From Egypt to Syria: The Beltane Festival
         The Syrian counterpart of the Giant Nermer/Osiris/Orion was Baal. It will be remembered that in the Osiris Myth the chest in which Osiris had been borne down the Nile eventually came to rest on the Phoenician Coast in Syria, and that the Phoenicians were also known by the more familiar title of Canaanites. (See Part 4) As was noted, this was a later insert to illustrate that the Ancient Egyptian culture was adopted by the Phoenicians when Phoenicia was brought under Egyptian control. Syria was a daughter culture of the Ancient Egyptians and legend recalls that the earliest inhabitants of Canaan were a race of Giants.
         Statues of Baal show him in the stance of the Giant Orion/Nermer/Osiris and wearing the Leo/Gemini Crown. His relationship to the Giant on the Nermer Plate is clearly evident. In the Canaanite Stele on the left, dated around 1800BCE, Nermer/Orion/Baal has acquired a third arm to accommodate the man with the axe who has adopted the position of the Gemini Twin. In his left hand Nermer/Orion/Baal is holding the Tree of Life in place of Orion's Bow. The Water of Life, Nun, is illustrated beneath his feet. What appears to be a leaf attached to his Crown is in fact a bull's ear, representative of the Dawn of the Age of Taurus which was previously celebrated on the Narmer Plate. The people of Canaan were clearly aware of the symbolism but they were unable to interpret the esoteric meaning. They lost the plot!

         The Baal Cult was associated with the Bull. Baal's story is recounted in the Baal Myth, which concerns a crisis in the Autumn Equinox. He was the god who died and rose again. Clearly this is a reference to the Dawning of the Age of Taurus on September 21st 4468BCE (using the Gregorian Calendar).
         Unfortunately, as the original Sacred meaning of his myth was lost Baal became the seasonal god of vegetation, dying in the Autumn and having his resurrection in the Spring. This resulted in the Beltane Festival being held in Spring instead of Autumn. A Spring resurrection displays a total misunderstanding of the original stellar myth. (It was from the god Baal that the name Beltane is derived. More on this later.)

The Beltane Festival: From Egypt to Syria … via Babylon.
         Not only was the Ancient Egyptian culture readily assimilated by the Phoenicians, so too was that of Sumeria. The result was not only a fusion of cultural beliefs, but also confusion, which resulted in the loss of the original meaning of the Baal Myth.
         The god Bel, from whom the Beltane Festival derives its name, was the Ancient Babylonian counterpart of the Syrian Baal.
         "Bel" is translated with the titles "Lord" and "Baal". "Baal" is sometimes represented as "Ba-al". Babylon was a village in c2230BCE when Ur was a city. "Babylon", is the Greek rendition of the Hebrew word "Babel", and is translated as both "Confusion" and "Gate of Bel".
         The "Confusion" aspect is recalled in the story associated with the Tower of Babel and the confusion of languages. The following will explain the confusion.
         "Gate of Bel" translates as "Gate of the god Bel". Originally however, it would seem that Bel was not the name of the god. "Ba-bel" was confused with "Bab-il". They both sounded the same when spoken, as in the English word "babble", but when written down the name of the god was changed, with the result that the god "il" became known as the god "bel". Or perhaps it happened the other way round! "Ba-al" and "Ba-il" are one and the same, and "Bel" would appear to be a diminutive of these. However "El" is the Hebrew word for "God". "Ba-el" means "Gate of God" and "Bel" is also a diminutive of this. Like Baal and Bel, El was also associated with the bull. "Al", "il" and "el" are all references to the same god. The god "il" appears in the Mesopotamian legend of the Flood, the Gilgamesh Epic, as the Great God Enlil. "En" means "god". In a later group of Mesopotamian gods, Enlil was relegated to Lord of the Wind, and Lord of the Mountain. In Ancient Egypt the "Ba" was the Soul.
         Certainly our English word "babble" is indicative of the confusion. People do tend to babble on sometimes: "Babble on … Babylon"! Moreover a babbler is a person who tells secrets.
         The confusion was a deliberate attempt to maintain secrecy. It was a hoax, a jest, a whole load of bull! The truth is that from Baal and Bel is derived the English word "Bull". The Beltane Festival is the Bull Festival; the celebration of the Dawning of the Age of Taurus! The words "Bel", "Baal" and "Lord" are interchangeable. Indeed the words "Bel", "Baal", "Bull" and "Lord" are interchangeable. The Lord Baal, the Lord Bel and the Lord were all references to the Bull in the Age of Taurus when he reigned supreme in the Ages of the Equinoxes.
         Similarly "The Lord" during the Age of Aries was the Ram. This is why there are so many references to the family of the Ram in the Old Testament. "The Lord" during the Age of Pisces, which is soon coming to a close, is the Fish. This explains the allusions to Fish in Christianity.
         In the confusion it is easy to overlook the other aspect of "Babel" as "Gate of Bel", "The Gate of God" or the "Gate of the Bull". This is a direct reference to the gateway, or opening, illustrated at the bottom of Side Two of the Narmer Plate, towards which the Bull is running. It was the Gateway to the New Age of Taurus.

         The very word "Babel" encodes the concept of Precession: the Precession of the Ages of the Zodiac, and in particular the Precession of the Equinoxes of the Zodiac. This was the secret that the Ancient Babylonians sought to maintain: the secret which had been passed down to them from their progenitors, the remote Ancient Egyptians.
         The Tower of Babel was the Ancient Babylonian equivalent of the much earlier Egyptian Pyramids, and as such it represented the Tree of Life: it was an Axis Munde. It also represented a mountain. Enlil was Lord of the Mountain. It was the Mound which rose from the Primordial Waters: the land which literally rose out of the Persian Gulf. It was a stairway to the stars and it pointed to the stars. It was the Gate of God; the opening to the Netherworld of the Ages of the Zodiac. Ancient Babylon was a daughter culture of Ancient Egypt.

         A humorous aside: The Bull Baal bellowed to the Bull Bel, "Bulls bellow in their belfry, while in another belfry bells in the shape of bulls' horns bellow".

The Druids and the Beltane Festival
         The Beltane Festival was also known as "the bringing down of the Sun". This refers to the astronomical event, which occurred on September 21st 4468BCE when the Autumn (Fall) Equinox of the Sun was in conjunction with the Milky Way. This conjunction initialized the movement of the Sun out of the Age of Gemini and into the Age of Taurus. It is this example of Precession of the Equinoxes which is recorded on the Narmer Plate. It is the Sun's movement out of the Age of Gemini and into the Age of Taurus which accounts for the "Fire" and "Bonfire" aspects of the Beltane Festival.
         Tradition tells us that the person who is responsible for introducing religion and culture to Britain was the Celt/Druid Hesus. In this, his role was not unlike that of Osiris, who was the source of all knowledge in Ancient Egypt. (See Part 4) The connection with ancient Egypt however does not end here. Hesus was also known as Hu! (See Part 2)
         His very name Hesus/Hu, together with his role, embodies the Sacred Knowledge of the Ancient Egyptians … Hu, the Celestial Sphinx, the Creator and the Precession of the Equinoxes.(See Parts 1-14)

         Of special significance to the Celts/Druids were holy hills (Mound imagery) sacred to Venus. Venus, although a planet, is referred to by astronomers as the "Evening and Morning Star", the idea portrayed being of Death and Rebirth. This confirms that Death and Rebirth, or Resurrection, were central to the Druid religious philosophy; as they were to that of the Ancient Egyptians.
         Druid mythology relates that Hesus/Hu was crucified, that his soul survived after Death and that the period following his crucifixion was referred to as the "Golden Age".
         In the Beltane ritual ceremony Hesus/Hu was crucified on an oak tree which was symbolic of the Tree of Life. Just as Osiris became one with the tamarisk tree in which he was encased (See Part 6) so Hesus/Hu became as one with the oak tree. Both Osiris and Hesus/Hu were representative of the Axis Munde around which the heavens appear to revolve; they were representative of the World Pillar, the link between the terrestrial and the celestial worlds.

The Virgin Birth
         In the Druid religion Hesus/Hu was fathered by God and born of a virgin mother, Mayence. The fact that Mayence was recorded as having her body enveloped by light and wearing a crown of twelve stars on her head confirms that she was a representation of the Constellation of Coma Berenices; Berenice's Hair.

         Coma Berenices lies within the zodiac sign of Virgo, the Virgin, which is traditionally associated with Isis of Ancient Egypt, Ishtar of Ancient Babylon, Mayence of the Druids and the Virgin Mary.
         The twelve stars are a reference to the number of stars which comprise the constellation of Coma Berenices. Coma Berenices is in effect the head of Virgo. Mayence is also represented with her foot on a serpent. The serpent is the constellation of Hydra. An almost identical description of Mayence is recorded in Revelations 12 v 1.

         Although the initial purpose of the Beltane Festival was to celebrate the Dawn of the Age of Taurus in 4468BCE, Hesus/Hu belonged to the Age of the Ram, when the Sun was in Aries. It could be argued therefore that the virgin birth of Hesus/Hu is in fact a myth to explain the movement of the Sun out of the sign of Taurus and into the sign of Aries … in other words a progression from the Age of Taurus to the Age of Aries. The Virgin Mother, Mayence, is the constellations of Virgo and Coma Berenices combined. The Father is God the Sun (like Ra in Ancient Egypt) in the Age of Taurus. The Child, Hesus/Hu, is the new-born Son/Sun of God in the Age of Aries. This is an example of the aforementioned Precession, the Lost Secret of the Ancient Egyptians. This particular type of Precession is referred to as The Precession of the Ages of the Zodiac.

The Holy Hill as a Star Observatory
         As well as the stage for the Beltane Festival the "holy hill" was also a platform from which to observe the stars. Hesus as already noted was also known as Hu.
         "Hu" is recorded in Anglo-Saxon as "hiw" and means "a loud shout". The term "hue and cry" is derived from this.
         A "Huer" was the name given to a person who was standing on a high point of land and who gave information on the movements of a shoal of fish. Hence Hu was the name given to the person who stood on a hill, observed and gave out information on the approach of the Age of Pisces.

The Age of Pisces
         Jesus belongs to the Age of the Fish, when the Sun is in Pisces. Like Hesus/Hu before him he was born of a Virgin Mother and a Heavenly Father. And also like Hesus/Hu before him, his virgin birth heralded (although belatedly) the Dawn of a New Age: the Age of Pisces. The same stellar imagery can be applied in both cases. The virgin birth of Jesus is in fact a myth to explain the movement of the Sun out of the Age of Aries (the Old testament) and into the Age of Pisces (the New Testament) … in other words a progression from the Age of Aries the Ram into the Age of Pisces the Fish.
         The Virgin Mother, Mary, is the constellations of Virgo and Coma Berenices combined. The Father is God the Sun in the Age of Aries. The Child, Jesus, is the new-born Son/Sun of God in the Age of Pisces. The play on the sound of the word "Sun" should not go unnoticed. This Precession Myth explains how God the Father and the Son of God are one and the same.

         In the light of this Precession Myth, Jesus could only have one means of death in order to fulfil his role as the new Hesus/Hu … Crucifixion on the Tree of Life; an event which is recalled every Easter and in some parts of the world even re-enacted.
         It is not surprising that in Ireland, for example, Druids readily converted to the Christian religion. Mayence, also known as Maire, was substituted with the Christian Mary while Hesus and his crucifixion were substituted with the Christian Jesus and his crucifixion. It was during the Middle Ages that the letter "H" was replaced with the letter "J". The Beltane Festival, originally held on the old May Day, was replaced by Easter.