Metropolitan Museum of Art Public Domain
Genesis 3
The snake asked the woman, “Did God really tell you not to eat from any tree in the garden? “We may eat the fruit of any tree in the garden,” the woman answered, except the tree in the middle of it. God told us not to eat the fruit of that tree or even touch it; if we do, we will die.”
The snake replied, “That’s not true; you will not die. God said that, because he knows that when you eat it you will be like God and know what is good and what is bad, you will know everything”
The woman saw how beautiful the tree was and how good its fruit would be to eat, and she thought how wonderful it would be to become wise. So she took some of the fruit and ate it.
Genesis 1
V 26 Then God said, “And now we will make human beings; they will be like us and resemble us.
V 27 So God created human beings, making them to be like himself. He created them male and female.
CHILDREN OF EVE
During the height of the Islamic Golden Age around the 11th century, just before the Christian Crusades to reclaim the Holy Land and Jerusalem, acquiring knowledge was ranked second only to prayer in the level of importance. Scholars were encouraged to study nature by religious authorities to understand the inner workings of the Mind of God and the created world.
The path of knowledge was a highly respected activity not separated from the more traditional ways of worship, whether it was prayer, meditation, ritual sacrifice, the study of scripture, almsgiving, fasting, or pilgrimage. The distinction between religion and science was much less rigid and defined. This focus on knowledge as a spiritual discipline was not only restricted to Islam.
Treatise on the Eye – Hunain ibn Ishaq
Public Domain
Mathematics Manuscript – Khayyam
Public Domain
Jewish religious texts, including the Torah; the first five books of the Bible, are filled with sacred knowledge. Secrets are also found in the Kabbalah of Jewish mysticism and various other books of the Old Testament, in particular those that include descriptions of the design and building of King Solomon’s Temple.
The very last book of the Christian Bible and the New Testament, the Book of Revelations, contains secrets and mysteries directly related to science. More than any other book found in the Bible, the misinterpretation of Revelations and the symbols contained in it are responsible for much of the suffering in the world. The book was so controversial that it was almost not included in the Bible. It was the last to form part of the official canon due to its complex symbolism and the Church Fathers’ inability to understand its meaning. This led to countless theories being proposed over the last two thousand years that are all apocalyptic in nature, and yet, none have managed to unlock their mysteries and secrets until now.
DARK AGES
The science of astronomy, mathematics, numbers and geometry all play a significant role in deciphering these secrets correctly. A process that starts with understanding the symbolic importance of temple building and that the best way to express this knowledge is through the medium of architecture. God was conceptualized as a Great Architect, builder of worlds and designer of the form. So by studying nature, scholars could gain insight into the fundamental building blocks of creation and use it to construct Temples, Mosques, Churches, and Cathedrals in honour of their Creator.
The rediscovery of these secrets by the Knights Templar during the Crusades ultimately led to the European Renaissance in the fourteenth century, the Scientific Revolution in the sixteenth, and the Enlightenment in the eighteenth century. Changes to European society and Western civilization were driven by sacred knowledge that the Freemasons inherited from the Knights Templars, who had learned these universal secrets from their Muslim teachers. If not for the Islamic scholars and scientists, knowledge of the ancient world would have been lost, and the many centuries of dark ages thrust upon European civilization by the Church would have continued to this day.
William Blake 1757-1827
Public Domain
THE FORBIDDEN BIBLE
Grand Lodge / Public Domain
One only has to look as far as the Masonic Craft and its secret rituals and symbols to recognize the importance of acquiring knowledge; using the natural world to understand God and the laws of creation. These are not separate, but one, informing and complimenting each other. The art of architecture and building tools form the foundation of all Masonic teachings.
Science and God are generally viewed as incongruent opposites, but only because religious authorities wrongly associated learning and knowledge with evil and disobedience. A pattern repeated by all major religions at different times of their evolution.
This is one of the main reasons why knowledge of the forbidden knowledge is so difficult to discover, hidden in codes and symbols out of fear of being uncovered by the authorities. Only those who were initiated, with understanding, could read the secrets hidden within the scriptures and holy books. To ensure the survival of these secrets, they were included in texts and books that were least likely to be destroyed by more fundamentally orientated believers within the faith and society, in this case, the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.
BURN IT ALL
Hermann Göll / Public Domain
Censorship and creating lists of forbidden books and practices were common strategies used by the Church Fathers to root out all they deemed undesirable. As was the destruction and burning of sacred texts, people, buildings, and temples, the most famous example being that of the Great Library of Alexandria in ancient Egypt. Fortunately for history, they could not censor and edit what they did not understand, so some of the knowledge managed to survive, albeit in code and metaphor. Enough to be able to discover the most significant aspects of the concepts and ideas they wanted to preserve by deciphering the meaning of certain symbols found in the Bible.
Eden
The story of Eve was ultimately written to suppress women, blaming them for the fall of humankind and thereby creating a belief system that has survived to the present day. Man is in charge; women are weak, prone to temptation and should be controlled and never hold a position of power. Unfortunately, this story kills two birds with one stone. Firstly women are classified as second-class citizens that are not to be trusted. Secondly, the search for knowledge, wisdom and understanding is associated with the devil and all things forbidden. And we haven’t even mentioned sexuality yet.
Lucas van Leyden 1494-1593
Dutch Painter and Engraver
Metropolitan Museum of Art / Public Domain
Hans Sebald Beham 1500 – 1550
German Painter and Engraver
Nürnberg, Frankfurt München / Public Domain
Paul Gustave Doré 1832 – 1883
French Artis and Printmaker
Scan from a Dutch bible / Public Domain
Christopher Whall and Karl Parsons
St George’s Cathedral Cape Town South Africa
Photo Credit: Stewart Harris CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Treatise Mechanical – Ahmad ibn Musa ibn Shakir
Public Domain
Book of Animals – Al Jahiz Basra
Public Domain
Header Quote: Lyrics from the song Anthem
Song Writer: Leonard Cohen