Something different – no memes – no links – no music – something just simply for your reading and consideration . . .
Symbols were the almost universal language of ancient theology. They were the most obvious method of instruction ; for, like nature herself, they addressed the understanding through the eye ; and the most ancient expressions denoting communication of religious knowledge, signify ocular exhibition. The first hieroglyphics. These lessons of the olden times were the riddles of the Sphynx, tempting the curious by their quaintness , but involving the personal risk of the adventurous interpreter. “The Gods themselves,” it was said, “disclose their intentions to the wise, but to fools their teaching is unintelligible ;” and the King of the Delphic Oracle was said not to declare, nor on the other hand to conceal ; but emphatically “intimate or signify.“
The Ancient Sages, both barbarian and Greek, involved their meaning in similar indirections and enigmas ; their lessons were conveyed either in visible symbols, or in those “parables and dark sayings of old,” which the Israelites considered it a sacred duty to hand down unchanged to successive generations. The explanatory tokens employed by man, whether emblematical objects or actions, symbols or mystic ceremonies, were like the mystic signs or portents either in dreams or by the wayside, supposed to be significant of the intentions of the Gods ; both required the aid of anxious thought and skilful interpretation. It was only by a correct appreciation of analogous problems of nature, that the will of Heaven could be understood by the Diviner, or the lessons of Wisdom become manifest to the Sage.
The mysteries were a series of symbols ; and what was spoken there consisted wholly of accessory explanations of the act or image ; sacred commentaries, explanatory of of established symbols ; with little of those independent traditions and embodying physical or moral speculation, in which the elements or planets were the actors, and the creation and revolutions of the world were intermingled with recollections of ancient events ; and yet with so much of that also, that nature became her own expositor through the medium of an arbitrary symbolical instruction ; and the ancient views of the relation between the human and divine received dramatic forms.
There has ever been an intimate alliance between the two systems, the symbolic and the philosophical, in the allegories of the monuments of all ages, in the symbolic writings of the priests of all nations, in the rituals of all secret societies ; there has been a constant series, an invariable uniformity of principles, which come from an aggregate, vast, imposing and true, composed of parts that fit harmoniously only there.
Symbolical instruction is recommended by the constant and uniform usage of antiquity ; and it has retained its influence throughout all ages. as a system of Mysterious Communication. The Deity, in his revelations to man, adopted the use of material images for the purpose of enforcing sublime truths ; and Christ taught by symbols and parables. The mysterious knowledge of the Druids was embodied in signs and symbols. Taliesin, describing his initiation, says, “The secrets imparted to me by the old Giantess ( Ceridwen, or Isis ), without the use of audible language.” And again he says, “I am a silent proficient.”
Initiation was a school, in which were taught the truths of primitive revelation, the existence and attributes of one God, the immortality of the Soul, rewards and punishments in a future life, the phenomena of Nature, the arts and sciences, morality, legislation, philosophy, and philanthropy, an what we now style psychology and metaphysics, with animal magnetism and other occult sciences.
If you recognize this – or if you recognize what it is from – or who penned it – I am impressed – I will try to get several different paragraphs posted now and then – feet up and reading is one thing – putting it into a post is something else entirely . . .
And let me know if you want bigger bites to mull over or if these are enough to chew on at one time . . .
Have Fun! – Run the Gun! – and remember – Fish Heads are Cheap!!
Guns, Fun, Food and More 