Big thank you to Oscar Inclan and the rest of the team at Lords of Consciousness for tracking me down at Contact in the Desert last weekend and inviting me on to their show for an interview.
I enjoyed the conversation with Oscar very much -- you can see our discussion in the above video, which was filmed in one of the alcoves under the shade of the desert trees and plants at the Joshua Tree Retreat Center.
During the conversation, I mentioned that Lords of Consciousness is an appropriate title, because as Alvin Boyd Kuhn once said -- and as I am fond of quoting -- in the world's ancient wisdom, found in the myths, scriptures and sacred stories of every culture on every inhabited continent and island:
The very clear parallels between those two scenes, and the fact that both can be very satisfactorily shown to be based upon celestial metaphor involving very specific constellations that you can still see for yourself in the night sky, should be conclusive evidence that the world's ancient myths are speaking the same "celestial language" and are in fact closely related.
You can see the conversation in the video above. Also, Alvin Boyd Kuhn offers some good insights into "foot washing" in general in his 1940 masterpiece, Lost Light, where he says:
During the conversation, I mentioned that Lords of Consciousness is an appropriate title, because as Alvin Boyd Kuhn once said -- and as I am fond of quoting -- in the world's ancient wisdom, found in the myths, scriptures and sacred stories of every culture on every inhabited continent and island:
The actors are not old kings, priests and warriors; the one actor in every portrayal, in every scene, is the human soul. The Bible is the drama of our history here and now; and it is not apprehended in its full force and applicability until every reader discerns himself [or herself] to be the central figure in it! The Bible is about the mystery of human life. Instead of relating to the incidents of a remote epoch in temporal history, it deals with the reality of the living present in the life of every soul on earth.At one point, Oscar asks an outstanding question about the possible meaning of the "foot-washing scenes" found in both the Odyssey and in the (so-called) "New" Testament in the biblical scriptures.
The very clear parallels between those two scenes, and the fact that both can be very satisfactorily shown to be based upon celestial metaphor involving very specific constellations that you can still see for yourself in the night sky, should be conclusive evidence that the world's ancient myths are speaking the same "celestial language" and are in fact closely related.
You can see the conversation in the video above. Also, Alvin Boyd Kuhn offers some good insights into "foot washing" in general in his 1940 masterpiece, Lost Light, where he says:
On the second day's celebration of the Mystery rites in Greece [he is here referring to the mysteria of Eleusis], the one commemorating the descent of the gods into matter, the cry "Alade, mustai" ("to the sea, ye initiated ones!") was the keynote of the ceremony.Elsewhere in the same book, Kuhn says:
[ . . . ]
Plutarch affirms that the child Jesus fell into the sea and was drowned. Likewise Horus.
[ . . . ]
This firmly supports the primary claim of this study, that the incarnation is the one central theme of all scripture. Burial of the soul in the water of the body on earth is all that could ever have meant by the baptism.
An aspect of the baptism formula was the rite of feet-washing. Jesus washed the disciples' feet. This act was a dramatization of his laying aside his superior dignity, humbling himself to become a servant and pouring out the water of deific potency for the cleansing baptism of the lower nature of man. For he himself poured out the water in a basin. The Speaker says that he comes that he may purify this soul of his in the most hight degree. The Teacher in the Pistis Sophia says that he tore himself asunder to bring unto mankind the "Mysteries of light to purify them . . . otherwise no soul in the whole of mankind would have been saved!" (Bk. 2:249, Mead). Here is one of the most explicit references to divine dismemberment anywhere to be found. 390 - 391.
Coming with his fan in his hand "he will thoroughly purge his floor." The floor is the physical base of life. The higher potency will cleanse the lowest. More than once the Egyptian Ritual harps on the soul's "acquiring dominion over his feet." The rite of feet-washing can be immediately divined as a type of cleansing the lowest nature. Texts in the Ritual state that he who has won control over his feet has done all he needs to do to insure salvation. 354.I hope you enjoy the above interview. I was not familiar with Lords of Consciousness before going on their show, but asked a little about what they are about and learned that they support sustainable permaculture and raising consciousness. I must say that I do not at all endorse the views of every other guest who has ever been interviewed on any of the podcasts or shows on which I appear, and that I am very strongly against any sort of apologetic or rationalization for Germany's role in the Second World War and the actions of the Nazis before, during or after that war, as offered by one guest on a previous interview on that same show. I am very strongly and wholeheartedly opposed to fascism and right-wing political arguments everywhere and at all times.
The above interview was recorded on May 20, 2017.
PS: For a blog post talking about the wonderful illustrated mythology books of Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire, see here.
For a discussion of the importance of the Ganges, and the way it flows down from heaven originating in the locks of Shiva, see here and also here.
