Trade Secrets

[Mick Harper]

And speaking of Mithras, I just received this e-mail flyer from Q-mag

http://www.q-mag.org/

There is an enormous and incredible misunderstanding about the so-called “cult” of the Sol Invictus Mithras, which is always presented as a “religion”, arisen in parallel with Christianity and in competition with it. Some historians go so far as to maintain that this religion was so popular and deeply rooted in Roman society that it very nearly won the race with Christianity.

Enjoy!

Ami

http://www.q-mag.org/

[Boreades]

And the Pharaohs, at least Tutenkamen had European dna. Possibly from the Caucasus or from Ireland. Given that Iberia is also in Georgia as well as Spain and Hibernia there must be a connection,

It seems to be a circular connection.

We don't have to travel far through t'interweb to find accounts of Celtic Mercenaries in Egypt.

http://skyelander.orgfree.com/celts5.html

Ptolemy II and Ptolemy IV continued to recruit the Celts into their army, collecting them from Hellespont, the thin arm of sea between Asia and Europe, suggesting that many Celts remained in Macedonia after their defeat by the Greeks. One time, a groups of Celts had to be shipped back because they had become demoralized by an eclipse of the moon, believing this signified their defeat, and they refused to fight. On another occasion, the Celts proved decisive. At the battle of Raphia, a force of 4,000 Celtic horsemen fought with the Egyptian army against the Syrians, who also had some Celtic mercenaries in their ranks. As the battle raged, some of the Egyptians fled from the combat and the Syrians pursued them. But when the Syrian infantry became disorganized, Ptolemy saw his opportunity and sent his Celtic cavalry, who were never happier than with dealing with broken formations of foot soldiers. Xenophon recalls a similar opportunity when Celtic horsemen rode after fleeing Greeks, using their long swords to cut down the running foot soldiers.

The Celts, described as blonde and red-haired, tall and muscular, were again used by Ptolemy V to suppress a rebellion. Some Celtic graffiti has been found on the tomb of Seti I from the time of Ptolemy V. It reads,
"Of the Galatians, we Thoas, Callistratos, Acannon and Apollonios, came, and a fox we caught here."

http://historum.com/ancient-history/172 ... egypt.html

By the reign of Ptolemaeos IV Philopater (222-205 BC), Celtic soldiers had become a common sight in Egypt, and very much a part of the culture of Ptolemaic Egypt. Celts fought with their customary reckless courage at Raphia in 217 BC, when Egypt inflicted another crushing defeat on the Seleukids under Antiokhos II. Out of the Egyptian army of 25,000 men, 14,000 were Celts or the sons of Celts and Egyptians.

By the end of the 3rd Century BC, Celts had made themselves very much at home in Alexandria and elsewhere in Egypt. The mercenaries appear to have had their own cemetary at Hadra to the southeast of Alexandria; most of the names on the tombstones here are Celtic, but are written in Greek.

Polybios records that there was a degree of intermarriage between Celtic adventurers, and native Egyptian and Greek girls. The Egyptians referred to the "mixed" children of Celtic-Egyptian marriages by a slang term, Epigovoi. Whether this name was derogatory in nature is no longer known.

Is Hadra a place worthy of more attention?

[Boreades]

Wandering back to:

Another tangent, re Goídel Glas [the son of Nel (son of Fénius) and Scota (daughter of a Pharaoh of Egypt)]
Apparently:
Scota was the daughter of Merytaten (who married Smenkhkare -- aka Aaron)
Merytaten was the daughter of Mery Amon (Miriam) and Amenhotep IV, aka Akhenaten, aka Moses.

There's more.

http://www.grandestrategy.com/2009/07/5 ... scota.html

In 1955, archaeologist Dr. Sean O’Riordan of Trinity College, Dublin, made an interesting discovery during an excavation of the Mound of Hostages at Tara, site of ancient kingship of Ireland. Bronze Age skeletal remains were found of what has been argued to be a young prince, still wearing a rare necklace of faience beads, made from a paste of minerals and plant extracts that had been fired.

The skeleton was carbon dated to around 1350 BC. In 1956, J. F. Stone and L. C. Thomas reported that the faience beads were Egyptian: “In fact, when they were compared with Egyptian faience beads, they were found to be not only of identical manufacture but also of matching design.

The famous boy-king Tutankhamun was entombed around the same time as the Tara skeleton and the priceless golden collar around his mummy’s neck was inlayed with matching conical, blue-green faience beads”. An almost identical necklace was found in a Bronze Age burial mound at north Molton, Devon.

Could this just be yet another example of the archaeologists turning up something that supports the oral history, but something the historians have always dismissed out of hand?

[Boreades]

The North Molton version gets a mention here:
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=23857

The North Molton Necklace is an artefact of great importance to the area as it suggests a connection between a high status burial and cultural influences from as far as Bronze Age Egypt. Similar necklaces have been found at other locations such as at Upton Lovell in Wiltshire and as far north as Scotland but they are always found at what are thought to be important locations. This necklace is made up of blue faience beads from Egypt, amber from northern Europe and black shale. The only other known necklace of this particular combination of stones was found inside the Prince Grave on the Hill of Tara in Ireland, which is thought to have been a coronation site in prehistoric times. The necklace was found during the excavation of a burial mound near to Bampfylde Mine. This mine was at the centre of a network of copper mines that were so rich in ore that they were able to control the world price of copper in the 19th century.

Bampfylde Mine is also the oldest mine in the area to be referred to in historical records which date back to Elizabethan times. Recent excavations by Exeter University at Sherracombe have also shown that the area was used for the industrial scale production of metals during the Roman period. The Romans were perfectly able of prospecting for metal deposits but would not have been slow to exploit any existing areas where mining for metal was already established by the native British population."

Any mention of pre-Roman copper mines is immediately of interest to TME folk, as is "blue faience beads from Egypt, amber from northern Europe and black shale", all keywords for the Megalithic trade empire.

[Boreades]

May I be so bold as to post an "executive summary"?

These "Celts" just kept going round and round Europe, being Overlords and mercenaries wherever the opportunity and fancy took them. Some of them even got as far as Greece and Egypt, and there they left legends that lured people (between c.500 BC and c.50 AD) to journey back to the North West of Europe, who became legends themselves.

Once more I'm reminded to paraphrase the nursery rhyme:

We're going this way, that way,
Forward and backwards,
Across the Irish Sea.
Hey diddly-dee,
It's a Celtic life for me.

Plus what Tisi said about the Declaration of Arbroath.
(thumbs-up icon)

[hvered]

These "Celts" just kept going round and round Europe, being Overlords and mercenaries wherever the opportunity and fancy took them. Some of them even got as far as Greece and Egypt, and there they left legends that lured people (between c.500 BC and c.50 AD) to journey back to the North West of Europe, who became legends themselves.

This sounds like the orthodox version of the 'Dark Ages' to account for the five hundred year gap. Celts are just Europeans.

[Boreades]

Err, well, I wasn't really trying to explain a five-hundred year gap, or the dark ages. Did it seem like that?

I thought it was quite exciting that there's archeo evidence that supports the Irish legends.

[Boreades]

And speaking of Mithras, I just received this e-mail flyer from Q-mag
http://www.q-mag.org/

An excellent article. If I may paraphrase that article...

While there are similarities in name between the Roman and Zoroastrian Mithra/Mithras, there are also some clear distinctions. The Roman Mithraism was not a religion dedicated to the worship of a specific divinity, but an association of mutual assistance, whose members were free, in their public life, to worship whatever god they liked. It seems it was not a mass religion, but an organisation to which only members of the Roman army and of the imperial bureaucracy were admitted. Within a century, Sol Invictus Mithras was so strongly associated with the Roman Army throughout the whole Roman empire, that it is now often considered by historians to be the “religion” typical of Roman soldiers. Sol Invictus Mithras may also have been the elite organisation for the same people (initially St Paul and then Josephus Flavius) who took Paulian Christianity to Rome, and from there, throughout the Roman Empire.

The last part is the part that disturbs modern-day (Paulian) Christians. Even more so when it appears that the following Mithrac attributes pre-date Christianity.

Mithra was born in December of the virgin Anahita.
The babe was wrapped in swaddling clothes, placed in a manger and attended by shepherds.
He was considered a great traveling teacher and master.
He had 12 companions or "disciples."
He performed miracles.
As the "great bull of the Sun," Mithra sacrificed himself for world peace.
Mithra ascending to heaven in his solar cart, with sun symbolHe ascended to heaven.
Mithra was viewed as the Good Shepherd, the "Way, the Truth and the Light," the Redeemer, the Savior, the Messiah.
Mithra is omniscient, as he "hears all, sees all, knows all: none can deceive him."
He was identified with both the Lion and the Lamb.
His sacred day was Sunday, "the Lord's Day," hundreds of years before the appearance of Christ.
His religion had a eucharist or "Lord's Supper."
Mithra "sets his marks on the foreheads of his soldiers."
Mithraism emphasized baptism.

Ref: http://www.truthbeknown.com/mithra.htm

It gets worse if we point out that the Paulian (Roman) Christianity is fundamentally (sic) different to the original Essene/Coptic teachings around zero AD.

[Boreades]

As for the Roman Mithraic rituals, these are of great interest in a comparison to Freemasonry.

In the Mithraeum of ancient Capua (which is now Santa Maria Capua Vetere in Campania) there are five frescos which may depict the initiation rituals. The first shows a blindfolded naked man; in the second he is also kneeling and his hands are bound behind him; in the third he is no longer blindfolded and is being crowned; in the fourth he is being restrained from rising; in the fifth he is lying on the ground as if dead.

See: http://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/mithr ... ?page=main

Admission into the community was completed with a handshake with the pater (father). The initiates were thus referred to as syndexioi, those "united by the handshake".

While modern-day Masonic ritual doesn't require a candidate to be naked, there are some symbolic allusions to that (including the much-mocked rolled-up trouser leg).

[Boreades]

The fish symbolism in Christianity has not gone unnoticed.

'3. In the Babylon and other heathen cultures religious leaders used mitres, which was shaped form of fish head. Because in the Babylon were believed, that God walks on his head wearing fish head mitre. This worship of fish god Dagon was common also in Mede-Persia, in Egypt, in Assyria and in Rome. And the Popes of Rome started also to use this mitre of Dagon. Dagon comes from words dag =fish and on =sun. Priests of Dagon cult used sprinkling of the holy water.'

And here's a photo taken to prove it.

S'funny, the Syrians had the same thing, c.600 years earlier.



From Montfaucon's Antiquities. This illustration shows Cybele, here called the Syrian Goddess, in the robes of a hierophant. Montfaucon describes the figure as follows: "Upon her head is an episcopal mitre, adorned on the lower part with towers and pinnacles; over the gate of the city is a crescent, and beneath the circuit of the walls a crown of rays. The Goddess wears a sort of surplice, exactly like the surplice of a priest or bishop; and upon the surplice a tunic, which falls down to the legs; and over all an episcopal cope, with the twelve signs of the Zodiac wrought on the borders. The figure hath a lion on each side, and holds in its left hand a Tympanum, a Sistrum, a Distaff, a Caduceus, and another instrument. In her right hand she holds with her middle finger a thunderbolt, and upon the same am animals, insects, and, as far as we may guess, flowers, fruit, a bow, a quiver, a torch, and a scythe."