Bootes

the Herdsman, the Ploughman, the Ox Driver, or the Shepherd

Urania's Mirror 1825

The word Bootes was seen as related to Greek boetes which seems to have meant a loud voice. According to Allen (Star Names) "Others thought the word Boetes, Clamorous, transcribed as Boetes, descriptive of the shouts of the Driver to his Oxen (the Bears), or the calls of encouragement to the Hounds" (Canes Venatici), hence the constellation had been sometimes called 'Vociferator' and 'Clamator'. "Bootes is related to the ancient Greek verb Boao, Boo. It means 'roar', 'make a loud roaring noise' and 'command in a loud roaring way'" [from a Greek lady who wrote to me]. Latin has the word bovinor 'bellow', bovo, 'I roar'. Boo originally was an imitation of a cow’s lowing [1]. The word boom, a deep sound, might be related.

Titles for Bootes were Latin Clamans, Clamator from Latin clamorous. As a calendar sign it was first mentioned by Hesiod (Allen Star Names). Bootes who invented the plough could represent the transition from a nomadic life to settled agriculture (as Julius Staal suggested). In order to establish his territory, the aspiring farmer would have needed to make a claim. The claiming of territory has associations with cows as in the Greek myth of Cadmus, who after consulting the oracle was ordered to follow a special cow with a half moon on her flank, which would meet him, and to build a town on the spot where she should lie down exhausted, it guided him to Boeotia, he named the place Boeotia, after the word 'cow' (bos) [2]. A bovate (from Latin bos) is an archaic term for a measure of land also known as an oxgang. It was 1/8 of a ploughgate or as much land as one ox could plough in a year [3]. The word low 'to make the sound of a cow' is related to the word claim. 'Claim' comes from the Indo-European root *kela-² 'To shout'. Derivatives: low² ('to make the sound of a cow'), claim, clamant, clamor, clamorous, acclaim, declaim, exclaim, proclaim (from Latin clamare, to call, cry out), haul (from Old French haler, to haul). Suffixed form *kal-yo-; conciliate (to overcome the distrust or animosity of), council (con-caliom), reconcile (from Latin concilium, a meeting, gathering < 'a calling together' con-, together, + caliom, to call). Suffixed form *kal-end-; calendar, calends (from Latin kalendae, Greek kaleo 'to call'), ecclesia (ek-, out + kalein, to call, ecclesiastical), Paraclete (para- + kalein, literally ‘to call to your side’, the word appears a few times in the New Testament and, as a title for the Holy Spirit), intercalate (to insert a day or month in a calendar), nomenclator (one who assigns names, from Latin calare, to call, call out), clear, glair (the white of an egg), clairvoyant ('clear seeing'), declare, éclair (from Latin clarus, bright, clear), claret, clarify, class (from Latin classis, summons, division of citizens). [Pokorny 6. kel- 548. Watkins]

Icarus, or Icarius, also was a title for Bootes, the name relates to the story of the farmer Icarius who welcomed Dionysus to Attica and in return received the gift of the vine, or received the secret of wine-making from the god. Icarius gave wine to the neighboring shepherds, but when they became intoxicated they thought Icarius had poisoned them, and so they slew him [3].

Bootes is associated with Icarius who was the first man to learn the cultivation of grapes and their fermentation into wine. The traditional astrological influences for Bootes; "likes fine wine". In view of Bootes association with liquor, the word booze, or bouse, might belong here, from Middle English bous, a drink. 'Bootleg' is illegal liquor and refers to the notion of smuggling liquor in one's boot [4]. Boots are generally worn by farmers. To say a man is "in his boots" implies that he is very drunk.

Bootes could also relate to another mythological character named Icarus. Icarus was famous for his death by falling into the Icarian Sea near Icaria, the island that still bears his name. He was the son of Daedalus, the master craftsman. According to Ovid's description of him he appears to have been a very young boy, whose playful antics hindered his father's work [5]. Daedalus made artificial wings for himself and Icarus. Icarus flew too close to the sun, melting the wax holding his artificial wings together, causing him to fall into the Icarian sea and drown. From the Indo-European root above, *bheue-, there is the word imp which along with meaning a mischievous child, it also means to furnish with wings, and it was used in the context of grafting new feathers onto the wings of a trained falcon or hawk to repair damage or increase flying capacity.

Some see the word boy as deriving from the root *gwou-, related to English bovine and cow. "Boy from French *imboiare, a compound verb based on Latin boiae 'leather collar, fetter,' which was adapted from Greek boeiai dorai 'oxhides' (hence 'ox-leather thongs'), from bous 'ox'." [John Ayto, Dictionary of Word Origins]

As has been suggested Bootes may immortalize the transition from a nomadic life to settled agriculture in the ancient world. The aspiring farmer who made claims on land would need to guard his property and produce against those who had still remained nomads, at least before bylaws became established. Titles for Bootes were Greek Arktophulax, translated 'the Bear-watcher' and the 'Bear-guard', from Greek phulax, 'watcher, guard, sentry-keeper'. A phylax was a guard or watchman in ancient Rome, and in earlier Chaldea Arcturus was identified with Papsukal, the Guardian Messenger. The name of the alpha star, Greek Arktouros, Latin Arcturus, was often interchanged with the name of the constellation. The suffix -urus is from Greek ouros, 'watcher, guard, ward'. This -ouros root is related to the word guard in the Germanic languages. Manilius below says "those born under Arctophylax - Arcturus, ... are charged with the guardianship of the people or, as the stewards of grand houses. The suffix -urus of Arcturus is from the Indo-European root *wer-4 'To perceive, watch out for'. Derivatives: wary, aware, ware², ward, lord (from hlaf, loaf of bread + weard, warder), steward (a steward was a sty-ward, warder of pigs), stewardess, warder², warden, award, reward, wardrobe, warder, guard, garderobe, regard, guardian, rearward², ware¹, beware. From the Greek root ouros; Arcturus, pylorus (pylorus  pule, gate + ouros, guard; the passage at the lower end of the stomach that opens into the duodenum, from Greek ouros, a guard. In myth Pylos is the gate to the underworld). Probably variant *(s)wor-, *s(w)or-; ephor (elected magistrates exercising a supervisory power over the kings of Sparta), panorama (pan- + Greek horan, to see), revere¹ (to regard with awe, from Latin vereri, to respect, feel awe for). [Pokorny 8. wer- 1164. Watkins] Edward (composed of the Anglo-Saxon elements ead 'riches, prosperity, happiness' and weard 'protector'), Stuart from steward.

"Old Oxherd was on guard with unsleeping eyes, in company with the heavenly Serpent [Draco] of the Arcadian Bear [Ursa Minor], looking out from on high for some nightly assault of Typhon" [DIONYSIACA BOOK 2]

Bootes has been identified with Philomelus, or Philomelos, 'Friend of Ease' [6], or Philomenus, whose brother Plutus was very wealthy, but gave none of his riches to his brother. Out of necessity Philomenus bought two oxen, invented the wagon or plough, and supported himself by ploughing his fields and cultivating crops. His mother, Demeter (Ceres), admiring him for this, put him in the heavens as the constellation Bootes, his wagon or plough being the constellation Ursa Major. [7]:

"[Constellation Waggoner] Hermippus, who wrote about the stars, says that Ceres [Demeter] lay with Iasion (Jason), son of Thuscus. Many agree with Homer that for this he was struck with a thunderbolt. From them, as Petellides, Cretan writer of histories, shows, two sons were born, Philomelus and Plutus, who were never on good terms, for Plutus, who was richer, gave nothing of his wealth to his brother. Philomelus, however, compelled by necessity, bought two oxen with what he had, and became the inventor of the wagon. So, by plowing and cultivating the fields, he supported himself. His mother, admiring his invention, represented him plowing among the stars, and called him Bootes" [Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica 2. 4 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) http://www.theoi.com/Georgikos/Bootes.html ]

"[On inventions:] The ox and the plough [were invented] by Buzyges (Ox-Yoker) of Athens, or, as others say, by Triptolemus." [N.B. Bouzyges is the same as Bootes.] [Pliny the Elder, Natural History 7. 199 [8]]

The second and third centuries Hermetic documents attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, or the Egyptian deity Thoth, were translated by G.R.S. Mead in 1906. In the The Mystery Myth section it tells how Isis went to see her son Horus who was being reared at Boutos. Mead comments "Generally supposed to stand for the city Buto, but may be some word-play. Can it be connected with Bootes, the Ploughman—the constellation Arcturus—the voyage being celestial. Budge (p. 192) gives its [Bootes] Egyptian equivalent as Per-Uatchit, i.e. 'House of the Eye'". Buto was a cobra-goddess whose original home and cult center was in the Delta of the Nile at Per-Uatchit. The 'House of the Eye' might mean to be translated 'the Watcher'. The Uatchit, of Per-Uatchit looks like it could be pronounced 'watchit'. Buto was a cobra-goddess or sometimes was depicted in art as a woman wearing the uraeus. The uraeus is a cobra-headdress which the Greeks called ouraios [similar to Greek ouros, a guard? Arct-urus]. Wikipedia (quoting Herod. ii. 155, and Aelian. V. Hist. ii. 41) says that the Greeks identified the goddess Wadjet (Buto) with Leto, mother of Apollo and Artemis, whom the Romans called Latona.

The astrological influences of the constellation given by Manilius:

"True is the name men have given him (the Bearwarden), threatening-like he presses forward as one does over a team of bullocks." [Manilius, Astronomica, 1st century AD, book 5, p.29.]

"To those born under Arctophylax - Arcturus, fortune herself makes bold to entrust her treasures, so that the wealth of monarchs and temple finances will be in their keeping [translator's note: custodianship is a suitable endowment for the Bearward]; they will be kings under kings and ministers of state [politicians], and be charged with the guardianship of the people or, as the stewards of grand houses, they will confine their business to the care of another's home." [Translator's note: strictly speaking Arcturus is a star, but the name is used by ancient astrologers for the whole constellation of Bootes and for the star alone, it is often difficult to distinguish which of these the authors are referring to]." [Manilius, Astronomica, 1st century AD, book 5, p.329.]

"...as the stewards of grand houses, they will confine their business to the care of another's home".  It was the serving of wine to neighboring shepherds that caused Icarius (above) to lose his life. The association with wine, and being "the stewards of grand houses" (domibusve), should mean what we now term 'butlers'. The butler or bottler is the person who has charge of the liquors in a large establishment, so called from the French bouteiller, from bouteille. Though 'bottle' and 'butler' are not recognized cognate of 'Bootes', the words have a similar resonance. Dionysus, the god, showed Icarius his gratitude for his hospitality by teaching him the cultivation of the vine, and giving him bags filled with wine [9]. Wineskins or animal skins were a common vessel before glass bottles were invented.

"The role of the butler, for centuries, has been that of the chief steward of a household, the attendant entrusted with the care and serving of wine and other bottled beverages which in ancient times might have represented a considerable portion of the household's assets." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butler

© Anne Wright 2008.

Pastinator is Hyde's rendering of a supposed Arabic title signifying a Digger or Trencher in a vineyard. A commentator on Aratos called it Trugetes, the Vintager, as its rising in the morning twilight coincided with the autumnal equinox and the time of the grape harvest; Cicero repeating this in his Protrygeter; but both of these names better belonged to the star Vindemiatrix, our epsilon Virginis (Virgo).

Still its risings and settings were frequently observed and made much of in all classical days, and even beyond the Augustan age, although many, perhaps most, of these allusions were to its bright star. As a calendar sign it was first mentioned by Hesiod, thus translated by Thomas Cooke:

When in the rosy morn Arcturus shines,

Then pluck the clusters from the parent vines;

and again, but for a different season of the year:

When from the Tropic, or the winter's sun,

Thrice twenty days and nights their course have run;

And when Arcturus leaves the main, to rise

A star bright shining in the evening skies;

Then prune the vine.

Columella, Palladius, Pliny, Vergil, and others have similar references to Bootes, or to Arcturus, as indicating the proper seasons for various farm-work, as in the 1st Georgic:

Setting Bootes will afford the signs not obscure.

Icarus, or Icarius, also was a title for our constellation, from the unfortunate Athenian who brought so much trouble into the world by his practical expounding of Bacchus' ideas as to the proper use of the grape, and who was so unworthily exalted to the sky, with his daughter Erigone as Virgo, and their faithful hound Maera as Procyon or Sirius. From this story came the Icarii boves applied to the Triones (Ursa Major and Ursa Minor) by Propertius, and in the Andrews-Freund Lexicon to Bootes himself.

Ceginus, Seginus, and Chegninus, as well as the Cheguius of the Arabo-Latin Almagest, may have wandered here in strangely changed form from the neighboring Cepheus; although Buttmann asserted that they probably {Page 96} came, by long-repeated transcription and consequent errors, from Kheturus, the Arabian orthography for Arcturus. Bayer had Thegius, as usual without explanation; still I find in Riccioli's Almagestum Novum: Arabice Theguius, quasi plorans aut vociferans; but Arabic scholars do not confirm this.

La Lande cited Custos Boum, the Keeper of the Oxen, and Bubulus, or Bubulcus, the Peasant Ox-driver, although Ideler denied that the latter ever was used for Bootes. Juvenal, however, had it, and Minsheu defined Bootes as Bubulcus coelestis. Landseer, following La Lande, said that the Herdsman was the national sign of ancient Egypt, the myth of the dismemberment of Osiris originating in the successive settings of its stars; and that there it was called Osiris, Bacchus, or Sabazius, the ancient name for Bacchus and Noah; and that Kircher's planisphere showed a Vine instead of the customary figure, thus recalling incidents in the histories of those worthies, as well as of Icarius.

Homer characterized the constellation as opse duon, late in setting, a thought and expression now become hackneyed by frequent repetition.

Aratos had it:

he, when tired of day,

At even lingers more than half the night;

Manilius somewhat varying this by

Slow Bootes drives his ling'ring Teams;

Claudian, Juvenal, and Ovid, by tardus, slow, piger, sluggish, which their later countryman Ariosto, of the 16th century, repeated in his pigro Arturo; and Minsheu, in the 17th century, wrote of it as

Bootes, or the Carman, a slow moving starre, seated in the North Pole neere to Charles Waine, which it followes.

And all this because, as the figure sets in a perpendicular position, eight hours are consumed in its downward progress, and even then the hand of Bootes never disappears below the horizon — a fact more noticeable in early days than now. The reverse, however, takes place at its rising in a horizontal position; hence the athroos, "all at once", of Aratos.

Some say that these expressions of sluggishness are from its setting late in the season when the daylight is curtailed, or a reference to the natural gait of the Triones that Bootes is driving around the pole; while still others, more astronomically inclined, attributed them to his comparative nearness to

that point where slowest are the stars,

Even as a wheel the nearest to its axle,

that Dante wrote of in the Purgatorio.

{Page 97} Bootes' association with the Mons Maenalus, on which he is sometimes shown, is unexplained unless by the suggestion found under that constellation heading. This association was current even in early days, if Landseer be correct where he says:

Eusebius, quoting an ancient oracle which has apparent reference to this constellation as formerly represented, writes  —

A mystic goad the mountain herdsman bears.

Brown says that it was known in Assyria as Riu-but-same, "that reappears in Greek as Bootes"; and thus

"the idea of the ox-driving Ploughman or Herdsman, as applied to the constellation, is Euphratean in character".

Among its Arabian derivatives are Nekkar, often considered as Al Nakkar, the Digger, or Tearer, analogous to the classic Trencher in the vineyard; but Ideler showed this to be an erroneous form of Al Bakkar, the Herdsman, found with Ibn Yunus.

Alkalurops, which appeared for Bootes in the Alfonsine Tables as Incalurus, is from Kalaurops, a herdsman's Crook or Staff, with the Arabic article prefixed; this now is our title for the star mu (Alkalurops). The staff, ultimately figured as a Lance, gave rise to the name Al Ramih, which came into general use among the Arabians, but subsequently degenerated in early European astronomical works into Aramech, Ariamech, and like words for the constellation as well as for its great star.

The same figure is seen in Al Hamil Luzz, the Spear-bearer, or, as Caesius had it, Al Kameluz, Riccioli's Kolanza, and the Azimeth Colanza of Reduan's translator, which Ideler compared to the Latin cum lancea and the Italian colla lancia. Similarly, Bayer said that on a Turkish map it was Oistophoros, the Arrow-bearer; and elsewhere Sagittifer and Lanceator.

Al Haris al Sama’ of Arabic literature originally was for Arcturus, although eventually applied to the constellation. But long before these ideas were current in Arabia, that people are supposed to have had an enormous Lion, their early Asad, extending over a third of the heavens, of which the stars Arcturus and Spica were the shin-bones; Regulus, the forehead; the heads of Gemini, one of the fore paws; Canis Minor, the other; and Corvus, the hind quarters.

In Poland Bootes forms the Ogka, or Thills, of that country's much-extended Woz Niebeski, the Heavenly Wain; and in the Old Bohemian tongue it was Przyczck, as unintelligible as it is unpronounceable.

{Page 98} The early Catholics knew it as Saint Sylvester; Caesius said that it might represent the prophet Amos, the Herdsman, or Shepherd Fig-dresser, of Tekoa; but Weigel turned it into the Three Swedish Crowns (representing Scandinavia).

Proctor asserted that Bootes, when first formed, perhaps included even the Crown, as we know that it did the Hunting Dogs (Canes Venatici); and that, so constituted,

"it exhibits better than most constellations the character assigned to it. One can readily picture to one's self the figure of a Herdsman with upraised arm driving the Greater Bear before him".

The drawing by Heis, after Durer, is of a mature man, with herdsman's staff, holding the leash of the Hounds (Canes Venatici); but earlier representations are of a much younger figure: in all cases, however, well equipped with weapons of the chase, or implements of husbandry; the earliest form of these probably having been the winnowing fan of Bacchus.

The Venetian Hyginus of 1488 shows the Wheat Sheaf, Coma Berenices, at his feet; Argelander's Uranometria Nova has different figures on its two plates — one of the ancient form, the other of the modern holding the leash of the Hounds (Canes Venatici) in full pursuit of the Bear Ursa Major.

This constellation and the Bear Ursa Major, Orion, the Hyades, Pleiades (Taurus), and Dog (Canis Major) were the only starry figures mentioned by Homer and Hesiod; the latter's versifier, Thomas Cooke, giving as a reason therefore — "the names of which naturally run into an hexameter verse"; but the general assumption that these great poets knew no other constellations does not seem reasonable, although it will be noticed that all those alluded to are identical with each author.

Bootes is a constellation of large extent, stretching from Draco to Virgo, nearly 50° in declination, and 30° in right ascension, and contains 85 naked-eye stars according to Argelander, 140 according to Heis.

Poises Arcturus aloft morning and evening his spear.

— Emerson's translation of Hafiz' To the Shah.

http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/anti-masonry/washington_dc/ovason.html

The Virgo connection to the District of Columbia. The triangle is the District of Columbia. She was invented as America's Goddess. Now we have the original intent of the designers to reveal Heaven's Gate without denigrating the Immaculate Conception. This site presents a discussion of David Ovason's representations of zodiacs and Washington, DC. To understand the relationship between the stars and any City of God, it is mandatory that the logos be discriminated from the spirit, the rationalization, the emotion, and the substance. The Logos is the Light of the World. These five entities represent the Universal Soul. Anyone who criticizes astrology and the orientation of horoscopes and zodiacs is simply reacting to the redaction of the Celestial Logos that Babylonian astrology caused to civilization. All great cultures have used the stars to orient their own City of God. Washington, D.C. has all the ancient traditions of the Golden Age. These traditions are intact on the One Dollar bill and in the monumental design of the City of God constructed in the district of Columbia which is located in the place of the same name. But, the name of the City of God, should not be confused with the place of the Goddess. When it is confused, self identity is polluting cosmic identity. I do not have time, nor sufficient information, to reveal the holistic process of creating a City of God. But, I can demonstrate that the place we call District of Columbia is the place where Novus Ordo Seclorum and E Pluribus Unum were given the womb of Columbia so that they could be born in Giza, USA in accordance with cosmic traditions known to rational men for well over 20,000 years..


http://www.newdawnmagazine.com/Article/America_s_Arcane_Origins.html
America's Arcane Origins By Frank Joseph
Political activists of the so-called “religious Right” in the United States never tire of preaching that their country was founded as “a Christian democracy.” But they are wrong on both counts.

Deist but not Christians?
Yet more shocking to bible-beating conservatives, if they were to learn the awful truth, is that the United States was not founded by Christians, at least of the kind they would approve. Instead, that country’s constitutional republic was conceived, fought for and built almost entirely by deists. While the majority of Americans, then as now, were at least nominally Christian, most of their leaders were not. George Washington, John Hancock, Patrick Henry, Paul Revere and virtually all of their intellectual compatriots were deists. The term is not generally familiar today, but signifies a person who believes in a universal, compassionate Intelligence that made and orders Creation, manifests its will through natural law, but requires no religious dogma to be understood, only the faculty of reason with which every human is endowed.

In truth, it was God who founded America, and he gave his Daughter-Mother Columbia through the Masons, Deists, Christians, and other groups. The Christian Gospel clearly reveal that the daughters and mother arrive at the time of redemption. Their sorcery is affection for life as sentimental purpose, a.k.a., love. This is Isis being impregnated by her deceased husband-brother, Osiris. It is a soulful event. But, the guiding principles of democracy are based upon a code of behavior that requires the Greek principle of chrestos, or kindness and goodness. The Greeks did not invent science and religion. The Greeks invented Socratic wisdom, which is that wisdom that does not have sentimental connections. Socrates was rightfully put to death because he initiated a form of science that practiced impiety by denial of the spirits of being.

The Greeks told a story about Thales, the "Father of the Modern Science of Geometry," going to Egypt to be educated. The legend says that he amazed his Egyptian mentors by telling them the height of a pyramid. And yet, it was the students of Thales, e.g., Pythagoras, who began the process of stripping out the spirit of truth from the rationalization of truth that established the mundane sciences of today. Thales claimed that all things are derived from water and they rise up to fire and eventually into Eternal Light. This was pure Egyptian metaphysics, for Ra brought himself out of the abyss of the primordial waters to stand upon a Ben-ben at First Light. This was the foundation upon which all material sciences had been established. When Socrates opened his argument with the words "from me you shall hear the whole truth," he hung himself with an arrogance he could not comprehend, for he had denied his own soul.

We see the same arrogance in the Saddam Hussein trial today. Rational minds do not comprehend that reason is the process of "twice thought" experience. The first thought is always a feeling, a virgin intuitive experience. From this comes the notion that we all begin life being born of the Virgin  Experience. The second thought is the rationalization of the feeling or the recognition of the loss of virginity. Reason (cognition of intent) is the process that balances the fore thought (intuitive cognition) and the after thought (recognition). Socrates, like all Aryan men, sought to liberate the mind from the moment of the first occasion when feeling inspired cognition. In other words, Socrates was tyrannically impious. The consequence of his sheep following him out into the desert was that Western Civilization became lost in a flood of words and books, even though Thales and Socrates were illiterate to the point that they never wrote a word. Socrates and his students turned the table of the soul upside down and declared a material science that they could recognize and decreed the primordial deity based cognition as sorcery. The journey from Thales to Socrates is echoed in Luke 2:41-52. Thales tried to pass on the higher wisdom of Egypt, but his students were all arrogant Aryans who saw truth as what they wanted it to be. This is the "Harlot of Babylon." For that, Socrates got a drink of hemlock. Unfortunately for Western Civilization it came too late. Socrates had already poisoned the minds of the Occidentals. The Orientals continued to pay attention to their senses and did not get bound by book learning. Yet, the pen is mightier than the sword, and book worms devour paper tigers, as the Sphinx gets buried in sand.

Today the National Academy of Sciences proudly publishes a book with the impious title The Last Sorcerers. Though the NAS adds a disclaimer regarding whether the NAS accepts the opinion of the author, Richard Morris, their actions are denial of the soul of their bureaucracy, which is to act as the philosophical guide to the scientific principles of the nation. "The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is an honorific society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare." Like Socrates, they deny their own soul and purpose when they reject perspectives they do not recognize. The way of propaganda is to repeat an idea enough times so that the idea is recognizable, even if the principle behind the idea is not. Socrates failed to comprehend that he was a creature of habit. By his habits he practiced a rationalization of truth, which is sorcery based solely upon self knowledge without any consideration of the source of the aboriginal cognition. He had misled himself and in the process, by the coercion of his own spirit, he caused the whole of Western Civilization to deny the sources of their own soul. In Egypt the source of all cognition was Osiris, Ab Origine. Osiris was the essence of First Experience, and founding father. We will see that George Washington had a very strong relationship with the source of his cognition. He was a Deist who knew that all religions have the common goal of getting the mortal soul in union with the immortal soul. Washington lost his father when he was eleven years old. As such, he was raised by his own boot straps. Those boot straps were the ligaments of the Divine.