Yggdrasil
This image is entitled "The Nine Worlds of the Odinic Mysteries", and is taken from Manley P. Hall's book "Secret Teachings of All Times". This is the basic shape of Yggdrasil, the Nordic version of the Tree of Life.
Note that this image differs from the Hebrew Tree of Life in two ways; one is that the Hebrew tree has ten spheres, and the other is that the sun lies at the center of the Hebrew tree, instead of the earth. Here the sun instead of the Throne of God, as the goal of the spirit, is placed at the top of the tree, somewhat like a star atop a Christmas Tree.
Yggdrasil is a geocentric (earth centered) view of things, while the Kabbalistic tree is heliocentric (centered on the sun). This figure is essentially the six directions in space imagery, the Cartesian coordinate grid, where the four outer spheres of the cube (the Big Rectangle) have been replaced by the directions, N,S,E and W, and space has been depicted as curved rather than square. The Templar Cross is the 2D version, an abbreviation, of this image.
Remember that previously we have discussed two versions of the tree that resulted from altering the original (13 circle) cube image. One of those was based on a dodecahedron with overlapping pentagon and hexagon, and the other on a double cube (1x1x2) with overlapping circles and hexagons. The changes in the cube image were necessitated by a move from nine to ten spheres, and were accomplished by splitting the second sphere from the top in to two spheres, and de-emphasizing that sphere; this is called Daath, and is not depicted explicitly in the Kabbalistic tree.
Here the cube remains intact, yet has been conceptually divided into 9 and 4 spheres. According to Hall, the number 9 relates to chambers used for initiation practices by both the Norse and Greeks:
"The Nordic Mysteries were given in nine chambers or caverns, the candidate advancing through them in sequential order. These chambers of initiation represented the nine spheres into which the Drottars divided the Universe. There is undoubtably a relationship between the nine worlds of the Scandinavians and the nine spheres, or planes, through which the initiates of the Eleusian Mysteries passed in their ritual of regeneration."
Enoch
According to tradition, Metatron is seen as the entity who transmitted Kaballistic knowledge to man (in the same manner as Mercury, Apollo and Isis are said to have given man Mathematics, writing, etc). In Kabbalistic stories, Enoch is said to have become the Archangel Metatron after ascending to the Throne of God. Note that the notion of Enoch living 365 years before being taken, marks him as a solar figure.
"And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him." KJV Genesis 5:21-24
By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, "and was not found, because God had taken him"; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God. Hebrews 11:5
Loss, Recovery and Preservation
Encoh is associated with the transmission and preservation of Knowledge. Recall that, in the Bible, it was Enoch who was responsible for constructing the two pillars of brick and stone that were intended to preserve human knowledge, which had remained an oral tradition since the time of Adam, thru the Flood. This notion ties in with the legend that Enoch invented writitng.
The legend of Enoch is commemorated by Scottish Rite Masonry in the Royal Arch Degree, a Jewish degree based on Kabbalistic philosophy. It is the 13th degree and called the Royal Arch of Enoch, or the Master of the Ninth Arch.
Enoch is said to have "received" the True Name of God in a vision, and with the help of his son Methuselah, to have excavated nine apartments or chambers in the earth in Canaan, one below the other, and each with a supporting arch. In the lowest, or ninth, he placed a CUBE of agate with a triangular plate of gold with the Ineffable Name engraved on it and sunk into one face of the cube.
Recalling that Enoch's name signified in the Hebrew, INITIATE or INITIATOR, it appears clear that the Enoch legend refers to both a place of initiation, nine chambers in the earth, analagous to the Odinic and Eleusian Mysteries, and to a Secret Tradition concealed there in. The term excavation is used in allegories to indicate study and meditation, as in "the Templars were excavating below the Temple".
A Cube and a Triangle
As the story goes, when Solomon began surveying for his Temple, workmen "discovered" the opening to the vaults; in which were discovered the cube of agate into the surface of which he had placed a triangular plate of gold emblazoned with the Name of God.
[The Kircher tree features a pair of circles and hex/cubes like a vesica, while the a-shaped tree uses overlapping pent and hexagons symbolizing the macrocosm and the microcosm (above and below), the enoch story juxtaposes triangles and squares or cubes.]
Concerning the hexagon/cube, we hear from Albert Pike (p 827; Morals and Dogma): "The hexagon faintly images to us a cube, not visible at first glance, and therefore a fit emblem in faith in things invisible....reminding you of the cubical stone deposited by Enoch". This reminds us of Metatron's Cube, which is composed of hexagons, and of how the cube of 2 remains hidden in the cube of three formed by M's Cube, and the One (at the center of it all) that is contained within that.
In Henry Calusen's "Commentaries on Morals and Dogma" (page 72) we read:
"Secrets are hidden from all but a discerning few and are revealed only through fuller and deeper study. For example, in ancient mythology a square is the symbol of the material principle; a cube, the symbol of the material man (and universe). A triangle is the symbol of Deity and by association of all things divine and of the spiritual. Hence a triangle within a square, or upon the face of a cube which appears similar, symbolizes the divine within the material."
This, of course refers to the Gnostic and Hasidic notion of the divine spark, and the alchemical notion of gold in basic matter.
Then from Pike again (Morals and Dogma; p 209):
"The Holy of Holies of the Temple formed a cube..four represented Nature..three represented the Supreme Being...the name of the Deity engraved on a triangular plate and sunken into a cube of agate..teaches us that the true knowledge of God is written by him upon the leaves of the great Book of Universal Nature... This knowledge of God, so written there...is the Master Mason's Word."
Metatron = Enoch
Look again at cube, and note the triangle on and "within" the cube, and recall what Clausen said about that. It is my contention that the story of Metatron's Cube, and the Cube of Enoch are the same. Note how the earth at the bottom, is outside the triangle, and remember the notion of the Shekinah, the "divine presence", being an exiled Bride.
Plato correlated the cube to the element of earth and the dodecahedron to the whole of the Universe. Metatron's Cube is intimately related to both these figures. While the square and cube have material connotations, the triangle symbolizes things spiritual. The Royal Arch legend juxtaposes a cube and a triangle, which was golden with the Name of God inscribed on it.
The A-shaped "Portae Lucis" (Gates of Light) version of the Tree of Life, which depicts the emanation of the Many from the One, fits the triangle form within Metatron's Cube. If we add the numerical values for the letters in the name Jehovah (J=10, H=5, V=6 H=5) we get 26. If we add the values of the spheres up the middle of the tree (the straight way) we get 10+9+6+1 or 26 again. Here is that name graphically. God man man in his own image.
The A-shaped tree utilizes the symbolism of an overlapping pentagon and hexagon to illustrate the hermetic notion of the analogy between the macrocosm and the microcosm. Extending the sides of the hexagon inside the tree image, points to top corners of the pentagon.
If you do this in all three axiis of the triangle, you are presented with a figure that maps to the front 3 faces of the dodecahedron. The upright yellow triangle below marks the centers of these 3 faces. The three small yellow triangles above, point to the three faces that are just out of view, while the other three outer circles match faces that are turned to us. The upside down orange triangle indicates the centers of the three faces on the far side.
All of the elements of the cube, except for 2, also fit the DC landcape.
The Kircher tree does not work here, or in the DC map. The city planners seem to favor this version of the tree. I hope that this helps to show that there was more to the pentagram in the map than a goat's head.
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