Saturday, May 26, 2007

I have been searching for connections between the God Mithras and Chess. Any help will be Gladly welcomed. Here is a post from the Delphi. Persian Temple of Mithras Found in Germany Author: The Tehran Times Source: The Tehran Times Title: PERSIAN TEMPLE OF MITHRAS FOUND IN GERMANYArcheologists in southwest Germany have uncovered a 1,800-year-old temple built to the Persian god Mithras while they were working on a Roman dig, authorities in the town of Gueglingen said Friday.Well preserved parts of an altar, jewelry and pieces of a fresco have been discovered, said Andrea Neth, director at the site, which will be opened to the public on Sunday, AFP reported.Additonal Article Link: [Click HERE] Options: [Read Full Story]

4 comments:

Isis said...

From: luminary388 (SUNWOLF1) 6/9/2001 6:10 am
To: ALL (1 of 1)

155.1

Hi All:
Continuing my little history lesson on the evolution of magick, I will touch upon Gnostic tradition, and how it was influenced by Zoroaster.
Zoroaster was a Persian spiritual teacher who lived around 1800 BCE. He was brought up in a pagan religion that worshipped the elemental forces of water and fire. At the age of 30 Zoroaster had a vision where he talked with Ahura Mazda, an Iranian God, or Ormazd. Ormazd appeared to Zoroaster and said he was the supreme being. Because of this experience Zoroaster broke away from the established religion and taught his own philosophy, which is much like WAR IN HEAVEN (see folder), that the cosmos is a battleground between light and dark forces. Zoroastrianism says the enlightened person had to choose between one or other of these principles.

Zoroasterianism was one of the first sects to alow both sexes into initation of its rites, at the age of 15. Please share anything that you know on Zoroasterianism!

Jan said...

Hi 'Sis,

The link to the story doesn't work correctly, you may want to double check that.

It would be interesting to see what "artifacts" were discovered in this tomb. Did any of them look like gaming pieces, for instance?

Sunwolf touched upon an intriguing topic when he mentioned the "war in the heavens" between the forces of light and dark. The most obvious chess reference is to the dark and light squares on the chessboard. However, keep in mind that the earliest Persian chessboards of which we know did NOT have two-colored squares, they were unicolored! As far as I am aware, so were the earliest Indian ashtapada (8x8) boards.

You might have better luck tracing the Mithraic icon of the banded globe, also known as the "quartered" globe. This is an ancient icon of royal or kingly authority that is represented today in the globus cruxus (sp?).

Isis said...

I found this Mithras Temple located in London England while studying the history of the Square Mile, or "The City".

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/england/london-temple-of-mithras.htm

ST DUNSTAN IN THE WEST Dates from 1185. Has a bust to William Tyndale who preached here. John Donne was also rector here. And Izaac Walton (of fishing fame) worshiped here. Samuel Pepys used the church as a place to pick up pretty serving-girls - but had little luck as his diary laments. The clock has two figures, of Gog and Magog who mark the time. Just inside the doorway are old statues of King Lud and his two sons. Also used by the Romanian Orthodox Church, and has a fine 19thC icon screen from Budapest. Opening Times Tues 11am - 3 pm Website.

http://www.londontourist.org/city.html

Through the gothic doorway is the partly medieval Great Hall, restored in 1670 after being seriously damaged in 1666. As the Great Fire swept its course through the alleys and courts to the east it quickly took its toll on the tightly pack wooden houses of Guildhall Yard. Two taverns on the west side of the Yard, the Three Tuns and the White Lyon, closed their doors on the night of Monday, 3rd September and never opened again. Highly charged with fuel, it then attacked the Great Hall, but this was of solid stone and only the tremendous heat from without caused the ignition of the timbers within. Gog and Magog, the elaborately painted famous giants, fell casualty and were reduced to ashes. Saved from the flames were the treasured historic records of the City; they were stored in the heavily armoured stone crypt beneath the Hall.

http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Cabana/9424/addpage2.htm

Isis said...

Jan:

You wrote..."You might have better luck tracing the Mithraic icon of the banded globe, also known as the "quartered" globe. This is an ancient icon of royal or kingly authority that is represented today in the globus cruxus (sp?).

May 27, 2007 9:47 AM"

Is this the circle with a cross through it?

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