Beware The Ides Of September

The state religion of ancient Rome was a sophisticated distillation of the worship of the Nachash.

Augur priests interpreted the will of the Roman Pantheon by studying the flight of birds, known as “taking the auspices.” The ceremony and function of the augur was central to all major public or private undertakings.


Auger holding a “lituus” – magic wand.

The lituus was a stylized Egyptian Wadjat or Eye of Horus. Dividing the air or sky with the wand of Horus imparted the earthy auger priest with “all seeing” power.



On the founding year of the republic, the Ides or 13th of September, 509 BC, the auger priests divided the sky (making the sign of the cross with the wadjat styled, butterfly proposcis-like lituus) over the area that would be used to construct the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus. When completed, the original structure measured 200 ft × 200 ft and was considered Rome’s most important temple. Each deity of the temple Triad had separate chambers or cella, with Juno Regina on the left, Minerva on the right, and Jupiter Optimus Maximus in the middle. A biga (chariot with two horses) driven by the sun god and a biga driven by the moon goddess were depicted on either side of the temple pediment with Jupiter driving a quadriga (chariot with four horses) at the top.


Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus

Notice the same motif of the sun god (Sol Invictus) and the moon (Cybele or Minerva) on either side of Mithra in the Tauroctony.

s06can8This motif is also included in Masonic art.


On the occasion of the very auspicious inauguration of the temple, the augers determined that Terminus, the god of boundaries or borders, had refused to move and so his shrine was incorporated into the new structure. An “eye” opening to the heavens was included in roof of the temple above the god.


Terminus. concedo nvlli “yield no ground”


This year, Rosh Hashanah starts on the same day as the ancient dedication of the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus – the Ides of the 7th month. (September was the 7th month on the Roman calendar and the Ides were sacred to Jupiter.)

The lunar based Roman calendar used months with three primary markers – the Calends, Nones and the Ides. The Calends were always the first day of the month. The Nones were usually the 5th but sometimes the 7th, and the Ides were the 15th but sometimes the 13th. All the days after the Ides were numbered by counting down towards the next month’s Calends.

The Calends, (from Canlere “to have called out”) was the 1st of the Roman month when the amount of interest on debts was stated or made known to debtors. The 9th day before the Ides was the Nones (ninth). The Ides was the time when debts and interest were payable.

On 2015, this falls on September 13th, which is also the final date of the Shemitah.



September is unique in another curious way. On the Gregorian (watcher) calendar, January 1-9, has ordinal dates that are always equal, but for every year, (only for non leap years) adding the digits of the ordinal date numbers equal the value of dates from September 7th to 16th. This is the only month were this occurs. The month shown below includes the sum of the ordinal day in brackets, with the ordinal day included in square braces on the red days where they equal the day of the month.

September 2015

01(10) 02(11) 03(12) 04(13) 05(14) 06(15) 07[250](7)

08[251](8) 09[252](9) 10[253](10) 11[254](11) 12[255](12) 13[256](13) 14[257](14)

15[258](15) 16[259](16) 17(8) 18(9) 19(10) 20(11) 21(12)

22(13) 23(14) 24(15) 25(16) 26(17) 27(9) 28(10)

29(11) 30(12)

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