Last night I skimmed Asimov's Guide to the Bible Vol. 1 and found the stuff on Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Moses and Solomon (and David, at the end of this segment) to be of interest.
On p.528 Asimov says "Furthermore there was a tendency for prophets to denounce the rich and powerful, for these were apt to be the most worldly, most satisfied to let ritual (if anything) serve as religion." Of course these days anyone with a computer is rich and powerful relative to much of the world's population.
Also, from pp.529-530, worship of "the fiery serpent" was referring to the lightning, and Asimov says "By the time of the prophets, however, the lightning had apparently been personified into the winged seraphim, as the storm blast had become the cherubim." This I relate to the lightning flashes in my tale of AUg31/91, June93, lateAug94, and the high winds accompanying the Jan94 high.
Examination of the writings of the patriarchs and prophets may show whether or not they had an 11 year cycle, with years of good connection followed by a paranoid period, leading to genocide, sacrifice and the like. This might help biblical scholars decide what stuff should be taken most seriously and what to disregard. I now think that there is no such 11 year cycle and that the words of the patriarchs and prophets during their years of trial (or wilderness years or low years) did not lead to any genocide or human sacrifice. Rather if like me they had a call, then some years of good connection, then a period of low years (a period of fumbling, of seeking answers, of at times going in wrong directions only to find their way again later) then at the end of those low years they put their thoughts together clearly in language which was accepted by the people.
Now to Ezekiel, on p.583 of Asimov: Ezekial 1:1 Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year... as I was among the captives..that...I saw visions of God. (597 BC)
This was an approximate 30th year of his life, not far from my 27.5, and according to Asimov was about twenty years after the call of Jeremiah, or not far from two solar cycles (or one full 22 year cycle if magnetic polarity is considered).
Ezekiel was not as tolerant of other religions as Solomon was.
p.586 Ezekiel 26:1 ...in the eleventh year... the word of the Lord came unto me saying... (587 BC)
This could mean the eleventh year of captivity but Asimov indicates that it was about ten (or 11?) years after the first inspiration.
Also the phrase "Ezekiel saw the wheel" could mean that Ezekiel did a sun stare similar to mine. But I have to check the biblical text describing the incident and when I do I will edit this paragraph.
p.557 "Jeremiah 1:6 ...Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak: for I am [as] a child"
This describes a young man who feels ill-suited for public speaking being called.
I haven't examined the tale of Moses closely yet, but suspect that the "burning bush" original script could be a "glowing blue rose" amidst thorns, like my blue rose vision on sun stare page. Also according to Jon Marshall Symbolism of the Rose in Alchemy the rose is a symbol used in Kabbalah, and I plan to investigate that later. Also I recently heard that Moses's bush was a thorn bush, which again relates directly to my thorn hill climb and blue rose vision amidst the thorns near the top of the hill, and also relates to Jesus's crown of thorns. Also Moses was premature like me (and like Welsh pagan figure Lleu Llaw Gyffes). Also Moses was said to have been barefoot near/in the thorn bush, and I suspect he was naked like me.
From Solomon's Song of Songs, the "rose of Sharon" may not be the shrub with that modern name, and Sharon is a plain in Israel, and note that the website Rose of Sharon mythology says the Rose of Sharon has Mother Goddess associations. On that web page they say that the city Shaaraim means "`Two Gates' or `The Double-cleft,' alluding to the vagina of the Goddess as a portal into Life (Sharon the Rose), & a portal into Death (Shoshan, the Lily of the Valley)". The "lily of the valley" and Noah's dove could be like my vision on the dancing sky vagina page. My two (three if there was a second smaller instance of the "dancing sky vagina" a few weeks later, which I don't remember for sure) significant visions have been of the glowing sky blue rose at night early on Sept. 5, 1991 and the "dancing sky vagina" on the night of July 13, 1997. I relate these two visions somewhat to those lines from the Song of Songs. (Update: the dancing sky vagina I think was a steeply ascending plane with lights on at night, perhaps in thin fog.)
But I haven't yet gone through the other writings of Solomon, but know that he was tolerant of other religions. But I like the verse of Gwion/Taliesin's poem "Diversified Song," which from my 1961 Graves' White Goddess (which refers to the moon, not skin colour) on p.151-154 is
Solomon obtained In Babel's tower All the sciences Of Asia's land
This I relate personally to my "Tower of Babel" test in my year of withdrawal, contemplation and delusion, but suspect it is more related to the benefits of multicultural cooperation.
Asimov mentions two conflicting stories of how David came to the court of Saul. One was for his prowess in defeating Goliath, the other was when he was chosen (partly for looks, partly for musical ability) and anointed with a horn of oil. Since the crescent moon is shaped like a horn, this horn could be related to the waning crescent moon shamanic initiation. But (March 2014) the divine horn of oil could have been the curved cone/tuneneling that I observed during my sun stare, with its wide mouth towards me.
Asimov, in his description of the David and Goliath story, just mentions one stone and the sling (and I don't have a copy of the OT here in town, probably in Lake View). But yesterday evening I was relaxing while my nieces were watching on the YTV (youth TV) channel a show entitled Wishbone. This seems to present moral fables to children, with a cute dog as the star to keep their attention. This dog acted out the part of David in the story of David and Goliath, and it was mentioned that he took "FIVE perfectly round, smooth stones" and his sling. These five stones and the sling could represent the 5.5 lunar month period I have mentioned, so five full moons followed by the crescent moon. This is the Jewish story of David and Goliath; I believe the Christian version may mention only the one stone used.
Here is some writing from a Dec. 8, 2003 newsgroup post, edited a little since:
From Genesis 9:12--17 so referring to the Jewish God, [I guess defined as creator of the universe (space and its contents) earlier in Genesis, in my interpretation]:
12 And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: 13 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. 14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: 15 And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. 17 And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.
Now some of the limited research I have done for my Salmon on the Thorns web site, very little since 1997 since I hoped then others would build on my start, has been of the form of stumbling on things, and I look on that, including this case, as a form of divine guidance. Why this case? After posting stuff on Noah's dove and my July 13, 1997 dove or lily of the valley or dancing sky vagina vision to talk.religion.misc on Dec. 7, 2003, late on the morning of Dec. 8 I decided to glance at my sister's bible to look at the mentions of Noah's dove and I then stumbled on the above passage.
The main point of the passage above for me is that the bow in the clouds is the sign of the covenant and I think is a waning crescent moon peeking through the clouds (and I have already elsewhere suggested that the anointing by the horn of oil may be the same thing since a waning crescent moon is shaped like a horn and the oil represents the inspiration, for Christians by the Holy Spirit; and also that the ark may have been shaped like a waning crescent). Now on my Salmon on the Thorns web page I have long mentioned the bow of Kama and the bow of the Iowa Dakota Salmon youth but nobody bothered to mention to me the above bow of the Jewish God. Also as I have mentioned before, said waning crescent is prominent on Islamic country flags and mosques. (But the bow in the clouds could have been a rainbow instead, and the divine horn of oil might have been the curved cone/tunneling I observed during my sun stare with its wide mouth towards me.)
Some further points on the anointing by the horn of oil, which I mention twice above, are that anointing by the horn of oil is part of initiation to the kingship, but that it may represent an anointing by the divine (Christians say by the Holy Spirit), I think in the form of a waning crescent moon inspiration, since the waning crescent is shaped like a horn. Also from the Concise Oxford Dictionary the word Messiah comes from the Aramaic m'shiha and the Hebrew masiah meaning anointed. So one who has waning crescent inspiration is a Messiah type.
HOWEVER (March 2014), on examining some pictures of horns of oil, the horn of oil is shaped more like the curved cone/tunneling I observed during my sun stare, with its wide mouth towards me, rather than like the waning crescent moon. The sun stare occurred late in my first waning crescent high. Thus the sun stare experience counts as my anointing by the divine, whether the divine horn of oil is the waning crescent moon or, more likely, the curved cone/tunneling I observed during my sun stare.
From memory I think that Jacob had to work for seven years for the father of Leah and Rachel until he could marry one of them, and it turned out to be not the one he was most interested in. He then had to promise to work for seven more years before (after the promise, not the extra seven years?) he could marry the other one as well. From that I think that Jacob had fourteen years of low years, similar to Rama and Glooskap, and unlike many figures (e.g. Amergin, Buddha) who had just seven years. (I am now, December 23, 2021, approaching 26 years, I think since I have a global region.)
Also I think that Amergin's primary siddhi was weatherworking whereas Jesus's was healing, mine has been matchmaking, and I think Jacob's was probably an agricultural ability combining green thumb and animal husbandry.
A possibly related story, from Daniel 4, is that of Nebuchadnezzar spending seven years in a beast-like state, which I take to mean that Nebuchadnezzar or maybe Daniel had seven years of low years.
The Leonard Cohen song Dance Me to the End of Love is I suspect partly based on Jewish traditions, and has the lines
Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic 'til I'm gathered safely in
Lift me like an olive branch
Be my homeward dove
Dance me to the end of love
I interpret the burning violin as the clear sky lightning which marked the onset of three of my five waning crescent highs. I interpret the panic as my waxing gibbous moon trial periods with release by full moon. And perhaps the homeward dove is related to the Noah's dove I mention above, which I think may be my July 13, 1997 vision of the dancing sky vagina or lily of the valley or dove. However this is a romantic song and I think the term homeward dove would not refer to a dove vision early in my low years but perhaps a woman who when I get together with her will cause me to be released from my low years, so homeward referring to coming out of the low years. However all that is my interpretation and Leonard Cohen may have other interpretations and would know to what extent he drew on Jewish traditions in writing the song.