POLARIA | Chapter-2.2. THE THREEFOLD GODDESS

The Eagle which aloft doth fly
See that thou bring to ground;
And give unto the Snake some wings
Which in the Earth is found.
Then in one Roome sure bind them both,
To fight till they be dead;
And that a Prince of kingdomes three
Of them shall be bred.

-William Backhouse, The Magistery

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It is in Through the Gates of the Silver Key where Lovecraft makes mention of Irem, the desert city sacred to the Creatrix.

Irem is the City-of-A-Thousand-Pillars such as Isis, the White Goddess, is called the Thousand, Named. “Thousand” is a mystical enhancement of 1, the number of spiritual origins. But it is also an enhancement of the 10, consisting of 1 and 9, symbolizing the completion of the cycle; 1 and 9 forming 19 are the numbers of reunification with the Divine. While 19 represents the concertina or fan-like nature of spacetime, 10 or 1, since the 0 implies the circle of existence, is the unity achieved.

Irem, or “Iram” in Arabic, was built by Shaddad, head of the tribe of Ad. This pre, Mohammedan tribe was considered heretical, since they disobeyed Solar orders. The city of Shaddad built in the sands of the Arabian Peninsula was meant to be an image of paradise. In 1991 to 1992 Irem was discovered by the renowned English archeologist Sir Ranulph Fiennes in the es-Shisr oasis in the south of Oman. What had been a subject of rumor and myth for thousands of years surfaced eventually.

(Note: !rem is mentioned in the Holy Quran. And according to the fact that lsis-the-Thousand-Named is the Goddess of the Aurora, it is in Surah 89,6, called “al-Fajr” or “Dawn,” where it is written: “a lam tara kayfa fa-ala rabbu-ka bi’adin irama dhati ‘l-‘imadi …,” which means translated: “Seest thou not how thy Lord dealt with the ‘Ad’ (people). Of the (city of) Iram, with lofty pillars, the like of which were not produced in all (the) land?”

Some historians, such as Ibn al-Atir in his Chronicon, I, 453, equated Iram with the mythic “People of Primordial Times”; and in Arabic poetry, the City-of-Pillars appears in connection with the “Kings of Old,” such as the Thamud, Gurhum, Himjar, and Tubba. According to Abd ben az-Ziba’ra the people of Gurhum were the ancient settlers of Mekka prior to Islam; Ka’b ben Malik even makes mention of mysterious “wells” in the desert dating from their times. One of these locations connected with the interior of the Earth is the so-called Well of Barahut, that is, “Well of the Dead,” in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula.)

The ruins, now being freed from the sands in the borderlands of Oman and Yemen, are octagonal in shape, bearing witness that Irem was sacred to the Creatrix. Even in Solar Babylonian times, the symbol of Ishtar was the octagram. The paradise Irem was conceived to represent a memory of the Order of Yore. In the scorching light of the sun, however, Irem sank in the desert sands, such as the Tradition of the Primordial Mystic Pole was concealed from ordinary faith. In the above story by Lovecraft, we are told about the mystery of Irem: “But that key, he (Carter) said, would unlock the successive doors that bar our free march down the mighty corridors of space and time to the very Border which no man has crossed since Shad, dad with his terrific genius built and concealed in the sands of Arabia Petrea the prodigious domes and uncounted minarets of thou, sand-pillared lrem.”

Indeed, Shaddad concealed important parts of the city, for it is known from the sources of recorded history that during the reign of the first Ommayyad caliph, Mu’awiya by name, Irem was discovered by a native tribesman.

(Note: This story is related by the historian al-Masudi in his work entitled “Murudj,” IV, 88)

While searching for his straying camel, he found an entrance lead, ing into a system of subterranean chambers in which there was stored a wealth of treasure. As history goes, the things found were only of secular nature. However, it can be said with assurance that the caliph decided to pillage the buried city, and probably gained entrance the same way as the Bedouin before him. At this point, historians become reticent. They might have found more than just precious stones the second time. Lovecraft writes in his History and Chronology of the Necronomicon(published in H. P. Lovecraft-The History of the Necronomicon, Necronomicon Press, Rhode Island, 1980) that the “book” was written during the times of the Ommayads.

Around the modern excavation site of Irem, there are numerous cave systems yet to be explored. The city itself was built atop a sand, stone dome under which were said to be secret rivers like “paradise.”

Further on in the above story, Lovecraft tells us that half-crazed nomads returned from the place of Irem to tell of a monumental portal and of a Cyclopean hand sculptured above the keystone of the arch grasping vainly for the Silver Key of mysteries. The Ad, whose leader was Shaddad, are in history often referred to as “giants.” As such, their tradition was Polar or Polar oriented. In Through the Gates of the Silver Key, Lovecraft clearly alludes to the fact that Irem sank in the desert and Shaddad failed to recapture the Wisdom of the Order of Yore.

Since the word pillar in Arabic can also mean “ancient one,” an alternative translation for Irem is “City of the Ancient Ones.” These are the Titans of Old.

Just as Irem is being excavated and freed from the hiding sands, the esoteric Black Sun is rising again.
The Silver Key is a spiritual concept and does not, therefore, primarily exist as a material object. It is the esoteric Key that is there in man already and only needs to be turned. In Celtic tradition, Indo-European in origin, silver is corresponding to birth. Consequently, birth is mentioned in the tree-alphabet linked up with the silver fir, or “ailm” in Celtic, pronounced “alev,” as the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet. As the tree of birth, it can be considered as old as the palm tree that we find in Near Eastern religious symbolism.

The fir has its counterpart in the yew, the tree symbolizing death. In Greece and Italy, it is sacred to Hecate, another name for the White Goddess. It should be noted here that the yew trees growing in Ireland differ from the British in shape. The Irish yew is cone-shaped. That particular shape of the cone is, as we have already seen in the previous chapter, of particular significance in Polar Tradition. The Chinese word Zeng, as introduced in the stories of Lovecraft, has the meaning of “cone,” as does the Kutullu-Name “quddudu.”

In the tree-alphabet, one of the only genuine legacies of ancient 2eltic lore, the letter “i” stands for “idho” or yew tree. “Idho” is contained in the word “illait” or the Eagle born in the midst of winter to grow and soar into summer skies, thus becoming the symbol of Resurrection.

In Greek the words stone and head are etymologically related . .. Kephas” is “stone” and “kephalos” is “head.” The linguistic connection of stone and head is found encoded in the word sar-i-tilai, or “golden head,” a mystical symbol used in Sufism. In Celtic Ireland “idho” symbolizes the “firm Goddess,” otherwise the “Renown of Banbha.” “Idho” is the death aspect of Tiamat-Isis or the Thousand-Named, the patroness of pillared lrem. In Hesiod the Creatrix is identified with Persephone, the Three-Aspected-Goddess, being the force or Matrix creating the Web of spacetime.

The vowel “i” represents exoteric and esoteric winter alike, such as the “a” is an esoteric representative of the breath of life. The sound configuration “i-a” is not only preserved in names like “Ianus” and “Iahu,” the latter being the Sumerian name of the Mother Goddess, but also in the Celtic word aibuon, which, because of the position of the vowels, indicates the season of mystical winter. “Ai-buon” can be rendered as “Great Alliance” or ”Alliance of Old” with reference to Tiamat and her eleven primordial allies. In this alliance there lies the Wisdom or knowledge whitened, being the lore of both the Weave and the Weaving.

”Ai-buon” is to be identified with the “Book of Eibon,” mentioned in Lovecraft. This “book” is the book of esoteric winter time followed by the blossoming of the land. In English the “ei” in “Eibon” can alternatively be read as an “e,” pronounced “i.” Reading it thus, we obtain a connection with the “illait” or Eagle born in the cold of winter. ”Ai-buon” is a mystical sound configuration whose summer aspect we can re-encounter in Jabulon or “Ia-bu-on,” a word used in Freemasonry with reference to the architect of the world.

If we read “Ia-bu-on” as a “Jabal-on,” pronounced “Jebel-on,” it acquires another important meaning, that of the “Mountain of On.” On is Osiris. It thus becomes a symbol of the World-Mountain or the World, Axis to be ascended. We will return to the “Book of Eibon” further below.

The Creatrix is often depicted by another Polar symbol of pivotal significance: the Spiral castle or Whirling Fastness. In Celtic Ire, land we find the ancient symbol of the wheel of the King. The wheel is the Spiral, the Celestial Mill; the King is the Fisher-King.

Polar Tradition is underlying the Grail mythos and all its esoteric ramifications. The poets of the Grail romances, prominent among them Chretien de Troyes and Wolfram von Eschenbach, refer essentially to the process of human transformation. They were true poet-alchemists. In another romance by Friedrich von Scharffenberg, entitled “The Younger Titutel,” the whirling fastness of the King is located on a rock of onyx like the Kadath in Lovecraft is made of the same Saturnian stone. The castle is that which moves yet itself remains unmoved. It is the mystical realm of Artemis-Calliste, the Goddess of the Mill.

The Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher alludes to the spiral castle in his book on the subterranean world or “Mundus Subterraneus,” written in 1665. In this work, there is a map that shows a Black Stone situated at the North Pole. Around it, the waters gather in vortices to be sucked into the Earth. There they flow through unknown channels to be eventually emitted at the South Pole. In particular, Kircher cites a thirteenth-century friar, named Bartholomew of England, who said that there was a Black Stone at the North Pole measuring 33 leagues. Like the Mystic Pole Constellations, that Black Stone rep­resents the Axis while the waters of Creation are spinning around.

On a map of the Earth, transmitted to Dr. John Dee by angelic beings, there is likewise shown a Black Rock at the North Pole (Appendix D, in R. Turner, Elizabethan Magic, Element Books, Shaftesbury, England, 1989).

The Black Stone is an exoteric as well as an esoteric symbol of the Mystic Pole Tradition. It represents the state of having fallen into cyclic space-time. Only by whitening the Stone can man obtain its gift of Immortality. Immortal is the one in whose veins runs the spir­itual blood. This symbolism has become significant in the Grail mythos. The blood of Christ gathered in a cup is to symbolize the sacred transformative task of man. The transformation of blood can only be achieved when the Fisher-King is healed from his wounds. In this Castle of Concealment, built on a black rock, the King has come to rest, like Noah’s Ark on Ararat. Land and people are lamed by the season of bitterness. The King is in pains and sighs, it is the Cold of Winter that pierces like a spear in his side.

Tiamat-Isis is called Arianrhod in Welsh esoteric poetry. The word rhod is derived from the Sanscrit “rathas,” that is, “wheel.” Arian­-rhod is the Silver Wheel. When the Gateway is opened, there is rebirth into another cycle of Creation. In Celtic mysticism, Arian­-rhod is also called the Silver-Circled Daughter of Don, mother of the ever-returning Fish Child named Dylan. This mystical child is to be identified with Kutullu, as the heavenly child evidenced in cuneiform texts in the form of “ku-li-an-na” or the “Fish of the Cre­atrix or White Goddess.”

In Lovecraft, we find a phonetically encoded-word that hides the Celtic name of Dylan. In his Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath we are told of a 7 -day journey to a place called Dylath-Leen. “Dylath-Leen” is a code of the Celtic word Dylan, pronounced “Dil-len” in English, encoded by Lovecraft as “Dyl(ath)-leen.” The Fish Child is the Ku of Anna. The Qu of Anna is Q-Anna, identical to the qanna-reed explained earlier. Anna, being an esoteric mirror-word like Sar-ras in that it is readable from both sides, is Arianrhod or the Wheel of Heav­en. Her child Dylan is entombed and awaits to be liberated in the City of Stone, in Hyperborean lore given the name of Caer Arianrhod.

Dylan is otherwise called the Son of the Wave or the Silvery Fish. In midwinter, he is one with the Eagle named Nat y Llew in Welsh mysticism. After his Resurrection he becomes Pegasus, the Winged Horse, having regained his second wing and able to soar up into spiritual heights again.

In Lovecraft’s esoteric quest, Dylath-Leen marks again the Thresh­old. After his 7-day journey, Carter can behold the Giant’s Causeway beyond the city itself. There lies the gate to the realm of the Titans. Uranus, Urania in Polar Tradition, traceable to the Vedic Varuna, is the father of the Titan race. Beyond the Threshold City, the City of Tombs, there is Uranian Soil wherefrom springs Life Eternal.

In Alchemy the spiral way up to the seventh plane is designated by the term of the Six Celestial Cities, the Lantern, or Mirror of Art. Another word used by alchemists can be White Jelly, also men­tioned by Lovecraft in At the Mountains of Madness where we read of one of the two explorers who was given a single veiled glimpse of insight when fleeing the City of the Old Ones: “He has on rare occa­sions whispered disjointed and irresponsible things about ‘The black pit,’ ‘the carven rim,’ the ‘proto-Shoggoths,’ ‘the windowless solids with five dimensions,’ ‘the nameless cylinder,’ ‘the elder Pharos,’ ‘Yog-Sothoth,’ ‘the primal jelly,’ … ”

The Polar venturer has to uncover the mystery of the Hermetic Vessel or “vas mirabile” in Alchemy wherein all components can be found requisite for Resurrection. It is also called the “vas her­meticum.” In his Philosophical Vessel the adept experiences the esoteric “Changing of the Colors,” leading him out of the “nigre­do,” the state of blackness, to the reception of the White Stone.
In the “vas mirabile” the actual “conjunctio” or the Marriage of King and Queen takes place in the alchemical opus. During this process, the hot, dry and fiery principle of Sulphur is married to the cold, moist, watery principle of Mercury. What has been termed Marriage in Alchemy comprises the stages of Descent into the Underworld, the arrival of the Pilgrim at the Island and the Reab­sorption into the One. This is the Marriage of Adam and Eve, cul­minating in Death-in-Life.

Mystical Death is a precious jewel in the Crown of Life. It is like the Eye of the Needle, the Topmost Branch of a Tree growing into interstellar deeps.

The Apple that is fully grown on this Tree is cut off with a knife like a sickle; and from its juice is made the most delicious Drink one can have.

In the Garden of Youth, man ate of the Apple, which means that death had come into the world with his creation. Thenceforth, 21an’s purpose is to grow, and by becoming ripe to outgrow his exis­tence. Does not God rejoice in every Soul liberated from its mammalian imprisonment?

The Apple means transformation. It must receive particular men­tion at this point that the biblical account of Genesis does exactly mean the contrary of what it reads. The Gift of Transformation is even to man by the woman. She gives him the Grown, Edible Fruit from the Tree indicating that only through her can he regain access to Paradise. This is the Mystery of Love bestowed by God to the human species. It is the Mystery of Amor, whose Arrows are like the Stem which grows only to blossom. In Alchemy, Eve is Bacchus Evius, otherwise Mercury, our Messenger or Wine of the Philosophers. If the alchemist indulges in it, if he indulges in Love, like he thinks of the Wine, he can liberate himself from imprisonment in matter. Drink, eat, and come to Immortality. So the Gods can revel. Revelations!

In Sufism, the Marriage is called the “Stage of Peace,” or “nafs-i­-muta ‘innah,” when the feminine principle is reunited with the masculine principle.

In Sufism, which should not be confused with exoteric Islam, the female principle holds an essential position. Ibn Arabi says “Woman is the highest form of earthly beauty, but earthly beauty is nothing unless it is a manifestation and reflection of the Divine Qualities.”

The King must reawake his Sleeping Beauty, and together they can take the cleansing bath. The Marriage or annihilation of illusory opposites leads to the Whitening of the Stone, called “albedo.” The albedo” is followed by the stage of “rubedo,” the “Red Elixir,” indi­cating the Mystical Aurora, Luzifer’s Conquest of the World-Moun­tain, the Two Wings Recovered, otherwise the Purple Robe of Mysti­cal Kingship, when the Seed is freed in the Light of the Baptism.

The alchemist Charles d’Albonneville, who is said to have trav­eled the globe, and in particular to have spent much time in a remote place in Arabia Felix, writes in his unpublished (Opera, written in Oppenheim, no date): “Albedo and Rubedo are like Twins, united in Love, Direction and Destiny. While Albedo means the beginning of the end, Rubedo is the end and the beginning. They are White and Red, in two Vessels, yet contained in one Vase.” And on the Arcanum of Alchemy he further writes: “The alchemist is like a Fruit, and in God, he is finally rewarded. Alchemy is the Science of God, so no man can tell what the Rubedo is, till he has gone through it.”

The “Changing of the Colors” is an alchemical allegory of the expe­rience made during these transformative stages. Paracelsius writes in his Secrets of Alchemy (quoted in M. Haeffner, The Dictionary of Alchemy, Aquarian Press, London, 1991: ” … there will likewise arise in the Glass, various flowers or divers colors, such as appear like the tail of a Peacocke and such as no man ever saw before.”

Sometimes, the experience of the Whitening is referred to as the “Tail of the Peacock,” otherwise “cauda pavonis,” but also as the “Peacock Angel,” whose many scintillating colors are to be under­stood as an indicator of spiritual success.

When Wisdom is bestowed, the variety of colors, sometimes called the Septenary, esoterically fuse into the Glow of Ressurection. 7 return to 1, so they can be 8. Then, all “colors” are in One, and the One is in all “colors.” This is sometimes also referred to as the Rainbow or the Seven Rays of Creation. It is called “Samtidra” in Indian teach­ing, that is, the “Ocean,” literally “the gathering together of the waters,” meant to refer to the Inner Sanctuary of Creation. The Palace of Eight Pillars is where the Waters gather in the Lap of Eternity.

The process of actual transformation takes place in man’s lower­ abdomen. Only there the Gateway opens. In Greek, the Philosophi­cal Vessel is called “krater.” “Krater” contains the important root word arc, respectively, ark. “Krater” is “Ark-ter or “Ark-tar.” “Ark-ter” in turn contains the word for stone, that is, kar or car. Lovecraft implied the quest of the Stone by using the name “Carter” for his autobiographical character. Carter can thus be rendered “He of the Stone.”

The Stone is the Heart, and the Heart is in Earth. The Greek word ker, related to the Latin cor, can be found in words pertaining to ” earthen, ” such as the English “ceramic” “Car ” can be found in “Arc-adia,” the Land of Immortality. Furthermore in this context we find the name “Cathar” to be an anagram of “Arcath” or ”Arcad. ”Arcad” is exactly the same as ”Arcadia.” The medieval Cathars of Montsegur, persecuted by the Church of Rome for their Polar Tradition, were legates of Arcadia, the Land of the Living. Lovecraft chose the name Carter purposely in that it is phonetically reminiscent of “Cathar.” Carter is indeed a heretic from the Solar point of view, as were the Cathars of Montsegur to the Catholic Church.

Such were the Templars whose mystical teaching also had in it the millennial legacy of the Titans. The former brought it to Europe where the inner circle launched an attempt to establish the Ancient Law. Its sacrosanctum is the Stone of Oneness on which the priest of the tribe of Jesse tried to build his Spiritual Church. It was his mission to restore the ancient order by bringing reformation to the belligerent tribes of the Near, East.

It must be pointed out that the Latin “cor” is like the Celtic “corr” or “crane.” In Celtic mysticism the Bag of the Crane has in it the secret of the Mother Goddess. The symbolism of the crane is similar to that of the raven. In ancient Greece there was the so-called Crane Dance meant to represent the circles coiling and uncoiling in the Labyrinth. The dance is said to have been an imitation of the love-dance of courting cranes in which they take 9 steps and 1 leap. Therefore we find the poetic lines (R. Graves, The White Goddess, Faber & Faber, London, 1961):

The crane must aye
Take nine steps ere shee flie

Indeed the 9 represents the stage immediately before Reabsorption into the One.
In classic times the Month of the Crane was the Month of Wisdom. The word crane is related to the Greek word Cranae, that is, ‘rock,” being a name for Artemis,Calliste, the Mother Goddess, thus having the meaning of “She of the Stone.” Of course, Cranae contains arc. And for obvious reasons, Lovecraft’s narrator in The Shadow Out of Time, lives on Crane Street.

The esoteric nucleus of Celtic tradition is Polar. Arianrhod is an aspect of the Goddess Caridwen, a name likewise containing the word car for “stone,” used synonymously for “stronghold.” “Car” is the Stone-Hold of Yore.

The aforementioned “Book of Eibon” has an alternative title in Lovecraft, that is, “Liber Ivonis.” This second one renders another decisive clue. “Liber Ivonis” is a Latin title meaning translated “Book of Ivo.” “Ivo” is the name of an individual, that is Yves de Chartres, otherwise known as Ivo Carnutensis. Remarkably enough, Dr. John Dee said in The Dunwich Horror to be in the possession of the “frag, mentary” Necronomicon, had listed in his library several treatises by Yves de Chartres. Position No. 141 in his library catalogue reads: “Ivonis Carnutensis varii tractatus ecclesiastici, et volumen episto, larum diversorum ad diversos, etc.” (Catalogus librorum bibliothe, cae externae Mortlakensis, in J. 0. Halliwell, Dr. Dee’s Diary, Cam, den Society, Oxford, 1842.)

Ivo Carnutensis lived from 1040 to 1116 in France and was a clergyman who later became bishop of Chartres. At some time in his life, he is reported by historians to have been incarcerated for unorthodox religious views. He was obviously accused of heresy; his views of nature and society were utterly opposed to religious doctrine in those days (A. G. Foucault, Essai sur Ives de Chartres d’apres sa correspondance, Petrot-Garnier, Chartres, France, 1883; P. Fourier, Les Collections canoniques attribuees a Yves de Chartres, Biblio, theque de l’Ecole de Chartres, 57 and 58, Chartres, 1896, 1897.) Yves lived in Chartres, a name again containing car, here in the form of “char.” In Celtic times, before the great Cathedral was built by Templar architects, the town was a settlement of the ancient “Carnutes,” that is, “Guardians of the Stone.” Chartres is said to have a particular position in the world grid of magnetic energies running across the globe. It was for that reason that the Celtic tribe of the Camutes decided to settle in that very place in France. Today on top of the hill on which the Cathedral was erected, can be found the mysterious Black Madonna, an ancient icon representing a remainder of ancient Celtic, Polar lore.

We can clearly see that the “Book of Eibon” or Liber Ivonis contains an esoteric message indicating the Tradition of the Mystic Pole. But, moreover, it is to stress the survival of Polar Tradition in Europe today.

The Triple Goddess is the Goddess of Life and Death. In relevant myth, we can read of the “Dungeon of Arianrhod” symbolizing the place of Resurrection, located beyond the Winds of Boreas. There is the Gateway; there the Stone of God must be found.

Arianrhod is one with the ancient Cretan goddess Ariadne. In Greek mysticism, it is she who holds sway over the Labyrinth, and it is only she who provides the mystical thread necessary to find the way through and out of it. In the center of the labyrinthine reaches of illusion, there lurks the Minotaur or man’s ego. And it is man’s purpose and task to slaughter it and achieve mystical freedom. The Celts know the center of the Labyrinth as the place of spiritual cleansing. It is that locality of stone, the Winterly House, in which Kutullu is dreaming and awaiting his return.

The palace of Arianrhod is the spiral castle in which the Grail King lives wounded. This is a symbolism of utmost importance. In space, time the unfolding of the Spirit is like a spiral on which similar situations, having the same meaning, in essence, recur on successive windings. These windings of sensory existence are tests, created by the individual himself. Man has to become aware of their purpose so he can grow, for in the species is the inborn desire of ascent.

In Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath, the Mystic of Providence speaks of a fathomless spiral Carter has to venture down while escaping the Plateau of Leng. The downward spiral in Lovecraft is to be equated with the Ascent into the Deeps or the Descent into the Heights.

Therefore we say that the alignment to the Axis of Worlds means reaching the sunlit Heights of the Axial Deeps. The windings of the spiral of the Eternal Spirit in spacetime are junctures of growth for the individual. If the individual realizes their essential meaning, he or she can grow esoterically. This awareness is the gradual awakening leading to the essencification and the opening of the secret Gateway in the Underworld. With every juncture realized, a step toward spiritual purity and oneness is taken, unless the individual remains caught in the Labyrinth of illusions, moving sightlessly on the ever-winding spiral of spacetime existence and reincarnation in human form.

In Welsh esoteric tradition, the spiral castle bears the name Caer Sidi. Accordingly, it is Sid who is the Guardian of the Waters of Immortality. Sid is the reverse of Dis, the name given by Caesar to the god he found worshipped in Britain and Gaul. In Sufism, we have the equivalent of al-Khidr, the initiator into the Arcana Divine. Green is his color since green are the Waters of Immortality and green is the color of the heart.

Caer Sidi is also called Caer Colur or “Sinister Castle.” The word colur is etymologically identical with kulur or kulu. The Celtic Caer Colur is thus “Car Kulu” or “Kur-kulu,” kur meaning “stone” in Sumerian. The Sinister Castle is the Black Stone, the Stronghold, the City of Exile. The kulu in “Kur-kulu” is contained in the Assyrian Kutullu-name “ukullu” meaning “dark.”

Caer Colur can be Caer Vediwid or the “Castle of the Perfect Ones.” While Caer Colur is the Black Stone, Caer Vediwid indi, cates the White Stone. “Vediwid” contains the word wid, identical with vid contained in the Hyperborean-Norse concept of the Land of Vidar, or the White Land, otherwise called Alba. Vidar is also the Old Norse god who will be one of the survivors of the Ragnarok or Twilight of Gods. The word “caer” as in Caer Colur, is identical with “cer,” relating to earth and stone such as ceramic, keramicos in Greek. In the English prefix cerato-, derived from the Greek keras or horn, we have the etymological connection between Stone and the horned animal, too. Thus “car” or “ker” is of central significance in Polar mysticism, in that it designates the Stone, the Heart, as seen previously, as well as the Horn. It is the Ram, or Aries, that pushes the Fire Divine out of the Deeps of the Earth. “Ker” is the name the Greeks gave to the Mother Goddess.

The climes of Arianrhod are also called Caer Wydr, recalling the same word vidar. Caer Wydr is the Stronghold of Glas. The Latin equivalent of “glas” is “vitrinus,” to be equated with the esoteric, alchemical symbol of “vitriol.” It is “witrin” in Celtic, as used in the name “Yns Witrin,” that is, “The Island of Glas,” designating the Sacred Island, Land of Death-in-Life.

The word glas originally applies to colors ranging from light-green to deep-blue. The Isles of Glas, known in Irish mythology, are always surrounded by light-green or deep-blue waters. These waters guide the Pilgrim toward the mystical place of Arcadia, the Land of the Living who have found Death-in-Life. The Isles of Glas or the alchemical Vitriol stand for the dissolution in the One when there is no Veil left, and the opposites are annihilated. In Alchemy, this Vitriol, is according to Fulcanelli, renowned for his work on the “Mysteries of the Cathedrals,” (Le Mystere des Cathedrales, Societe Nouvelle des Editions, Pauvert, Paris, 1964, by Brotherhood of Life, Albuquerque, NM, as Fulcanelli: Master Alchemist 1984) the Mirror of all Philosophic Sciences. Raymond Lull, therefore, says that a philosopher is he who knows how to make glas. In Celtic mysticism, Arcadia is called Mag-mell, the Land of the Blessed Ones. In old lrish the word mag-mar, otherwise tir n’aill, means “great plain” and is in symbolism comparable to the Elysian Fields or the Land of the Winged Ones. Mag-mell is the Stronghold of Glas, conceptually, for example, contained in the name Glastonbury. An ancient Tem­ple of Stars in the area of Glastonbury indicates the survival of Polar Tradition in England. Atop a terraced hill, there was erected a Tor, symbolizing the Hidden Realm of the Yns-Witrin, the Island of Glas, me Land of Mystical Death.

The Land of the Blessed Ones is Tir fa Tonn or the Land under the Waves. Therefore the Fish-Child Dylan is called the Son of the Wave. As Lovecraft writes in The Call of Cthulhu, the city of the Old Ones is sunken beneath the ocean. The lost land or continent under the waves, prototypical of all lost-continent myths narrated and elaborated through the ages, is identical with the sunken Is of Celtic lore where resides the King’s daughter Dahut by name. Dahud, containing the Arabic hud, that is, “fish,” is anagrammati­cal of Tuhad or Tuat in the Egyptian language. In Sumerian, it is Tamtu, in Akkadian-Babylonian Tiamat. The Is or the sanctum of the ancient Celts is the sacred place of the Creatrix, the Is of Is.

The Is of Is is the esoteric s-s-configuration of serpent-sounds, des­ignating the Knot of Serpents to be undone through transforma­tion. “Tuat” contains the t-t-configuration, basically interchange­able with s-s. T-t symbolizes two pillars or two columns, being exact­ly the same as the Mountain of Two Summits that will acquire momentous significance in our further investigations into Polar mys­ticism. Through the two columns, Nyarlathotep comes striding to meet Carter, Lovecraft in The Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath, and between the Two Summits of the Sacred Mountain the Third-One is rising when the secret Gateway-out-of-Space-Time is opened and the Stone whitened.

The sunken Is or Island of the Blessed is spoken of in various forms and in many cultures. This Island is the original meaning of Atlantis. This popular name is etymologically connected with the language of the Aztecs in which the word Atl means “Fishes,” referring to Pisces in astronomy. Lovecraft made use of this word in his The Other Gods, where the two people ascending the World-Mountain are named Atal and Barzai, already explained previously.

“Atlantis” is the “Land of the Fishes,” and therefore anciently linked with the Mystic Pole Tradition. Moreover, the name Dagon, exemplified in “Esoteric Order of Dagon,” is on the interstellar plane identical with the constellation of the Fishes, as can be learned from Greek astronomy where we have the term “Atargatis” applying to this constellation. “Atargatis” is composed of adir and dag, related to the Arabic root dgn; and dgn is found in “Dagan, the “Foggy or Cloudy One,” indicating the Element of the Fire Divine, the Fog in alchemical teaching.

The “Is-land” of the Blest or the Land of the Living is a Polar con­cept preserved with the Celtic Bretons that know of a City of Ys; in Cornish tradition, it is the Land of Lyonesse; also it is one with the French Ile Verte, the Portuguese Ilha Verde, or the Irish Hy Brasil. On the other side of the globe, we find relevant analogs as well. In Taoist-Chinese tradition, we are told of the Island of Ying Chou where there are said to be great precipices of green jade. The jade symbolism is identical with the Waters of Immortality of the same green color. It is said that the waters flowing out of the jade rock are as stimulating as wine and that if they are mixed with pounded Fungus of Immortality, the food of longevity is provided (D. A. Mackenzie, Japan and China, Myth and Legends Series, Senate Stu­dio Editions, London, 1994). It must be mentioned here that the Chinese word tao has the meaning of “island.” In the next chapter, we will see how closely Taoist mysticism centering around the Sacred Island is connected with Polar Tradition.

All these islands are one in meaning with the sunken Is. In the Shinto religion, the Mother Goddess is worshipped at Ise, the Mecca of Japan. The original esoteric meaning of the word is, as in “Isis,” is of great importance and will be explained in full in the next chapter. The Celtic Sid or the Arabic Khidr are derived from the root-con­figuration “s-s-,” interchangeable with “t-t,” as found in “Tit-an.” Wherever that stem appears in esoteric context, it is originally relat­ing to the Mother Goddess and the Polar Tradition. But also the word Scyth, applying to the people of the Scytho-Celts, is derived from sid/cid. The origins of the Scytho-Celts said to have settled on the Balkans and Asia Minor, lie in Central Asia where there can be found a very ancient manifestation of genuine Polar Tradition on this plan­et. In Celtic lore, Sid’s mystical songs are compared to misty nights or mornings. His songs are initiatory, such as the mist or the Fog are one with the Fire Divine. Sid is the Celtic Titan-god and Guardian of the secret gateway. In Indo-European Sufism Khidr is the Green­One, as the Waters he guards are green. The Celts themselves are not only Guardians of the Stone, but also the Guardians of the Green Light, the mystical light of initiation into Polar mysteries.

Sid or Dis is also the Crow-God, named Bran or the hundred­headed Briareus by the Celts. The God of the Crow is one with Chronos-Saturn. The Greek word Chronos and the English word crow are both derived from cron or corn (R. Graves, The White God­dess, Faber & Faber, London, 1961). Carrion birds like the crow or raven share the same esoteric meaning.

The Latin word for raven is corvus and comes from the same root as Chronos. In Lovecraft’s openly alchemical story The Case of Charles Dexter Ward we are told of a Joseph Curwen whose secret goal is to bring back his ancestor from the ashes. The name “Cur­wen” is derived from the Latin corvus.

In esoteric-alchemical symbolism, the crow is exactly the same as lead, Latin “plumbum.” The Tomb of Lead is the Threshold, a place from where the ashes of life can rise transformed. Basilius Valenti­:1us says that lead is the “Child of Saturn” (in J. Evola, Die Hermetis­.:he Tradition, Bibliotheca Hermetica, Ansata, Interlaken, 1989). In Greece, the Black Birds are the spirit-messengers of Hades.
Chronos-Saturn himself is a Titan asleep. When the Threshold is transcended, the Titan reawakes realizes his descendancy, and the Pilgrim can reach out for the Old Trinity and take quarters in the City of the Stone. The Child of Saturn is born in Terra Sancta, his nourishment is the Lac Virginis, the Virgin’s Milk.

The symbolism of Tiamat-Isis or Anna-Arianrhod is manifold through the ages. Its essence, however, is always Polar. In Hyper­oorean myth the Goddess Caridwen is depicted as Cat-Goddess. In Connaught, Ireland, there can be found an oracular cave in which a cat reposes on a silver chair. The Goddess as a cat is found in Egypt where she is called Pasht or Bast, Bubastis in Greek, identified with Isis-Hathor in a Philae text (A. Weidemann, Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, London, 1897). Sekhet-Hathor is her terrible and destroy­:ng aspect. The festival in worship of the Cat Goddess was held in April and May. Her son was Khensu, the Moon.

The Creatrix has been given the name Rhea, a word preserved in Cardea, but she is also Cybele, the Lion and Bee Goddess, wor, shipped in Phrygia, and as Demeter, the Mother Goddess has the likeness of a horse. Since she is depicted as black in Phigalia, she can be linked with the Indian Goddess Kali. The Winged Horse ascend, ing the skies is one with the Phoenix who rises from the ashes to be reborn. Pegasus is the Winged Horse in Greek myth, being the resurrected one who has regained his second wing. As a newly born Horse, Pegasus is identical to the Young Eagle born in mystical wintertime. The Winged Horse is a symbol of the Fire Divine, the Fifth Element, the Agni of the Vedas. It is the Steed of the Dawning Day of Tiamat.

In Greece manifold traces of Polar Tradition can be uncovered, and we owe much to an ancient people called Pelasgians, who were one of the earliest groups of settlers in Greece and had originally come from Central Asia. Calling their land Arcadia, Pelasgian language and tradition is Indo-European in origin. Theirs was the mysticism of the Titan-race.

According to Plutarch, a triple temple, called “temenos,” is sacred to them. In this holy place, the Goddess Hera was worshipped as “Maiden, Wife and Widdow,” symbolizing the original Pelasgian trias. We will encounter the Pelasgians, or seafarers as they were also called in classic times, in a later context. The ancient Greek temenos is in purpose one with the holy grove of the Druids.

The symbol of the Guardian of the Threshold is not only the carrion bird but also the sickle and the crescent of the moon. Saturn, the seventh planet of the solar system, is often depicted holding a sickle-shaped knife in his hand, akin to the shape of the crow’s mouth. The crow as the Saturnian symbol has a double meaning. On the one hand, it symbolizes death, since Chronos-Saturn is the Tomb of the Individual. On the other hand, it is a symbol of longevity, since the Ashen Place is the Gateway to Immortality. In Love, craft’s “Through the Gates of the Silver Key” we can read in his typical diction of a Guardian in an extract from the Necronomicon:

“And while there are those,” the mad Arab had written, “who have dared to seek glimpses beyond the Veil, and to accept HIM (capital letters in the original) as a guide, they would have been more prudent had they avoided commerce with HIM; for it is written in the Book of Thoth how terrific is the price of a single glimpse … all these Blacknesses are lesser than HE WHO guardeth the Gateway: HE WHO will guide the rash one beyond all the worlds into that Abyss of unnamable devourers. For He is ‘UMR AT-TAWIL,’ the Most Ancient One, which the scribe rendereth as THE PROLONGED OF LIFE.”

The name of the Guardian is genuine Arabic, translated as “exten­sion of life” or “long life.”
Traversing the Threshold means stirring and waking up a once­Titan and his watchdog Cerberus by name. The name “Cerberus” also contains the word stone here in the form of cer. The canine watchman is connected with the sickle-holding god. The Latin word for “sickle” is falx related to the Greek word phylax, translated “Guardian.”

The sickle, like the crescent, are symbols of moon-worship as well. Moon or crescent and Saturn or sickle are linked up esoterically, since reaching the plane of lunar energies means stirring the sleep­ing Titan. This relationship is ancient and predates the birth of humanity and the forming of cults on Earth.

When the Planet of Origins, mentioned in the previous chapter, collided with another interstellar body, the former was torn apart. Considerable parts of this sixth planet now tumbled through the solar system, and one of these remainders was eventually caught by the Earth becoming its satellite. The Moon is a former part of the Planet of Origins once located between Mars and Jupiter. The mate­rial remains of the former sixth planet in the solar system gathered to form an asteroid belt between these two planets. The frequency of the Moon is still strongly related to the primordial Planet of Ori­gins. Therefore, approaching the Moon esoterically means ap­proaching Polar Wisdom. And with this approach is heralded the transcendence of the Threshold. Moon, sickle, crescent, crow, or raven bear witness of the same secret Tradition.

As elucidated earlier on, Anna or An-na, is another name given to Tiamat-Isis. It is interesting to note at this point of “Polaria” that the English writer Edward Bulwer-Lytton speaks in his book The Coming Race (1874, reprinted 1973, Philosophical Publishing Co., Quakertown, PA) of a species that will one day exterminate mankind. That species is subterranean and given the name Ana. The Ana are the people of the Titans, representing the Order of Yore to come again when the stars are ready. The word Ana itself, like Anassa, having the shared meaning of “Queen,” is identical with Anna.

Anna is the old Greek Mother Goddess. The Italians know of the Creatrix as “Anna Perenna,” or “Eternal Anna.” She can also be Anna Fearina,” the Queen of the month of blossoming, or May. In the Celtic language of the Spain-settled Basks the fifth month of the year is given the name Ostara. Translated literally, Ostara means “the fire rising from the depths” and can be regarded as identical with the Vedic concept of the Agni living deep in the earth. It is remarkable in this context that the month of May is the time during the year when the heliacal rising of the seven-star constellation known as the Pleiades takes place.

The root word from which “Ostara” is derived is to be found in ancient Sanscrit where we have ustra, i.e. “double-hump,” as well as uttra, i.e. “north,” Hindi uttar. The mystical concept of two humps, two mounds, or two mountains refers originally to the Polar Mountain or the World-Axis. In Arabia, the camel is called the ship of the desert, between whose two humps the rider sits. As we shall see later this Polar Mountain concept is the master, key to the comprehension of the Tradition and all alchemical practice centering around the aspects of human transformation. And further on it leads direct, ly to the secret Gateway in the Bowels of Earth.

The concept of the double-hump is a symbol sacred to Tiamat-Isis. It is the Mountain between whose Two Summits the esoteric sun rises and the Black Light shines forth, bringing the emergence of the third. And, indeed, the truthful Pilgim can be like the Thrice-Great.

In Celtic Ireland the White Goddess is not only depicted as “Goddess of Plenty,” but also called the Goddess of Two Teats, each teat representing one summit, both together mystical abundance. The word teat is titt in Old English. In French, the phrase “tete-a-tete,” or “sticking heads together,” has the same origins. It means plentiful thinking. In the esoteric sense, it brings about the birth of the divine Fish-Child Dylan-Kutullu. But also the words sid and khidr are derived from the mystical consonant-configuration “t,t.”

Isis can also be the original Triple Goddess of Destiny, or Ana, Babd-Macha, the word Macha given in connection with a raven in the “Book of Lecan.” Babd means translated “to cook” and is relating to the mystical Cauldron of Bran, prototypical of the Grail chal­ice in which the blood of Christ is preserved. The Cauldron is the vessel of mystical abundance. It is the abundance bestowed upon the one who has achieved the Wisdom of the Hermetic “vas mirabile.” And the French alchemist Pierre d’Expupery writes these cryptic words: “It is the Meal of Orpheus, and he is having it in his Cave below. However, for a mortal man it is far too salty to eat.”

Another depiction of the Creatrix is found in the Old Norse Angurboda-Iarnsaxa or the “Hag of the Iron Wood.” In Scandina­vian mysticism she is the mother of Hel, related to the Greek word helios, the name given to the Sun-God in classic times. The Wood 0f Iron refers to the Labyrinth of Ariadne, the Weave of Isis, or the sensory cycle of space-time to be transcended by man. The English word iron is related with aran and aryan. It can be found in the zoolo­gial term “Araneida,” that is, “spider.” Ariadne is like a spider weav­ing the Labyrinth. Aryan itself can be translated “star that rises out of the sea.” Clearly enough, by “rising star” is meant the esoteric luminary of Black Light rising between the Two Summits. The “sea” is the Ocean of Night or illusory space-time appearance.

The Wood of Iron is the mystical place where the precious trea­sure must be recovered. It is one with the Forest of the Orient where the Templars are said to have buried their treasure.

Man is the Fallen One, the Seed dropped in the Ocean of Mani­:estation, and destined to awake from his dreaming. Man is Luzifer 3estined to reach cerulean heights again. We have already encoun­tered the word luz as applied to the Seed Indestructible. Luz is also the High City of Light. Without the transformative Spirit-Winds, however, that disperse the clouds of illusions, it remains in shades. So Luzifer is caught in space-time, imprisoned in subterranean ice, having lost his second wing. Only by regaining his lost wing, can he voice the mystical exclamation: Wing-to-Wing.

Luzifer is “Luz-i-fer.” Luz is the Spirit-Light in space-time, or the Seed in man. Fer is “ferrum” in Latin implying the Iron Wood, but is also relating to the Vedic Kali Yuga or the Age of Iron. Luzifer is the mystical treasure in the Labyrinth of the present era. The eso­teric word fer is also contained in inferno, but also in the French word l’enfer, that is, “hell.” “L’enfer” can be decoded to “Lui en fer,” or “He who is in Iron.”

Particular importance must be ascribed to the consonant-stem “f, r,” as in fer. In Hyperborean tradition we have the word fearn being the Celtic word for the alder tree. In esoteric lore the time of the alder is from March 18th through April 14th. In the Beth-Luis-Nion alphabet, “fearn” is “f,” its day is Saturday. The alder is the tree of Bran-Saturn. Thus it is “fer” or “fearn” that indicates the status of Luzifer. The Fallen One has to transcend the seventh plane of Saturn in order to regain his second wing. Man is fallen from Heaven, in him is the Stone from Heaven, and to Heaven he must ascend.

Angurboda is the Hag of the Iron Wood. Here, iron and wood are found combined, both standing for the mystical Garden in whose Earth and Seed was sown by the creating Species. Astronomically, it is the Garden of the Hesperides where the Apples of Wisdom grow guarded by the Dragon. This celestial Garden is placed between the two constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, marking the Axis Mundi. The French alchemist D’Espagnet de Pernety (in J. Evola, Die Hermetische Tradition, Bibliotheca Hermetica, Ansata, Interlaken, 1989) writes on the esoteric meaning of the garden making mention of the Fountain of Purest Water that springs from seven sources located in the garden of mysteries. This Fountain, called by Arthephius “the soul of dissolved bodies,” is one with the alchemical Azoth or the “fons mercurialis” in which the King and the Queen take their bath in white or silvery water. This symbolism refers to the annihilation of opposites in the Deeps or the Underworld.

Seven rivers lead back to the Fountain from which issues the “lac virginis” or “virgin’s milk.” This symbolism is in meaning one with the location of the Island of the Blest, we know from Chinese alchemical texts where the flow of transformative energies is called “Milky Way.”

On the planetary plane, the seven sources are the seven planets including the Threshold; on the interstellar plane they have their equivalent in the Mystic Pole Constellations; in man they are the seven chakras. But there is more. For example, the actual Arcanum is the being from which protrudes the seven heads, mak, ing the shape of a serpent rather than the heads themselves. It is the First Source from which spring the seven rivers. The Arcanum is the Eighth Plane. This is the Gateway-out-of-Space-Time, the Eighth Chakra.

Luzifer is the Seed dropped into the Ocean of the Creatrix. This Ocean is a cabinet of mirrors, being but fractions of pure harmony, it is the Land of Shadows, the cycle of space-time. By creating space-time, the Eternal One has made a sacrifice. So spatial-temporal existence is destined to act reciprocally: Space-time must be sacrificed. The cycle of manifestation is the divine period of repose, being the descent. Liberation from its illusory bonds can be achieved by ascent. But ascent can only be accomplished by descending into the Underworld and recovering the Key.

A Sufi saying goes: “The fall of an angel is the birth of a man.”And we can add: “The fall of a man is the birth of an angel.” The birth of an angel is the second fall, being the ascent into the Deeps where the Two Oceans meet, a transformative Fall-out-of-Space­-time. That which is fallen must rise again, that which sleeps must be reawakened. The Fall-into-Space-Time is a departure from axiality. The second fall is the return, the readjustment to the all­-pervading and all-embracing Great Axis of Worlds.

With the second fall the Black Stone is turned into Spirit-White. The Arabian alchemist Arthephius writes accordingly (in J. Evola, Die Hermetische Tradition, Bibliotheca Hermetica, Ansata, Interlak­en, 1989): “Our bodies rise up above the dissolving waters, and this whiteness is life.” The “dissolving waters,” spoken of by one of the foremost Arabian alchemists, who receives mention in Lovecraft’s The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, is the dissolution of illusionary space-time. By the waters dissolved the Fisher-King is healed from his infirmity. Only by attaining Polar Wisdom, illuminated knowl­edge that is no longer intellectual in the way it is commonly under­stood, the Fish can be freed from the Net. That Wisdom-knowledge is what leads to the mystical meeting-place of the Two Oceans. There the Two are fused to One. In space-time, there is created the illu­sion of chronology, the concatenation of events, called causality.

The resurrecting one, however, realizes that there is no causality, no past and future, but only One Present.

It must be pointed out that in Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Perci­val, the King is named ”Anfortas.” This name should be understood as implying the magical Square of Mars or “Sator-Rotas,” since “ortas” is an anagram of both. As Mars is Iron, the King’s name alludes to the Wood of Iron or the Web of Illusions to be undone, the Labyrinth of Ariadne to be left. Mars is corresponding to the fifth chakra, the “Sator-Rotas-Square,” being the Square of Five.

The Order of Yore represents the Wisdom of Resurrection. Just as there was a time in the past, there will be a future time when the dust of millennia is cleared off. Then the day will be no more, but only the Night of the Black Luminary of Spirit. From the Sacred Fountain healing waters will pour forth and flood the Earth, while overhead an Eagle will fly with the Fifth Element on his two wings. A Threshold will be no more, and the Titans will be awakened from their eonian sleep. The healing waters of the Old Trinity will inundate the solar system. The son, who once was called the Fallen One, will have reclimbed the World-Mountain residing in Spirit-Vista. Man will be man no more, but like the Old Ones. It will be the time of the Sacred Octade. But the Diadem of Midnight will be beset with the skulls of all those who could not suffer Death-in-Life.

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