Be as wise as serpents, gentle as doves. Jesus Christ
It was also regarded as the land of the giants; giants formerly dwelt there, a people as great, numerous, and tall as the Anakim. But the Lord destroyed them before them, and they dispossessed them and dwelt in their place.
Deuteronomy 2:20-21
And I will put enmity between thee and woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Yahweh to the serpent in the Garden of Eden; Genesis (3:15)
W as the stars’ energy source radioactive, electromagnetic, or something else unknown to our friends? Did the heavenly bodies’ Ka somehow generate it? How did the Source give them that Ka? Was it some sort of interconnected universal energy or spirit? Did the star systems house humanoid entities? Were they more or less evolved? Could they travel beyond their physical worlds and visit other planets? What would their intentions and actions be in other worlds? How did all that, and they, relate to the Source? Where was the Source?
Once again the friends awaited the rising sun and a journey into yet another unpredictable realm. Our time travelers felt a sense of eventuality, the gravity of an unknown source of wisdom, approaching and unfolding, screen by screen, like an intricate stage play nearing an inevitable last curtain. When Hydrogen and Silicone summoned them to the edge of the Transportal, the sun was rising behind the soaring ice-capped Andes peaks.
Soon, they appeared in a fascinating setting, a vast mountainous region. Pine trees indicated a high, dry climate. Mountain peaks ran in all directions, the highest ice-blanketed and engulfed in cloud. Down in the gorge before them, a small river twisted and tumbled into a pristine blue lake. The dusk sunlight set the whole atmosphere ablaze with an orange-golden hue.
“Another lovely setting,” Oxygen was relieved.In the near distance, a small mansion of white marble walls and reddish-brown tiled roof topped a hill overlooking the lake. The group waded toward it. As they approached, they saw people roaming about. An old gardener, hair and long beard as white as his woolen cap, hesitantly snipped rosebuds in the beautifully groomed garden spreading from the heights of the hill. Household animals sat about, ruminating. A few magnificent horses stood near the colonnade of a small stable, contentedly shaking their tails.
Marble stairs fanned like an exquisite scallop shell from the center of the mansion’s entrance into the garden. On them a few men in loose cotton and leather riding garb sat, flipping small swords or bows in their hands. They were flirting with young maids, who did not seem to mind the guards’ harmless humor as they dusted and arranged flowers and fruit in the hall.
Colorful stained glass transoms crowned the hall’s large wood-framed glass windows. Our friends drifted in, attracted by the ornate décor. The floor was a lattice of stone mosaic, exotic wood, and colored ceramic, separated by brass spacers. The tall, white marble columns supported a plastered ceiling intricately carved and painted shades of blue, red, white, then inlaid with exotic wood and gold or silver leaf. Everywhere large windows delivered light and revealed the serenity of the landscape: the mountains, the garden, and the lake.
Tastefully ornate wooden furniture, colorful woven cushions, hammered brass and silver tables, and flowing silk and linen drapes filled the space. An elegant wooden harp, inlaid with ivory and brass, sat in a corner. A library of old leather-bound books occupied one wall. A large map covered another wall. On the other walls were paintings, one depicting a royal hunting scene, men on horses with bows horsemen on a field, attracted everyone’s attention—a man with a shining face, dressed in white robes, loose pants and a cap, arms outstretched to the sun, as if in prayer. The center of his chest seemed to glow with flame. The man’s prayerful posture reminded them of Azhi Dahaka and Akhenaten.
“Zarathustra.” Silicone was bound to know.The maids lit incense, candles, and oil lamps as the daylight slowly faded. On a balcony at the rear of the hall stood five old men dressed in white robes, loose, wrinkled, baggy pants, colorful embroidered vests, and assorted types of hats. They stood in quiet awe of the energy radiating in every direction from the mountains, forest, lake, and setting sun.
“It all looks pleasant and peaceful enough, doesn’t it?” Sulphur ventured.
“Where are we?” Iron asked.
“Judging from the geography, the landscape, the décor, the clothing, that map, and the paintings, I would venture a guess that we’re on the western Persian plateau, around fifteen hundred years before our time.”
“Bravo!” An excited voice cried from within a piece of unusual mechanical furniture. “Excuse me. I am Mercury.”
“What is that strange thing you’re housed in?” Helium asked.
and arrows. Another showed playing polo. One painting
“A wonderful machine. I am a liquid metal at ambient temperature, indeed the only one on the earth’s surface. My expansion and contraction in this glass tube, in response to atmospheric changes, moves gauges in the machine to indicate the temperature and barometric pressure.”
“An old weather indicator,” Silicone concluded.
“Please,” Mercury said, “tell me who you are.”
After the introduction, another voice revealed its presence. “Please accept my sincere welcome and offer of assistance. I am Phosphorus.”
Phosphorus resided in a frosty residue covering the inside of a glass sphere on a high console. As the sunlight faded, our friends saw the dazzling light it emitted.
“A lamp with no energy source,” Gold gasped.
“Except our natural luminescence,” Phosphorus clarified.
“Where are we?” Silicone asked.
“As you said,” Mercury replied, “in Persia. To be precise, you are in the mountain retreat of the GrandVizier Bozorgmehr, ‘the compassionate’, in the foothills of the Zagros Mountains, about a day’s ride east of Ctesiphon, the Sassanid capital. Bozorgmehr is the first minister of known as meaning just, one of the greatest Sassanid kings. In fact, he will soon be here for a secret gathering.”
“Persia,” Silicone sighed, “the land of mystery, wisdom, culture, and art. It gave the world Zoroastrianism, as well as history’s first multinational administrative apparatus, the Achaemenid Empire founded by Cyrus. The land bridge that connected the Orient to the Occident, a strip of high mountainous plateau four hundred miles wide was for long the only accessible passage from eastern Asia to the west. Hence, the Sassanid King Khosrow-Parviz, also Anush-ravan, widely reputed as Dadgar the corridor for many conquerors throughout history, Persia was often hostage to its important geopolitical position. Yet it has absorbed the shocks and influenced every conquering race.”
“A land of great Mercury resumed. “Deserts, snowy mountain peaks, luxuriant river valleys. Unless you sail the Indian Ocean or cross north of the world’s largest inland lake, the Caspian Sea, you must cross the Persian plateau. Thus the Silk Road passes through it.”
“Its natural resources, strategic position, its mountains, deserts, and seas, gave it an important role in history when civilization spread from Asia around the world. Humans have inhabited it continuously since Paleolithic times. The high altitude and lower latitude made it a haven for northern Asian tribes fleeing the devastation in Siberia. Much Persian and Median mythology recalls the fleeing migrants.”
“Long before the Aryans arrived, other small nations occupied the Middle East’s fertile, temperate high plains. Their adobe ziggurats, six to twelve millennia old, dot the now arid Iranian plains and elsewhere in Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and the Middle East.”
“More pyramid-like structures,” Calcium observed.
“Khosrow’s ancestor, Ardeshir, the first of the Persian Sassanid dynasty, patched together a vast empire by overthrowing his predecessors, the Parthians. With the shadow of Rome looming nearby, the Sassanid kings tried to centralize control of their satrapies, including religious homogeneity in Zoroastrianism.”
Because times were hard, the rulers relied on religion to control and mobilize the masses. For the first time we know of, most of the imperial subjects adhered to a single faith. Although pre-Christianity Roman geographical contrasts,” forests, fertile plains, Empire was religiously diverse, the Sassanid promoted an official state religion. The orthodox Zoroastrian establishment and chief priest Kartir stood behind the throne of the first Sassanid, Shapur I (270-272 AD) and the next three Sassanid emperors. Under the fanatical watch of Kartir, an official orthodox version of Zoroastrianism flourished. Shapur restored a portion of the old Achaemenid Empire and brought many western Asian peoples and faiths under its rule. Historical factors made it prudent to abandon tolerance and impose religious uniformity. The Persians chose orthodox Zoroastrianism, the Romans a version of Christianity.”
Phosphorus regained the lead. “Not so long ago, the Central Asian Huns and Ephtalite took King Pirooz by surprise, defeated, captured, and killed him in battle. His son, Kavaad I had to pay hefty tribute that caused economic hardship. Combined with a drought, the times deepened peasant dissatisfaction with the rigid social caste system. The popular revolutionary Mazdaki movement, a socialistic socioeconomic form of Zoroastrianism, shook the empire to its core.
“But the empire’s foundations were already shaky, and in the next century Islam toppled the Sassanid and Byzantine control of western Asia. Salman ‘the Parsi’ (Persian), the son of an exiled Mazdaki official, and Mohammad’s close associate, invited the young Sassanid King Khosrow to accept Islam, but his invitation was torn up. Salman is famed for devising the universal Arabic alphabet, and language. Salman and a Hebrew mobilize a social reform movement to crumble the Byzantine and Sassanid empires once and for all. The Koran appears to contain much of the Mazdaki socioeconomic doctrines and the Old Testament’s mythical and spiritual heritage. Whatever Islam’s true origins were, the Sassanid peasant armies, inspired by standardizing the scholar set out to Islam’s promises of social equity, refused to fight the invading Muslim holy warriors. Islamic armies swept away opposition, and the raiders chipped away a Byzantine Empire’s Asian and North African colonies in a century, and then added the Iberian Peninsula in the next. The dream of Salman and his Judean colleague was partially realized by religious fervor.”
“Nevertheless,” Silicone pointed out, “the Persians never accepted Islamic rule, especially since it did little to improve people’s social conditions.”
A sudden commotion overcame the mansion. The maids hastened to finish their chores. The five old men on the balcony reentered the hall and walked to the main entrance. The sound of riders approaching from a distance grew steadily louder. Our friends soon saw fifty or so fancily dressed, fully armored, riders escort an ornate armored carriage flying an embroidered silk banner. Once the party reached the outer grounds, the carriage and a half-dozen riders approached the building, while the rest assumed positions around the compound. Then two riders split from the group and galloped around the hilltop palace’s ring road, evaluating the security conditions. After conferring with the palace guards, they rejoined the carriage. Soon they were all at the entrance stairway.
Our friends watched through the large glass windows as assistants opened the carriage door and set out a small stool for the passenger. Out came Khosrow Anush-ravan, ‘King of Kings’ and emperor of the lands under Persian Sassanid subjugation. A tall man with long, graying black hair and moustache, he wore a dark royal blue velvet cape emblazoned with royal insignia and white and gold tunic and trousers. He wore a purple and gold velvet headdress, topped with a golden pin showing farr-vehar, the winged disc image of the new Islamic Caliphate’s significant chunk of the Zoroastrian Ahura Mazda, superimposed on a horned golden sun disc. At his side hung a jeweled dagger. He held an engraved, jewel-studded golden ceremonial scepter. He stepped onto the stool, and out of the carriage with slow grace.
Everyone stood and bowed. Something unusual struck our watchful friends. As Khosrow walked up the stairs and approached the bowing old men, his arrogance became overshadowed by respect. One by one, the older men kissed the seal ring on the king’s right index finger as he touched their right shoulders gently with his left. Each in turn saluted him with the same phrase, “Blessings upon Your Royal Highness.”
Khosrow embraced the last man like a father and walked inside, the elders following.
“Who is the last old man the king embraced?” Silver asked.
“The Grand Vizier Bozorgmehr,” Phosphorus answered. “He has been Khosrow’s mentor and teacher since childhood and his first minister and adviser since he assumed the crown.”
“When Khosrow stabilized the Mazdaki era’s chaos, Bozorgmehr’s wise policies restored order and prosperity. He undertook economic reforms, promoted scholarship, and helped make the Gondi-Shapur academy and library a world famous center of learning. Despite the early turmoil, Bozorgmehr’s reforms made Khosrow’s reign a time of enlightened stability.”
The King and the five older men walked to a distinguished armchair, slightly raised above five smaller but equally ornate chairs, around a mahogany table on which lay fruits, sweets, candles, books, and notebooks. Looming above them on a high pedestal was the phosphorus-laced lamp, glowing magically in the dusk.
Khosrow-Parviz pointed at the lamp. “Bozorgmehr, when are you going to give me this magic lantern?”
“Your Highness,” the minister replied, “this trifle is not worthy of your household, though it illuminates my nightly chores.”
Khosrow laughed: “Bozorgmehr, my genius diplomat.”
Khosrow sat in the big armchair, the others took their seats, and an eerie calm befell the room. “So, Bozorgmehr, this is where you seek refuge from the madness of court? Delightful! Here I feel closer to the abode of Ahura Mazda.”
“Indeed, Your Highness, the Lord’s glory inhabits this landscape.”
Khosrow glanced at each of the other four. “I wish to thank you all,” Khosrow said to his hosts, “for honoring my request to attend your meeting. I feel privileged to be here. Bozorgmehr has told me of your identities and origins. Please rest assured, I recognize you as learned scholars. Scholarship is a far more distinguished and deserving enterprise than inheriting wealth and power. I envy your freedom to seek truth.
“I have heard of your secret meetings. I asked Bozorgmehr about them. He suggested I come to this year’s meeting. Rest assured, I do not seek to know who you are. I vow on the honor the Lord Ahura Mazda bestowed on me that what is said and done here tonight, I will not reveal. You may speak freely.”
Bozorgmehr responded. “Your Highness, your presence and interest makes us proud.”
“Very well then. Introduce me to your distinguished colleagues.”
“Please forgive us,” Bozorgmehr said, “if we are secretive. The men are prominent figures where they live and work. Some live under rulers who would persecute them and their families if they knew what they think and teach. They would be accused of heresy. One cannot be too prudent these days.”
Khosrow nodded his understanding.
“Perhaps a little background will help. I first met these gentlemen when we were schoolboys during the reign of your father, King Kavaad, at that marvel of the world, Gondi-Shapur Academy. We quickly developed a brotherly bond.”
Khosrow smiled coyly. “A secret brotherhood?”
“One dedicated only to enlightenment, Your Highness. We correspond regularly around and beyond the empire. Our scholarly association has been a source of reflection, discourse, and inspiration for us. We have shared much knowledge and probed many mysteries.”
One of the men interjected. “And other-worldly mysteries.”
“Over the years,” Bozorgmehr continued, “we have risen to important social responsibility. Many years ago, we agreed to meet annually on this night. As our studies have evolved through the years, our meetings have become controversial in the view of some, so we conduct our research secretly.”
“We call ourselves The Seekers,” another added.
“I still prefer The Heretics,” another riposted.
“Why heretics?” the king asked.
Bozorgmehr reached for an explanation. “Your Highness, as understanding of history, philosophy, astronomy, and the natural sciences enlighten the mind, blind adherence to unquestioned religious dogma becomes impossible.”
“We try to understand the anomalies of faith and religion. We study rare manuscripts and ancient texts.”
Bozorgmehr introduced the men. “I am proud and privileged to introduce my friends, brothers, and colleagues, whose light of wisdom I hope one day will illuminate the far corners of the world. To the far left is ‘Gnostic’ from a Christian city in Byzantine Anatolia, a hotbed of heretical Christians.”
Gnostic bowed slightly. “Your Highness.”
“Next to him is ‘Mithraist’ from Lake Van in Eastern Anatolia. To his right is ‘Manichean’ from our satrapy Babylon. Finally my friend ‘Kabalist’, a rabbi and scholar of orthodox and esoteric Judaism from Roman occupied Phoenicia.”
“And what do they call you, Bozorgmehr?” the king asked.
“We call him ‘Magus,’ Your Highness.”
“Is there a particular field of inquiry that interests Your Highness?” Bozorgmehr initiated.
Khosrow rose from his chair and walked to the window where he stood gazing at the darkening sky. “I want to know how true our religion really is. Can anyone say with certainty that the blood of my persecuted subjects has washed away ignorance? Or does ignorance spill innocent blood?”
After several moments of contemplative silence, Bozorgmehr began the evening’s lengthy discussion. “According to legend, many millennia ago our ancestors survived a mysterious devastation and migrated from their distant northern homeland, Aryana Veja. Our ancestors migrated here around two thousand years ago. They held complex mythical allegories as sacred oral verses. Zarathustra taught nothing he conceived himself or learned from Ahura Mazda, as our priests preach. Rather, Zarathustra resurrected and transcribed the ancient Aryan traditions.
“Later, the ancient Mesopotamian mystery traditions influenced mystical Zoroastrianism,” Bozorgmehr said. “So let me review some Aryan myths. The creation myths describe the world as round and flat, a disc. The sky was not vast and endless, they thought, but a hard enveloping shell or crystal. The myths say the world was in a ‘perfect state’, a fertile plain with few valleys or mountains.”
“Maybe Siberia was Aryana Veja,” Carbon proposed.
Bozorgmehr continued. “The myths report a sudden dramatic shift in the cosmic geography, something that made them think the heavenly bodies had ‘fallen’. Afterward came a period of rain and transformations. Before the upheavals, they believed that beyond the peak of Mount Alborz, in the northern lands, was the Gaokerena Tree, a ‘tree of knowledge,’ which bore the ‘elixir of immortality,’ and the ‘Tree of Life’ from which all life sprang. The great bird Senmurv shook the tree of life to spread the seeds of life. Then rain formed three great and twenty small seas and two rivers running east and west from a central mountainous region to the ends of the earth and into the vast cosmic ocean.
“Humans, the legends say, could no longer pass from one region to another, unless they rode on the back of Srishok, the heavenly bull. Gopat Shah, the halfman/half-ox god, guarded the new world but was forced to leave. It will return to sacrifice itself on the final ‘day of renovation,’ when all men will become immortal.
“A later text, The Bundahishn, describes Ahriman breaking through the sky and destroying everything. For ninety days spiritual beings battled material demons, an apparent victory for Ahriman. But when he tried to return to his home, the spirits of the sky and of humanity, Far-ah-vash spirits, helped Ahura Mazda defeat and imprison Ahriman on Mount Alborz. Then the star Sirius produced rains that restored life on earth. The name of this mythically mysterious star, Sirius/Sirus, defines spirit of wisdom in old Persian. How could a distant star support life on earth? Why would they come up with such notions?”
Silicone prompted: “Cosmic battles, the wars of ‘immortals’, and the support of life on Earth by the star system Sirius? A mere 8.6 light years away, it has indeed inspired many global myths.”
“Our ancient ancestors believed that the true nature of universal creation transcends good and evil. Evil, as we understand it, appears to be a more recent phenomenon. Dualism, a late Zoroastrian doctrine, suggests that two fundamentally opposed forces are at work in the universe, Truth and order struggle with lie and disorder—but who says what is true and what is not, the gods or the clergy? Contemporary Avestic scriptures present good/light and evil/darkness as separate opposing concepts/entities, not different aspects of the same reality as our ancestors believed.
“Evidently,” Bozorgmehr went on “good cannot control evil until some end-of-the-world time. What allpowerful creator cannot control its creation? Whereas, ancient myths vividly describe cosmic warfare between unearthly entities, the mythical gods.”
Manichean added: “A portrayal of ancient eras that is distorted through the ages, perhaps?”Bozorgmehr paused for a moment, picked up his notes, briefly reviewed them and then continued: “In a rare diagram, reproduced from an ancient cave drawing in the Zagros mountains, I saw that the cave’s occupants associated life with the head, heart, and several other bodily ‘chakras’ in combination with undecipherable words, and the symbolism of serpents. Whereas, the forces of evil/darkness were associated with the skull, vultures’ claws, torturous existence, and death. Were these just hallucinations of supposedly primitive people? Or, were they some complex mysterious beliefs of our post-cataclysmic surviving ancestors, who were taking refuge in those caves?”
Mithraist added: “Curiously, contemporary Zoroastrianism associates the serpent with Azhi Dahaka (Zahhak), an angel of the supposedly evil Angra Manyu (Ahriman).”
Our friends looked at each other with a sense of deja vu.
“Contemporary Zoroastrian doctrines treat the good and evil forces/angels, quite differently than most ancient sources, even the very ones from which Zoroastrianism was derived.” Bozorgmehr glanced at his quiet colleagues and the King. Then, he drank some tea from a slender delicate red and clear crystal glass, and continued: “It is commonly preached that Ahura Mazda created the world, light and darkness, Earth and heavens, men and creatures, and everything else. He controls the course of the heavens, and men’s destiny, rewards, and punishments, sleep and activity, and so on. However, in some rare ancient manuscripts Lord Mazda is often described in naturalistic terms. He is often described as a fair shining man, wearing a star-decked cloak, and strange ambiguous references to his “swift-horsed sun”, keeping an eye upon the Earth. His throne is in the celestial lights in the highest heaven, where he holds court and his ministering angels carry out his commands.
“Contemporary Zoroastrian description of Ahura Mazda’s angels and the evil Deev of Angra Manyu is a long and familiar subject. The forces of evil are often described as the worst existence, the house of lie, the realm of cold and darkness, etc. The disciples of Ahriman can change their outward form and appear as a dragon, snake, or a youth. It is preached that Azhi Dahaka (Zahhak), from whose body grows serpents, once corrupted humans with his ‘lie’. However, as my friends and I have been researching certain ancient traditions, it appears that this lie seems to have been the revealing and teaching of sacred ancient knowledge.”
Kabalist interjected: “Lest one eats the sacred apples from the Tree of Knowledge.”
Bozorgmehr continued: “The affinities of some commonly worshipped Zoroastrian deities are quite bizarre. Ancient Magi scriptures clearly correlate the goddess Anahita with the ancient female earthly fertility symbols. The Aryan war god, Verethragna, who defeated the legendary seven-headed monster dragon/serpent, took the form of a great bird of pray, with iron feet, tail, and wings, and killed with such ferocity that the bones, hair, blood, and flesh of enemies were unrecognizable.”
Again our friends looked at each other with that strange sense of prior familiarity.
Manichean: “And how about the whole bizarre story of man’s creation from the ‘recycled ruins’ of a post-apocalyptic Earth? Where the dying of a ‘sacred bull’, yielded the seeds of plants and animals. And from the ancient man’s metal body, the Lord created the first man, Adam and his wife.”
Gnostic: “Orthodox Zoroastrian scriptures then vaguely tell us, how these first race of humans is supposedly corrupted by Ahriman. Here again, we see a similarity with the Old Testament.”
Bozorgmehr continued: “Let’s have a look at ancient Zoroastrian eschatology and the events following physical death. They believe the soul hovers around the deceased body for three days, contemplating its life. After three nights, the soul goes to the House of Judgment where its deeds are weighed before Mitra and his disciples Sraosha and Rashnu who send the soul either to an intermediate place, called Hamestagaan. Not heaven or hell, as contemporary religious beliefs hold, but an eternal dwelling, rather training or rehabilitation.”
“The ideas are similar beliefs outlined in the Book of the Dead,” Kabalist noted. “The god Anubis metaphorically measures the deceased’s heart in a scale.”
“All this sounds fantastic,” Khosrow said. “What about it?”
“I don’t exactly know, Your Highness!” the vizier replied. In any case, the ancient dealings with creation, god(s), human purpose and conduct, and afterlife seem out of context with contemporary religious definitions of good or evil, human servitude, and heaven and hell. The scriptures are also vague about the Day of Renovation.”
“How so?” the monarch asked.
“Ancient Chaldean astronomical charts predict the world will last a specific number of years from an unknown past date. When moral decline, disintegration of family and social life, and disrespect for truth, love, compassion, and faith mark the end times, accompanied by cosmic and natural calamities. The sun and the moon will dim, as earthquakes, droughts, famine, and storms shake the earth—conditions not unlike those at the time of the world’s birth.
Bozorgmehr paused, glanced at the mesmerized king, and continued: “In the end, an event resembling a shower of stars is said to mark the end time. When the savior Aushedar, born of a virgin and the ‘holy seed’, the bringer of peace and righteousness, will appear to guide humanity.”
Kabalist: “The Judeo-Christian ‘signs of the end time’, the Apocalypse, and the coming of the Messiah.”
“Contemporary Zoroastrian Avesta describes a renovated world where humanity will live peacefully, eating only spiritual food. But, only the worthy will pass a place for further
to ancient Egyptian across the bridge of judgment and through the stream of molten metal, which will sweep over everything and purify all men to uniform perfect purity. Yet the ancient geological descriptions differ from these orthodox scriptures.”
Bozorgmehr turned the discussion. “I have outlined some awkward anomalies between ancient Aryan beliefs and the contemporary Zoroastrian dogma. There is also a link with Babylonian philosophies, and that is the specialty of my colleague.” He turned to his white-haired friend, the Manichean.
“Most people are familiar with the history of Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, and Babylon. The Sumerian civilization appeared seven to eight millennia ago with unprecedented knowledge of pottery, construction, metallurgy, agriculture, domesticated crops and animals, irrigation, medical sciences, geometry, astronomy, and the bureaucratic apparatus to administer itself. They knew of the planets and the star constellations and had an elaborate spiritual philosophy that influenced future religions. The Assyrians of Nineveh continued the Sumerian fascination with astronomy, as did others. Later, within the flourishing Babylonian centers of scholarship, Egyptian mystery traditions and geometry, Sumerian astronomy, Babylonian numerology, and Hebrew esotericism met the Magis’ magical arts.
“The Babylonians thought the universe had neither beginning nor end but recycled endlessly. The Chaldeans deified time and gave us a solar calendar and units of time. They configured t