H. Crosthwaite - Sacred Practices, Mythology And Electricity Pdf

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A Handbook of Mythology,

Sacred Practices, Electrical

Phenomena, and their

Linguistic Connections in

the Ancient Mediterranean

World

H. Crosthwaite

with an Introduction by

Alfred de Grazia

Metron Publications

Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.A.

Notes on the printed version of this book:

ISBN: 0-940268-25-9

Printed in the U.S.A. by Princeton

University Printing Services.

Composed at Metron Publications.

Published by METRON PUBLICATIONS,

P.O.BOX 1213, PRINCETON, N.]. 08542, U.S.A.

for Shirley,

".....the sweetest flower of all the field,"

and for Susan

Q-CD vol 12: KA, Introduction

INTRODUCTION

SOME years ago, at my suggestion, Hugh Crosthwaite

commenced this major work. Its first pages appeared in the

mails as parts of personal letters. He called them notes. They

were notes, yes, but like the "toying at the piano keys" of a

maestro, they possessed authenticity, reflected a great

repertoire, and hit upon original meanings in every direction a

tone was struck. The notes began to modulate into cultures and

tongues other than the classic Greek as the research continued.

I should be remembered, perhaps, for not having said to him,

"Please cease to send me your notes and compose instead a

proper monograph: thesis, proof, basta." Rather, as the

messages kept coming, I redefined for myself, and I hope for

hundreds of readers to come, the relation of form to value. The

author carries, among other traits characteristic of English

scholarship at its best, the famed stubborn empiricism that has

so often been the despair of theorists and philosophers such as

myself. The work is bound to factuality.

He loosens the reins in only two regards, both at my behest: the

grouping of his facts in respect to electrical phenomena, and the

testing of words and behavior according to whether they relate

to divine behavior in the sky. In the end, this work by

Crosthwaite, which we may call a Handbook, took on its own

form. It is a dismemberment and reconstruction of Greek and

associated myth such as has not occurred hitherto. Its hundreds

of sketches and etymologies are grouped to follow a theme: the

electric fire and destructive behavior of the sky gods, as these

exhibit themselves in the language, rituals, myths, and behavior

of the ancient Mediterranean peoples.

A surprising form of "Handbook" emerges, which renders too

limited the very designation. For it appears that a major portion

of the Greek language (and probably all others) derives from

Q-CD vol 12: KA, Introduction

human readings of divine sky behavior, and transfers itself into

the necessary language that guides mundane social life and

thought. From far away China, the I Ching echoes this idea:

"Heaven produced the mysterious things, and the sages

modelled themselves on them...Heaven hangs out its symbols,

from which are seen good fortune and misfortune, and the sages

made symbols of them." (Sec.1, Ch.11)

Furthermore, this same "divinely inspired" language, along with

the rites and practices associated with it, does not consist of

independent etymologically-unique, tribally evolved

vocabularies and perspectives. Rather, there appears to have

been, among many ancient peoples, an ecumenical language of

sacred, electrical, pyrotechnical ritual behavior.

Apparently, what had been happening, not long before the time

our evidence comes into being, was similar to the development

of modern language of the age of electronics and space-age

technology, whereby Latinized English becomes a world-wide

language among practitioners of the associated arts and

sciences. Moreover, it was a language everywhere of fire, god's

fire, electric fire or the closest simulations thereof.

The reader may express surprise and disbelief at the multiplicity

of words concentrated in these areas: I would advise him of two

considerations. First, a language can be composed of and

reduced finally to a handful of syllables (with varying accents,

intonations, and syntax), a score of them providing thousands

(conceivably ~ 2 raised to the 20th power) of different words.

Second, if the primal experiences of speechifying humans occur

in conjunction with preoccupying celestial visions and effects

tied to them, the corresponding preoccupation of a language, no

matter how banal life will ultimately become and filled with

ordinary trivial objects, can well be with these original syllables

from which the language subsequently descends.

I have been continuously astonished at Crosthwaite's

indefatigable and creative energy, not to mention the boldness

with which he has attacked an immense set of challenges. The

Q-CD vol 12: KA, Introduction

results make an important contribution to the study of linguistic

origins and diffusion. The linguistic connections evidenced, as

well as the sacral outlook and practices tied to them, are so

close as to bring into question several dearly held beliefs

regarding ancient chronology and the relative antiquity of the

Mediterranean civilizations.

It begins to appear as if all that was contained in the minds,

speech and practice of the ancients took place in the same skies

and in everyone's sight at the same time. Greece, Italy, Illyria,

Anatolia, Palestine, Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Danube Basin:

indeed all are implicated.

Many pages of the present work suggest such a theory. A

reading of the chapter on "Ka" will let one understand what is

meant here. It will explain, too, why the short title of "Ka" is

given the book: this favorite Egyptian monosyllable penetrates

Greek and other languages as well; it testifies, not so much on

behalf of Egyptian chronological precedence, as for an

ecumenical, possibly even hologenetic development of religious

and thence all language of the ancient world.

Alfred de Grazia

Princeton, New Jersey

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

CHAPTERS:

I. AUGURY

II. THE ELECTRIC ORACLES

III. DIONYSUS

IV. AMBER, ARK, AND EL

V. DEITIES OF DELPHI

VI. SKY LINKS

VII. SACRIFICE

VIII. SKY AND STAGE

IX. TRIPOD CAULDRONS

X. THE EVIDENCE FROM PLUTARCH

XI. THE PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHERS

XII. MYSTERY RELIGIONS

XIII. 'KA', AND EGYPTIAN MAGIC

XIV. BOLTS FROM THE BLUE

XV. LOOKING LIKE A GOD

XVI. HERAKLES AND HEROES

XVII. BYWAYS OF ELECTRICITY

XVIII. ROME AND THE ETRUSCANS

XIX. THE TIMAEUS

XX. SANCTIFICATION AND RESURRECTION

XXI. THE DEATH OF KINGS

XXI. LIVING WITH ELECTRICITY

APPENDIX A

APPENDIX B: READING BACKWARDS

GLOSSARY

NOTES

Q-CD vol 12: KA, Preface

PREFACE

THIS book, written for readers who are enthusiastic students of

linguistics, of the classics, and of ancient history, results from

an effort to detect and collect instances of a certain common

factor in the history of the ancient Mediterranean world.

Casting my net as far and as wide as I could, I have assembled a

body of myth and behaviour in Greece, Italy, Palestine and

elsewhere, that reveals a universal concern over electricity,

communicated among all the ancient peoples, and

distinguishable in their language, myths, and behaviour.

Because of the wide-ranging nature of the inquiry, which

demands an interdisciplinary approach, I have perhaps made

more than the usual number of errors. I have also found it

difficult to be consistent in the matter of transliteration.

Translations and paraphrases are mostly my own; where not, I

have tried consistently to make acknowledgments to the author.

My chief sources are the ancient authors themselves, many of

them available in the Oxford Classical Texts, and Loeb

Classical Library. For the non-specialist reader, the Penguin

Classics translations cover most of the ground.

I am greatly indebted to Prof. Alfred de Grazia. As a result of

reading his 'God's Fire', I decided to expand an article I had

written into this larger work which owes much to his and Mrs.

de Grazia's help and hospitality.

I could not have written this book without the constant support,

interest, and inspiration of my wife Shirley. She made valuable

suggestions and helped in many ways, in company with our

daughter Susan, who performed the arduous task of deciphering

and typing my manuscript.

Q-CD vol 12: KA, Preface

My thanks also go to Mr. David Brailsford for his help in

making copies, and to the staff of Metron Publications and Mr.

Fred Plank of Princeton University Printing Services.

H. Crosthwaite

Q-CD vol 12: KA, Preface

Three map sketches to help recollect some of the principal loci

operandi of the Handbook -- Greece, Italy, the ancient

Mediterranean region.

(Click on the picture to get an enlarged view. Caution: Image

files are large.)

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1KAAHandbookofMythology,SacredPractices,ElectricalPhenomena,andtheirLinguisticConnectionsintheAncientMediterraneanWorldbyH.CrosthwaitewithanIntroductionbyAlfreddeGraziaMetronPublicationsPrinceton,NewJersey,U.S.A.2Notesontheprintedversionofthisbook:ISBN:0-940268-25-9Copyright1992byHughCrosthwaiteAllr...

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