Special thank-you to Derek "DJ Deek" Veenhof for having me back on his podcast, theDeekast, which his YouTube channel describes as: "A millennial counterculture movement discussing anything & everything: gaming, music, pop culture, history, politics, science, religion & philosophy and the nexuses where these worlds collide."
Derek originally invited me over to the Deekast for an interview back in October of 2016 -- you can listen to that earlier interview by following this link and using the player on the screen, or by going to a podcast site such as Apple Podcasts, scrolling down to episode #12 from October 30, 2016 and then downloading the audio file.
Derek's new podcast format includes a video component, so I created some visuals containing examples of ancient artwork as well as corresponding star-charts in order to provide some evidence of the argument that the world's ancient myths, from every inhabited continent and island of our planet, can all be shown to be built upon a common foundation of very specific celestial metaphor.
I've embedded a condensed, 1-hour video of our conversation above, and the full 2-hour video of our conversation at the bottom of this post. You can also check out the full interview at Derek's YouTube channel and for the audio file visit his podcast website here, or go to various podcast players such as iTunes. Please feel free to share with friends or family members who might find this information to be interesting and valuable.
This conversation presents some topics and evidence that I have not discussed in previous blog posts or podcasts, as well as touching on subjects which have been the focus of previous posts or videos. Some of the subjects we discussed in our conversation include:
Parallels between myths from around the world in which a deity, angel, or hero battles a great serpent or dragon (for deeper discussion of this subject, see several of my books, including my most-recent book The Ancient World-Wide System, as well as Star Myths of the World, Volume Four: Norse Mythology, among others); examples include Zeus, Heracles, Krishna, Thor, Maui, Michael the Archangel, and the God of the Bible.
The concept of the esoteric, which is explored at some length in previous posts including "Montessori and 'thinging'," "The Trinomial Cube and Humanity's Ancient Myths," and especially "Esoterism, Mystery, and Schwaller de Lubicz."
The "Karate Kid analogy" for helping to understand the purpose of the esoteric.
The "Earth-ship metaphor" for understanding the celestial mechanics which cause the solstices and the equinoxes on our planet, as well as several other blog posts discussing the relationship between the earth's axial tilt (also known as the "obliquity of the ecliptic") and the solstices and equinoxes such as this one -- and for some discussion of the significance of summer solstice, check out the blog post from last year's summer solstice.
The concept of the Higher Self and our need to recover our connection to our own authentic self, which is discussed in numerous previous blog posts, including "You may have a Higher Self, and he or she wants you to know it," "Eros and Psyche," and "Who is Doubting Thomas?"
The importance of the work of Dr. Gabor Mate and why I believe that his definition of trauma as a fundamental alienation from our own authentic self resonates with the central message of the ancient myths, scriptures and sacred traditions of humanity, a connection which I explore in this previous post.
Some of the evidence which suggests that the ancient Mesopotamian myth-cycle involving Gilgamesh and Enkidu describes this very same alienation, and points us towards the solution (this aspect of the Gilgamesh cycle, and its undeniable celestial foundations, are explored further in The Ancient World-Wide System).
The importance of the emperor Marcus Aurelius and why his reign and the transition of power to his son Commodus (dramatized in the well-known movie Gladiator from the year 2000) may have marked a crucial turning-point in world history.
The Oracle at Delphi, which is discussed in numerous previous posts including "Know thyself," "The Pythia," "The Gospel of Thomas and the Everlasting Spring," and "To keep the connection alive between this world . . . and reality," and which was one of the most important sites in the ancient Mediterranean world for several hundred years -- until it was shut down under the reign of the literalist Christian emperor Theodosius of Rome in the year AD 381, in conjunction with the shutting down of the Eleusinian Mysteries under the same emperor and the persecution and suppression of the ancient wisdom by the power structures of literalist Christianity.
The work of Peter Kingsley, who wrote the amazing book In the Dark Places of Wisdom, and whose insights are discussed in previous posts such as "The Peace of Utter Stillness" and "Prophets don't talk about the future: they talk about the past -- which has been hidden," and who also helped inspire my thoughts in a video I made called "Descending into darkness."
The groundbreaking perspectives of the late, great John Anthony West, whose work has been mentioned countless times in this blog and in my various books and videos -- see previous posts including "Geology, mythology, cataclysms, and the world's ancient wisdom," "John Anthony West on creativity, discipline, and consciousness," "The cobra and the vulture," "Mild but persistent torture," and "Step onward, John Anthony West."
Celestial aspects of the story of Zeus versus Typhon (one of many myths from cultures around the world in which a god or hero battles a dragon or great serpent), and the connection of the story to Mount Aetna in Sicily (and to the important constellation Ophiuchus in the heavens).
And, the celestial aspects of the Solomon story, which are repeated in other myths around the world, and which Derek brought up during our conversation and which we discussed briefly, but without going into any specific celestial detail (the celestial aspects are covered pretty thoroughly in the following blog posts, as well as in my 2016 book Star Myths of the Bible): see for example "The Judgment of Solomon," "Some lessons for us, from the dream of King Solomon," and "Earth Day 2017: the choices of Midas and Solomon."
I hope you will find that the visual examples presented during this interview demonstrate the overwhelming amount of evidence which supports the conclusion that virtually all of the world's myths are built upon a common system of celestial metaphor. The main drawback of preparing a slideshow, however, is that it detracts from some of the give-and-take of the conversation. Nevertheless, I thought that Derek asked some very insightful questions and made some very perspicacious observations during our discussion.
I will look forward to talking again in the future, perhaps to get into some of the other matters we didn't have time to discuss fully this time!
Full interview: