3) The Spider

    Where can enlightenment be found? And how shall we know when we have found it? It implies a leaving behind of darkness and entering somewhere different with a different state of mind, after something has happened to bring that state about.
     We have already found amazing things and can relate to what they tell us. We need a different direction to help us avoid past mistakes being repeated, but need to be sure of the path we take. A forest of decisions face us and we can feel as if the trees are closing in.
    We now need confidence that there is an answer and that we shall be given help to find it, and determination to persevere until we do. This 3rd section of the four is the most obscure and at first the most difficult to understand, because it takes us on a journey that these days is seldom undertaken. We can skip the journey for now and continue to something lighter in section four, but we will remain in the dark about its true meaning. Section 3 is something that must be understood if we want to leave the forest, but before we can leave, we must decide to enter.
    If we are faced with tough decisions we always have the option to avoid them, to walk around the edge of the forest, either by thinking that the forest can look after itself, or pretending that the forest doesn't exist at all. The problem is that 9 times out of 10 the forest finds a life of its own and like some real life Grimms fairy tale the problem suddenly engulfs us, demanding an instant answer.
     If we are faced with tough decisions we always have the option to face them, to look at them head on and not flinch at the options we see. The problem is that 9 times out of 10 we see only the problems, the trees in this forest, and therefore the obvious options seem to be the only options.

    There is more to a forest than just the trees. We can look with the straight line of logic and choose to see just a wall of wood, or we can look with a little intuition and realise that each tree is surrounded by space. It is by curving through the space between the trees that we reach the solution.
    The ancients understood this well. They saw these physical characteristics in animals and made the animals sacred, representing the embodiment of a human virtue. If we imagine someone who is capable of walking with ease between the trees of a difficult problem and imagine them weaving from side to side as they dodge the obstacles, we can imagine them creating an elongated S as they weave through the forest. This S track is of course the one followed by snakes, and serpents were at one time looked on as sacred, representing wisdom.

a) Unpicking the Knot

    The ancients seem to have understood a lot more than we generally credit them with. Their lives were as much a story of change as ours are today. Whereas the change in our lives is driven by the discoveries of science, theirs was driven by the realisations of religion - no less a powerful force. We worship at the temple of knowledge, while they worshipped at the temple of belief. Or was there more to it than that? Nowadays there is very little evidence of what early man did believe, yet from time to time writers and scholars appear who believe that they can tell us. Robert Graves (1895-1985) was one of them.
    Graves was primarily a poet, but in 1944 wrote what was termed a 'historical novel' called King Jesus. Graves had been reading a book a friend had sent him when he was struck by a flash of inspiration. His poetic erudition had allowed him to make a breakthrough where others had seen a baffling puzzle. He had seen a path open up through the unpenetratable wall that others saw and was able to write what to him was the unravelling of the mystery surrounding the birth, life and death of the historical figure of Jesus. Unsurprisingly, when the book was published in 1946, his approach did not go down well and the book was not a success.
    At the same time as Graves was writing King Jesus he started on another book that was to become The White Goddess, a far more successful work. Graves used the same tools - his poetic insight, and the same clues - the key to the Celtic religious beliefs, that he realised had come down through the Greeks and Romans as an offshoot from an earlier base religion. That earlier base religion, Graves realised, had also been the foundation of the Jewish religion, as well as the foundation for the religious beliefs of the Celts.
    The key that Graves had intuited was that the alphabets, or Oghams, of the Celtic bards contained not only letters, but trees, animals, seasons and months of the year. Each letter was not only a sound that we could form and use to create and shape into a sequence to communicate our feelings and intelligence to others, but each letter was also a communication to us, telling us of the sequence of the year, with a tree allocated to each letter in the correct sequence of its flowering to match the month allocated to that letter. Similarly with flowers, birds, fruit etc., with the month allocated to a particular letter being the cornerstone. There were also four secret letters, held in deep regard and hiding a particular secret.
    Graves found that by using this system he could 'back engineer' many of the Celtic rhymes that had seemed nonsensical to the more conventional scholar. Despite inviting conventional scholars to test his work, none would take the challenge, and even today academics ignore The White Goddess. In fact today the situation seems worse than in Graves' own lifetime. The idea of early nature religions being presided over by a Goddess is being superseded by the belief that the Goddesses were always presided over by Gods: that religion always was patriarchal; ie, that the male always dominated the female. (Please bear in mind that although the preceding sentence does sound like it is describing a change in religious belief, it is describing a change in scientific belief).
    It gets worse. Graves' own words are being used by some to belittle his discoveries. When describing The White Goddess, Robert Graves once said: "It is a crazy book; I didn't mean to write it." One eminent scholar has taken this to mean that in retrospect, Graves wished that he had not written the book at all. I would like to put the case that Graves explained what he meant while giving a talk in New York in 1957, given as an appendix in the book, when he told the audience that the first draft of 70,000 words was written in three fevered weeks and that much of it was written first and the facts checked afterwards. That sounds pretty crazy by anyone's standards. He said in the same talk that the writing started suddenly while he was doing research for a completely different project, and that he wrote non stop for the first night and day. I can well understand that he would later say that he didn't mean to write it.
    But how can we expect any scholar to understand this? To be rooted in learning and not having felt the tug of an out of control idea. To watch your students bloom, yet only see the dust on your books. To smell a flower, yet only have a nose for facts. To be able to sense the strength of a tree, yet be unable to sense a truth. To know that you're right when all your peers agree.
    I hope that in the 21st century we can rely on a scholar to investigate a truth in whatever form it takes.

    So, to what use did Robert Graves put these out of control truths with which he filled his crazy book?
    Graves reconstructs the two main Oghams of the Celts and unravels the deeper meaning of our myths and other strange stories. He manages to blend history, religion and mythology effortlessly, in a way that remains unique in its inscrutable readability to this day. Yet once you read and re-read it the confusing magic of his words can dissolve the barriers betweeen you and the past, and sweep you, as though in some illogical time tunnel, into that past. Yet the book still manages to leave the reader wanting. It is as though he was trying to say something, but did not know what it was. The whole book seems to edge around a something that has relevance for us today, but leaves a great whole in the middle unfulfilled; as if he is marking out a great area with which the subject matter of The White Goddess connects, although that something remains missing. I believe it can be shown that what his book connects with has now been found.

    So now let us go on a journey into the tunnel that Graves carves out for us. Let us slide from our reality into the reality of the past. Let us go deeper and faster until we see the past flashing by as we hurtle past the events that we recognise from our history books. Let us go further than the records of our history go, until we see strange sights, and unfamiliar things assail our senses.
    As we slow, we sense something in the tunnel ahead and realise as we get closer that there are hands and arms waving at us, reaching down, waiting for us. As we get closer we can see that they are drenched in blood; it is dripping onto the floor, splashing. The hands grasp us roughly by the shoulders and wrench us upward, up, up through the ground until we are spun round and pushed firmly back down and we find ourselves sitting cross legged on the damp grass with the other members of the tribe. We are arranged in a large circle, about 100 yards in diameter. We are all looking towards the centre, transfixed by the scene there. There are eleven figures in the central area, separated from us by a circular ditch with low banks, one on our side and one on theirs.
    We could be almost anywhere on the planet. Wherever we are, the age of the hunter gatherer, the age of living totally at the mercy of the vagaries of Nature, at the mercy of the natural supply of fruits, berries and roots, has just ended. The rudiments of agriculture have just been introduced - either by invaders, or by people who have travelled to other areas returning with new techniques - and a new religion. The old ways of a natural harmony are over. Man has started to take control - not very successfully.
    One man is selected each year to lead the tribe. He says what goes. He has been the most successful with his crops the previous year and has earned admiration and respect. Nature has shone bountifully on him and surely Nature will approve of him being the new leader. He will lead the tribe for a year, and at the end of that time, in the depths of winter, he will be swept away and his natural successor will be installed.
    We have arrived on our journey to witness this ceremony, one that our ancestors participated in countless years ago.

    The tribe fall silent as the eleven people in the centre of the circle cease their wild dance and take their positions. All attention is focused on the stake in front of the crackling fire. About five feet high, it has what looks like leather thongs hanging from the top. Despite it being a cold night, all eleven dancers are sweating. All naked, one of the two men and the nine women are covered in body paint. Highly decorated, the women have leaves and berries in their hair, and as they form into three groups of three, to the left, right, and directly behind the stake, we notice that each group is decorated differently, representing a different aspect of Nature. The tribe know the ceremony well and are getting more excited, some rising to their feet in expectation of what is about to happen.
    The painted male moves towards the unpainted figure and shouts at him angrily. The shout is echoed by the nine women and by some of the crowd, who are all on their feet now. The painted man is yelling at the crowd, telling them what he will do for the tribe in his year of office: how things will be better for them all, how things will improve how they have never improved before, how their lives will be easier, how Nature will shine on them, how he will be like no other. The crowd are starting to shout encouragement at him, and this fuels his performance. He turns towards the outgoing king, whose eyes and expression are empty, and the shouting starts again. This time the crowd joins in. The hardships of the year are turned into vengeance and lust for blood. The outgoing king, spirit broken, moves slowly to take up his new position. The nine women start to scream insults at the lone figure in front of the stake.
     As the yelling and screaming of all the failings of the outgoing king reaches a crescendo, the three women directly behind the stake step forwards and grasp the figure roughly, spin him round so that his back is against the stake, push him firmly down so that he is kneeling, wrench his arms above his head, then tie his crossed hands securely to the top of the stake with the leather thongs. The three women return to their places behind the stake. The tension is now unbearable. The tribe are still crazy with anger at the figure tied to the stake, whose head is now slumped on his chest. Slowly a new atmosphere is entering the scene - one of anticipation and expectation.
    Suddenly, one of the women from the central group leaps sideways. The effect is electric. There is an instant silence. The woman moves, striding purposefully towards the painted man, the king elect. For an instant he seems unnerved, but shifting his stance, regains composure. The woman stops in front of him. The tension is mounting. She pauses as though considering something. Slowly, she then raises her right arm until it is level with the man's chest. Her fist is clenched around something almost too large for her to hold. She opens her hand revealing a large red apple. The apple, the sweetest and most prolific fruit of the area, represents her bounty and fruitfulness, the greatest gift that Nature has. The man again seems shaken, as though he cannot believe what is happening to him. He knows that his destiny, and that of the entire tribe hangs in the balance. He takes the apple, remembering his promise to be more powerful than the ones who went before.
    The nine women start to wail. An unearthly sound that sends shivers down the spine. The moon is about to reach its high point in the sky on this full moon night, and one king is about to be installed as another dies.
     As suddenly as it started the wailing stops. Now all nine women start to stamp the ground, gently at first, then increasing in speed and ferocity until it is an urgent demand. The new king knows what is expected of him. He will live up to the expections of his tribe. He will do what he knows is the right thing to do. The Godess has spoken. Nature must have her blood. Man has decided.
     The new king obeys. He picks up a knife from a large slab of stone that has been inset into the ground in front of the fire. He squats down in front of the superceded king and lowers the knife. The cut removes the penis, the blood gushing down to fertilise the earth. What the king was not able to bring about during the course of his year's reign, his blood now does symbolically as his last act in life.
     As the first splash of blood hits the ground the tribe goes wild. They dance and whoop, ecstatic that one period of hardship is over and that the new year has been started in the best possible way. The new king turns to the crowd and holds up his arms. They fall silent. He holds something in his hands. He goes towards the stone slab, kneels reverently and places the old king's penis in the centre. He then returns to the still living body and waits for the blood to stop flowing. As the blood slows the tribe start to get impatient. The king knows what is expected of him. He will live up to the expectations of his tribe. He will do what he knows is the right thing to do.
    The new king turns to the tribe. Again he raises his arms in a call for silence. Again they do his bidding. He turns, and again squats in front of the stake. Again a cut. Again he returns to the slab. Two testicles are placed next to the penis.
    This is the sign for mayhem to break loose. The old king has been emasculated. Power has been transferred to the new king, his emasculator. The deed has been done. The wheel of the year has been spun anew.
    But they have forgotten something. The king is not the only one in the centre of the circle. Man is not the one in charge.
    There is a terrible screaming as the nine hitherto silent women come alive. As one they leap on the body of the dying king and tear him down from the post. One of them rips the knife from the hand of the new king. What he has made a token gesture of, they will do properly. They leap and cavort over and around the body as the one with the knife is hacking, then twisting and wrenching at the arms and legs to dislocate them at the joints. They are reminding the tribe, and the new king, just who is in charge. It is Nature, in the form of the Goddess, here in the person of her 3 times 3 representatives, who is in control, just as she always has been.
    Eventually, eight of the women approach the slab and lay body parts on it. The woman with the knife returns it to the new king, enabling her to pick up the severed head of the old king and place it too on the slab. now there is just the torso lying on the ground and the new king knows what he has to do. As the nine women dance around he quickly guts the body and places it along with the other parts on the slab. The body has been divided into fourteen parts, thirteen of them placed on the slab, ( 1 x head, 1 x torso, 2 x upper arms, 2 x lower arms, 2 x upper legs, 2 x lower legs, 2 x testes, 1 x penis ) and one left separate and apart, ( the entrails ).
    The deed is done. The ceremony is over. The year has begun anew with a new king and new hope. The tribe is now in party spirit and for this one night of the year will have a special feast that their new king is now preparing. He has moved the body parts from the the slab to the fire, making sure they are cooked evenly, as is the custom. The offal is left on the ground to be divided up for any who want it. The tribe is moving forwards, crossing the sacred enclosure for the only occasion that this is permitted. The women who have played the parts of the Goddess are being congratulated on their performance by their families, who have brought them clothes to shield them against the cold of the night.
    We are starting to shiver and shake, the impact of what we have witnessed starting to take hold. As the others move forwards we want to pull back, to retreat from this scene of barbarity, to return to our own time, where our behaviour is more controlled, more civilised, more . . . and we feel the ground soften beneath us as we enter the tunnel again and start to accelerate back towards our own time.

    We are moving backwards, but not as fast as we did before. We are able to see time sliding before us and the changes within those times. We can see how religious practices changed. We did not go back in our time tunnel far enough to see the time before religion developed, but can see the changes from the first relgions, the time we have just visited. We can see how the demands and taboos placed on the tribe were increased to increase the power of the Goddess - and her earthly representatives. How the sacrificed king was replaced by a sacrificed animal to give the tribe more stability, at the same time giving the king a longer reign, and consequently more power. How the power struggle between the sacred king and the representatives of the Goddess, coupled with man's growing confidence in his agricultural abilities, led to a growing feeling of independence from Nature. How these factors led to the begining of the worship of gods rather than goddesses and consequently how the patriachal system was born.
    We can see more detailed changes through the transparent roof of our time tunnel. Things really are becoming clearer. We can see for instance how the memories of the old ways were incorporated into the decisions and actions of later times, how they were recorded at a later time still, to come down to us today as something that does not quite make sense, yet seems to be of such importance that we tend to accept it without question.
    We are starting to slow as we reach one of these occurrences. We do not know the exact time we have stopped at, but scholars tell us it is somewhere around 1500 BC. One man has fathered twelve children. He has reached the age of 180 and knows he is about to die. It is time for him to bequeath them their inheritance. He is of course a true patriarch - he tells them what to do. "Eleven of you will start tribes, but one of you, my favourite, will not." "Instead, I grant him a double portion, not for him though, but for his two sons, my grandchildren, who will each start tribes." This meant that thirteen tribes would be started. "One tribe though will be split equally amongst the others, one twelfth part of this tribe remaining with each of the other twelve tribes, where they will act as preists."
    If looked at literally, as most do, this is a very strange story. It can be found in the Book of Genesis in the Holy Bible and can indeed be looked on as a record of the early history of the tribes of Israel. Jacob, the father in the above story, was in fact the original Israel, his name having been changed from Jacob to Israel after another strange event, and even his original name has a special meaning.     Maybe it is time to start at the beginning.

(1)    Jacob was born as one of twins, his brother Esau being born just a few seconds before Jacob. It is said that they were so close together that Jacob held tightly to Esau's heel as he was being born. In fact you could say they were born as one and separated after the birth. This heel holding is given such importance that his original name, Jacob, contains the root of the word for 'heel' in the Hebrew language.
(2)    Esau is described as being of red complexion and hairy, while Jacob is described as pale and smooth skinned. Esau is described as a hunter, while Jacob was studious. Two opposites.
(3)    Esau, being the first born, would expect the lion's share of his father's inheritance, his birthright, but he is not interested in it. One day he returns home exhausted and starving and accepts a pot of lentil soup from Jacob. Jacobs price is Esau's birthright. Esau readily agrees.
(4)    Jacob, having obtained the birthright from Esau, has now to deceive his father Isaac to receive the blessing that by right is Esau's. Jacob does not want to deceive his father himself, so his mother steps in to tell Jacob to do it, reminding him that as he is following her instructions he is therefore blameless.
(5)     Isaac is deceived into thinking he is giving the blessing to Esau. When Esau finds out that he has not only given away his birthright, but has lost his blessing as well, he vows to kill Jacob. Their mother again intervenes, getting Isaac to send Jacob to her brother's house to look for a wife. At this point Esau too goes off to find a wife.
(6)    Jacob falls in love with his uncle's younger daughter, Rachel, and makes an arangement with his uncle, Laban, to marry Rachel after he has worked for Laban for seven years. After seven years Laban tricks Jacob into marrying his elder daughter, Leah, When Jacob realises, Laban agrees that after a week he can marry Rachel, providing he works for another seven years. Jacob agrees.
(7)    After the second seven years had passed Jacob wanted to leave, but Laban wanted him to stay, asking Jacob what he wanted as wages. Jacob suggested a deal whereby all animals with uniform colouring would go to Laban, but all animals born with mottled colouring would go to Jacob as his wages. Laban agreed, but immediately tried to outwit Jacob by sending all his mottled animals to his son's flocks. Jacob responds by instigating a selective breeding programme, soon amassing large flocks of mottled animals - and great wealth. Soon Laban's sons grew jealous. It was time for Jacob to return home.
(8)    Three days passed before Laban realised that Jacob and his entourage had left and it took another seven days for him to catch up with them. Laban was furious , not only because Jacob had left with his daughters, but also because the images of his gods had gone missing as well, taken by Rachel.
(9)     Laban knew that he could kill Jacob if he wanted to, but Jacob reminded him how he had tried to trick and outwit Jacob at every turn, and how Jacob in return had stayed for twenty years and had kept every part of his side of the bargains they had made. Laban realised that the only way forwards was to think of the future, so he suggested a peace treaty that was agreeable to both sides.
(10)    Jacob continued on his journey with his family, flocks and servants until he neared his home. He was unsure how Esau would react, so he divided his group into two, so that at least one half of them should survive should Esau attack, and also sent ahead presents of small flocks of animals.
(11)    At this point Jacob has a strange encounter. It is night, he directs everyone to cross a stream at a ford, but remains there himself. He is met by a being, (man or angel is not clear), who proceeds to wrestle with him until daybreak. Neither of them have given to the other when Jacob's opponent touches him in the hollow of his thigh, causing the sinew to shrink and leaving him with a limp. Jacob is then asked his name, which he gives, and is told that henceforth his name shall be called Israel. Jacob asks his opponent his name, which he refuses to give, asking in return why Jacob wants to know his name.
(12)    Jacob should not have worried about his reunion with Esau. Esau and his men journied far to greet him and welcome him warmly. Jacob offered him gifts of cattle, but Esau refused, saying that he had enough. Esau then started on his long journey back to his own land, leaving Jacob's slower moving group to follow.
(13)    They set up camp along the way at the city of Shalem, which was ruled by Shechem, son of Hamor, a Canaanite. Dinah, Jacob's only daughter, went into the city where she met Shechem. The Bible says he 'lay' with her and fell in love with her. Shechem with his father went to ask permission to marry her. An agreement was made whereby Shechem could marry Dinah on condition that all the men of Shalem were circumcised. Hamor and Shechem agreed, the account in the Bible noting that Shechem was an honourable man.
(14)    Three days after the circumcisions took place, when the men of Shalem were still recovering, two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, entered the city and slew all the men, including Hamor and Shechem, took the women and children prisoner and then sacked the city, and, we are told, then removed Dinah from Shechem's house. Jacob was furious with Simeon and Levi and was also worried that the Canaanites might attack him, so moved on yet again.

    As mentioned above, this story can be looked on as part of the history of the tribes of Israel. It can also be looked on as something of a morality play:  Young man takes advantage of his brother (refers to para (3) above) - deceives his father (4) - runs away (5) - falls in love (6) - works hard for a long time to acheive his heart's desire (6) - keeps his patience when tricked himself (6) - gains his hearts desire (6) - honours his agreements (7) - counters trickery with cunning (7) - when cornered, the respect he has gained allows his enemy to make an honourable settlement (9) - again shows his tenacity and endurance (11) - for which he is rewarded (11) - is shown that past differences can be forgotten (12) - deals honourably with his neighbour, despite trying circumstances (13) - and finally, acts with a measured reponse when everything he has struggled for, including his reputation, is put in jepardy by two of his own sons who vent their anger, not only on an honourable man and his father with whom an agreement has already been made, but also on innocent women and children (14).
    The moral of the story is on several levels. On the practical level: Despite making mistakes at the beginning, if you learn to work hard for what you want, not be satisfied with second best and persevere through hardship and setbacks, you will do well. On the moral level: Despite a shaky start, if you are honest with others and yourself, stick to your word and not react with anger to personal injustice, but act with intelligence and restraint, you will gain not only respect from others but self respect. You will then find that your enemies will be more likely to deal with you with respect instead of anger, and those you have wronged in the past are more likely to forgive.

    The story of Jacob also brings out some of the religious differences of the time. Jacob is part of a 'chosen line' in direct communication with God, but he has to live with the earlier pagan religion all around him. If read carefully it is possible to see traces of older religious practices, both in the story of Jacob and earlier in the Bible. Probably the most well known occurrence is when Abraham, only two generations before Jacob, very nearly made a human sacrifice of his son, being prevented just in time by divine intervention.
    The first occurrence of sacrifice in the Bible is in the story of Cain and Abel. They both made burnt offerings to God. Cain made an offering of what he produced, described as fruits of the field, while Abel sacrificed a lamb, as he was a shepherd. Bible commentators still argue over the reason for what happened next. God congratulates Abel, but is not pleased with Cain. The Hebrew translates as: ......And the Lord had respect unto his offering; but unto Cain and his offering he had not respect. (Genesis 4 : 4-5).
    Why is Cain's offering not respected? There is no clear answer, but the traditional interpretation is that Cain's sacrifice was not from the heart, ie: he did not truly worship God. What does this leave us with? Who did he worship? If he did not worship God, did he worship a pagan god? If so, he might have worshipped a goddess. Cain's offering was 'fruits of the field', normally interpreted as grain. It is quite likely that the 'God' he worshipped was a nature goddess, as wheat, corn, barley etc was in ancient times sacred to the Goddess.
    One way to interpret this story is to 'expand out' the players. In other words, Cain and Abel are not individuals, but groups. So the story now becomes that patriarchal worship (the worship of a god) was introduced in the area, but at first some of its supporters (Abel) were killed by the adherents of a matriachal (goddess worshipping) religion (Cain) who then left the area. If looked on like this, the early old testament of the Bible takes on a whole new look and becomes a lot more understandable, solving many of its problems (not least, the sudden appearance of Cain's wife).

    Suggesting something like the above is all very well, but are there any more occurrences of the remnants or transition of goddess worshipping in the old testament? This is not the place for a full analysis of the Bible, but we can stop a little longer to look in more detail at the story of Jacob.
    From the very birth of Jacob and Esau a marked distinction is drawn between them. Esau red and hairy, Jacob smooth and studious. Esau, not interested in his inheritence, Jacob so interested that he is prepared to deceive his father to get it. When it is remembered that their father is Isaac, son of Abraham, and that therefore the inheritence in question is to further the God worshipping tribes, it is easy to see how 'red and hairy' Esau could well be describing a pagan. Remembering that Jacob was living in a time when followers of Yaweh were actively encouraged to intermarry with pagans, thereby converting them to the new style of worship, it is not surprising to see Jacob's mother ensuring that Jacob receives his father's blessing. She was also the one that ensured that no harm came to him when Esau realised what had happened - a true wise woman if ever there was one.
    Evidence of the fact that this was a time of transition between the two forms of worship is dotted throughout. From Rachel's taking of her father's images to Jacob himself, much later in his life, telling his family and servants to remove their personal adornments and to give him their 'strange gods' before he erected an alter to his Lord (Genesis 35). The clearest evidence however concerns Jacob himself, when it appears that he had what today would be called a religious experience.
    When Jacob was about to meet his brother Esau for the first time since their terrible parting he thought he was about to die. He was showing signs of great nervousness. He sent out many gifts of animals. He parted his family in two, so that one part would survive should the other be attacked. He moved at night, presumably so that his movements would not be seen.
    One night Jacob stayed behind at a ford, met a man/angel and wrestled with him throughout the night, only stopping at daybreak when he suffered an injury to his thigh that left the sinew in Jacob's thigh shrunken, and gave him a limp. Just after he received the injury Jacob asked the man/angel for a blessing. He asked Jacob his name. When Jacob told him, Jacob was told in return that his name was now changed to Israel.
    To most this remains just a strange story, but with the help of Robert Graves it is possible to see what is going on. Early sacrifices were human. The sacred king died. Dismembered, he was put on the fire, the original burnt offering. Slowly practices changed. An animal was substituted for the king but he did not escape totally. He was ritually injured in memory of the original dismemberment. His thigh was partially dislocated causing a shrinkage of the sinew, which, although being put back into joint, would leave the sufferer with at least a limp, more likely a hobbling gait similar to that seen in a partridge.
    What is interesting from the point of view of the story of Jacob is that this ritual dislocation was performed at a river or stream. The sacred king was secured by one foot to the bank, the other tied to a boat in the water. Nature would do the rest. Jacob's encounter took place at a stream or river crossing. He was certainly the sacred king of his tribe. But what of the name change?
    When one religious group supplanted another, the incoming group would always suppress the name and worship of the original god/goddess, changing the name of the officially worshipped god to their own. The name was so important that each god had a public as well as a secret name. Yahwey (JHWH) for instance is a public name, (the secret name is conjectured to have as many as seventy two letters). Of course a new religious group would need a new name for their god and maybe, for their leader. So what did happen that night?
     Jacob gave his name and was given a new one, signifying that some religious change had taken place. There are several possible scenarios:
1)    Had Jacob not been the true leader up to that point? Had he recently passed his final test of suitability and that night suffered the injury to obtain his full kingship and consequently was given his new name?
2)     Did Jacob wrestle with his conscience that night? Was he tempted, for instance, to make a pagan sacrifice but did not, keeping true to the teachings of the new religion? Did he receive his new name as a result of this?
3)    Did Jacob make some kind of religious deal with Esau? Some kind of peace pact that was acceptable to both sides with Jacob having a name change because of it.
4)    What if .....
    The truth is, we will never know. What the Bible does tell us is that when Jacob met Esau he found love, not hate. That is what matters.
    There is one more occurrence of the old religious beliefs in the story of Jacob, and this is the most obscure, most bizarre, and the most telling.

    As we saw at the very beginning of our visit to the time of Jacob, he had 12 sons. At the time that he gave them their blessings he blessed 11, saying that they would grow into tribes, but leaving out his favourite, Joseph, thereby losing him as a son for the purpose of the blessings. Instead, he blessed Joseph's two sons, making blessings for 13. Jacob called Joseph's two sons his own, making the total number of his sons 14, 14 parts to his body. Levi was told that he would have no land, being divided between the other 12, his tribe acting as preists.
    There seems to be a direct parallel between this 'true' Bible story and the story of Osiris, another sacred king. Osiris, consort of Isis, and sun god of the Egyptians was torn into 14 pieces by his rival, Set. One of his parts was lost too - his penis. Which man would not say that his penis was his favourite part?
    It just so happens that according to the Bible story, a great part of Joseph's life was spent in Egypt, by coincidence at the palace, where his most well known accomplishment was to interpret the dreams of the pharaoh, traditionally the job of a preist. Later, Jacob and his sons moved to Egypt, Jacob spending the last seventeen years of his life there.
    But what of poor Levi, the unlucky 13th, split between the remaining 12 sons who did receive blessings? He could easily be seen as a direct parallel of the offal in the earliest human sacrifices, not made a burnt offering, but split between the others.

     We have not quite finished with the story of Jacob as there is yet another thread to add to the list. Most modern commentators agree that the Bible contains a strong element of myth. Some actually go as far as to say that the Bible is 100% myth, but this seems to be based on the premise that they are not able to have proof that such things are possible. What proof do they want?
     When Jacob was born he was holding tightly to the heel of his twin, Esau. As Esau was the first born this meant that he would inherit the kingship of his father's tribe, at the same time becoming the sacred king of the religious group. As we know, Esau was supplanted by Jacob, who overthrew him to take over the leadership of the tribe. Mythology tells us that one vunerable spot on a sacred king is his heel. The myth records the story of Achilles and tells us that his mother dipped him in the Styx, the river that separated the world of the living from the underworld, to make him invunerable to his enemies. Unfortunately the part of the heel by which his mother held the child did not get wet, leaving that one part of his body unprotected. It was by Jacob touching this part of Esau's body that rendered his twin vunerable to him. If you imagine dangling a child by his heel, you can see exactly where the vunerable part would have been. The hand would wrap around the pad of the heel, with the thumb and forefinger gripping the hollow each side, between the leg bone and what we call the Achille's tendon.
    As a side note, it was by a nail at precisely this point that 1500 years later another sacred king was pinned to the cross at his crucifiction.

    We can now finally remove ourselves from Robert Graves' claustrophobic time tunnel; where we feel the past uncomfortably close to our present.

    So, does the Bible really contain all this in one story? History, morality tale, religious symbolism, mythology and more all rolled into one? Of course. That is why the Bible is known as the greatest book ever written. But is it the word of God? Will it ever be possible to give a definitive answer to that? But as we have seen earlier, strange things are still possible - even in the 21st century.

    We have, so it would appear, been given a message perfectly tailored to address problems in our own time, and delivered in a way that, given the tools we now have at our disposal, is recognisable and understandable. In Jacob's day the tools we have were unavailable. If a message needed to be delivered in those times how would it have been accomplished? Maybe dreams, visions and other direct methods were the only option.
    These days it is fashionable, on the one hand, to 'write off' the Bible as myth or imagination, while on the other, it is thought necessary to be ever more extreme, more 'fundamental', even to the point of denying the truth of facts proven by science.   Why?  Cannot a religion accept that its stories from long past contain a mixture of many things, and remember that the most important thing it contains is the truth of its teachings. Just as each religion should remember that just because another religion does not contain the same historical details, that does not mean that its teachings cannot be added to the sum of the teachings available to us.

    So have there been other times when man has been offered assistance, maybe times even when this assistance was turned down or ignored. Is this what is meant by the mythical 'lost secret' or 'lost knowledge'? If so, is there a clue to help us find it?  Maybe there is - and it involves a spider.