TYPHOEUS OR TYPHON
 ZEUS AND TYPHON

Who is Typhon?   G.R.S.Mead writes:

"But Typhon is the passionate and titanic and reasonless and impulsive (aspect) of the soul, while of its corporeal (side he is) the death-dealing and pestilent and disturbing with unseasonable times and intemperate atmosphere and concealments of the sun and moon - as though they were the charges and obliterations of Typhon...Typhon was also called BEBON, and the name signifies "holding back" or "hindering", since Typhon (the power of) stands in the way of things going on their way and moving toward what they have to do."

Kerenyi tells us that TYPHON was a male Dragon:

"...the dragon TYPHOEUS - who is also called TYPHAON, TYPHON, or TYPHOS, and is also confused with the TYPHON of the Egyptians - was born to GAIA as her youngest son. His father was said to be TARTAROS."

Tartaros is HELL, the place to whence the Titans were banned. Tararuga is a tortoise, it is a `shell' existence.

                He was born in CILICIA in Asia Minor and inhabited a cave called " Leather Sack - the KORUKION ATRON." Kerenyi describes TYPHON as "...half man and half beast." He was therefore theriomorphic:

"He surpassed all Gaia's other children in size and strength. Above the hips he was shaped like a man, and was so tall that he overtopped the highest mountain and his head often knocked against the stars. One of his arms extended to the sunset and the other to the sunrise. From his shoulders grew a hundred heads of serpents. From the hips downwards he was shaped like two wrestling serpents, which towered up to the height of his head and yelled hissingly. As for the voices of the hundred heads, it is reported that the gods could often understand what he said, but he could also bay like a dog, or hiss so that the mountains echoed. The whole body of the monster was covered with wings, his eyes were afire.Hissing and bellowing, he flung stones at Heaven, the wild hair of his head and chin waved in the wind, and from his mouth spurted flames instead of spittle."

Kerenyi, Gods of the Greeks.

This image, in all of its visual and textural richness, as described by Kerenyi, can be truly called Typhonic, or Titanic.


TYPHOEUS OR TYPHON, ZEUS, AND AIGIPAN. [Kerenyi, Gods.]

 Another very old story is one that not even Hesiod, or those who expanded his poem of the origin of the gods, cared to tell us. It came back to us from Asia Minor. One is entitled to say 'come back', for the cave named 'Leather Sack' (korukos) - the korukion atron - is as well known to us at Delphi as it is over there in Cilicia; and so is a female dragon named Delphyne, who in parts of the world was ...

Links between CILICIA and DELPHI in the name of the CAVE: KORUKION ATRON.

                It was still uncertain whether or no Typhoeus would gain mastery over gods and men. But Zeus struck him from afar with lightning, and at close range with the steel sickle, and pursued him to Mount Kasion. When he saw that the dragon was wounded, he went in to fight him at close quarters. But he was at once caught in the writhing coils of the huge serpents, and the dragon seized the sickle from his hand and cut the sinews from the gods hands and feet. Typhoeus picked Zeus up on his shoulder, carried him through the sea to Cicilia, and left him in the cave...

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Note: TYPHON was born after the Overthrow of the Titans.  The TYPHAON of Delphi was born to Hera without a father. (Kerenyi.)   Delphyne, the female Dragon inhabited a cave at Delphi and in Cilicia and: "...in both parts of the world was associated with a male dragon named Typhon. The only difference is that in Asia Minor the dragon's opponent was Zeus, whereas in Delphi he was Zeus's son Apollon; and that Zeus defeated the male dragon, whereas Apollon defeated the female." Kerenyi, Gods.

SATURN/KRONOS - THE CASTRATOR

Saturn/Kronos, is generally identified as the castrator of his father - URANUS. But there is another facet to the operations of Saturn/Kronos that is generally ignored - and this is the fact that Saturn/Kronos does not only castrate his father, but that he separates Heaven and Earth. It is not only a mere act of castration.

SATURN/TYPHONIC ENERGIES IN MAIER.

                Emblem 44 of `Atalanta Fugiens' expresses aspects of the operation of TYPHON within the context of the Egyptian OSIRIS - ISIS Myth.The TITANS dismember Dionysus.Therefore, Typhonic is essentially, a TITANIC energy.

TYPHON IN ATALANTA FUGIENS

EMBLEM 50 - THE BLOOD BATH - sub-Heading:

                The 50th and final Emblem of `Atalanta Fugiens' presents us with a very deep psychic enigma in visual form:

                All of the material that has been used to amplify Emblem 50, points to one great theme: there are two major protagonists, HUMANS AND REPTILES. This confrontation manifests itself in various permutations.

                Emblem 50 continues the theme in which the Anima is shown linked or in Union with the Animus in theriomorphic form e.g. the chameleon fear of some women.

                In Emblems 25 and 50 Maier treats the subject of the Dragon is a very unorthodox way.

                But the unique aspect of Emblem 50 is that there is no Hero to defend and protect the woman, or to kill the Dragon, and the Dragon and the Woman are participants in a Union, or Marriage.

                Yet another unique aspect of this Emblem, is that the 'Marriage-bed', is also the Grave. Beneath the surface of the narrative, there is also the unspoken fact that this 'Marriage' is consummated with a conception, simultaneous to Death. Is this saying, in metaphysical terms, that conception and death are simultaneous events? Different sides of the same coin, or in other words, this is not a journey from the Womb to the Tomb, bur rather that the WOMB is the TOMB, and the TOMB is the WOMB.

Are there any other instances in the History of mythology where this dynamic correspondence takes place? Yes. Dionysus shut up in the 'coffin' with the body of his mother; Orion born from the grave of his mother - and Osiris impregnating Isis after his death.

Loose notes:

The position of the Male/Female figures recalls the countless other variations on this theme, and the 'St George and the Dragon' tales where the Dragon always occupies the position between the stereotyped threatened Feminine and the protecting masculine forces. In Emblem 25, Maier shows the actions arising from both 'Brother' and'Sister', the Sun and the Moon.This is a more credible paradigm.


                There are obviously profound resonances between Emblem 49 and Emblem 50. In Emblem 49 we have the Blood of the sacrificed bull, in whose skin the sperm of the Three Fathers of Orion is placed and then buried in the Grave of the deceased Mother. This Grave is again the Matrix and Birthplace of Orion. Maier suggests an esoteric parallel between these last two Emblems when he states:

            "Three rivers water our work, and a Dragon, most black."

   We also have to bear in mind, that in the Alchemical?Hermetic cluster of images, the REBIS, or Divine Androgyne is seen to emerge from the Marriage, and the REBIS Androgyne is shown standing on a Dragon in many Hermetic images.

   In all cases, the Dragon/Serpent/Reptile - though exterminated, is not without its used In the Grimm Fairy Tale, the Snake brings the healing Three Green Leaves. In the Slavonic tale, it is the blood of the Great Serpent that brings the wife back to life. In the case of Asklepios and Glaucus, the serpent/snake brings the healing herb.

    

   Show the thread of healing, victory over death, blood as the agent, birth from blood, eg. Medusa & Pegasus, the blood that Athene gave to Asklepios was the blood of Medusa, who had serpents in her hair. General associations with serpents and healing, the serpent is both poisonous and healing &c.

"...man probably had the salt of the sea in his blood." E.Wynne-Tyson. 

                Even The Head of Medusa, had its uses.

                The Dragons in the stories of Python, the Hesperides and Cadmus, are often referred to in other versions as Snakes. Jane Harrison seems to adopt this approach, which is illustrated by classical Greek iconography. How did the Snake become the Dragon? .


"Saturn will hold the Earth, which is Occidental, Retentive and Autumnal, in the West; then proceed to the North, where Mercury holdeth the Water, where the Matter is Watery and Flegmatic, and it is Winter, and the North expulsive."

                                                Philalethes in " An Exposition"

 SATURN; The position of Saturn/Typhon in the Osiris-Isis myth. See: Eliade on Mefistoles in `The Two and the One'. Plutarch on TYPHON, has many images of this Arcanum.

SATURN - on the Tree - is between Tifareth (6) and Hod(1).


ASPECTS OF SATURN

                During the reign of Janus, the most ancient king of Italy, Saturn came to Italy and was received by Janus with much hospitality. Janus even made Saturn his colleague on the throne. This co-rulership of Janus and Saturn has its inner applications - and would suggest a root source for the identification of Saturn with 'The Dweller on the Threshold' - because Janus "presides over all gates and avenues, and it is only through him that prayers can reach the immortal gods." Lempriere on JANUS.

The JANICULUM, was the original colony and town in Rome, founded by Janus.

NOTE: The psychic need of images of horror; crucifixions, bull fights, JAWS, Dracula, Frankenstein, Dali & Kudo, snails of flesh, ants, and so on.


APPENDIX

Commentary to Emblem 50, by Michael Maier.

"It is not for nothing that the dragons guard the chemical treasures, they are shown as vomiting flames, as are those of the Golden Fleece, the Gardens of the Hesperides and Cadmus and other similar myths. The Dragon lives in places closed by the subterranean stone and it is necessary to capture them to unite them to an eagle or a woman in a tomb, or if one prefers - to that in its own nest, because the nature of the Dragon in different circumstances is to take the egg of the eagle which would lead to a mortal (deadly) clash.     

                This is similar to the conflict between the scarab beetle and eagle in the `Monas' of Dr John Dee.

                It happened according to Greek writings that a Dragon loved a young woman and took her to bed (they slept together) - But what is so strange then if the Philosophers wish to close up a Dragon and a woman in a Cave? Grevero unites the black dragons and the red at the bottom of the abyss of a mountain, and burns them with fire - and when the black ones are dead he tells the guardian of the mountain to take them to the mountain.

                Merlin in his Vision (if this isn't a fiction) speaks of a white Dragon and a red Dragon. Who are these Dragon and do they belong with a woman or a female Dragon?They act together until both die and the blood from the wounds runs and covers them. It is intended that the Dragon is the elements of Earth and Fire and for the woman the elements of Air and Water.

Therefore `The Sound of the Trumpet' says: "The Dragon is the matter that stays at the bottom, while the water (i.e. the blood-Pelican) is used for distillation."

                The circular nature of the distillation process, the rotation of the fantasy, well equals the operations of the ANIMA, that is - volatile, while the earth, is the FIXED ANIMUS.

            "And quoting the words of Hermes: "The water and air between heaven and earth is the life of everything. In fact, the water revolves the body into spirit, vivifies the dead earth and realizes the union of man and woman.This is in fact the benefit of the Art." And equally speaking about the Earth: "That which we rest on isn't the real element Earth."

"But at the centre of the earth there is a virgin - and our true incombustible element. It is the Dragon we are talking about - that goes to the centre of the earth. It brings about a great heat which burns the woman or the eagle."

                The woman or the eagle, the Water or the Air - some say the White Eagle or the Blue - thanks to common Mercury or Salt sublimated - leaving us to be guided in the Art by some who are blind.

But the truth is, declares the Count Bernado in his Epistle:

"When you have understood the above - you have comprehended the eagle and the woman and also the Dragon and the secrets of the whole internal art - secrets at the base of Nature for the Child of the Teachings in these pages."

   It is strange that the cold Dragon emits a hot flame, nevertheless it is true since the Burning Serpents give out poisonous flames which damage those who are near - and it is for this reason that the dragons guard our chemical secrets.


The Great Struggle - between the TYPHONIC and the OLYMPIAN elements is also-

                The Great Confrontation: CON (with) - FRONT - (us) or:

(FACE TO FACE.)

                Face is to be understood in its Mystical Sense, of Beholding the FACE (or Facet) of God. BEHOLD! The Face of God.

The `Great Quarrel' is a theme that repeats from Osiris and Set, right through to St George and the Dragon. It is, of course, the basis for our Devil/Satan mythology.


In the Alchemical Ms. c.1600 reproduced by C.G.Jung and explained as:

"The spirit mercurialis and his transformations represented as a monstrous dragon. It is a quarternity, in which the forth is at the same time the unity of the three, the unity being symbolized by the mystagogue Hermes. The three (above) are (left to right) Luna, Sol, and conjunctio Solis et Lunae in Taurus, the House of Venus. Together they form Mercurius."

                This Dragon called PYTHON, or MERCURIALIS is a clue connecting the Python and the Spirit Mercurius:

"The Pythian Games founded in memory of Python who was both the fertilizing North Wind and the ghost of the sacred king killed by his rival Apollo." - Lempriere.

Mercury is well represented as a `wind' being aerial and the `North Wind' appears in Emblem 1 - and is a direct quote from the Emerald Table of HERMES TRISMEGISTUS.

DRAGON/ SPHINX:

The Sphinx appears in Emblem 39 in the Oedipus Myth - and the Dragon kills the woman and she kills it in Emblem 50, while in Emblem 25 "The Dragon does not died if it is not killed by its brother and sister i.e. Sol and Luna."

TYPHON - KRONOS AND TIME

TYPHONIC ELEMENT OF TIME

                Typhon in Plutarch. SET = Saturn/Kronos = Arcanum 15. How many parts is Osiris (Sun?) dismembered into? 14 including the Phallus? 13 without. 13 is the Exaltation of the Sun again, and 14 the Exaltation of the Moon. See: the Number of Lion Heads (13 and 14) (14 = Venus in Taurus.)

ANUBIS, the Keeper of the Parts, a Jackal-Headed God restored the 13 parts recovered by Isis (Veiled Isis - 2.)

                The ONE (1) unrecovered, was the Phallus.

Seven Arits or "Mansions" in the Egyptian Book of the Dead.

See: Plutarch p. 214, in Mead, is associated with TYPHON HIPPOPOTAMUS.

                In a dream, information was obtained about the Nature of Time and Space. When Mindell quotes Jung as saying "Mercury is the God of the unconscious.." - this is not accurate. The Mercury\Plutonic interfaces are many.

In the dreambody, Space is conquered, in the simple sense that "one" can fly - dimensions can be shifted to create dynamics of space which do not exist in the so-called "real" world, which is the domain of KRONOS\TIME.

                This Polarity could be expressed as Saturn-Mercury, the Fixed heaviness of LEAD, contrasted to the volatility of MERCURY.

                Another axis would be that of SATURN and VENUS - Time and Love. Love conquers Time. This again, can be seen as The Sun and The Moon. The Fixed Solar and the Mercurial Lunar.

                The masculine rationality is Time - the feminine intuition is Space.

                Simplistically stated, - Time is the conscious ordering Mind; Space, the unconscious, unordered Mind.

                What, therefore are the Dwellers on the Threshold?Though they have associations with Kronos\Saturn\Time, as in Arcanum 15 - it is obvious that this cannot be a terminal definition. More likely, the "shell" is a "threshold" that has to be broken.

                The Guardians, or Threshold Dwellers, such as Mermaids, Nagas, kLu, the Sphinx, Chimera etc. are at the point of Outer Time (the encrustations, or shell thereof) and Inner Space.

Time is of the Substance; Space the Essence.

                The Lineage of Time Guardians - e.g. Geryon is a Time God associated with Three Heads - perhaps the Three Times of Buddhism e.g. The Past, the Present and the Future.

Graves confirms that CADIZ is GADES, an oracular island, a certain Time\Kronos\Geryon power point.It is associated with "redness" as in red earth and the Red Sea, Erytheia, linked to the Sibyls, and to the Sea from which Dagon, Oannes, Ea, Enki, Oceanus emerged.

THE SEED OF TIME: AEON

AION

TION

TIME - Infinite (ITUM)

SAECULARIS - ETERNAL

SAECULUM

AEVUM -

AION

The Obstructors, the Guardians of Time.

The Symbol of Kronos is the Sickle/Scythe and Hour Glass.He thus precipitates his mother/wife Rhea, whose hands held the original sickle - the sickle of origination which castrates Uranus, and is also seen in the hands of The Reaper, MEM, the Mother Letter - Aries.See: "Before the right Time." Craven, and The Book of Enoch.


Kronos signifies the actual TIME for the division, parting or separation. Prof Guthrie gives this account:

"It was a common feature of early Greek cosmological beliefs, which they shared with those of the near East and elsewhere, that in the beginning all was fused together in an undifferentiated mass. The initial act in the making of the world, whether accomplished by the fiat of creator or by other means, was a separation, or division."

Guthrie gives examples from Diodorus, Euripides, Hesiod, and the Orphic Egg of Orpheus. (p. 68,69.) An example from Genesis:

"God divided the light from the darkness... and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament."

                Kronos/Saturn appears again in Egyptian form as Typhon who dissects the body of Osiris. As Dissection is on one level an analytical process, we can view the Typhonic operation in the alchemical terms here expressed by C.G.Jung:

"...the alchemists saw the essence of his art in separation and analysis on the one hand and synthesis and consolidation on the other."

This opens up a dual interpretation to the operations of Saturn/Kronos/Typhon, shown clearly in one of the esoteric Emblems associated with Saturn/Kronos in his form of 'The Goat of Mendes', a reflex of Arcanum 15 of The Sacred Tarot; which bears the motto:

                                                'SOLVE ET COAGULA.'

                                                (Dissolve and Coagulate.)

                Saturn/Kronos thus cuts up, or dissects structure, but also acts as a coagulator, which is perfectly expressed by the metal LEAD, associated alchemically with Saturn.

Kronos/Saturn as TIME is of vital significance in all processes. The first Emblem of Atalanta Fugiens carries a series warning to the practioner who overlooks the factor of TIMING. This is translated by Craven as:

"The fruit which lives concealed in the wind - look that it is not unsuitably born before its time, but comes living to earth in right measure."

                The theme is repeated in one of the cosmic visions of 'The Book of Enoch', which the angel describes as:

"This place is the end of heaven and earth: this has become a prison for the stars and the host of heaven. And the stars which roll over the fire are they which have transgressed the commandment of the Lord in the beginning of their rising, because they did not come forth at their appointed times."

Kronos/Saturn embodies the right timing of the fruition. The "undifferentiated mass" is separated and divided. The One is dissolved into the Many. The shell of the Cosmic Egg is cracked.

NOTES:

As we see/ will see in the BES -ALL GOD symbol, the Uroboros has to be considered within general Typhonic symbolism. It contains all the Typhonic/Chthonic/Titanic qualities within its encircling. It emerges at the deepest layers of consciousness.

TYPHON, was born AFTER the Titans were banished.

"Typhon is the passionate and titanic and reasonless and impulsive aspect of the soul..."&c Mead.

The TITANS dismember Dionysos. Therefore Titanic is essential a Typhonic Energy.

                TARTAROS is Hell, the place whence the Titans were banned/banished/exiled. TARTARUGA is a TORTOISE, it is the 'Shell' of Existence.

"Titans were first introduced into poetry by Homer, who says they are gods in Tartaros: the verses are in Hera's oath."

                                Pausanias 8, v.37,5.

This Homeric source is in the Illiad, 14,278f.

For the Titans, see Hesiod's THEOGONY.

Faber, vol.ii,p.277 gives the following Hymn to the Titans by the Orphic poet:

"All hail, ye Titans, children of the earth

And starry heaven, of our departed fires

The illustrious progenitors! Ye, who dwell

Within the deep recesses of the earth,

The gloomy realms of Tartarus, all hail!

From you the toiling race of hapless men

Deduce their ancestry; from you the birds,

The scaly tenants of the briny deep,

The beasts of earth, and all the generations

of living things, their origin derive."

(Check to see if Thomas Taylor translated this Orphic Hymn in Raine...)

Jane Harrison, in 'Themis' says:

"The new gods stood on Olympus and the Titans on the older religious seat, Thessalian Othyrs."

                OTHYRS, says Lempriere, is a mountain, or rather a chain of mountains in Thessaly, the residence of the Centaurs.

                Also in Thessaly and perhaps on the Othyrs chain, is Mount Pelion, the home of the wise old Centaur Cheiron. Pelion may be related to PELOR one of the men who sprung from the teeth of the Dragon killed by Cadmus.

See: Pausanias 9,c.5.

Kerenyi:

"On the sixth century B.C. the Orphic theologian and poet Onomakritos had already undertaken, surely not without reason and evidently not without success, to identify the Titans with the Kabeiroi. He attributed the murder and dismemberment of the child Dionysus to the Titans."

                Here we see the Titans as the murderers of Dionysos, or the Cretan Zeus in his form of Zagreus. This is an Orphic symbol. The Titans, as Dismemberers, perform the same task as Typhon to Osiris in the Egyptian Myth.

                Pausanias continues:

"Onamakritos took the name of Titans from Homer for the revels of Dionysos he composed; he made the Titans responsible for Dionysos's suffering."

Were not Titanic energies responsible for the Crucifixion of Christ?Is all Martyrdom (Arcanum 12) precipitated by a Titanic cause?

*.*.Notes:Levi: "Onamakritos was an Athenian religious and ritual poet; he lived at the end of the sixth century and got into trouble for forging an oracle."

See: Herodotus 7,6.

Kerenyi, mentioning the inscription of Imbros:

"...which, in an invocation of the Kabeiroi, lists the Hesiodic series of the great Titans, the sons of Uranos, with the exception of Okeanos: Kois, Krios, Hyperion, Iapetos, Kronos."

Kerenyi, Prometheus, p. 57.) quoting: (Inscriptiones Graecae XII, 8 74 p. 33.)

Sanchonianthon: S.D. vol.i,pp.110,340; vol.ii, pp. 692, 490 on Aeon, Time, 392,342,361.

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Note: The Lightning of the new Ruler, Zeus was the overwhelming factor in his Battle with the Titans. What does this say.

                Zeus:

"... received Thunder and Lightning out of the depths, from the Kyklopes whom he had freed. In any case, the Sons of Heaven and Earth were defeated with the help of Gaia and her sons, who were Sons of Earth and Heaven."

                                                Kerenyi, Gods.


TYPHONIC AND VENUSIAN

"At Heliopolis there was also a primordial serpent enemy called IMY-UHAF - which seems to mean something like `Slippery One."

R.Clark, p.53

"...'what happened when Re had an altercation with the Slippery Serpent about the inheritance of Heliopolis. His mouth was hurt...Then he said, "I will take my harpoon that I may inherit this city," and Re said, "I will stir up my brethren against him to drive him away." Now it happened that...the Slippery One surprised him before he could raise his arm against him (26n.) ensnaring him in the form of a curly-haired maiden. And thus came "he with the lock of hair' in Heliopolis.' " (27n.)

                This event was commemorated by the side lock worn by the High Priest of Heliopolis. Also, the side lock of Harpocrates, seen within the Uroboros in 'Rebel in the Soul.'

"Since Re is both the Master of the World and the Lord of Heliopolis, the serpent's challenge over `the inheritance of Heliopolis' was really a contest for universal supremacy. In the first phase the enemy must be a water monster, for the god has to take a harpoon against it. Apparently the serpent then resorted to a ruse, taking the shape of a beautiful woman. One senses an echo of a legend quiet different from the serious, hieratic creation myths. Who was the seductive maiden with the curly hair? Kees thinks she is the Moon Goddess, but whatever her cosmic connotations she is the prototype of the temptresses who are the most dangerous forms of the dragon of chaos - from Circe to the Wagnerian Venus, the representations of an earlier dispensation who must be overcome by the High God in his heroic form."

The High, heroic and supremely Masculine God.

Here we see typical God as Cock and Balls Propaganda.

Esoterically, Saturn - 15 is changed into Venus - 6. (15 = 1 + 5 = 6.) Selfishness can only be conquered by Love, Lead polarized to the conductivity of Copper.

SUN

MOON (20)

MALKUTH        

YESOD

LEO (19)

VEILED ISIS (2)

GOLDEN LIGHT

BLACK EARTH

SACRED UNION

SCIENCE

 TYPHON, From Athanasius Kircher, Oedipus Aegyptiacus, Rome, 1652.
d- The god Seth-Typhon on a curse tablet (p. 341, nn. 50ff.) From, Medieval Fool.