Angels, Demons & Gods of the New Millennium: Musings on Modern Magick by DuQuette Lon Milo

Author:DuQuette, Lon Milo [DuQuette, Lon Milo]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Red Wheel Weiser
Published: 1997-01-14T16:00:00+00:00

AGE OF ARIES (2332 B.C. TO 166 B.C.)

Pole of

The Sun is exalted in Aries, and in Egypt the great astrological Age of Aries saw the development of magnificent forms of solar worship. For over two thousand years, the cults of Osiris, Isis, and Horus embedded the passion play of the daily and yearly adventures of the Sun deeply upon the consciousness of the people, and evolved a collateral pantheon of gods and goddesses of such sublime strength and perfection that they are easily reawakened in the modern psyche. Identity with the cycles of the Sun brought with it an obsession with death and resurrection that dominated the spiritual musings of royalty7 early in the Age. Later in the period artisans and tomb workers would become eligible for eternal life.8 By proper magical identification with the same divine power that is responsible for the daily and yearly rebirth of the Sun (the glorified Osiris, slain and risen) one could now assure one's own continuity of existence after death. This magical theory is precisely the same as that espoused by Christianity and scores of lesser known cults. I will discuss this subject in greater depth in the last section of this chapter.

In 1353 B.C. the pendulum of Egyptian solar worship reached its most radical swing when king Akhenaten attempted to enthrone the god Aton, the solar disk itself, as state deity and attempted to withdraw governmental support of all other cults. This move proved to be politically incorrect and a major social faux pas. The royal cult of Aton did not survive long after Akhenaten's death. Smenkhare, his son and immediate successor, lived to rule less than a year, and Tutankhamun, the next in line, presided over Akhenaten's denunciation. His cult was vilified and his name was obliterated from all public buildings. Soon the priests of Amoun returned “stability” to the two lands.

Mars rules Aries, and it is not surprising to observe that the major technical advances of the early Arian Age were weapons of war. This was the age of the Trojan war. Carbonized iron was the military secret that ensured the political and religious dominance of whichever army that wielded it, and until the middle of the Age of Aries, that was the Hittites. They were also the first to adapt cuneiform writing to their language which would give rise to what we now call the classical Greek forms of Linear A and Linear B. Spread by the dynamics of international trade, the popularity of Linear A and B would initiate the first real quantum leap of literacy the world had ever experienced.

The gods of the Age of Aries are very recognizable to the modern student. One need only read of their adventures in Homer's Iliad to see how the Greek pantheon had crystallized in the Hellenic soul. The Sumerian pantheon also received a face-lift when it was adopted by the Semites and an assortment of other cultures, including those which would eventually shape the remarkably resilient traditions of Judaism.

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