"The God of Jupiter is the Lord of Magicians, MARDUK KURIOS of the Double-headed Axe." - Necronomicon, p. 30 (AVON Edition).
Laurence Austine Waddell, in The Makers of Civilization in Race and History, (1929), sheds some light on the significance of the axe:
"The Double-Axe sign for the God Zeus in Crete also occurs as a sign for the god ZAG [1] in Sumerian. It is found in the inscription of Manis-Tusu's grandfather; and it is obviously a fuller form of the diagrammatic axe-sign in Sumerian, which has the phonetic value of ZAG or SAG, and is defined as 'axe, sceptre, two-edged sword.' And significantly this axe-sign is a title in Sumerian of 'The GREAT LORD' (NAR-GAL) [Ner-Gal from his fatal smiting still later became the God of the Underworld.], a martial reflex of the Father-God ZAGG, SAKH, or SAX [2], i.e., Zeus, who became latterly the 'God of War' in Babylonia; and Manis' father SARGON worshipped the weapon of the God ZAGG as we have seen."
Nergal, [3] as we have noticed above, is associated with Cutha. And Nergal is one of Enki's sons. Also, Nergal is god of the Underworld, and associated with Melkarth. As Melkarth, Nergal's worship spread across the Mediterranean world, thanks to the Phoenician traders.
The name ZAG, SAGG, SAKH, et al., may be related to Sakkhun, as in Sakkhun-yathan, Sanchuniathon. Waddell identifies this name with IA, YAH, INDRA, ZEUS. This is a bit of a mish-mash, granted, but that is Waddell, and many an early scholar for you. This may mean that he is to be identified with ENKI. Therefore, SAKKHUN-YATHAN may mean, 'The God IA has Given', which would be, in Hebrew, Yahu-Nathan. In Greek, Dositheos, and the significance of this is that this ancient Phoenician writer may be the first Dositheos on record.
We have already noticed above, that the 9° and 10° AASR bear a resemblance to the rites associated with Melkarth. Perhaps not as they were practiced, when THEY WERE STILL PRACTICED, but in their root symbolism. Here, too, we can add, a resemblance to the god Nergal.
"The God of Mars is the mighty Nergal.
"He has the head of a man on the body of a lion, and bears a sword and a flail. He is the God of War, and of the fortunes of war. He was sometimes thought to be an agent of the Ancient Ones, for he dwelt in CUTHA for a time. His color is dark red. His essence is to be found in Iron, and in all weapons made to spill the blood of men and of animals." - Necronomicon, p. 28 (AVON Edition!)
"These Sumerian records, linking Enki with the African lands of the Nile, assume a double significance; they corroborate the Egyptian tales with Mesopotamian tales and link Sumerian gods - especially the Enki gods - with the gods of Egypt; for PTAH, we believe, was none other than ENKI. [4]
"After the lands were made habitable again, [after the Deluge], Enki divided the length of the African continent between his six sons. The southernmost domain was re-granted to Nergal ("Great Watcher") and his spouse Eresh kigal. To his north, in the mining regions, GIBIL ('The One of Fire') was installed, having been taught by his Father the secrets of metal-working. NIN.A.GAL ('Prince of Great Waters') was, as his name implied, given the region of the great lakes and the headwaters of the Nile. Farther north, in the grazing plateau of the Sudan, the youngest son, DUMU.ZI ('Son Who is Life'), whose nickname was 'The Herder' was given reign." - The Wars of Gods and Men (Sitchin), pp. 126-127 [AVON Paperback Edition, not the overpriced New Age Popularity Editions available today, but originally purchased in 1986.]
William Foxwell Albright, in Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan, (III: B, C, D) identifies Nergal with Melkarth (Milk-Qrt) and Resheph, (RASAP), which we see depicted on the beautiful Egyptian Stele, with Qetesh (HATHOR!) on the Lion in the centre, and AMSU or MIN on HER Right, with RESHPU on HER Left. [5]
In Mackey's Revised History of Freemasonry, by Robert Ingham Clegg, et. al., we find the following: [Volume VII, pp. 2135 - 2137]
"Figures 3, 5, and 6 are different forms of Nergal. The word Ner-Gal divides into two parts: Ner signifies light, or luminary, etc., and gal signifies to roll, revolve, a revolution, a circuit, the two together implies the revolving or returning light. If this be truly descriptive of Nergal, there is nothing improbable in considering the rooster as allusive to it, since the vigilance of the rooster is well known, and that he gives due notice of the very earliest reappearance of light, morning after morning. There are different senses in which light may be taken, besides its reference to natural light:
1. Deliverance from any singular danger, or distress. Esther 8:6.
2. Posterity; a son, or successor. 1 Kings 11:36; 2 Chron. 21:7.
3. Resurrection, or something very like it. Job 33:28, 30; Psalm 97:11.
In the figures 3, 5, and 6 there is no allusion to the first of these principles, but they have a strong reference to the second, Posterity, and the idea of fecundity or fertility is expressed in the adaptation of the figure of a rooster, which signifies the returning of light. In Figure 5, which is taken from a gem in the Gallery of Florence, Italy, two roosters are yoked to the car of Cupid, and driven by one Cupid and led by another; and not merely as if harnessed to a common car, but as if they had been in a race and had come off victorious; as the driving Cupid carries a palm-branch, which is the reward of victory, obtained by these his emblematical figures.
In Figure 3 we have a car with a rooster standing in the attitude of crowing and flapping his wings; which is the custom of this bird on certain occasions. The star shown is the star of Venus, and distinguishes this equipage as the consecrated vehicle of that supreme goddess of love and beauty. [6] At a short distance in the background sits Hymen, the god of marriage and conjugality; his torch brightly blazing; at his feet is a rooster crowing, etc., in a manner and attitude very like the other; and with precisely the same allusions. The indication of this allegory is the influence of Venus and Hymen, the genial powers of vitality, on the renovation of life, in human posterity.
As the extinction of lamps, or torches, indicated utter desolation, loss of children and misery, so on the contrary we are led by the brightly blazing torch to imply the joy of connubial or marriage engagements.
The Figure 6 represents a rooster holding in his bill two ears of corn; he is attended by Mercury, having a Caduceus or wand in one hand, and a bag of money in the other. This gem has puzzled the learned. Montfaucon says, 'To see Mercury with a rooster is common enough; but to see him walking before a rooster larger than himself, is what I have never noticed, except in this representation. It may denote that the greatest qualities of Mercury is vigilance. The rooster holding the corn in his bill, may, perhaps, mean that vigilance only can produce plenty of the productions necessary to the support of life.' Ancient mythology adopted various representations of the human form.
Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie - s. v. NERGAL, p. 505 (Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia):
"lgrn - The Hebrew name for the planet Mars, and everywhere associated with ill-luck and misfortune. In astrology, it is the lesser, but more active malefick. The Khalif HAKIM, on the last night of his life, saw Mars rising, and murmured, 'Dost thou ascend, accursed shedder of blood: then is my hour come;' whereupon his assassins sprang upon him (ABU TALEB: BAR HEBRAEUS, p. 220). He was associated with the SATURNIAN Moloch [7], or man-devourer (from the Sanskrit, NRIGAL), the greater malefic."
The Caliph Hakim, is the Deified Saint of the Druzes, as we shall see. Before we resume our treatment of the Axe, we must continue our long digression over Nergal. This time, we turn to the Encyclopaedia (11th Edition of the EB) EB-16:229 A-C; and 645 B-C:
NERGAL, the name of a solar deity in Babylonia, the main seat of whose cult was at Kutha or Cuthah, represented by the mound of Tell-Ibrahim. The importance of Kutha as a religious and at one time also as a political centre led to his surviving the tendency to concentrate the various sun-cults of Babylonia in Shamash (q.v.). He becomes, however, the representative of a certain phase only of the sun and not of the sun as a whole. Portrayed in hymns and myths as a god of war and pestilence, there can be little doubt that Nergal represents the sun of noontime [8] and of the summer solstice which brings destruction to mankind. [9]
It is a logical consequence that Nergal is pictured also as the deity who presides over the nether-world, and stands at the head of the special pantheon assigned to the government of the dead, who are supposed to be gathered in a large subterranean cave known as Aralu or Irkalla. [10] In this capacity there is associated with him a goddess Allatu, though there are indications that at one time Allatu was regarded as the sole mistress of Aralu, in her own person. Ordinarily the consort of Nergal is Laz. Nergal was pictured as a lion and on boundary-stone monuments his symbol is a mace surmounted by the head of a lion.
As in the case of Ninib, Nergal appears to have absorbed a number of minor solar deities, which accounts for the various names or designations under which he appears, such as Lugalgira, Sharrapu (" the burner," perhaps a mere epithet), Ira, Gibil (though this name more properly belongs to Nusku, q.v.) and Sibitti. A certain confusion exists in cuneiform literature between Ninib and Nergal, perhaps due to the traces of two different conceptions regarding these two solar deities. Nergal is called the " raging king," the " furious one," [11] and the like, and by a play upon his name-separated into three elements Ne-uru-gal " lord of the great dwelling "-his position at the head of the nether-world pantheon is indicated. In the astral-theological system he is the planet Mars, while in ecclesiastical art the great lion-headed colossi serving as guardians to the temples and palaces seem to be a symbol of Nergal, just as the bull-headed colossi are probably intended to typify Ninib.
The name of his chief temple at Kutha was E-shid-lam, from which the god receives the designation of Shidlamtaea, " the one that rises up from Shidlam." The cult of Nergal does not appear to have been as widespread as that of Ninib. He is frequently invoked in hymns and in votive and other inscriptions of Babylonian and Assyrian rulers, but we do not learn of many temples to him outside of Kutha. Sennacherib speaks of one at Tarbisu to the north of Nineveh, but it is significant that although Nebuchadrezzar II. (606-586 B.C.), the great temple-builder of the neo-Babylonian monarchy, alludes to his operations at E-shid-lam in Kutha, he makes no mention of a sanctuary to Nergal in Babylon. Local associations with his original seat-Kutha-and the conception formed of him as a god of the dead acted in making him feared rather than actively worshipped. (M. JA.)
NUSKU, the name of the light and fire-god in Babylonia and Assyria, who is hardly to be distinguished, from a certain time on, from a god Girru-formerly read Gibil. Nusku-Girru is the symbol of the heavenly as well as of the terrestrial fire. As the former he is the son of Anu, the god of heaven, but he is likewise associated with Bel of Nippur [12] as the god of the earth and regarded as his first-born son. A centre of his cult in Assyria was in Harran, [13] here, because of the predominating character of the moon-cult, he is viewed as the son of the moongod Sin (q.v.). Nusku-Girru is by the side of Ea, the god of water, the great purifier. It is he, therefore, who is called upon to cleanse the sick and suffering [14] from disease, which, superinduced by the demons, was looked upon as a species of impurity affecting the body.
The fire-god is also viewed as the patron of the arts and the god of civilization in general, because of the natural association of all human progress with the discovery and use of fire. As among other nations, the fire-god was in the third instance looked upon as the protector of the family. He becomes the mediator between humanity and the gods, since it is through the fire on the altar that the offering is brought into the presence of the gods.
While temples and sanctuaries to Nusku-Girru are found in Babylonia and Assyria, he is worshipped more in symbolical form than the other~gods. For the very reason that his presence is common and universal he is not localized to the same extent as his fellow-deities, and, while always enumerated in a list of the great gods, his place in the systematized pantheon is more or less vague. The conceptions connected with Nusku are of distinctly popular origin, as is shown by his prominence in incantations, which represent the popular element in the cult, and it is significant that in the astro-theological system of the Babylonian priests Nusku-Girru is not assigned to any particular place in the heavens. (M. JA.) [15]
We see in these articles identifications with the High Grade Masonry we are surveying presently. Mars = 22° = NERGAL = FIRE = GIBIL.
The 23° is more specifically associated with fire, perhaps.
The similarity between Set and Nergal in the article above also has a parallel in the Degree. AL-SHADAI, SHAITAN, SET;. We shall get to this later on in this segment. We turn to Waddell again, this time, The Phoenician Origins of Britons, Scots, and Anglo-Saxons, pp. 320ff., discussing the Cross of Saint Andrew, which we come across in one of the more important Degrees, the 29°.
This so-called "Cross of St. Andrew," although resembling the True Cross of equal arms in a tilted (or "saltire") position, does not appear to have been a true Cross cymbol at all, but was the battle-axe or 'hammer' symbol of Indara or Thor. In Sumerian, its name and function is defined as 'Protecting Father or Bel,' with the word-value of 'Pap' (thus giving us the Sumerian source of our English word Papa for "Father" as protector). It is also called Geur (or "George") or Tuur (or "Thor"), and defined as "The Hostile," presumably from its picturing a weapon in the hostile attitude for defence or protection, and it is generally supposed, and with reason, to picture a battle-axe. [W1]
It is especially associated with Father Indara or Bel, [W2] as seen in the ancient Hittite seal here figured (Fig. 55) representing Indara slaying the Dragon of Darkness and Death - a chief exploit of Indara or Indra (see texts cited in the heading) -- wherein Indara, the king of Heaven and the Sun, is seen to wear the "St. Andrew's Cross" as a badge on his crown; whilst the axe which he wields is of the Hittite and non-Babylonian pattern. Describing this famous exploit, the Vedic hymns which describe Indara's bolt as "Four-angled" (see text cited in heading) also tell us: --
"With thy Spiky Weapon, thy deadly bolt,
O Indra, Thou smotest the Dragon in the face." [W3]
We thus see how very faithfully the Indo-Aryan Vedic tradition has preserved the old Aryan Hitto-Sumerian tradition as figured on this seal of about four thousand years ago; and how it has preserved it more faithfully even than the Babylonian tradition, which latterly transferred the credit of slaying the Dragon to Indara's son Tas or "Mero-Dach," though even on that occasion he has to be hailed by his father's title of "Ia" [W4] or "Indara" himself!
The Sumerian name for this X "Cross" deadly weapon of Indara has also the synonym of Gur, "hostile, to destroy," which word-sign is also pictured by a blade containing an inscribed dagger with a wedge handle, and defined as "hew to pieces" and "strike dead" - which word Gur thus gives us the Sumerian origin presumably of the Old English Gar, [16] a spear [W5], and "Gore," to pierce to death. This proves conclusively that the X "Cross" was a death-dealing bolt or weapon as described in the Vedic hymns; and the modern device of the skull and cross-bones [17] seems to preserve a memory of the original meaning of the X "Cross" as the deadly axe or "hammer" of Indara, or Thor. And its Sumerian name of Gur, also spelt Geur, is thus presumably the Sumerian origin of the title of "St. George" as the slayer of the Dragon - "St. George" being none other than Indara or Thor himself under that protective title, and thus identical with Andrew.
This battle-axe protective character of this X "Cross" of Indara (or Andrew) is also well seen in the Hitto-Sumerian seals, in which it is placed protectively above the sacred Goats of Indara returning to the door of Indara's shrine or "Inn," [W5] ... wherein we shall discover that the "Goat" is a rebus representation of "Goth," the chosen people of Indara or IA, Yahveh, or Jove, who himself is described in the Sumerian hymns as a Goat, [W6] the animal especially sacred to Indra, [W7] and to Thor in the Eddas. In that Figure this cross-bolt is pictured, not only in the simple X form, but also with the double cross-bars, like the Sumerian picture-sign for the Battle-Axe... ; [18] and representing it, tilted over or oriented, as when carried over the shoulder or in action. Now this Sumerian form of Indara's (or Andrew's) bolt is figured on many ancient Briton monuments and pre-Christian Crosses and Early Briton coins in this identical form of "Thor's Hammer"...; and thus disclosing the Sumerian source of the "Hammer of Thor" or "Indri" (or Indara) as figured by the British and Scandinavian Goths.
The peculiar appropriateness of this Sumerian battle-axe sign of Indara for the patron saint of the Scots is that it is, as we have seen, the Sumerian word-sign for Khat or Xat, the basis of the clan title of Catti or Xatti (or "Hitt-ite"), which, we have seen, is the original source of "Ceti" or "Scot". [W8] As a fact, it occurs not infrequently on pre-Christian monuments in Scotland, oriented in the key-pattern ornament in Fig. 47... not only at St. Andrews itself but elsewhere in Scotland, and also in Wales and in Ireland, the ancient 'Scotia' (see footnotes to fig. 47). Moreover, the Swastika Sun-Cross is likewise oriented in Scotland in the St. Andrew's Cross tilt in its key-pattern style. This shows that this tilting of this Catti or "Xati" Sumerian was deliberately done in Scotland, and thus presumably implies that the Scots in Scotland up till the beginning of our Christian era preserved the memory that this Sumerian sign "Xat" represented their own ruling clan-name of Catti, "Xati," "Ceti" or "Scot."
Fig. 56.
[Note: we are not reproducing all of the footnotes from the book, that list items that are in museum collections. We are only giving notes that contain relevant data. The book is in print and available, so we recommend finding a copy if interested.]
W1. Oppert, Exped. to Mesopot., 58 and BBW, 2, p. 28.
W2. The identity of Bel with I-a or In-duru or Indara is very frequently seen in Sumerian seals by Bel being figured with the attributes and symbols of Ia or Induru. Thus in the Trial of Adam (Fig. 33), Bel is represented in his usual form, whereas in the majority of specimens of that scene he is represented as in Fig. 57, with the Spouting Waters of Ia or Indara, as also in Fig. 35.
W3. C.p. King, Seven Tablets of Creation, Tab. 7, p. 116, etc.
W4. Thus "Brennes . . . lette glide his gar" (i.e., "Brian let fly his spear"), Layamon's Brut., 5079. In Eddic Gothic, Geir = "spear", Anglo-Sax., Gar.
W5. In Sumerian the name "In," for the hospitable house of Indara, discloses the source of our English "Inn."
W6. Indara, the Creator-Antelope (Dara) . . . The He-Goat who giveth the Earth (SHL, 280 and 283) and see Figs. 59, etc. On Elim for He-Goat see before.
W7. "The dappled Goat goeth straightaway bleating To the place dear to Indra." R. V. 1, 162, 2.
W8. See previous notes. "Khatti" defined the Catti tribe as "The Sceptre-wielders" or ruling race. [19]
The cross pictured above is the Lorraine Cross, which was of importance in France. Saint Andrew's Cross figures in the 29°, in that it is the ground plan of the Lodge for the Ritual. [q.v.] As before stated, it is the 29° that opens the 30° proper. And, in a manner of speaking, it is an investiture ceremony. It is dismissed as a simple honorary degree conferred by communication, but it is this sort of thing that actually conceals very important ideas relating to the perpetuation of a tradition, a lineage, and so forth. It commemorates the Crowning of Godefroi de Bouillon in 1099 as the 17° commemorates the anointing of Hugues de Payen in 1118. The 18° Rose + Croix is a Major Step as the 30° Kadosh is a Major Step.
[1.] Query: A-Zag?]
[2.] Why not ZAX, or SEX, for that matter, Laurence?
[3.] Cf. The section, above, entitled "The Nergals of Cutha."
[4.] Indeed, we do not need to rely upon Sitchin and his Rockefeller funding to tell us this: it is apparent, and has been revealed elsewhere, long before Zecharia Sitchin was the evil gleam in his father's eye!
[5.] .'. See Book Three for a reproduction.
[6.] But of course! .'.
[7.] I.e., Melkarth. The authors of the past are so inclined as to identify implied negative forces as purely evil or malefic. This is not necessarily the case, though, as those of us who have been Initiated into the Present Scheme of Things, are aware.
[8.] cf. .'. Liber Resh vel Helios. [Hey, don't scream at us about goddamn copyright crapola, it really is before 1929 after all. Wake up, fucking spoiled children, and smell the curdled milk in the baby-bottles!!!!!!!]
[9.] Particularly that portion of mankind that resides in Newark, New Jersey, USA, and pretends to be a Zelator of the A.'. A,',!!!!!!!
[10.] Arallis = ARALI = The Gold Country, like the term applied to KU.TU.LU.
[11.] Compare with SET.
[12.] See below, ch. 21-22.
[13.] See above, The City of Sin.
[14.] Compare with Im-Het-ep, Imouthis, Eshmun, Shulman, Asklepios, etc.
[15.] Compare with GIBIL, in The Necronomicon. [AVON Edition, that is.]
[16.] By Gar!
[17.] See this: http://www.antiqillum.com/Father_ACME_Pirate.GIF
[18.] Cf. The Lorraine Cross.
[19.] This is carried forward in the special name Clan Chattan in the Scottish Clan System. We have some of this in our bloodline via our Carson-Corson-MacPherson lineage.
Francis Legge, in describing the Ophite Diagrams mentions that a barrier between two pairs of circles was in the form of a double-bladed axe. A large footnote gives us some axe-lore:
The pelekuj or double-bladed axe was the symbol of Zeus Labrandos of Caria, and is often met with on the coins of Asia Minor, while it seems to have played a prominent part in the worship of Minoan Crete and in Mycenae. See Arthur Evans, Mycenaean Tree and Pillar Cult, 1901, pp. 8 - 12. Ramsay, Cities, etc., I. c. 91, thinks that Savazos or Sabazios was called in Phrygia Lairbenos, which may be connected with the word Labrys said to be the name of the double axe. He found a god with this weapon worshipped together with Demeter or Cybele in the Milyan country, op. cit. pp. 263, 264, and he thinks the pair appear under the different names of Leto, Artemis, Cybele, and Demeter on the one hand, and Apollo, Lairbenos, Sabazios, Men, and Attis on the other throughout Asia Minor. He points out, however, that they were only the male and female aspects of a single divinity (op. cit. 93, 94). Is it possible that this is the explanation of the double-axe as a divine symbol?
The axe with one blade was the ordinary Egyptian word-sign for a god (see P. S. B. A. 1899, pp. 310, 311) and the double axe might easily mean a god with a double nature. If this idea were at all prevalent in Anatolia at the beginning of our era, it would explain Simon Magus' mysterious allusion to the flaming sword of Genesis 3:24, "which turns both ways to guard the Tree of Life," and is somehow connected with the division of mankind into sexes. See Hippolytus, op. cit. Bk. vi. C. 17, p. 260, Cruice. [OUR NOTE: cf. The Readings in the Previous section and, too, King's The Gnostics and Their Remains, Second Edition, p. 66.] A very obscure Coptic text which its discoverer, M. de Mély, calls "Le Livre des Cyranides" (C. R. de l'Acad. des Inscriptions, Mai-Juin, 1904, p. 340) gives a hymn to the vine said to be sung in the Mysteries of Bacchus in which the 'mystery of the axe' is mentioned. - Legge, Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity, p. 67, Note 3.
The separation indicated above, into Male and Female is echoed in the Royal Axe itself, with characters on both sides: te Ark, the Tabernacle, Temple of Solomon and Zerubbabel. One blade is for the Male Divinities, the other for the Female, and the shaft / handle for the force the two divisions represent. The implement itself was undoubtedly a ritual implement, like the Wand, Cup, Dagger, Disc, etc. Used, no doubt, for sacrifices, when large animals were brought to the Temples for the big-ass barbeque. This double-axe plays a prominent part in the time of the Maccabees. Known as the Makkabah, it was a device used hy Judas Maccabee. The story goes that he picked up an Axe and cut up one of his enemies. It became a symbol for the movement of those who had ZEAL for the Law. In fact, it is said that the name, Maccabee, refers to the Hammer of God, as the Sacred and Royal Axe is usually designated.
The Axe, then, is an important symbol. As a weapon it signifies Royalty. As a religious object it signifies Divine Power. E. A. Wallis Budge, Gods of the Egyptians, I-63-75, gives a detailed analysis of the word NETER, God. The hieroglypf for this word is a stylized Axe.
The very word for God, the determinative word, is a symbol of an Axe, because the Axe represented the sort of swift, effective force that the action of divinity was. Just like fire was a prominent symbol for the Divine, so the Axe was in the mind of the ancient humans who developed language. Like the two-edged sword, the Scales of Justice, the Twin Pillars, the Double-Headed Axe signified Dual poles of one force or energy.
The one who wields the Axe, then, must be balanced, in order that the negative reflex of the power SH/e wields doesn't overshadow the positive reflex, and instead of cutting down the great cedar for the workmen, he chops off his brother's arm! This might be considered a prerequisite or foreshadowing of the 23°, which is the introduction into the Court of the Levites and involves the symbolism of The Sacred Fire (GIBIL, after all), as well as the Mysteries behing the creation of Holy Water.
The Double-Axe has also been applied to Horus as a symbol of Harmachis, the Double-Wanded One: He of the Double Power. This might be of interest, perhaps to those concerned with the Antiquities of Thelema. Dr. Albert Churchward, in The Arcana of Freemasonry, wrote:
In the form of the Axe, from the Stellar it was brought on in the Solar Cult as one of the Symbols to represent the Great God Ptah; the Great Architect of the Universe was one of his names, but he was also called the Great Chief of the Hammer (see Ritual of Ancient Egypt). Figs. 76, 77, and 78 represent the God of the Axe in three forms. Fig. 76 represents Ramman, the God of the Axe of the Susians. The horns here signify Solar Descent. The hair and features are those of "The Suk" of Africa. The Axe denotes that he is "The God of the Axe," "The Cleaver of the Way" - i.e., the Egyptian Horus of the Double Horizon or Double Equinox. The Three Rods or Rays of Light denote his name as that of IU or IAU. He is therefore the Atum-IU of the Egyptians. He is supported by his Four Brothers - i.e., the Four Brothers or Children of Horus here portrayed in human form for the first time, as in the Stellar Cult these were represented by Zootypes: Man, Lion, Ox, and Eagle. The hair and features of these are the same as those of the "Suk" of Africa, from whom they descended.
Fig. 77 represents Ramman, God of the Axe of the Chaldeans. We have here a different type of man from the Ramman-Susian; he wears a "conical hat and long robe", and his hair and features show a later type of evolution; yet we find that he is also God of the Axe; the interpretation of all the Symbols portrayed here proves that these people had the same Cult or religion. Ramman, the central figure, is shown as coming forth from the under-world, one foot on the mount of the Eastern Horizon; above, we have portrayed two Pillars, North and South, and two Horizons, East and West, with the Sun depicted as rising and setting in each. Therefore God of the North and South, and God of the East and West. Below this we have, on the left, the Ideograph "HE ascended" or "He has risen", and on the right we have the Star with eight rays, with the centre, which is a Symbol or Ideograph for the Chief or Great One as the 8th - i.e., 7 + 1, which was Stellar and Luna first, and the earliest Solar form before Ptah, who had the Cycle of 9. Below we see the under-world depicted with the Solar orb traversing it. This is ATUM-IU, God of the Double Equinox or Double Horizon of Egypt, the same as we have depicted with the other Gods. - The Arcana of Freemasonry, pp. 197 - 200.
Now, we go from discussing Nergal / Indra / IA / Enki / Ptah to Ra Heru Khuti, known of course, as Ra Hoor Khuit. Interesting parallels indeed.
The Axe, then, as a Masonic Symbol, is a symbol of Royalty, like the Merovingians are said to have ruled by the virtue of their Blood. Certainly not by virtue of their brains. Divine Royal Power. Now, we are not even suggesting that this is how the High Degrees interpret their symbols and rituals. We are viewing these things in the light of scholarship, both pedestrian and official, and drawing our own conclusions, based on what we have found. It is clear that the only explanation for the symbol in the AASR is that these degrees were created by skilled antiquarians. We can tell that Pike's description of the Druzes presented above, in the Knight of the Brazen Serpent, was inspired by Burckhardt's Travels in Syria and the Holy Land. The richness of the symbols, the multiple layers of meaning, the heavy emphasis upon European Ancestral Traditions and their ties to Near Eastern Angel Cults, Gnostic Succession, Investiture, this, and suggest that at the heart of the most popular of the High Grade Rites of Freemasonry lies a Real Secret pertaining not only to Theology, Alchemy, Theosophy, or mere Sex Magick, but one having to do with Blood: The Sang Real.