Om! Blessed be the animal,
With its horns and members.
Om! Tie it to the somber pillar,
That sunders Life from Death
Om! Tie this animal very well,
For it represents the universe.
Markandeya
Purana(91:32)
Introduction
In Vedic India, the greatest of sacrifices
was the
Ashvamedha (or Horse Sacrifice). Kings spent fortunes in
the elaborate rituals, which sometimes required hundreds of officiating
priests and lasted for several weeks at a time. The sacrifice of the horse
was often associated with the sacrifice of the goat, as we discuss further
below. Both these sacrifices were often associated with Tantric practices, and even today this ritual is often accompanied by the goat sacrifice.
The objective of the present essay is to discuss the esoteric meaning of these strange rituals, which date from Vedic times in India, from where they passed into the rest of the world. Hindu myths are particularly profound and, hence, extremely difficult to penetrate in their esoteric contents. This is due to the fact that the holy tongues in which they were originally composed mainly Sanskrit and Dravida are polysemic languages, where words may have several entirely different meanings, depending on the context.
Myths, symbols and rituals work at several different levels, simultaneously, according to the 48 Fundamental Sciences: Philosophy, Metaphysics, Ethics, Theology, Religion, History, Geography, Astronomy, etc.. In other words, myths work not according to so-called Aristotelian logic, but to "fuzzy logic", where concepts and ideas are somewhat diffuse and vague, as in Quantum Mechanics.
We Westerners are not used to this kind of logic, in contrast to the ancients and to the Orientals, and the Hindus in particular. Our difficulty in understanding myths and their hidden truths derives above all from the essence of our monosemic tongues, which accustom our minds to reason literally, rather than "diffusedly".
We hope that the present essay will shed some light on the way myths work, in order to embody the important revelations concerning Atlantis. The story of Atlantis is never told, except under the disguise of the Evangels and the religious symbols and rituals, or in the initiatic sagas and romances or, even, in the trivial anecdotes, fables and fairy tales that came to us from antiquity.
The Hindus who composed the ancient myths which later diffused to the other nations of the world never speak, except to the Initiates, being bound by a most sacred oath that has never been violated. So, we must all learn to understand their sacred myths by our own effort if we indeed want to understand the secrets of humanity's past and, perhaps, the future as well. The wisdom of the ancient Atlanteans is ours for free, as a heritage, if only we have the fortitude required to rescue it from within the often foolish arcanes where it is has been hidden for so many millennia.
The Cosmic Hierogamy
The passage of the
Markandeya Purana
quoted above discloses the secret. The sacrifice of the animal represents
that of the Universe. And the association with Tantric practices is symbolic
of the Cosmogonic Hierogamy, another image of the Primordial Sacrifice
of the World. Tantra with its emphasis on sex is far more than the
ritualized orgy that Westerners associate with this peculiar form of worship.
Tantric practices are a ritual enactment
of the Cosmogonic Hierogamy. Far more than a fertility ritual, such hierogamies
are a symbolic representation of the dissolution of the World in the Marriage
of Fire and Water, the two incongruals. The
maithuna the mystic
union of the worshippers is not an invention of modern Tantrism. The
ritual dates back to Vedic times and probably to pre-Vedic, Dravidian epochs.
Indeed, Tantrism is spurned by the Aryan castes in India, and is only popular
in Southern India, where the Dravidian races prevail.
The Ritual Mating of the King and
the Whore
However, the Vedic cults often tolerated
an erotic union, though disguisedly. As related by the
Taitiriya Samhita
(V:5:9) and by the
Apastamba Shrauta Sutra (21:17:18, etc.), in
certain Vedic rituals a young brahman priest mated with a
pumchali
(hierodule) hidden inside the altar of the temple.
The ritual closely recalls the one celebrated
in Sumer and Babylon on the occasion of the New Year Festival (Akitu).
In this ritual, the king would ritually mate with a sacred prostitute (hierodule)
inside a shrine on top of the
ziggurat. This building, a sort of
stepped pyramid, represented the Cosmic Mountain, itself a replica of the
Cosmos. Hence, the couple united inside the temple or the altar represented
the Primordial Couple buried inside the Cosmic Mountain, in Paradise.
Very likely, the
Heb Sed festival of the Egyptians, as well as the secret ceremonies celebrated inside the Egyptian temples and pyramids, were also ritual enactments of the Cosmogonic Hierogamy, the Sacred Marriage of the King and the Sacred Prostitute, the Hierodule of Bastit or of some other similar goddess, as we shall see further below.
In the
ashvamedha, the wife of the
officiating priest the
mahishi simulated a ritual mating with
the sacrificial horse. The
mahishi (lit. "the Great Cow") represented
the Earth, much as the horse symbolized the Sun. Indeed, she also stood
for the queen as the Primordial Whore, just as her husband (the
mahisha)
was an alias of the Horse, the Sun, the Primordial Male (or buffalo). The
couple stood for Heaven and Earth and, more exactly, for Yama and Yami,
the Primordial Couple of paradisial times.1
After the horse sacrifice was performed,
the
mahisha mated with the
mahishi. And so did the other
four couples of priests, representing the Four Guardians of the World (Lokapalas)
and placed around the royal couple.
anonymi, 22/02: To Anyone Concerned
The Ashwamedha sacrifice included the actual sacrifice of the horse after it had been sent around the kingdom.'The Queen, that is the Wife of the King would simulate coitus with the corpse of the horse, after which it would be pierced with needles at about 1000 points.the Queen would undergo a purification ceremony due to the pollution from contact with a corpse.
Ritesh Sharma, 13/06: Please keep in mind that "Ashvmegh Yaghy" was not sacrifice of the horse. The most powerful Kings used to send his best horse with his army to the other kingdoms. The purpose was that anybody who captures or tries to get hold of that horse will have to fight with the king's army or he has to surrender to the King who is performing the "Ashvmegh Yaghya". The regions or the kingdoms from where the horse moves will have to either surrender to the King & will be a part of his kingdom or they will have to fight a battle with the king's army untill one comes up as a winner.
This complete Yagya was started in the presence of extremely learned Brahmins who were masters of astrology, mathmatics, ancient science, Mantr & Tantr.
While coming on the lost civilizations, I would like to inform you that Hindu Veds & Purans tells about the human civilizations older than Lakhs of years (more than 10,000,000 years).
We have in "Ramayan" Puskpak Viman which is much more advance than a modern airoplane.
We have several saints who were able to make clones of themselves or anybody from human body cells / sweat / blood.
We have in Purans & Veds, Brahmastra a deadlist weapon which is quite similar to modern times nuclear weapons.
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While I personally believe that we human being are not few thousand years old we are Lakhs of years old civilizations & there are plenty of probailities that we came from space to earth.
Please accept my thanks for the kind of research you guys are doing, I really feel this is the right direction in which our governments should join hands & move. Our scientists & politicians should help the research work revealling the secrets of the mankind.
regards to all fellow humans,
Ritesh Sharma
carolyn, 06/12: what do it means when you dream of a india riding on a white horse waying swan. please answer