Monday, March 31, 2008

Angels Who Stand As Sentinels


President Brigham Young taught us that the temple is where we learn about eternity, and where we prepare to pass certain angels that are standing gard. What we don’t always get is that they are guarding against us, not for us. When The Father had a flaming sword (& Cherubim) placed in the Garden of Eden it was to stop Adam from returning unchecked. Symbolically is was teaching that all of mankind (ha-adam) can only pass when we are ready (sanctified). We often think of angels guarding us, but in this process they are guarding the way back, so we don’t attempt to enter glories what are not yet ready to inherit.

"Your endowment is to receive all those ordinances in the House of the Lord, which are necessary for you after you have departed this life, to enable you to walk back to the presence of the Father, passing the angels who stand as sentinels, being enabled to give them the key words, the signs and tokens, pertaining to the Holy Priesthood, and gain your eternal exaltation in spite of earth and hell." (Brigham Young, J. D. 2:31.)

The Zohar is preoccupied with idea of gates we enter when we are ready, and at each gate is an armed guard. Egyptian initiation imagery is also loaded with example of stations (like rungs of a ladder) that the deceased must pass through to gain his full inheritance. Truth and fidelity are the initiates defenses against these destroying angels.

In Egyptian imagery, those who have not had fidelity to their covenants (“key words, the signs and tokens, pertaining to the Holy Priesthood”) in the mortal world, are slashed, cut, or otherwise destroyed if they try to pass. Perhaps this is the origin of the Tyler of Masonry?

Prof. Hugh Nibley discussed the Book of Breathings, and the Book of the Dead.

Here is an excerpt:

“it is permitted to wonder whether khrw-paw (faces-of-fire) with its Hebrew plural ending -im might be the source of the mysterious word Cherubim of the Bible. Or is the root the Egyptian Cherep, "to have control over," as in the long Book of Breathings: "Thrice welcome! say the Cherebneset-priests," i.e., "those who are in charge of the throne," they being the guardians of the gate (T 32, I, 22, O.M.R.O., 31:56)? Apophis is confronted by the Keepers of the Pylons standing with swords in their hands before a gate from which flames shoot forth, and is repelled by both sword and flame (Bremner-Rhind, 30:11-15). No one else can enter the place as yet either, excepting Re, since to enter it is to breathe the air of eternal life (Gr. Tb., 48-49), and man is not yet ready to live forever in his sins. The Jewish doctors, at least, made such a discrimination, telling us that when Adam was driven out of the place of delights, "the Watchers were placed there so that none could enter unless they had been first purified by the hand of the Cherubim" (B. Gorion, Sagen d. Juden, I, 118). From the earliest times, then, fire and the sword or the flaming sword prevent the serpent from returning to the garden. The serpent must remain in outer darkness (L. Kakosy, ZA, 97:104-105), being himself the mystery of non-being, the negation of all that is (E. Hornung, Ein.u. Viel., pp. 171-72). The Pistis Sophia gives the same explanation for the flaming sword: The time will come, it says, when the sword will be removed for Adam and he may reach forth his hand and partake of the fruit of the tree of life. But the serpent may never do so; in the end the flaming sword was for his benefit.” [Prof. Hugh Nibley, Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri, Part IV, The Garden Story]

Ancient temple initiations contained feathers of truth (Ma’at), swords of judgement, and angels guarding the way. Today we have an abbreviated version of what was Adam's ascension, which is our inheritance (endowment). Traces of a longer version, a deeper teaching, and fuller laws, give us hints of the path back. This is why the endowment can only truly be understood by revelation. The profane waste their time trying to understand it, only by revelation can we “get it.”

 “Therefore, in the ordinances thereof, the power of godliness is manifest.” [D&C 84:20]

“If thou shalt ask, thou shalt receive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge, that thou mayest know the mysteries and peaceable things—that which bringeth joy, that which bringeth life eternal.” [D&C 42:60

21 comments:

David Littlefield said...

Here are some Tyler's knives and swords: LINK.

-David

Anonymous said...

The Zohar is preoccupied with idea of gates we enter when we are ready, and at each gate is an armed guard

Words Temples Stone Signs and Tokens . are Just Things and are all over the www.

The Pure and Holy are the Work of the Holy Ghost.

Secrets and Secret Societies Words Temples Stone Signs and Tokens .
(Masonic Things)
Do not and cannot make one Holy or a Son of God. or an Heir.

David Littlefield said...

Anon:

Would you include the ordinance of Baptism in your list of things that don't save? How about the "Token" of the Lord Supper (Sacrament)? Useless too? Just words?

-David

Anonymous said...

Jesus Christ=Jehovah will save

Secret Masonic things are not the Good News, and what is Open is Not a Secret,

Things The Lord ask us to do are to Bring about rememberance and are an open witness of our newness of Life to the World and is a declaration of our Heirship.

Dark things that the tower builders (Masons) do in old Egyptian pyramids in ancient times to Pagans gods is Not the Gospel.

The Gospel is Not a "Secret" nor is Baptism or the Lords supper. In Light ,Of Light in Truth and Right .
Not in a Secret Dark place and wispered.

Anonymous said...

the Watchers were placed there so that none could enter unless they had been first purified by the hand of the Cherubim" (B. Gorion, Sagen d. Juden)

The "WATCHERS" is an interesting topic on its own merits, please do an article on "watchers"

David Littlefield said...

Anon asks: "please do an article on "watchers"

David Responds: I just did!

-David

Anonymous said...

The Watchers and the Watchtowers

Know the history of the Watchers and Watchtowers and why they are called upon in circle. If you don't know their purpose, why call?

Early History
They are considered an old race who have gone past the need for physical bodies. Some claim they are light. There are legends that say they came from the stars. They are the ones known as the Watchers. It is claimed that each of the four Watchers reigns over one of the four directions of the circle.

There were star cults in Mesopotamia around 3000 bce. One of the beliefs of these cults was that there were four major stars, each ruling over one of the four cardinal points. These stars where known as "Lords" or "Watchers."

The Watcher of the East was the star Aldebaran.This star marked the time of the Vernal Equinox. The Watcher of the South was Regulus, marking the time of the Summer Solstice. Marking the Autumnal Equinox was Antares, Watcher of the West. The North Watcher was the marker of Winter Solstice, Foralhaut.

Actual towers, called Ziggurats (cosmic mountains) were built as a form of worship. Each tower bore the symbols of the Watchers. During ritual celebrations the symbols were traced in the air with torch flames or wands, and the Watchers names were called.

The Watchers were thought of as gods that guarded the heavens and earth. Lunar and Solar cults eventually replaced the Star cults.

The Watchers became the gods of the four winds to the Greeks. The Christians took them over as "guardian angels."

The Hebrews taught that all angels, known to them as Watchers, were ruled by four "higher" angels. They became the "Archangels" to the Cabalists.

John Dee 1527-1608 and Edward Kelly 1555-1597 and Enochian Magic
It is said Edward Kelly was a seer and alchemist, and John Dee was a sage. Kelly "received messages" from a group of beings of the spirit who claimed they were the same who had instructed Enoch. As Kelly received these messages, Dee wrote them down. His writings now compose the magickal system known as Enochian Magic. It is a system of angel magic influenced by Judeo-Christian beliefs.

The doctrine of Enoch is mathematical. According to Dee and Kelly, there are 49 tables of large number and letter squares. There are 48 Gates of Understanding, one gate can not be opened. The 49 tables has 49 rows by 49 columns. The directions of the angels, known as the Enochian Keys, were extracted from these charts.

http://www.angelfire.com/realm2
/amethystbt/Watchtowers.html

Anonymous said...

With this in mind it is interesting to note that Richard Cavendish, in his book The Powers of Evil, "lists the Watchers as the Fallen Angels that magicians call forth in ceremonial magick." This remark is especially noteworthy when one considers Grimassi's comments concerning "the relationship that exists between a Wiccan and the Watchers." Grimassi points out that "every act of magick that a Wiccan performs is observed and noted by the Watchers." Furthermore, he says, "There is a definite link between the 'powers' of a Wiccan and their rapport with the Watchers." But since the God of the Bible clearly prohibits magic, is it likely that these "Watchers" should be thought of as good spirits (inasmuch as they oppose the ordinance of God)?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm???????????

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rb8n2hTToo

http://www.scribd.com/doc/72940/The-Watchers

Anonymous said...

Masonry and Witchcraft have the Same Initiation

So they Can Pass the Sentinals (watchers) and gain access to the Heavens


In Italian Witchcraft the beings known as the Grigori (Watchers) are an integral aspect of the belief system. Over the course of many centuries the initiates of Italian Witchcraft have developed various signs and gestures that are recognized by the Grigori and indicate the presence of a trained Witch of the Old Religion. This intimate relationship between Grigori and initiate has been forged and nurtured by the Strega for countless generations. The ritual display of prescribed signs and gestures at the appropriate quarter grants passage by the Grigori and allows the initiate to gain access to the portals that lead directly into the Otherworld realms.

http://www.geocities.com/lavenderwater37
/watchers.htm

and where we prepare to pass certain angels that are standing gard. What we don’t always get is that they are guarding against us, not for us.

passing the angels who stand as sentinels, being enabled to give them the key words, the signs and tokens,

In Egyptian imagery, those who have not had fidelity to their covenants (“key words, the signs and tokens, pertaining to the Holy Priesthood”) in the mortal world, are slashed, cut, or otherwise destroyed if they try to pass. Perhaps this is the origin of the Tyler of Masonry?


I like its crunchy taste That what I like

David Littlefield said...

I disagree with almost all of the above four comments.

They are wrong and error ridden.

-David

Anonymous said...

Watchers????

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchtower_(magic)

In the Enochian system of magick, brought to public attention by Dr. John Dee and Edward Kelly in the 16th century, we find the inclusion of Watchtowers as complex evocational designs. Some people believe that the Watchtowers have their origin in the Enochian magic system revealed to the Elizabethan magician John Dee and his scryer Edward Kelley, which was later developed into a working system of magic by S.L. MacGregor Mathers. According to Dee’s diaries, the two men summoned an angel, which Kelley saw in a magic stone; Dee recorded the revelations which Kelley narrated to him. Among the surviving records of the Angelic Operations is A Book of Supplications and Invocations which "deals with the Invocation of the Angels who preside over the Four Quarters of the Terrestrial sphere."[2] At the core of the instructions was the Angelic Table: a grid of 25x27 squares, each square containing a letter. The Angelic Table is subdivided into four lesser grids for the four elements and the four directions, bound together by the cross-shaped Tablet of Union. They are used to call upon the aid of angels ruling over the four directions. The names of God and the angels to be used in the invocations are extracted from the tablets.[3] The four tablets are often called the Enochian Tablets because the letters may be written in the Enochian alphabet also revealed to Dee and Kelley by the angel.
Dee’s work was revived and expounded upon by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, primarily through the work of S.L. MacGregror Mathers. In the Golden Dawn magical system, the four Angelic/Enochian Tablets became the four Watchtowers.[4] Each Watchtower was attributed to a direction and an element, as in Dee’s original revelation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchtower_(magic)

Celebrate Mabon, the Fall Equinox

The mystery taught at the Seminary is of self-realization and spiritual improvement. The magick is the practices, the Workings, that enable you to achieve the mystery. Magickal practices include three types of Workings: those of Seership, Communion, Need, and Beauty. Workings of Seership allow you to sense past-lives, the future, and current events through psychic ability.

With the help of WATCH TOWERS and WATCHERS

Anonymous said...

We Want Them Back!
(A Pagan View of the Holidays)

Delivered at the Vespers Service, 12/7/05
Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta

My friends, I have recently been musing about how all the old Pagan holidays have been taken over, and how good it would be to reclaim them. So I want to tell all of you why Pagans should to ask for our holidays back.


Mabon
Autumn Equinox, 2nd Harvest, September 21st

Mabon, (pronounced MAY-bun, MAY-bone, MAH-boon, or MAH-bawn) is the Autumn Equinox. The Autumn Equinox divides the day and night equally, and we all take a moment to pay our respects to the impending dark. We also give thanks to the waning sunlight, as we store our harvest of this year's crops. The Druids call this celebration, Mea'n Fo'mhair, and honor the The Green Man, the God of the Forest, by offering libations to trees. Offerings of ciders, wines, herbs and fertilizer are appropriate at this time. Wiccans celebrate the aging Goddess as she passes from Mother to Crone, and her consort the God as he prepares for death and re-birth.





The four Watch Towers and the 4 Sentinels and the 4 seasons

The Fall Equinox is also known as: Alban Elfed, Autumn Equinox, Autumnal Equinox, Cornucopia, Feast of Avilon, Festival of Dionysus, Harvest Home, Harvest Tide, Mabon, Night of the Hunter, Second Harvest Festival, Wine Harvest, Witch's Thanksgiving, and the first day of autumn.

Anonymous said...

Paying Tribute to the Watchers. We are "Good" Witches and Masons!! and "Christians" ?


The Watcher of the East was the star Aldebaran.This star marked the time of the Vernal Equinox. The Watcher of the South was Regulus, marking the time of the Summer Solstice. Marking the Autumnal Equinox was Antares, Watcher of the West. The North Watcher was the marker of Winter Solstice, Foralhaut.

We Want Them Back!
(A Pagan View of the Holidays)

Delivered at the Vespers Service, 12/7/05
Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta

My friends, I have recently been musing about how all the old Pagan holidays have been taken over, and how good it would be to reclaim them. So I want to tell all of you why Pagans should to ask for our holidays back.

All this Witch Craft and Craft Masonry Ties a Knot and a Strong Cord around our Necks.
Free we are Not and Witches and Masons we Are.

In our Re-Named Pagan "HolyDays" do we Pay tribute To Cain on The Equnioxes. Know your History.

The Equinoxes Fall on
Dec 25th Saturnalia Merry Meet.
March 25th Happy Istar
June 24 St Johns Day "LITHA"
Sept 21st Mabon
All of these Days are Cain's Days Not Holidays

2 Ne. 26: 22
22 And there are also secret combinations, even as in times of old, according to the combinations of the devil, for he is the founder of all these things; yea, the founder of murder, and works of darkness; yea, and he leadeth them by the neck with a flaxen cord, until he bindeth them with his strong cords forever.

Dec 25 Is Cain Worship Day on your Next
X-mass with your X-mass tree Remember this

A prominent Lutheran minister of the day(1521) cried blasphemy: “Better that they should look to the true tree of life, Christ.”
The controversy continues even today in some fundamentalist sects.

Anonymous said...

Watchers WatchTowers Wicca Witches Masons.......

There is a divine and hidden science whose origin can only be discovered by the wavering lights of tradition, whose doctrines and purposes are enveloped in sacred mysteries.

No feelings can be compared with those which a young man feels when, attired in strange array, blind-folded, the dagger pointed to his naked left breast, he is led through the mystic labyrinth, whose intricate ways are emblematical of the toilsome wanderings of his soul.

Tower Builder-->then the craft of masonry began to flourish, and Nimrod was one of the earliest patrons of the art.

In these ceremonies, however, and in their emblems there is much also that is Druidic, and if Freemasonry did not emanate from Druidism, there can be no doubt that it sprang from the same origin.
I will trace out the affinity between the Masonic Order of the Present, and the Druid Order of the Past. It shall be for the reader to decide whether these Masonic usages are vestiges of Druidism, or mere points of family resemblance.

http://www.tarot-decks.com
/freemasonry-druids.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
/History_of_Freemasonry

Anonymous said...

Masonry Druids British Freemasons

http://www.rense.com/general28/brit.htm

Jesus wanted to share his new complete Essene/Druidic/Essene religion and that proved his undoing. He was stoned to death in London, aged 63, for betraying his vows and revealing the secrets of the mystery schools.

Jesus and his wife fled to Britain.

Yes, wife. According to British Freemasonry, he had four of them. His first, a Nabatean named Cypros produced five children, the most famous being Caradoc, a future king who would fight Rome with savage success.

But it was the second, Mary Magdelene who was even more significant. Her father was an early British Celtic king and she a Celtic princess. Their children and all their descendants produced the British royal lineage. With this marriage, Jesus became a Celtic royal and he was given a suitable new royal name, Jesus Cunobeline.

Anonymous said...

In context Now Hear it Again
D&C 129
According to Dee’s diaries, the two men summoned an angel, which Kelley saw in a magic stone; Dee recorded the revelations which Kelley narrated to him. Among the surviving records of the Angelic Operations is A Book of Supplications and Invocations which "deals with the Invocation of the Angels who preside over the Four Quarters of the Terrestrial sphere."[2]


SECTION 129
Instructions given by Joseph Smith the Prophet, at Nauvoo, Illinois, February 9, 1843, making known three grand keys by which the correct nature of ministering angels and spirits may be distinguished. HC 5: 267.
1–3, There are both resurrected and spirit bodies in heaven; 4–9, Keys are given whereby messengers from beyond the veil may be identified.
1 THERE are two kinds of beings in heaven, namely: Angels, who are resurrected personages, having bodies of flesh and bones—
2 For instance, Jesus said: Handle me and see, for a spirit hath not aflesh and bones, as ye see me have.
3 Secondly: the spirits of just men made perfect, they who are not resurrected, but inherit the same glory.
4 When a messenger comes saying he has a message from God, offer him your hand and request him to shake hands with you.
5 If he be an angel he will do so, and you will feel his hand.
6 If he be the spirit of a just man made perfect he will come in his glory; for that is the only way he can appear—
7 Ask him to shake hands with you, but he will not move, because it is contrary to the aorder of heaven for a just man to deceive; but he will still deliver his message.
8 If it be the devil as an angel of light, when you ask him to shake hands he will offer you his hand, and you will not feel anything; you may therefore detect him.
9 These are three grand keys whereby you may know whether any administration is from God.
The Official Scriptures of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
© 2006 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.

Anonymous said...

By the the way I Noticed you are wearing a checker
board Neck Tie. Could you share your thoughts about the Masonic Checker Board.

Son of Adam said...

Hey David, I just came across your blog not too long ago and have read several posts. I've really enjoyed some of your insights so far. However, I'm really annoyed as I'm sure you are that this anonymous character has taken over the comments section of many of your posts. What the hell is this guys problem? The only thoughts he ever shares are that of his most recent google search...none of his own ideas and nothing original, let alone insightful!

David Littlefield said...

Hello Son of Adam!

Glad to have you come by, and I hope you visit us often.

I try not to moderate the comments to much, but I do sometimes. I want people to feel free to disagree.

Thanks!

David

Anonymous said...

"Simply put, the Gnostics/Platonists believed that there was 'The Good' from which a variety of emanations (Aeons) were given off. They, the Aeons, in turn are in a sequential order, which is determined by the Aeons' knowledge; the more they know the higher up and thus closer to 'the Good' they are. Each of these entities is aware of those under him, but is unaware of anything above him. They serve as the intermediaries which we have to bypass on our journey to 'The Good'. As for us humans, we are actually the sons of The Good and have been separated from him, and are given these bodies almost as a punishment, for in essence we are spirits. In order for us to once again be reunited with The Good, we must gain the secret Gnosis, which will allow us to bypass all the Aeons and also to bypass the most ignorant of which, who is the Demigure who created this material world and enfleshed us. The Gnostics believed that this secret knowledge was transmitted by savior figures, who included Seth, Enoch, and Jesus."
- Maged S. Mikhail, "The Gnostics, A Survey of Gnostic Beliefs and Gnostic-Christian Ties"
Ancient temple initiations contained feathers of truth (Ma’at), swords of judgement, and angels guarding the way. Today we have an abbreviated version of what was Adam's ascension, which is our inheritance (endowment). Traces of a longer version, a deeper teaching, and fuller laws, give us hints of the path back. This is why the endowment can only truly be understood by revelation. The profane waste their time trying to understand it, only by revelation can we “get it.”
“Therefore, in the ordinances thereof, the power of godliness is manifest.” [D&C 84:20]
www.mastermason.com/hiramdiscovered
/gnostic.html
"The Gnostics were a closed society; they were said to carry stones inscribed with serpents and other symbols as talismans and proof of initiation, and to employ passwords and secret handshakes to identify themselves to other members of the sect."
On our page Forbidden Forward, we opened the door to the possibility that there are two Gods. One who dislikes and is jealous of us and one who is our protector and the true God. Believe it or not, Jesus and Paul taught this. This is openly exposed in all the Gnostic writings. The evidence also lies in manuscripts and writings of early church proponets. One of these men was Marcion. He wrote; there were, in fact, two different Gods: the God of the Jews, who created the world, called Israel to be his people, and gave them his harsh law; and the God of Jesus, who sent Christ into the world to save people from the wrathful vengence of the Jewish creator God. Jesus did not believe or teach anything about a 'satan'. Church fathers made that up as well as parts of the New Testament. The evidence of this is surported in the Nag Hammidi scrolls. We provide the links below. But first lets review some of the myths created by the church.Jesus of Nazereth? The word Nazarene specifies a sect, not a town.