Sacred Space

by

Frater Centaurus

3°=8^o A^A^

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

A place consecrated to holy purpose removes us from the mundane experiences of day-to-day living.  This is especially symbolized in our art by the Magickal Circle.  But sacred space is as much the establishment of certain times of the day, such as with the performance of Liber Resh or the Sunrise and Sunset banishing rituals; even the Mass of the Phoenix.  Sacred Space is also that which is physically set aside, such as a room in one’s home or an altar, placed in the yard, about the property outside one’s house.

Moving to a larger perspective, in the layout of a community, sacred space has traditionally been set aside with the construction of temples, churches, synagogues, mosques and other sanctuaries.  Even, it has been suggested that the European Cathedrals of Notre Dame have been constructed in power spots, along ‘Lei Lines’ where it is presumed that certain natural energy sources are coalesced by the Earth herself.  And certainly in a time when all of Europe was help under the aegis of the Vatican, despite the various nationalities, Europe was really one culture held together by this sacred power grid.  Seen in this light, Europe itself was sacred space.

For the ancient Egyptian and Mayan cultures, the establishment of sacred space involved the connecting of the Earth with the heavens.  Think of it as a pun, sacred space.  To the ancients, puns were a sacred key to their mysteries.  Here, we find a three-fold nature to this pun:

1. Take the initials of the phrase and re-write as ‘Silver Star.’

2. The Magick Circle as Saeculum Saeculorum.

3. Outer Space

The last two are more connected as they are each a reflection of the other, Microcosm and Macrocosm, respectively; sacred (the Latin translates as ‘holy of holies’) space (our reference to the heavens).

For this reason we find that all the great ancient civilizations, having this basic knowledge, centered their activities around a structure which embodied this knowledge, in as perfect a degree as they were capable of assessing.  There was always a structure—a building, a temple, a pyramid, a complex sculpture or some such object—that captured this knowledge and served as a point of focus for the collective energies and a point of reception of the cosmic dynamic which needed to be synthetically absorbed into the Earth’s atmosphere—a ‘model of the universe,’ as they are sometimes called.  These were microcosmic replicas of the beyond in relation to the Earth; above all, they held the key to the civilization’s being in Time[1].

More than a particular structure with its corresponding features, e.g. a pyramid with is shafts connecting the so-called King and Queen’s chambers to certain stars at certain times by pointing directly to them; a complex of such structures mirroring an entire constellation—particularly, the constellation of Orion on the lands of Egypt.  For the ancient Egyptians, the construction was so accurate that the size of the various pyramids corresponded in relation with the intensity of the brightness of the individual stars in Orion.  And more, the pyramids in this structural layout, corresponded in relation to the Nile as Orion was related to the stream of stars forming the Milky Way Galaxy.  The entire country was a consecrated expression of sacred space.

…the Ancient Egyptians correlated the Nile with the ‘celestial river’ i.e., the Milky Way, and this was known even by the Greeks.  From the time of Homer, the Nile was associated with the mythical sky river called either Okeanos or Eridanus.  The Hellenic historian, A.B. Cook, was of the opinion that Eridanus (which today is a faint constellation formed by a strong of stars joining Rigel to Alchermor) was ‘at the outset none other than the Milky Way,’ and that in pre-Greek times, Okeanos ‘simply meant the Galaxy’ i.e. the Milky Way[2].

On the other side of the Earth, just as the last vestiges of the Egyptian empire had become but a memory preserved within Greek culture, the Mayan culture was poised to emerge; for them, the discovery of precession, simultaneously re-discovered by the Greeks.  This would prove the North Star as a ‘false god,’ equivocated as the ‘demiurge[3]’ by the emerging Gnostic movement in Mediterranean culture.  But it was in Mayan culture that this was expressed with greater clarity as the focal point moved to the dark rift in the Milky Way Galaxy that was calculated to be the galactic center and birth canal of the Earth.

This center[4] was not only located in the constellation of Sagittarius, who’s symbol in this manifestation is the cross[5], but was a part of a complex of three crosses.  The rift itself forms a cross with the ecliptic, which was known as the ‘Black Road[6] of the Lord’ to the ancient Mayans.  A lesser constellation, known as the ‘Thieves Cross’ is near it at the bottom of the rift and Aquila, the Eagle constellation, known to the Mayans as the Hawk, with wings spread in the shape of a cross at the top of the rift.  Note that in New Testament symbolism, there are also three crosses with one of them holding a thief.  Even, we might say that as a large part of the first aeon of this manifestation was stolen by the Black Lodge and now avenged of course, by the Hawk-Headed Mystical lord, we draw out an interpretation of these symbols that came to be at the start of this Manifestation.

The cross formed by the intersection of the dark rift with the ecliptic forms four cosmic roads, one for each arm; the Black Road, White Road, Green Road and Red Road.  These defined four directions; north, south, east and west, respectively, and were reflected onto the Earth by the Mayans.  But where on the Earth?  While the Giza complex in Egypt is located just above the topics at 30° latitude and 30° longitude, all of Mesoamerica is within the tropics, below the Tropic of Cancer at 23°46’ latitude.  Now, we could argue that Egypt as the center of Western civilization is therefore, centered by Giza, being the absolute center of the world.  Certainly today, with oil and religion originating from this point, it seems to be playing a major role in world destiny.

But spherical geometry brings in another measure[7].  Within the topics at 19°40’ latitude, we find the base of a four-sided equilateral pyramid fitted perfectly into the globe of the Earth with its vertex at the South Pole.  The four-sided pyramid itself is a Platonic solid, based on the Golden Mean, also employed by the Egyptians in the construction of their pyramids. So though at the Topic of Caner (23°26’) we have the latitude that gives us the Sun hitting the zenith on the Summer Solstice, we find significance in this lower latitude as it is a place where increased Earth energies are found along with increased geothermal, geophysical and magnetic energy[8].

At this latitude, the Sun hits the zenith, sixty days after the Solstice, where the pyramid at Kulculcan is located, depicting a snake’s rattle, which is also a symbol of the Pleiades[9] (the belt of Orion).  The vertex of this pyramid, built around 800 ev points to the Zenith and only in this modern era, does the Sun and the Pleiades conjunct at the Zenith when reached, these sixty days after the Summer Solstice.  This will occur exactly on 2012ev when the Mayan calendar ends and when the Sun is aligned perfected with the dark rift and for the Mayans, a new age is to begin.  So though there is but one pyramid here, like the Egyptian layout, the Pleiades are the central focus…Osiris, the god of the Manifestation of Sagittarius.

What of the pyramids themselves?  From the snake rattle at Kulculcan to the shafts of the King and Queen’s chamber at Giza, we have come to understand the pyramid itself as a sacred space where important events in the spiritual life of these cultures have taken place.

For the manifestation of a collectivity, which will express the higher realities of existence in its very structure and being, there is a house of the Spirit/Soul that is its focal point.  All the great civilizations of the past have had such a structure, around which the principal city of the collectivity was built[10].

The sole purpose or such a structure is to create a bridge from one plane to another.  If we speak of a Gnostic society, it is evident that the plane to be reached and with which a connection must be established is the plane of Truth, where forms are of the highest perfection and hold in their dimensions, the secret to the manner in which the power of those planes can be established on Earth and can serve as a means by which the new creation is assisted in its growth[11].

To the Mayans, the night sky and the Underworld were essentially the same and located under the Earth, rotating overhead to become the night sky.  Likewise, for the Egyptians, the mystery play of the pyramids as depicted in The Book of the Dead involved a descent into the Underworld of which the pyramid was a gateway, with the Pharaoh reaching ‘Rostau’, the place of Osiris in the night sky.

In the Popol Vuh, One Hunahpu and Seven Hunahpu journeyed to the Underworld and when they come to a crossroads, they must choose the correct road.  Of the four roads they encountered, only the Black Road spoke to them, saying, “I am the one you are taking.  I am the lord’s road.”  They ended up choosing this Black Road, which is another name for the xibalba be—the dark rift in the Milky Way.  The point here is that the Black Road spoke—it either has or is a mouth[12]—which contributes to the veracity of our identification of the Hawk’s mouth with the dark-rift[13].

For the Egyptian ‘Horus-King’, one had to get to the Duat where Rostau as reflected on the Earth, existed.  The pyramid had to become a ‘time gateway’ that existed because the shafts pointed to the appropriate stars, Sirius and the Sun (Ra) at sunrise on the Summer Solstice, when the Nile flooded the plains and the gods were reborn.  The only time that this happened in perfect alignment with these shafts was in the Aeon of Leo, which is why the Sphinx is such an important monument.  This was zep tepi, the time of the ‘First Ones.’  So that by entering the pyramid, one was traveling through time to this beginning and a completion of the cycle of life.

The pattern of the stellar Duat was defined by the cluster of stars, from the Hyades to Canis major with Orion in between, all found on the ‘west bank’ of the Milky Way.  On land, in the Memphis-Duat, this corresponded to the pyramid fields from Dashour to Abu Ruwash, with Giza somewhere in the middle, all found on the west bank of the Nile.  With the three Giza pyramids sited in ancient Rostau and fitting the location of Orion’s Belt in the center of the sky-Duat, the implication that Dashour was correlated to the Hyades was indicated by the layout principle of the master plan.  The Giza group had shown that the layout was based on the heliacal risings of the stars of the Duat and their projection to the ground, each represented with a pyramidal monument fixed on a meridian[14].

For the Mayans, though the Pyramid was an important place for religious rites, the pyramid itself was more a pointer.  Along side the pyramid at Kulculcan is a ‘Ball Court.’  The internal structure of the pyramid along with the steps on the side all point to the snake rattle at the top of the pyramid.  So the structural intent of the Mayan pyramid is quite different from that of the Giza pyramids.  Why this is so is yet, for archeologists to discover.  And I don’t know that this question is even being asked by the academic community.

The Ball Court itself was oriented to mirror the dark rift of the Milky Way.  It symbolized the entrance to the Underworld as it was dug into the Earth and in much the same way as caves being dug into the Earth were thought to lead to the underworld[15].  A skull was placed at the center to represent the cosmic navel where the four roads of the cosmic cross met.  This was also the intersection of the upper and lower worlds. 

A side-view of the Ball Court shows a T-shaped design, clearly suggesting the Tau.  And movements during the game reflected the three cycles of the Sun:

1.      The Sun’s daily rebirth

2.      The Sun’s annual rebirth

3.      The Sun’s world age rebirth (2012ev)

The ballplayers wore a U-shaped Yoke that was a symbol for ‘mother’ and the entrance to the underworld.  Interestingly enough, the Yoke is the meaning of the word, Aleph in the Hebrew alphabet.  With the Tau, we have the Alpha and the Omega.  On the side of the Yoke was pictured a deity with a knot-curl on his forehead, symbolizing the place of birth.  The obvious correspondence with the Ajna Chakkra and Third Eye can’t be missed here!

The real mystery though, is figuring out who designed all this.  The Theosophists and Madame Blavatsky explain this with the teaching on the ‘Hidden Mahatmas’ as in Thelemic doctrine, we have the ‘Secret Chiefs.’

According to the Edfu Texts, the Seven Sages and the other gods came originally from an island, the ‘Homeland of the Primeval Ones.’  As noted above, the texts are adamant that the agency that destroyed this island was a flood.  They also tell us that it came to its end suddenly and that the majority of its ‘divine inhabitants’ were drowned.  Arriving in Egypt, those few who survived then became ‘the Builder Gods, who fashioned I the primeval time, the Lords of Light…the Ghosts, the Ancestors…who raised the seeds for gods and men…, the Senior Ones who came into being at the beginning, who illumined this land when they came forth unitedly[16].’

Considering that Plato also knew of this and gives us our earliest reference to Atlantis, we can deduce that the Secret Chiefs originate from this time.  And their losing fight to the waters that drowned them seems consistent with those Nephilim imprisoned in the lower astral of which we have connected with the Enochian entities[17].

Love is the law, love under will.

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