Previously I asked “… is it possible that Theia is referring to the illumination (wisdom) of an ‘aeon’, possibly the first aeon of our planet to have emerged?”
It might be helpful to revisit the information which I could
find relating to her name: “Θεός or theós (divine, a deity,
goddess), from Proto-Hellenic *tʰehós (whence also Mycenaean Greek (te-o)),
Proto-Indo-European *dʰéh₁s, from *dʰeh₁ (to do, to put, to place) + *-s, cognate with Phrygian δεως (deōs ‘to the gods’) … with reference to ‘Θεός or theós’ … the Greek
goddess Theia or Θεία (also known as Euryphaessa or in
ancient Greek Εὐρυφάεσσα), is such that the name Theia
Euryphaessa effectively means ‘wide or far shining/brightness of light’.”
It is important to consider that ‘what
is’ (in truth and just) and ‘that which the goddess has put into place’ is not
only suggestive of a ‘wide shining brightness of light’, but is suggestive of a
state (or inclination) of one’s being. If we relate this to a ‘first aeon’ to
have emerged from Gaia, one in which there is wisdom, what can we know of its syzygy?
The definition of syzygy is: a pair of
connected or corresponding things. In astronomy, a syzygy is a roughly
straight-line configuration of three or more celestial bodies in a gravitational
system; a conjunction or opposition, especially of the moon with the sun.
Theia is given as being the mother of
the sun and the moon; if aspects of these celestial bodies are in conjunction,
does it give rise to a ‘wide (far) shining’ (illumination) of light – ergo ‘dawn’,
one that is wisdom? Theia was sister of Rhea and Cronus, which I have
interpreted as representing ‘flow of time’.
Demeter was daughter of Rhea, represented
as a chthonic goddess and of the regenerative mysteries. To gain insight into
Demeter, it is helpful to look at her Egyptian equivalent, the goddess Isis.
The child of Isis and Osiris (once she
has restored him to life) is Horus, who represents that which is the restoration
of his father. Isis is portrayed as wearing a ‘sheath’ dress and having a solar
disk and cow’s horns on her head.
The sheath dress is typically
suggestive of her role in mourning Osiris, her late husband, but it could
equally represent a virginal state as might for instance, be suggestive of the
dawn. What is interpreted as cow’s horns could be the representation of the ‘wet
moon’, when the ‘horns’ of the crescent moon point upwards at an angle away
from the horizon, so that the appearance of the moon takes on the resemblance
of a bowl.
Interestingly, the name Isis is a
Greek form of an ancient Egyptian word for ‘throne’; effectively then, she has
a triple aspect (as did Demeter), in that she represents the dying of, the process
of regeneration and as ‘that which has been raised’ (has a crown).
The Greek equivalent of Horus is Asclepius
(Latin Aesculapius), the child of Apollo and Coronis. Apollo is associated with
an aspect of the sun, whilst Coronis is associated with the moon (as is Isis). Asclepius
may mean to ‘cut open’ as it is suggested that Apollo had to deliver him by caesarean
section at his birth (or that he emerged from the side of Coronis), which is suggestive
of a new moon or transition as arising.
In looking at definition of ‘corona’,
it is given as a part of the body resembling or likened to a crown; a faint
glow adjacent to the surface of an electrical conductor at high voltage; the gaseous
envelope of the sun and other stars. The sun’s corona is normally visible only
during a total solar eclipse, when it is seen as an irregularly shaped pearly
glow surrounding the darkened disc of the moon.
Interestingly, the recognition of a ‘glow’
around a body is recognised in the ‘halo’ (also known as a nimbus,
aureole, glory or gloriole): which is ‘a crown of light rays, circle or disk of
light that surrounds a person in art. It has been used in the iconography of
many religions to indicate a holy or sacred figure’.
To revisit my earlier question, “… is it possible that Theia is referring to the illumination (wisdom) of
an ‘aeon’, possibly the first aeon of our planet to have emerged?” Having
explored some of the aspects of the (risen) child of Demeter, Isis and Coronis
- I am considering whether Rhea (together with her consort Cronus), which I had
attributed as representative of ‘flow of time’, is akin to the ‘watery abyss’
which the gnostic Sophia had looked into prior to her alleged fall from grace
(of knowing)?
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