Our temples are loaded with pagan symbolism from the very bottom to the very top, both inside and outside, as do many if not all ancient temples from all over the world. This is one thing our modern temples have in common with all ancient temples. Add to that the Salt Lake Temple has 184 Saturn Stones as well as many other symbols that trace back and tie into ancient Saturn worship. Which many Christmas traditions originated from. :-$ :-w (If any mods feel this deserve it's own topic they are free to do so and move it.)
It is said the temple is a small scale of the universe. Hugh Nibley is one of my heroes and he makes the point that our modern temple iconography shares that of ALL ancient temples, from all over the world. His book Temple and Cosmos says it all. ( they are interchangeable) He correctly identifies the one common denominator between all kingdoms and ancient temples is cosmic. In other words... weather its the Saturn temples of Rome, the Kronos (Saturn) temples of Greece, ancient Egypt, ect...ect... all these ancient temples have one thing in common with each other and with our modern temples..... they ALL depict the heavens. Nibley says, the temple is the core of all civilizations. The problem is the heavens of old are so vastly different than today nobody recognize it. It is in fact many symbols are regarded as Alien, not of this world.. Thus so much confusion.
The symbols employed on today’s temples share a common origin with the symbolism employed in ancient temples the world over. Not just temples but civilizations. No matter the culture, no matter the structure, they were all erected to memorialize (remember or reconstruct) the realities in Earth’s ancient heavens as much as the heavens we have now. Additionally, temples have always incorporated features of the current arrangement of the heavens when the temple was built as well. In that regard, temples are an amalgam of the ancient heavens and the present heavens. This, Nibley reiterates time and time and again. ( So all ancient temples depict the "old heavens" as well as the current heavens. So it would on only be right and truly a restoration of the old church if our current and modern temples to also depict the Heavens.)
Failure to acknowledge, as the Apostle Peter taught, that “the world that then was ... perished” (2 Peter 3:6) and “the heavens and the earth, which are now” (2 Peter 3:7) are vastly different from the originals has created endless confusion in the sciences and in our understanding of scripture and temple iconography.
Scholars readily acknowledge the astral or cosmic connections in ancient temples. Alignments with the equinox, solstices, constellations, the Sun, Moon, Venus, Mars and other celestial objects are the subjects of endless discussion.
The book of Abraham and the Papyri it was translated from is loaded with ancient myths,symbols and gods.. Yet when one reads Joseph Smith's explanation of the papyri it's all about celestial objects. Planets and Stars. Kolob...Oliblish...Raukeeyang...Enish-go-ondosh...Kae-e-vanrash..ect.. These were celestial objects (planets) that were apart of this earths creation.
Who was the ancient Egyptian sun god? Many historians will unanimously say Ra. That Ra was both the physical sun we see today and the sun-god.
And yet, if one were to conduct an in-depth study of this Egyptian "physical Sun" and "sun-god" one comes to the realization that, except for the fact that Ra shone brightly in the sky, the characteristics and even motions attributed to this entity do not fit the role of the Sun we observe today in any way.
For example, Ra was often lauded as "Lord of the Circles" and as "he who entereth [or liveth] in the circle." He was described as "the sender forth of light into his circle" and as the "Governor of [his] circle."
What is the Circle that the hymns allude to? Egyptologists will immediately say that the Circle of which the hymns speak was the Egyptian Duat (or Tuat), a word that means "the Underworld." That may be so, but Egyptologists since the time of Wallis Budge have conceded that the Duat was away beyond Earth and in the sky. The Duat as a ring surrounding a celestial object comes from the hieroglyphic determinative of the name "Duat" itself, depicted in the texts as a star surrounded by a band or circle. It is thus obvious that whatever Ra signified it was a celestial body that resided within a circle or band or ring.
Does the Sun today send forth its rays into a circle? Does it reside in a ring? NO it doesn't!
Under certain conditions, a ring known as a parhelion (sundog), formed through atmospheric refraction, surrounds the Sun. But not only is this apparition too rare for Ra to have earned the title of "Governor of his circle" and/or "Lord of the Circles" it is also a phenomenon that is restricted to the NORTHERN REGIONS and hardly, if ever, seen at the latitude of Egypt.
The Egyptians themselves attributed Ra to the god Atum and in fact, this deity is often referred to in Egyptian documents as Atum-Ra. This god bore a specific and strange characteristic - Atum was honored as a SUN OF NIGHT.
Students of Egyptian mythology have long grappled with the exact meaning that lies hidden beneath this strange characteristic of Atum. The best that Wallis Budge could offer by way of an explanation was that Atum was the Sun after it had set. By this he meant to imply that the Egyptians worshipped the Sun even when it was absent from the sky. Sun worship at night, however, makes for an incongruous institution.
As seen above, the god Ra is often surmounted with a red or golden disc that is not inappropriate if the Sun is truly being represented. In the liturgies dedicated to him, however, Ra is described as having shed a green, rather than a golden, light: "Thou hast come with thy splendours," states a hymn to Ra, "and thou hast made heaven and earth bright with thy rays of pure emerald light."
Old Egyptian Pyramid Texts make it clear that the sun god Ra‘ was located in the CIRCUMPOLAR REGION of the sky. This is odd considering that the sun never ventures close to the pole. Even stranger is the tendency to place this sun god on the summit of an elongated object. At Hermopolis, the sun god was represented as standing on the primordial mound, which was the Egyptian version of the COSMIC MOUNTAIN as the first object to be created. At Heliopolis, the sun god was held to rise daily from the fire that burned at dawn on the top of the holy sky-filling Ashet- or Persea-tree. In this capacity, the sun god was better known as the Benu or Bennu, the solar bird rendered Phoenix in Greek. And an informative, yet cryptic paean to Ra‘ composed in Thebes attributes the cycle of day and night to the sun god's entry and exit of his "circle". The reference to the deity's outstretched wings shows that this circle must be thought of as the ring one sees in the image of the winged disc. Moreover, this winged disc is located on top of a pillar:
"Thou spreadest out thy wings …
… thou performest thy acts of creation in thy Great Disk.
Praise be unto thee, O Ra, exalted Power, thou World-soul who
resteth on his high place …
… Thou sendest light unto thy Circle, thou makest darkness to be in thy
Circle …thou enterest thy Circle...
… Thou goest in and comest out, thou comest out and goest in to thy
hidden Circle …
… lord of souls who art in the house of thine obelisk … Sphinx-god,
Obelisk-god …"
There is no escaping the fact that the composer of this hymn thought of Ra‘ as the winged red disc placed motionless "on his high place", the obelisk. This means that the subject of veneration here and in those passages in the Pyramid Texts was another sun than the ordinary sun which crosses the sky. It appears that the earliest form of the sun god worshipped by the Egyptians was a radiant, stationary sphere placed atop a glowing column. Only in subsequent times was this sun god assimilated to our revolving sun.
The Greeks called it the god "Helios". The Romans called it "Sol". These familiar figures have a long history, and the more one learns about their links to the earlier cultures, the more a mystery of origins comes into focus. Joseph Smith found it very important to be learned in these areas. Long before Greek and Roman times, the Egyptians worshipped the luminary Atum or Ra, just as the Sumerians honored Utu and the Babylonians the god Shamash. Astronomers and priests celebrated this light of heaven as the "Universal Monarch," the "father" of civilization and the celestial prototype of kings.
There is no mystery as to the present astronomical associations of these figures. But more archaic traditions, coming from many and diverse cultures, identify the great "sun" gods with the motionless center of heaven, the celestial pole.
They speak of a primeval sun, an exemplary or "best" sun, ruling before the present sun. The god's station was the summit of the world axis, from which he ultimately fell in a heaven-altering catastrophe. Perhaps the best known story is the Greek account of Kronos, founder of the Golden Age,(garden of Eden) eventually driven from his seat at the top of the world by his son Zeus.
To what body did these strange traditions refer? Today we take for granted that the ancient words we translate as "helios" and "sol" originated as references to the Sun that illuminates our every day. In many languages the words for this axial figure did indeed become the words for the Sun. But the later identity could not obscure the more archaic idea--of a former, stationary light at the pole, whose every feature defies any identification with the Sun in our sky today.
As strange as it may seem, early astronomical traditions identify the "primeval sun" as the PLANET SATURN, the distant planet which the alchemists called the "best sun" and which the Babylonians, the founders of astronomy, identified as the exemplary light of heaven, the "sun"-god Shamash. ("Shamash is the planet Saturn", the astronomical texts say.) In archaic copies of Plato's Timaeus, the word for the planet Saturn is Helios, the "sun" god. Popular Greek traditions identified Saturn as Kronos, alter ego of Helios, and Kronos is said to have ruled "over the pole". But only a handful of scholars have bothered to trace the parallel referents in other cultures, or to address the unanswered questions. But why would they with the trash that we are taught today. (Empty space, Bending time and space, relativity, big bang, created out of nothing, red shift, ect... LIES, and more LIES)
Worldwide drawings and symbols of the once-dominant luminary show a disc with rays, a disc with spokes, a disc with a central orb or eye, a disc with a crescent upon it. Today we require a powerful telescope to see Saturn as a disc. We must fly a space probe close to the planet to see rays and spokes. Even then the spokes are intermittent and dark. The ancient astronomers, however, described the spokes as those of a cosmic wheel. They were "streams of fire", the "glory" of heaven.
(Scientist shock:"planet-forming disk disappeared in 2 years" This is only a shock to billion-year evolution-by-gravity mouth-breathers...When will mainstream ground themselves in reality?) http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/ ... isappears/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Our telescopes and probes can see things the ancients couldn't: Saturn's unexpected excess of heat, its radio emissions, its x-rays, its swirling bands of storm-clouds with huge lightning storms which were once said to be impossible. These things are unexpected to modern astronomers. To the ancient astronomers (had they possessed the technologically enhanced senses of probes), the things our instruments now witness would likely be understandable. For they remembered their gods as energetic and active, wielders of the thunderbolt. And they also remembered the fates of the gods, recounting how the once palpable ruler of the sky went so untouchably far away.
Helios as Saturn; Helios as central sun, and Helios as axis of the celestial revolutions.
Assyrian Shamash as Saturn, Shamash as central sun, Shamash at the polar "midst" and "zenith."
Egyptian Atum-Ra as central sun, Atum-Ra as Saturn, Atum-Ra atop the world pole.
There is a way to test the integrity of the ancient ideas we have reviewed. Are there any independent astronomical traditions enigmatically connecting the outermost visible planet to the celestial pole? It can also be tested with the restored gospel. This would be particularly significant because nothing in the
appearance of Saturn today could conceivably suggest such a connection? And it would show a coherence of the collective memory beyond anything
historians would have thought possible.
The answer is clear, and it is stunning. Wherever ancient astronomies preserved detailed images of the planet Saturn, it seems that Saturn was declared to have formerly occupied the celestial pole! The priestly astronomy of Zoroastrianism knew the planet Saturn as Kevan, called "the Great One in the middle of the sky," and they located the primeval seat of Kevan at the celestial Pole. In neo-Platonist symbolism of the planets,Kronos-Saturn is claimed to rule the celestial Pole, or is placed "over the Pole."
It is also known that Latin poets remembered Saturn as god of "the steadfast star," the very phrase used for the pole star in virtually every ancient astronomy. Thus Manilius recounts that Saturn, in his fall, toppled to the "opposite end of the world axis." Hence his original throne could only have been atop the world axis.
A stunning example of the polar Saturn is provided in Chinese astronomy, where the distant planet was called "the genie of the pivot." Saturn was
believed to have his station at the pole, according to the eminent authority on Chinese astronomy, Gustav Schlegel. In the words of Leopold
deSaussure, Saturn was "the planet of the center, corresponding to the emperor on earth, thus to the polar star of heaven."
Interestingly, the theme also appears to have passed into the mystic traditions of numerous secret societies (Rosicrucian, Masonic, Cabalistic, Hermetic, and others rooted in an unknown past). The greatest authority on such societies was Manly P. Hall, who published numerous volumes on the related belief systems. In the general traditions reviewed by Hall, the god Saturn is "the old man who lives at the north pole." Even today, it seems that in our celebration of Christmas we live under the influence of the polar Saturn, for as Hall observes, "Saturn, the old man who lives at the north pole, and brings
with him to the children of men a sprig of evergreen (the Christmas tree), is familiar to the little folks under the name of Santa Claus."
Santa Claus, descending yearly from his polar home to distribute gifts around the world, is a muffled echo of the Universal Monarch spreading miraculous good fortune. But while the earlier traditions place his prototype, the Universal Monarch, at the celestial pole, popular tradition now locates Santa Claus at the geographical pole--a telling example of originally celestial gods being brought down to earth.
A planet at the celestial pole? The consistency of the message cannot be denied, and it is anything but the message anticipated by conventional models of the ancient sky.
As odd as this tradition of Saturn at the pole may appear, it has been acknowledged by more than one authority, including Leopold de Saussure, and Joseph Smith.
The principle also figured prominently in the recent work of the historian of science, Giorgio de Santillana and the ethnologist Hertha
von Dechend, authors of _Hamlet's Mill_. According to an ancient astronomical tradition, the authors suggest, Saturn originally ruled from
the celestial pole!
"When Saturn ruled the skies alone
(That golden age, to gold unknown,)
This earthly globe to thee assign'd
Receiv'd the gifts of all mankind."
-- Johnathan Swift, A Panegyric on the Dean
This next part I post in RED is excerpts from Anthony Larson in a blog labeled Temple Symbols and Christmas.Hopefully this post as well as the thread I did on the electric universe will get more people to investigate Anthony's work. Not only is he the very best the church has today but just might be one of the best scholars in modern history. I can't say enough about his work which he has spent a lifetime investigating. But it also should be noted that he does not have a patent on these ideas. BYU should get him his own department as well as many new departments in different fields in relation to comparative ancient mythology and the electric universe.
True, Christmas is a holiday largely based on pagan festivals. In fact, it’s likely that Christians appropriated an ancient, cross-cultural tradition for our Christmas celebration that predates Christ by centuries, if not millennia.
The idea to celebrate Christmas on December 25 originated in about the 4th century. The Catholic Church, based in Rome, wanted to eclipse the festivities of the original pagan religion of the Romans called Saturnalia. It was their preeminent holiday, a midwinter celebration of the birthday of their sun god, Saturnus. Church leaders decided that in order to alter pagan beliefs, they had only to superimpose the birth of the Christ child on the pagan celebration. So, they instituted the Mass of Christ or Cristes Maesse in Old English — Christmas.
Special sanctity was attached to the period of the winter solstice in most traditional societies of Europe even before the introduction of Christianity in the first millennium A.D. The cult of the tree was especially prevalent among the early Celtic and Nordic peoples of Europe. Centuries ago in Great Britain, the Druids used holly and mistletoe as well as evergreens as symbols of eternal life during mysterious winter solstice rituals. They would also place evergreen branches over doors to keep away evil spirits. According to the Roman sources, the Celts of Gaul and Britain worshipped in groves of trees. When Europeans adopted Christian traditions, they created a blend of their winter solstice celebrations with that of the Catholic Church.
So, the roots of Christmas and its symbolic trappings lie deep in pagan cultural traditions, practices and beliefs, not in Christianity at all. This admixture of traditions — part Christian, part pagan — has created the hodgepodge holiday we know today.
For those reasons, many Latter-day Saints disapprove of the “worldly” trappings of Christmas. But that distaste may not be justified.
In an astonishing irony, a close look shows us that the iconography of latter-day temples — the Salt Lake Temple being the quintessential example — echoes the traditional, symbolic trappings from hoary antiquity that are now part of our Christmas celebration, validating symbols like Santa Claus and the Christmas tree.
The basis for this claim becomes clear when we look for indications of our Christmas traditions in numerous ancient cultures and then connect them with the symbolism found on the exterior walls of the temple in Salt Lake City.
So, let’s review the origins and history of today’s Christmas.
The controversial Gerald Massey, in two large works (The Natural Genesis and Ancient Egypt), claimed that the priest-astronomers of ancient Egypt first formulated the religion and mythology of a polar god, which tradition then spread from Egypt to the rest of the world. This may have been the starting point for our Santa Claus, a magical individual who lives at the North Pole. Additionally, ancient Egyptians treasured and worshipped evergreens. When the winter solstice arrived, they brought green date palm leaves into their homes to symbolize life's triumph over death.
Later, the Greeks memorialized the winter solstice with Kronia, a festival recalling the Golden Age, ruled by Kronos, another polar god and the father of Zeus.
Following the Greeks, the Romans adopted the same festival, the predecessor of modern Christmas-tide, renamed it Saturnalia in honor of Saturn, their father-god and equivalent of the Greek’s Kronos. They decorated their houses with greens and lights and exchanged gifts. They gave coins for prosperity, pastries for happiness and lamps to light one's journey through life. They decorated their trees with bits of metal and candles in honor of their sun god.
Trees — especially the conifer or evergreen — were objects of sacred significance in many ancient cultures. The Norse religion involved worship in sacred groves, which were trees planted to simulate the walls of a temple. This connects the tree to temple building traditions. Indeed, nearly all temples, ancient and modern, are adorned with gardens, as is the case on Temple Square.
The Canaanites, too, had sacred groves for worship, and the disobedient nation of Israel adopted this form of worship at the outset of their wanderings out of Palestine.
"For they also built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree." (1 Kings 14:23. See also 2 Kings 17:9, 10.)
"Then shall ye know that I am the Lord, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, in all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they did offer sweet savour to all their idols." (Ezekiel 6:13.)
We learn also that Israel’s neighbors practiced a custom startlingly similar to our practice of putting up Christmas trees. "Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not." (Jeremiah 10:2-4.)
This passage also alludes to the belief in ancient cultures that the tree was symbolic of something cosmological or sky-based. The mention of the "signs of heaven" in the above verse is our clue. As with so many ancient religious or sacred symbols, the "celestial" or "heavenly" tree was an integral part of archaic cultures' star worship.
In Norse mythology, the great ash tree, Yggdrasil, connects the underworld and heaven with its roots and boughs. It’s also called the World Tree, which many ancient cultural traditions remember and reverence, that links heaven and Earth and shelters all the world. The mythical world tree was said to grow from the Earth’s pole and spread its branches among the stars. This "celestial tree" or "tree of life" — a term familiar to Latter-day Saints — was central to astral worship, as Jeremiah pointed out. It’s also the reason we put a star at the top of our Christmas tree.
To Norsemen, sprigs of evergreen holly symbolized the revival of the sun god Balder, who was originally the familiar Baal, sky god of the Old Testament.
Also in the Old Testament, trees are associated with the ancient Canaanite religion devoted to the mother goddess Asherah (Ashtoreth, Ishtar, "star"), which the Israelites, intent on establishing their monotheistic cult of Yahweh, sought to suppress. The cult celebrated Asherah and her consort Baal in high places, on the tops of hills and mountains, where altars dedicated to Baal and carved wooden poles or statues of Asherah (also translated as grove, or wood, or tree) were located.
The significance of trees in ancient Assyria, the acknowledged home of Ishtar or "star" worship, is shown in the numerous reliefs of winged deities watering or protecting sacred trees. Sacred trees, or trees of life, were associated in Ancient Assyria with the worship of the god Enlil, yet another sky god.
So, our Christmas tree has a long and ancient tradition.
The evergreen Christmas tree also represents "World Tree" or "World Axis." The "Star of Guidance" that crowns the Christmas tree is also related to the North Star, Polaris. This natural compatibility of Christmas celebration with late December and beliefs about the evergreen tree, the North Pole, and the spirit called Father Winter, which survives in today’s Santa Claus, are evolutions of ancient tradition.
Notably, the six primary spires on the Salt Lake Temple are the symbolic equivalent of our Christmas tree. A round ball, the equivalent of a star on our tree, tops their conical shape.
*
Indeed, one of them bears an angel in place of the star, just as do many of our Christmas trees.
============
*
Just as the image of the star and the angel are interchangeable in ancient traditions, so too in modern Christmas tree decoration and temple iconography.
In Europe as well as in Asia, the Sacred Tree was considered to be the living image of the axis mundi or "Axis of the World," a figurative or imaginary still point or vertical shaft around which the world turns.
The North Star, Polaris, is the celestial placeholder for that sacred spot in the sky. It’s the only star in the sky that never moves. Throughout the night and year, all the stars move in circles around Polaris, called the pole star since it is located directly over the Earth’s north pole. As the night progresses, the stars will slowly move from east to west, circling around the pole star, due to the Earth’s rotation. Hence, all ancient cultures held that spot in the sky as sacred.
They also associated the pole star with the World Tree or Tree of Life and the central axis of the universe. In tradition, the top of the World Tree touched the North Star. This is the true meaning of the star on top of the modern Christmas tree, and also the reason that Santa makes his home at the North Pole in Christmas tradition.
In South Asia, traditions concerning the enchanted World Tree or World Axis have taken somewhat different forms. And yet, despite the differences, certain common patterns persist. The sacred tree, the vertical World Axis or stambha or stupa and the generous spirit from the far north are all features of pan-Indian culture that derive, most probably, from the same traditional sources as those of Western cultures.
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The precedence of the cosmic center among the great ancient cultures has been noted and documented by many scholars. Almost a hundred years ago, William F. Warren, in his groundbreaking work, Paradise Found, identified the celestial pole as the home of the supreme god of ancient races. "The religions of all ancient nations ... associate the abode of the supreme God with the North Pole, the centre of heaven; or with the celestial space immediately surrounding it."
In a general survey of ancient language, symbolism, and mythology, John O’Neill (Night of the Gods) asserted that mankind’s oldest religions centered on a god of the celestial pole.
Now for the grand finale
Latter-day Saints should note that, in keeping with ancient astral tradition, the constellation Ursa Major or Big Dipper, the traditional locator for the Pole Star, is depicted on the west wall of the Salt Lake Temple where it is positioned so as to ‘point’ to the northern sky and the polar star, Polaris.
(Saturn appeared to the ancients to be a pole star that was usually fixed in one part of the sky on Earth's northern axis. The ancients saw Saturn constantly straight up over the north pole. Thus on the Salt Lake temple you have Ursa Major or the Big Dipper high on the west wall of the temple which points to the North Star. So it is no coincidence that the planet Saturn stands above the big dipper (which points to the polar star, the immovable star) on the Salt Lake temple.These stars are depicted there, again, to point the eye of the viewer to the north, the location of Saturn in antiquity.)
Also seen immediately above these star stones are the Saturn Stones, circles with a ring.
This is no mere oddity or casual coincidence. As Nibley pointed out, the temple is an earthly replica of the heavens. It puts the uniquely modern temple squarely in the heart of ancient tradition — especially Christmas tradition. Certainly, it speaks to the reverence which modern temple builders placed on the star Polaris and its traditional role in ancient cultures worldwide.
Though it may seem completely odd to us, the Romans, who called themselves "Saturnians" and celebrated Saturnalia at the winter solstice, also placed their god Helios at the heavenly pole where Polaris now sits. In their pantheon, Helios was called the central sun, the axis of the celestial revolutions. But, Helios was also called Saturn.
All Greek astronomical traditions agreed that their god, Kronos, was originally the planet Saturn. What is now the sixth planet from the Sun stands at the center of the Greek paradise myth. According to their traditions, Kronos, the planet Saturn, ruled the heavens for a period, presiding over the Golden Age, then departed as the heavens fell into confusion.
Likewise, the Assyrians placed their central sun, Shamash, at the pole. But, they also asserted that Shamash was Saturn.
A stunning example of the polar Saturn is provided in Chinese astronomy, where the distant planet was called “the genie of the pivot” (Santa Claus?). Saturn was believed to have his station at the pole, according to the eminent authority on Chinese astronomy, Gustav Schlegel. In the words of Leopold deSaussure, Saturn was "the planet of the center, corresponding to the emperor on earth, thus to the polar star of heaven."
Finally, the Egyptian god Atum-Ra was said to be a central sun, standing atop the world pole. But, their traditions also depict Atum-Ra as Saturn.
As peculiar as this tradition of Saturn at the pole may appear to us, it has been acknowledged by more than one authority, including Leopold de Saussure. The principle also figured prominently in the recent work of the historian of science, Giorgio de Santillana and the ethnologist Hertha von Dechend, authors of Hamlet’s Mill. According to an ancient astronomical tradition, the authors suggest, Saturn originally ruled from the celestial pole.
It is also known that Latin poets remembered Saturn as god of "the steadfast star," the very phrase used for the pole star in virtually every ancient astronomy.
Manly P. Hall, noted authority on ancient belief systems wrote, "Saturn, the old man who lives at the north pole, and brings with him to the children of men a sprig of evergreen (the Christmas tree), is familiar to the little folks under the name of Santa Claus."
Santa Claus, descending yearly from his polar home to distribute gifts around the world, is a muffled echo of the Universal Monarch, Saturn, spreading miraculous good fortune. But while the earlier traditions place this sky god at the celestial pole, popular tradition now locates Santa Claus at the geographical pole — a telling example of originally celestial gods being brought down to earth.
The origin of Santa Claus imagery can be readily seen in Egyptian religious art. Atum/Ra, the god of the north, stands in his celestial boat, bark or ark, pulled across heaven by servants or souls.
The Egyptian image metamorphosed over time and across several ancient cultures to become, in Nordic cultures, the old man of the north, Santa Claus, pulled in a sleigh by reindeer.
It is at this point that these ancient traditions most specifically intersect with modern temple symbolism.
Most Saints know of the Sun Stones depicted on the Salt Lake Temple. Given the traditions of the Egyptians, Assyrians and the Romans, it seems likely that those Sun Stones, like the Big Dipper, were placed there in recognition of the ancient traditions, which declared that a "sun" was once positioned at the celestial pole.
Additionally, most Saints are unaware that there are Saturn Stones in the Salt Lake Temple. The original architectural renderings of the building by Truman O. Angel, clearly depicted a planet with two rings around it at the top of each south wall buttress.
Note that there is no such symbol on the Salt Lake Temple as it was finally erected, as we see it today. Instead, a repeated symbol (called a 'frieze' in architecture) of a circle with a ring around it (the traditional symbol for Saturn) was installed to replace the original icon. This circle frieze can be seen on the parapet stringcourse, immediately below the three towers at each end of the temple, and is still referred to in LDS literature and tradition as Saturn Stones.
Just as the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans worshiped a central sun that we, today, can identify from cross-cultural comparisons as Saturn, the various 'stones' on the Salt Lake Temple also celebrate that connection, once again correlating temple iconography with ancient, traditional symbolism that gave rise to our Christmas traditions.
It’s no stretch to see that modern prophets would employ the ancient, traditional symbolism of antiquity on a modern temple. The fact that they would properly use the traditional, sacred, religious icons from the past serves to strengthen Joseph Smith’s and Brigham Young’s claims to being prophets of God.
So, what should we make of Christmas with all its pagan symbolism and motifs? If modern prophets chose to memorialize the symbols of ancient traditions in latter-day temples, then who are we to reject those same symbols and traditions in our Christmas celebration?
© Anthony E. Larson, 2005
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Now consider this...
Here is the great David Talbotts cover of his book... the Saturn Myth..
Here is another one by another great comparative mythologist Dwardu Cardona...
Look familiar?
How bout this...
This may seem nothing more than decoration until one considers that such a structure once stood in earthly skies.
The original, prototypical Saturn symbol proposed by Talbott becomes only one stage in the evolution of the Saturn epic rather than the dominant feature.
Indeed, the six spires on the temple are replicas of the ancient World Mountain, the pillar that sustained all heaven — the same icon from which the Egyptians derived their pyramids.
Should doubt persist about this interpretation of those spires, consider that the temple is frequently referred to in scripture as “the mountain of the Lord’s house.” This phrase makes no sense in ordinary terms. But in the language of Saturn symbolism, it makes perfect sense. If, as the ancients surely did, you consider the house or throne of god to be the orb at the peak, the structure beneath it becomes a high hill or mountain. Together, pillar and orb form the temple of god, or “the mountain of the Lord’s house.”
Thus we see that the symbols give meaning to the metaphor of scripture and vice versa. This type of interconnected unity between icon and metaphor can only be achieved by acknowledging the reality of the polar alignment of planets as Talbott and Joseph Smith depict them. This argues eloquently for the validity of this thesis. The fact that the spires are grouped in threes is said to reflect the trinity of the godhead, but it may also reflect that three orbs were visible to the ancients.
It seems that the primordial age, as chronicled in accounts around the world, stands in radical contrast to our own era. One can no more explain Saturn's ancient connection with the pole by reference to the present arrangements of the planets than one can explain, within conventional frameworks, Saturn's image as the Universal Monarch, as founder of the Golden Age, or as primeval sun god. Yet the fact remains that throughout the ancient world these images of Saturn constituted a pervasive memory which many centuries of cultural evolution could not obliterate.
Separate threads of evidence, each posing its own mystery for the specialists, thus suggest a remarkably unified memory: myth of the Golden Age, myth of the creator-king or celestial prototype of kings, reverence for a former sun god, the archaic day beginning at sunset, placement of the sun god at the cosmic center and summit, identification of the cosmic center with the axis of the turning sky, Saturn as founder of the Golden Age, Saturn as creator-king, Saturn as primeval sun or best sun, Saturn as god of the day (the day beginning at sunset), Saturn as resting god or god ruling the "day of rest," Saturn at the cosmic center and summit, Saturn ruling from the celestial pole.
In attempting to comprehend such enigmatic threads, we can no longer afford to ignore the most fundamental of questions: Is the sky we observe today the same sky experienced by the first stargazers? Joseph Smith would say unequivocally YES! For he taught and believed the sky we view today are vastly different than the what the Ancients observed.
Lets now talk about the Salt Lake Temple..
Lets start with the lowest on a vertical scale of the SL Temple which represents the telestial world, "EARTH STONES" (*There are 34 Earths-stones on the SL temple..)
Now next on the vertical scale, above the Earth Stones are moons-stones. Notice the moon phases and "CRESCENT MOONS". Crescent moons flood temple square. This meaning of the moon phases are so profound.
"MOON STONES" (*There are 50 Moon-stones on the Salt Lake Temple.)
Next on the vertical scale, "SUN STONES" (*There are 52 Sun Stones on the Salt Lake Temple.... )
Here are a few other Sun Stones on other temples
Palmyra New York Temple Sun Stone;
Albuquerque Temple Sun Stone
The Nauvoo Temple Sun stones have a face on them. This is also important.
*Notice those evil inverted pentagrams?
Washington DC Temple Door Knobs of Sun Stones;
Pretty incredible workmanship!
So you have in order from bottom to top.....Earth-Stones (34), than Moon-Stones (50), and than Sun-Stones(52). 3 degrees of glory?? Right? Well, above those three stands 184 Saturn Stones. What are we to make of that?? :-\ /:) You also have 104 Star stones.
Now some Mormon apologist will totally deny and denounce that Saturn Stones exist on the Salt Lake Temple. Until they quit apologizing and start seeking out the mysteries of heaven they will never come across the truth. Especially if they spend their life defending something that doesn't need defending if they but understood and searched out the true nature of the universe. They really should study Joseph Smith's cosmic beliefs IMO. Brigham Young said they were in fact Saturn Stones and I will take his word over a Mormon apologist any day. In fact I am done with Mormon apologist. They help assist me in NOT finding the truth far too often. It is impossible to understand the significance of the temple/symbolism/Book of Abraham ect. until one understands Joseph Smith's cosmic beliefs and the message from all ancient cultures.. Latter-day Saints readily acknowledge the astral connections of most symbols employed in the Salt Lake Temple (that would be hard to deny), yet they utterly fail to recognize their connection to the same symbolism used in scriptural rhetoric and in ancient architecture. Indeed, uninformed, modern eyes take most of the symbolic iconography to be nothing more than stylistic decorations.
Few more symbols for one who is curious...
Inverted Pentagram on Salt Lake Temple
Upright pentagram on Salt Lake Temple
Eagle Gate with inverted pentagram and beehive in Salt Lake City
Now, you will find temple square flooded with theses symbols. both inverted pentegram and upright pentagrams. for example....This...
or the famous and beautiful Christus...
Now next time one visits temple square go visit the Christus. If you turn around (back to Christus) and you will see this..
Here is an up-close photo
More Inverted pentagrams. Also notice the heavens depicted around the Christus and there are a few planets that stand out above all others.... One being The Planet Saturn! No pictures. Will try and visit in the next week or two and take a few..
Here is the seal of Melchizedek symbol. But it also has cosmic meaning. Like Nibley says, all temple symbolism on our temples both ancient and modern have cosmic implications. What??? Image to large to copy. Just click the link.
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Now I have looked everywhere for a photo of a symbol that is on every water fountain and every light pole at temple square and I can not find it anywhere on the internet. Will take a picture soon. But it resembles this...
Notice the crescent? Though the crescent doesn't appear on the on the light poles or water fountains it does appear in the Book of Abraham Facsimiles.
The images above comes from Babylonian which represents the Star of Ishtar. The Planet Venus! Also know as the Mother Goddess as Great Star
This is a stone mural and what you will see as you enter at the LDS Church History and Art Museum. Tons of symbolism is this. Not a great picture.
Here is a Moon Stone on the Nauvoo temple.
Cloud stones.....(This image is to big. Just click the link..)
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Hand Clasp on Salt Lake Temple
Eye of God symbol....
Eye of God symbol too, is in accord with ancient iconography. It is the basic symbol for the Saturnian configuration and is related to the Eye of God.. In fact all the symbols I posted above can be traced to every ancient temple and in every civilization. All can be traced back to the planet Saturn or more specifically the Saturn Configurations. Just in different stages. The Heavens before Noah's Flood. And the future heavens. It also should be noted that "the eye of Horus is on the Book of Abraham Facsimile. When Joseph Smith gave explanations for the Facsimile it was all about the heavens, about celestial objects. So to find these images on the temple which is a small scale depicting the heavens it is no coincidence.
The baptismal font and the twelve oxen
The baptismal font in the Salt Lake Temple sets atop the backs of twelve exquisitely carved oxen.
Now this one is really cool....Baptismal font in the Helsinki Finland Temple. Notice the TREE!This may seem a strange juxtaposition of images until seen in light of the ancient co-linear configuration of planets.
The horned oxen harken back to the apis statuary so common in Middle Eastern temples of antiquity. The horned bull is often depicted in Egyptian and Babylonian art. In the Saturn tradition, the crescent on Saturn was the prototype of the horns on a bull or cow, giving rise to all such worship, metaphor, iconography and art in antiquity. This is an element that properly, traditionally belongs in a temple.
Seen from ground level, the oxen and laver bear no resemblance to Saturn symbols. But if seen from above, the arrangement becomes a circle with 12 oxen evenly spaced around its edge. This is clearly Saturnian. The 12 oxen are the equivalent of the twelve numbers on a circular clock face, the 12 signs of the zodiac arranged in a circle, 12 gates to the heavenly temple as envisioned by John in Revelation, the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve Apostles. It also suggests an origin for the baptismal rite in Saturn traditions. Indeed, when closely analyzed, much of the ritual and its trappings within the temple have Saturnian touches.
Figure 5 of the Book of Abraham Facsimile 2
Now there are other Egyptian documents, text, rock cravings depicting this very image.. Some experts say it means "represents the cow of Hathor, behind which stands a uzat-headed goddess holding a sacred tree." Which would make the baptismal font above with the "sacred Tree"?? bring on whole new meaning as well as verify that this is the restored gospel and the ONLY true church on earth! All kinds of different implications that I can't even talk about them. Unless one wants to meet me at the temple?
Joseph said that this figure: "Is called in Egyptian Enish-go-on-dosh; this is one of the governing planets also, and is said by the Egyptians to be the Sun, and to borrow its light from Kolob through the medium of Kae-e-vanrash, which is the grand Key, or, in other words, the governing power, which governs fifteen other fixed planets or stars, as also Floeese or the Moon, the Earth and the Sun in their annual revolutions. This planet receives its power through the medium of Kli-flos-is-es, or Hah-ko-kau-beam, the stars represented by numbers 22 and 23, receiving light from the revolutions of Kolob." So I think it's safe to say the baptismal fonts with the 12 horned oxen.
Cow of Hathor
* Notice the ship? Very significant. The ship is depicted twice in the Book of Abraham.
Joseph Smith said this figure: "Stands next to Kolob, called by the Egyptians Oliblish, which is the next grand governing creation near to the celestial or the place where God resides; holding the key of power also, pertaining to other planets; as revealed from God to Abraham, as he offered sacrifice upon an alter, which he had built unto the Lord."
Here hathor and horus are together (notice the hawk at her feet) the eight spoke is seen in the keyhole which the egyptians call a menat:
Pillars and water
Pillars represent the Absu/heavenly waters.
Another photo of Ursa Major or the Big Dipper high on the west wall of the temple as the Saturn Stones stand above it..
And this from the Winter Quarters temple of the Big Dipper and North Star. What incredible workmanship!!!
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Same thing with The Anchorage Alaska Temple
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Remember that the Big Dipper is perfectly arranged on the temple wall so it points toward the North Star/Polar Star in the night sky.
Anthony Larson, who I consider one of the best in church history on temple symbolism has this to say..
These stars are depicted there, again, to point the eye of the viewer to the north, the location of Saturn in antiquity.
The temple’s designers wished, again, to properly orient the viewer. As one stands looking up at the temple’s west wall, he or she is facing east with the north to his left. The stars forming the Big Dipper are arranged on the temple, as they are in the heavens, so as to point to the North Star, Polaris, on the viewer’s left, the one and only star in the heavens that remains immobile, the one and only star to which a fixed symbol could constantly point. Thus, Polaris becomes a symbolic substitute for the ancient anchor of the heavens, Saturn.
The Big Dipper is traditionally used as a pointer constellation for the North Star. Thus, all who saw the Big Dipper constellation icon on the wall immediately knew it pointed to Polaris. It serves as a universal signpost, in a universal, symbolic language. Additionally, the selection of Polaris, the North Star, is most appropriate because, as was true of ancient Saturn, it is the only apparently fixed object in the sky, the polar anchor around which all heaven turns. So, too, was ancient Saturn depicted as ever turning, yet never moving, fixed and immovable.