Sunday, November 1, 2009

The Blue-ness of God in Biblical tradition


The omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent Father-God of the entire ancient world was most commonly depicted as blue. Thus Jupiter, Zeus, Osiris, Heru and Ammon-Ra (Heru) and Aapa / Nhr (Nilus) were all depicted as blue. The Buddhist Lokesvara is commonly blue in both his two and thousand armed forms. Of course Krishna-Vishnu is blue or blackish, and Rama and Shiva were also sometimes depicted as blue. Even the solar Corn-Boy of the American Hopis was blue with an eyed feather, and he was depicted in his golden sun-circle with eagle feathers protruding from it! Iconographically this has astounding similarities with Egyptian and Near Eastern traditions. When they tried to outlaw the impersonation of God / Zeus in the Greco-Roman world, they forbid the dying of one's skin and tatooing of auspicious marks on one's body / hands and feet! They forbid allowing one's hair to grow long and shaving one's face. They outlawed the wearing of certain gold cloth, a gold crown or the sacred plumes of Shu or Helios. They forbade anyone except the anointed Soter / Savior King to present himself in such a way, or to wear gold armour, ride a white horse, or carry a discus for a weapon! All these things were forbidden, so what did the Supreme Father God in His Basileos sacred king form look like?


long hair (kouros age was before the hair was cut) / eternal youth
no beard / eternal youth
blue skin
auspicious marks
gold crown
sacred feathers
gold armour
riding white horse
carrying discus

= Vasudeva Krishna (Sri Krishna as the Sacred King)\

There is some mention of this outlawing the impersonation of Zeus in Robert Graves's multi-volume collection of the Greek myths. A side note to this is the fact that when Zeus was worshiped in his ammonite shila form as Zeus-Petros, and Jupiter was worshiped in His related lapis form, both of these were blue or blue-gray stones. The Sacred King form of the Biblical Supreme Father God was called the Basileos or Rex (regent). Basileos is related to Greek bazodeo and on Bactrian Greek coins, Bazodeo on one side is translated as Vasudeva on the other. (see famous Bactrian era coin, the stater of Vasudeva.) Obviously a rex or regent is a raja (and regina, the feminine 'queen' is rajani or rani) so the Mediterranean incarnation kings were identified with Vasudeva or Sri Krishna as Raja Raja or the King of kings. In fact in the original Greek of the New Testament, Jesus is called Basileos basileos, the 'King of kings' ...Vasudeva of the vasudevas (Vishnu of the vasu-devas, or class of good 'gods'). In South Egypt, all of the expansions of the Supreme Deity Wasu Theo were depicted with a 'was' scepter indicating that they were forms of Wasu Deo. In Judaism Wasu Deo was called Toba-Yahu, which is Vasu-deva reversed. Hebrew toba and Sanskrit deva both mean good and beneficent. The English name Tobias is derived from Toba-Yahu.

Secular scholars of religion claim that the commonly blue color of the Supreme Father God was because He was always associated by the ancients with the sky or heavens, in the pair of Father-Heaven and Mother-Earth. Thus usually He was light sky or cloud blue, but sometimes black or very dark blue with His body covered with stars, as in the black and star-covered-bodied forms of Kala Purusha. As Lord of the universe, Lord Jagannatha's body is black, and His dress sometimes covered with a star-like design. In Egypt and the East, Osiris and Kala Purusha were often depicted with black bodies. Of course, when the Sanskrit words for black and blue are confounded, and the icon of the Lord is created according to scriptural descriptions, it may be said that the scriptures describe Him as either blackish or blue-ish. Then the result may be either a black or blue-ish murti (image/icon). The fact that Vaishnavas depict Him either way, without fighting about it, is analogous to the many parallel traditions existing without conflict within Catholicism.


In some Alexandrian Egypto-Jewish and Catholic icons, Jesus and sometimes even Mary is depicted as blue. As God, not man, Jesus was depicted (like Heru, Helios, Osiris, Zeus, Jupiter etc.) as blue. Catholic art historians have explained blue images of Christ as related to the ancient practice of depicting 'Supreme Father Gods' as blue for the sky and heavenly purity. The heavenly or sky Father, consort of Mother Earth, was commonly depicted as blue in the ancient world (see African and New World tribal traditions too). I have viewed hundreds of Catholic icons of Mary, spanning the globe and over 1000 years and I would say that over 90 % of the time in Her colored icons, She has a red or pink inner dress and a blue outer mantle. Of course, Mary's highest most 'intimate' form in relationship to 'Bridal Mysticism' is known by Her mysterious name Rhoda... the Mystical Rose. Her six-pointed star (hexad) is associated with Her symbol as Rhoda but She also has a five-pointed star. In India red is associated with Radha, an internal energy (Shakti), and blue with Durga. A blue (Sanskrit 'nila') flower is associated with Shakti as Durga or external energy. The hexad is associated with Sri Laksmi and the five-pointed star with Durga. In Pure Land Buddhism these two stars also exist and Tara's secret form is symbolized by a red or pink flower.




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