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Sunday, November 26, 2006

The Seven-Headed Dragon

[I put a revised edition of this blog entry into my website "Living Without Money"]

Wail, you inhabitants of the market district!
For all the merchant people are cut down;
All those who handle money are cut off.
(Zepheniah 1:11)
 

And there is no merchant any more
in the Temple of Yahweh of Hosts in that Day!

(Zechariah 14:21)

Today is probably my last day house-sitting, so I'll use the time to write here.
I had a nice thanksgiving dinner at my friends', Damian & Dorina. She made an incredibly delicious vegetarian nut loaf.

After dinner, we discussed different philosophies and such. Then a friend brought to my attention, and not at all in a nice way, that I tend to interrupt and dominate the conversation. I have always thought of myself as a listener who doesn't talk much. And I like to think of myself as "aware." But I had to concede that he was right, though. Sometimes I get excited about stuff I'm learning and tend to forget about others. Just when I think I'm getting it together, I find I'm not. Knowledge isn't enlightenment. In fact, as I keep saying, it veils us from enlightenment. Anyway, I've been licking my ego wounds a lot since. And just that fact of still feeling wounded shows a great attachment to this ego that I thought I had pretty much overcome.

That's also a problem with blogging like this. You can only see words, not my person. And it's easy to present ourselves as flawless to the world when we write.

Comment Reply Becomes Blog Entry
I started writing a reply to a comment by "Angeldust" after "My Summary of Why I Live Moneyless". Then I decided to just go ahead and make it a blog entry.

It's time to see the Bible in a whole new light. It's time to shake up tired, sleeping JudeoChristian religion out of its materialistic stupor. This might just blow you away.

Angeldust brought up the Beast in the book of Revelation, the Beast who has 7-heads, the AntiChrist that end-of-timers like to talk about. So I started tracing this 7-headed dragon back to the very serpent in the Garden of Eden. Here's a taste of the mysteries:

Serpent Coiled Around the Tree, Serpent Coiled Around Pole In Genesis 3:13 Eve says, "The serpent [nahash*] deceived [nasha*] me." The Hebrew Bible is filled with plays on words totally missed in translation. The word nasha* means both 'deceive' and 'lend on interest,' or 'be creditor'. (In Strong's Lexicon, 'deceive' is Srong's # 5377 & 'lend on interest' is 5378, which are identical)*. This nasha is found in 1Sam 22:2, Neh 5:7, Psa 89:22, Isa 24:2, all of which, like the Koran, strongly denounce lending at interest).

Now look at the Hebrew word for snakebite, nashak [Strong's 5391]* , which also happens to mean both 'lend' and 'receive on interest' (Num 21:6-9, Deut. 23:19, Prov. 23:32, Jer. 8:17, Amos 5:19, etc). 'The serpent bit me,' Eve says. 'The serpent charged me interest,' Eve says.

Now the word for serpent, nahash is also a wordplay with nasha. Nahash also means 'divination,' and also 'copper' or 'bronze,' the basic currency [Strong's 5174 & 5], just like our English word 'cobra' is related to 'copper'. You can see this play on words taken into the story of Moses lifting up the Bronze Serpent in the wilderness.
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So Moses made a bronze [nahashet] serpent [nahash], and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent [nahash] had bitten [nashak] anyone, when he looked at the bronze [nahashet] serpent [nahash], he lived. (Numbers 21:9)

If a serpent had bitten anyone can literally be translated, if a serpent had become creditor to anyone...!

Now it gets even more intriguing. a varient spelling of nasha [# 5375], pronounced the same, means 'to lift up, bear up, carry, be exalted, bear sins, atone for sins.' And the related word for 'debt' is nashi [5386]. Now you can see clearly what Jesus is referring to when he says, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. (John 3:14)

This word nasha is used first by Cain in Genesis 4:13, "This punishment is more than I can bear [nasha].' And the word 'Cain' itself is a pun on the word canah, which means 'purchase'! Again, the play on words:

And she conceived and bore Cain, and said, I have purchased [canah] a man from Yahweh." (Gen. 4:1)


Now we can see why there is a Jewish interpretation that Cain is actually the son of the Serpent! He is the son of purchase, of credit & debt, while Abel is the son of Grace.
Mayan Ouroboros
The Seven-Headed Dragon

Next, in the story of Cain, you see allusion to the 7-headed Leviathan (Hydra, Beast) with the 7-fold vengeance of Cain in Genesis 4:15 & 24. Now it is clear that this credit-and-debt 7-head Serpent is poking his heads up in Deuteronomy 28! He is Leviathan.

'Leviathan' shares the same root as 'Levi,' meaning "to twist, bind, join [3878 &3867]. Again, notice the word-play in the passage that speaks of the birth of Levi, the father of law:
"'Now this time my husband will be bound [lavah] to me,...' therefore he was named Levi." (Gen. 29:34).

Levi was the father of the tribe of Levi, the Priestly Clan, the establishers of Levitical Law, starting with the Levites called Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. Law is Thought of Credit and Debt. Law is control of Credit and Debt. The Levitical Law, as all law, was given to manage people under Thought of Credit and Debt, a way of keeping disease in check until the cure comes - the cure of Grace. Just as Krishna speaks of transcending the cycles of Credit and Debt, transcending the perpetual reincarnation of Karma, the old Hindu Law, through crucifixion of the ego, so speaks the Buddha, so speaks the Christ.

Leviathan is the Hebrew word for the Canaanite Lotan, found in Ugaritic texts, where he is slain by Baal:

“When you smite Lotan, the fleeing serpent,
finish off the twisting serpent,
the close-coiling one with seven heads."
( KTU 1.5:I:1-3, D. Pardee in CS, 1.265)




Then the Bible quotes this Canaanite text, saying Yahweh slays Lotan/Leviathan:
IN that day Yahweh with His severe sword, great and strong,
Will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent,
Leviathan that twisted serpent;
And He will slay the dragon that is in the sea. (Isaiah 27:1)

You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces,
And gave him as food to the people inhabiting the wilderness. (Ps 74:14)

Land of Canaan, Land of Commerce

Leviathan is the Serpent of Canaan. Canaan means trade, or commerce in Hebrew. Here again we see the play on the words for 'Cain' & 'purchase'. The land of Canaan, called Palestine and Israel today, was wedged between two great superpowers, Babylon and Egypt, and two great continents. This made it the land of Trade - the land of war, oppression, and deceit - the products of Trade. And it was out of this that the rage of the Bible is born.

Now you can see, more and more, studying both the Bible and history, that the Canaanites were not a literal race of people, but were the Spirit of Merchandise that possessed the people. And the very theme of the Torah is to wipe out every vestige of Canaanite from the land. The later Jewish prophets confirm that this is so:

Wail, you inhabitants of the market district!
For all the merchant people [canaanites] are cut down;
All those who handle money are cut off. (Zeph 1:11)

And there is no merchant [canaanite] any more in the temple of Yahweh of Hosts in that day! (Zechariah 14:21)

And Jesus' clearing the merchants from the temple is a direct act-out of this Zechariah scripture. Wiping out the Canaanites.

Yes, the mystery is that the Levitical law is to become fulfilled, to become obsolete at the End of Time, which is the Eternal Now, the Day of Yahweh. Money/trade serves its purpose and becomes obsolete. All written law becomes fulfilled, obsolete.

Money and law simply cannot exist in the Present, in Reality! This is not opinion. This is simple observation, if we but look inside.

It's interesting that, in the Christian Bible, the Greek word for money is nomisma and the word for law is nomos, sharing the same root meaning "to parcel out." There is no need for law when there is no money or barter, and there is no need for money when there is no law - for both are one and the same - control of credit and debt. When you start trusting Nature again "to parcel out", that vengeance, repayment, belongs to God, not human ego-mind, then Balance comes, as it already exists in the infinite Universe surrounding our little bubble of "civilization". And this is the very theme of Christian theology: freedom from written law and taking on the law of the heart, which is love. Crucifying the Ego, which is Thought of Credit and Debt.




It is about giving up the ego to the cross, lifting up Moses' serpent on a pole in the wilderness, the Lamb breaking through the Seven Seals.
*If you want to confirm these word studies, you can go to www.blueletterbible.org to look up the Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic words of scripture passages, or www.scripture4all.org/OnlineInterlinear/Hebrew_Index.htm for Hebrew-English interlinear Tanach (Old Testament), and www.scripture4all.org/OnlineInterlinear/Greek_Index.htm for Greek-English interlinear New Testament. The Blue Letter Bible uses Strong's Lexicon, so I've put in Strong's numbers to make it easier for you to look up.

12 comments:

  1. Daniel, you have tried to pack a lot of thought into a mere blog post. It seems to me that the ideas in this post, along with the others you've written, deserve to be examined and developed, perhaps in a different medium.

    I use the (original 1966) Jerusalem Bible, and I also use scripturetext.com online when I want to check further into original languages. I know Greek fairly well and am aware of the punning and poetry that goes on there unconveyed by the translations, but I did not know any of the points you brought up in the Hebrew, all of them important. Your analysis seems valid. Your rejection of money and the buying-and-selling that has enslaved world culture should strike a chord for many people, including Christians. We are not all the stereotyped fluffy white wooly sheep chugging down super-sized-it fast foods and big gulps, while hiding greenbacks, gold and gargantuan investments in the folds of our spring fleeces.

    Is that all I want to say? Hmm, I guess so. Except that you and I are probably very much alike, encyclopedic memory, unaware of the impact we have when with others, sometimes think we are being taciturn when in fact we're like semi-Tourettes syndromites, the ideas we're mediating to others just take over.

    I like the prophets of Israel too. They still speak today, but who's listening?

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  2. Hi again Suelo. This incredible study DOES blow me away!! I knew I hated debt and decided long ago I wasn't going to let myself get into it, but does this tell it like it is! It is so true that it stings and twists around you like a venemous serpent and is almost impossible to get out of its squeeze once you are encoiled. God, who knows we humans are well acquainted with this seducer, uses the most poignant object lesson of sin there could be on earth, it seems like! In the process He shows us what commerce and debt is really about. Our fascination and romance with it and lifelong dedication to it DOES make us prostitutes, unfaithful harlots against God! Your studies show me we are just scratching the surface of it.

    Hey, what do you say about God not getting rid of Caine, the son of purchase, credit and debt, but instead avenging his killers seven times seven times? (Also, Hydra has had any number of heads assigned to him--between 5 and 100, but the most commonly attributed to him are 9 heads. Some allege that not just one head grew back to replace one that was decapitated, but two. Don't know if that information matters or not, except to maybe change the symbolism.)

    What you say about Levi was something else that blew me away! What else blew me away was that the tribe of Levi was to live after the manner you are teaching! Of all the Israelites they were not to have an inheritance, but GOD HIMSELF was to be their inheritance! Also, they seemed to be stand-ins for God, ministering MERCY through the sacrifices until Christ revealed HIMSELF, the complete and final sacrifice their sacrifices were object lessons of. What do you think of this?

    Also, I noticed something else. (hope you don't mind me being so talkative on this blog!) You quoted the verse, the last phrase that said, "and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea." I thought of the verses in Matt and Luke that say, "When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through DRY places, seeking rest, and findeth none...." (then he returns to his "house" etc.) I wonder if there is any connection between the dragon being found in the SEA and this unclean spirit that walks through dry places and finds no rest? Is this question a sidetrack or is it's answer additional stuff for this very interesting study?

    A.D.

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  3. Romanos & AD -
    Reading your comments I have intense gratitude. For years I've been trying to communicate these ideas to non-Christians, since most Christians I've talked to have been unreceptive. So this is powerfully moving to me.

    Yeah, I keep feeling I want to make a full-fledged website again, a free book on-line, where we can give these things the detailed focus they deserve.

    AD, you are tapping right into this, and your insights & questions are getting me stoked to delve deeper. You sound like somebody I know - and it makes me wonder if I do. And if I do, I like the tease of not knowing for sure.

    I have those same questions about Cain. I haven't thought about the idea of the spirits wandering in DRY places. Totally intriguing observation. And how does that relate to their returning with SEVEN others - and how does this relate to Jesus casting out SEVEN unclean spirits from Mary Magdeline? And is she the mysterious human Symbol of the Whore of Babylon on the 7-headed Dragon (to fall and to resurrect again as the New Jerusalem, Bride of Christ, because, as Jesus states, she who is forgiven the most debt, loves the most???)

    This blog is anything goes. Whatever your heart leads, even if to write a book in the comment section - go for it!

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  4. You think you might know me huh? Well, let's see. Suelo. Dust. You know? We might be related way back in our bloodlines! LOL! I AM teasing you now!

    Really amazing observations on the spirit returning with 7 others and your other observations about the seven spirits in Mary Magdalene and what she might symbolize and the rest! WOW!

    I thought of something else too concerning the number SEVEN. Caine was to be avenged seven times if someone killed him. However Lamech claimed that HIS murder would be avenged SEVENTY and seven times. Wonder how and why he came up with that number? Then in the Gospels, Peter asked Jesus how many times he should forgive someone and suggested SEVEN times. That sounds pretty reasonable. Jesus said NO,not seven times, but SEVENTY times SEVEN times. I then thought that maybe SEVEN times is our "perfect" idea of the extent of forgiveness, but Jesus wants to push us further than what our own perfection can handle. Do you think it is that we can forgive someone seven times in OUR power, and think we are perfect, but Jesus forces us beyond our own power to the power of GOD! I don't know why He places a seeming limit of seventy times seven though, except there is some symbolism there, as you point out on the other things. Well, just some thoughts. Again I'm curious about your ideas on this.

    AD

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  5. Yeah, A Dust, Suelo - that's it!

    Yeah, this serpent thing, and the 7s within 7s, times 7s, is just the tip of the iceburg. It would be a whole book if I tried to comment on it. The Today of Todays, Sabbath of Sabbaths, The Forgiveness of All Debt at Jubile, the Final End of Cain's burden, the end of 70 7s in Leviticus, the end of the 70 weeks of Daniel, the Forgiveness of 70 x 7, the slaying of Leviathan, the 7s within 7s of Revelation: unsealing of seals and blowing of trumpets, decoding the Number of the Beast, End of All Money, etc, etc, are all One Mind-Blowing Subject. That's a hint. But it has to be a separate book I think. Can't really touch it in this blog.

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  6. Well, Suelo, it's been good talking to you. You probably won't hear from me for awhile at least. I'm going on a long journey to a faraway country and don't know when I'll be back. Take Care. I've enjoyed these discussions.

    ....and remember to entertain strangers, ok? Some have entertained angels you know.

    ADust

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  7. so what are the names on the 7 heads?

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  8. Hmmm, something else intriguing I'll have to look into...

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  9. I just wanted to thank you, Suelo, for putting to action the convictions of your heart! So often, it seems we all KNOW what to do, but lack the resolve to follow through, I hope you know you have inspired me. I'm sorry to blog about that here on this seven headed dragon spot, but I feel it still applies. I see the beast from revelation as TV, the internet, radio, etc. I'm pretty sure those are the "seven heads" spitting out blasphemy, after all, what other device or mechanism has done so much damage to our sense of reality? Anyway, thanks again suelo! I'll drop in another time...
    ZHeMeSoR. .. ... .... . .. ... ....xXx

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  10. Thanks for the encouragement, Z.
    Yeah, I agree that TV, www, radio, etc. are manifestations of the Beast. Every few aeons it manifests itself as something else. The Beast is really our mind of attachment within, along with all the things we attach it to & create, to escape Reality, the Eternal Present. It is Idol, that which cannot hear, see, smell, or taste, and it blocks our 7 windows of sense. The 7 seals, keeping us blinded. Like, when your mind is lost somewhere else, you cannot hear, see, smell, or taste what is present.

    I still haven't forgot that question "what are the names on the 7 heads?" & might be ready to write a whole new thingy on it.

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  11. "he was given power to rule over all", with money this is capable, or debt. The seven headed dragon is the government of the united states, seven heads on thier dollar. on the dollar is the mark of the federal bank, which if you look, it is like a bear claw, a lions mouth, spotted like a cheetah, and is the main watcher over money. they are the bringer of media(tv, radio, news, our schools, our diets, and our lifestyles). they benifit by you/us not knowing the truth.

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  12. I must say some of this went over my head ( I'm not the smartest man). what brought me here was just the thought that maybe money is the 7 headed beast as far as American currency goes there's the 1$,2$,5$,10$,20$,50$, and ,100$ bill(that's 7 bills). each bill has a head on it. now I wanted to see if anyone else made that connection or if the conspiracy side of my brain was just acting up. I understand that it could be a physical beast like shown in the pictures above or a metaphorical beast like the heads on the 7 bills. I'm not sure about other countries currency and if I'm just being small minded and thinking It's just America.

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