reply to post by no1smootha
Hi Not Smooth
You wrote : QUOTE
"The story about how Jason and Medea killed Pelias is ALWAYS a RAM. Also the ancient Greeks didn't practice Wicca although they were certainly
pagans."
UNQUOTE
Wicca derives from ancient Sanskrit root wordss e.g. WEIK / WIKKAN meaning 'to bend, to change' or 'to transform' -
I use the term WICCA generically for any type of pre-Christian 'magickal practice' (esp magickal fertility rituals) which were in practice prior to
the introduction of all the various Judeo-Christianities into Europe (from about 30,000 BCE to about 900 CE) - but I do not use the term in the sense
that Gardner etal. would use the term or indeed any others of the 19th-20th century NeoPagan movements.
Just another clarification - goats and rams were BOTH used as fertility symbols in many many rituals in hundreds of ancient cults - even the
Canaanites had their Azazel preJudaean Goat Sacrfice at their own version of Yom Kippur (later the 'jewish' Day of Atonement) under the heading of
'the scape-goat' at the time of the annual harvest when the fields would be cleared - i.e. around the 'Jewish' (and pre-jewish Canaanite) New Year
or 'rosh-hashannah' - both festvals (Yom Kippur & Rosh HaShannah) occured in the same month (Tishri) and had fertility overtones & symbology.
The RAM of course is associated with male-sexuality and fertility in the Spring; the GOAT is associated with re-birth of the sun god (i.e. Capricorn
c. Dec 21st and following)
The Letters O.T.O on the back of this casting suggests the Latin words : Ordo Templi Orientis (Order of the Eastern Temple, or more loosely, the
'Order of the Eastern Templars'), which was associated with the ritual magick of Aleistair Crowley esp between c. 1910 & 1930 - which secret
organisation uses variations of goat-fertility symbolism in many of its emblems (cf: Baphomet or "SOPHIA" in reverse Hebrew Letters via the socalled
ATBASH Gemmatria Cipher where 'ALEPH the 1st letter of the Hebrew 'Aleph-Bet becomes TAV (i.e. the last letter) and the second letter BETH becomes
SHIN (the penultimate letter) etc. etc. etc. so that the Greek word (sophia = 'wisdom') can be written in Hebrew consonants as 'SVFYA"
('wisdom') then transforms into BFVMT- (i.e. Baphomet = the Atbash Gemmatrial Cipher form) - and we all know what animal Baphomet is depicted as -
and 'it aint no Ram !'....
Certainly the animal image at the bottom of the pin does seem to be a Goat rather than a Ram by virtue of the goat-horns (they are clearly not curved
ram's horns) , but it might have deliberately been left ambiguous by the artist and/or the OTO.
Clear as mud?
