Order of Denderah [10.06.06]

[trash180]

twjaniak said:

trash180 said:

I wanna see the mayflower play video.

"basically, it's a cult" was pretty harsh. I don't know if Bree is going to like that comment very much.

I've sent Daniel a video response asking him to post the video. We'll see what happens.

Of course, if he crossed the line before by posting a video of her at the Dr. (or whatever), he'd be way over the line to post any of the video of the play. He'd definitely be risking any hopes of reconciliation. Certainly no way to get on Bree's parent's good side. I'd still love to see a clip! ha. I think that he taped it for Bree's dad though and probably wasn't allowed to keep a copy (if they are as secretive as they seem).

It's interesting to note that Daniel (somehow) knows less about Crowley-esqe religions than most of the people that post on these boards at this point. They even made a point of Daniel looking at what was posted online. Is his research going to lead him to the sex-magick stuff? Will he jump to the same conclusions that we all have at one time or another? Blood letting? Religious prostitution? Will him coming to these conclusions bring us any closer to the truth?
I find myself chasing down leads on Thelema rituals only to find that they're mostly harmless. There is the potential for him to bust down the doors at this ritual and find a bunch of people having dinner, thus forever alienating Bree, her parents and her religion.

He needs to come up with some evidence on his end, that something is going to happen that will endanger her. He needs Bree to see that it's strange for Lucy to be hanging around feeding her stuff that puts her at ease about the ceremony and poisons her against Daniel. Bree's participation in this ceremony seems to be a very high priority to the order. What's the big deal? Has she been raised for this specific purpose in mind? How much is invested in her participation?

I'm not sure what to make of the Mayflower stuff. Religious persecution? Daniel could help by telling us more of what he remembers from the camp and the play.

[BaileysMom]

Can someone pretty-please-with-a-cherry-on-top post a transcript of this video?

[socalgardengirl]

It is finally up on YouTube --

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLmmioXp_dk

[milowent]

This is the best daniel video by far -- he really does look a lot younger in his videos than in real life. Loved that he called Bree's religion a "cult", how will Bree react to that? She has always made sure to call it her "religion", both in her videos and YT comment threads -- and Daniel has never said otherwise directly.

[noasinger]

Daniel himself said that he didn't understand the play. It was probably allegorical in some way -- not so much about "some guy running away from the Mayflower (and its Plymouth brethren) and having adventures" as "some guy leaving the Plymouth Brethren and having adventures." The latter is an apt description of Crowley's life.

I do believe that Daniel is using the word "cult" as a snarl word to express the word's negative connotatons. But that doesn't mean, still, that *Mesh* is calling Bree's religion an oh!noes!cult.

[mku77]

this is a great description of the real temple written in 1891 which talks about the calender and the format to the rituals,ie private,robed processions,...............


"The ceremonial of Egyptian worship was essentially processional. Herein we have the central idea of every Temple, and the key to its construction. It was bound to contain store-chambers in which were kept vestments, instruments, divine emblems, and the like ; laboratories for the preparation of perfumes and unguents ; treasuries for the safe custody of holy vessels and precious offerings ; chambers for the reception and purification of tribute in kind ; halls for the assembling and marshalling of priests and functionaries ; and, for processional purposes, corridors, staircases, courtyards, cloisters, and vast enclosures planted with avenues of trees and surrounded by walls which hedged in with inviolable secrecy the solemn rites of the priesthood.In this plan, it will be seen, there is no provision made for anything in the form of public worship ; but then an Egyptian Temple was not a place for public worship. It was a treasure-house, a sacristy, a royal oratory, a place of preparation, of consecration, of sacerdotal privacy. There, in costly shrines, dwelt the divine images. There they were robed and unrobed ; perfumed with incense ; visited and worshipped by the King. On certain great days of the kalendar, as on the occasion of the festival of the new year, or the panegyrics of the local gods, these images were brought out, paraded along the corridors of the temple, carried round the roof, and borne with waving of banners, and chanting of hymns, and burning of incense, through the sacred groves of the enclosure. Probably none were admitted to these ceremonies save persons of royal or priestly birth. To the rest of the community, all that took place within those massy walls was enveloped in mystery. It may be questioned, indeed, whether the great mass of people had any kind of personal religion. They may not have been rigidly excluded from the temple-precincts, but they seem to have been allowed no participation in the worship of the Gods. If now and then, on high festival days, they beheld the sacred bark of the deity carried in procession round the temenos, or caught a glimpse of moving figures and glittering ensigns in the pillared dusk of the Hypostyle Hall, it was all they ever beheld of the solemn services of their church.

The Temple of Denderah consists of a portico ; a hall of entrance ; a hall of assembly ; a third hall, which may be called the hall of the sacred boats ; one small ground floor chapel ; and upwards of twenty side chambers of various sizes, most of which are totally dark. Each one of these halls and chambers bears the sculptured record of its use. Hundreds of tableaux in bas-relief, thousands of elaborate hieroglyphic inscriptions, cover every foot of available space on wall and ceiling and soffit, on doorway and column, and on the lining-slabs of passages and staircases. These precious texts contain, amid much that is mystical and tedious, an extraordinary wealth of indirect history. Here we find programmes of ceremonial observances ; numberless legends of the Gods ; chronologies of Kings with their various titles ; registers of weights and measures ; catalogues of offerings ; recipes for the preparation of oils and essences ; records of repairs and restorations done to the Temple ; geographical lists of cities and provinces ; inventories of treasure, and the like. The hall of assembly contains a kalendar of festivals, and sets forth with studied precision the rites to be performed on each recurring anniversary. On the ceiling of the portico we find an astronomical zodiac ; on the walls of a small temple on the rood, the whole history of the resurrection of Osiris, together with the order of prayer for the twelve hours of the night, and a kalendar of the festivals of Osiris in all the principal cities of Upper and Lower Egypt. Seventy years ago, these inscriptions were the puzzle and despair of the learned ; but since modern science has plucked out the heart of its mystery, the whole Temple lies before us an open volume filled to overflowing with strange and quaint and heterogeneous matter – a Talmud in sculptured stone."


digital.library.upenn.edu/women/edwards/nile/nile-VII.html

[trash180]

www.sacredsites.com/africa/egypt/dendera.html

Dendera was the chief place for the worship of Hathor, who is variously seen as the patroness of earthly love, the goddess of healing, and the great feminine source of all nourishment (like the Hindu goddess Kali, Hathor also has her terrible aspects; in one ancient myth she is a raging lioness sent to punish mankind for its rebellion).

Recent studies indicate that the temple of Dendera had several interrelated functions. It was a venerated place of pilgrimage where miraculous cures were effected by the goddess; it was a sort of hospital where various physiological, psychological and magical therapies were practiced; and it was the scene of great processions and festivals throughout the astrological cycle. A feature of Dendera not found elsewhere in Egyptian temples are the dozen mysterious crypts, some underground, some enclosed within the massive double walls of the upper temple. It has been suggested that these crypts were the dwelling place of the goddess, where her statue and ritual objects were kept, and where began the great New Year's processions celebrating the dawn of creation. In the dark of night, the temple priests brought the statue of the goddess from the crypt, through the corridors of the enormous temple and, ascending to the roof, awaited the coming of the dawn. As the first rays of the morning sun broke upon the horizon, the statue was unveiled. Ancient texts speak of this ceremony whereby: "the goddess Hathor might be united with the beams of her father, Re" and that "the sky rejoices, the earth dances, the sacred musicians shout in praise."

emboldened by me for points of interest.

edit: here's the egyption festival calendar...
showcase.netins.net/web/ankh/calendar1.html

October 12: The Black Land is given to Heru (Horus); The Red Land is given to Set
October 21: Het-Hert (Hathor) goes forth to Her people

hathor entry in thelemapedia Lot's of stuff here.

The goddess Hathor appears sporadically throughout the works of Crowley where she is usually seen as either a solar deity or as the Egyptian equivalent of Venus or Aphrodite.

Hathor was also L. Ron Hubbard's muse's name. FWIW. He lifted a lot of Crowely stuff apparently.

It's still looking like a Thelemic religion and "The Order of Denderah" sounds similar to the grades of the A...A...(Astrum Argentium)
The Order of the Silver Star (The S.S.)
The Order of the Rose-Cross (The R.C.)
The Order of the Golden Dawn (The G.D.)
Info from The Law of Thelema by Alexander Duncan. It has a nice overview of Thelema and Crowley, talks about sex magick, and how Crowley claimed to be Edward Kelley’s reincarnation (of enochian alphabet fame).

It's possible the order of denderah was set up specifically to carry out this ceremony, and is exclusive to those participating. Thus, people outside the order wouldn't know what it was for (her parents). By refering to Denderah, it's probably a thelemic ceremony having to do with Hothar.
Here's a Festival of the Beautiful Reunion of hathor (het-hert) and Horus (Heru).

eh...this post is too long already...sheesh. Just holla if I should put this in the religion section.

[starlet]

baileysmom said:

Can someone pretty-please-with-a-cherry-on-top post a transcript of this video?

Its up on Lonelygirl15.com in the lgpedia

[emdiva]

I can't find anyone discussing ideas about the play Daniel mentioned. I can't find any actual play with this theme but I imagine it's probably made up anyway.

I agree with the others that the play is probaby allegorical, perhaps in a "Young Goodman Brown" way. Hawthorne's short story is set in Salem during the witchcraft trials and Young Goodman Brown encounters the devil, along with a bunch of the townspeople in the forest, all gathered together for some vague satanic rite. It exposes the hyprocrisy of the Puritan religious ideals; those who are supposed to be the most moral and upright are secret devotees of Satan. The whole story is structured as a possible dream or hallucination.

I can imagine a play with a similar message about a Mayflower colonist who leaves the colony and encounters some Native Americans who ask him questions about his religion or show him the other colonists. The "adventures" have to involve Native Americans or some kind of nature spirits / the devil because there wouldn't be anybody else with whom the colonist could adventure.

It's getting pretty hard for me to tie this together with the other clues we've gotten.