Iconography and Religion

Iconography: 

• Pictorial illustration of a subject.
• The collected representations illustrating a subject.
•  A set of specified or traditional symbolic forms associated with the subject or theme of a stylized work of art.

The  picture below symbolizes Isis , pouring out libation to the soul [spirit] of Osiris.  He is in the form of a man-bird to represent both the human and the spiritual aspect of mankind and she is in the form of a woman with horned cow head to represent the 'horn of plenty' and power. 

According to some scholars the name Isis or Auset may have been derived from the word Ashesh, meaning to 'pour out' and 'supporting' implication of her blood or milk that kept all alive.   Similar to the man Ishah the Hebrew name for the first woman.  

In Gen., iii, 20, it is connected etymologically with the verb meaning "to live": "And Adam called the name of his wife Eve [hawwah]: because she was the mother of all the living". The Septuagint rendering in this passage is Zoe (=life, or life-giver), which is a translation; in two other passages (Genesis 4:1 and 25) the name is transliterated Eua.

The cow-headed Isis pouring out a libation in honor of the soul of Osiris, which rises in the form of a man-headed hawk from the plants growing in a sacred lake.

If you have to learn to read the images they will tell a story. Like we say an man is “Strong as an Ox” the iconographic image would be a man with a head of an Ox or an Ox alone atop a position of power. If this image was used for God then it would be fashioned as an Ox n a throne or in an elevated position as seen below.  The disk atop the head and between the horns represents the icon for the Almighty God the largest disk in the sky the Sun.  this was not sun worship but Sun Reference.

How did the prophet Ezekiel describe what his visions:

  Ezk. 1:4-11

  “As I looked, a stormy wind came out of the north: a great cloud with brightness around it and fire flashing forth continually, and in the middle of the fire, something like gleaming amber. In the middle of it was something like four living creatures. This was their appearance: they were of human form. Each had four faces, and each of them had four wings. Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the sole of a calf's foot; and they sparkled like burnished bronze. Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. And the four had their faces and their wings thus: their wings touched one another; each of them moved straight ahead, without turning as they moved. As for the appearance of their faces: the four had the face of a human being, the face of a lion on the right side, the face of an ox on the left side, and the face of an eagle; such were their faces.”  

 

Protestant Reformation drawing

How would this scripture be carved in stone or draw on paper?  How could you understand it without referring to the scripture?  You need the key to understand the illusion or illustration.

What is the disk in Ezekiel's hand in the first picture?  Why is God's head have a pyramid over it in the 2nd picture?  ' Cause they know something you don't know.  those who claim orthodoxy wants you to believe African were animist and polytheistic. 

Polytheism - The belief in the existence of many Gods.

Animism - derived from the Latin word anima meaning breath or soul, but in this sense the animal icon or zootype is alive and represents man and God.

"The belief of animism is probably one of man's oldest beliefs, with its origin most likely dating to the Paleolithic age. From its earliest beginnings it was a belief that a soul or spirit existed in every object, even if it was inanimate. In a future state this soul or spirit would exist as part of an immaterial soul. The spirit, therefore, was thought to be universal." E.W.Budge

The European concept of Polytheism and Animism and the Afro-Indus concept lies with the perception of what is or is not God [The Creator of All Things] and what is or is not the manifestation of God [power to create, live and make all things seen and unseen, known and unknown to mankind in the spiritual and natural worlds]. 

The European concept is viewed in a different way than the original African understanding; the former is viewed in the Western or Occidental mind-set as the 'one and only'  Sacred way while the later African or Oriental concept is shown as profane, pagan and primitive.  We see again the stereotype that if you are white you're right but if you're black get back!

The African no more worshipped an animal or many gods as Christians today worships the form of a Lamb which represents the sacrificed Messiah.

'The Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the World...'  

or 

 the Trinity referred to as God in 3 persons

'There are three that bear witness in Heaven.'  

A symbol of healing"

Caduceus:

The symbol of healing for the Hebrew and the symbol of Medicine in our culture.  Many "medical" organizations use a symbol of a short rod entwined by two snakes and topped by a pair of wings, which is actually the caduceus or magic wand of the Greek god Hermes (Roman Mercury), which were copies of the Egyptian Thoth, messenger of the gods, inventor of (magical) incantations, conductor of the dead and protector of merchants and thieves.

Moses used the same symbol

And the LORD said to Moses,  "Make a Saraph [firey serpent] and mount it on a pole, and if anyone who has been bitten looks at it, he will recover. "Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent, he recovered.

The brazen symbol on a pole, the mere sight of which cured the Israelites, was probably the Caduceus [Numbers 21:9]. The Nehustan was worshipped in the tabernacle up to the time of Hezekiah [2Kings 18:4].  

Saraph'; burning, i.e. (figuratively) poisonous (serpent); specifically, a Saraph or symbolical creature (from their copper color):--fiery (serpent), seraph.

Here is an interesting thing  found a possible correlation between the word Neshstan and Nehesi.

"Nehesi is the Egyptian name for Nubian and Nehesi was also the name of a Pharaoh from the 14th Dynasty. The color of burn copper was the same color the Egyptian applied to the drawings of themselves a dark reddish color. "

Unfortunately, the farther away you get from the root of the original understanding, the more confused the subsequent understanding become. 

"The more you hate your parents the more you will hate their ways. "

“The farther you move away fm you momma the more you misbehave and forget what you were taught.”

 It is the same with gender; The Creator is neither male nor female. 

BUT, it is easier for most 'religious' people in our society to view God as a  white male, because it is the symbol of dominance, strength and feighned fatherliness but that was not always the case.   We have adopted the false idea of the ‘White man’s burden.”

  Remember Adam called his wife LIFE...so there was a time when Biblical womanhood represented the Creator also. 

The Biblical Adam and Eve were gods to their children and all those who came after  They were a story told second and third hand. The original story had its nativity in Egypt/Africa.

Now, I have no problem seeing the female in the Creator, but for those who may still stumble over the femaleness of God  I will at times stick to modern orthodoxy.  

"I will be all things to all men to win them to Messiah. "

Our terms, pictures, images and metaphors do not trouble our Creator.  It does not add or take away from the power of the Almighty. 

The Bible tries to explain the first pair bonds by saying:

 'In the image of God created he them, male and female he created them.'

The Egyptians used Neteroo which re the pairs or equal opposites.  They understood the Neteru were symbols of the power or attributes of the One Creator and Maat [truth and order] being the principle that ordered these forces. 

The European, trying to understand his misunderstanding and in the process of his circular logic, called these forces from the Creator manifested in creation as pagan and polytheistic and that e worshipped more than One God… that is a LIE!

This new western thought is a paradigm shift in order to make Europe the source and center of all wisdom, religion and the hope of  mankind’s salvation.  By demonizing our people, culture and religion and calling us pagans, animists and polytheists it made African culture represent the negative and Western Culture via Greece , Rome and Europe represent the positive.  We became darkness and they became light?  But the truth is the light and Life!

Genesis 1:-3

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness [was] upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”

Remember this light was not White it was revelation.  This new paradigm assigned them to the role of being the purveyors of truth in the eyes of the whole world and eventually in our eyes too.  

Well, the scales have come off my eyes and now I see. 

In this case:

Simply Man and Woman is the image of the Creator - Male and Female working together creating a new world daily. Life making life.

"As it is above, So below."

As the Hebrew understood it in the double triangle of Star of David.

Which is one image of Man's knowledge of God.

As the Egyptian understood it:

As the symbol of life the Ankh  in the Messu

As the Christian explained it Christ in us the hope of Glorification and as it  in Heaven so on Earth.

Unfotunately, the Christians misunderstood it as the redemptive work on the cross and the multiplying of the church.  And the Ichthus or Fish symbol of the acrostic, Jesus Christ, the son of God. 

The Greek word for fish or Ichthus is said to mean:

 Iota  - From the northern Semitic 'yod' (meaning hand) it came to denote the sound [i] as i in 'give' and it has come to be known as: A tiny or scarcely detectable amount. [Yod - hand or give, or the finger of God]

Chi   - Initially it denoted the sound [kh] but it gradually lapsed into a strong 'h' as in 'hearth' or'hero'. [Chi - Form of Energy, spirit]

Theta  - Originating from the northern Semitic 'teth' (where the 't' sound is emphatic).[Tet -Serpent]

Upsilon - It was pronounced as so right until the 9/10 century A.D. when the Byzantines called y psilon (a thin y), instead of its original name which was 'U'.It originates from the northern Semitic 'waw'. [Waw - Nail]

Sigma - From the northern Semitic 'sin' or ‘siyn’ (tooth).  [Sin or Shin - tooth]

So in Northern Semitic it could read:

Hand of God - Energy-Serpent -Nail -Tooth  

Sounds similar to the Nehestan or Caduceus doesn't it and the original intent of Moses?         

"21.6. And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. 7. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. 8. And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. 9. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived."

Note:

The so-called Northern Semitic peoples are the Canaanites. They will also call it Paleo-Hebrew, but it is the Canaanite language.

That is an acrostic supposedly means:  "Jesus Christ, of God, the Son, the Savior" [Iesous (Jesus) CHristos (Christ) THeou (of God) Uiou (the Son) Soter (the Savior)]. 

Did you eat fish on Fridays?  

In the Catholic and Protestant division of Christianity - Eating fish on Fridays was the rule - but did you ask where that whole concept came from? It was supposed to be in honor of Jesus and the disciples and their role as fishermen. 

Fish womb [ does the vagina smell fishy?]

The official story is:   We do not have to abstain from eating the flesh of meat on Fridays of Lent (obligatory), or all other Fridays if we don't choose some other form of penance (depends on what the Conference of Bishops in that particular country have come to). This is a form of penance [atonement, reparation, sacrifice].

           Excuse me but didn’t Messiah atone for our sins?   OOPS!  But, was this the original Pre-Catholic meaning?  Nope!

The Fish was always the ancient symbol of the goddess womb represented by this symbol () or LIFE represented by the ancient Egyptian symbol of the Ankh that later in the Hebrew tradition became the Chai.

According to Barbara Walker in her book The Women Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets. Pg. 313:

"Fish and womb were synonymous in Greek culture; delphos meant both the    original Delphic oracle [black women who prophesied] first belonged to the abyssal fish goddess under her pre-Hellenic name of Themis, often incarnate in the great fish whale or dolphin [delphinos]. "  [The Delphi were Black women.]

Even our superstitions today among older church members, the mothers and grandmothers of the church reminds a woman if she has Dreamt of Fish that is a sign of pregnancy.  

The Catholic Popes Mitre and Dagon called the Great Fish God [the paternalistic rendition].  

The last pope and his successor

Why do you think the Pope wears the hat that looks a lot like Dagon?  It is representative of the Fish.    Check out my essay on Islam and Catholicism there you will find the worship of the goddess in the form of Mariology/Auset

"The ankh called the Egyptian cross of life, represented the male and female sexual symbols: a female oval surmounting a male cross. The marriage between the god and the goddess [male and female]. The representation of immortality and life.  The letter hieroglyph that stands for 'The Life female]. The representation of immortality and life.  The letter hieroglyph that stands for 'The Life to Come'. "

It has also been explained as the key to unlock the mystery of heaven and earth. Combining the symbol of Osiris the Tau [T or cross] with Isis [the oval] is the symbol of immortality [Children, progeny, regeneration?] and is often pictured being carried by the gods [neteru].

All symbols come from one source and that is Egypt . The original story is told and retold and additions and deletions are made and that is how we come up with what we believe today.  I hope you can see the pattern. 

The Greek Orthodox, Catholic Church and subsequent modern Christianity have co-opted the symbol of the FISH symbol and repackaged it and now it is the representation of Christ. 

Herodotus speaking of the Africans:

"And of fish also they esteem that which is called the lepidotos to be sacred, and also the eel; and these they say are sacred to the Nile ." Herodotus, Histories

  And just so the myth of the Hebrews being the only culture that abhorred pigs:

"The pig is accounted by the Egyptians an abominable animal; and first, if any of them in passing by touch a pig, he goes into the river and dips himself forthwith in the water together with his garments. "Herodotus, Histories I

The Egyptian also abhorred pigs because  their association with Set the one who killed Osiris.  The Hebrew picked up this supposed hatred and incorporated into their Levitical laws.

"All the demons begged him, saying, "Send us into the pigs, that we may enter into them." At once Jesus gave them permission. The unclean spirits came out and entered into the pigs. The herd of about two thousand rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and they were drowned in the sea." Mark 5:13

The Egyptians Attributes of God as see in the Earth and Sky. 

The Neteroo were twins or opposite principles for Egyptian iconography and symbolic principles in nature. The European erroneously translated the Neteroo as 'Gods' and therefore in that misunderstanding they believed the Egyptian was pagans and believed in polytheisms.  If that is true then all of us are pagans and believe in polytheism.

The Bible, which borrowed heavily from the Egyptian concepts and uses the same nomenclature.   Earth and Sky, Day and Night as described in Genesis 1.  All underlined words are the Egyptian Neteroo.

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, 

the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters.

Then God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.

God saw how good the light was. God then separated the light from the darkness.

God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." Thus evening came, and morning followed--the first day.

Then God said, "Let there be a dome in the middle of the waters, to separate one body of water from the other." And so it happened:

God made the dome, and it separated the water above the dome from the water below it.

God called the dome "the sky." Evening came, and morning followed--the second day.

Then God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered into a single basin, so that the dry land may appear." And so it happened: the water under the sky was gathered into its basin, and the dry land appeared.

God called the dry land "the earth," and the basin of the water he called "the sea." God saw how good it was.

So, here we have the equal opposites, the attributes of power that were given names: Heaven and Earth, Light and Dark, Sky and Sea. The power to create and sustain were assigned male and female characteristics or anthropomorphic features by the parents of the original Hebrew Creation Story, the Egyptians. 

Amon Saba Saakana says:

"Out of the waters of Nun [primeval matter] emerged Atum-Re, the veritable Creator-God who is self-created and who creates four pairs of human beings, male and female, and is responsible for the germination of life. Scholars have tended to portray Khemet as polytheistic, but there is no word in the majority of African languages that convey the idea of a multiplicity of gods."

Modupe Oduyoye in his essay; The Spirits that rule the world African Religion and Judaism -

"The problem with discovering the origins of Judaism is that Judaism is a religion that denies its origins...Judaism declares that it arose out of total rejection of the religions of Mesopotamia, of  Egypt and of Canaan ."

In rejecting the symbols of your nativity the Hebrew had to replace the meanings then make up a supporting story for the symbols.  But, the thread of original truth runs through all the Biblical accounts especially in Genesis chapter One.  From the remaking of Creation and the making of the Adam and the dividing of that unit into two or twins, Adam and Chavvah.

The Hebrews also took a page out of the Egyptian handbook of explanations by referring to Cain and Abel in an offhanded way to say twins [actually 2 sets of twins]

The Hebrew legends in the Misnah and Talmud speak of the Biblical Eve had Cain, Abel and 2 daughters simultaneously, 2 sets of twins, male and female. 

Our view of God being exclusively male is very recent, since Judaism denies the female principle, but uses the AH, T and OT endings to denote the feminine principle.  Here is where we get the Shekinah as a feminine and not masculine attribute of the Almighty.

Yes, the Shekinah is feminine and the Rabbis understand it as such.  The modern Protestant has not delved deep enough to see this ancient truth the whole world understands. It has been only in translations that the Holy Sprit has taken on male characteristics.

Quoting Barbara Walker in her book stated above, pg. 932:

" The Hebrew Shekinah means dwelling place, ...Sh'kina was the soul of the universe. Jewish Mystics said the 'outer garment' of the Shekina is Torah 'Holy Law.' A man became the bridegroom of Torah by study, symbolizing erotic imagery. He must court her [Torah] like a beautiful maiden. "She begins from behind a curtain to speak words in keeping with his understanding, until very slowly insight comes to him.' The Shekina as 'Indwelling One' might be compared to the Latin I-dea or 'Goddess within'.

"A man required his Shekina for enlightenment, so God required his Shekina for wisdom and creativity.  This crucial tenet of Kabaalistic doctrine is seldom emphasized  - or even mentioned - today."

In Hebrew, both verbs and adjectives have male or female forms, and many names suggest gender to anyone who understands the language and they must agree in gender and number.  The word Shekinah, in Hebrew, is derived from the Biblical verb shakhan, meaning "the act of dwelling" but taking the feminine form.

Unfortunately, the medieval and modern Hebrew could not live up to the root of this understanding, so they refer to the 'Shekinah' or 'Holy Spirit' in the female gender without the female principle.  This understanding is forever lost in Christianity and the Shekinah is seen as a male in the male Trinity of Beings as ascribed and ratified by the Nicean Council, who in their haste to cover-up all thing African, distorted the true meaning of the Scriptures.

Even the overshadowing of Miriam the mother of Jesus has been seen as the male Shekinah overshadowing the female womb and impregnating it. 

"Once the essence [truth] is sucked out and replaced with an alternative, it is very difficult to understand the allusions, so we just over-look them until it piles up so high it is like a 3000 pound elephant walking around your home."

Thousands and Thousands of years have gone by and the original meaning lost in translation, only the shell of the truth remains, and it has long since lost the root meaning of equal opposite of the creative power.   

To be continued...

[Table of Contents]

Blessings,

Ekowa

2oo6