FORBIDDEN SECRETS OF THE LABYRINTH Part Number 8

PART 8 - Nimrod and the Legend of the Craft

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After Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the locus amoenus, the Nachash maintained an active role in his intervention. In the new world outside of the garden, ultimately the curse given to him by God would manifest itself via the Redeemer from the line of Eve. To circumvent this and render the word of God undependable, the ben ’elohiym, or “sons of God” also known as the “Watchers” or “fallen ones”came to earth. They would manipulate the dust creature’s God-formed characteristics so that they would cease to be from the line of the woman and not fully human.

The Bible mentions this in Genesis, chapter 6:

There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. (Genesis 6:4)

The extrabiblical text known as the Book of Enoch written by Enoch, the great grandfather of Noah, gives an account of this incursion:

And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters.

And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: “Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men and beget us children.”

And Semjâzâ, who was their leader, said unto them: “I fear ye will not indeed agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin.”

And they all answered him and said: “Let us all swear an oath, and all bind ourselves by mutual imprecations not to abandon this plan but to do this thing.”  Then sware they all together and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it.

And they were in all two hundred; who descended in the days of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon, and they called it Mount Hermon, because they had sworn and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it.

And these are the names of their leaders: Samîazâz, their leader, Arâkîba, Râmêêl, Kôkabîêl, Tâmîêl, Râmîêl, Dânêl, Êzêqêêl, Barâqîjâl, Asâêl, Armârôs, Batârêl, Anânêl, Zaqîêl, Samsâpêêl, Satarêl, Tûrêl, Jômjâêl, Sariêl.

These are their chiefs of tens.[i]

The Hebrew meanings for the name “Hermon,” like many others involved with the early actions of the Nachash, are revealing. “Hermon” (Chermown, חֶרְמוֹן) means “a sanctuary” from the root, charam (חָרַם), “to ban, devote, destroy utterly, completely destroy, dedicate for destruction, exterminate, to prohibit, to consecrate, devote, dedicate for destruction, to be devoted, be forfeited, to split, slit, mutilate,  to mutilate, to divide.”

Enoch continues:

And all the others together with them took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them, and they taught them charms and enchantments, and the cutting of roots, and made them acquainted with plants. And they became pregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand ells: Who consumed all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them, the giants turned against them and devoured mankind. And they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish, and to devour one another’s flesh, and drink the blood. Then the earth laid accusation against the lawless ones.[ii]

Apart from the terrible results of the interbreeding between the fallen ones and humans, the Watchers bought menknowledge. Enoch continues, relating the individual names and skills attributed to each:

And Azâzêl taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals of the earth and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all colouring tinctures. And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they were led astray, and became corrupt in all their ways.

Semjâzâ taught enchantments, and root-cuttings,

Armârôs the resolving of enchantments,

Barâqîjâl [taught] astrology,

Kôkabêl the constellations,

Êzêqêêl the knowledge of the clouds,

Araqiêl the signs of the earth,

Shamsiêl the signs of the sun, and

Sariêl the course of the moon.

And as men perished, they cried, and their cry went up to heaven.[iii]

God sent a flood to end the evil havoc caused by the Watchers, but He allowed for the continued existence of a specific uncorrupted line of humanity, Noah and his family:

And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth….

And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die. (Genesis 6:13, 17)

Nimrod

According to the book of Genesis, after the Great Flood, Nimrod (“rebellion”) was the king of the “land of two rivers” known as Shinar. He was the son of Cush, who was the son of Ham, who was the son of Noah.

He was a mighty hunter before the Lord: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord. (Genesis 10:9)

The word used for “mighty” in the Hebrew is gibbowr(“strong,” “mighty”). Its intensive form is gabar, which, in addition to “mighty,” means “to act proudly.” Gesenius’ Lexicon adds, “to prevail, to bind up anything broken.”

Additionally the word for “hunter” in the Hebrew adds to the identification of Nimrod’s characteristics. The word used for hunter is tsayid (צוּד), meaning simply “to hunt.”Gesenius adds an interesting contrast: “צוּד…used as a metaphor for snares laid for men.”[iv]

In the same way that the illuminated fraternities of today believe that they will eventually be able to achieve immortality though the knowledge given by the angel of light, Nimrod hoped to regain the power of knowledge bestowed by the Watchers. With the technological knowledge retained from before the Flood, he conspired to build a tower that would make the communication between men and the Watchers not only possible once more, but continuous. The tower was not necessarily a device that would cause men to become gods immediately, but an intradimensional conduit that would once more bring the assistance of the Watchers who would make men gods like themselves through theknowledge they provided.

Flavius Josephus described the building of the tower of Babel:

Now it was Nimrod who excited them to such an affront and contempt of God. He was the grandson of Ham, the son of Noah, a bold man, and of great strength of hand. He persuaded them not to ascribe it to God, as if it were through his means they were happy, but to believe that it was their own courage which procured that happiness. He also gradually changed the government into tyranny, seeing no other way of turning men from the fear of God, but to bring them into a constant dependence on his power. He also said he would be revenged on God, if he should have a mind to drown the world again; for that he would build a tower too high for the waters to reach. And that he would avenge himself on God for destroying their forefathers.

Now the multitude were very ready to follow the determination of Nimrod, and to esteem it a piece of cowardice to submit to God; and they built a tower, neither sparing any pains, nor being in any degree negligent about the work: and, by reason of the multitude of hands employed in it, it grew very high, sooner than any one could expect; but the thickness of it was so great, and it was so strongly built, that thereby its great height seemed, upon the view, to be less than it really was. It was built of burnt brick, cemented together with mortar, made of bitumen, that it might not be liable to admit water. When God saw that they acted so madly, he did not resolve to destroy them utterly, since they were not grown wiser by the destruction of the former sinners; but he caused a tumult among them, by producing in them diverse languages, and causing that, through the multitude of those languages, they should not be able to understand one another. The place wherein they built the tower is now called Babylon, because of the confusion of that language which they readily understood before; for the Hebrews mean by the word Babel, confusion.[v]

The loss of the unifying power of common language was an exacting form of punishment toward the efforts of Nimrod. His attempt at reconnecting with the light givers failed. Reading, writing, and storytelling ceased. As the tower fell and its builders wandered away in confusion, the chance for communion between men and the fallen angels ended and erased humanity’s possession of Watcher-given knowledge from before the Flood.

Ninus

Ninus was the legendary son of Belus or Bel (Ba’al or “lord”), whose reign lasted fifty-two years, from the year 2189 BC. He was said to have been the first to use dogs in hunting and the first to tame horses. He controlled a vast army of more than two million soldiers and used them to conquer much of the territory that surrounded modern-day Iraq from the shores of the Mediterranean to the east as far as India. He has been depicted in Greek mythology as a centaur. Alexander Hislop has also recognized Ninus as Nimrod, son of Cush, in his book, The Two Babylons.[vi]

The Legend of the Craft

In one of the oldest manuscripts concerning the origins of Freemasonry, The Legend of the Craft, Ninus or Nimrod is mentioned as possessing knowledge gained from before the Flood of Noah. It also mentions the tower of Babel and Naamah the weaver who closely resembles the Egyptian goddess Neith:

We shall now tell you how this science was begun. According to the fourth chapter of Genesis, before Noah’s flood, there was a man called Lamech who had two wives, one called Ada and the other Zillah. The first wife Ada bore him two sons, Jabal and Jubal, and the second wife Zillah bore him a son and a daughter, tubal-Cain and Naamah. These four children found the beginning of all the crafts in the world. Jabel, the eldest son, found the craft of Geometry, and he was the first person to divide lands and flocks of sheep and lambs, and he was also the first to build a house of wood and stone. Jubal found the craft of Music, Tubal-Cain the craft of the Smith and Naamah the craft of Weaving. Now these children knew that God would take vengeance upon the earth, either by fire or water, and in order that their discoveries might be preserved to future generations they wrote them upon two pillars of stone; one of marble, which would not burn in fire, and the other of lattress, which would not drown in water.

After the destruction of the world by flood, Hermes, who has been called the Father of Wise Men, found one of the pillars and taught the sciences written thereon to other men. At the building of the Tower of Babel, masonry was in great repute, and Nimrod, the King of Babylon, was himself a Mason and a lover of the craft, so that when Nineveh and other cities of the East were about to be built, he sent thither three score masons at the request of his cousin, the King of Nineveh, and when they went forth he gave them a Charge in this manner:—That they should love each other truly, in order that no discredit should fall on him for sending them, and he also gave them a charge concerning their science. These were the first Masons who ever received any charge.[vii]

Nineveh

According to the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus (c. 90–30 BC) the founder of the city of Nineveh was Ninus.Genesis chapter 10 mentions that Nineveh was built after Nimrod had established the cities in the land of Shinar.Nineveh was a great center of commerce. Archeological digs have uncovered massive walls eight miles in perimeter, aqueducts, palaces and a library that features twenty thousand clay tablets, including accounts of the flood in the Epic of Gilgamesh.[viii]

The Jewish Encyclopedia mentions that the form of the name Nineveh is “derived from the Masoretic text and is close to the native Assyrian for Ninua.” The origin of the name is obscure, but possibly means “the seat of Ishtar,” since Nina was one of the Babylonian names of that goddess. The Assyrian ideogram means “house or place of fish.”[x]

Nineveh, famous for being the residence of the successive kings of Assyria, remained the capital of the kingdom throughout the centuries and was regarded by Greek writers as its permanent capital, virtually equivalent to the country itself. The people of Nineveh worshipped the fish god Derceto, the mother of Semiramis, the wife or daughter (or both) of Ninus, who has also been thought to be Nimrod.[xi]

Semiramis

Semiramis was the daughter of Derceto of Ascalon (Ashkelon) and a mortal father. Derceto abandoned Semiramis at birth and threw herself into a nearby lake. She is the Assyrian version of the Anatolian Cybele, the Babylonian Ishtar and the Egyptian Isis.

The Greek historian Diodorus Siculus wrote about the birth of Semiramis and how she came to be associated with doves:

Now there is in Syria a city known as Ascalon, and not far from it a large and deep lake, full of fish. On its shore is a precinct of a famous goddess whom the Syrians call Derceto; and this goddess has the head of a woman but all the rest of her body is that of a fish, the reason being something like this. The story as given by the most learned of the inhabitants of the region is as follows: Aphrodite, being offended with this goddess, inspired in her a violent passion for a certain handsome youth among her votaries; and Derceto gave herself to the Syrian and bore a daughter, but then, filled with shame of her sinful deed, she killed the youth and exposed the child in a rocky desert region, while as for herself, from shame and grief she threw herself into the lake and was changed as to the form of her body into a fish; and it is for this reason that the Syrians to this day abstain from this animal and honour their fish as gods. But about the region where the babe was exposed a great multitude of doves had their nests, and by them the child was nurtured in an astounding and miraculous manner; for some of the doves kept the body of the babe warm on all sides by covering it with their wings, while others, when they observed that the cowherds and other keepers were absent from the nearby steadings, brought milk therefrom in their beaks and fed the babe by putting it drop by drop between its lips. And when the child was a year old and in need of more solid nourishment, the doves, pecking off bits from the cheeses, supplied it with sufficient nourishment. Now when the keepers returned and saw that the cheeses had been nibbled about the edges, they were astonished at the strange happening; they accordingly kept a look-out, and on discovering the cause found the infant, which was of surpassing beauty. At once, then, bringing it to their steadings they turned it over to the keeper of the royal herds, whose name was Simmas; and Simmas, being childless, gave every care to the rearing of the girl, as his own daughter, and called her Semiramis, a name slightly altered from the word which, in the language of the Syrians, means “doves,” birds which since that time all the inhabitants of Syria have continued to honour as goddesses.[xii]

Doves were also considered sacred to the fish-goddess Derceto, also known as Ataratheh. She was known to the Greeks as Aphrodite Derceto,[xiii] and as Deasura, the goddess of Syria, to the Romans.[xiv]

The port city of Ashkelon, where the birth of Semiramis was said to have occurred, is the same mentioned in Judges 14:19, where Samson went to slay thirty men after they had “plowed with his heifer”:

And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, and slew thirty men of them, and took their spoil, and gave change of garments unto them which expounded the riddle. And his anger was kindled, and he went up to his father’s house.

The Greek historian Ctesias of Cnidus (c. 400 BC) through his access to the royal historical records as the court physician of Artaxerxes II (435–358 BC) claimed that a King Ninus and Queen Semiramis had lived in Nineveh. Diodorus added to Ctesias’ accounts in his Bibliotheca Historica.

During the siege of Bactra, Ninus met Semiramis and married her because he was impressed by her bravery. At that time, she was already the wife of one of his officers named Onnes. Onnes later committed suicide over his loss. According to Diodorus, Semiramis and Ninus then had a son named Ninyas.

During one of Ninus’ later campaigns, he was struck by an arrow and fatally wounded. Semiramis disguised herself as her husband (in some account as her son Ninyas) and continued to command his army, ultimately conquering all of Ethiopia. She also restored ancient Babylon and had high brick walls built as fortifications surrounding the city.

Later, in honor of her husband, Semiramis erected a temple tomb in Babylon that was said to be ten stadia (according to the Greek historian Herodotus, one stadia is equal to approximately six hundred feet) broad and nine stadia high.[xv]

Although mankind’s ability to communicate in a common language was lost at the fall of the tower of Babel, the remembrance of the event remained. Nimrod-Ninus and Semiramis have later been ascribed to the gods Marduk and Astarte (also known as Ishtar). They and the followers of their cult were responsible for the construction of various towers or ziggurats throughout the Mesopotamian region commemorating the attempt by Nimrod to reestablish the link to the Watchers.

Additionally, the gods and goddesses worshipped throughout the region of Anatolia and Mesopotamia were often depicted wearing a peculiar, “tower-like” headdress known to the Greeks as the polos (introduced in chapter 5), a high, cylindrical crown that was depicted on goddesses of ancient Anatolia and also used by the ancient Greeks and Romans. Cybele, Hera, and Artemis are often shown wearing the castle- or turret-like polos. The polos reflected not specifically their association with Nimrod, but the connection to the heavens that mimics the tower of Babel.

The word asherah (אֲשֵׁרָה) is Hebrew for “pole” or a “grove for idol worship,” or the Canaanite mother goddess, Asherah. The Hebrew word for the practice of worshipping a goddess in the form of a wooden pole, as well as a word for “pole” came from the name of the goddess herself.

God expressly hated the use and worship of Asherah poles:

You must never set up a wooden Asherah pole beside the altar you build for the Lord your God.

And never set up sacred pillars for worship, for the Lord your God hates them. (Deuteronomy 16:21–22)[xvi]

The Asherah goddess who had contact with the light bringer was worshipped in the form of a pillar, pole, tree, or fountain (discussed in chapter 6 of the upcoming bookForbidden Secrets of the Labyrinth) reaching to heaven, and was associated with the meleketh shamayim,meaning “queen of heaven.” God was especially angered by the people of Jerusalem who worshiped her:

The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead [their] dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger. (Jeremiah 7:18)

The Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus (AD 320–390) credits Semiramis, like her counterpart Cybele, as the first to use eunuchs as slaves.[xvii] Her traditional reputation as a harlot is similar to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar and Greek Hecate. At her temple in Hierapolis Bambyce, located in northern Syria, her statue was displayed with a golden dove above her head.[xviii]

Doves were the symbol of the Babylonian Ishtar and Assyrian Astarte, who was associated with the Greek Aphrodite and the Anatolian Artemis. The Latin wordcolumba means “dove” or “pigeon.” The subterranean chamber tombs used in the ancient world had the same appearance as the places built to house doves. The word for both “a dove keeper” and for the “chamber in which urns containing the ashes of the dead are stored” iscolumbarium (columba, “dove,” and arium, “a place for”).[xix]

The familiarity the ancients had with chamber-like crypts and their similarity to the chambers that housed doves led to the double meaning of the word. The idea of resurrection mirrors the image of the energetic doves flying out of the same chambers that housed the dead. The ancient people who put energy towards the worship of their respective goddesses believed that they would gain favor or blessings from them. They also looked to these deities for life after death.

The word columbia literally means “the country of the doves” or, more sinisterly, “the country of sepulchral chambers”—but a more complete meaning of the term would be “the country of the resurrection.” This meaning alludes to the ancient deity that Washington, DC—the District of Columbia—is dedicated to, the Anatolian Cybele-Attis goddess who is the same as the Greek Pallas Athena.

Illustrations of School Classics written 1903 by Sir George Francis Hill features an image of an interesting coin from the Temple of the Aphrodite in Paphos, Cyprus, issued during the reign of Garacalla showing a conical stone as well as a star, crescent, and sacred doves.

Hill writes:

The coin is inscribed KOI NO N KVTTPinN, as being issued by the associated cities of Cyprus. The temple consists of a high central portion with two lower wings or porticoes and a fore-court. In the central portion is a large conical stone, which was supposed to be the goddess herself. Above (not well-pre-served) are a star and crescent, the symbol of the goddess. The wings contained sacred columns—or tall incense-altars—and on the roof of each is one of the sacred doves.[xxi]

In a story similar story to the birth of Attis, the son of Cybele, Tammuz, was later born to Semiramis.[xxii] His birth was considered a miracle, since it was late after the death of Nimrod. Semiramis herself declared it a “fatherless” birth, the god Marduk reborn. Tammuz and Ishtar are like Attis and Cybele in a variety of ways. He and his mother Ishtar were said to have loved each other and married. In Mesopotamia, his cult also worshipped during March[xxiii] in a dramatic processional ceremony that lamented his unfortunate demise wherein he had been killed and taken to the underworld by jealous demons.

In the story of Isis and Osiris, Cybele and Attis, and Semiramis and Tammuz, the son/husband of each goddess “dies,” but continues to endure in some eternal fashion, waiting to be reborn. Each is described as being desired and loved by their goddess-mothers and are greatly mourned. Looking at the story of the garden through the eyes of the Nachash, the woman had desiredhis assistance. After he had given it, his appearance changed from what it was before their interaction, and he was “lost,” changed by the curse of God.

And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. (Genesis 3:14)

The curse given to the Nachash is the meaning of the death of each goddess’ son. He is thought of as Eve’s son since she had a part in his change (birth) to the lowly serpent, and her husband since they were “wed” in the formation of the Nachash-Eve religious amalgamation. The hoped-for resurrection of the son/husband is the plan of the enduring cherub to rise as the phoenix in human form, throwing off the serpent curse to become the false savior of man who would lead all to the knowledge of resurrection and immortality.

TO BE CONTINUED...

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