from Late Latin eremita, from Greek eremites, literally "person of the desert," from eremia "a solitude, an uninhabited region, a waste," from erémos "uninhabited, empty, desolate, bereft," from PIE *erem- "to rest, be quiet."
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness [erēmon έρημον] to be tempted [ peirasthēnai or "tested"] by the devil. Mt. 4:1
". . . the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned."From that time on [*after his testing in the wilderness] Jesus began to preach, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." Mt 4:16-17
"And the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us . . ." John 1:14
mouth is "from Old English muþ "oral opening of an animal or human; opening of anything, door, gate," so a mouth could be an opening to anything, such as a mouth of a cave or a tomb. Mouth is from a Germanic source, also the source of Danish mund, Dutch mond, German Mund, all meaning "mouth."
A tomb, which is ultimately from Greek tymbos "mound, burial mound," is just a mound or tumulus, from Latin tumulus "hillock, heap of earth, mound." And such a mound is a mund / mond, i.e., a "mouth" or opening which could be seen as a door or gate to the afterlife.
In many religious traditions, such as in ancient Egyptian, there was a journey to take (to the Hall of Judgment), and a trial or test to go through (weighing of the heart) directly following ones death. So a burial mound could be seen as a burial "mouth" or a gate or door to a place of testing, the "wilderness" or "desert" between this life and the next.
There was a journey to go through before one could Rest In Peace. And interestingly this journey began in Restau which was the resta "resting place, burial place"(Old Saxon), rasta in (Old High German). The necropolis in ancient Egypt, sometimes referred to as Igaret [Igrt] the 'silent land' was located in the sandy desert region of the Giza plateau (erémia), the area anciently referred to as Rostau / Restau [transliterated], translating to something like "mouth of the passages." The phonogram for 'r' being a "mouth" hieroglyph, which as a determinative carried the meaning "mouth, spell."
Or place of 'openings'; a mouth being an opening. For example we say the "mouth of the cave" to refer to an opening in the rock.
Ancient Rostau translates as 'mouth of passages' about Giza. In ancient texts, Rostau was intrinsically linked with the Mound of Creation. This signifies that the Ancient Egyptians saw Giza as an "Axis-Munde" of the physical world. ancientegyptianfacts.com - Ancient Egyptian Axis
Seker /Sokar (in the later kingdoms who was conflated with Ptah and Osiris, two other funerary gods, and called Ptah-Sokar-Osiris) was the god associated with the Giza Plateau known as 'Ruler of the Silent Land' (hqa igrt), i.e., the necropolis. Another of his epithets being 'He of Restau.' As a falcon god we can imagine him as one calling[Hebrew qara] / crying (or kawing) out in the wilderness.
A voice of one crying[kaw-ra] in the desert[midbar]: Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the wilderness the paths of our God. Is 40:3, Hebrew
During the fourth and fifth hours of the Amduat book, which recounts the solar boat's nocturnal journey through the netherworld, the boat traverses Rostau, the "Land of Sokar who is upon his sand," a desert through which the solar boat travels by transforming itself into a double-headed serpent which lights the way through the otherwise impenetrable darkness by breathing fire. —Sokar / Seker, Henedology - Philosophy and Theology
In Hebrew midbar is "mouth" also meaning "wilderness, uninhabited land, desert, south (direction of the sun's heat), speech." It is interesting that the sun, Ra, was depicted as being swallowed each night by the goddess Nut traveling the perilous journey of the 12 hours of the night to be reborn again each morning. So this midbar "mouth" was literally the entrance to this "wilderness" or "desert," the place of testing.
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Jonah tried to flee from God telling him to preach against the wickedness of the inhabitants of Nineveh and ended up alone in belly of a "whale" κήτος kétos "a sea-monster, huge fish, whale," said to be probably from base χάσμα chasma "gap, gulf, chasm," from caskó "to yawn." And what yawns but a mouth?
So Jonah went into a mouth, perhaps we could say it was a "mouth" (R) crossing (χ), i.e., R + taw, or Ro(stau), to be tested for three days in a desolate place, or the "belly of the fish". Interestingly enough the ichthys symbol has the components of 'r,' the mouth hieroglyph + taw = 👄χ. So in this sense we could equate the belly of the fish to Rostau.
Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish, saying,
"I called out to the LORD, out of my distress, and he answered me;out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas,and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over meThen I said, 'I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again lookupon your holy temple.'The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me;weeds were wrapped around my head ate the roots of the mountainsI went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever;yet you brought me up from the pit, O LORD my God.When my life was fainting away, I remembered the LORD,and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple.'Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love,But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you;what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the LORD!"And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land. Jonah 2:1-10
Pinnochio also went into the mouth of the whale, Monstro, the great sea monster.
These chasms are frightening places of testing, i.e., erémos, which can be related to a mouth / opening, and the "wilderness" erémos of the Bible can be related to "mouth" through the Hebrew word midbar .
The pyramids of the Giza plateau are called tombs, whether they were meant as burial chambers for Pharaohs or not, they may have been used as places of testing or chamber of solitude, maybe replicating a kind of death or dark night of the soul, or journey inward.
For what purpose? To be made perfect, pure, refined?
A pyramid is, two dimensionally, an upright triangle which is the alchemical symbol for "fire" 🜂. Perhaps the pyramids are purifying, "spiritual fire" machines. The word the ancient Egyptians used for the structures of the pyramids was 'mr' mer / meru. Written with the 'm' owl 🦉 hieroglyph + 'r' mouth 👄.
That does seem like a place to go to gain wisdom, doesn't it? It's not necessarily easy to gain wisdom though.
It can be trying, or kind of myrrh-y, a "was bitter," a "harsh, sharp, cutting" kind of learning experience.
At first, Wisdom will test you
with her commands,
and you will walk in fear
along twisting pathways.
Her discipline
will bring suffering
until you are truly faithful.
But then she will return
straight to you,
bringing happiness
and telling her secrets.
But if you wander away,
she will let you go off
to your doom. — Sirach 4:17-19
The English word pyramid is said to come from the Greek pyramis(plural pyramides) which was also a the word for a type of pyros πυρος "wheat" cake, called pyramis, possibly fashioned to resemble a mr (mer) "pyramid," but more specifically, it would have been to resemble the cap stone (which is a small pyramidal shape itself) of the pyramids, called in Greek a Pyramidion, or in ancient Egyptian, a Benben, which was a type of the primordial mound of creation, so a mountain of sorts, i.e., a "projection," from PIE *men- (2) "to project."
But mountains can be monuments as well. Such as Mount Zion, Mount Moria, and Mount Sinai, which call to mind God's covenant with Israel, and there is Mount Meru of the Hindu, Jain and Buddhist cosmology,"considered to be the center of all the physical, metaphysical and spiritual universes." Monument (n.) is:
From Latin monumentum "a monument, memorial structure, statue; votive offering; tomb; memorial record," literally "something that reminds". . . form of root *men (1) "to think."
And to think is to contemplate . . . something one does near the temple "a building for religious practice." To think (which seems to mainly happen between the temples [of ones head]) is also the cause of knowing or "to know" which is daath in Hebrew (there was the tree of daath, which turned out to be the tree that brought death to Adam and Eve), which is from the word yada, which can sometimes refer to biblical "knowing," i.e., sexual relations, or, making love. Not unlike another ancient Egyptian meanings for mr [as well as the pyramid], mr, the hoe hieroglyph had the meaning "love, loosen the soil, till."
. . . tilling or plowing, which is a euphemism for sex, or "knowing", or seeding(in-graining).
My vulva, the horn,
The Boat of Heaven
Is full of eagerness like the young moon.
My untilled land lies fallow.
As for me, Inanna,
Who will plow my vulva?
Who will plow my high field?
Who will station the ox there? —from Inanna Queen of Heaven and Earth; Her stories and Hymns from Sumer
However, you have to be just as careful with the seeds of wisdom as you do with the "seed" of procreation. You don't want to get pregnant (seeded) and have to give birth through the head like Zeus, who being pregnant with Athena (via Metis), developed a splitting headache, and had to have his head split open with an ax or wedge, i.e., chiseled (mr), by Hephaestus (Vulcan) the god of fire [pyr] 🜂, Mr Heat Miser, in order to give birth to Athena (Wisdom🦉). Hephaestus axed his [Zeus'] mundi. Because Zeus had swallowed (through his mouth / opening 👄) the goddess whose name means "advice, wisdom, council; cunning, skill, craft," i.e., Metis, in the physical, which then proceeded to create in him a metaphysical crisis. What a mind f*ck!
But back to bread cakes . . . the ancient Egyptians apparently did prepare cone shaped bread loaves called benben (so similar to the pyramidis "wheat cakes" of the Greeks) which would have had religious significance as offerings to the gods.
And associated withe the Benben (the primordial mound represented at small scale), was the Bennu bird.
- The Bennu Bird represented the rebirth of Osiris and the overcoming of death.
- It also portrayed the daily resurrection of the sun and the power of Ra.
- Its role in the creation and the existence of life was highly important, making it a symbol of creation.
- The Bennu Bird was also a symbol of regeneration, much like the phoenix who was said to die and be reborn from the ashes. —Symbolsage, Bennu Bird - Egyptian Mythology
Benben and Bennu both sound similar to other words we use for certain types of bread, such as bun and beignet. Bennu is said to be related to Egyptian word wbn "to rise," "rise in brilliance," or "to shine," which is another thing that bread does; it rises and is life giving.
Give us this day our daily bread Mt. 6:11
Now the Festival of Unleavened Bread [matszot / matszah], called Passover, was approaching . . . Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. Jesus sent Peter and John saying, "Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover." . . . He replied, "As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, . . . And he took the bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance [*therefore as a monument to, or in memory] of me." Lk. 22:1;
from PIE *péh wr ("fire"), like πύρ (pûr, "fire"); it meant "spelt" due to the grains having to be dried on a fire, then the word was transferred onto the popular wheat.
So the spelt (pyros) is something that is dried, perhaps by the heat of fire (pyr), and stored in a granary, which could be in a cone or pyramidal shape, or as in the Buddhist tradition, a mound (bun) shape, like stupas, from Sanskrit "heap," which are places of meditation (so are therefore medicinal), so again the building calls to mind the primordial mound.
There is a tradition of these two types of places being associated, or fashioned off of each other, namely, granaries and temples (which are sometimes also tombs). Many early gods and goddesses were themselves agricultural in nature such as Osiris.
Osiris was also a god of agriculture. This may seem rather strange as he was dead, and technically infertile. However, it actually makes a lot of sense when you consider the death and rebirth inherent in the agricultural cycle of planting and harvesting grain. Every harvest, the god was symbolically killed and his body broken on the threshing floor, but after the inundation life would return to the land and the crips would grow again. —Osiris- Ancient Egypt Online
In biblical Greek apothéke is "a place for putting away; hence a storehouse, granary, barn," from apo "away" + thēkē "receptacle." However, in German apotheke is "pharmacy." Pharmacy is from:
late 14c., farmacie, "a medicine that rids the body of an excess of humors (except blood);" also "treatment with medicine; theory of a treatment which medicine," from Old French farmacie "a purgative" (13c.) and directly from Medieval Latin pharmacia, from Greek pharmakeia "a healing or harmful medicine, a healing or poisonous herb; a drug, poisonous potion; magic (potion), dye, raw material for physical or chemical processing."
A pharmacist is an apothecary or a chemist, therefore we might say an alchemist of sorts, since the word chemist comes from the word chymist meaning "alchemist," from alchemy:
. . . from Medieval Latin alkimia, from Arabic al-kimiya, from Greek khemeioa (found c.300 C.E. in a decree of Diocletian against "the old writings of the Egyptians"), all meaning "alchemy," and of uncertain origin.
Perhaps from an old name for Egypt (Khemia, literally "land of black earth," found in Plutarch), or from Greek khymatos "that which is poured out," from khein "to pour," from PIE root *gheu- "to pour." [OE]
and,
Alchemy and alchemist are in fact older words than chemistry and chemist in English . . . Their secretive experiments, usually involving heat and the mixing of liquids, led to the development of pharmacology and the rise of the modern chemistry. . .
The long route to English for alchemist began with the Greek word chēmia, which probably came from the word chyma ('fluid'), derived from the verb chein, meaning "to pour." It then passed from Latin to French before coming to English. Some other words derived from Arabic also retain the al- in English, such as algebra, algorithm, and alcohol; in fact, the transformative liquid that was constantly being sought through experimentation by alchemists is another word with the Arabic al- prefix: elixir. Merriam-Webster Dictionary
* when transliterating from Greek to English sometimes people use different spellings for the same word, such as 'khymatos' or 'chymatos' (from the Latin spelling), 'khein' or 'chein,' so we have 'chemist' instead of 'khemist' or 'khymist', from the Greek χυμεία. The chi being χ and not either a 'k' or a 'c'.
This second possible etymological origin given, namely, "that which is poured out," doesn't seem to make a lot of sense unless we relate it back to the fact that the ancient Egyptian word for "black" is km and their name for the area, Km.t, Kemet (not Egypt), and this name given to their land referred to the quality of its soil being fertile, medicinal / pharmakeia even, life giving, which characteristic was caused by the annual inundation of the Nile.
In ancient Egypt, the water bearer's jar[*i.e., Khnum's] was said to cause the spring overflow[*which was the waters of the Nile "poured out"] of the Nile when it was dipped into the river. space.com, Aquarius
Khnum was the god of the source of the Nile, the giver of life, Khnum was the original alchemist (i.e., a person who transforms or creates something through seemingly magical process), the Magic Man, whose hieroglyph was a jug with handle, khnum / ḫnm),
Khnum was the water bearer [whom we might be reminded of when Jesus speaks of the "man carrying a jar of water"],
who created humans on his potter's wheel from clay, or perhaps we could say, who transmuted the dust / clay / adamah [compare to adom "red"and dam "blood"] / fertile ground / black earth, into humans, perhaps from km "khem / kem" clay, or fertile "black" clay? And if black takes its name as a color (km) from the fact that it is the color of fertility, that is, rich, life-giving, full of nutrients, then this all start to make a lot of sense. The black land, Kemet, is the land made "black", i.e., fertile, by the "poring out" of the Nile by this god Khnum, because it was the annual inundation of the Nile which caused the land to be fertile.
PIE *ghu-to- "poured," from root *gheu- "to pour, pour a libation" (source of Greek khein "to pour," also in the phrase khute gaia "poured earth,"referring to a burial mound. . . [OE]
Which brings us back to Giza, or shall we say, Gooza, the necropolis (in the land of Km.t [Egypt]), as being the place of burial mounds "poured earth," or alchemised earth, places of transformation (alchemy), and hopefully specifically healing transformation (farmacie[pharmacy]; medicine; apothecary), and why it all makes sense that burial mounds, temples, and pyramids often have connections with words, concepts, and ideas having to do with grain and granaries (apothéke), becuse of the important and life-giving (even medicinal) role which bread plays in the life of humankind and its allegorical connection to the ultimate remedy for ill health, i.e, resurrection from the dead.
Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Jn.12:24 (ESV)
However, the necropolis (Giza) of ancient Egypt (Km.t "the black land"◼️) was actually called the "red land" 🛑 dsrt, desheret, which was the desert, the wilderness, from dsr, desher, meaning "red." The desert was an infertile, dry, and barren landscape (a good place to preserve bodies / mummies). Red was associated with things such as chaos , danger 🚫, fire 🜂, violence, anger 😡, death and blood🩸. Red was considered to be either protective and supportive, or considered unlucky and dangerous, such as being associated with the god of chaos, confusion, storms, wind and foreign lands, Set (who was a trickster god),
who defended the bark of Ra (the solar bark) on his nightly journey though the Duat (underword), and defeated the serpent Apep / Gk. Apophis, the embodiment of chaos, . . . so, red is not unlike pharmakeia ⚕︎ "a healing or harmful medicine." Sometimes a medicine is a poison, and sometimes medicine can be used to heal and other times it can be used to harm. But you have to be careful, when you play with fire 🔥 you might get burned.
However, perhaps the most surprising application of these materials is actually medicinal. The Ebers Papyrus, one of the oldest and most important medical texts from ancient Egypt (dated 1550 BC), prescribes ochre clays as a cure for any intestinal or eye problems. —Colors of Ancient Egypt - Red
Jesus is said to have cured a man blind from birth by making a clay and applying it to the man's eyes:
AND Jesu passing by, saw a man, who was blind from his birth:And his disciples asked him: Rabbi, who hath sinned, this man, or his parents, that he should be born blind?Jesus answered: Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents; but that the works of God should be made manifest [*phaneroó, from phainó "bring to light"] in him.I must work the works of him that sent me, whilst it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the worldWhen he had said these things, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and spread it on his eyes,And said to him: Go, wash in the pool of Siloe [Siloam], which is interpreted, Sent. He went therefore, and washed, and he came seeing. John 9:1-7 DRB
The pool of Siloam was a freshwater pool to the south east of present day Jerusalem, "The Lower Pool or 'Old Pool' was historically known as Birket el Hamra, literally 'the red pool'"[wiki]. It isn't clear why this pool has that name, but it makes some sense if we equate "red" with medicine. Medicine which is from Latin medicinia "the healing art, medicine; remedy," ultimately from PIE root *med- "to take appropriate measures."
And in keeping with the dual nature of medicine, this man whom Jesus healed did not receive this healing without cosequence.
They brought to the Pharisees the man whom had been born blind. Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man's eyes was the Sabbath. Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. "He put mud on my eyes," the man replied, "and I washed, and now I see." Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath." But others asked, "How can a sinner perform such signs? So they were divided. They turned again to the blind man, "What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened." The man replied, "He is a prophet. . . . To this they replied, "You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us! And they threw him out. John 9:13-17, 34
So too is it with the "medicine" of the desert, of The Hermit, of the ones who seek solitude, soul searching, contemplation. When one person really turns inward to find and heal themselves it can often end up wreaking havoc with their other previously stable (*stable* not necessarily healthy) relationships.
"I came to cast fire [pyr] on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. . ." Luke 12:49-51ESV
People are mirrors for one another, and if one "mirror" becomes better / healthier/ more enlightened, then it reflects back to others more clearly each their own true selves. So to a person with a lot of ugly / unattractive stuff / unconscious shadow material, these qualities will be reflected back to them even more acutely, sharply, and harshly 🜂🔥⚡️🌞 through a "healthy" mirror than through a dim, murky, dirty mirror. This is why sometimes good people get so much hate and vitriol heaped upon them for imaging / reflecting the truth. Sometimes the truth hurts, and we have a tendency to blame the messenger. Think of taking a selfie of yourself with a filter on. If your camera always gave a filtered image of yourself back to you, you might be mad if it started giving you the real image, i.e., the truth.
The Hermit is card number IX. Nine is a number of perfection of a certain kind, generally a perfection that is obtained through sustained effort. So nine is a number signifying a completion of a process, or a gestation, the ending of a cycle, transition and transformation. 9 is the last of the singular digits before the cycle starts over at 10. A human pregnancy, which is a kind of hermitage for development, has a typical gestation period of nine months. Odin hung suspended on the world tree for nine days and nights,
During his sacrificial actions, he saw visions and received secret wisdom. The magical knowledge he gained made him able to cure the sick, calm storms, turn weapons against his attackers, make women fall in love, and render dangerous troll women harmless often just with a look.
And Jesus hung on the cross, until he "gave up his spirit" in the ninth hour (from sunrise[i.e., 6am-3pm]),
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, "Eli. Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken [deserted, abandoned] me?" Mt. 27:46 (ESV)
Solitude of the wilderness / desert has to do with testing and testing has to do with perfection. Testing proves an object and makes sure it is pure. All the dross gets burned away.
from Greek mania madness, frenzy; enthusiasm, inspired frenzy; mad passion, fury," related to mainesthai "to rage, go mad," mantis "seer,"menos "passion, spirit," all of uncertain origin, perhaps from PIE *mnyo-, suffixed form of root *men- (1) "to think". . .
I remember whenI remember, I remember when I lost my mindThere was something so pleasant about that placeEven your emotions have an echo, in so much spaceAnd when you're out there without a careYeah, I was out of touchBut it wasn't because I didn't know enoughI just knew too muchDoes that make me crazy?Does that make me crazy?Does that make me crazy?Possibly
—Crazy, Gnarls Barkley
But as the Mad Hatter says, "All the best people are."
And you're gonna die anyway (that is when you are taken into the desert by force / into the mouth of the grave / through the final door), so you might as well be prepared.
The Hermit is preparing.
![[wiki]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pool_of_Siloam#/media/File:Birket_Hamra.jpg){kind=link}