Origins of Flood Stories
Flood stories are found in every civilization across the globe, and there is much confusion connected with their meaning. Was it a real flood? Was it really worldwide? Was it a story with w deeper Truth beneath it? They often refer to giants or ancient humanities, Divine incarnations which point extremely far back in time … back to pre-history.
Throughout the area of Egypt/Kemet, in ancient times the Nile Delta became flooded. It was a great tragedy that happened every year. This great flood would come and wash away the Eyptian world. The people of these times called these waters “The Waters of Chaos,” due simply to the fact that they were horrible, and destructive.
But, they also brought new life. Because without The Waters of Chaos coming annually, the deserts would be totally dry and nothing would grow. Obviously, if nothing grew, famine would be evident. They discovered within time that Chaos was indeed a Blessing that actually brought new life.
Spring would be a beautiful time in Egypt due to the waters of chaos bringing fresh nutrients for plants and food to grow. The people of the Nile Valley would then celebrate the coming of the the waters of chaos, for they soon learned that with them, they would bring the new life that was so desperately needed for their survival.
They called this celebration in Egypt … “THE ARGHA NOA.” Not the ARK(ARCH) OF NOAH …. but ARGHA NOA. The “Argha Noa” was the coming of the great flood that washed away the old world and brought new life … and for Egypt … a rebirth - “Born Again.” The moon was always in the lower quarter, this quarter of the moon became known as THE ARGHA NOA or THE WET MOON, often resembling an ARCH in the sky. Notice the resemblance to the YIN AND YANG of life when looking at it’s symbol? The light and the dark, as observed since the earliest civilizations. The duality of ONE. This is the law of polarity. Two opposites of one thing. Hot and cold, day and night, heavy and light, etc.
The Esoteric science describes an inner spiritual continuity of being combined with catastrophisim, tieing many sources of ancient Wisdom and history. The ancients knew very well what they studied, and perhaps better than those of more recent modern times. They looked to astronomy, geognosy, and cosmography. That the Earth and its behaviour has been altered more than once since the primitive state of things.
Geognosy comes from a combination of two Greek words. The word “Gaia” means Earth, and “Gnosis” means “Knowing” or Knowledge. Gaia was the ancient Greek goddess and symbol of the earth (Mother Earth). Many deluges appear in many traditions world-wide. The first are cosmic, the rest, as Noahs Arch, are terrestrial.
The Mother of all floods refers to the Cosmos, the Gods of the skies (Ouranos/Heaven), it refers to the Waters of Space which became the life and death giving waters of earth. Ancient spiritual traditions and Wisdom viewed all things such as atoms, planets, solar systems, and universes … as living beings. Divine in essense, the many sparks of one cosmic fire, over immense periods of time there is constant ebb and flow of the various waves of universal and planetary life, with Karma as the Divine harmony of the absolute consciousness. This is the Universal Law of Cause and Effect.
Interpreting the Biblical flood story
Noah floating on the waters in his arch, the latter being the emblem of The Argha or Moon, the feminine principle. Noah is the spirit falling into matter, we find him as soon as he desends upon the earth.
Planting of the vineyard, drinking of the wine … the pure spirit becoming intoxicated as soon as it is imprisoned in matter, becoming personified. The ancient Greeks called this “Soma/Sema.” Soma means body, sema means tomb. Therefore the body is a tomb in which our Soul is trapped. Looking at the 7th chapter of Genesis, we see but another version of The first unveiled Isis. Genesis transliterated, Genes of Isis … or in Greek - birth or beginnings, creation.
Taking this myth, and other more ancient stories, we can see that the arch vessel floating on the abyss of waters often signifies the female generative power carrying the gene of nature and mankind. Again, creation through the feminine.
Mystically the Divine Spirit of Life, like Noah, emerges from Chaos. Noah’s deluge is astronomical and allegorical. It is a celestial metaphor. But its foundation and true meaning behind the story is not false, only personified, for the story is based upon archaic tradition of men - or rather nations which were saved during cataclysyms, in Canoes, archs and ships. Esoterically, but for another day, the Ark is also US.
Legends have all spung from catastrophes which involved both the continent and the Island of Atlantis (and Lemuria). In ancient mythology the universe itself was a conversation between order and chaos, or the Yin and Yang … along with the Universal Law of Polarity. Everything has it’s waves, up and down. Ocean waves, light waves, sound waves, motion - ebb and flow. It’s just the way it is … and it is immutable universal Law.
Just a thought …
~Justin Taylor, ORDM., OCP., DM.
