The Alchemy Key.pdf - Veritas File System

effigy of the dead God, which was washed with pure water, anointed with
oil and clad in red robes, while the fumes of incense rose into the air, as if
to stir his dormant senses by their pungent fragrance and waken him from
his sleep of death.’ 10
Thus we see that the stress laid on the use of incense is perfectly
intelligible: there was no need for Ezekiel to go into details which were
well known to every Jew, while if the figure was in truth a dead man his
repugnance in referring to it is perfectly intelligible. The Babylonians
who were more civilized at that epoch than the Jews may well have
substituted an image for a man, just as the Greeks did later; perhaps when
all went well the Jews also had learnt to do the same, but in the hour of
dread and danger, blood, and only human blood, could satisfy the
Goddess.
The prophets of Jehovah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, had pro claimed
that He had doomed Judah to destruction. What then of the Great Mother.
Perhaps she at least would hear them? But in this hour of extremity no
paltry substitutes would suffice. We may well believe that the frenzied
worshippers of Astarte cried, “It is meet that one man should die for the
whole people.” And who but the High Priest of Tammuz could prove an
acceptable sacrifice?
But Ezekiel leaves us in little doubt on the point, for in the next
chapter but two he says :—‘Moreover, the Spirit lifted me up and brought
me unto the East gate of the Lord’s house, which looketh eastwards, and
behold at the door of the gate five and twenty men, among whom I saw
Jaazaniah, the son of Azur, and Pelatiah, the son of Benaiah, Princes of
the people. Then said He unto me, Son of Man, these are the men that
devise mischief and give wicked counsel in this city: which say, Let us
build houses: this city is the cauldron and we be the flesh.’ 11
The meaning of this phrase seems obscure, but we will follow it
up in a moment. Meanwhile we obtain one of the keys to the problem,
two verses further on, in the fiery denunciation of the Prophet.
“Ye have multiplied your slain in this city, ye have filled the
streets thereof with slain. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God; Your slain
whom ye have lain in the midst of it they are the flesh and this the
10 Frazer, “Adonis, Attis, Osiris.” 3rd ed. Vol. I. p. 9.
11 Ezekiel 11. 1 sq.
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