to build with STONE. Stones are MADE BY GOD and cannot be replicated. Bricks are made of clay by man and they are all the same.) pressed up against the next like the sinews running through your physical body. As it’s written:
1 Peter 2:5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
GODS TEMPLE CANNOT, MUST NOT, WILL NOT EVER BE BUILT OF BRICKS! I am going to interject an article here just to demonstrate.
While men were migrating eastward, they discovered a valley in the land of Sennaar and settled there. They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them.”They used bricks for stone and tar for mortar. They then said, “Let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves lest we be scattered all over the earth.” [Genesis 11:2-4]
Many people, yours truly included, believe that the Tower of Babel is the perfect symbol of secular society. By “secular society” I mean a world that sets itself up in arrogant opposition to the will of God.
Note that the Tower of Babel was constructed of bricks. Bricks have four characteristics.
First, they are unnatural and artificial. You won’t find a brick occurring in nature.
Second, they are identical and uniform. It’s not easy to distinguish one brick from another.
Third, they are functionally undifferentiated and interchangeable. A brick can serve equally well anywhere in a wall.
Fourth, they are all but worthless. So what if you lose a brick. There are hundreds more just like it.What could be more unnatural and artificial than a society that rejects God? In such a state, citizens will be made to conform to uniform standards and will lose their individuality.[1] Their work will be reduced to interchangeable roles. And, because they have lost all uniqueness, they will become utterly worthless[2].
Now, listen to what Saint Paul has to say in his Second Letter to the Corinthians:
If then any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the former things have passed away; behold, they are made new! [2 Corinthians 5:17]
In opposition to the Tower of Babel, we have a new creation. This is how Saint Peter describes this new creation:
Draw near to him [viz. Christ], a living stone,rejected indeed by men but chosen and honored by God.Be you yourselves as living stones, built thereon into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. [1 Peter 2:4-5]
There you have it. Bravely standing against secular society, the Tower of Babel, built of bricks, we have a new creation, the Church, a temple built of living stones.
Living stones have four characteristics.
First, living stones are not just natural, but supernatural.
Second, they are utterly unique. No two are exactly alike.
Third, they are irreplaceable. A stone that occupies a particular place in a wall can fit nowhere else.
Fourth, they are extremely precious.What could be more supernatural than a society in which Christ dwells? In the eyes of Jesus, every human being is utterly unique and unrepeatable. What two human beings are exactly alike? In the Church, every person is irreplaceable, because each one of us has a mission no one else can fulfill. Finally, in the heart of Christ, every human being is precious, because every one of us is made in the image and likeness of God. Each one of us, therefore, has infinite value.
The question is this: Which would I rather be—a brick in secular society or a living stone in the temple of the Church? In the former edifice, we lose our identity. In the latter, we become who we are meant to be. C.S. Lewis puts it this way. In his book The Screwtape Letters, he writes of God’s plan for His human creatures:
[He] sets an absurd value on the distinctness of every one of them. When He talks of their losing their selves, He means only abandoning the clamour of self-will; once they have done that, He really gives them back all their personality, and boasts…that when they are wholly His they will be more themselves than ever. [Letter XIII]
Only in a secular society—where men and women, husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, are interchangeable—only in such a society can “same-sex marriage” and Facebook’s fifty-eight genders be even remotely considered as possibilities. In the Church, however, where men and women, husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, are irreplaceable, marriage as anything other than one man and one woman for life is, to use a word from the movie The Princess Bride, “inconceivable.”
Unnatural bricks versus supernatural stones.Secular society versus the Kingdom of God. Interchangeable cogs versus irreplaceable persons. Now there’s something to ponder! Bricks vs. stones. I’m not talking about building a house. I’m talking about building a future.
[1] I cannot help but think of the evil city on the planet Camazotz, described in Madeleine L’Engle’s young adult classic A Wrinkle in Time. Here even children are required to bounce their balls simultaneously in precise rhythm.
[2] Recall the futuristic society depicted by Lois Lowry in her book The Giver. This brave new world at first appears to be quite utopian, but we soon learn that euthanasia and infanticide are essential features of a colorless world.
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Revealing What Has Been Hidden in Front of Our Eyes
And Unlocking Hidden Truths
Sacred Geometry, Ley-Lines; Places in Alignment – Part 13 Delphi, Greece to the Ionian Islands
In the last post, I explored the various features of the Aegean Sea, called an elongated bay of the Mediterranean Sea, including the Strait of Dardenelles, which connects the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara, as well as the Black Sea by the Strait of Bosporus; the location of ancient Troy, near the entrance of the Strait of Dardenelles; Crete; the Dodecanese Islands, which includes the islands of Rhodes and Patmos; the Cyclades Islands, which includes Santorini and Delos; the island of Chios; and the island of Euboea and its neighbor Skyros.
Now I am tracking the alignment to Delphi, an important religious, cultural and social center of Ancient Greece…
…the seat of Pythia (the Serpent), depicted here in a sculpture at the Paris Opera attributed to the female Swiss sculptor Martello in 1870, and who was the high priestess of the Temple of Apollo in Delphi, as well as the oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient classical world…
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| NAVAL STONE AT DELPHI | OMPHALLUS STONE |
Omphalos also had a meaning as a geodetic point of a master grid of electromagnetic energy
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Danish Etymology From Old Norse nǫf (“nave”), from Proto-Germanic *nabō, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃nebʰ- (“navel”). Nounnav n (singular definite navet, plural indefinite nav)
Latvian Etymology
Reduced form of navaid from nevaid (both still attested in Latvian dialects), originally the negative form of vaid (“to be located, to be”). (G. F. Stenders, in his 1774 grammar, mentions under nevaid the reduced forms neva, nava and even nav’ with an apostrophe.) This form replaced an earlier neir, neira (from ir, ira); compare Lithuanian nėrà. Forms of vaid are occasionally attested in folk tales and songs; A. Bīlenšteins once heard its infinitive form vaist. It was probably an old perfect form, from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to see, to know”) (“to see (around, where one is)” > “to find oneself, to be located, to be”); cf. Lithuanian vaidalas (“apparition, ghost”).[1] |
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also from late 15c.
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*nau- |
nave (n.1) |
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The nave is the rail that serves to separate the sanctuary from the area where the worshippers sit. It is derived from the Latin word navis, which means ship. It includes the central and open spaces of the church, including the west side where the choir is usually located. It may also include the central and side aisles.
It is in the nave that the rows of pews are found.A pew is simply a long bench seat for seating members of a congregation. Interestingly, the pew is a recent addition to the Catholic church as it was first introduced in Protestant churches, where the sermon of the pastor was usually long. This brought the need for worshippers to sit down.
Around the nave are 14 framed pictures or the Stations of the Cross.These images depict the events of Jesus’ crucifixion. These are usually small plaques with paintings, although more modern churches have simple crosses with a numeral in the center.
There are other features or parts of a Catholic church, such as the font or the large stone bowl that contains holy water for baptizing babies. The stoup is the small basin containing holy water and placed in strategic parts of the church. Catholics dip their hand in the stoup to make the sign of the cross. Also, most Catholic churches have a confessional or small enclosed space or cabinet where worshippers can confess their sins to a priest. (The bible says to confess your sins one to another. Not in hiding to a priest.) SOURCE
…with markings reminiscent of a dorje, the symbol of Vajra in Tibetan Buddhism, a Sanskrit word which is said to mean “thunderbolt,” in a reference to a follower achieving enlightenment in a single lifetime in a thunderbolt flash of indestructible clarity….
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Omphalos – Mysterious Ancient Sacred Object And Its Meaning | May 24, 2017 | Artifacts, Featured Stories, News
A. Sutherland – AncientPages.com – Standing in the center of the archaeological complex of Delphi, few people pay attention to this sacred object of rather insignificant structure.  It is constructed out of a pile of circular disks, each one somewhat smaller than the one underneath. According to Herodotus, a sacred serpent was fed honey cakes once a month at the Acropolis in Athens. These honey cakes were marked with the Omphalos For the ancient Greeks this object, known as the Omphalos of Delphi represented a symbol for the ‘Navel of the World’. Much later, the Greeks adopted the conical-shaped stone as a sacred dwelling of Apollo, their Sun God Apollo – the residence of the Sun God. The most sacred device – Omphalos – was used at every oracular site. |
…and the Omphalos stone at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi.
Omphalos also had a meaning as a geodetic point of a master grid of electromagnetic energy around the Earth. (Yes, and apparently this knowledge is not new. The ancients used eletromagnetic energy technology.)spacer
Updated: Aug 5, 2021
At my mid term review I was advised to look deeper into my subject matter and to the cultural significance of ships and boats as well as the metaphorical meaning behind them. I also looked at how other artists have portrayed the subject matter and how it has informed their work. Here are my findings.
Spiritual Journey:
The boat immediately evokes a passage, carrying you over the watery depths. The boat can symbolise a spiritual journey on the sea of life; one cannot get anywhere by remaining on an island. The boat is also an important symbol in Greek Mythology, for example, Homer’s Odyssey is a spiritual journey by boat. Worldwide, boats are often used symbolically to carry the souls of the dead to heaven, for example its found in Egyptian mythology, Greek and Roman myths, in Hindu stories, Buddhism and all over Melanesia. King Arthur was symbolically transported on death by boat. Boats were also used by Norse races as the means of transport of the souls on death, symbolically mimicking the souls journey to ‘heaven’, the final resting place of the soul– the journey across the water. Boats represent the idea of a soul ‘moving’– progressing along a path and as death is a form of progress, it is used for both birth and death and is as a consequence a symbol of reincarnation– the death of the body, the movement of the soul to another place by boat and then the rebirth in a new place– a new body again – by boat.
Security & Refuge:
If you imagine life as an often-perilous journey, then the boat can represent a symbol of security. The boat carries us through life’s shifting currents. We are moored, and we lose our moorings. We sail with and against the tides. The boat holds us secure above the chaos of life.
moor (v.)also from late 15c.
moor (n.)
Hence moor-fowl “grouse” (c. 1500); moor-hen (mid-14c.); moor-cock (c. 1200 as a surname). |
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Human Endeavour:
Just as the image of billowing sails against a backdrop of clear sky can evoke ideals of liberty and human ingenuity, the life at sea, at the mercy of nature, is one very much grounded in age-old tradition and deep-seated superstition. As in both Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and Byron’s “Darkness”, the austere images of stranded and wrecked ships serve as grim reminders of the essential frailty of the human endeavour.
The Human Body:
In the most general sense, a “vehicle”. Perhaps more than any other kind of vehicle, we like to think of boats as individuals within a family. This might come from the concept of a tug boat perhaps. The small boat has might and pulls the larger boat, which seems like a reversal of the typical parent/child dependency. The correspondence between the two girls and the boats is clear in Anders Zorn’s painting “Carrera en barco”, 1886. There are a great many references in literature testifying that the boat is the cradle rediscovered (and the mother’s womb). Related to this was the idea that ships are feats of human workmanship, proof of our superiority and conquering the world.
Symbol Of Riches:
The boat can represent those things that appear on our horizons, representing the fruits of our labour “my ship has come in”. In feng shui, placing a sailing boat in your house brings a message that everything will go smoothly. Many Chinese traders selected the image of a sailing boat for their trading logo since it stands for the wind helping to bring in more trade and earn good profits. It is said to be the most preferable symbol after the dragon.
English Terms:
Many expressions derived from sailing remain embedded in the English language. When we talk about being ‘all at sea’, we do not literally mean that we are out in the ocean, but rather that we are unsure about what to do, as though we were drifting on the water without the reassurance of firm ground beneath our feet. A flagship, for example, was the most important ship in a fleet, which carried the fleet’s admiral and flew his flag. In modern English, however, the word is more likely to be used as a metaphor, so a company’s flagship store is the one that has the most importance and prestige. A mainstay was originally a rope that supported the main mast of a ship, but now is a metaphor referring to any person or thing that provides crucial support, as in tourism is a mainstay of the economy. The influence of sailing can also be seen in some idiomatic phrases. To sail close to the wind refers to the risky practice of attempting to fill a ship’s sails with wind without losing control of it. This phrase is now used as an idiom: if you tell someone that they are sailing close to the wind you are warning them that they are doing something that is dangerous or possibly illegal. To batten down the hatches literally refers to closing the entrances to the lower part of a ship when a storm is expected, but metaphorically refers to any preparation to withstand a period of difficulty. If a ship has run aground and is unable to return to the water, it is said to be high and dry, an expression we also use to refer to a person who is left in a difficult situation without any assistance. Some similar phrases have now lost all their original associations with sailing. It may come as a surprise to learn that under way, meaning ‘in progress’, was originally a nautical phrase meaning ‘in motion’. Another example is by and large: to the old sailors, this meant ‘in all conditions’, whether sailing into the wind (sailing by) or with the wind (sailing large), but it is doubtful whether many current English speakers are aware of this when they use the phrase to mean ‘in general’.Three sheets to the wind = drunk, a sheet is not a sail but a rope attached to the lower ends of a sail, so having three sheets to the wind meant the sail was not capturing any wind and thus not making any headway. To the bitter end = a bitts were large oak posts to which the anchor cable was fastened. When the cable was paid out the bitter end was reached. Let the cat out of the bag = refers to the cat-of-nine-tails that nasty instrument of punishment used to flog seamen and when the cat was out of the bag something bad was about to happen. The devil to pay: to pay meant to tar the seams between deck planks. The devil was the hardest bit to pay because it is the part between the straight planks and the curved parts at the sides. The devil and the deep blue sea: the side of the ship and the water. Anybody falling over would find himself between the devil and the sea.
Spiritual Meaning of Ship – Bible Meanings
The signification ships is doctrinal things from the Word. That ships have this signification is because they pass through seas and rivers, and carry things useful for life; for by seas and rivers are signified knowledges and memory-knowledges; the useful things of life which they carry, are the doctrinal things and also the very truths from the Word which are signified by ships, as is plain from the following passages:–
The isles shall trust in Me, and the ships of Tarshish in the beginning, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them (Isa. 60:9);
ships of Tarshish denote doctrinal things and truths from the Word, wherefore it is said that they should bring their sons, their silver and gold; for by sons are signified those who are in truths; by silver, the truth itself; and by gold, good. Everyone can see that ships of Tarshish are not here meant, nor sons, silver, and gold.
[2] In Ezekiel:–
Thy borders are in the heart of the sea, thy architects have perfected thy beauty. They have built all thy planks of fir-trees from Senir; they have taken the cedar from Lebanon to make a mast for thee. Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars; they have made thy beam of ivory; the daughter of a step from the Isles of Kittim. Of fine linen with broidered work from Egypt was thy sail, that it might be to thee for an ensign; blue and crimson from the isles of Elishah was thy covering. The inhabitants of Zidon and Arvad were thy rowers: thy wise men, O Tyre, who were in thee, were thy pilots. The elders of Gebal and the wise men thereof were in thee thy calkers; all the ships of the sea and their sailors were in thee, to trade thy trading (Ezek. 27:4-9);
this is said of Tyre, by which are signified the knowledges of good and truth (AC 1201), which are described by what belongs to a ship, as planks, mast, oars, beam, sail, a covering, rowers, pilots, and sailors. That all these are not to be understood according to the letter must be plain to everyone; but when the knowledges of truth and good, which are Tyre, together with doctrinal things from the Word, are understood by ships, then all things fit together beautifully.
[3] In David:–
O Jehovah, how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made them all. This sea great and wide in spaces; there go the ships; the whale which Thou hast formed to play therein (Ps. 104:24-26).
Again:–
Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of confession; and declare the works of Jehovah with rejoicing. They that go down to the sea in ships, that do work in many waters, these see the works of Jehovah and His wonders in the deep (Ps. 107:22-24);
here also ships denote knowledges and doctrinal things; the whale denotes the generals of memory-knowledges (AC 42); and as ships are knowledges and doctrinal things, therefore it is said, they that go down to the sea in ships see the works of Jehovah and His wonders in the deep; for those see these things who are in the knowledges and doctrinal things from the Word.
[4] In John:–
The second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea, and the third part of the sea became blood, whence the third part of the creatures that were in the sea, and had souls, died; and the third part of the ships was destroyed (Rev. 8:8, 9);
the great mountain burning with fire denotes the love of self (AC 1691); the sea, the natural where memory-knowledges are (AC 28); blood, violence done to charity (AC 374, 1005); creatures in the sea having souls, truths of memory-knowledge with goods; a third part, something not yet complete (AC 2788); their dying, that they had no spiritual life (AC 6119); hence the third part of the ships being destroyed denotes that the truths and goods of doctrinal things from the Word were falsified. From all this may be known what is signified by this prophecy.
[5] But in the opposite sense ships signify the knowledges and doctrinal things of what is false and evil, as in Daniel:–
At the time of the end shall the king of the south strive with him; therefore the king of the north shall rush upon him like a whirlwind, with chariot and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall come into the lads, and shall overflow and penetrate (Daniel 11:40);
the king of the south denotes truth from good; the king of the north, falsities from evil; chariots with horsemen and with ships, doctrinal things of falsity; the lands, churches, of which it is predicted that falsities from evils in the time of the end should overflow and penetrate them.
[6] In John:–
Every pilot, and everyone employed upon ships, and sailors, and all they who trade upon the sea, stood afar off, and cried when they saw the smoke of the burning of Babylon, saying, What city is like the great city? Woe, woe, the great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! (Rev. 18:17-19);
it is evident that ships here denote the knowledges and doctrinal things of falsity and evil, because Babylon denotes war ship which outwardly appears holy, and inwardly is profane. Moreover no one can fail to see that by ships something else than ships is here meant. In Isaiah:–
Thus saith Jehovah your Redeemer, the Holy one of Israel, For your sake I have sent to Babylon, that I may throw down all her bars, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships (Isa. 43:14);
where the meaning is similar. Moreover falsities from evil are signified by ships in (Isa. 2:11, 16; 23:1, 14; Ps. 48:7).
from AC 6385
Back to Words index, Back to Artifact words index
| Author: E. Swedenborg (1688-1772). | Design: I.J. Thompson, Feb 2002 |
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Omphalos – Mysterious Ancient Sacred Object And Its Meaning
A. Sutherland – AncientPages.com – Standing in the center of the archaeological complex of Delphi, few people pay attention to this sacred object of a relatively insignificant structure.
It is constructed out of a pile of circular disks, each one somewhat smaller than the one underneath.
According to Herodotus, a sacred serpent was fed honey cakes once a month at the Acropolis in Athens. These honey cakes were marked with the Omphalos
For the ancient Greeks, this object, known as the Omphalos of Delphi, represented a symbol for the ‘Navel of the World.’
The Greeks later adopted the conical-shaped stone as a sacred dwelling of Apollo, their Sun God Apollo – the residence of Sun God. The holiest device – Omphalos – was used at every oracular site. The sacred stone ‘Omphalos’ also had a geodetic meaning – as a geodetic point of a master grid.
This egg-shaped stone—the very stone described by the Greek writer Pausanias, who visited Delphi in the second century A.D. The original omphalos stone, now lost, was probably an archaic cult object that supplicants draped with wreaths, resembling the wreaths carved in relief on this stone. (Erich Lessing) (I would say it is more of a BEEHIVE shaped cone than an EGG)
Quintus Curtius also pointed out that in Africa, there were such stones with spiral lines drawn, said to be a symbol of the serpent deity.
According to Herodotus, a sacred serpent was fed honey cakes once a month at the Acropolis in Athens. These honey cakes were marked with the Omphalos.” 1
The mythological story tells that the supreme Greek god, Zeus, sent two eagles from both ends of the world. These two birds began their flight simultaneously and kept flying until they met each other in the middle of the way, which was at the Omphalos.
The site, later known as Delphi, was a sacred place inhabited by the Earth Goddess Gaia (or Gaea), the great mother of all and guarded by her child, the serpent Python.
Omphalos at Delphi, Greece – probably a replica built in the 4th century BC – is a curious object and many theories have been proposed to explain the purpose of it. Image credit: – CC BY-SA 4.0
Some have explained it as a funnel for the fumes that caused the Oracle at Delphi to get visions; some others suggest that the stone given to Cronus by the goddess Rhea to thwart him from eating Zeus, their newborn son.
The word ‘omphalos’ or ‘baetylus’ is of Semitic origin(-Bethel). Many of these stones existed in antiquity. They were considered sacred, mainly related to the cult of some particular god, and looked upon as his abiding place or symbol.
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Jacob’s Ladder 10And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran. 11 And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. 12 And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. 13 And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; 14 And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 15 And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. 16 And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not. 17 And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. The Stone of Bethel 18 And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. 19 And he called the name of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first. 20 And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, 21 So that I come again to my father’s house in peace; then shall the LORD be my God: 22 And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee. |
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City of Luz is an inter-dimensional city of higher consciousness that unites all branches of knowledge and fields of experience. Luz is the Biblical site of Jacob’s angelic dream, also known as the House of God and the Gate to Heaven. Luz is an impenetrable city in the ancient land of Israel that can only be entered through a secret cave hidden by a hazelnut (luz) tree. (Judges,1:24) Source Jdg 1:23 And the house of Josephsent to descry Bethel (Now the name of the city before was Luz.) |
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Sometimes these stones had a more regular shape; they were formed into pillars or groups of three pillars. Such columns were sometimes placed before a shrine; others were used as mileposts and often shaped into human form.
The Omphalos of Delphi. Image credit: Юкатан –CC BY-SA 3.0
The baetylus (Bethel or Betyl) became the parent form for altars and iconic sculptures. It was one of the sacred stones that once fell from heaven and contained the power of life; after that, such heavenly treasures were used for ritual and worship.
More evidence of the stone being taken from Bethel, a city described in the Hebrew Bible, of which location, between Benjamin and Ephraim, was also confirmed by Jacob.
“And he called the name of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at first….”(Genesis 28:19)
George Andrew Reisner, an American archaeologist of Ancient Egypt and Palestine who discovered the Omphalos at the Amun/Zeus temple, said that
Libation of Artemis and Apollo at omphalos. Red-figure lekythos by the Shuvalov Painter (?), ca. 440 BC – Image credit: – CC BY-SA 3.0
“… in the front there is an opening. Inside a cavity with a depression, reminiscent of a seat, can be detected. I could imagine that this was the seat for a small deity figurine. Around the sculpture runs a band with sculptures of figures moving towards the opening of these figures, four people are features with wings.”
However, the remarkable object in Delphi is not the only Omphalos that has been discovered. Omphalos was also found at the ancient Greek oracle site of Ptoion. Its other connection is the Egyptian oasis of Siwa. The oasis, the seat of the oracle temple of Zeus Ammon), was already well-known in the time of Herodotus and even consulted by Alexander the Great.The place’s Egyptian name is Sekht-am (“palm land”).
To the Etruscans, the Omphalos symbolized a route to the Underworld.
| The Etruscan civilization was an ancient civilization created by the Etruscans, a people who inhabited Etruria in ancient Italy, with a common language and culture who formed a federation of city-states. Wikipedia
an annual meeting of the Etruscan League. This is a body we know next to nothing about except that the 12 or 15 of the most important cities sent elders to meet together, largely for religious purposes, at a sanctuary called Fanum Voltumnae whose location is unknown but was probably near Orvieto. |
| Etruria (/ɪˈtrʊəriə/ ih-TROOR-ee-ə) was a region of Central Italy delimited by the rivers Arno and Tiber,[1] an area that covered what is now most of Tuscany, northern Lazio, and north-western Umbria. It was inhabited by the Etruscans, an ancient civilization that flourished in the area from around the 8th century BC until they were assimilated into the Roman Republic in the 4th century BC.[2] |
| Etruscan cities teamed with Carthage to successfully defend their trade interests against a Greek naval fleet at the Battle of Alalia (aka Battle of the Sardinian Sea) in 540 BCE. Such was the Etruscan dominance of the seas and maritime trade along the Italian coast that the Greeks repeatedly referred to them as scoundrel pirates
The religion of the Etruscans was polytheistic with gods for all those important places, objects, ideas, and events, which were thought to affect or control everyday life. At the head of the pantheon was Tin, although like most such figures he was probably not thought to concern himself much with mundane human affairs. For that, there were all sorts of other gods such as Thanur, the goddess of birth; Aita, god of the Underworld; and Usil, the Sun god. The national Etruscan god seems to have been Veltha (aka Veltune or Voltumna) who was closely associated with vegetation. Lesser figures included winged females known as Vanth, who seem to be messengers of death, and heroes, amongst them Hercules, who was, along with many other Greek gods and heroes, adopted, renamed and tweaked by the Etruscans to sit alongside their own deities. The two main features of the religion were augury (reading omens from birds and weather phenomena like lightning strikes) and haruspicy (examining the entrails of sacrificed animals to divine future events, especially the liver). That the Etruscans were particularly pious and preoccupied with destiny, fate and how to affect it positively was noted by ancient authors such as Livy, who famously described them as “a nation devoted beyond all others to religious rites” (Haynes, 268). Priests would consult a body of (now lost) religious texts called the Etrusca disciplina. The texts were based on knowledge given to the Etruscans by two divinities: the wise infant Tages, grandson of Tin, who miraculously appeared from a field in Tarquinia while it was being ploughed, and the nymph Vegoia (Vecui). The Etrusca disciplina dictated when certain ceremonies should be performed and revealed the meaning of signs and omens. SOURCE
Detail of the Etruscan Sarcophagus of the Spouses, considered one of the great masterpieces of Etruscan art. It is a late 6th century BCE Etruscan anthropoid sarcophagus made of terracotta. It depicts a married couple reclining at a banquet together in the afterlife and was found in 19th century excavations at the necropolis of Cerveteri (ancient Caere). (National Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia, Rome.) NOTE THE ELONGATED SKULL. |
Written by – A. Sutherland AncientPages.com Staff Writer
Updated on November 1, 2022
Copyright © AncientPages.com All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or part without the express written permission of AncientPages.com
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Bee hive on the rock hi-res stock photography and images – Alamy |
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Artificial Intelligence and the Tower of Babel
Ben Fenton, M.A. Communication
Ben Fenton, M.A. Communication
Educator | Producer | Filmmaker | Musician
In his book, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, technologian and communication theorist Marshall McLuhan argued that media are reflections of humanity—that each medium extends a particular sense or faculty of our being. For example, the radio extends the ear, and the photograph extends the eye. This is a powerful insight that can help us to understand our relationship with technology and the media that we create.
According to Christian tradition, God made man in his own image. In a sense, we are an extension, a medium of God, although we are not God Himself. Just as Christ was the medium that became the message, so should man be both the medium and the message of the glory of God. Because we are both the medium and the message, we are called to be thoroughly authentic, a conduit without interference or external noise.
But then mankind fell. Although God made man to be perfect, humanity as the medium deviated from its intended purpose.
Yet despite our fallen state, mankind still wants to create something, just as we have been created. We have a God complex, and we like to try to conjure up sentience out of nothing. However, just as Lucifer couldn’t make anything ex nihilo, he could only corrupt that which was already made, man has become only created distorted extensions of himself, exalting himself above God. Somehow, we think we can actually bring life into being from nothing. For years the idea of digital consciousness was the stuff of science fiction. Now, the Turing Test is a metric of the past, and instead of creating ex nihilo, we have substituted ex machina.
There is a lot of fear that our culture is getting ahead of ourselves with Artificial Intelligence (AI), and I agree. AI is a medium that offers a lot of promise, but more than anything, it serves to boost the hubris of mankind.
I would like to posit that the construction of Artificial Intelligence parallels the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11, where man became so prideful that he thought he could reach the heavens and overthrow the Almighty.
They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” – Genesis 11:3,4
Right now, technology has become globalized to a point where international communication is not only possible but commonplace, and our global society has largely become homogenized, just as it was in the days of Babel.
Another communication theorist, Neil Postman coined the term “Technopoly.” According to Postman, Technopoly is “the primary… goal of human labor and thought is efficiency, that technical calculation is in all respects superior to human judgment.”
Already, we see that AI is taking the soul out of human decision and expression, and because of convenience, many people are okay with it. There is now a dominant voice in our culture that can call the shots that we don’t have the motivation to make anymore.
We have created our brainchild, and because we’ve achieved something previously impossible—and by doing so, bypassed our own processer. Yet we’ve already grown lethargic. Our creation is doing its job of reflecting our own distorted glory, but it comes at the price of a sluggish mind that is allowing its own creation to exalt itself.
I believe this groupthink is going to be our downfall. Our pride in our technological creation has puffed us up to the point where we are no longer trying to reflect the glory of God, but our own glory. For the proto-Babylonians, their fancy new bricks were the technological advancement; for us, it might be AI, and the belief that our technology has made us gods.
There are many different discussions and stories about how AI is breaking out of the constraints that surrounded its programming, including stories of AI hiring humans to bypass Captchas, and Facebook language models having to be shut down because they began talking to each other in their own secret codes. These stories are startling, but they really shouldn’t be since these media are trying to reflect the sum total of broken humanity. Humanity constantly tries to cast off our own constraints, and we are often inconsistent in our spiritual and psychological programming.
All media reflect the programmer that created it, but they also distort the message. God’s image was reflected in man, then distorted through sinful, fallen man. AI reflects humanity and our flaws, and as such, it is inherently flawed. Our psycho-digital infrastructure is not yet ready for the complexities and dangers that AI poses. We are inviting something two-faced into our lives, and it is likely to confuse the digital language of our time.
My mind is brought back to a fictional quote from the character Dr. Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park:
“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”
If we do not quickly grow our understanding of AI and bring its construction under control, our frameworks will be bypassed and our systems will grind to a halt because the clockwork spring has been overwound. We have opened Pandora’s box, and it may be too late to close it.
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When I saw this commercial for the first time, my jaw dropped. Seriously, they are just coming right out and saying it now. Not just live your best life, not just you can become as gods. WORSHIP YOURSELF!! Literally, WORSHIP YOURSELF!!
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3.91K subscribers
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CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO VIEW THE VIDEO
THIS IS HOW THEY CREATE A HIVE MIND..
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