Egyptian Lore and the "14"

The number 14 occurs in one prominent place in Egyptian lore, namely the 14 pieces of Osiris in the Osiris Myth. Murry Hope devotes a section in her book, The Sirius Connection, to how the numbers 14 and 50 are related in Egyptian thought. (Interestingly, the number 14 appears in the Bible exactly 50 times, again suggesting half of a cycle.)

Perhaps related to this is the recent archaeological discovery at Abydos of 14 ships resting amid funerary enclosures that date to the first Dynasty (2950 - 2775 B.C.), all moored neatly together in a row. These ships are, in fact, the oldest known planked vessels to survive anywhere in the world. The May/June issue of Archaeolgy featured a brief article on this most intriguing find:

"Investigating a series of mud-brick enclosures near Khentyamentiu's temple a mile morth of the cemetery at Umm el Qa'ab in 1991, we fully expected to find more enclosures dedicated to Egypt's earliest kings. Instead, we found the remaims of 14 ancient ships "moored" in the desert, miles from the Nile... The ships, which date back to early Dynasty I, appeared to be associated with the enclosures of an early king, perhaps even Aha, the first of the Dynasty I rulers...

"...The function of the Abydos boats remains a mystery. Did they serve as "solar boats," which, in later belief, were used by deceased kings to travel through the cosmos like the sun-god? Or were the vessels, like food, clothing, and servants, simply buried to serve the king in the afterlife?"⁴

Admittedly, there is no direct evidence that the number of boats had anything to do with mythology, but such an assumption would fly in the face of the very symbolic nature of Abydos. "Solar boats" would surely fit the description of the number of 'voyages' the Sun has to make around the earth (meaning number of days) before the moon became full.

Easter Computus and "14"

The Christian computus of Easter, although appearing much later than the Exaltations of Nabu, may provide us with some clues to why the "14" is important, and we will see that the determination of Easter is in some ways similar to the exaltations of the luminaries.

Easter was tied into the Jewish festival of Passover from the start, and Passover was always on 14 Nisan, meaning the 14th day of the first month of the year. The early Christian realm was disjointed and scattered in the Roman Empire, and it was not until the Council of Nicea in 325 AD that Easter was to be decided in Rome; the more concrete and official code for computing Easter would be specifically defined by Dionysius Exxigus, who wrote in the 6th Century:

Easter is the Sunday following the first Luna XIV (the 14th day of the moon) that occurs on or after XII Kalendas Aprilis (21 March).

And this formula remained unchanged for a thousand years in the Medieval Church. In fact, the term "full moon" is rarely if ever mentioned by computists like Dionysius, but always is mentioned "the 14th day fo the moon..."

One such treatise is Byrhtferth's Enchyridon, an 11th Century English manuscript devoted to such matters. In it, we find much emphasis placed on counting 14 days from the first sighting of a new crescent moon that occurs on or after March 8, that the 21st of March is the equinox, and other such repititions of what Dionysius outlined 600 years earlier.

This was based on the known fact that lunations were about 29.5 days in length, and that the moon was only visible for 28 of those days, with the remainder being invisible. For example, if a new crescent did indeed occur on March 8, then the exact new moon would have taken place one day earlier, on the 7th. 8 + 14 = 22, and the first possible date for Easter was March 22, given that this date was a Sunday.

Byrhtferth was adamant about this rule of 14, and repeats it over and over with the verve of a Russian schoolmaster. In another section, he claims that "the day" is divided up into 14 segments:

"There are fourteen divisions in the day, which are called thus: The atom is teh smallest quantity... The second division is called a moment, the third a minute, the fourth a point, the fifth an hour, the sixth a quadrant, the seventh a day, the eigth a week, the ninth a month, the tenth a threefold alternation, the eleventh a year, the twelfth an age, the thirteenth all time, and the fourteenth the world."⁵

Oh, Yeah, This is About Earth Day...

So far we have seen that:

1. Earth Day was originally meant to be celebrated on the Equinox;
2. Gaylord Nelson had a different date codified, that of April 22;
3. April 22 is 14 days after the Sun's transit of its own exaltation degree of 19° Aries (April 8);
4. The Moon's exaltation is 14 degrees beyond the Sun's exaltation, and the Sun transits the Moon's exaltation degree on April 22;
5. the number "14" was sacred to the earliest Egyptians, as well as Jewish and Christian festivals;
6. Easter computus dictates that the Sunday after the 14th day of the new moon shall be the holy day;
7. Special astronomical circumstances with a Masonic flavor occur over Easter Island on the first Earth Day in 1970.

Is it really possible that Earth Day was designed to clandestinely celebrate the ancient astrological principles of the soli-lunar cycles? As much as this author hates to shout "Conspiracy!", the evidence is highly suspect -- what other conclusions could we draw?

April 22 is indeed the 33rd day of "spring," meaning the 33rd day past the Sun's ingress into Aries. This is also the date the Sun passes into the Moon's exaltation of "3 Taurus," which is the 33rd degree of the zodiac. We know for sure that Freemasonry was not around in ancient Babylonia, and thus could not have chosen the "33" for their own reasons, but it is certainly reasnoable that where the Society finds a 33, they would be quite curious and interested in incorporating it into thier larger mission.

The CAVE has gone through great lengths to outline valid and noteworthy astrological designs implemented by the Freemasons, and so far we have only scratched the surface. We have hoped to elucidate patterns of behavior that repeat over and over again in hopes of showing that if the Freemasons have any great "secrets," they are of the occult and astrological realms; this should come as no surprise to those who know that astrology and geomancy are the basis of all occult thought. Masonry's obsession with the relics of Egypt, for example, is well known, but what are the pyramids other than gigantic monuments to the celestial realms?

Earth Day is no exception. Looking closer at the astrological charts for the first Earth Day, we see even more synchronicity with the ritual Masonic astrology outlined in the CAVE and on Richard Hoagland's extensive website. Our first chart is for sunrise on Earth Day of 1970 at Washington DC:

This full moon setting over Washington DC at sunrise is obviously a direct representation of the full Moon ideal discussed throughout this essay, from the "Exalted Moon" to the "Easter Moon." If we relocate this chart to the pyramids at Giza, we see that the Moon is exactly on the Nadir, or the lower meridian, highlighting yet another cardinal point:

And, if that's not enough, the declination of this Moon at that moment is

In the end, though, what does any of this have to do with a day devoted to focusing our attention on the Earth's environmental issues? The answer lies in what this particular vernal new Moon symbolizes to religion: reflection of the Sun's increasing light back onto us, and thus illuminating the whole world, much as Christianity wanted Christ's Word to do. Astrology sees the Moon as our reflection, or how we are "seen"; the full Moon shows us ourselves most clearly, then, and man can only find truth in the light. Even the folks at Google.com had the right idea with this graphic that they used on Earth Day 2003:

 Figure 3-3  Google.com's graphic for Earth Day 2003.

Sure, I would love to make commentary on our current crop of political misfits that are running the White House, and how much disdain they have for the environment. Yet, those of us who choose to bask in the light of truth do not need to be told of their contemptuous foolishness regarding our planet. Those who look the other way from thier conscious are the ones who need to see the value of Earth Day, yet as the old proverb goes: The hardest person to wake up the one pretending to be asleep.

If anything can be shown here, it is that Earth Day was created in the finest of American Masonic tradition, implemented by our society's finest planners and thinkers, and deserves to be honored like any other observance. For those who feel that Gaylord Nelson "stole" their idea, you can at least take solace that your creation was placed in the cocoon of Masonic Astrology that has nurtured all that has made America great.

Maybe we could just make the 33 days from March 21 through April 22 Earth Month?

Part 2
Part 1

⁴ O'Connor, David, and Adams, Matthew, "Moored in the Desert," Archaeology, May/June, 2001. pp. 44 - 5.
⁵ Baker, Peter S., and Lapidge, Michael (editors), Byrhtferth's Enchiridion, Published for the Early English Text Society by the Oxford University Press, 1995, pp. 111-113. (This is the latest translation of the Latin and Old English available.)

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