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Video Description
This Bible study begins with a rule rather than a verse. For Ammon Hillman, the word “Mystery” has been flattened into the word secret, and he sets out to restore it. His claim is that mystis (μύστης) does not mean a hidden thing. It means initiation, the initiator, or the one who is leading the rite. That, he says, is why Jesus could announce, “I am the way.” The initiation and the initiator are one.
The test case is Salome, pulled through the ghost of Oscar Wilde. Hillman quotes the famous moon lines from Wilde’s play and reads them not as poetry about a spoiled girl but as code for the goddess herself. Salome is remembered for one thing: her dance won the head of John the Baptist on a silver platter. Hillman asks what was really happening. The dance was public, and Herod had sworn an oath in front of witnesses, so he was bound to give whatever she asked. Her mother was Herodias, whom Hillman calls a witch queen in antiquity. The severed head, in his reading, was not a random cruelty. It was Salome reclaiming her mother, who was being profaned by the prophet.
From there the study turns to a women-only rite called the Thesmophoria (Θεσμοφόρια), a hymn to Thesmophoros Dionysus (θεσμοφόρος Διόνυσος) that only women sang. Hillman points to the title Wanassa (ϝάνασσα), the old Mycenaean word for a Bronze Age queen, the one the Greeks also called Lady. At the close he groups Wilde with Petrarch, Boccaccio, and Proba as guardians of the mystery, people who hid the sources in plain sight. The claim reported here is that the truth never vanished; it was recast. Salome’s dance is not the story they sold you. It is the mystery wearing a mask.
Full Video Transcript
Take me to that happy hour I never had.
Show me the girl I never met.
I want it so bad.
Where is that golden palace?
Is that home destiny?
I think she ran off without me.
Welcome back to Lady Babylon.
I have a couple of announcements before we begin today.
gnostic informant is being initiated into unassailable freedom he has been handed over
to the devil it is a return to bachic mania if his preparation is complete he will come to
celebrate saturn with us this week satan a note from me as your mistis i do not make public
preparation. This is his business. Tonight’s episode is about preventing rape and killing
saints. I know that we don’t have a lot of time together, so I’m going to make this brief.
Tonight, I must start with a public service announcement. If you are being cornered,
if you’re being taken in the back or into a back alley or somewhere in a park where there’s not a
people with an academic if an academic coaxes you into some place that’s isolated always always
always rely upon reason don’t take everything you’re given today i had to witness a terrible
terrible intellectual and psychical molestation and it took place in such a grievous and
and perverted way in order to maintain status in order to maintain hoo-ha-ism in order to maintain
the great facade of academia with one little stroke you can bring them short every time
with one little stroke what was the weakness today the weakness today was the mystery
the mystery what happened everybody defines the mystery and those who define it who live
the fairy tale define it as the secret everybody knows it’s the secret great
hoo-hahs from great institutions will tell you that and they’ll say go look it up i suggest you
do and when you do when you do dig down to the depth and get to the ground the scientific ground
you’ll see it means initiation it it means initiator one who has one who is directing
one who is leading the mustis is the one who is leading the initiation it is also the initiation
when jesus said i am the way he was saying that because the initiation is the initiator
Yeah, he is the way. Yes, very good. So when someone, get back, get back, Jung, did you see
what he did here? Jung, get down. I have to get your whip. Where’s my whip? Get, you broke my cup.
It was Jung. If Jung understood the mystery, you are never going to understand Jung until you
open your eyes until you have ears to hear. And until then, don’t pretend. Don’t sit in your
palace, your lofty palace, and pontificate pontificatiously. No, you don’t. Everybody here
who is in this congregation knows this temple is sacred. Here we can go to the source. Here we can
find out what was being said. And here tonight, I’d like to start. So shout out to those of you
who are used and abused. Yeah, it’s time for us to stand up and take on our abusers. And that
phony world that they keep trying to shove down our throats, that fake world that you know doesn’t
exist now. Your eyes have been opened. Yeah, no more. No more of that. Tonight, I invite you to
come to Salome. We go to Salome. In order to get to Salome, I want to resurrect the ghost of Oscar
Wilde. You say I could have gone Crowley. Oh, yes. Well, you know, I’m given a choice between a fine
french cuisine and mcdonald’s i have to choose oscar wilde thank you very much um i want to
read to you a couple of lines here’s a good one to start here’s a good one to start how good to
see the moon she is like a little piece of money a little silver flower she is cold and chase i am
sure she is a virgin she has the beauty of a virgin yes she is a virgin she has never defiled
herself. She has never abandoned herself to men like the other goddesses. You know Salome is the
one who danced. The one who danced and killed the prophet. From her dance came the head on a silver
platter. Dressed in silver he was for his death. Yes, yes. Killing saints. Why kill a saint? Let’s
see. Let’s see. Oscar, can you tell us what John said? John said, where is he whose cup of
abominations is now full? Where is he who in a robe of silver shall one day die in the face of
all the people? It’s you, John. It’s you. Bid him come forth that he may hear the voice of him who
hath cried in the waste places and in the houses of kings salome of whom is he speaking a young
syrian no one can tell princess john where is she who saw the images of men painted on the walls
you and i have seen these images we know where they are thank you you dirty perverted ezekiel
even the images of the chaldeans painted with colors and gave herself up to the lust of her eyes
and sent ambassadors into the land of Chaldea. Salome, it is of my mother that he is speaking,
a young Syrian. Oh no, princess. Salome, yes, it is of my mother that he is speaking.
Her mother is Herodias. And who is Herodias? She happens to be, if you’re living in the Middle
Ages, she happens to be a very important witch queen. Yes, if you’re living in antiquity,
She happens to be a very important witch princess.
Yes, yes.
We see her originally, ultimately elevated to queen.
Yes, with her daughter, Salome.
Isn’t that nice?
What does Salome think?
It’s my mother he’s talking about.
Who is she?
Who is the moon?
As you begin to see, you can use this guide
to show yourself, use Wilde’s ghost
to show yourself the rights?
Where is she who gave herself unto the captain of Assyria,
who have baldrics on their loins
and crowns of many colors on their heads?
Where is she who has given herself
to the young men of the Egyptians,
who are clothed in fine linen and hyacinth,
whose shields are of gold, whose helmets are of silver,
whose bodies are mighty?
Go, bid her rise up from the bed of her abominations,
from the bed of her incestuousness,
that she may hear the words of him who prepareth the way of the Lord,
that she may repent of her iniquities,
though she will not repent, but will stick fast in her abominations.
Go bid her come, for the fan of the Lord is at hand.
Salome, ah, but he is terrible, terrible.
The young Syrian, do not stay here, princess.
Salome, it is his eyes above all that are terrible.
They’re like black holes burned by torches in a tapestry of tire.
They’re like the black caverns where the dragons live.
The black caverns of Egypt in which the dragons make their lairs.
They’re like black lakes troubled by fantastic moons.
Do you think he will speak again?
The young Syrian.
Do not stay here, princess.
I pray you do not stay here, Salome.
How wasted he is.
He’s like a thin ivory statue.
He’s like an image of silver. I’m sure he is chased, as is the moon. He is like a moonbeam,
like a shaft of silver. His flesh must be very cold, cold as ivory. I would look closer at him.
No, no, Princess Salome. I must look at him closer. The young Syrian. Princess, princess.
John, who is this woman who is looking at me? I will not have her look at me. Wherefore does she
look at me with her golden eyes under her gilded eyelids? I know not who she is. I do not desire
to know who she is. Bid her be gone. It is not to her that I would speak. I am Salome, daughter of
herodias princess of judea john back daughter of babylon come not near the chosen of the lord
the mother has filled the earth with the wine your mother has filled the earth with the wine
of her iniquities and the cry of her sinning has come up even to the ears of god john daughter of
Sodom come not near me but cover your face with a veil and scatter ashes upon your head and get
thee to the desert and seek out the son of man was it a conscious process that brought forth this
right or was it something of a design of a classics design a way to bring to you encapsulate
mystery. If you are able to read Oscar Wilde’s Salome and have ears to hear, you will see her
whom the mysteries hold as a center. You will see the Eidolon. Oscar Wilde was able to bring you
the Eidolon, the image of the queen. Yeah, yeah. If you are going to sit in an ivory tower
and talk about the mystery as a secret,
those of us who’ve been to the sources will know
that you are making things up
from the perspective of the detritus
of the last 2,000 years.
You are perpetuating a false world that does not exist.
The reality is far more interesting.
It’s far more interesting.
Salome had John beheaded for a dance. It was in front of the king’s highest generals
and some visiting potentates. Doesn’t sound like an average party to me. Does it sound like an
average party to you? If you believe the Coptic sources, you’ll know that Mary, the mother of
Jesus was herself a priestess in the temple. And you’ll know that she was involved with the dancing
of the purple. And you’ll know that when the midwife inserted her fingers into her vagina to
palpate, as any midwife would do, that’s practice, to palpate her cervix, she found out she had to
remove them because they burned. They burned. Mary is there. Salome is there taking the head
the baptist yes and how does she get that head she gets that head for a dance people don’t consider
salome’s greatest accomplishment was the silencing of a prophet through her dance what was she doing
there and what was it that herod had to grant her up to half of his kingdom because when you swear
things like that in public here you know antipas isn’t the only one doing this right this is a
classical convention you see it all over the place early literature the late stuff when you swear
when you take an oath and it’s public the ears that hear are witnesses and for herod to swear
in front of these assemblies assembled important big pants that he was going to give her half the
kingdom up to what she wanted he had to give her everything anything she asked for and she asked
for everything right in order to re-establish the rightful place of her own mother who this prophet
was profaning oscar wilde had ears to hear he recognized the sources and so that’s why he can
so accurately label salome the moon of the mystery she who meets you in the cave while you sleep yes
so um next time a union grabs you and takes you behind somewhere dark in an alley somewhere
doesn’t matter under a bush doesn’t matter wherever this union wants to drag you and take you
and they have the guts the temerity the unmitigated rashness to say shut up to say that
mystery is a secret it shows you they have not yet opened the red book they do not possess the
libra noahs right they don’t know how to wield the the serpent one of the girl who is half virgin
half viper the very images that young was possessed by when he sealed his libra noahs yes
don’t let them take you behind in the bushes and give you something that’s that’s from the last
2 000 years of detritus it’s not reality i was talking with someone this week and i want to jump
to our him in closing but i was talking to someone this week um yes about the incident in the garden
the incident in the garden and setting up the scene of that incident in the garden um and i
just want to yeah could you close that that’s a little bit rude sorry i’ve got teenager um
that incident in the garden uh where we’re talking about the setting of that place remember there are
three men who are standing at a distance you’re detectives right there were three men in a public
park at 4 00 a.m and there there’s one guy and there’s three other guys standing at a distance
from him keeping watch and their arm because they end up when the cops end up showing up to make the
arrest with their informant they’ve got their informant with them right he’s gonna actually
point out the leader of what’s going on and when they show up and that naked kid runs off
and somebody pulls out a sword and starts swaying at somebody uh yeah somebody from the temple gets
their ear cut off yeah and we have to understand that when the prostitutes show back up at the
crucifixion when not even the guys who were there the enforcers would show up and the mob is crying
out kill this guy kill this guy we’ve got to establish that context to see what he was actually
doing there what is the reality right we we will not go back to fairy tale world right we will not
go back to charlton heston right no we must go forward and we must know what all of these
elements were let’s turn to for the sake of our initiation let’s turn to um in this bible study
today with salome let’s turn to the divinity good thank you for bringing that up chewy um this is an
orphic hymn and i’m just opening it here myself and i’m going to read it to you i’m going to
translated to you from this greek text um yes yes i call upon the thesmophore dionysus
the thesmophore the one who brings themis themis right by the way this is a woman’s voice
for those of you out here who think a man is saying this you’re wrong this is performed
during the Thesmophoria. And if we just need to catch up, think rites of the Korah. Rites of the
Korah. Celebrations at Eleusis. All right? The Thesmophoria is an event. Women only. There are
only women singing these hymns. So when you shave your head, don’t be surprised that I don’t tell
you you need to shave your beard. Because if you’re a woman in antiquity, you don’t have to
worry about that yeah yeah i mean don’t don’t get me wrong the doctors have all sorts of plasters
and stuff to take care of uh you know little hairs but um we’re not shaving our beards we’re
shaving our heads because we are women so hold that in mind this may surprise you i want to take
you to him the hymn of misa um i call upon the thesma for the narthex bearer what’s the narthex
that’s that empty um hollowed out cane that’s that that that’s that uh instrument that carries
the fire of prometheus yeah it’s a reed right it’s a reed good and it’s carried by dionysus
yes you may also know prometheus he hid the fire of zeus for those of you who have ears to hear
you’ll know that he hid the fire of zeus in the narthex that’s what he brings sperma polum nesta
on second line polu onamon um seed that is most remembered seed i remember we’re thinking like
bronze age greeks we’re thinking like farmers we’re talking about series the golden fields
we’re about to come across we’re about to come across isis in egypt in the banks of the nile
This is where we are, right? We’re not writing this from Mars. Good. What is her name? Holy
Mesa. Wait a minute. Eubuleus? Who is Eubuleus? Eubuleus is that dude, that mortal that witnesses
the abduction of the Korah. He’s the only mortal, and he brings that. He brings that wisdom and so
is therefore involved. Eubuleus is in the rites. Eubuleus is Dionysus. Yes, it’s an epithet used
for dionysus wait a minute dionysus is a person yeah yep right um now you understand why they
talk about possession so much good um what is this dionysus this dionysus is misa and the
translators um at least uh athanasakis um i don’t remember taylor’s but athanasakis’s translation of
this, which is generally good. Here has to you have to make a
decision. Because the text all all of a sudden switches from
masculine to feminine, starts describing a female goddess
saying she is holy. Yeah, and she is unspoken, the array tone,
the unspoken, the unspeakable, the ineffable. What Anasa using
the old licensee and one I saw the word for that princess
Remember the city and princess that they found?
Whoever was wearing that crown?
That’s a Wanasa.
That’s a Bronze Age queen right there.
Mary.
Hello, Mary Beard.
Yes, we’re talking about women-only cults.
We’re talking about women’s performances.
We’re talking about queens.
Mary, you need to wake up, Mary.
Wake up, Mary.
Devil calling Mary Beard.
Wake up.
Yeah, so, and here.
I just want to, because we’re wrapped for time here, the window’s closing, I just want to finish
our hymn here. Yeah, he talks about being in Eleusis at their rites, and how nice that is,
and he talks about Cyprus, right, being on Cyprus with the beautiful crowned Kitharea, right,
right, Urania. We’re talking about the worship of Urania here, and you mean that’s the same as
yes yes right this is the this is the themis bringer right this is the thesmophore this is
the one who brings us the law this is oh did you feel that shiver wait a minute what was that yeah
it’s that’s the component of the mystery religion the oracle you mean judaism and christianity or
offshoots of saturnian bronze age worship yeah they are oracular saturnian bronze age worship
we are bringing themis right only the law on the pagan side is a she is a sheet remember we’ve got
to dress up you ever see a bucket dressed like a man no buckets dressed like women menads are
the power they’re the ones the women they’re the ones who are performing the
rights all right you and I you and I if we want to see if we want to get close
gotta dress like women dress like women for those of you with ears to hear yes
well sorry we’re by the we’re by your mother we’re by your mother says before
we’re by your mother who is that the Milana for Isis the Milana for what is a
a melanophore remember this four is a term that’s used in drug and cult right it’s used on the
medical side and cult side it’s a carrier of who is lady babylon she is a carrier of that water
she’s the one who operates within that realm who is who is misa she is the carrier of the black
of the darkness she is a carrier of that toward dawn that which reaches toward dawn remember
these are the dawn bringers that we’re talking about this is a family that predates genesis upon
which genesis is based these are the dawn bringers those who open the eyes isn’t that nice those who
open the eyes. They used to shout EWADZO. Here in this hymn, they shout IAKHOS. IAKHOS. IAKHOS.
Another name of Dionysus. Yes, another name of Dionysus. This is what they shout. If you are
going to enter in to the unassailable freedom, if you’re going to become the initiate, if you’re
going to take that rift of reality and open it up peel it back and walk into it if you’re going to
do that you’ll have to walk the way you’ll have to walk the way and that won’t be determined by
any person there’s a reason did you ever notice we’ve got some funny stuff going on in corinth
right and there’s some funny kind of incestuous stuff going on there’s some funny sexual stuff
going on there’s a father and his daughter and paul says give that give the guy over to satan
nobody ever questions what what wait wait what um give the guy over to say as if it’s a direction
for them to execute he’s not just throwing him a metaphor he’s telling them to perform a process
to deliver that person over to the devil for what why would you give some of the devil for
chastisement for punishment yeah for purification you have been handed over to the devil for
purification yeah yeah do we end up at a dance yep we end up with a dance with salome what kind
of dance was that it was a dance involving the abominations of her cup yes and the ways of sodom
yes if you don’t know the ways of sodom it’s because you don’t have ears to hear
but there is a place that you can go and a way that will take you there um
and let’s uh go now do we have i want to take now we’re done i just want to take thank you for your
30 minutes today and i’m taking it very seriously trying to keep us to that hold us to that please
be careful out there do not get fingered by an academic okay we need reality
yeah because we’re sworn to it right reality reason um i’ve kept you to your 30 minutes i’m
gonna have rob on for five to ten minutes rob tell me what do you want to to uh do with this material
hey so i’m going to be cheeky and say can we get fingered by oscar wilde then instead of the
academic because yeah you’ve you’ve taken a look at salome you’ve taken a look at salome now tell
me what you see in salome coded it’s it’s coded to the hilt isn’t it how does oscar wilde know
how to code this stuff and put it into a play that becomes something that’s it’s not just a
small thing this isn’t i mean you’ve got like your mega stars who are obsessed with this stuff you’ve
got al pacino who’s he’s obsessed with this he’s done a play he’s done a film he’s done a
documentary of a play of a film he’s and in our day and age so he’s reading into this i mean how
does oscar wilde know about the wines when he’s writing this play how does he know is to include
these wines because he talks about three types of wines from different areas in in geography so
how does he that takes either because he hasn’t got the research capability we’ve got in his day
and age so where’s he getting his information that’s the that’s the big thing for me he’s
he’s getting his information from he kind of steers clear of the biblical side of things
and gives salome agency he’s kind of good she comes to the forefront doesn’t she and she becomes
the star whereas it’s um it’s been portrayed for so long as almost like a warning the kind of the
kind of message what’s coming from down below through the vent from from john john i mean
john is talking apocalyptic and source isn’t he but that doesn’t come until after
and but he’s he’s talking this the the moon’s turning blood red and the sun’s going dark and
the sun’s turning to black and that that doesn’t come till later on does it if you if you look at
it in a historical sense that doesn’t come up come till later on so why is wild including this
into i mean has he been initiated essentially is where i’m going with this is has oscar wilde been
initiated because if you were if you to ask my opinion i’d say yes i’d say he was initiated
through his education what do you think about his being in prison is that uh was that an initiation
yeah i guess so because he’s he’s feeling the wrath he’s talking about the dragon and feeling
the wrath of disclosing information there as far as i’m concerned i think he’s disclosing
information you’ve got to have some balls you’ve got to have some balls to put that kind of
document out there for those with ears to hear will be listening to that document and they will
know what you’re saying in that document in that play you’re making a play which is going to become
super famous it’s it’s a super famous play you know and in the in the there’s there’s
it’s just it blows my mind how he can code this play and it’s not a long play it’s not a very long
thing to comprehend and understand but it’s filled it’s absolutely filled and that is what explodes
out onto why you can make films about it why you can why it’s so famous in my opinion so yeah and i
and i think you’re correct to ask has he been initiated that’s the same question you can ask
with petrarch who does everything who actually performs necromantic sorties um you can ask it’s
why the modern scholars on the libra novus on jung’s book will never catch up it’s why they’re
so behind and they’re so lost in it um is because they don’t understand the practice they can’t
comprehend that practice um so they’ll talk about the symbols but they’ll entirely miss the the
mystery in which those symbols sit again they don’t have ears jung says that he seals the book
where break the seal then right can they no they can and they won’t break the seal right because
why not no respect for the muse no respect for the muse was oscar wilde able to circumvent
whatever it was that’s stopping the head of the great organizations of the world academically
was was oscar wilde able to circumvent that yeah he was able to go from the outside
he remained a guardian or a dragon of those texts and he used all the images that those texts
contain um just like petrarch um just like boccaccio um i would say just like proba did
as far back as like fourth century um did by protecting protecting the mystery and um using
listen to the genius of this woman she she used virgil to write the um new testament to write
the story of jesus she used virgil and when you think about that’s that’s phenomenal it’s
it’s not even in our brains to be able to say i couldn’t take if i was a were a musician i
I couldn’t take Beethoven and Mozart and somebody else and excerpt from them something to create
a symphony that sounded gorgeous as if it’s original work.
And yet she is just using the elements.
How is she able to do that?
Because she understands the mystery and how it functions.
They call her, they have to call her a Christian because of it, right?
It’s that powerful.
So if you want to function in the world that we’re in with this myth and this fairy tale
that we’re perpetuating, fine.
I’d rather be with those people like Proba who have opened up the reality and are masters
of it.
That’s, yeah, yeah.
So did Wilde, was Wilde initiated?
I can, I would just say that he was, he uses the dragon element.
Yeah, he does.
He preserves the song.
but i would say no more so than the templars no more so than any uh than michelle or mike
marulis marulis how does mike marulis write perfect cult poetry perfect hymns to be used
in rights how does he orphic rights how does he do that um when he’s living it’s like in the latin
then sucks anyway it’s terrible so how does he how does he go back are these dragons preserving
i don’t know any word from artaud on this any well artaud is yeah deep in the middle of all this yeah
um i’m still on i’m still on researching artaud and i’m going to bring you some more information
but yeah he was he went to ireland thinking there was an apocalypse about trapping he actually just
he made it all the way to ireland with no money whatsoever he just used um a letter from a from
an official as currency to get to Ireland and when he got to Ireland nobody could understand
him nobody could figure out what what he was saying because he didn’t speak Gaelic he didn’t
speak English and they didn’t speak French so he really struggled so what I’d like to do is
offer more information as to why he went there and what what happened to him when he come back
so I don’t want to go too early on that I’d like to give a more detailed account
and i’m really in the reset research on that good and you’re going to be talking to us a little bit
about his magic too and some things you found out and he was trying to protect someone right yes
yes i’ve got to make amends there because i i have presented um a spell on on the last bible
studies i presented a spell that i interpreted as a death threat and i’ve recently got more
information on that and it’s not a death threat what it is is a protection spell and i’m trying
to piece together and figure out the metaphoric basis of how you say to somebody i’ll send you
the force of death in a protection manner and somebody commented on youtube somebody commented
after and said i don’t think it’s a death threat and that made me second guess myself which is a
good thing i enjoy second guessing i don’t mind being mistaken and wrong and i’ll certainly
address anything like that such as another one i’m not very good at this am i because it is mary
beard as far as i can tell but the english accent would be different on that but then uh yeah she
it’s um it’s not a death threat for it what he sent and this poor sophia mossey was i think she
was jewish and i think she was taken off in occupied occupied france german occupied france
and she was taken off which like i said i’d prefer offer a bit more detail than i’ve got right now
isn’t it nice to have a an extremely well uh red audience i mean this is like being in the museum
here we can get excellent comments and we have people say hey have you seen this they’ll pull
something off the shelf look at this manuscript oh it’s got dyer’s formula and stuff like that
from antiquity we have a real opportunity here um with uh um you’re not an audience
right you’re not an audience you’re active participants now in the initiation and i
appreciate that i appreciate that and rob appreciates that rob will be talking about
our toe and in the future when it’s appropriate for friday night for friday night um i oh i want
us to be able to see to see the initiation in progress um this is this is the goal if we can
reach that herculean unassailable freedom i’m looking forward to friday night yep yep me too
thank you everybody thank you rob and uh we’ll see everybody friday night i want to tell you
guys we and i can tell rob says thinking the same thing it’s it’s it’s a real honor to have a a
great a great group of participants like you guys who consistently hang here with us yeah and um we
need to start bringing everybody on board we need to start making this you know um a more a more
hospitable congregation but anyway i’m gonna stop blabbing rob thank you very much thanks for having
me on and i’ll see you next time hail satan hail satan show me the girl i never met i wanted so
bad where is that golden palace where is that horse called destiny i think she ran without me
Source: Lady Babylon