"The Turtle Talks Torah" Chapter Three: Comets as Messengers with a Sacred Fire

CHAPTER FIVE: The Stars Made of the Sacred Fire; the comets as the                                    ministers of Being; fact and legend out of the Zohar

            It is a popular legend in the Jewish tradition that Elijah the prophet left this world on a chariot of fire in a great whirlwind. This idea can also be found concerning the ancient biblical personage of Enoch who in the literature is said to have not died but to have been “translated” to heaven in a fiery whirlwind.

I lived for much of my life knowing of these legends and stories without in any way connecting them to the idea of comets made of a whirlwind of revolving fire that could carry or interface with spirit being or a heaven world. Actually I think that my first introduction to the idea of comets as having a sacred attribute in the wisdom traditions is from the label on a bottle of liquid soap produced by an eccentric soap maker for the natural foods market that I encountered in natural food stores in the 1970’s. These labels stated that the coming of Halley’s Comet had a spiritually profound implication for the entire world. I then began a many yearlong research and interest into the field of comets as being heralds, messengers or carriers of a spiritually dynamic force to help the world. I found some information on this subject in various literature's from diverse wisdom traditions that involved comets or “traveling stars”. This information is kind of sparse and I believe this to be because this topic has been pretty much guarded by elders and adepts as being especially sacred and something to usually be kept secret from anyone but the “initiates” in wisdom traditions.

            The most information yet still not great in quantity, can be found in the Native American legends and stories taken from their ancient oral tradition and the signs and pictures found on ancient

One of many ancient rock art depictions of comets in America

petroglyphs or rock writing around the American land. There is a great “coyote” story  from that wonderful tradition of stories where coyote is a trickster creature whose adventures and mishaps help convey various moral, ethical and deep mystical knowledge to those children and adults hearing the story by the fire in the winter lodges. In one story coyote sees the comet with a long fiery tail up in the sky and he decides he wants to go for a ride on it. It looks like it ought to be a lot of fun.

He might also gain some special medicine power for himself if he can capture a part of this beautiful star creature. He is very curious and makes hasty decisions sometimes without thinking it out. He reaches up with a front leg and tries to grab at the star only to be caught up in a frantic whirlwind around and around and dragged along at a torrid pace until he tumbles back down to solid earth. He finds he is missing his one front leg. The story ends by saying that Coyote still waits for the star with the tail to return to the sky so he might get his leg back but everyone knows that this special star only comes around for a visit once in a few thousand years! Coyote will have to wait a while before he can get his leg back.

In the book of kabbalah called the Sepher haZohar, which appeared in Spain in the 1300’s although legend holds that it was written in a cave during the second century CE, we have some beautiful statements about comets. In the section on parsha Terumah we are told that certain stars that form a “scepter” or “tail” in the sky have a special relationship to certain jewels and fine gold that is found in the breast of high mountains. The breast of high mountains we are told by rabbinic commentators means that these jewels and gold are a reference to the high priest who wears a breastplate made of jewels and gold. The Zohar further states that these jewels only come into full development and maturity when they are exposed to the light in the tail of the said comet. It further relates to the reader that certain herbs called elixirs of life have a relationship to the specific comet and jewels and gold.

From Zohar Terumah 171b,Sperling translation;”In the Book of the Higher wisdom of the East, it says, speaking of certain stars which form a tail(sceptre) in the firmament, that on the earth there are herbs, of the kind that are called “elixirs of life”, and precious stones, and fine gold, which forms within the breast of high mountains, under shallow water-which are ruled by those comets by whose influence they grow and increase; it is the glance of that luminous tail which such stars trail after them across the sky that causes those things to flourish....Therefore all those objects over which such stars as these are appointed can have no proper development and growth unless the light of the comet actually passes over them, whereby they are enabled to renew their color and their energy according to their need. This must be true, since it is similarly indicated in the Book of King Solomon, in regard to the science of precious stones, that when these stones are denied the light and sparkle of certain stars, their development is retarded and they never reach their full perfection. And the Holy One, blessed be He, has ordered all things so that the world may be perfected and beautified, and accordingly it is written that the stars are “to give light upon the earth”(Gen 1,17)in all the things which the world needs for its perfection.”

This reading has always amazed me and my own experiences have explained to me the deep implication held sacred in this part of the holy Zohar. While living on the side of a mountain in California and having done research with great interest in special gems, crystals, and metals and learning of the sacred bundle tradition of indigenous Americans I had my own personal experience with these materials.  This brought my being into a holy dance with the sacred fire in a passing comet and my life was forever changed. It is interesting to note that I have heard from other folks that they also have had some amazing miraculous kind of experiences during these years of 1990 and 1991.

            To a small circle of people in my own chavira, holy assembly, I have discussed how I understand the nature of the sacred jewels that hold within their very structure and geometry what the writings call the engraved name of the holy one. These kind of jewels are mentioned throughout the holy Tanach/Bible and Jewish literature. The mineral world including some gemstones and crystals are called the “still ones” in some teachings of Kabbalah  and appear to function as an interface so to speak with the fifth continuum, the dimension of being and the heavenly world of the merkava throne. Rudolph Steiner also has  lot to say bout how the mineral world has a soul interface at the highest levels although the rocks and gems do not have the kind of sheaths/bodies that would connect them to the mid range of soul levels that would allow them to be organically alive as the plants and animals. We further discuss the five-continuum worldview of kabbalah in the chapter on the Ten Depths and the true shape of the world.. The beings that serve and minister in the world of the throne, Beriyah, which we are told in the writings, is in the fourth heaven, are called the Seraphim, Cherubim, the Thrones/Aralim, Ophanim and holy creatures/Chayot. We are told in the Sepher HaZohar that Elijah has the very soul of one of these Ophanim. It is in this same third world of kabbalah, called Beriyah, that the entire ocean of the neshamas/human souls reside, the higher spiritual soul part of humans. This is kept by the upper mother, called the sphere of Binah and corresponding to the second of the four letters of the unpronounceable name of the creator, Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh.

            This is where we might connect all this to have Elijah descending in a fiery whirlwind of a star and also carrying the neshama, the higher soul(fourth of the five levels of souls) of the Earth herself who is called the Shekinah in the kabbalah. Yes the Earth has five soul realm interfaces just as we humans do in the teachings of the mekubalim/kabbalists. These five souls of the Earth are the key to the work we have as humans to help realign the globe of the Earth and make a closer connection to the flow/Shefa of divine influx. She as the Chayah or mother of all life has come to the people of the Earth before, an obvious visit was of the most beautiful White Buffalo Calf Woman and the star she is named after, called Wohpe in the Lakota language as discussed in the first chapter. She is found in the ancient Eleusian mysteries of Greece as Demeter, the holy grain mother who is searching to join with her earthy self as Persephone who has fallen into matter. In Egypt we have the two sister deities Isis and Nepthys who are reunited through the regeneration of Osiris through the lineage of the sons of Horus, the vanquishing son of Osiris whose body was divided.The Shechinah will appear to different peoples in a form that aligns with their cultural milieu. She is the most ancient Tree goddess and Earth connected aboriginal traditions. With the new knowledge about the maternal mitochondrial DNA lineages of humans we will discuss how her root being may be connected to the mother of all of us humans who geneticists are calling the "Mitochondrial Eve".

            What we can find here is a tangible reality that is at the heart of a mystery tradition, which involves real players whose story has been hidden in myths and legends. When the very bright comet Hale-Bopp came past our Earth it was a classic passing of what is called a great comet. It hung in the night sky for weeks, visible to everyone with their naked eyes. Many scientific studies were done on this passing stellar visitor to see what it was made of. The reports came in a surprising result for those students of Zohar who have wondered about the sections on jewels and their awakening with the passing of certain tails of the comets. In the chemical spectroscopic analysis it was found that the comet Hale-Bopp contained crystalline olivine. Also known as peridot or chrysolite, one of the stones said to have had a place on the breastplate of the high priest of Israel. It is chemically a form of aluminum magnesium Iron silicate. Note the content of iron in this substance .

Spectroscopic analysis of Comet Hale-Bopp and Olivine crystal

The very substance of the tails of some of these comets contain some of the very same substance of the jewels found in the breastplate of the high priest of Israel. This might be the gem called Pitdah in the Hebrew in Torah in the book of Shemot/Exodus. This is  green stone sometimes translated as Chrysolite. Also in the  book Sepher HaZohar, on the Torah section Terumah, there is the relationship between comets and the jewels and fine gold found on the “breasts of high mountains”. A few pages earlier in the same commentary on Terumah is found the verse that says that King Solomon uses his special seal ring to bring the Shekinah into marriage with HaShem and complete the great wedding of above and below. This is part of a commentary on the biblical book of Solomon called the Song of Songs. From the Sperling translation of the Zohar on terumah 145b;

“ The “thousand” refers to the Tree of life as such, to the bridegroom who goes out from its side and takes possession of the five gates, in order to draw nigh unto the Bride and claim her. The Day of the Holy One, blessed be He, is a thousand years, and this number symbolizes also the River, which goes out of Eden. Joseph was called “Righteous” after the Moon, the Shekinah, according to a special agreement between her and the Holy One. Therefore, the Song of Songs is holy of holies, and there is no verse in this Canticle which does not contain the mystery of the “thousand and five”. There are five grades contained in the title, as we have said. But why is the “thousand” not indicated? The truth is that this is hidden and will remain hidden until the Wife (the Shekinah) unites Herself with her Husband. Therefore Solomon endeavored to bring that ‘Thousand” to the Bride in secret, by the aid of the mysterious ring whereon is engraved the seal of the supernal wisdom. As soon as he had completed the making of the Holy of Holies below, the mystery of the Holy of Holies above ascended and was hidden, so that the concealment of the Union might be complete above and below, according to the divine purpose. “

This part of the Zohar about the Ring of Solomon is only found about 25 pages before the quote above about the relationship of comets and certain precious stones and gold. Another rare piece directly related to the coming of the sacred comet as a part of the story and is about the “ring of Solomon” is also found in the pseudopiraphical work The Testament of Solomon where he uses the ring that has a precious jewel in it with the name of HaShem/God engraved on it.This is in order to summon the beings that will help him build the Beit HaMikdash, the Holy Temple.  In speaking of the repairing and healing of the world this always has a relationship to the building of the holy temple here on Earth and connecting it to the holy temple above situated in the fourth of the seven heavens.

From the book "On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead" by Shlolem with my labels added on the heavens

Concerning the comets as related to celestial beings we have  this is from The Treatise on the left emanation, a 13th century kabbalistic work by rabbi Jacob haCohen from the book The Early Kabbalah, “Classics of Western Spirituality Series”-Paulist Press.

“They say that from Asmodeus and his mate Lilith a great prince was born in heaven. He is the ruler of eighty thousand destructive demons and is called "the sword of king Asmodeus." His name is Alefpene'ash and His face burns like a raging fire ('esh). He is also called Gurigur, for he antagonizes and struggles with the prince of Judah, who is called Gur Aryeh Yehudah (Lion-cub of Judah). From the same form that gave birth to this war-demon another prince, a prince whose root is in Kingdom, was born in heaven. He is called "the sword of the Messiah." He too has two names: Meshihi'el and Kokhvi'el. When the time comes and when God wishes, this sword will leave its sheath and verses of prophecy will come True: "For My sword shall be drunk in the heavens; Lo, it shall come down upon Edom" (Isaiah 34:5). "A star rises from Jacob" (Numbers; 24:17). Amen. Soon in our days may we merit to see the face of the Messiah our righteous one; we and all our people....”

From article on comets(seen as swords here) in ancient cultures; deepimpact.umd.edu

The name given to the prince mentioned above whose root is in kingdom is Kokhvi’el, which has the root kokhav, which means comet/star in Hebrew. We have then the information that comets also depicted as celestial "swords" may be a special interface between a heavenly world or firmament, and the physical earth world. We also might think of the sentences in the Torah Sepher Bereishit/Genesis about how the angelic Cherubim guard the way to Gan Eden with swords. 

In the chapter on the 10 depths from the worldview of the kabbalists, we will elucidate the part that the five continuums or dimensions play in this whole schema.

As previously stated the Iroquois Grandmother Twylah Nitch is an authority on the meaning of the sacred comets and the movement into the fifth world. She discusses this in her book Other Council Fires were Here Before Ours, co-written with Jamie Sams. In the story of the succession of seven worlds or ages, she states through the voice of the Chieftess of the mineral realm, that five stars with tails or comets would pass by the earth at the end of the fourth world. One of these stars would bring a sacred fire and fertilize the”earth Egg” with this fire. The chieftess of the mineral world goes on to give thanks for the gifts of a previous world, which would be of benefit at this juncture between worlds. She hints that in the previous world as was told earlier in the story, great harm was done to the body of the earth in the use of developing technologies from the mineral world. This has the echoes of the mythical Atlantean misuse of the crystal technologies they had discovered which eventually brought about the sinking of the legendary continent.  The following is an excerpt from that book about the comets and the movement into the fifth world,

“The community of the Fifth World will include All Our Relations in the Planetary Family. Five traveling stars made of Sacred Fire will pass near the sky path of our Earth Mother at the end of the Fourth World. These Stars-with-Tails or Comet People will provide new thought food for the Planetary Family as well as for our Earth Mother. The two-leggeds will see truth through new eyes. This new way of understanding will stop the confusion that has limited the Two-leggeds’ growth. One among the five Stars-with-Tails will fertilize the egg of our Earth mother.

“The Four Clan Chiefs of Air, Earth, Water, Fire will be purified through a new type of Medicine brought by the Stars-with-Tails. The Plant Tribe will multiply in this fertilization process and will reclaim the barren deserts. This new Sacred Fire of the Comet people will bring understanding to all relations within the sacred Hoop, and the Sky Nation will be married to the Earth World. When these two worlds become one, the Medicine of the Whirling Rainbow of Peace will belong to the Children of Earth.”

            Before continuing, Shee-na asked for a moment of silent gratitude so that all among us would know that the trying times of the Third World would have a reward one day in the future. She then said, “All bad Medicine that has been placed in the Earth or dumped in her oceans will be removed, allowing the Great Mother to breathe again.”

 

This book was published in 1991 after the coming of the comet that I am presenting as the one which has “fertilized” the Earth. After the book two very bright comets came by within a year of each other. Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp. This was highly unusual to have two bright naked eye object comets come within a year of each other.  Several Native American elders had said that Hale-Bopp fulfilled prophecies about the coming of a blue star with twin tails, white and blue. This sign and then the birth of the first female white bison calf ever in 1994 caused a few Native American elders, such as Paula Gunn Allen to announce as well that we had entered the fifth world.

            Another body of wisdom material that contains a reference to the functional place of comets in the mystery traditions is in the body of literature referred to as the Hermetic tradition. These writings were ascribed to the famous thrice-great Hermes of ancient Greece who is considered an adept in the healing and wisdom streams coming from both ancient Egypt and Greece. The writings attributed to Hermes appeared in the centuries immediately preceding and following the rise of Christianity. In one treatise entitled “the Cup”, we have a discussion of a sacred vessel called the cup or chalice, which is a symbol of initiation into the true gnosis or knowledge of the divine, and like the image of the Holy Grail from Christianity we see a symbol for that special technology that is one of the  ongoing themes of this writing. What adds credence to the fact that this tradition had the real knowledge was that the writing states that a certain herald is in some way connected to this cup that is related to initiation in the hermetic mysteries. Hermes says,” He filled a mighty Cup with it (Mind), and sent it down, joining a Herald to it, to whom He gave command to make this proclamation to the hearts of men: Baptize (initiate) thyself with this Cup’s baptism (initiation), what heart can do so, thou that has faith canst ascend to Him that hath sent down the Cup, thou that dost know for what thou didst come into being!”(Page 87 vol.II G.R.S.Mead (Thrice-Greatest Hermes). Although this herald is not particularly openly connected to a star or comet, the comet is in the Mediterranean traditions considered a herald or omen of sorts, marking the birth or passing of a great person or the victory in a great battle or conquest. This writing about the sacred chalice, cup or vessel is one of the open source works for the European tradition of the Holy Grail as related to the true tradition of wisdom initiation. In the light of the sections in the Zohar on the comet connected to sacred gems, a book very secret and hidden from the general populace for centuries, we have a strong connection linking certain comets and crystalline jewels to the hermetic mystery tradition. The Grail tradition of initiation as found in the Arthurian legend cycles shines another light on our crystalline technology. There are writings that state that the holy chalice cup was carved out of one pure emerald, beryl or peridot crystal jewel and that this jewel itself may have been originally on the diadem crown of an archangel of a seraph. The jewel fell out of his diadem when he was hurled out of heaven because of the initial rebellion against the creation of a human being, Adam. The image of the rebellious angel being hurled out of the heaven world and falling to earth gives us another picture of a celestial descent of the fiery star with a tail like scepter in the firmament of the night sky. The recent astronomically scientific evidence and facts that these comets do indeed sometimes at least contain a crystalline green-jeweled substance gives us substantiated evidence that these stories belie an underlying truth kept secret for thousands of years.

            In some of the earliest texts of ancient china about astronomy you can find pictures of comets. Some have their heads shaped like swastikas or the whirling logs cross of ancient America. Modern astronomers have since discovered by close study of comets that some indeed move in a whirling helix through the sky. This is amazing for the ancient Asian astronomers to have noted this and recorded it. This swastika is an ancient sacred symbol both in India and in Native America. In Buddhism it is particularly associated with the bodhisattva level of initiation.

Ancient Chinese depictions of comets

The whirling helical movement is really found to be fundamental motion within the creation and this kind of motion we can find incorporated into the writings, drawings and practices of all the religious wisdom traditions in some form. In Islam we have the Whirling dervishes whose movements are said to bring a person in line and harmony with the heart source of all that is, including the whirling dance of planets, suns and galaxies. We see the spiral helix depicted on the petroglyph art of native America. In Tibet the prayer wheel is a tool of sacred technology that by turning sends the prayer vibrations written on the paper inside out to interface with the entire creation of movement and vibration. The whirling and turning movement brings us yet again to speak of those angel beings or celestial bodhisattvas called in Hebrew, the Ophanim, the wheels. They are seen as the supports of the merkava throne in the visions of the Hebrew prophets and they are the same beings that are said to give the rotating movement to the planets. Rudolph Steiner, the great 20th century German angelologist wrote and lectured extensively on the importance of the various angelic hosts and particularly the wheels which give the movement to our very own Earth globe. The messengers of the comets would then be easily aligned with this same type of whirling rotation. The quantum physicists have even found at one time that even more fundamental to very tiny particles was the idea of “spin” itself as a most basic unit of the wave/particle field of vibration and energy.

            We have to add here some quotes from the vast corpus of the great Rudolf Steiner about the place of comets as messengers to our solar system, which interface with the higher heaven worlds. In his lecture #7,” The Spiritual Beings in the Heavenly Bodies and in the Kingdoms of nature” 4/10/1912, we have a great elucidation of the various elements of the solar system and how these relate and interface with the angelic hierarchy that Steiner was such an expert in and in which he spent a lot of time developing an understanding of and communicating to the world. Of the nine choirs of angelic beings that support, create and sustain the living creation the highest three Steiner tells us are the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones. After a lengthy explanation in this lecture #7 on how the lower choirs interface with the planetary/solar system and the Sun he begins to tell us about the place of the comets as far as we could ascertain through study and “occult” vision and practice.

” Now if we study what exists in the comet only as maya (illusion), yet which is active within it as force, it is extremely difficult to connect with it what we have learnt in the course of these lectures. I have described to you, for example, how one may ascend to the thrones, and how this can only be done by studying the human will. If this study is undertaken with occult means, one can raise oneself up to the thrones. But in the comets there is nothing at all to be found, either of the Spirits of Wisdom or the Thrones. ...All of this is of no avail for an occult study of the comets. Only the two methods (of developed occult vision) leading to the Cherubim and Seraphim can give us an elucidation of the comets. The sphere of the comets extends to the sphere of the Cherubim. We must therefore first know what is the nature of the Cherubim and Seraphim, in order to understand the substance and movement of the comets. The evolution of the comets is therefore dependent upon the beings of the higher hierarchies down to the Cherubim; the evolution of the fixed star is dependent on the beings of the hierarchies down to the Spirits of Wisdom; the evolution of the planet itself, apart from the human being who dwells upon it, is dependent upon the forces proceeding from the higher hierarchies down to the Spirits of Form; and that which works on the moon is dependent on the forces which proceed from the higher hierarchies down to the Archangels.”

 With the work of Rudolf Steiner and his written legacy we have the best elucidation of the spiritual relationship of the comets with our Earth world and we can see how he gleaned a lot of his knowledge from the mystery tradition found in the Zohar and the other texts of kabbalah that go extensively into the angelic worlds and how they function. Steiner makes it clear that the comets are a connection to the world of the Seraphim and the Cherubim. The works on the kabbalah make it clear that these beings live in the world of the throne, called the world of Beriyah and this is the place of the upper mother who carries the ocean of souls. Uniting this world of the neshamas or higher souls to the lower mother or world of the lower soul substance. Linking these soul levels(more in a later chapter)The nephesh(first level of soul-animal) is a major part of the work of the Tikkun olam, healing the world, according to the kabbalistic view of how it all is. The placing of the comets as messengers or interfaces with the world of the throne points to them as major players in the big picture, as my own personal experience has told me and a big reason for writing this little epistle to begin with. The comet that came by the Earth in the spring of 1990 may very well have fulfilled the Zohar’s prophecy for a celestial chief who ruled over 1990 raqauin/firmaments. Maybe this is why the world seemed to change in miraculous ways for many folks at this time.It also had another spectacular detail about it. In the enclosed plate one can see the date of it’s perihelion, the point in a comets orbit that it comes nearest the sun. This is the defining single point of a comet’s passage. The date is April ninth, 1990. This was precisely the first day of the Jewish holiday of Pesach, the Passover. This holiday, the first day in particular is closely tied to Elijah and his return, the youngest child at the evening seder or meal going to the open door with the raised cup of Elijah and singing for his hoped for return.

The details about the Comet that came close to the Earth in 1990

These facts made me know that this Comet Austin would  possibly bring the magical prophet or be a herald of great and wonderful changes for the better of humanity.. I was living on the side of a sparsely inhabited mountain in the Sierra Nevada foothills and I did indeed have a grand experience which I believe was due to the proximity of this passing star that had never come by the Earth before. This encounter changed my entire perception of reality. The study of the place and function of sacred gems and metals as celestial interfaces had also played a functional role that could transform the sacred fire of the comet into a spirit substance of incredible beauty and majesty. I may have played my part, with a lot of help and preparation, in the bringing to the human world a long awaited assembly of beings or being substance from the heaven world. I really did not know totally what I was doing or what was happening. It all just happened and my life changed forever.

            In the kabbalah of the kameas or magic number and letter grids their is a most famous ancient grid of 5 X 5 found in Italy and called the rotas square.

Famous magic square from ancient times

It contains the words written out in Latin: sator arepo tenet opera rotas.This basically may be translated that the creator makes all things by means of rotations. With this we are back into that part of the kabbalah called maaseh bereshit or the workings of the creation. This being fundamental to the swing of the day and night rhythm and the apparent wheeling of the sky and galaxy. Within all the physical whirlings and changes including the turn of seasons of the mother Earth/Changing Woman, her beautiful changes in her clothes from the white winter cloak to the green and rainbow shawl of the spring we have these rare seeming interlopers called the stars with tails or comet people in the native American language. They may bring the people of the Earth into a new phase of initiation into the heart of that which moves everything, from where the still small voice of the creator shouts out to us in every language and every music that has ever blessed the Holy Earth.