King Jesus (Penguin Modern Classics) (36 page)

Then he expounded them as follows. “It is agreed that there are four New Years in a twelvemonth ; at the autumnal equinox, at the vernal, at midwinter, at midsummer. As I read this vision of Ezekiel, each Cherub is a wheel of four spokes, with each New Year a spoke of the wheel. Each spoke has a face, part of the hub, that distinguishes its New Year : the Ox of seven combats for the new-born Sun of winter, and for the planet Ninib ; the Lion for the young Sun in Spring and for the planet Marduk ; the Eagle for the Sun in his prime and for the planet Nergal ; the Man for the experienced Sun of autumn and for the planet Nabu. But each spoke is planted in the felloe of its wheel with a single golden calf’s foot, so that each wheel is a four-legged calf. Each Cherub, then, is a wheeling year of four seasons, and each year is a wheel in a four-wheeled chariot, and rolls straight forward without deflection ; and each of the many eyes upon the wheels is a day, for the Sun is called the
eye of the day. Each wheel, also, turns within a wheel of four years (and so the Greeks reckon time by Olympiads), running from the beginning of things to the end of things. The Enthroned Man is an emanation of our God, but not our God himself. There are no beasts in the shafts of the Chariot, since the wheels themselves are the beasts, each wheel running, as I have said, upon the four feet of a golden calf. These wheels were the fiery steeds of the chariot in which the prophets Enoch and Elijah were carried up to Heaven. Yet Ezekiel hides a part of his vision from us : for the beast of midsummer is, in truth, an eagle-winged goat. Moreover, the beast of autumn is, in truth, a man-faced seraph, or fiery serpent. Thus each calf is in turn four beasts : it is lion, goat, seraph, and ox—the seraph when it is fully grown—and also it is a man, and an eagle. For this reason the Greeks and Cretans, who have drunk from the same well as ourselves, say : ‘The Calf has many changes.’ ”

“Cousin, beware of rash judgements !” John repeated.

Jesus continued : “The golden calf is not an idol, unless it be worshipped as a god. Those who worshipped the golden calves by Mount Horeb said : ‘These brought us out of Egypt!’ They lied : it was by the power of our God alone that they were brought out. Now, the whirlwind and fire, as I read Ezekiel’s vision, are an allegory of God’s presence ; for whirlwind and fire were the allegory of his presence on Mount Carmel when an inner voice spoke to Elijah. Yet an allegory only, for it is written : ‘And yet the Lord was not in the whirlwind. And yet the Lord was not in the fire.’ The whirlwind came from the North, the quarter from which the Sun never shines : from this we learn that our God transcends even the Sun, having no limitations to his power. (So when beasts are sacrificed in the Temple at Jerusalem the priest turns their heads to the North.) God is a spirit and his ministers are a flaming fire ; the fire that Moses saw in the bush, that burned and was not consumed, was not God : it was the brightness of his ministers. The lightnings of Horeb were the same—not God but his ministers. And Ezekiel saw the rainbow about the throne of the Most High ; for though the lightning leaps from the thundercloud for vengeance, the rainbow shines for mercy. Yet he hides another part of his vision from us. What of the other three Celestial Powers—the Sun, the Moon and the Planet of Love? Did he not see this fiery Trinity circling about the Throne? Listen again, and I will expound the Golden Calf whom the initiates name Moses.”

“Have a care how you blaspheme, Cousin !”

“May my mouth be kept clean of offence! You know the names of the circles of huts in the compound ?”

“I do. Those of the outer ring are : B
ABEL
, L
OT
, E
PHRON
, S
ALMA
, N
E
-E
STHAN
(which was the seraph that Moses made his standard in the wilderness) ; H
UR
, D
AVID
, T
ELMEN
, K
OHATH
, C
ALEB
; M
ORIAH
, G
ATH
, G
OMER
, J
ETHRO
, R
EU
. Those of the inner ring are : J
ACOB
, J
OSE
, J
ERAH
, J
ESHUA
, J
ACHIN
.”

“Why are these names chosen ?”

“It is a prime secret known only to the Elders of this Order.”

“Yet it has been revealed to me. The names of the outer ring spell out the calendar-story of the golden calf who becomes a bull and of whose torn flesh the Elders secretly partake at their initiation. Here are the words in Aeolic Greek ; the founders of this Order learned them, I suppose, from the Greeks of Canopus and concealed their secret by transforming them into the names, nearest to them in form, which are found in our Scriptures :

BOIBALION LOTO-PHORAMENON SALOÖMAI NEO-STHENARON.
OURIOS DAFIZO, TLAMON KAIOMAI, KALYPTOMAI.
MOIRAO, GATHEO GNORIMOS, IDRYOMAI, RHEO.

Which is to say :

I, the bull-calf ferried on the blue lotus, rock to and fro, new-strengthened.

I, the benignant one, cleave wood ; in suffering am consumed by fire ; am hidden away.

I, the famous one, distribute, rejoice, establish, am borne off by water.

Each name stands for a period of three ogdoads ; making in all three hundred and sixty days. And the other words are the five sacred days that remain to the year : A
CHAIFA
, O
SSA
(which gives its name to the lowest of the three degrees of initiation in this Order), O
URANIA
, H
ESUCHIA
, I
ACHEMA
—namely : The Spinner, Fame, the Queen of Heaven, Repose, Wailing. The Nabataeans of Arabia call the bull-calf ‘Ouri-Tal’, the Benignant Sufferer, and worship him with abominable rites as the son of the Goddess Lat ; the Phoenicians call him Hercules-Melkarth and glorify his lechery ; at Samaria he was worshipped as Egli-yahu, ‘the Lord is a Calf’, until the jealous hand of our God broke the city into pieces.”

“Who then is the bull-calf if he is neither Ouri-Tal nor Hercules nor Egli-yahu, and names the huts of this holy compound ?”

“An acceptable emblem of the life of the solar year, and of the life of man since the Fall. To worship this bull-calf is idolatry, for the power of the Only God, who is timeless, is thereby denied. It is to honour the Female, whose five midwinter days (which are also five equal seasons of the year) epitomize the fate of fallen man, and of the year.”

“And the two higher degrees of initiation ?”

“The Samsonians are so called in honour of Samson, whose life they make an allegory of the solar year. The Helicaeans are instructed in the mystical lore of the Helix, that is to say, of the Cosmic Wheel.”

“Tell me more of the Female.”

“She is the threefold demoness who is Mother, Bride and Layer-out to fallen man. On the first day of the five she spins the thread of his life ; on the second she flatters him with hope of fame ; on the third she corrupts him with her whoredoms ; on the fourth she lulls him to
deathly sleep ; on the fifth she bewails his corpse. The Greeks worship her in trinity as the Three Fates—namely, the Spinner, the Distributor, the Cutter-off.”

“But why is the bull-calf called Moses by the elders of our Order ?”

“The name Moses signifies that in the spring of every year life is
drawn out
of the flood-water, as our Law-giver Moses was in infancy drawn out of the Nile ; and that every child, until he is born, swims in water. The bull-calf, which is an emblem, cannot properly be blasphemed ; nor can Moses the Law-giver be blasphemed, since he was man, not God. He was born, married, begot children, did bloody deeds, died and was buried. Yet he deserves our everlasting honour, because the Lord God committed the Law to him and because, when the sinful people worshipped the golden bull-calf at Horeb, he ground the idol into dust and forced them to drink it mixed with water. And as the sage Aristeas writes : ‘Moses taught that God is One, that his power is manifested through all things, every place being filled with his sovereignty, and that nothing which is done in secret by men on earth is hidden from our God : for he knows all that is done, and all that is destined to be done.’ And elsewhere Aristeas shows that our nation alone worships one God, not a multiplicity of gods ; and for that we have Moses to thank, because he delivered the Law to us.”

“Yet if Moses was but a man and cannot therefore be blasphemed, why do the Elders of our Order forbid us to blaspheme him ?”

“That is not yet given me to understand, for I cannot believe these pious men to be idolaters.”

“Who is the Enthroned Man of Ezekiel’s vision, since he is neither the bull-calf nor God himself ?”

“The same Son of Man of whom the prophet Daniel was granted a vision. He shall appear to all men on the day that the Female is defeated at last. He is neither God nor man : he is the image of God in which man was first made and which shall then be renewed in pure love of God for man, of man for God.”

“May the Chariot roll us swiftly to that Day !”

At this, voices were heard outside and the Overseer hastened in, followed by Manahem and Simeon. The Overseer cried : “The whole compound is ablaze, yet nothing is consumed, and the wildfire is leaping up from the roof of this hut. Joshua ben Abiathar, Johanan ben Zacharias, confess : are you studying the
Ma’aseh Merkabah
[which is to say, the Work of the Chariot], a mystery forbidden to anyone to study who is of less rank than Head of an Academy ?”

“I was not forbidden by you or by my tutor to study the mystery. And who shall prevent me from understanding what I am ordered to memorize? And how shall I refrain from expounding what I understand, when I have vowed in your presence not to keep anything secret ?”

“Have a care! A boy of Kadesh Barnea, in my father’s days, who recognized the meaning of a single verse of the chapter was consumed by fire !”

“Yet I am not consumed! And I have heard it said : ‘When fire descends from Heaven that burns but does not consume, then is the time to sing the Hymn of Praise.’ ”

“Are you instructing your Overseer ?”

“As he wills.”

“Have you never heard it said that he who speaks foolishly of the things which are before, behind, above and below—which is to say the
Merkabah
—it were better he had never been born ?”

“I have heard that judgement, and I have also heard it said that Ezekiel will come again and unlock for Israel the chambers of the
Merkabah
. And what if Ezekiel has so come and unlocked them to-day ?”

Then the Overseer said : “Joshua ben Abiathar! This place will not hold you : you will wrench the bars apart. Take your bag of tools again and go in peace through the same gate by which you entered. Yet be warned by me. It is recorded that Elijah, whose duty in the Land of the Blessed is to guide the spirits to their due stations—that Elijah, granted a holiday upon earth, visited an academy of Jerusalem. He heard the Doctors discussing the fiery steeds of the chariot that caught him up to Heaven. Finding that they were puzzled and at a loss, he intervened to put them right, and on his return was severely reprimanded by him who sees all.”

“Who spitefully revealed to you Elijah’s discomfiture? Was it perhaps God’s Adversary? For now that you have released me from my vows of obedience and I can address you as man to man, I will tell you this. You flee from the world, yet no solemnly sworn vows of purity will preserve a timid man from sin ; neither will the locked gate to this compound, nor the earthwork about it, nor the thorn-hedge that tops the earthwork, nor your prophylactic girdles of calf-skin, nor all the thousand and one jealous rules of this Order, serve to keep out God’s Adversary when you spread so rich a table of temptation to entice him.”

“May the Lord cleanse our hearts from their secret fault ; for in him only is our strength! Go in peace now, bold son, and remember us kindly when you enter your kingdom.”

A month later, walking in the market-place of On-Heliopolis, Jesus pondered the fate of Jerusalem. The words that Jehovah once spoke to the prophet Ezekiel came into his mind : “Son of man, take a tile and pourtray upon it the city of Jerusalem.” His foot struck in the dust against a red tile. He picked it up, and sitting down on a stone, began to draw on it with a piece of charcoal. He pourtrayed the city in the archaic style, showing only the front of the Temple, with a wall about it, an ox and a lion within the wall, and a star shining above. Then he gazed steadfastly at the tile and his heart asked the question : “What is the judgement upon Jerusalem? Is she permitted to stand? Is she doomed to fall ?”

Before his eyes rose a vision of a tottering balance, and an inner voice
spoke to him : “A little more in this pan, a little more in that. The judgement is not yet.” He laid the tile down.

To a man who was watching him from behind he said in Greek, without looking round : “If you are able to instruct me, do so ; if unable, pass on.”

The man came forward and asked : “Are you the Hebrew of whom I have come in search ?”

“You know that I am, else you would not ask me.”

The man was tall, with a pale face, blue eyes and long corn-coloured hair. He carried a golden-shafted arrow in his hand and was dressed in a white linen robe, white linen breeches and a cloak of six colours fastened with a great gold brooch. “Then let me sharpen my arrow on your tile,” he said.

“You will need oil for that.”

“I carry oil with me in a spiral flask.”

“Is it clean oil for my tile? Are you one of the uncircumcised, an eater of the pig and the hare ?”

“I am a Gadelian from the extreme West. My people observe the same divine ordinances as yours. We are of the posterity of Japhet, and I am a physician and a smith.”

“Do your people not worship the Queen of Heaven? “

“No longer. As we tell the story, our God (who was first the God of the Hebrews) killed with a golden arrow the greatest she-bear in the Universe. Pray, expound the lion.”