Tree of the Law

Rough megaliths of Stonehenge stand motionless for thousands  of  years among fields and oak forests. Nobody and nothing is able to disturb their severe stillness. The stones silently keep the memory of prehistoric times, of creative power of human intellect and hands. But this stiff round dance is not speechless. The sacred song sounds eternally in the perfect world. Ancient music of unknown spheres always excites and disturbs. The sad melody touches cordial strings, arouses thoughts about the past, about the present, about the future. Though, it is difficult for a person who has not been in those far-away  lands to judge of emotions and thoughts of the people who were  wandering for hours among secular oak forests, among stone giants of  Stonehenge. Therefore we shall quote a testimony of the age-old visitor who was in the temple of the Druids as early as in the 18th century: "For everybody with logical intellect it is difficult to imagine greater delight than a walk among these majestic ruins and contemplation of them".

Certainly, there are fantastically beautiful landscapes and monuments of old times in many places. The same exalted, indeed intellectual pleasure feels everyone, who in summer-time finds himself at the mouth of the river Nerl, where this calm river flows into the fast Klyazma river. Here the white-stone church of the Intercession stands high among the foliage and above the greenery of the meadows. In the 12th century, when the temple was under construction, dense oak forests rustled around. And even nowadays the mighty Oaks-Giants stand out in all their beauty on the banks of the rivers and in the groves, they still keep ancient Wisdom and Beauty.

Once we showed the photos of Stonehenge to the local priest and asked:

– What these stones were intended for?
He looked at them for a long time and then said instructively:
– It is a heathen temple of the Druids. Here the pagan priests performed their rituals and sacrifices. The Druids worshipped stones and trees, they prayed to oaks for sending rain and mercy. In Russia there also was the pagan darkness, similar to that of the Egyptian darkness, they revered the graven images and Peroun, too. But, thank God, the light of  truth dawned upon our land.
– And what did the ancient Priests teach?
– Ask: what could the forest shamans know? The God is not in the oak, he is in the Church, our Father and Savior is in the Heaven. The false belief of the pagan priests was rejected a long time ago. For it was said: “The day of the Lord of Sabaoth is near – all the oaks and stones, all the towers and walls will fall down”. – The Priest looked at the photo, at the whimsical boulders of megaliths, and shook his head. – My! What a conglomeration! And what for? Everything happened according to the Word of God: the stone oaks have fallen and there is no salvation for them. 

This conversation evoked different thoughts. The sacred belief of the minister of religion was worthy of respect. The heathen temples disappeared long ago, the white-stone churches – the centers of spiritual life – have been standing for centuries due to the efforts of the priests and their congregations. But we are not sure if it is necessary to pin up an age-old label – paganism, to scorn the cults of the most ancient religions, that spiritual property, the scraps of which are kept in the myths and legends, rituals and traditions?

For millennia before the Christians people believed their Priests, worshipped wooden idols and stone graven images, finding a support in severe life through rites and rituals. The sacred Oaks and Stones  were the Rulers of  nature for them, the pre-images of the universal Gods, that had taught them to grow corn and to tame animals, had granted them the signs for calculation and writing, had revealed the secret of reckoning time. A sidereal calendar is the most valuable spiritual treasure. It is known, that all the European peoples had the cult of the Oak, and everywhere – from the Eastern Slavs to the Western Celts – people considered sacred Trees and Stones the rulers of calendar time. Thunderers emerged under different names – Jupiter, Zeus, Odin, Thor, Dagda, Peroun, Perkunis. The ancient plurality of Gods forms a complicated astral hierarchy, that ascends from the Gods of the Sun and the Moon, Mercury and Venus to the Divinities of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, to the Rulers of the far-off Constellations, drawn by the signs of the Zodiac. The logic of comprehension of nature led to  the process when the old, known for a long time planetary Gods were superseded and were submitted to the new ones, ascending to the most principal and the highest, to the Unity. Only the highest Divinity granted the exactest calendar.

The Oak is a beautiful and long-lived tree. And, at the same time, the Tree is a symbol, a prophetic sign of the development of a Kin, an embodiment of the universal Law of Nature in its vegetative form. The sidereal world of Gods and terrestrial dwelling-place of humanity are in the power of the omnipotent Logos – a triune principle of spiritual formation, which was discovered in the remote past. Man cultivated land and worked among plants and animals, assimilating the environment. The adoration of the Oak was a spiritual act, connected with the performance of strict seasonal rules, an obligatory life in accordance with the common calendar cycles. Of course, the image was perceived in different ways. For ordinary people – the Oak is an unusual, sacred tree, external appearance of which influenced spiritual mood, helped people to make their thoughts and acts commensurable with natural phenomena. "Do not sow wheat before oak leaves come out". "When all the leaves from oak – and birch-trees go down, there will be an easy year for cattle and people".

L.Tolstoy in the novel War and Peace created a colourful picture, showing to what a great extent the changes in appearance of the Oak in the forest influenced the emotional  disposition of Andrew  Bolkonski. It is significant, that a footman of the prince and a coachman, both peasants by birth, were the first to behold the beauty of the spring forest, into which the coach drove. Peter, the coachman, unrestrainedly turned on the box towards his master, who was deep immersed in his distressing thoughts.

"How pleasant it is, your Excellency!" he said with a respectful smile.

"What?"

"It's pleasant, your Excellency!"

"What is he talking about?" thought Prince Andrew. "Oh, the spring, I suppose," he  thought as he turned round. "Yes, really everything is green already... How early! The birches, and ñherry and alders too are coming out... But the oaks show no sign yet. Ah, here is one oak!"

At the edge of the road stood an oak. Probably ten times the age of the birches that formed the forest, it was ten times as thick and twice as tall as they. It was an enormous tree, its girth twice as great as a man could embrace, and evidently long ago some of its branches had been broken off and its bark scarred. With its huge ungainly limbs sprawling unsymmetrically, and gnarled hands and fingers, it stood an aged, stern and scornful monster among the smiling birch-trees. Only the dead-looking evergreen firs dotted about in the forest, and this oak, refused to yield to the charm of spring, or notice either the spring, or the sunshine.

"Spring, love, happiness!" this oak seemed to say. "Are you not weary of that stupid, meaningless, constantly repeated fraud? Always the same and always a fraud! There is no  spring, no sun, no happiness! Look at those cramped dead firs, ever the same, and at me too, sticking out my broken and barked fingers just whether from my back or my sides: as they have grown so I stand, and I do not believe in your hopes and your lies."

As he passed through the forest Prince Andrew turned several times to look at that oak,  as if expecting something from it. Under the oak, too, were flowers and grass, but it stood among them scowling, rigid, misshapen, and grim as ever. "Yes, the oak is right, a thousand times right," thought Prince Andrew. "Let others – the young – yield afresh to that fraud, but we know life, our life is finished!"

Other feelings possessed Andrew Bolkonski, when he was returning from the Rostovs' estate and was driving along the same road. All his thoughts were taken up by Natasha, a young and charming creature, his heart overflowed with the feeling of new love. And the whole revived and refreshed world aroused joyful hopes in the soul of Prince Andrew. And he saw the familiar grove. "Everything was in blossom, the nightingales trilled, and their voices reverberated now near now far away.

"Yes, here in this forest was that oak with which I agreed," thought Prince Andrew. "But  where is it?" he again wondered, gazing at the left side of the road, and without recognizing it he looked with admiration at the very oak he sought.

The old oak, quite transfigured, spreading out a canopy of sappy dark-green foliage, stood rapt and slightly trembling in the rays of the evening sun. Neither gnarled fingers nor old scars nor old doubts and sorrows were any of them in evidence now. Through the hard century-old bark, even where there were no twigs, leaves had sprouted such as one could hardly believe the  old veteran could have produced. "Yes, it is the same oak", thought Prince Andrew, and all at once he was seized by an unreasoning spring-time feeling of joy and renewal".

Everything happens in life, different is the attitude of people towards the world around them, towards the forests and groves and the separate trees. But if we think over the question: whiat were the feelings of the Druid-Priest towards the sacred Oak? – it is possible to assume that there were the feelings of profound veneration and prayerful ecstasy. And of fear in front of that mighty force, which is hidden in the Oak – a mighty terrestrial giant, dependent only on the will of the Thunderer. While performing a ritual, he with the intense attention looked closely at the appearance of the Oak and in the secret signs he saw the Ruler of heavenly Bodies, the higher Gods, that ruled with the help of thunder and lightning, rain and wind, on   which a crop and offspring, favor and retribution depended. The Priest was obliged to recognize precisely and to interpret correctly any answer to the people. Probably, the Druids-Priests relied not only upon prayers and sacrifices. The long observations of the Sun and the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn, the deep knowledge of the natural-climatic phenomena, the seasons and terms calculated with the help of the stone circles of Stonehenge, or of the wooden sanctuaries-calendars, helped them to make correct prophecies-predictions.

Doubtlessly, the Priests were the strict zealots of rituals and traditions, and due to their knowledge of the surrounding world, to the ability of reckoning seasons and feasts, they exceeded worldly experience of the local population, whose destiny was their heavy daily labour. We shall note at once, that we shall give the name of the Priests-Druids not only to the ancient ministers of the Oak, not only to the Magi and the Shamans, but also to the most ancient priests, the founders of the stone calendar of Stonehenge. In this broad circle of the adherents of the cult of trees there were no people equally worthy, too, as well as everywhere, and in all times there was a hierarchy. Above the many who were called for ministering there were raised the selected people, with the sacred wisdom, and, maybe, the only one of them knew the most profound mysteries and secrets.

Being initiated into the ordinances, the Druid-Augur dominated and controled, he scrupulously observed the promised covenants, and when he was of very old age, having a presentiment of his demise, he handed over the Words, Signs and Numbers of the Law to the most faithful disciple, – the new leading light, in revelation having apprehended already not only separate Parts, but the secret knowledge as the Whole, he continued to observe the tradition and to keep reverently the secret, obtained from the Gods of the First Time.

The Druid-Augur observed the High Law. His powerful memory kept not only all niceties of the services, peculiarities of the rituals and feasts. Combining the astral wisdom with the art of healing, the High Priest could predict the future, foretell the destiny. But the most important point is that he reverently kept the mystery of Creation, the sacred measure of limits and cycles of the Great Years. By a mind's eye the Augur pierced the obvious things and also comprehended the essence of all phenomena. Knowing for sure, that the Pantocrator had unrolled a Triad of the World from the Unity, and initiated into the secret of life the Druid beheld the unseen Triunity and foresaw the hidden action. Therefore in a sacred Tree, in the Oak, and in each leaf of it, the Druid High Priest completely saw what was not known to anybody. By a mind's eye he saw the Triads of the Law, in each Part he behold the Whole, the penetrative Triunity, the alive Sign of the Pantocrator.

Here is a curious question: what the Druid First Priest and the keeper of the Triad of the World would tell us about the Oak, if he had a chance to open a secret of the Law, which reigns in the alive vegetative world? Perhaps, we need not then take the impressions of Andrew Bolkonski to heart, the choruses of ritual canticles would become inaudible too. Piercing by his mind the exterior foliage and the bark of the green Oak, the Druid-Augur would announce, how from the small acorns the mighty Oaks grow and stand, indestructible, for five hundred, and one thousand years. He would tell us about its inner structure, about the triune geometric cycle of increase, about the omnipresent Seven and the mysterious Decade, about the Numbers, which latently rule the Universe and display their figurative ability in the mighty Tree of the Law.

The mystical geometry of the Tree of the Law bears little resemblance to the worshipped Oak of the Druids. Instead of the magnificent crown and the mighty trunk the surprising numerical progressions, knots and lines of precise cycles will be revealed to us. Nicholas of Cuza, an outstanding theologian of the 15th century, whose authority is quite reliable, reproduces such a picture. He writes:

 "The Seven of progressions goes out from the Six, as if time with its sequence goes out from eternity. You will find out the Seven in the nature of generated and perished things. For example, when a seed produces (progreditur) a tree, and a tree produces a seed, both these progressions are enveloped by the Seven: at first, a seed [1] ascends into a sprout (2], then into a bush [3], and later into a tree [4]; a tree descends into a branch [5], then into a sprout [6] and, at last, into a fruit, or a seed [7]. The last-mentioned one is another by the number [a fruit contains a lot of new seeds - A.Z.], if it is compared with the  first, and, as the end does not coincide by the number with the first beginning, and the end of an outflow coincides with the beginning of an inverse current, the result of it is just seven.

 And from it comes ten. If a is as though a seed, d - as though a tree, g - another seed, k - another tree, then a through b and c passes to d, d through e and f passes to g - so seven is finished, g through h and i ascends into k, and so the complete ten is got.

The individual determinancy of the species in a, the seed, is liable to decay, and is imperishable in its specific nature, aiming to self-preservation by the force of the species concretized in it, and wishing to arise into the species, throws away the individualization of the seed, so that via the species to produce from itself similar to itself. In the quadruple progression a seed ascends into a tree, if it can not multiply itself in the specific similarity without its help”.

"I have told you about a seed and a tree, but you try to extract from here the knowledge about the universum, by means of the same method building the suppositions concerning minerals, plants, animals and all sensual things. Also use the things we have said about symbolically in the field of mind and intellect. For example, from the seed of surprise the tree of reasoning grows, giving similar fruits of surprise; the tree of reasoning through the surprise, called by it, erects the similar tree of reasoning. Just in the same manner from the seed beginning of a proof the intellectual tree grows, which produces some more seed beginnings from itself, through which the intellectual tree grows again".

Destiny of the Oak

This is a perfect advice to everybody who wants to cultivate his own  intellectual tree. Obviously, the symbolic significance of the Tree is very deep and it has importance beyond the above-mentioned. The cult of trees, including adoration of the Oak, during many centuries played a leading role in the life of the European peoples, and it found a reflection in ancient legends and myths, in rituals and customs. However, the mystical sense of the Tree of the Law becomes clear, if we look at the age-old kaleidoscope of religious beliefs in the light of biblical mythology. Esotericism of the Bible contains a system of triads, where the profound changes are displayed, that took place in the life of people among nature.

The sacred history develops according to the ancient Law, where a kin and the people are formed in the triune cycles. Everything begins at the Tree of knowing good and evil, where Adam tasted a forbidden fruit, and, thus, made the first step along the path of comprehension of the world of nature. But to tell the truth, because of this it was not possible for him to taste the fruits from the Tree of Life. Probably, the Creator also did not suspect about its existence, nobody knew in the pastures of Heaven about the grace, that is higher than the laws. Expelled from Eden Adam and Eve were engaged in agriculture  and augmentation of the kin, earning their bread and obtaining new knowledge of the world with the help of their personal experience.

 The process of further mythological changes could be presented as the ascension of Man-Mankind from the rural, natural life to the urban, spiritual life.

Kin ® terrestrial (Adam) – vegetative (Noah) – animal (Abraham – Jacob) – [Egyptian bondage] – kindreds without genealogy (Moses – Joshua)

The people ® natural (First Temple) –superstitious [reforms of Josiah] – [Babylonian ñaptivity] –legal [Ezra – Second Temple] – beneficial [The New Testament].

Despite its conventionality, the scheme allows to single out those biblical times and countries, where the cult of nature reigned, which was correlated with the laws of the vegetative kingdom. Beginning from Adam, the patrimonial Tree of the Law grew completely in Babylon and Egypt. These are the two main ancient centers, where the Priests knew the astral Law in all its completeness, and under which influence the radical changes in religious views in many countries and lands took place. In the course of wars and under the influence of the missionaries the old traditions were broken, the other rituals and calendars were introduced, the new epochs were established.

According to the Scripture, the cult of nature spread in Israel after the exodus from Egypt. The daily service on the land of promise was performed by the Priests according to the laws and covenants, given by Moses, who had received them from the God on Mount Sinai. The hierarchy of priests, established by the Lawgiver was similar to that of Egypt both in its form and essence. The ordinances and rites, sacraments and immolations were connected mystically with the cult of Osiris, with the secret numbers of the sidereal calendar of Thoth. For about six centuries twelve kindreds of the children of Israel worshipped the natural Gods under the guidance of the Priests.

 The priests, doubtlessly, diligently observed traditions, ministered for the people in oak groves, on heights, worshipped stars and heavenly bodies. The tenacious memory of the priests firmly kept all obvious and secret canons of diverse services, therefore it is unlikely that they used the sacred scrolls to read the covenants and to update the calendar terms of seasons. The Moon showed time, and the Laws of Moses were inaccessible. They were hidden in the sacred ark, which, in spite of the fact that it was protected carefully, however, was not saved. In one of the battles with the Philistines the Israelites were defeated. The God's Ark was seized and the Book of the Law disappeared. Probably, it was burned down in Siloam, burnt by the enemies. The work of the first Lawgiver was kept only for 150 years, furthermore, the sacred Dekalogue of Moses was the scroll forbidden both for the Priests and for the readers from the people. No spiritual influence on the village communities of the children of Israel was then rendered by the  Pentateuch of Moses.

The miracle happened in 622 B.Ñ., when on the eighteenth year of his reign King Josiah sent Shaphan, the scribe, into the House of the Lord for the silver. It was the high priest Hilkiah who let the scribe know, that he had found the Book of the Law. We can say that the find returned the Book of the Law to the new life. However, everything which is new is disastrous for the old traditions. When he heard the words of the Book of the Law, King Josiah "rent his clothes". He understood, that the Covenants of God had not been fulfilled from the times of David. Being afraid of the wrath of God, Josiah decided to purge Judea and Jerusalem of all vileness and he made a start.

 When he was realizing his radical plans, Josiah completely liquidated the former cult. From the House of the Lord in Jerusalem he removed "all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven" (2 Ki.-23:4), he burned them and sent the Priests into retirement. The reform expanded quickly. Josiah ordered to destroy all heathen temples, to break the statues of idols, to cut down the sacred oak forests, to stab all the Priests and to burn their bones upon the altars. Created by Moses according to the Egyptian sample the ancient caste of the Priests ceased to exist.

The religious reform of King Josiah, and actually – a severe extermination of the Priests and the age-old belief, fixes an important moment of the legendary history. The adoration of the stones and the trees was eradicated. The sacred Oak was cut down. The epoch of the Tree of the Law was finished. A complete rupture with the ancient Egyptian tradition is also emphasized here. The Priests of Egypt created a complicated cult, the ideas of which are vividly expresses in the myth about Isis and Osiris. The service to the Gods was connected with the careful account of the course of time according to the calendar of the sage Thoth, therefore the Priests observed the celestial heavenly bodies unceasingly. Some part of astronomical knowledge was saved, probably, by the ecclesiastics of Israel, for they burned "incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and... round about Jerusalem", worshipped Ashtoreth and "burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven" (2 Ki.-23:5). The mass extermination of the Priests was not only the loss of a former cult, that had been created by Moses in the Sinai Desert. The experience of observation of heavenly bodies was lost also, the practice of ministering according to a customary calendar, the vestiges of the ancient astral knowledge disappeared.

Having broken the old belief, having cut down the oak groves, Josiah with all his strength tried to spread the belief in God "according to all the law of Moses" (2 Ki.-23:25). In Jerusalem they even celebrated the Passover, which had not been celebrated from the times of the Judges, and all the ritual was made "as it is written in the book of this ñovenant". But it was late. The bookish wisdom could not be inculcated quickly neither in superstitious villagers, nor in townspeople. It was impossible to revive the spirit of the Book of the Law of Sinai. For these wrongdoings the Lord in his wrath rejected Israel and the city of Jerusalem – the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar broke out, and after it the Babylonian captivity began.

We must notice, that Josiah was the first king, who appealed to the Lord "with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses". The words –"according to all the law" – have to be noted. The matter is that the God's Law was revealed in all its completeness to Moses on the Mount of Sinai. But the prophet, taking into account the realities, let the Priests know only a due part of the rules, necessary for the unification of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel in the Promised Land. The life of the farmers and cattle-breeders passed among the severe nature, the people had no time for the high spiritual aspirations. The Oak, oak groves and heathen temples, heights and mounts – are the signs of accessible tops of knowledge, the symbols of the period, the beginning of which was marked by the apparition of God to Moses in the flame of the blackthorn bush. The reform of Josiah marks the end, so to speak, of the natural, vegetative stage of the sacred history, the end of the superstitions and different beliefs, it outlines the transition from the simple imitation of the nature to the comprehensive perception of the Laws.

The similar symbolism was spread very widely and was known, we may say so, to all the Ancient World. So, according to the story by Plutarch, Romulus founded the future great city on the Palatine hill, where still were oak forests, and he planned it in the form of a hill, and he called it "Roma quadrata" (quadrangular Rome). It is necessary to note, that Romulus loved solemn rites, and offered sacrifices to the Gods near the trees, because his free youth had passed in the countryside. But when during the battle for the city he has struck down the King, he fulfilled the vow given the day before.

“To make his vow extremely pleasing to Jupiter and to afford an opportunity of  seeing a pleasant and merry sight to his compatriots, Romulus cut down a huge oak at his camp, trimmed it like a trophy, then fixed and hung up in a strict order all parts of the armour of the King, and he put on his festive clothes and decorated the undone hair with a wreath of laurels. Having heaved the trophy on to his right shoulder and supporting it in a direct position, he began singing a victory hymn and set out ahead of the troops”. Symbolism and reality make a colourful picture here. However in the kaleidoscope of events the idea is developed: for the urban way of life the new Temples and Laws are necessary, the time of adoration of the old Oaks passed.

According to Constantine Porphyrogenitus, in the 10th century the Kievan Russes, when they passed the rough waters on the Dnieper rapids, they held a thanksgiving service on the island of Khortitsa. In that safe place "Russes accomplish their immolations, because a huge oak (the tree of Peroun) grows there. They sacrifice the alive roosters, they stick the arrows around, and the others put the pieces of bread, meat". The similar rituals were fulfilled not only around the trees. There are ancient sanctuaries everywhere in which the role of the sacred Oak is performed already by Peroun himself, in the form of wooden or stone graven image located in the center of the circle arranged there.

In Eastern Europe the epoch of adoration of the Oak was finished in the first millenium. The ambassadorial mission of  Constantine the Philosopher to the land of the Khazars, performed by him in the year 860 is indicative in this respect. On his way there he visited the Crimean city of Chersonesus. There, in the extreme south of the Old Russian land, the future founder of the Slavonic alphabet quite  unexpectedly for himself found "the Gospel and the Psalter, written in the Russian language, and he found a man, who spoke that language and he had a conversation with him". The fact is remarkable also because the Philosopher not only simply saw the unfamiliar letters, but he closely distinguished them, i.e. he studied "the vocal and consonant letters", and soon he began to read and to translate himself.

The legendary event disturbs the historical feeling of all the russophiles, because it stimulates the statement, that long before the creation of the Ñyrillic alphabet in the Russian land there were their own letters already, and in different places people lived who were able to read, to count and to write. It is indicative, that the validity of such judgments was confirmed by Constantine himself. And in the  most unexpected way – by his further actions. The Philosopher knew perfectly well, that if there the new language had appeared, especially – the Gospel and the Psalter in the Russian language, it was a sign of the new Law, which would become stronger in this land. It meant that the old, incorrect law should be broken, and such an act would be in accordance with the wishes of the Lord. The Byzantine messenger  acts in the spirit of Holy Scripture everywhere. After returning again to the Crimea from the land of the Khazars, where he fulfilled his mission successfully, Constantine, already on his own initiative departs to the pagan settlements. He is convinced: it is necessary to clear the way to the new Law, which is rendered in the Russian language. What does the Philosopher do? Extensive Life-Story of Constantine-Cyril says:

"There was in the land of the local tribe an oak which grew together with a cherry-tree, and under it they offered sacrifices, naming it Alexander, and no females were  allowed to approach it, or to make sacrifices. And when the Philosopher heard about it, he set off to them sparing no pains. And, standing among them, he said: "Hellenes were  sent to eternal torments, worshipping [as the god] the sky and the earth, so large and kind creations. And you, who worship such a wretched creation, as a tree prepared for the fire, how you can avoid the eternal fire?"

 They answered: "Not now we began doing that, but (this custom) from the fathers have accepted, and due to it all our requests are fulfilled, and most of all there are often rains. And how shall we do the thing, that nobody of us dares to do? If somebody dares to do it, then he will behold his death, and he will see no rain up to his very demise".

The Philosopher answered them: "The God speaks about you in the Books, how you can reject him? Brothers, get to know the God who has created you. Here is the Gospel of the God's Òew Testament, in which you were baptized". And so by the sweet words he coaxed them, and ordered them to cut down the tree and to burn it. Their elder bowed and came up to kiss the Gospel, and so did all the others. And having taken white candles from the Philosopher, with singing they went to the tree, and, having taken an axe, the Philosopher stroke the tree thirty three times, and he ordered everybody to cut it down together with the root and to burn it. During the same night there was a rain from the God. And they praised the God with great pleasure, and the God rejoiced at that a lot". So, the Gospel written in the Russian language received common recognizing, the new Law was established. Constantine the Philosopher makes the first step on the long way of christianizing of Russia. There was a new life ahead, and the former life had passed. The prophetic sign of this fact was the old Oak, which was cut down together with the alien cherry-tree.

We shall turn once again to Holy Scripture. The reforms of Josiah ruined the old  belief, and it was not possible to fire the people with the new one. The Babylonian captivity began, the covenants and regulations of Moses, the Lawmaker, disappeared. Due to new circumstances a new Law was necessary, in order to unite and to release the fellow-countrymen from the captivity, to return the Children of Israel to the land of promise. But where could such a Law be taken from? The creators of the Myth, certainly, knew, that only the Lord could lead out from the dead-lock, by means of giving revelation to a new prophet. Ezra became that prophet. It is significant, that on the eve of meeting with the Lord Ezra was quietly "sitting under an oak". It was here that he received the order from above to create the new Book of the Law and to build the Second Temple, because the First Temple was destroyed, and the Law, given to Moses, – according to the words of  Ezra, addressed to the Lord – "Your law is burnt, so nobody knows, what was done by you or what should be done by them" (3 Ezra -14:21. The Russian Orthodox Bible).

 The Oak was not sacred for Ezra any more, it was only the large tree, in the shadow of which he stayed, waiting for the Lord to come. But the meaning of the ancient symbol was known to him – the Tree of the Babylonian-Egyptian Law – the sign of natural vegetative life, that was deprived of true spirituality, the time of which had passed already. Certainly, the Most High God gave the revelation and the new Law was written. "94 books were written in forty days. And when forty days were over, the Most High God said: the first ones, which you have written, put them open, so that they could be read by both worthy and unworthy, but keep in order the last 70 to pass them to the wise of the people; because they are a conductor of reason, a source of wisdom and a river of knowledge. And I have done so" (3 Ezra 14:46-48. The Russian Orthodox Bible). And after King Cyrus had released the Jews from the Babylonian captivity in 538 B.C., Ezra fulfilled the second order of the Lord –  he built the Second Temple in Jerusalem.

According to the Talmud, it is necessary to consider the deeds of the two Lawmakers equally important: "Ezra deserved to receive the Torah for Israel, but he was anticipated by Moses". In this formula it is possible to see the recognition of the fact that the ancient Torah actually has two sources: the Chaldean and the Egyptian ones. Besides, it expresses various stages of the single Law. The covenants and Laws of Moses were intended for the villagers, the people and tribes of the natural way of life. Ezra developed and introduced the bookish wisdom, basically – for the literate townspeople.

However, despite all the difference, all the dissimilarity of exterior manifestations, these Laws are united essentially, because they express different stages of the sacred history, different levels of spiritual exaltation. We must note also, that usually even the most archaic myths are connected with some mysterious numbers or calendar dates. Mystical numbers and signs are the major elements of legends and tales, they indicate the secret connection of events with the higher Law – the Logos. The roots of the doctrine about the Logos ascend to the earliest period of Ancient Egypt, where this universal geometric Law was developed by the Priests-astrologers.  

Roots of the Oak

We pay a lot of attention to the Oak, because this Tree of the Law is a  great symbol of the epoch which passed a long time ago, the mighty  figure of the Tree expressed deep knowledge of the ancients about the   Nature of the Earth and the Stars. At the same time, it is a sign of the Limit, where the cult life of trees terminates. The Oak is destroyed together with the Gods. It means that those Priests-ministers dye, who prayed at the Trees and offered sacrifices to the sidereal Divinities, and together with them the astral Wisdom is lost and forgotten. The new Gods established their authority in Heaven and on the Earth. It is always painful and difficult to overcome a fatal Limit, it is a heavy wound for the old world, and a healing blow - for the new one. As it was stated above, the Oak was cut down, when the first Signs and Letters appeared, when writing originated.

This idea was expressed in legends and tales from time immemorial. Maybe, it was given in the most laconic and bright form in the Myth about the self-sacrifice of Odin – the creator of the Runic writing.

I know, I hung
In the branches in the wind
for nine long nights,
pierced with a spear,
devoted to Odin
as a sacrifice to myself
in the tree,
Whose roots are hidden
In the unknown bowels.
Nobody fed,
Nobody gave me a drink,
I gazed upon the ground,
I raised  the runes,
with a groan I raised them,
And from the tree I fell down.

Odin – the legendary warrior and the priest - apparently, knew very well, what mission he had to fulfill. As it is obvious from the northern chronicles, that the leader of the Asian tribe of Aesir, in the first century of Christian era brought the tribe from the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus to the North of Europe. He came from the Black Sea to Russia, where he left one of his sons as a ruler; he did the same thing  in Saxony and in the land of Franks. Then he set off to Denmark, where his fifth son was recognized as a ruler, and therefrom – to Sweden, where the local king, having given honours to the extraordinary wanderer, initiated him into his Passion plays. It was here that Odin took his name and ruled. He made the new code of the laws and he started the sacred Passion plays. He founded a priestly clan of the 12 Drottars (Druids?), who performed secret services, administered justice and executed the  predictions of destiny as the prophets.

To a certain extent, the mission of Odin is in conformity with the mission of Moses, – both of them give the new Priests to the tribes, the   new laws and services, so that with the help of rituals and passion plays to spiritualize the life, to unite the forest peoples, hunters and farmers. It is impossible to exclude, that their doctrines are rooted in the common source. Egypt is the center of the most ancient science.  It may be here, that for the first time the initial notions about the  creation of the World from the Unity, about space and time, about the precession and the calendar were perceived and deeply developed. In the prehistoric darkness the sources of the discovery of the Logos are hidden, which universal geometry and the secret Numbers penetrate the revelations of the ancient Priests. In all its completeness this secret Law is embodied in the Sphynx and Pyramids at El Giza, in the  Egyptian temples, in the cult of Isis and Osiris, in the mysterious calendar of the Thrice-Great Sage Thoth.

There are reasons to suppose, that at one time there had been a universal planetary Center in the Ancient World. Maybe, an old cataclysm destroyed the prehistoric civilization. Rescueing the most valuable - i.e. the sacred Knowledge, the cohort of the Sages moved into the delta of the Nile. When the natural element has calmed down a little, the Priests of Egypt continued their cherished work - to introduce and to spread the doctrine about the stars and the Gods into the different lands and continents.

 In ancient Memphis the Priests peered not only into the heavenly heights. In the circle of their interests there were the near-by and far-away lands, with the natives of which the educational and missionary contacts were maintained. In the temples of Memphis and other cities they had trained and initiated into their secrets the messengers, the seekers after the truth from the Northern, the Eastern and the Western countries beyond the sea many centuries before the visitors from the Greek settlements appeared at the Pyramids. For different territories the Priests-Astronomers created special calendar systems. Taking into account natural life they connected their doctrine with the local traditions, introducing the cult of the sidereal Rulers, teaching the vegetative people - the collectors of fruit and farmers, the hunters and cattle-breeders - to work on earth according to the God's will, which is manifested in natural changes and signs, in celestial omens and planetary cycles of heavenly Bodies. With the help of signs, drawings and figures, Numbers and Words the Egyptian Priests wrote down the  new cults and rituals, adapted for the assimilation by the peoples of both settled and nomadic ways of life of different cultures.

From the Center of Wisdom the messengers went throughout the world. The faithful ministers brought astral knowledge to the distant countries, spread the universal Law. The legendary history proclaims the mission of Osiris to be civilizing. From the banks of the  Nile the Egyptian Priest Moses has withdrawn his fellow-countrymen. The doctrine of Odin about the Universe, his runes and passion plays are conformable to many signs and ordinances, that existed in the Mediterranean countries. The geography of the ancient Egyptian influences is extensive. The traces of theology and cosmogony of the Egyptian Priests could be seen in the American Pyramids and in the  legends about Quetzalcoatl, in the Mayan and Aztek calendar of the Fifth Sun, in the myths of the Andes about the God Viracocha, in Caaba, the celestial stone from Mecca, in the stone calendar-observatory of Stonehenge. The universal Logos of Egypt is quaintly connected with the astral symbolics in the East and the West, in the North and the South.

Certainly, such statements seem hypothetic, however, in our opinion, there is a good reason for them. And not only from the historical and legendary point of view. The mystical Logos – the Law of ancient theology and astrology – can serve an obvious confirmation of that. The essence of this universal logical and mathematical Law is explained by us in the treatise Mystery of the Torah, in the first book of the triad called  Wisdom of the Myth. Here we want to show how this theory can be applied to the structures located rather far from each other and which are completely not similar: i.e. the Great Pyramid at El Giza and the stone rings of Stonehenge – the Great Sanctuary of the Priests-Druids. These masterpieces of ancient architecture were created according to the principles of astral theology. An important link of it is the Oak – the natural symbol of exact time. This will be discussed further on.

About the English Book

But to begin with we shall tell you about the book, that urged us on this rather unusual analysis. Doubtlessly, a high pleasure was experienced by everybody, who read Stonehenge Decoded. The book by Gerald Hawkins and John White was twice published in Russian, in 1973 and 1984, and disappeared from the shop counters at once. It happened so, that we have got two identical copies in our home library. And now, looking on the traces, left on the shabby pages, it is possible to say that they have been in many places and were read in different time, but always with the increased interest and they did their readers a lot of good.

While working over the theme of our study and following an age-old rule - "to read and to count" - we made a lot of marks, notes, calculations on the margins too. The material we studied brought us to the conclusion, that the mystery of Stonehenge and the cult of the Druids were solved only partially, that it is necessary to consider the ancient Sanctuary and the astral symbolics of the Oak in the light of the Logos as well.

It is necessary to mark, that the authors of Stonehenge Decoded themselves indicate an incompleteness of the research. The stone circles of Stonehenge are a sacred place as well as an observatory, and a peculiar chronological machine. The scientists have convincingly proved, that already in the neolithic epoch this structure was specially created in order to fix the rises and sets of the Sun and the Moon on the days of the summer and winter solstice, as well as at the vernal and autumnal equinox. The observatory made it possible to control the rotation of lunisolar eclipses, and even to predict their approach according to the cycles of the Saros. So, the computer of the stone age worked with a high degree of precision, as it was shown in Stonehenge Decoded. The book has an interesting and detailed interpretation of historical facts and legends revealing the epoch and the process of the construction of this extraordinary structure. But, as it happens quite often, lucid answers evoke obscure questions.

We became interested in the geometry of Stonehenge. Why are the stones of the Sanctuary located in circles? What prompted the acceptåd dimensions? Which of the two underlies the complex - an acñuãate theoretical calculation or a sheer experiment? Was the stone machine used for the calendar time reckoning? The questions are not new, but we shall try to answer them. We shall use the book by G.Hawkins and J.White as the main source of information about Stonehenge, and first of all because the exact sizes of the plan of the Sanctuary are indicated in it. We recommend everybody, who wishes to be acquainted with our research, which stand – we shall not conceal it – rather far from the modern scientific views, we recommend them to read Stonehenge Decoded, too. However, the key to the highest secrets of the Sanctuary and the Oak of the Druids is concealed in the architectonics of the Great Pyramid.