Nimrod, the powerful horned bull was also symbolised bearing wings. This designation arose from a synonym for Gheber, ‘Abir’, Mighty One. A similar word, Aber, meant wing and, as head of his troops, Nimrod became known not only as Baal-aberin, Lord of the mighty ones, but as Baal-abirin, The Winged One.
Successive Babylonian and Assyrian kings adopted this symbolism, and when the prophet Isaiah speaks of the coming Assyrian attack, he says that the “stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel,” (Isa 8:8)
The poet Aristophanes declared that in the beginning of the world, the birds were created first, and then the “blessed immortal gods”. Alexander Hislop, in The Two Babylons, suggests that if one bears in mind that the “winged ones” symbolised the “Lords of the mighty ones” then the meaning is clarified. Men first began to be mighty upon the earth, then they were deified.
The winged-sun-disc occurs as a symbol in a number of ancient civilisations including Mesopotamia, Persia and Egypt. If we turn to Egypt, where Isis and Osiris hearken back once again to Nimrod and Semiramis, the great Aten was worshiped in Heliopolis as the sun-god. He appears to have represented both the god or spirit of the sun and possibly the solar disk itself.
The solar disc held great significance in Egypt, it was “emblematic of air… a circle…enclosed by a pair of wings. In ritual magic it is suspended over the altar in an easterly direction and used when invoking the protection and co-operation of the sylphs”, a quote from Practical Egyptian Magic by Murry Hope.
The winged sun-disc is highly favoured by such esoteric groups as the Rosicrucians and Freemasons – it is symbolic of the coming sun king, the man in the image of Osiris/Horus or, to go back to its Babylonian root, Nimrod/Ninus.
The sun-disc is shown surrounded by the serpent, the Uraei, an Egyptian symbol of kingship. The cobra not only encompassed the sun disc, but also the head of the Pharaoh. This clearly demonstrated the relationship of the king to the sun-god for whom he stood as an earthly representative. It also suggested that the power of the serpent directed his thinking. The fire-spitting Uraeus was associated with the goddess Wadjit, the protector of the Pharaoh.
Egypt glorified death and underworld and Masonry follows the same path. In fact, it appears to be the role of Masonry and other esoteric groups to carry the spirit and intent of Egypt into the present age. The interest of the Masons in the winged-sun-disc (apparently symbolic of the 33 degree) mirrors their expectation of a return of the winged sun-god. He is Nimrod Twice Born.
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