Tarot II Perpetual Choirs Atalanta Fugiens XXI

     Tarot II, the Temple and the Sts. John of Jerusalem cont.

We saw in part 1 that a great many identifications exist of the Jachin pillar being in the north at the Temple of  Solomon.  The error of this was demonstrated and the probable reason for this error was identified.  Jachin was on the right and in the south.  The eminent scholar Robert Graves, THE WHITE GODDESS, Chapter 11, p. 189-90, wrote:  "To judge from a design on a glass dish of the Seleucid epoch, showing the facade of Solomon's Temple as rebuilt by Zerubbabel on the original Phoenician model, the spirally fluted pillars correspond with Boaz, Solomon's right-hand pillar dedicated to growth and the waxing sun; the vertically fluted with Jachin, his left-hand pillar dedicated to decay and is the waning sun".  So far so good?  No, he's got Jachin in the north:

                                       https://bibleatlas.org/shechem.htm

He continued (mentioning "The symbolism became confused ..." - it had been B and J and now it was J and  B),   "... but the tradition remained 'Boaz is to Jachin as Gerizim is to Ebal — as blessing is to cursing". 

Gerizim and Ebal were the twin peaks covering the Ephraimite shrine of Shechem.  Gerizim was on the right-hand as one faced east from Shechem, Ebal on the left" https://onlinereadfreenovel.com/robert-graves/page,30,36115-the_white_goddess.html   The waxing sun is Capricorn (to Cancer) whilst the waning sun is Cancer (to Capricorn).  This is so redolent of John the Baptist (Midsummer birthday) on Jesus (Midwinter birthday),  JOHN, 3.30 :  “He must increase, but I must decrease"

My notes on GHMB, 19-03-22 on Graves: a few thoughts. He was an eminent and knowledgeable scholar but he had his eccentricities (if I may call them that): tree alphabet and its application comes to mind, in the context of Boaz - it has another more profound name, he claims, Abolloneus. And I can't currently provenance his Gerizim-Boaz saying. But - even if I could - in that form of words it is no direct identification at all: "Boaz is to Jachin as Gerizim is to Ebal." Are we talking identical placements (as he takes it) or opposites? There's nothing whatsoever in the saying that informs us. Both work (within the phrasing). And all the rest is just based on his own personal identification. And he's already said they got switched over, anyway.  And then we have the 2nd temple as a copy of the original. Was it? How would he know?  "When the Second Temple was built, the pillars were not returned and there exists no record of new pillars being constructed to replace them.[3]"  [en.wikipedia.org]

So where did the Selucid glass dish come in? And who can show it was Boaz spirally fluted?  All I find is Graves regurgitated.

(Image of a 3rd-century AD glass bowl which depicts Solomon's Temple. Boaz and Jachin are the detached black pillars shown on either side of the entrance steps.Wiki). 

Is this the "Seleucid" epoch bowl (period ended early-mid C1st AD c/o Pompey and co.)?  Two black pillars, no fluting?  And why black, anyway, when they were made of brass, a mixture of copper and tin?

Let's throw "STELLAR THEOLOGY AND MASONIC ASTRONOMY, 1882, into the mix.  On pages 130-1, the author, Robert Hewitt Brown, identifies left with north with Cancer, and right with south with Capricorn (our modern convention): "The tropic of Cancer would then be at the north, and the tropic of Capricorn at the south ... "  because "The Hebrews ... when speaking of the four quarters of the heavens,  always supposed the spectator to be looking east, toward the rising sun; and in their language "before" meant "east," "behind" "west," the right  hand south, and the  left  north ..."  (emphasis on always is mine).  As in: "Hebrews, like most Semitic people, orientated themselves by facing east, towards the rising sun.  Thus east in Hebrew was simply front (qedem), with south as right (yamin), north as left (semol), and west as rear (achor) or "sea" (yam)."  We've met with this (correct) portrayal before, in part 1.  Now this alone is enough to equate the pillar on the right/in the south with Jachin.  Unfortunately, Hewitt Brown (pp. 157-163) also identifies Jachin with the moon and Boaz with the sun - unlike the masonic tracing-board (see notes, bottom) and the Compass of the Wise.  There are numerous references to Brown and his interpretation: Jachin is derived from the Hebrew word for the Moon, Jarac, and thus the "month" was called Jachin.  Boaz is derived from two roots, "bo", motion, haste; and "az", fire, i.e. the moving fire"  http://www.edkohout.com/mundane/arch-1.html 

Again, "Boaz is derived from Bo, and az, fire - the sun, the great morning fire. Jachin was derived from Jarac, the moon."  http://www.phoenixmasonry.org/illustrated_history_of_freemasonry.htm pp. 69-70

It rather surprisingly turns out that jarac means Capricorn (albeit in Croatian).  It means he-goat, too: Jarac, n. buck goat (ba'k gQ'ut), he-goat (hi' gQ'ut), Jarak.  The actual attribution for this jarac/moon stuff is one Dr. Adam Clarke, SHORT HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES, 1802 AD - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Clarke  

I must admit, though, I find the Hebrew characters in luna and jarac very similar!  I found the Jachin-month-Jarac-moon just a tad tenuous at first (but, hey, I'm no expert here!) although Jerakh does mean one full month and Jerakhim means three months:  http://www.jhom.com/topics/moon/hebrew.html  Yerah was the (male) moon god http://www.bible.ca/islam/islam-photos-moon-worship-archealolgy.htm  However, Jerah, same person, is Yarikh (Lord of the Sickle)  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yarikh and Jarac is given as Jerah above and Jericho. Yarikh is cognate (I'm told) with Labana (whiteness of the moon) c/o GHMB's Gregorius - and my thanks http://www.grahamhancock.com/phorum/read.php?f=1&i=320910&t=320013 .  As regards Yarikh being Jachin, Yarikh is male but we have the moon as female.  This is potentially a flaw in Clarke's idea if applied to Tarot and Tree.  There is absolutely no "month" coming up for the word jachin, whatsoever ... yet  ... nor any proof that Jachin is derived from Jarac. Or is there: "they call the Jarchin which is derived from Jarac" - Dr. Clarke again - as cited in AN EXPOSITION OF THE MYSTERIES OR RELIGIOUS DOGMAS ..., Julian Fellows, 1835, p.24.  Also, elsewhere, jerach means month.  The site also points that, over time, the sexuality attached to moon and sun has changed.

Fellows identifies Jachin with the goddess Isis.  Not a Capricorn he-goat, then?  He says the pillar Jachin is "undoubtedly" derived from Jarchin.  I'm doubting it.  I also doubt the idea I've seen advanced that Psalm 89 supports the identification: "The primitive signification of the words Jachin and Boaz will also be seen from Psalms lxxxix., 36, 37":  "I will not lie to David - that his line will continue forever and his throne endure before me like the sun; it will be established forever like the moon ..."  Do you see any "evidence" there that Jachin is the moon and not (say) the sun?  I don't, http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+89&version=NIV  Fellows originally quotes "Jarchin" from Clarke (as against the Jachin seemingly substituted in at least one modern edition - in 1999 it's Jachin, not Jarchin - it's on p. 30).  It begs the question is Jarchin Jachin?  Here's the Abbe Fleury's version, p. 220: "their months are lunar  ... they call them Jarchin which comes from Jerac, the moon". Fine - but Jachin?  Seems to be a "r" (resh) missing to me.  Whilst we can build a bridge from Jerah/Yerah to Yarikh and, possibly, even from Jarikh/Yarikh to Jarchin, why (and how) to Jachin (a name in Genesis also given as Jarib, meaning chiding/avenging and associated with a priest aka Joarib and Jehoiarib, God will contend?

HOWEVER: the internet cites Dr Adam Clarke's HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT ISRAELITES ... as 1804 or 1805.  I just downloaded the 1802 edition.  It's not by Dr Clarke at all!  No, it's "corrected and improved throughout" by him from the Abbe Claude Fleury's text which was an enlargement on APPARATUS BIBLICUS, Pere (father) Bernhard  Lamy, 1696 AD.  A 1722 edition of Lamy carries (p. 138): "Jarchin, ab Jareac Luna".  So - not a Clarke correction/improvement.  Apparently there's a 1762 work called JARCHIN AND BOAZ and/or JACHIN AND BOAZ - "in Jarchin and Boaz 1762"/"in Jachin and Boaz, of about 1762"  - http://www.masoniclibrary.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=85:a-glossary-of-the-craft-ritual&catid=23:lecture&Itemid=30  Both pillars are sometimes "he".  I emailed the grandlodgesscotland  - it kindly tells me the "r" was a misprint (21-01-13, and my thanks).  No search of the Hebrew masoretic texts or the C2nd AD Septuagint delivers Jarchin and it is Jachin in the C4th AD Vulgate.  Rather begs the question of where Lamy actually got his r from, doesn't it? Also http://www.babynames.org.uk/jewish-girl-baby-names.htm - note female noun endings, notably - a (h).  Now Jachin doesn't have it.  But (feminine) Jokina does - and means "God will establish".  Jachin means God/he establishes, too.  Conclusion?  Jachin is not female.  And never was. Boy's baby name: Jachin http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/1/Jachin

I still need convincing that az = fire/sun - I find "bo'az. from an "unused root of uncertain meaning"  http://www.sacrednamebible.com/kjvstrongs/STRHEB11.htm  I did find Azer and Azar mean fire - the latter in modern Iranian  as month nine (November - December) and the former as in the country: "The last day of the Persian month of "Azar" is the longest night of the year (Capricorn - my note).  From this day forward, Light triumphs as the days grow longer ...  http://www.farsinet.com/norooz/yalda.html  It is considered unlucky.  I've found no az for fire, yet, in Hebrew/Yiddish.  Azar seems to equate to Hebrew Adar (Grigorius, GHMB, again), a month also with connotations of good and bad luck ... and meaning fire. It is aleph and shin that are fire in Hebrew: "aleph, shin or esh, meaning fire"  http://www.mikvah.org/article/woman,_man_and_fire and the letter Shin:

the dynamic movement of the element Fire http://www.soulguidance.com/houseofthesun/treeoflifeletters.htm 

It looks like a fire, doesn't it.  On the Tree of Life of Emanation, it is top right (masculine) with  Mem as top left (water/feminine). Now, can (a)esh be (a)zah?  I think not (but I'm no expert!)  Grigorius notes "ez: female goat".  Goats again!  http://biblesuite.com/hebrew/5795.htm  So can we have a Jarac he goat and an ez she goat?  I just found this (and I wonder if this is how they did it):  esh is fire, and ba-es(h) is "with fire". http://biblesuite.com/hebrew/baesh_784.htm   Ba-es(h) Bo-az?  Can esh be az? 

Boaz is often given as "strength", and aziz = strength = Hebrew oz.  Booz?  That's St. Jerome's version of Boaz, I gather.  Also note Azazel: the meaning of Azazel is that of "who God strengthens" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azazel , a goat-like sacrificial scapegoat associated with a scarlet thread.  Goats yet again!

Hewitt Brown's resolution of the Jachin/Boaz identification - and at least some of the above  indicates a need to resolve = there was a problem -  consists of three ways: firstly, the words themselves and their supposed roots, secondly, Josephus (who we met in past), and, thirdly, the idea that north and south are left and right respectively (because our reference point is looking east - another idea we've met).  I approached UGLE about the J and B placement problem: "opinions differ on this matter" (Information Officer, The United Grand Lodge of England - and my thanks). 

I had a look at Frank C Higgins, too: Mounts Tabor and Sinai in the Lodge. More mountains!    Higgins names the right-hand pillar Purusha/Osiris/strength (masculine) and the left-hand pillar Prakriti/Isis/establishment (female) - THE BEGINNINGS OF FREEMASONRY, 1916, p. 65, and mentions an amulet showing two pillars being approached from the east.  Apparently they are IK-IN and BO-AZ and represent 1800 and 576.

At  http://www.freemasons-freemasonry.com/larsonwilliam.html  The word "entrance" definitely means one is going in (it seems) so Jachin is on the right/north.  That idea again!  Or Scott Onstott:  Boaz (apparently) as left, gold, "means sun" with Jachin right, silver, moon.  And the same idea, again:  http://www.viewzone.com/onstott66.html   This is what he claims: "Boaz is known as the pillar of strength or severity and represents the Sun.  Jachin is known as the pillar of beauty or mildness and represents the Moon."  However:  "Note how an image made of the Sun shines atop the so-called "Jachin" pillar and an image of the Moon shines atop the Boaz pillar" http://www.richardcassaro.com/tag/sun-and-moon  Boaz represents the feminine ... while Joachim represents the masculine".  Or "Their Hebrew names are Jachin and Boaz.  Jachin is the creative sun pillar ... whilst Boaz is the reflective moon pillar"  and (below)  "the right-hand Pillar is capped by the Sun the left-hand Pillar is capped by the Moon" http://www.deepertruth.com/journal/article-1.html  

The author, Richard Cassero, commenting on the above, names the left pillar (to us) Jachin and equates it with the sun, thus Boaz moon. BUT Jachin is expressly called "on the right".  That means you have to be in-the-lodge looking out (whereas we are looking in).  It also places Jachin in the north for the lodge.

Here's more snake symbology, noting that rods (like the masonic Cancer and Capricorn) were also snakes - rem. the staff of Moses, bronze Nehushtan and Aaron, and the Ophiite snake, the "Lightening Flash", the pillar, high places and the tree all symbolising the connection between earthly/physical/terrestrial/mortal to the heavenly/spiritual/celestial/divine.  So a snake right and a snakey bird (?) left:

Grigorius notes one more possiblity regarding J and B - Judah and Benjamin, the 2 southern tribes (and the 2 not lost).  Benjamin is from son of the right ... and means son of the south (but it's north of Judah).  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon%27s_Temple   But there is also the interesting idea of Jachin being for the priests and Boaz for the king. We also have Rosslyn's Apprentice pillar, its supposed twin at Cintra, and the sites sort of between them (on the Way, so to speak) to consider as a 'rainbow bridge'?  See GUARDIAN OF THE SECRETS OF THE HOLY GRAIL, Tim Wallace Murphy and Marilyn Hopkins, 1999: Santiago de Compostela: St. James de Compostela, Toulouse: Cathedral of Notre Dame la Dalbade, Orleans: Sainte-Croix Cathedral, Paris: Notre Dame Cathedral, Amiens: Amiens Cathedral, Chartres: Chartres Cathedral, Edinburgh: Rosslyn Chapel for instance.  7 again

Consider this: I started this enquiry looking for evidence of an "Alph", a supposed hermetic underground river of consistent knowledge passed down from the past.  And I looked for some coherence and consistency in attached symbology. I'm still looking ... So what of wiki?  "Boaz stood on the left (north) and Jachin on the right (south)"  No snakes, no heavenly bodies, no black and whites or reds and violet, no fancy fluting, no Tol, no goats, no fire and water, no sexual imagery, no missing resh, no Cancer or Capricorn, no severity or mercy ... Bang on.

Other than the pillars, there are four people in the Old Testament worth mentioning perhaps: 3 Jachins (meaning he will establish), and one Boaz (meaning variously quick/strong/wise, a " mighty man of wealth", Ruth, 2.1, and King David's great-grandfather).  They are all men.  Two of the Jachins and Boaz predate the temple of Solomon.

Let's finish with Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma ..., 1871 : " The symbols of the wise always become the idols of the ignorant multitude. What the Chiefs of the Order really believed and taught, is indicated to the Adepts by the hints contained in the high Degrees of Free-Masonry, and by the symbols which only the Adepts understand.  The Blue Degrees are but the outer court or portico of the Temple. Part of the symbols are displayed there to the Initiate, but he is intentionally misled by false interpretations. It is not intended that he shall understand them; but it is intended that he shall imagine he understands them. Their true explication is reserved for the Adepts, the Princes of Masonry."  Now the "Blue Degrees" are 1, 2 and 3 - all many lodges have:  https://www.jjcrowder743.com/threedegrees.html  But Pike is Scottish Rite - 33 degrees (with 33 being another of Frank C Higgins' "Cosmic numbers". https://www.sacred-texts.com/mas/md/md31.htm#page_819

So, na-na-na-na-nah, we know something you don't ...  It's just so much babble.  I do like the goats though - turning my attention to Templar Gothic (goat-like) architecture.  Of course, 33 brings us quite naturally to 57 and the arcane sigificances of baked beans etc.

And here ends part 2.

geoffss@aol.com

Some notes: the snake and Tol, the snake and tau, earth and heaven (Boaz left on way in!) - https://freemasonrymatters.co.uk/latest-news-freemasonry/those-mysterious-pillars-boaz-and-jachin/  and lastly a masonic tracing-board noting the sun is Jachin and on the right/south going in.  This contrasts with Cassero's tracing board above (where the sun is on the left going in).  Kevin L Gest, The Secret of Solomon's Temple, 2009, actually equates Solomon to Sun (Sol) and Moon (Amun) run together.  I can't find any where else that equates Amun with moon (so far).

The lodge lay-out has the senior warden mid-west and the junior warden south (though both were once in the west).  The former is associated with Jachin and the latter Boaz: https://theeducator.ca/the-wardens-columns/