3- The Encounter and the Language of Symbols

To further explore this now well-known Enigma on the Martian sands, let us for the moment presume that it is indeed an ancient artifact and ask the obvious: "What does it mean?"

How do we encounter, how do we regard, this obviously primordial relic -- and what keys does it hold to our human multidimensional Universe? What can this Face presume to tell us about our own (if it is real ) extraordinary Past?

Here, prior to actually going to Cydonia, surprisingly terrestrial symbolism seems to hold the major key. As we have outlined in prior sections of this work, just as in our own past Art has come replete with symbols that told the myths of peoples, so too, there appear to be familiar human symbols inherent in the alien Face on Mars.

Could it be that there is a shared vocabulary of the psyche, that somehow transcends the otherwise immense distances of space and time between these two "unconnected" planets? Or, is this the proof of some extraordinary, ancient human contact between what built this Memorial upon the Martian Sands and us on Earth? And, how does this shared language of remarkably familiar symbols affect our own visceral response to this ancient, brooding Monument?

The Brookings Report warned over forty years ago that the religious right would likely feel extremely threatened and react negatively to any confirmed extraterrestrial artifacts. Yet what Brookings’ experts couldn’t anticipate was the actual response in the collective to seeing a familiar symbol on another planet -- to confirmation of the features of a Lion in the latest NASA image of the Face, and the deep religious roots -- in at least three major faiths -- for that interpretation. Much to the amazement of almost everyone in the Mars research camp, many from the religious sector are now enthusiastically embracing this potential alien artifact -- the Face on Mars -- as a sign foretold in both the Old and New Testaments.

Ezekiel Chapter 1: 10
As for the likeness of their faces, each had the face of a man in front; the four had the face of a lion on the right side, the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and the fourth had the face of an eagle at the back.
 

Ezekiel Chapter 10: 14
And every one had four faces: the first face was the face of the cherub, and the second face was the face of a man, and the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.

Ezekiel Chapter 41: 19
the face of a man toward the palm tree on the one side, and the face of a young lion toward the palm tree on the other side. They were carved on the whole temple round about.

THE LION

The strongest reference to the lion in Christianity is the "Lion of Judah", a symbol for Christ that marks the Second Coming.

Jesus, the central figure of Christianity, had a lineage directly connected to "the House of David" -- the first King of the tribe of Judah (Israel).

"Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s children shall bow down before you. Judah is a lion’s whelp, the scepter shall not depart from Judah."

(Genesis 49:8-10)

Christians, like the Egyptians had mixed messages about the lion -- alternately connecting it with God or the Devil, depending on the context.

Sekmet by Ragen Mendenhall
 

The symbolic nature of the lion in Egypt, like that of many cats, was highly ambivalent. It represented not only the living power of the Sun in its identification with the solar deity Ra, but also was identified with ’Death and the Afterlife’ because of its simultaneous association with Osiris, ruler of the underworld; the lion was believed to guard the spirit realm, ruled by Osiris.

Widely appropriated later on in Egypt as a guardian figure, and linked with female deities as the personification of fierce and protective maternity, the lion was sometimes depicted as the lion-headed Egyptian goddess Sekmet, who traditionally guarded against disaster and disease.

by Phoenix and Arabeth
 

The lion’s mythical bravery and associated strength made it a guardian of the underworld in Egyptian and in (subsequent) Greek mythology. Lions protected the souls of the dead by frightening away evil sprits, and guarded the living by keeping the shades (ghosts) of the deceased within their tombs.

This mythological association with Death and the Underworld most likely was the source of the negative connotations associated with the lion in Greek mythology and old Hebrew texts. For there it is repeatedly found that the lion represented the ravening power of death.

Ezekiel Chapter 19: 6
He prowled among the lions; he became a young lion, and he learned to catch prey; he devoured men.

Ezekiel Chapter 22: 25
Her princes in the midst of her are like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured human lives; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in the midst of her.

Nonetheless, the lion globally has become a symbol of divine protection. Throughout the ancient world (Egypt, Assyria, Africa, Mexico, Peru) the image of the lion was connected with potency and rulership.

Even the Buddha was occasionally depicted on a lion in order to signify his spiritual zeal and enlightened sovereignty.
 

THE SPHINX
 

For more Information on Biblical and Prophetic connections
see the Watcher

One of the most appropriate Old Testament quotations, in light of the confirmations of the feline aspect of the Face, is Ezekiel 41:18. And it (the paneling of the holy place of the temple) was made with cherubs ...and two faces were to a cherub, the face of a man, toward the palm tree from here, and a young lion’s face toward the palm tree from there. It was made to all the house round and round... on the wall of the temple.

Sphinxes were usually placed at entrances to palaces or temples of antiquity. This positioning implied power, authority and protection. The bodily form such sphinxes is usually a combination of at least two of four animals -- a lion, and a bull or eagle -- with the head of a human. The combination of all four creatures in one constitutes what is de scribed in Ezekiel and elsewhere in the Bible as a type of angel : in Hebrew, a kerubim or cherub. The word kerubim means "one who prays", or "one who intercedes."

David Flynn, the Author/researcher Watcher Website, points out:

Cherubim or Kerubim are an order of angels described in the Bible and ancient texts as a combination of two, or more often, four creatures -- including that of a human. Both the mythical Sphinx and the scriptural cherubim are "hybrid" beings, combining two to four creatures. The meaning of these creatures can be found in the zodiac narrative... Flynn then asks:

• Why were angels depicted in antiquity as sphinx[es]?

• What is the meaning behind the four earthly creatures that compose them?

The Zodiac, Cherubim & The Sphinx
Myth and God’s Message in the Heavens

The true meaning of the celestial zodiac and the symbols of the ecliptic, the course the sun appears to travel the heavens, seems to have been lost to the majority of mankind. However, the purpose of the zodiac symbols can be understood, interestingly enough, by connecting the sequence of pictures in story form.

But what is that connection? What point in the circle of heaven is its beginning?

Sphinx in Greek means "to connect or bind together". A sphinx combines the head of a woman and the body of a lion. This fixes the beginning and ending of the celestial narrative -- beginning with Virgo and ending with Leo.
 

All four of these stars are arranged three signs apart, in the four corners of the heavens. When the zodiac was arranged these stars appeared on the horizon corresponding to the spring and fall equinoxes and the summer and winter solstices. These four stars rose before the sun in the east in sequence with the four seasons. Since the precession of the equinoxes completes its cycle in 14,000 years [sic], the earth’s position relative to these stars has changed and they no longer mark the seasons.

The records of the Creator/Builders of our ancient past, its beginning and ending, may very well be symbolized by the sphinx - combining Virgo and Leo.

From the Greek story of Oedipus Rex, we find the symbolic types much more clear. Oedipus, whose name literally means wounded in the foot, was on his way to Thebes, the city of light. The king of Thebes had proclaimed that he would give the kingdom and the hand of his daughter in marriage, to anyone who destroyed the sphinx .

The sphinx, a symbolic angel, asked the question,

"What speaks with one voice, yet walks on four feet in the morning, two feet at noon and three feet in the evening?"

The question, decoded, should read like this:

"What creature, spoken into creation by God,
(1) walked before God in perfection at the beginning
(2) fell from grace and was divided from God
(3) and will be redeemed and made perfect by God?
(4) The answer was man

But Flynn’s interpretation aside, was there something more couched ingeniously in this Greek riddle -- something to do with the Sphinx and its clues to our identity?
 

THE GODDESS

Yet another source of imagery comes from the extremely ancient and widespread Goddess traditions. It is interesting to note that I have received many e-mails from people of different faiths, who see yet another form within NASA ’s latest image of the Face: the surprising appearance of a pregnant woman’s torso, invoking not only the classic Paleolithic image, but depictions of the Egyptian myth of the Isis/Horus birth -- which was ALSO a "virgin" beginning and an antecedent to the Mary / Christ embodiment.
 

THE GREYS / EXTRATERRESTRIAL
 

And then there are others bouncing off the possible extraterrestrial component. Borgus Productions surprised us with this twist!

Below
Ken Bakeman points out: the underlying Egyptian geometry in his model.

Ken Bakeman points out:

"Matched sides of the less degraded half of the Martian landscape formation on the plain of Cydonia from a new high resolution image provided by NASA. When the Face on the landscape is beheld such that the domed (rounded) portion of the configuration is the dome (top) of the head of what appears is a human-like head.

"The well defined geometrical layout of the ’Face’ on Mars is suggestive of an artificially constructed edifice not originally caused by geological or environmental processes.

"The overall plan bears a close resemblance to the design of ancient Egyptian stelae. Symbolically, the rounded end of the stele represented the dome of the sky (also the dome of the cranium) and the squared off bottom portion represented the four quarters of the surface of the planet.

"Could the "Face" on Mars have been a huge burial mound -- perhaps built into/on an existing geological formation -- for an ancient Martian King?"

 

"Ancient Egyptian stela showing a clearly thought out geometrical arrangement very similar to the geometry of the "Face" mesa in the plain of Cydonia.   Stelae were used in ancient Egypt since the earliest Dynasties to validate (make binding under law) royal burial sites. "

LEGACY OF THE FACE ON MARS

We may not yet fully understand the vocabulary of the Face on Mars, but what we do know is that the Face is finally stirring the collective remembrances and sparking the multidimensional nature of our entire species.

Whether the Face is seen as God or just a graven image, it may be in reality part of a surviving legacy to nothing less than our own long forgotten Past. Encoded within its form may not only be important missing keys to human nature & but the unfolding of human consciousness as well.

For a generation now, we’ve been so focused on whether it is real that we haven’t noticed that its Presence was approaching from within -- a Presence testifying silently to the interconnected nature of consciousness itself. A Presence that is the substance underlying the reality of literal multiple dimensions. In other words, The Face may be nothing less than the Signature of Who We Really Are and if not What We Are Truly Made Of.

Many are sensing the approach of this new paradigm at lightning speed, not yet knowing what it truly represents. Our artists have always given us glimpses into the nature of our souls, the intuiting of other realms, and the mapping of territories still unknown and for others to explore. Is it so far fetched then to imagine that the Ancients, living and building on the planet Mars, would have done the same for their own culture ... especially if their own children would one day return to find that they were intimately involved ..? I think not.
 

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