Copyright © Gary Osborn 2012. All Rights Reserved.

In Part 4, I listed the symbolic astrotheological elements in the Crucifixion story. In this presentation we will look at the third listed symbolic element - i.e., Jesus Christ as HORUS represents the Equinoxes, marked by the Equinoctial Line - especially the Equinoctial Point on the Eastern HORIZON (again the 'neutral point') in-between the Sun's rising Solstice positions in the Daily and Yearly Cycles.
To see and accept this, we first need to examine the Chi-Rho monogram and follow where it leads us.

The name 'Chi-Rho' is composed from the Greek letters X (chi) and P (rho). The 'P' is also said to stand for the Latin word Pater for 'father'.
Below are some examples of the Chi-Rho monogram or symbolism.

The symbols on either side are the Greek letters A and Ω – signifying the Alpha-Omega (Beginning and End – Past and Future) which are united in the ‘Eternal Now’ represented by the center of the cross.

Chi-Rho . . . Cairo . . . Giza

Some researchers and authors are convinced that the name Cairo, given to the capital city of Egypt, some 10 miles East of Giza, was based on the name Chi-rho as given to this Christian monogram or symbol.

Why a Muslim city should have the same name as given to this Christian symbol really doesn’t make sense . . . until we realise that the names Chi-Rho and Cairo are both linked to the nearby plateau of Giza.

Here’s what 32nd Degree Mason Frank C. Higgins has to say on this Chi-Rho/Cairo connection:

‘A still more wonderful symbol of these old cosmic speculations is found in the famous monogram XP, “chi rho,” which is the origin of the name of the modern city near which the pyramid stands – Cairo. [Corrupted by the Arabs to “El Kahiryeh”] This monogram, although placed on the labarum, or standard, of Constantine the Great, in accordance with a vision, appears on Egyptian coins of the Ptolemys and on Indian coins several hundred years B.C. It is the old Sanskrit word “Rch,” meaning “light,” and the Egyptian derivative meaning “Ch R” or Horus, the animating spirit of the earth, “Horus of the Pole” and “Horus of the Two Horizons”, so he is called’.

Ancient Freemasonry: An Introduction To Masonic Archeology
by Frank C. Higgins, (1919). p. 229.

Higgins’ statement that the XP, “Chi-Rho” derives from the Sanskrit word “Rch” meaning “Light” is especially meaningful, 'in light' of what I have presented thus far.

His statement too that the ancient Egyptian derivative is “Ch R” for Horus, is significant and supports the belief that Jesus “the Christ” was based on the pagan Horus “the KRST” – the son and reincarnation of Osiris the ‘resurrection god’.

Also, the epithets given to Horus – “of the Pole” – “of the Two Horizons” – as mentioned in the quote by Higgins, again shows an evident astrotheological connection between the shamanic/pagan ‘resurrection god’ (e.g., Osiris, Horus,) and the Earth’s axis and Prime Meridian, as well as the rising and setting positions of the Sun as it moves back and forth between its extreme solstice positions on the horizon. We will return to this later.

These associations, even if they be considered vague and convoluted, reveals a relationship – not only between the Templars and the source of their beliefs and knowledge, being Cairo-Giza at Egypt – but also a connection with advanced, ancient geophysical knowledge based on the celestial pole of the Earth and its obliquity angle.
 
We should note that Higgins being a 32nd Degree Mason is a reliable source and so the associations he presents are not to be taken lightly, nor should they be considered a mere contrived fantasy.

There is no doubt that the Freemasons possess some remarkable factual information and knowledge about our past that goes far beyond what has been established by our mainstream scholars and what knowledge has been introduced and allowed into the curriculum of our society’s education system, and there will be more on this apparent dichotomy later.

Let's now turn our attention to the monuments of Giza.

Below is a photograph of the three great pyramids of Giza taken by author Scott Creighton looking towards the North.

Researchers today will refer to these pyramids as G1, G2 and G3.

Because we are looking North, we see G3 on the left and in the foreground. G2 behind centre and G1 (Great Pyramid) behind right.

Sphinx

“ . . . they [the Sun and Moon] are found in the two great circles which make up the figure of eight. In the esoteric tradition, the lemniscate marks (among other things) the meeting of the disks of Sun and Moon, with all the spiritual implications behind such a meeting. This symbolism takes advantage of the remarkable fact (what the ancients recognised as a cosmic mystery) that the Sun and the Moon of our skies appear to be exactly the same size.
The touching of the rim of the Moon with the rim of the Sun announces the beginning of an eclipse: that moment when the body of the imaginative Moon can darken the spiritual Sun. The esoteric tradition teaches that at such times there are possibilities for inner development not normally available to mankind”.

The Secret Zodiacs of Washington DC, by David Ovason, (Arrow books, 2000). p. 124.

The Male 'Sun-God' Triad

John the Evangelist (“The Divine”) = Mary Magdalene = Isis

In their book The Templar Revelation (1996) authors Picknett and Prince express their conclusions that the Templars worshipped not Jesus Christ but John the Baptist – who also happens to be the patron saint of the Freemasons.

They also discuss the theory that Jesus was himself a disciple of John the Baptist and that John’s religious teachings were largely based on the Egyptian mystery religion of Osiris, Isis and Horus – again, these pagan deities being the original of the Christian Holy Triad.

The authors also propose that in Da Vinci’s mural, The Last Supper, the unmistakeable feminine looking person seated to the left of Jesus, and whom art historians have long recognised to be John the Evangelist – also known as “John the Divine” – is in fact Mary Magdalene.

It is also a mystery as to why the femininity of this person hasn’t been noted and commented on before now – especially by the art experts.

Moreover, the authors point out that not only is this person and Jesus in Da Vinci's painting dressed in similar and oppositely coloured clothes – being a negative image of each other – that this asexual individual (John/Mary) is also leaning away from Jesus – the triangular shapes of both their bodies forming the letter ‘M’, which is said to be a reference to the name Mary or Magdalene.

We saw the same 'M' in Cocteau's mural La Crucifixion, formed by two of the three Marys standing to the right of the cross, as well as on the front of the altar in front of the mural.

I will later show that this ‘M’ has nothing to do with Mary specifically, and that instead it is a symbolic reference – a simple Egyptian hieroglyph – that points to the religious beliefs of ancient Egypt and possibly the notion that the ancient Egyptian cosmology associated with this hieroglyph and which was realised in the monuments at Giza, is the original source regarding various allegorical elements that had been introduced into the Gospels - especially the Gnostic versions that were omitted from the New Testament.

Therefore the story of Jesus, John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene, their relationship – and especially how they appear in the Gospels – is really an allegory containing ancient knowledge that was meant to convey some deeper truths about ourselves written specifically for those with the eyes to see it.

Anyway, the current view that the effeminate-looking John the Evangelist is really Mary Magdalene is largely accepted , but no-one really knows why.

It is said that the Church tried to hide the fact that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were lovers or even married, and so much of her presence in the Gospels – especially those incidents which involve her close and intimate relationship with Jesus – was hidden behind the character of John the Evangelist. For some, this would also mean that the writing of the Gospel of John could perhaps be attributed to Mary Magdalene.

Remarkably, a ‘Gospel of Mary’, although fragmentary, does indeed exist having been discovered in Akhmim, Egypt in 1896. Known as the The Berlin Codex (also known as the Akhmim Codex), and given the accession number: Papyrus Berolinensis 8502, the Gospel of Mary is in the first two sections of this Coptic manuscript from the 4th to 5th centuries AD which also includes the Apocryphon of John, The Sophia of Jesus Christ, and an epitome of the Act of Peter. (See here).

In her book, The Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the first woman apostle (2003), author Karen L. King concludes that:

“. . . both the content and the text’s structure lead the reader inward toward the identity, power
and freedom of the true self, the soul set free from the Powers of Matter and the fear of death”.

The Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the First Woman Apostle.
Karen L. King (Polebridge Press, January 1, 2003). p. 3.

Spiritual enlightenment and self-empowerment was the original message of the Gnostic Gospels, and it is well known that the Church burned many of the original Gospels and suppressed any mention of them and instead kept the versions of the Gospels it approved of – i.e., those attributed to the four evangelists, Mathew, Mark, Luke and John . . . with some amount of expurgation and editing of course.

The Gnostic Gospels, of which there were many, were comprised of poems, philosophical treatises and mythical accounts of the creation of the universe as well as magical formulas to attain altered states of consciousness and ultimately enlightenment, and so offered a powerful alternative to the Orthodox Christian tradition and the Catholic Church, which for power, had sought to place itself between the individual and God. It was no wonder that the Gnostic Gospels were later declared heretical.

And so it could just as well be that by hiding and obscuring much of Mary’s presence behind the personality of John the Evangelist, the Church had tried to hide the fact that the lives of John, Mary and Jesus, were really based on the ancient Egyptian, pagan Triad of Osiris, Isis and Horus – anthropomorphic deities who really personified the ‘three forces’, known as “The Law of Three” in esoteric lore that were observed throughout nature and also within man and within the collective consciousness.

If these people existed at all, then they were later moulded into the symbolism associated with the internal processes of the human psyche.

John the Baptist is identified with the ancient Egyptian god Osiris - (the masculine, positive force).
John the Evangelist is Mary Magdalene, who is really the ancient Egyptian goddess Isis - (the feminine, negative force).
Jesus is identified with Horus - ( the neutral, 'Third Force').

All three members of this Triad symbolize the three forces of consciousness known as the ‘Secret Combination’ in Masonic lore.

In other words, the story of these deities and others with whom they interacted, was used as an allegory to communicate to the initiate the internal processes by which enlightenment or illumination is attained, and so we can see how the sacred Triad and all that it conveys, also made its way into the Gospels – played out again in the story of Jesus, as it has in so many mythical and religious narratives throughout the world before and since, and although seen as pagan, it should be emphasised that this story and indeed the whole messianic mythos, is fundamentally Shamanic in origin and based on shamanic experience.

Indeed the Triad based on the “Law of Three” and with the “Law of Seven”, is also shamanic in origin.

The most well-known Triad is the ‘Father’ (Godhead) ‘Son’ and ‘Holy Ghost’ – the Holy Trinity of Christianity.

While reciting the words “In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost”, one makes the sign of the cross by touching the forehead, (father) then bringing the hand down to the heart and then touching the left shoulder (son) and then the right shoulder (holy ghost). Sometimes one just touches the head and then both shoulders.

The Father is Ra (forehead).
The Son is Osiris (left shoulder).
The Holy Ghost is the hidden feminine; the goddess of wisdom Isis (right shoulder).
Horus is the Son of Osiris and Isis, who is Ra on Earth (heart) and who ascends and returns to Ra.

We can apply each of these to the Triad diagram I presented on the previous page. (See figure 2, here).

The Two Johns and the Two Faces of Janus

The Templars, who revered John the Baptist, also worshipped a carved head reliquary they believed was all-powerful, known as Baphomet. It’s possible this carved head represented the head of John the Baptist, but whether it was used as an oracle or not, we will never know.

A direct translation of Baphomet is that it is possibly a compound of the words baphe (baptism) and metis (wisdom.)

Worship of this carved head is mentioned in the descriptive accounts of the heresies which were aimed at the Templars when they were rounded-up and arrested in 1307 on the orders of King Philip IV of France – who with Pope Clement V, (also complicit in this conspiracy) – sought to bring an end to the Templars who were becoming too powerful . . . and most importantly he owed them money.

Under pressure from Phillip, the Pope disbanded the Order in 1312, but this wasn’t the end of the Templars as their knowledge was preserved as always, passed on from generation to generation by the initiates of this ancient wisdom and knowledge who have always been active throughout history.

In any case, going by all accounts, the Baphomet head was most likely a composite of the Two Saint Johns of the Christian Gospels: John the Baptist (bathe = baptism) who is bearded, (‘masculine principle,’) and John the Evangelist, (metis = ‘wisdom’) who is depicted as clean-shaven and effeminate (feminine principle).

Wisdom has always been associated with the archetypal goddess – for example, Sophia, Isis, Diana and numerous others – including as we know, Mary Magdalene who also fitted this role in an ancient drama that was largely re-enacted in the Christian Gospels which was Gnostic in origin.

Despite their apparent allegiance to the Christian Church which officially endorsed the Order in 1129 as their military arm during the Crusades, the Templars were the self-appointed preservers of the ancient spiritual knowledge and wisdom they had learned from the different cultures they had engaged with during their travels to the East and other parts of the world; things that went far beyond the superficial beliefs and corrupted rituals of the Church and right to the source of the mysteries.

So what did this composite head really signify?

Following is a quote by Frank C. Higgins, again, a respected high-ranking Freemason:
   

“The Masonic feasts, the St John’s days, which are celebrated at the midsummer and midwinter solstices are relics of the old Roman ‘college,’ which celebrated the same dates in honour of the god Janus, keeper of the gates of the year”.

Ancient Freemasonry: An Introduction To Masonic Archeology
by Frank C. Higgins, (1919).

It’s clear then, that the two Johns are really a repetition of the Roman god Janus, the god of ‘gateways’ and ‘Time’ itself.

Janus personified the nature of duality and opposites which are present in every man and woman.

He represented both the past and the future and all beginnings and endings.

His name is given to our first month of January, and he is often depicted as a head with two faces looking in opposite directions – one face to the past and one face to the future; sometimes one is older and bearded and the other is younger and clean-shaven, or even female, known as Jana.

It is a curious thing that in many depictions of Janus, and like John the Baptist who is depicted pointing at the angle of 23.5°, we find this ‘two-faced’ god holding a key - again at the angle of 23.5°.

This angle of the key is particular evident in the image of Janus from Vincenzo Cartari’s Le Imagini de gli Dei (1608) – a book that the Baroque-period painter Nicolas Poussin used to carry around with him.

“The symbolic image of Janus/Jana is androgynous, since the masculine and feminine energies and qualities are in complete balance and harmony and their respective attributes makes the head of Janus/Jana crowned. This shows us that their dual nature unites at the mind level and becomes one complete new being.

“The crown that harmonizes and unites them after their “mystical wedding” gives rise to the third face, which remains invisible and represents the crowning of the great work, the androgynous level of consciousness where God incarnates in the seeker. Thus, the seeker knows in all humility that he is a Son of God. For this reason, the crown is a solar symbol and, therefore, the two streams of the Moon within the seeker blend, and from a level of duality, they unite with the Sun symbol of the Father and God. The alchemical symbol of the rebis reminds us of the same principle hidden behind the cartouche of Janus/Jana.

“Whenever the symbolism of Janus relates to time, between the past (which is no longer) and the future (which is not yet), the true Face of Janus – that which looks at the present and is supposed to face us – is not shown; it is neither one nor the other of the two we can see. This third face is, in fact, invisible because the present in its temporal manifestation is but an intangible and imperceptible instant”.

The Mystery of Janus the God of Gateways.
Hermetic Philosophy & the Mystery of Being by Alice Ouzounian.

To the initiate, this hidden “third” which we do not see, is viewed to be a reflection of the limitations imposed on our senses during our incarnation on Earth; it reflects our failure to see the truth of our condition and our failure to go beyond the veil of illusion associated with all duality and polarity – the opposites – that result from the necessary interface we have with both the physical and psychical worlds and within which our consciousness has become centrally enmeshed but also divided.

The hidden third face represents the Present Moment, the ‘Eternal NOW’ in which we always live our lives, but often fail to experience or capture satisfactorily, and mostly because we have our minds on either the past or the future.

In terms of cycles, and cyclic phenomena, which is what this symbolism is leading us to, this ‘third force’ and like the Present, is as Alice Ouzounian expresses it, a “temporal manifestation and is an intangible and imperceptible instant”.

There are of course moments in our lives when we do experience it, such as when we are doing something totally refreshing, different and out of the ordinary, or in a dangerous situation, which for our own survival will revivify the senses; forcing all our attention on the present moment.

These fleeting moments when one’s focus is concentrated in the ‘NOW’ was termed the ‘peak experience’ in 1964 by professor of psychology Abraham Maslow and also termed “Faculty X” by author Colin Wilson.

Quote:

But going back to the Janus head, there are indeed some ancient godhead sculptures that do show a third face – two faces back to back with a third placed centrally like the Tricephallic Head of the Celtic god Bran.

“Peak experience is a term used to describe certain transpersonal and ecstatic states, particularly ones tinged with themes of euphoria, harmonization and interconnectedness. Participants characterize these experiences, and the revelations imparted therein, as possessing an ineffably mystical (or overtly religious) quality or essence”.

See here: See also, Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences by Abraham Maslow, (1964, Penguin).

The ancient Druids held beliefs in a Holy Triad – Beli, Taran and Esu or Yesu the coming saviour. Again these are much the same as we find in Hindu, Jainist, Buddhist and Christian beliefs.

It is therefore no long stretch of the imagination to suggest that the stories related in the Bible are connected entirely to these ancient Triadic beliefs.

Neither is it a long shot to suggest that the Trinity of Christianity was probably instigated to include as many pagan converts or ‘Gentiles’ as possible.

Even the Druids took on Christian beliefs in a Gnostic way and symbolised the Christian Trinity with Yesu (now of course ‘Jesus’) carved on the right branch of a tree, Beli on the left and the Celtic ‘thunder god’ Taranis, whom the Romans likened to their father god Jupiter – at the centre.
See: “De Bello Gallico” and Other Commentaries by Julius Caesar. (FQ Books, July 6, 2010).

It would appear that in their enthusiasm to communicate the wisdom and knowledge concealed within the Triad, the ancients had immersed themselves in a confusing series of Triads, associated not only with a Triad of gods and goddesses, as we see above with the Hindu Triad and the ancient Egyptian Triad of Osiris, Isis and Horus, but also making each single god and goddess a personification of the Triad – conveying the fact that we each have these same three-forces within us and within our own psyche.

For example, the mother of Janus was the Greco-Roman goddess Hecate, and as we will see, like many other female deities, she embodied a ‘Triadic nature’ as the “Triple goddess” or “Three-fold goddess” – consisting of the young “Maiden”, the “Mother” and old “Crone” – and each associated with the three phases of the Moon and the three phases of all cycles in general.

She is also associated with the “Three Fates”, Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos, who begin, measure and end the life cycles of all individuals on Earth.
See The Mystery of Janus the God of Gateways by Alice Ouzounian.

See image below. Note that Clotho is holding her spindle at the angle of 23.5°. It is said that the thread of one’s life is spun upon Clotho’s spindle, is measured by the rod of Lachesis and is finally snipped by the shears of Atropos.

Because the Three Fates are also related to the ‘Three-Fold Goddess’ associated with the three phases of the Moon, we can assume that the three fates begin, measure and end each life cycle again in ‘cycles’, each of which expresses the Triad in its three-phases – Positive, Negative and Neutral.

Like Janus, Hecate is also associated with ‘doorways’, ‘gateways’, as well as the “three-way” crossroads.

She is also the goddess of magic and witchcraft and is even worshipped today by neopagans and Wiccans . . . and she is also depicted holding a key.

Incidentally, we discover that the keys of the pagan deities Janus and Hecate are the same two keys that were “passed” to St. Peter and which the Pope now has emblazoned on his Arms as the symbol of his spiritual authority.

The keys of St. Peter are often crossed like an ‘X’ – reminding us of the Chi-Rho symbol as well as the Crook and Flail of the resurrection god Osiris which are crossed over his chest.

Crook and Flail . . . Duality Symbols

The Ancient Egyptian god Aker, the Guardian of the Gateway

A significant connection that is hardly ever mentioned, is that the Roman ‘two-faced’ god Janus was originally based on the ancient Egyptian god Aker or ‘Ruti’ the guardian and gatekeeper to the Underworld.

Aker was depicted as,

Like the two faces of Janus we have instead two lions, each depicted back to back and looking in opposite directions; East and West – one face towards yesterday and one face towards tomorrow – past and future.

‘Two lions seated back to back and supporting the horizon, over which extends the sky. The lion on the right is called Sef, i.e., “Yesterday,” and that on the left Tuau, i.e., “Tomorrow”.’

The Book of the Dead. (The Papyrus of Ani) by E. A. Wallis Budge (1895).

One can see the similarities between this image of Aker, whose two lions are flanking a Sun disk, and the Masonic image of the ‘two Johns’ flanking what is really the ancient Egyptian Sun Symbol and the hieroglyph for the RA Sun disk.

Like Janus and the Aker lions, John the Baptist, the ‘great initiator’ (also known as the ‘Forerunner’ or ‘Precursor’) and whose ministry came before Jesus, represents ‘yesterday,’ and John the Evangelist – a disciple of John the Baptist and afterwards a disciple of Jesus and who lived on after Jesus and wrote about Jesus in the Gospel of John – represents ‘tomorrow’.

Also we find that St. Mark described the voice of John the Baptist crying in the wilderness as like the roar of a lion – meaning that the lion is the symbol of the Baptist.

The symbol for John the Evangelist is the eagle and later depictions present John the Evangelist as also a lion or unicorn and we find these two beasts – i.e., either two lions or a lion or eagle on family crests, coat of arms and emblems – flanking a shield or perhaps a jewelled crown or helmet, which in itself, symbolically depicts the head or skull - the place of enlightenment.

We have also noted that the Masons associate the 'Two Johns' with the Summer and Winter Solstices – i.e., the rising and setting positions of the Sun when it reaches the Tropics as a result of the present obliquity angle of the Earth at 23.5°, revealing that all these mythical and religious elements are also astrotheological in their symbolism, in that the Triad of the ‘two’ and the ‘one’ or ‘third’ and which relates to human consciousness, was also recognised in the cycles relating to the Sun, due to the orbital dynamics of the Earth, as well as other celestial phenomena.

However emphasis was always on the central point between opposites - the 'Third Force' in consciousness represented by the Equinoctial Line of the Sun and the days of the Equinoxes - especially the Spring Equinox - the Alpha-Omega - which was associated with rebirth.