ππππ Φ πππππ
Magazine of culture, traditional studies, history of religions, anthropology of the sacred, folklore, esotericism, fantastic literature
The second appointment of our new series of online conferences and presentations will be broadcast on our YouTube channel on Wednesday evening at 19:00. This week Paolo Riberi, author of the essays, will be with us "Abraxas: the magic of the drum" (Mimesis, 2021), "Red pill or black lodge?" (Lindau, 2017), "The Apocalypse of Adam" (Lindau, 2013), "Mary Magdalene and the others" (The Age of Aquarius, 2015) and "The Gnostic Apocalypse of Light" (Esther, 2020) .
di Andrew Casella
cover: William Blake, illustration for Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy
In the first article of this cycle [cf. Cyclic time and its mythological meaning: the precession of the equinoxes and the tetramorph], we have said that, at regular intervals, due to the precession, some alternations of constellations occur in the four cardinal points of the year. This is the reason why the sacred texts speak of certain "catastrophes" that determine some "submergence" of an old "earth" and the rise of a new one (at least up to a certain time in history). Each age of the world has its "earth", that is its ecliptic plane, delimited by the equinoxes and solstices, which emerges from the "sea", that is, from the demarcation plane of the celestial equator. When the points of the year are determined by other constellations, a new "earth" rises on the horizon, while the old one sinks below sea level.
di Andrew Casella
It will certainly not go unnoticed by those who are at least a little accustomed to sacred science, a Christian symbol that has always stood out on the facades of churches, adorns manuscripts and is even found on a tarot blade: the tetramorph. This symbol draws its origin from the famous vision of Ezekiel (Ez. 1, 4-28) which St. John later poured into his own Apocalypse. These are four figures that surround the throne of God: the first has the appearance of a lion, the second of a bull, the third of a man and the fourth of an eagle in flight (Ap. 4, 7). Traditionally, these strange figures (which the Apocalypse calls the "Living") are attributed a literary value: in fact, they are the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. These figures, however, as mentioned, can be found (even more strangely, one might say) also on a tarot blade, and precisely the number XXI, which designates the world.
di Marco Maculotti
cover: Paracas culture textiles (coastal Peru)
A central concept in the Andean cosmogonic tradition is the belief in regular cycles of creation and destruction that would initiate and end the various cosmic eras. Time was conceived in a circular way; according to this doctrine, it had only two dimensions: the present (Kay Pasha) which at its end leads to the "ancient time"(Nawpa Pacha), from which we will return again to the present time [Carmona Cruz p.28].
This doctrine, comparable to that of the Indian Yuga and to the Hesiodic one of the ages, is based on a principle of cyclicality that would govern everything in the cosmos and which is called by the Andean tradition pachacuti, literally "a revolution, a procession of space and time". With this term, in the myths, a series of catastrophic events are described that foresee the general destruction of the humanity of the sky and its subsequent replacement with a new humanity - see the myths of origin of Lake Titicaca, in which it is said that Viracocha exterminated a previous race of giants with the flood or with a rain of fire to then create a subsequent humanity, the current one [cf. Viracocha and the myths of the origins: creation of the world, anthropogenesis, foundation myths].
