In his groundbreaking book from 1980 ‘The Saturn Myth’ (inspired by the work of Immanuel Velikovsky who had correspondence with Einstein about his ideas) researcher David Talbott analyzed myths from ancient cultures around the world and found that they all described the same phenomenon surrounding Saturn. He found that symbolism for Saturn is the same throughout ancient Mesopotamia, India, Greece, the Americas, and Egypt, and as documented by ancient cultures, explains how there was once a celestial alignment involving Saturn that occurred thousands of years ago. Based on ancient accounts throughout the world, Talbott describes a period of “great upheaval” in celestial bodies, when Saturn, Venus, and Mars descended and aligned overhead Earth in a spectacular astronomical event dubbed the “Saturn Polar Configuration”. As Talbott says in ‘The Saturn Myth’: “[The Saturn Polar Configuration is] the idea based on comparative mythology — that the Earth was once in close proximity — or even a satellite of the planet Saturn”. The image below is how it appeared. During this celestial upheaval, Mars descended from its position in the sky and formed a stairway to Saturn and Venus which over time became morphed into various mythological concepts, including the heaven-sustaining giant Atlas, the Tree of Life, Mount Olympus, the Boat of Ra, and the Tower of Babel, inter alia. For example, the Makirtare Indians of the Amazonian rainforest tell of a time where the hero Ahishama, identified as Mars, climbed a stairway to Heaven. Talbott calls this stairway the “Cosmic Mountain”.
The idea of a celestial stairway — it can be shown — is simply a variation upon the widespread theme of a World Tree. The World Tree, also known as the Cosmic Tree, Axis Mundi, or Tree of Life — is a symbolic representation of a central axis that connects various realms, dimensions, or planes of existence within a cosmology. As Romanian historian of religion Mircea Eliade has documented, such ideas have been around since the dawn of time, saying: “Ascent to the sky along the Axis of the World is a universal and archaic idea”. The same scholar goes on to summarize this theme and its attendant myths as follows: “If we try to achieve a general view of all the myths and rites just briefly reviewed, we are struck by the fact that they have a dominant idea in common: Communication between Heaven and Earth can be brought about by some physical means (bridge, stairs, ladder, vine, cord, ‘Chain of Arrows’, mountain, etc). All of these symbolic images of the connection between Heaven and Earth are merely variants of the World Tree or the Axis Mundi”. That the planet Mars was itself linked to ancient conceptions of the World Tree has been documented by other scholars in addition to Talbott. For example, in her book ‘A Dictionary of Symbols’, Joan Cirlot reports that: “The Tree of Life, when it rises no higher than the mountain of Mars is regarded as a pillar supporting Heaven”. Esoterically — the World Tree was associated with Divine Union (becoming one with self and source) and can be seen on some Masonic Tracing Boards (as shown below).
According to Linda Buckley, in her paper ‘The Tree Sacred Symbol’: “The tree is an archetypal symbol in the world’s religions, most commonly depicted as the Cosmic Tree or Tree of Life that upholds the Universe; climbing it represents ascension to Heaven”. Talbott expands on the curious idea that the Saturn Polar Configuration was a sort of ladder or stairway to Heaven in his online article in which he says: “One of the archetypal forms I had discussed involved the global myths and symbols of the “Chain of Arrows”, a theme inseparably connected to another archetype, the “Ladder of Heaven”. As the story was most commonly told, a great warrior launches arrows into the sky, each embedding itself in the one above to form a ladder or stairway to the land of the gods”. Talbott built his ideas in ‘The Saturn Myth’ off the research of the Russian scholar Immanuel Velikovsky who developed many of the foundational ideas for the Saturn Polar Configuration theory. In her book ‘She Spins the Coils of Creation’, Leslene della-Madre explains Velikovsky’s ideas, saying: “There are some writers and researchers from the recent past as well as the present, like the late Russian scholar Immanuel Velikovsky (1895-1979) who wrote… in ‘Worlds in Collision’ that these changes [celestial upheaval] disrupted much of human life on Earth resulting in many stories such as flood myths, cross-cultural mythologies depicting epic battles and conflicts, myths of Jacob’s Ladder, stairways to Heaven, Ezekiel’s wheel, etc — and that humanity is in a stage of fearing a great doom. We have not healed ourselves and live in fear of the past”. The idea of a stairway to Heaven with the Saturn Polar Configuration has a Biblical foundation with the Tower of Babel and Jacob’s Ladder.
PICTURE OF JACOB’S LADDER IN THE ORIGINAL LUTHER BIBLES (OF 1534 AND ALSO 1545)
During the various configurations of the Saturn Polar Configuration that produced various visual characteristics in the sky, the comparatively smaller orb of Venus — and also at different times Mars which produced a darker dot as opposed to a white dot — appeared as a dot that passed in front of the larger orb of Saturn creating the following image: ⊙, resembling an eye (called the circumpunct).
Talbott gives an explanation of this image in ‘The Saturn Myth’, saying: “The ancients preserved more than mythical-historical accounts of Saturn’s rule. From one section of the world to another the planet-god’s worshippers drew pictures of the Saturnian Configuration, and these pictures become the universal signs and symbols of antiquity. In the global lexicon of symbols the most common images are the enclosed Sun ⊙ and Sun-cross ⊕. It appears that every ancient race revered these signs as images of the preeminent cosmic power. In Mesopotamia and Egypt the signs occur in the earliest period. Prehistoric pottery and rock carvings from Crete, China, Scandinavia, Africa, Russia, Polynesia, and the Americas suggest that numerous ancient rites centred on these simple forms, which became the most venerated images in the first hieroglyphic alphabets”. Popular author Dan Brown explains the circumpunct (⊙) as follows: “In the idiom of symbology — there was one symbol [the circumpunct] that reigned supreme above all others. The oldest and most universal, this symbol fused all the ancient traditions in a single solitary image that represented the illumination of the Egyptian Sun-god, the triumph of alchemical gold, the wisdom of the Philosopher’s Stone, the purity of the Rosicrucian Rose, the moment of Creation, the All, the dominance of the astrological Sun, and the omniscient All-Seeing-Eye that hovered atop the pyramid”.
IMAGE OF SATURN POLAR CONFIGURATION ON RIGHT TAKEN FROM ‘SYMBOLS OF AN ALIEN SKY’
According to Ev Cochrane, in his book ‘Martian Metamorphoses’, the Saturn Polar Configuration was essentially a gate, saying: “An important hymn relates the opening of the heavenly doors to the illumination of Sin: “Sin, as you become visible you open the doors of Heaven”. Here is yet another passage which can only appear as an absurd poetic metaphor from the conventional perspective. Yet from the unique vantage point offered by the Saturn theory — this passage can be taken as a literal description of the Polar Configuration: As the crescent of Sin descended to a position beneath Saturn, as in figure four in chapter six, it grew brilliant — thereby signalling the opening of the gates of Heaven”. The same 8-pointed star keyhole symbolism as the Saturn Polar Configuration is shown below on a Masonic stained-glass window (from Arcana Masonic Lodge 187). In his book ‘Myth, Magick, and Masonry’, Jaime Lamb connects the Masonic Blazing Star to Venus, saying: “The Blazing Star’s relationship to Venus (also anciently known as the Morning Star) may best be illustrated by the fact that it’s represented in the form of a pentagram. This significance comes primarily from the fact that Venus traces [a perfect pentagram across the sky every eight years when observed from Earth”]. The fact that the Masonic Blazing Star is also sometimes represented by an 8-pointed star (as shown in the image above) might also point towards it being Venus. The Mesopotamian goddess Inanna was worshipped as the embodiment of Venus and her symbol was the 8-pointed star.
The Saturn Polar Configuration doesn’t just appear in Masonic art-work. For example, the painting below is Leonardo da Vinci’s famous ‘Annunciation’ of the Virgin Mary. Pay particular attention to the two trees with a mountain between them. These two trees resemble pillars and are similar to the two pillars in Freemasonry which are depicted with a mountain or pillar between them (image here is a generic example). The two pillars originated from the Egyptian symbol “Akhet” which was based on the Saturn Polar Configuration. The Saturn Polar Configuration formed a luminous crescent (as you can see in the first image above) which became anthropomorphized and morphed into various things, such as the arms of the heaven-sustaining giant Atlas, the outstretched wings of the mother goddess (or winged god) Isis, or the two pillars Jachin and Boaz. These pillars supposedly stand at the “gateway to Heaven”, an Axis Mundi, a place where worlds meet and commune with each other. As researcher Robert Palazzo explains: “Symbolically speaking, going beyond the Hercules [or Masonic] pillars meant leaving the foulness of this world into a higher realm of enlightenment”. Ostensibly — going beyond the Masonic pillars can mean leaving the realm of Samsāra and entering Nirvāna.
The image on the right below is the “Saturn Polar Configuration” (taken from the documentary series ‘Discourses on an Alien Sky’). In his book ‘The Saturn Myth’, Talbott says that this alignment was a “gate” (see page 155). The image in the corner below is an image of Mother Mary (or the Virgin Mary) called Our Lady of the Pillar. We can see that all images are similar to one another and have the resemblance of a keyhole. The image on the right below of the Saturn Polar Configuration shows seven rays of light emanating from Venus. This is exactly what we see with the Statue of Liberty which shows seven spikes protruding from the head of Lady Liberty. The Mary Magdalene painting ‘Raised by Angels’ in Gdańsk also shows Mary wearing a crown with seven spikes, similar to the seven spikes on the Statue of Liberty. The Saturn Polar Configuration was essentially a pillar or tower that connected Heaven with Earth. Goddesses like Isis, Inanna, Ishtar, and Mary Magdalene were all associated with a pillar or tower. The name Magdalene is thought to be derived from Magdaloa which means “tower” or “elevated” which links us back to the Tower of Babel that David Talbott associates with the Saturn Polar Configuration. The Saturn Polar Configuration was also characterized by an 8-pointed star (as shown below) and in some churches dedicated to Mary Magdalene like in Saint-Marie-Majeure, we see symbolsim of the 8-pointed star as shown here.
In his book ‘The Saturn Myth’, Talbott tentatively links the god-man the Gnostics call Adam-Kadmon to the Saturn Polar Configuration. He states: “In Gnostic and other mystic systems Adam is not a mortal but a cosmic being whose body contained the seed of all later creation. As observed by G.G. Scholem, summarizing the traditions of the Hebrew Kabala, Adam (or Adam Qadmon) is the “primordial man”, that is, “a vast representation of the power of the universe”, which is concentrated in him. This Adam is a “man of light” occupying the centre of the Cosmos and radiating energy along the axis of the universe. He is creator and supporter of the world, whose body encloses all the elements of life”. In Kabbalah circles, Adam was originally an androgynous being they called Adam-Kadmon; consisting of male and female aspects — but was fractured into opposites during The Fall of Humanity. ‘Adam’ being representative of humanity as a whole — we were apparently all fractured. In the Gnostic and Hermetic school of thought, the goal of human existence is to merge these opposites (the female and male) back into one androgynous being to form an Adam-Kadmon. A core aspect of the Great Work is the alchemical union or “coniunctio” of opposites. This includes the merging of male and female principles, represented by the Sun (masculine) and Moon (feminine), or by the King and Queen in alchemical illustrations. The union of these principles symbolizes the creation of a balanced, harmonious whole.
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