As Above, So Below

The Sacred Circle

A plain black circle was to symbolize the spirit of the solar or heavenly god during his cyclic passages through the underworld. In this phase, according to Egyptian scriptures, he became “the hidden one” (Amen), or the Lord of Death, Seker, hidden in a secret pyramid of “blackest darkness” at the earth’s core. His blackness was as intensely dark as the suns light was intensely bright. He soon became mythologized as the sun god’s dark twin brother, like Ahriman to Ahura Mazda in Persia, or Nehral-Ninib to Anu in Mesopotamia. 

The dark brother became an opponent of the bright brother with further development of dualism, which divided the world between forces of light and dark (good and evil). Thus the Black Sun came to symbolize many underworld gods, including: Saturn, Pluto, Hades, Python, Apollyon, Zeus Chthonios, Yama, and such fallen-angel figures as Lucifer, Satan or Beelzebub who became assimilated to the Christian devil.

Yet all the while, the sun continued to rise and decline in the sky hourly, daily, and yearly. Seeing this, many people retained the original idea of the Black Sun as a secret, wiser version of the solar god, who knew the nether world as well as he knew the heavens.

To medieval alchemists, the Sol Niger (Black Sun) meant “prime matter,” or matter in an untouched primordial state.

The circle was always one of the primary feminine signs, as opposed to the line, cross, or phallic shaft representing masculine spirit. Early matrifocal villages had round hearths, round houses, round fences and defensive shapes. The cirlce was associated with the idea of a protected or consecrated space, the center of the motherland, a ceremonial space where all participants were equal. Worship circles like the Hindu chakra were those in which female influence was prevalent. Pagan sacred dances were circular, as are European folk dances to this day. Prehistoric stone circles, like Stonehenge-known as the Giant’s Dance-attest to ancient love of circularity. The concept of equality was still connected with the circle in medieval legends. Arthur’s knights of the Round Table were seated in a circle to eliminate the sense of hierarchy among their brotherhood.

The famous cliche, “God is a circle whose circumfrence is nowhere and whose center is everywhere,” was cribbed from a Hindu catechism concerning the deity called the One: “an unbroken circle with no circumfrence, for it is nowhere and everywhere.” The idea of the cosmos as an unbroken circle was repeated in the Gnostic image of the world serpent forming a circle with its tail in its mouth. Closed circles continued to be thought protective, especially for workers of magic. A sorcerer’s title dating from the first century B.C. was “circle drawer.” The circle invoked by analogy the full face of the moon, the pupil of the All-Seeing Eye, the circle of the visible horizon, and a thousand other natural forms. 

— Barbara Walker, The Woman’s Dictionary of Symbols & Sacred Objects

(via @Wildcat2030)

zeitgeistmovement:

Tell Congress to oppose S. 978, the new “Ten Strikes” bill

Here they go again: The big business lobbyists who are behind the Internet Blacklist Bill are already making the sequel. THIS WEEK Senators will be voting on a “Ten Strikes” bill to make it a felony to stream copyrighted content — like music in the background of a Youtube video — more than ten times.

As the writers at TechDirt point out, under this bill you could go to jail for posting video of your friends singing karaoke:

The entertainment industry is freaking out about sites that embed and stream infringing content, and want law enforcement to put people in jail over it, rather than filing civil lawsuits…. We already pointed to one possibility: that people embedding YouTube videos could face five years in jail. Now, others are pointing out that it could also put kids who lip sync to popular songs, and post the resulting videos on YouTube, in jail as well.

That’s right: Ten strikes and you could get jail time.  Less than two weeks ago, the Hollywood industry magazine, Variety, reported, “Industry lobbyists pressed House members on Wednesday to pass legislation that would make illegal streaming of movies, TV shows and other types of content a felony….”

Only days later, the MPAA is getting its wish. Will you email your lawmakers and tell them to vote against the Ten Strikes Bill? Just add your info at right to automatically send this note to them, under your name and from your address. (You can edit the letter if you’d like to.)

Just sign on at right and we’ll send an email to your lawmakers.

Not on my goddamn watch. Please sign, reblog and post in your other networks.