A New World Monument to Mithras - Old News documentary

Symbols of grades.
Seven Grade Symbols will be covered under the heading of “Symbolism of the
Silent Opera.”
Map of constellations:
Canis Major:
Near the Orion figure is a canine
whose size, proportion, position and
orientation leads me to identify it as
Canis Major.
Buffalo:
This figure is to the left of all others
in Cave 2. Above it is an inscription Fell
(1985:55) read as (Al) debaran, “The
Follower”. However, this is the name of
only one star in the constellation
Taurus, the bull. Its tail has long bristles
drawn with emphasis. James George
Frazer in his well-known work The
Golden Bough, recorded “the virtue of
the corn-spirit” resides in the tail of the
bull. Many illustrations of bulls in
Mithraea show the bull’s tail as
terminating in ears of grain. A
reproduction of one of these images
was used by Ulansey (1989:7). The
long bristles can be seen growing from
the ears of wheat.
Figure 18. Photo of a portion of the Cave 2 cast. The
upper arrow points to the figure representing the constellation
Orion, and the lower arrow points to the head of Canis
Major. If multiple photos are viewed, with the camera flash
at various positions, the two figures can be seen with greater
clarity.
Ram:
Between the buffalo and Pegasus there is a glyph I believe represents the ram
Aries. He is back to back with the buffalo. Fell translated some marks above its head
as “One who goes first” (Fell 1985:55). He associated those marks as a label for what I
call Pegasus. There appears to be an old inscription above the ram, but it is difficult to
determine the original characters.
Pegasus:
The body of Pegasus is composed of four stars forming a square. It is
approximately equidistant from either end of the river of stars at the apex of the Milky
Way. To the ancients this square comprised the boundaries of Paradise. Souls traveled
there after death if they were deemed worthy (Sesti, 1991:407, 434). This Pegasus has
a pair of parallel lines projecting from the back of his head. Allen tells us of another
Pegasus, “A coin of Panormus, the modern Palermo, has the Horse’s head with what
was probably intended for a dorsal plume.” (1963:323).
28