| The flower of Islam
The fruit of Abraham The thousand stories have come round to one again Arabian Night our gods pursue their fight What fatal flowers of darkness spring from seeds of light. – Blues for Allah by Robert Hunter Chapter 15: Flying Carpets and Magical Lamps The Eclipse of the Moon Goddess Many interpretations exist for whether a goddess or god was a “sun-goddess,” “moon-goddess,” “sun-god” or “moon-god,” and it’s no wonder that authors of both mythology and goddess history have their own accounts of which specific element of nature was being idolized. Sometimes a moon-goddess would be worshiped in the form of a stone, like the Semitic moon-goddess Astarte, who was worshiped on Mount Sinai by the Canaanites, in the form of a stone pillar. Mount Sinai itself, meaning “mountain of the moon.” In later generations, Moses was to be given the Law at this exact same location. We should remember, that meteorites were occasionally found and worshiped as stones of the goddess. (1) Mount Sinai, when pronounced, should be Mt. Sin-ai. This helps with the understanding. This is why, I believe, it means mountain of the moon. Because, the Mesopotamian deity “Sin” was thought to be a moon god. In fact, as we have seen, he was a cattle dung deity, and likely his role as a moon deity was only adopted in the late period of Egypt and early Hebrew Canaanite era. Symbols that are associated with the moon or sun, supposedly proving lunar and solar worship, are occultations of the predating mushroom symbolism. The horn of the bull, associated with cattle dung and its psilocybin ally, would later become the crescent of Islam and find its way into lunar symbolism elsewhere, as well. The similarities between Jews and Muslim can be likened to the similarities between Greeks and Hebrews, as pointed out earlier by Cyrus Gordon. According to Dr. Sale, in his book on the Koran, Mohammed borrowed the concept of the angels from the Hebrews, who in turn borrowed it from the Persians, and points out the fact that the Hebrew people have admitted to this themselves. (2) In his book, Dr. Sale says that the principle teachings of the Jinn or Genii reflect Hebrew teachings of the demons called Shedim. (3) The Muslims and the Jews both have the concept of a “Paradise” or “seventh heaven.” After passing the Al Sirat, the faithful will reach paradise in the seventh heaven. The Muslims conceive paradise as that of a beautiful garden, full of springs, fountains, and rivers flowing with water, milk, honey and balsam, and trees with trunks of gold, which produce delicious fruits. Most enticing are the seventy ravishing girls called hur-ul-ayan. The Jews describe the |
future mansion of the just as a delicious garden which reaches the seventh heaven. (4) They also say it has three gates and four (3+4=7) rivers which flow with milk and honey, wine, and balsam.” (5) Doctrines of the “seventh heaven” would become a great way to get devotees to follow religious moral codes by promising seventy virgins in the afterlife. For most Muslims, this is precisely what they are given the opportunity to live for, and nothing more. Similar to Judaism, Muslims believe in the immortality of the soul, and an afterlife and a resurrection of the dead where they will be rewarded or punished according to a system of merits and demerits (6) and the relations of men towards women, the concepts of purity, pollution of menstruation, temptation of the female sex towards man’s downfall, ideas of marriage, polygamy and divorce all are similarly borrowed from the Hebrews by the followers of Mohammed. (7) The following quote is from the Metmuseum website on the Seleucid Empire, one of the early Arab states: “After the death of Alexander III of Macedon, in 323 BC, the territories he had conquered were divided between his generals, the so-called Diadochi. Alexander’s friend Seleucus Nicator (r. 312–281 BC) became king of the eastern provinces—approximately modern Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, together with parts of Turkey, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. The huge kingdom had two capitals, which Seleucus founded in around 300 BC: Antioch in Syria and Seleucia in Mesopotamia (Iraq). Seleucus established a dynasty that lasted for two centuries, during which time Hellenistic art, a fusion of Greek and Near Eastern artistic traditions, developed and flourished.” Around 246 BC, the Seleucids lost substantial territory in the east, as a nomadic group called the Parni settled in the satrapy (administrative district) of Parthia in northern Iran. In the same period, the satrapy of Bactria (Afghanistan) claimed independence. However, the Seleucid king Antiochus III “the Great” reconquered much of these regions between 209 and 204 BC, when he campaigned in the east as far as India. In the west, the Seleucid king fought several wars with his fellow Macedonians, the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt. The Egyptian forces were crushed in 200 BC, and the Ptolemies were forced to cede Palestine to Antiochus, who was proclaimed conqueror of the East.” (8) In the mid-3rd century BC, Arsacid, a leader of the Parni tribe, conquered Parthia and became the first King of Parthia in a rebellion against the Seleucid Empire. (1) Great Cosmic Mother, p. 155 (2) Talmud Hieros and Roshbhashan. Sales Koran (Chando's Classics), Preliminary Discourse, p. 56, 57 (3) Fountainhead of Religion, p. 2 (4) Vide Gemar Tanith, f. 25; Biracoth, f. 34; Midrash Sabboth, f. 37 (5) Fountainhead of Religion, p. 6; Midrash, Yalkut Shewini) (Sale's Koran, Prel. Dis., p. 78 (6) ibid, p. 2-3 (7) ibid, p. 11 (8)https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/sleu/hd_sleu.htm |