33 Degrees - Number of the Master.

33 Degrees
Number of the Master.
© Olga Morales

Why is 33 degrees associated with Mastery? This was the question I
asked myself when I delved into Masonic symbolism while researching
my novel Eclipse of the Soul. Being an astrologer, I was convinced
it was a celestial reference, for we measure positions of the
planets and stars in degrees, minutes and seconds. The astrological
circle equals 360 degrees - 12 zodiacal houses of 30 degrees each.

The clue I needed was found in a Vedic (Hindu) astrology book where
it stated that the Moon was exalted at 3 degrees of Taurus and
debilitated in 3 degrees Scorpio.  Exaltation was considered to be
the optimum position, where the planet is strong and potent and
debilitation was the opposite. Why 3 degrees of Taurus, I wondered?

In Vedic astrology, the Lunar Zodiac is based on the Moon's movement
against the brightest stars divided into 27 Nakshatras of 13 degrees
and 20 minutes each. 3 degrees of Taurus corresponds with the
Nakshatra called Krittika - which we know as The Pleiades and 3
degrees of Scorpio corresponds with the Nakshatra called Vishakha
which we know as the North and South Scale of Libra called Tula in
Sanskrit. If you plot 3 degrees of Taurus on the great wheel of 360
degrees starting with zero degrees Aries, 3 Taurus equals 33
degrees. This was the answer I was looking for. Alcyone is the
brightest star in the Pleiadian cluster and thus Alcyone is 33
degrees - the number of Mastery. Further, I discovered that by using
Etymology (origins of words) when the word Master is divided into
two becomes Ma / Ster and it means Mother Star. Thus, Alcyone is the
number of the Mother Star - 33 degrees.

The Pleiadian star system has been one of the most revered cosmic
objects in history, poetry and mythology across all cultures.
According to the cultural traditions, the seven visible stars of the
Pleiades have been referred to by many names, such as the Seven
Sisters, Krittika, Kimah, Flock of Doves, Hens, Virgins of Spring,
Sailor's Stars and the seven Atlantic Sisters. `The Pleiades were
known as Seven Sisters by indigenous people in North America,
Siberia and Australia and this common heritage means they were
described more than 40,000 years ago.' 1

`The Pleiades seem to be among the first stars mentioned in
astronomical literature, appearing in the Chinese annuls of 2357 BC,
Alcyone, the lucida, then being near the vernal equinox.. And their
beginning of the year gave rise to the title `The Great Year of the
Pleiades' for the cycle of precession of about 25, 900 years." 2 
Professor Charles Piazzi Smyth in the late 19th century suggested
that that the seven chambers of the Great Pyramid of Giza
commemorate these seven stars. 3  `And here is a wonderful
corresponding fact, that the date of the Great Pyramids completion,
at midnight of the autumnal equinox.the Pleiades were distributed
over the meridian of this pyramid, with Alcyone precisely on the
line." 4

  What if the Great Pyramid was actually built in honour of
the Pleiades when they rose near the vernal equinox 2357 BC and
completed by 2170, as suggested by Siess.

According to Albert Churchward the name of the Great Pyramid
was `Khuti,' which denoted the seven Lights, or Glorious Ones.
Likewise, the Tower of Babel with its seven tiers was also
symbolical of the `Great Altar Stairs,' by which men climbed
heavenward.

Many ancient traditions state that Alcyone was the Central Spiritual
Sun, the Mother Sun that emits creative Light, that which births
great teachers of Light into the world. It was believed to be the
centre of the Universe around which our own solar system revolves.

Our current astronomers do not support this idea although in the
1850's it well accepted.  `Science has at last discovered that the
Sun is not a dead centre, with planets and comets wheeling around it
but itself stationary. It is now ascertained that the Sun is also in
motion, around some other and vastly mightier centre. Astronomers
are not fully agreed as to what or where that centre is. Some
however believe that they have found the direction of it to be the
Pleiades, and particularly Alcyone. To the distinguished astronomer,
Prof.J.H, Maedler belongs the honour of having made this discovery.

Alcyone, then, as far as science can perceive, would seem to be
the "midnight throne" in which the whole system of gravitation has a
central seat, and from which the Almighty governs his universe.' 5 

An astronomer will tell you this is complete rubbish but I want to
go back to the ancient traditions. Alcyone was called Al Wasat, the
Central One by the Arabs and Temennu, the Foundation Stone by the
Babylonians. The next quotation I found in a wonderful book on
ancient constellations called The Mazzaroth. `Wasat, an Arabic name
of Alcyone, transmitted by Ulugh Beigh from early Arabian astronomy,
is the centre. It thus testifies, like that of Alcyone, to the
knowledge of the first astronomers of the long lost but lately
removed fact, that in this group is the centre of the revolving,
contains the same reference, if explained by its primitive roots.

The ancient name Alcyone, now so celebrated in the annuals of
science, is evidently of Oriental origin, having the Arabic and old
Hebrew article Al, prefixed to its root Cyon, centre. Its meaning,
centre, foundation, anticipates one of the greatest achievements of
modern astronomy, the discovery that to this point, this centre,
gravitates the whole magnificent arrangement of the stars called the
Galaxy, to which our sun belongs.' 6 Does Cyon not sound like
Sion/Zion - the heavenly city of God? `Glorious things of Thee are
spoken, Zion city of our God.' Psalm 87. The Hebrews believed it to
be the City of David- the City of the Lord- the City of Foundation.

I found an intriguing article by ken Raines called Jehovah: Ancient
Astronaut from the Pleiades'7 Apparently for 62 years, 1891 - 1953,
the Watchtower Society (Jehovah's Witness) taught that God resided
on the star Alcyone in the Pleiades constellation and that from this
star he governed the universe. It was also stated that the City of
Zion in heaven was Alcyone. The original Watchtower magazine was
called Zion's Watchtower. In Micah 4:8 of the Old Testament, it
reads, `And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the
daughter of Zion, unto thee shall come, even the first dominion; the
kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.' Remember the
Pleiades were most frequently represented as a flock of doves.

At this point I want to briefly divert to the Priory of Sion and
its reported reverence for Mary Magdalene. The clue is in her name,
which seems to mean `of Magdala' - with some possible interpretation
as `place of the dove', `place of the tower' and `temple-tower'. 8
In the Woman with the Alabaster Jar Margaret Starbird writes
that `tower of the flock' in the above Biblical reference is
translated into Magdal-edar.9 So was Mary Magdalene just a secret
Pleiadian code and the Priory of Sion was actually the Priory of
Alcyone? The so-called sacred Merovingian bloodline between Mary
Magdalene and Jesus might actually refer to their Pleiadian cosmic
origins. For example, like many other ancient cultures, the Mayans
of Meso-America called the Pleiades `the cranary' for it was the
seedbed of their civilisation and the cosmic star mother who gave
her children the codes of light.10  The Merovingians founded and
named the city of Paris after Prince Paris, the son of King Priam of
Troy. In the Iliad, Electra (one of the seven Pleiades) was the
mother of Dardanos, the founder of Trojan race and according to
David Icke, the Merovingian bloodline is traced back to Troy -
another Pleiadian connection.

In The Templer Revelation, the authors suggest that Mary Magdalene
and Jesus were Initiates of the Cult of Isis. Isis was the most
venerated Egyptian goddess - the creatress from whom all arose. The
sign of Isis is a circle with horns exactly like the sign of Taurus.
Her dance of the seven veils corresponds with the seven stars of the
Pleiades. I believe she was often portrayed as veiled because of the
nebula around the western side of the Pleiades. I found this quote
by J.R. Skinner in The Celestial Ship of the North by E.Valentia
Straiton. `Isis, Issa, is the Virgin mother of the gods. Neith,
Isis, Hathor, Venus and others are all one and the same. Issa, or
woman, or Egyptian Isi-s, Isis.but Isi was Jesse, the father of
David, who was the father of Jesus, as Isi. So, indeed Isis in
Egyptian was the feminine form of Isi, or Jes-, as a form of aish,
man, was Jes-us.' 11

This quote was very exciting because Nicholas Notovitch, a Russian
traveller- who while in a monastery in Tibet in 1887 was shown a
manuscript by the head Lama claiming Jesus did not die on the cross
however he travelled to India and Tibet and was known as Saint Issa.
Also, Jesus in Arabic and in the Koran was known as Isa.12 His tomb
is said to be in Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir, described as the
tomb of the prophet. Why would Jesus have been buried specifically
in Srinagar - which means Great Serpent? The clue I believe is found
in the word naga, which means serpent. In original Aramaic, Jesus
was referred to as a naggar13 actually mistranslated into a
carpenter in the Bible, when in actual fact I have found the word
for carpenter to be nanger. Jesus was a naggar - a serpent of
wisdom. Serpents were the symbol of High Initiates in the mystery
schools of Isis in Egypt. `Be ye as wise as serpents and as peaceful
as doves' Matthew 11:16 `Many Gnostic traditions identified the
Serpent with Jesus. In the Pistis Sophia, Jesus was the serpent who
spoke to Eve `from the tree of knowledge and the tree of life, which
were in the paradise of Adam.'' 14

Mark Amaru Pinkham in his book The Return of the Serpents of Wisdom,
examines the worldwide migration of serpents, some from Mu
(Lemuria), and others from Atlantis. They were called Nagas,
Naguals, Nacaals, Adders, Djedhi, Amarus, Levites, Lung Dragons and
Quetzlcoatls. There are many traditions, which also state that the
Serpents were Extra-terrestrials. ` Some of the Interstellar
Serpents on Atlantis came from the Celestial Serpent, the Pleiades.
[According to Dhyani Ywahoo] the records of Cherokees, these
androgynous Serpents are known as the `sacred seven,' and said to
have traveled from the universal seat of Divine Mind, the Pleiades,
in order to instill within developing humankind the spark of the
individuated mind. Once on the Earth the Pleiadian missionaries
mated with the human population and their progeny spread throughout
Atlantis.' 15 (Could this be the source of the Fallen Angels in The
Book of Enoch?) This Pleiadian and Atlantean mating was also
mentioned by Greek Historian Diodorus who claimed that Celoene and
Alcyone, two of the seven Pleiadian sisters, had mated with
Poseidon, King of Atlantis and their offspring populated Atlantis.

Now back to the Watchtower society. According to David Icke, 16
Charles Taze Russell, the founder of the Watchtower Society was a
high degree Mason. Why am I going here? Because secret societies
keep ancient wisdom behind locked doors and Masonry is based on the
Egyptian Mysteries.  I have a book by Robert Hewitt Brown; a 32-
degree Mason called Stellar Theology and Masonic Astronomy. On page
54 is a picture of a mystic ladder that leads to the seven stars of
the Pleiades. He explains, `This Masonic emblem, has a direct
allusion to the vernal equinox, and thus becomes a beautiful symbol
of immortality, reminding us, also, of that starry home beyond the
grave to which the soul of man aspires. It was for these reasons
that, of all the `hosts of heaven' the Pleiades were selected as an
emblem by our ancient brethren.' 13 The ladder is also made of seven
step in the Scottish Rite Ritual and ascends from a red room, that
which is said to represent the Great Mother. A red cross was placed
over the heart of the candidate for red is sworn to in Masonry. I
believe the symbol of the red cross is the same as the rosi-crux of
the Rosicrucians and all symbolic of Alcyone and the Pleiades. The
first Grand Lodge of the Scottish Rite in America, was formed at
Charleston, South Carolina, in 1783: a Supreme Council and it lies
exactly on the 33rd parallel of latitude. The highest Masonic degree
is 33 degrees - the Grand Master. If you break up the word Mason
into two - Ma/Son it equates to Mother Sun. It is interesting to
note that one of the Pleiades was named Maia by the Greeks. Maia was
the virgin mother of Hermes, the Enlightened One. Maya, was the
virgin mother of Buddha, the Enlightened One. Mary, was the virgin
mother of Christ, the Annointed one. May is the month of
Maia/Maya/Mary when the Sun is in Taurus and thus conjunct the
Pleiades. May Day celebrations are in honour of the Pleiades.

In the Mazzaroth, Frances Rolleston connects the Hebrew alphabet
with the constellations and Pleiades is said to be associated with
the Hebrew letter Ayin, the pictograph being an eye. Immediately, I
thought of the `All Seeing Eye' used so prolifically in Masonic
imagery, especially above the apex of the Great Pyramid, even on the
American dollar bill. Remember, Seiss' belief that the Pyramid was
built as the midnight throne celebrating the midnight culmination of
the Pleiades - could this be symbolised by the Pyramid and the Eye?
I went a little further and located the letter Ayin on the Kabala
tree. It is found on the 26th pathway and connected with the sign of
Capricorn and the Tarot card of the Devil. In the Aleister Crowley
Thoth Tarot Deck, the Devil is represented in the traditional form
of the Goat, however there is some unusual imagery that I found very
intriguing. The goat has a third eye and his head is adorned with a
bunch of grapes. (Wine had a mystical relation to the Dove (the
Pleiades) which is the Holy Spirit or the Shekinah in Hebrew.) 

Below him, is a winged caduceus (Hermes) and under its hoofs are two
balls with humans inside going through what I assume to be symbolic
creation. You can see the DNA chromosomes and mitosis occurring.
Behind this, is a shaft piercing a cosmic ring in the heavens. Most
horned creatures like Pan represented fertility and creation and the
May Time celebrations of Beltane incorporated this celebration. The
Maypole had seven ribbons, I believe representing the seven sisters
of the Pleiades.   `Pan was an important model for medieval pagans'
Horned God, whom the church called Satan. The devil always displayed
Pan's attributes of goat-hoofs, horns, and unremitting lust;
sometimes also a goat head and an attendant throng of satyrs.'14

When the Knights Templer were accused of heresy in the 14th century,
it was based on their worship of Baphomet - a bisexual idol pictured
with hoofs, a goat's face, with both male and female features, and
thus they were called `devil worshippers'.  Could it simply have
been another Pleiadian connection?

`With November, the Pleid-month, many primitive people began their
year; and on the day of the midnight culmination of the Pleiades,
November 17, no petition was presented in vain to the ancient Kings
of Persia; the same event gave the signal at Busiris for the
commencement of the feast of Isis, and regulated less immediately
the celebrations connected with the 52 year cycle of the Mexicans.
Australian tribes to this day dance in honour of the `Seven
Sisters'. 15  The months of May and November and their numerous
festivals and celebrations are all associated with the Seven
Sisters. Their rising in November marked the time for worship of
deceased family and friends. `Egyptian texts allude to Pleiades'
archaic significance as Krittitas, judges of men, assigning them
also to seven planetary spheres as the seven Hathors. The dead had
to speak the names of these Goddesses to pass their `critical'
examination and enter paradise.' 16

I believe this is the source of the Judgement of the Dead linked
with the month of November, when the Pleiades are high in the night
sky. In the Halls of Judgement, the goddess Maat weighed the souls
of the dead against her ostrich- feather of truth as the ibis-headed
scribe Thoth stood to record the judgement. In Christian
iconography, Archangel Michael holds a pair of scales on the Day of
Judgement recognised as All Soul's Day on the 2nd November. The
ancient Celtic civilisation gathered to celebrate the festival of
death `Samhain' during the dark night of October 31st and at
midnight, a time of death to the old year and birth to the new, it
was the Celtic New Year. November is the month of the dead and
Scorpio and ruling planet Pluto are all connected with death and
rebirth. The Persians called November Mordad, or `Angel of Death.'

I often wonder how the zodiac signs acquired their symbolism, for
example why Scorpio and its eight house and ruler Pluto are all
linked to death and rebirth? What I have found through my research
into The Pleiades, might be the answer. It has been recorded in the
Babylonian Talmud that the flood of Biblical Noah was the result of
two stars falling from Khima (the Pleiades) towards Earth. Could
this correspond with the legend of the lost pleid? Was this the
sinking of Mu/Atlantis and the end of the Golden Age and thus we
still mourn the dead in November? I discovered some very confirming
evidence in the book When the Earth Nearly Died by Allen and Delair.

They argue that the world experienced total catastrophe in 9500 BC
when a Vela supernova exploded and the Earth's axis subsequently
tilted to 23 and a half degrees and the Age of Darkness took hold.
What I found in the book was this. `Chinese traditions similarly
tell how, during the time of the legendary emperor Ya-hou: `a
brilliant star issued from the constellation of Yin' prior to a
tremendous global upheaval.' 17 I searched my Chinese Astrology book
and found the Yin Star to correspond with Beta Scorpionis (Graffias,
a triple star situated in the head of the Scorpion) and connected
with plenty of water (flood). The symbol of Yin and Yang thus
represents Scorpio (Yin) and its opposite sign Taurus (Yang).

Remember in November, the Sun is in Scorpio but at night The
Pleiades are high in the sky, in Taurus. The Maya/Aztec called the
Pleiades the tzab rattle - that of a snake and every 52 years, in
the middle of November, when the Pleiades were directly at the
zenith at midnight at Mexican latitude, it was believed that the
world would end; it had already been destroyed and re-created four
times in the past. The New Fire Ceremony was held once they knew
that they were safe for another 52 years.  Thus, the specific
symbolism of the constellations, zodiac signs and planets seem to
reflect actual historical events, similarly recounted in many Myths.

What I have presented above is just the tip of the iceberg of what I
have discovered.  It is obvious from legends and myths that the
Pleiadian Star System was the locus of our cosmic inheritance and
the source of the mystical wisdom known by the High Initiates of the
Mystery Schools of Isis.

Footnotes.

1. Hand Clow, Barbara. Catastrophobia, Vermont: Bear and Co., 2001.
pg 101
2. Allen, Richard Hinckley. Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning. NY:
Dover Pub. 1963. pg 392.
3. Ibid., pg 399
4. Seiss, Joseph A. Miracle in Stone: or the Great Pyramid of Egypt
(1877). Reprinted by Kessinger Publishing, USA.
5. Ibid, pg
6. Rolleston, Frances. Mazzaroth  Reprinted by Kessinger Publishing,
pg 28.
7. www.premier1.net/~raines/jehovah.html
8. Picknett, L & Prince, C. The Templar Revelation, NY: Touchstone
1997, 248.
9. Starbird, Margaret, The Woman with the Alabaster Jar, Santa Fe:
Bear and co, 1993 pg 50.
10. Polich Bluestone. Judith. Return of the Children of Light.
Vermont: Bear and Co, 2001. Pg. 12.
11. Straiton Valentia, E, Celestial Ship of the North, Kessinger
Publishing, 1927, pg. 101.
12. Hatcher Childress, David, Lost Cities of China, Central Asia and
India, USA; Adventures Unlimited, 1985, pg. 271.
13. See note 8, pg. 235.
14. Walker, Barbara G. Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets.
NY: HarperCollins 1983, pg. 803.
15. Pinkham, Mark Amaru. The Return of the Serpents of Wisdom. USA:
Adventures Unlimited Press, 1997, pg. 231.
16. Icke, David. Children of the Matrix. USA: Bridge of Love
Publications, 2001, pg. 328.
17. Brown, Robert Hewitt, 32 degrees.  Stellar Theology and Masonic
Astronomy. Reprinted by Kessinger Publishing, pg. 51.
18. See note 14, pg. 765.
19. See note 2, pg. 401
20. See note 14, pg. 803
21. Allan, D.S and Delair, J.B. When the Earth nearly died. Bath:
Gateway Books, 1995. Pg. 212.

Olga Morales is an Australian astrologer and author of Eclipse of
the Soul, a novel inspired by much of the information contained in
the article above. For more information, visit www.booksurge.com.
Olga can be contacted by email at olgam@netspace.net.au.

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