Figure in the World Card = Lucifer/Satan?

[kglyphics]

I was just reading about an article of symbolism in the 2012 olympics and the sculpture that was created for it said to be a stylized version of the snake that is depicted in the Bible as coiled around the Tree of Knowledge. The author showed several more pictures and said this symbolism was part of the Mithras cult. There was one picture that really struck me as familiar and I was wondering where I had seen it before. But oH! of course I'd have seen it before. It is eerily similar to the figure in the "World" card. In fact in ancient mysticism Lucifer means "Light-bringer" and in ancient science the Light-bringer symbolizes the atom, that which created the physical world bridged the Heaven's to the Earth. In Christian symbolism the Lucifer is the angel that fell from heaven to earth and is represented as the Devil and we know the Devil is our bind to the material world.

http://divinecosmos.com/images/image/mithras3.gif

Article: http://divinecosmos.com/start-here/davids-blog/1074-olympicsilluminati

PS: Mods sorry if this is in the wrong forum, couldn't figure out where to put this.

 

[rwcarter]

I believe the snake eating its own tail (Ouroboros) would be considered different symbolically than that of a coiled serpent.

 

[tarotbear]

The idea of slipping something into the Olympics recalls the discussion in Amadeus that Mozart's 'The Magic Flute' is really secret rituals of the Masons that he learned while he was one.

It's like the four symbols in the corners of the World and Wheel cards - they are symbols of the 4 Cardinal Astrological signs, but they are also the symbols of the Four Gospels...if that is where your belief stops. I was singing at St Finnbarr's church in Ireland and the front rose window was the 'perfect' Wheel card - which I pointed out to the Guides who INSISTED that is was just Biblical symbols...nothing else. I also noticed the statue of St John outside one of the doors had a goblet with a flying fish sticking out of it in his hand ... Page of Cups??? The clincher was the interior tour - you can not convince me the architect was not involved in a Lodge or something somewhere. Then the guides said - 'There are 12 windows at the peak of the roof. Usually they would contain the 12 apostles, but the architect designed them wth the 12 astrological symbols instead." I rest my case! LOL!!!!

 

[kwaw]

It's like the four symbols in the corners of the World and Wheel cards - they are symbols of the 4 Cardinal Astrological signs,

Supposedly the four Fixed signs I think... Man - Aquarius, Lion - Leo, Bull - Taurus, and the eagle is supposedly Scorpio (not sure how old the symbolism of that one is).

The four holy animals are from ezekials vision of the chariot, which in later Christian typology were appropriated as symbols of the apostles.

The devil is already represented in card XV -- if we are to take XXi as a type lucifer then lucifer as Christ (the morning star) is more likely I think; then we have lucifer/satan as first card as the third rank of seven, and lucifer/christ as final card.

lucifer - satan (according to tradition founded by early Church fathers)
... the beginning of judgement (judgement begins with the house of god)
... ... time (star/moon/sun)
... the final judgement
lucifer - christ

kwaw

btw: images of mithras, among others, were used as a model of christ in some early christian art.

 

[Richard]

1. The serpent which can encircle the earth and grasp its own tail is Jörmungandr, which is described in the Prose Edda of Norse mythology and is unrelated to Lucifer or Satan.

2. In the Western Esoteric Tradition. the Ouroboros is a symbol of infinity.

3. Lucifer is a character in the Bible who gets booted out of heaven and falls to earth. The identification of Lucifer with Satan is pure folklore. There is no mention of this whatsoever in the Bible.

4. Satan, a character who is depicted as God's buddy in the book of Job, is neither a snake nor the Devil. In fact, Satan actually is not a proper noun. There are no upper case letters in Hebrew, and satan is a common noun meaning adversary and no doubt refers to several different characters.

5. Snakes in the Bible are not necessarily bad. Moses fashioned a snake on a pole which had the magical power to cure snakebite victims. This got confused with the Caduceus of Hermes and was adopted as a symbol of the medical profession.

6. The snake (Hebrew Nachash) which tempted Eve in the book of Genesis is NEVER identified in the Bible as Satan or the Devil. This again is extra-Biblical folklore, which has been adopted by some theologians as a key element in a slick theory about the Bible being a massive epic of the Fall and Redemption of Man. This idea had its inception in the writings of the epileptic theologian Paul of Tarsus, the redemptive hero being designated as Jesus, who himself apparently had no notion of playing such a role.

7. In summary, the Satan-Serpent-Devil-Lucifer conflation is merely a convenient fiction in Judeo-Christian folklore to simplify an epic Fall-Redemption plot which was artificially imposed on a collection of writings by diverse authors in a literary anthology known as the Bible.

8. I don't want to get started on the Illuminati topic, other than to comment that people tend to dearly love conspiracy theories, the more outrageous the better.

 

[Debra]

What a wonderful picture.
It doesn't look like the World card to me, though.

 

[Richard]

Supposedly the four Fixed signs I think... Man - Aquarius, Lion - Leo, Bull - Taurus, and the eagle is supposedly Scorpio (not sure how old the symbolism of that one is).

Scorpion, snake, and eagle are all symbols of Scorpio, their inception seemingly lost in the dim mists of antiquity.

The devil is already represented in card XV -- if we are to take XXi as a type lucifer then lucifer as Christ (the morning star) is more likely I think; then we have lucifer/satan as first card as the third rank of seven, and lucifer/christ as final card.

In the mythology of Gnosticism, the Snake in the Garden is one of the good guys, who later reappears in human form as the Christ, still trying to help mankind escape the grim fate imposed on them by the Demiurge, the creator god, who is at best incompetent and at worst evil personified.

It is interesting that in Hebrew gematria, snake (nachash) and christ (messiah) are equivalent, both having the same numerical value of 358.

 

[tarotbear]

Article: http://divinecosmos.com/start-here/davids-blog/1074-olympicsilluminati

I just skimmed the entire article - it is quite a piece! However, as someone once said about statistics - you can make anything fit your point if you bend it right.

 

[kwaw]

Scorpion, snake, and eagle are all symbols of Scorpio, their inception seemingly lost in the dim mists of antiquity.

The scorpion is certainly a symbol of Scorpio from antiquity. I am not so sure about the serpent and the eagle. The serpent and the eagle were the emblems of the tribe of Dan, and the tribe of Dan was also attributed at some period among some astrologers/kabbalists to the sign Scorpio (together with as usual other conflicting variations). Sir William Drummond claimed that this was because the zodiac that Abraham knew scorpio was figured as an eagle* -- however, outside of this speculative assertion I have not been able to find any reference to scorpio represented as an eagle in antiquity. It seems to be a post-hoc (19th century) attribution to make the symbolism with the four fixed signs complete. Pre-1811 one is more likely to find the four holy animals assigned to the elements of the signs rather than the qualities; in Agrippa for example the fiery signs are attributed to the Lion, the airy signs to the Eagle, the water signs to Man, the earth signs to the Ox.

Kwaw

* Allen, Richard Hinckley, STAR NAMES: THEIR LORE AND MEANING.
* Drummond, William, OEDIPUS JUDAICUS, 1811.
note: Drummond follows the astrological attribution of the 12 tribes based on Kircher.

 

[Cenozoic]

I don't think it looks like the World card, tbh. The figure in the World card has one leg bent, and arms are diagonally downwards. Mithras has his arms bent upwards while his legs are rooted together. So just from their pose, it doesn't seem like they're alike.

Also Lucifer means light-bringer, and if light fell from the Heavens down to Earth, isn't that just the natural process of light? Light... just falls down to earth.

And well, there's already a Devil card in the tarot. And not even in that card is a snake... lol unless it's the naughty one XD

hmm and at the Olympics, they'll use symbols that they feel are universally recognized. Or they'll pull together some sort of 'theme' that would tie together the ancient to the present day. Perhaps brain-washing subliminal symbolism are also included in the package, but who would really know? lol