Kenosis to Gnosis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Gospel of Thomas, "Whoever has come to understand the world has found (only) a corpse, and whoever has found a corpse is superior to the world."

 

The Tower of Babel story in the Bible isn't just about the development of language and the splitting up of Mankind. Language is really just a symptom of how Mankind slipped into a lower state of consciousness that is based on the Reptilian brain and how most people use the left side of their brains. This state of mind created the civilizations that we have had for the past 6000 years. In addition to  emergence of language and the splitting up of Mankind there was the emergence of writing, laws, wars, kingdoms, empires, countries, religions, ideologies and other hierarchies.

 

People get so caught up in specific details about the Tower of Babel and the Bible in general that they miss the point altogether. One group takes the story literally and believes it happened and another group rejects the entire story. There is another group who believe that the Tower of Babel story is about extraterrestrials coming down and genetically engineering Mankind but that is a materialistic interpretation and the important thing is the mind, not the DNA. What is the point about the Tower of Babel? It's about the state of Mankind that has existed since written history started.

 

The Tower of Babel is usually portrayed as being a ziggurat and its location is in the region of Mesopotamia, just like the Garden of Eden in the Book of Genesis. As mentioned in the page called the Order of Melchizedek, Abraham originated in the city of Ur in ancient Sumeria and there is evidence that he was from the priestly royal class of that society. It's not surprising that the Book of Genesis located the Garden of Eden and the Tower of Babel in that region and that would also explain why the flood story in the Book of Genesis is so similar to the Epic of Gilgamesh.

 

The Tower of Babel was built by Nimrod and this is what the Book of Genesis, 10:8-10, has to say about him, "Cush became the father of Nimrod; he was the first on earth to become a mighty warrior. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; The beginning of his kingdom was Babel." There are three important points in this passage, the first one is that Nimrod was the first mighty warrior and the second was that he was a mighty hunter. The third point was that Nimrod was before God. The term "before the LORD" can mean that Nimrod was greater than God to the people in the kingdom of Babel. Nimrod was the first man to have pride and to think he was better than everyone, including God.

 

Most people who read the Book of Genesis miss the importance of these three points. Nimrod became the king because the people has slipped into a survivalist state of mind and they started operating from their Reptilian brains. They became naturally inclined to support someone who was a mighty hunter because of that. Nimrod wasn't a scientist, a wiseman, an intellectual, a town planner, an engineer or anything like that. He was a hunter and that is the quality that people liked.

 

But Nimrod was also "the first on earth to become a mighty warrior." Nimrod was the first leader that was in charge of an army and every leader that has existed since him has been in charge of an army as well. Think of any leader we have had throughout history, they have all been warlords. There are very few exceptions, such as Jesus, Buddha and Gandi, and it is hard to think of any others. Nimrod was the prototype leader and the kingdom of Babel was the prototype of all civilizations that we have had since then. It doesn't matter if the leaders haven't been in military service, like George W. Bush, they aren't the ones who do the dying. Why do you think the President of the US is called the Commander in Chief, even though he's a civilian? Because he's a warlord. The kingdom of Babel was the first hierarchical society as well, which is another symptom of people operating from a lower state of consciousness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Pick any leader, they are all warlords who have been in charge of a military and who have sought to expand their power, wealth and prestige.

 

Civilizations have been in a near continuous state of war and most leaders have been corrupt despots who conduct wars to expand their power, wealth and their prestige. It's important to know that in animals there is always a male who will challenge the dominant male for power. Fights and conflicts in animals are never ending. There is never any resolution and there is never peace and Mankind, in their animalistic state of mind, reflects that.

 

The first leaders and the leaders in many tribes today are hunters. In people who are in a survivalist state of mind, those who kill the animals and provide the food and protection are the most important. The first warriors and armies were hunters. In a lower state of consciousness, greed, lust for power, territorial behaviour, jealously, hatred etc, gets enhanced and it was inevitable that the leaders of the tribe and the hunters were going to turn their hunting weapons against other people. Weapons were originally for animals, not people. Nimrod was a mighty hunter who became a warrior and king and that is what the Bible is saying in the Tower of Babel story.

 

This is the Tower of Bbel story in the Book of Genesis, 11:1-9, "Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as they migrated from the east they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly." And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upn the face of the whole earth." The LORD came dwn to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. And the LORD said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all oe language; and this is only the beginning of whatthey will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another's speech." So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off bulding the city. Therefore it was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth."

 

The story of the Tower of Babel occurs soon after the flood in the Book of Genesis and this suggests that Mankind was still in a higher state of consciousness afterwards and this may account for the similarities in various civilizations when it comes to pyramids, the astronomical layout of cities and the huge stones they moved. But there was a degeneration going on with Mankind shifting into a lower state of consciousness over time. It's also worth noting that lifespans started dropping off from what was nearly 1000 years from Adam to Noah to 400 years, then 200 years then to about 100 years today and for most of history. This drop in lifespans is another important sign of the degeneration of Mankind.

 

The fact that Mankind was one meant that people weren't fleshy like they were later on. The fact that they had one language may suggest that people back then used to be psychic and didn't communicate through words. This maybe why the Book of Genesis focuses on language and the splitting up of Mankind as the main signs of Mankind shifting into a lower state of consciousness. The people in the Tower of Babel story were aware that they were going to be separated and spread out over the Earth and they wanted to avoid that. That is why they built the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. In Genesis 11:4, the people say, "otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth."

 

This statement in Genesis 11 certaintly suggests that Mankind used to be in a higher state of consciousness and they possessed abilities, which have long been lost. Genesis 11:6-7, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them." There is a lot of evidence that the ancients all over the world were able to build monuments and do other things that would be considered impossible in the modern society. Did the ancients have a higher state of consciousness in addition to pulling off remarkable feats of engineering?

 

Perhaps the Tower of Babel represents how people back then tried to keep in touch with Heaven and they tried to avoid degenerating into the lower level of consciousness that Mankind is in now. Many of the monuments in the world are astronomically laid out to match the pattern of stars and planets. These monuments are a heavens mirror and the Tower of Babel seems to have had the same purpose of keeping in touch with Heaven.

 

The pyramids of Giza are a "Tower of Babel" because they connect heaven with Earth and the meaning of the astronomical alignments of the Giza pyramids and the Tower of Babel represent the same thing. This is a statement from Asclepius in the Hermetica, which shows that the ancients knew about this,

 

[24] "Do you not know, Asclepius, that Egypt is an image of heaven or, to be more precise, that everything governed and moved in heaven came down to Egypt and was transferred there? If truth were told, our land is the temple of the whole world." 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Tower of Babel story suggests that going into a lower state of consciousness will cause a degeneration that Mankind went through and this will automatically cause a loss of abilities. You can't have it both ways. The people in the Kingdom of Babel had gone into a survivalist state of mind and they had a warrior as their king and they were expecting that they were going to stay connected with Heaven? God forbid. That is what the Tower of Babel story is about. Also people who operate from a lower state of consciousness weren't going to remain as one people either when they entered into the polarized, hierarchical state of mind. It's a good thing that people in a lower state of consciousness aren't one people, especially if there is a corrupt and despotic leader ruling over them.

 

The Book of Daniel has a similar theme to the Tower of Babel story in the Book of Genesis. King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream and this is what he saw in bed in Daniel 4:10-16, "Upon my bed this is what I saw; there was a tree at the center of the earth, and its height was great. The tree grew great and strong, its topp reached to heaven, and it was visible to the ends of the whole earth. Its foliage was beautiful, its fruit abundant and it provided food for all. Its foliage was bautiful, its fruit abundant, and it provided food for all. The animals of the field found shade under it, the birds of the air nested in its branches, and from it all living beings were fed. I continued looking, in the visions of my head as I lay in bed, and there was a holy watcher,coming down from heaven. He cried aloud and said: 'Cut down the tree and chop off its branches, strip off its foliage and scatter its fruit. Let the animals flee from beneath it and the birds from its branches. But leave its stump and roots in the ground,with a band of iron and bronze, in the tender grass of the field. Let him be bathed with the dew of heaven. and let his lot be with the animals of the field in the grass of the earth. Let his mind be changed from that of a human, and let the mind of an animal be given to him,"

 

King Nebuchadnezzar was like the tree whose top reached to heaven, which means that he was in touch with heaven, much like the Tower of Babel, but he developed the mind of an animal and this caused him to lose touch with heaven, which is symbolized by the tree getting cut down. King Nebuchadnezzar didn't literally become an animal but he developed the mind of one and that is just as bad. A lot of people interpert this passage in the Book of Daniel to mean that King Nebuchadnezzar went mad, and this is certaintly true, but he went mad because he developed the mind of an animal, this is the root of mental illnesses. Most leaders that have existed, as well as people and the civilizations have been animalistic in nature and operate primarily from their base instincts. The animal state of mind, that started with King Nebuchadnezzar, created the Beast system that is spoken of in the Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation. The Beast system is the system that those who operation from their animalistic state of minds create. The page called the Beast system explains this subject in more detail.

​

The statement that "there was a tree at the center of the earth, and its height was great" has a very significant meaning as was explained on the page The Axis of the Universe. The tree being in the middle of the world meant that it was a gateway that connected Heaven and Earth as the Book of Daniel states. Most people don't realize the significance of the great tree being at the center of the Earth. 

​

There are two parts in the Book of Genesis that back up this notion that the center is a gateway that connects Heaven and Earth.

​

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden was placed right in the middle of the place as mentioned in Genesis 2:9 and Genesis 3:3, "The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.", "God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'" 

​

The Gnostic gospels mentioned in numerous places the importance of the middle as being a gateway to higher realms and they are mentioned on The Axis of the Universe page. The Gospel of Phillip made these two statements about how The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil would lead to death, "When Eve was still in Adam death did not exist. When she was separated from him death came into being. If he enters again and attains his former self, death will be no more." "If the woman had not separated from the man, she should not die with the man. His separation became the beginning of death. Because of this Christ came to repair the separation which was from the beginning and again unite the two, and to give life to those who died as a result of the separation and unite them." Adam before his separation was of the center and the polarisation is the circumference that is death. 

​

As explained on the page A Real Creation Theory, the Garden of Eden story was a metaphor for the soul becoming polarised and entering the physical world. The fact that these trees are placed in the middle of this garden was not an accident. The middle is the gateway between worlds that connected the higher realm with the lower realm.

​

There's a very strange passage in Genesis 1:6 that seems to be suggesting that there is a sea in the sky that is above heaven, "And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day."

​

People who interpret the Bible literally will believe that there was once a sea in the sky, but they fail to understand what this book is saying. It says that the firmament is in the midst of the waters, as in the center of it, like a whirlpool. The center of the whirlpool is empty, just like the firmament in heaven. God's kingdom isn't above anything, but rather it is in the center of everything. The firmament is surrounded by the polar opposites of above and below and the waters swirl around it, like in a whirlpool. The firmament is in a state of balance, rest and zero gravity.

 

The people being one and trying to prevent themselves from being scattered all over the Earth by building a tower that connects Heaven to Earth suggests that they were part of the point and not the circumference as it was explained on the page The Axis of the Universe.   

 

The attacks of September 11, 2001 had a lot of symbolism in it that most people don't realize. The Twin Towers represented the state of the world we are in. The number 11 is significant in numerology. 11 appeared again and again in the September 11 attacks against the World Trade Center. The twin towers looked like the number 11 and the WTC was the polar opposite of the Tower of Babel in the Bible. The Tower of Babel existed when there was one people, one culture, one language etc, the WTC were twin towers or polar opposites for a polarized world that wasn't unified. The crumbling of the twin towers represented the crumbling of the polar opposites that they represented. The story of Samson has the same meaning. Samson knocked down the two pillars that were keeping up the place he was imprisoned.

 

Something that's related to the subject of language is the subject of writing. Writing developed because of the need for people to start recording their land and possessions. The advent of writing coincided with the advent of money and capitalism. The picture below shows counting tokens from 9000 years ago, from the neolithic fertile crescent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Around 4100-3800 BCE, the tokens began to be symbols that could be impressed or inscribed in clay to represent a record of land, grain or cattle and a written language was beginning to develop.  One of the earliest examples was found in the excavations of Uruk in Mesopotamia at a level representing the time of the crystallization of the Sumerian culture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The original writing was developed for monetary purposes, but over time it developed for stories, poetry and historical records. Money has a lot to do with scarcity of resources and it is the main fabric that keeps a society, which is based on survival, together. In the modern world, money isn't a way to record how many possessions someone has or how productive they are, money has become more important than what it's original purpose was. In Wall Street, most profits are made from money itself through speculation, manipulation, shorting, Ponzi schemes, derivetives and other financial instruments, while at the same time cutting back on production, factories and jobs and polluting the enviroment as much as possible. If any ancient society had adopted such a system, they would have collasped in a short time. This system has only survived as long as it has because production is much higher and there is much better technology than in ancient times, but that only delays the inevitable.

​

This documentary points out numerous times that Neolithic societies, before the Sumerians and their writing came into existence, had very little, if any, evidence of elites and hierarchies. Certainly the monuments at places like Gobekli Tepe would've required a lot of social order to build them, but there isn't any evidence of any overarching elites domineering the population there. These Neolithic societies didn't have the features of a civilisation by modern definition, especially the hierarchy and writing part, but they didn't have any evidence of the sort of warfare that is such a huge feature of pretty much all societies post Sumerian.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

​

​

 

 

 

 

One thing that this documentary pointed out was that the purpose of elites and hierarchies was for security in terms of food and military. It's certainly true that people will get security to a degree, like farm animals get security, but they get exploited until the day they die. As an old saying goes from Benjamin Franklin, "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Mankind gave up liberty for security for the past 5000 years or so and has had neither liberty, in any physical, mental or spiritual sense, or security in terms of long lasting peace. The rise of elites, hierarchies, bureaucracies, militaries etc, was not an advancement over the Neolithic societies, anymore than going into a prison is any kind of advancement to someone's life. 

​

The Hebrews were people who were like the society that existed before the languages were confused in the Tower of Babel story. They were ruled directly by God, whereas all other societies were ruled over by humans. That was the main difference between the Hebrews and all other socieites. The Hebrews were the remnant of the world that used to exist where everyone was in touch with God and the spirit. The major theme of the Old Testament is how the Hebrews constantly turned their backs on God and the spirit world and followed the flesh and the material world. The Hebrews wanted to become like all the other cultures that were ruled over by a human and they kept getting out of touch of God and the spirit. There's a passage in 1 Samuel which mentions how the Hebrews degenerated and became like the other material cultures. This passage saids that God didn't want the Hebrews having a king. People think that the Hebrews having a king to rule over them was an advancement of their society, but this passage is saying that this was a degeneration of their society. When the Hebrews put in a king, the king was the one who was going to be honored and obeyed and not God. Their society was going to become hierarchical and material and they would lose their freedom like all the other societies. This passage from 1 Samuel (8:17) says that having a king is slavery, "He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. 18 When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the Lord will not answer you in that day." People in hierarchical societies, who serve the system and who are out of touch with God and the spirit, are slaves in a material, mental and spiritual way.

1 Samuel (8:1) "When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as judges for Israel. 2 The name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second was Abijah, and they served at Beersheba. 3 But his sons did not walk in his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice.

 

4 So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. 5 They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.”

 

6 But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. 7 And the Lord told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. 8 As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. 9 Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do.”

 

10 Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king. 11 He said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. 12 Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. 15 He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. 16 Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. 17 He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. 18 When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the Lord will not answer you in that day.”

19 But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. 20 Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.”

 

21 When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the Lord. 22 The Lord answered, “Listen to them and give them a king.”

 

Then Samuel said to the men of Israel, “Everyone go back to his town."

 

Idolatry comes in two forms, the first one is worshiping graven images and the second one is worshiping a leader and a system. The Hebrews adopted the second type of idolatry like everyone else. Worshiping graven images may not harm people, but worshiping a leader and a system does and that's been shown again and again all throughout history. When people lose connection with the spirit then they create an imitation that gives them slavery and suffering.  There are many religious people who say they worship one God, but they treat their organization as that God, they are committing that second type of idolatry without even knowing it.

Psalm 127 is very relevant to this page, "Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain."

 

The Cain and Abel story in Genesis may also have a hidden metaphor within it. There aren't that many people who ask why God favored Abel's sacrifice over Cain's sacrifice. Why did God prefer the meat over the fruits? Most people assume that God accepted animal sacrifice because of the spilling of blood, which is used to atone for people's sins, but if other parts of the Bible, including Genesis are metaphors, then could this story for something else? Any historian will say that agriculture is what started civilization because it allowed people to have more free time to do other things, such as writing, religion, building temples etc. The agricultural revolution is what created the civilizations that have existed for the past 5000 years. This is what Cain represents, he was the first person to create agriculture, whereas Abel was someone who represented the older ways. Cain and Abel are metaphors for different types of societies and agriculture killed the primitive hunter, gatherer societies. The agriculture based societies have been killing off tribal groups ever since and they are still killing off tribes. Tribal societies are much more in touch with the Earth and nature and their religion reflects that, but the agriculture based societies are much more detached from the Earth and nature and they have been threatening the Earth and nature for a long time. The government and religious leaderships of agriculture based societies have proven themselves to be very oppressive and this connects to the metaphors in other parts of the Bible. Anger and jealously are absolutely features of larger, agriculture based societies and mass murder has been a very large feature of them as well. The Defence, or Offence, departments usually get the largest share of taxpayer's money in many countries and killing as many people as possible is put down to a science. It doesn't matter if Genesis is literal or metaphorical, what it's saying is absolutely true.

 

The Book of Genesis says clearly that agriculture is a curse, not an advancement and this is proven by the history of Mankind over the past 5000 years,

 

"Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return."