﻿ José Luís Espejo - The knee of Hercules

The knee of Hercules

In my article Some "gozos" to María Magdalena (and Leonardo) I wrote:

Reading the book El enigma de la gran pirámide, by André Pochan, I have found what I believe that could be the solution to the "enigma of the virgula", and its association with Isis.

In the underground chamber of the pyramid of Cheops exists, on the ceiling, a few strange symbols with form of "virgulae", but with straight strokes. The author (André Pochan) grants them a special importance.

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On the roof of the underground chamber of the pyramid of Cheops at Giza, some straight symbols appear in the form of virgula.

These symbols are, likewise, in the neighbouring Khafre pyramid: 

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In the nearby pyramid of Khafre there are some similar symbols.

This, from my point of view, demonstrates that over the millennia was preserved, at least since the time of the Egyptians, the symbol of the "virgula" as an emblem of something that is related to femininity. It is not strange that in the pyramid of Cheops the virgula sign can be found in an underground space type "crypt", which is called popularly, among experts, 'chaos'. Since the "Goddess" always has been associated with the cave, the underground, and water.

The fact that during so many thousands of years (from the old Egypt, passing by the symbolism collected by Leonardo, until the modern designers and compilers of "gozos", in this case to Maria Magdalena) has been preserved that symbol clearly expressing that has existed -and perhaps still exists-  a "chain of initiates" that conserves a residue of the universal tradition, which has arrived to our days.

The same author says that the underground room known as the "chaos" could have been an enclosure of the Isis cult ceremonies (the Egyptian goddess Isis); see my book Temas de Historia Oculta [2]. Las doctrinas prohibidas:

In accordance with André Pochan, the Isis cult, already in times of the old Empire in Egypt, would be at the base of the modern Freemasonry. This author believes that the underground chamber of the pyramid of Cheops, on the plateau of Giza (Egypt), crudely carved, until the point of being considered a representation of the primordial "chaos", had "a key role" in the Isis iniciation ceremonies. In short, the pyramid would not be a cenotaph (sarcophagi tend to be empty), but a "place of initiation". And what is this? Following to Pichon, who quotes J. Bruchet: "The initiation is a death ceremony accompanied of the resurrection and of a new life". The famous myth of Osiris, that dies murdered by his brother Seth and is resurrected through the magic of the Isis ceremony, illustrates this rite of "death-resurrection".


In short, would have existed a cult of the 'goddess' which would have ancient roots; and one of its most important emblems would be the "virgula". This cult, and this symbol, would have reached the present time (Unos gozos a María Magdalena (y Leonardo)).

The "virgula", representation of the "knee of Hercules"

But which is the origin of the symbol known as "virgula? Working on my book Temas de Historia Oculta [2]. Las doctrinas prohibidas, in particular, in the chapter El lenguaje de los símbolos, I have arrived to the conclusion that the "virgula" symbol may be reminiscent of a very remote past, which could date back to 12,000 years ago, in the time in which iota Hercules was the "polar star" around which rotated the celestial horizon. Here there is an excerpt from the chapter El lenguaje de los símbolos, in Temas de Historia Oculta [2]. Las doctrinas prohibidas:

According to Juan Antonio Belmonte, in his book Las leyes del Cielo, the celestial pole went through the constellation which today we call Hercules (was identified at the 5th century BC.) between the 9th and 7th Millennium BC. This constellation represents a kneeling figure, which we could characterize as a giant (be it Hercules or Atlas). This mythological figure makes think in the eleventh work of the Greek Heracles, when downloaded momentarily to Atlas of the weight of the celestial dome while was in seek of the apples of the Hesperides.

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Atlas Farnese. Note how it has a bent knee (barely can support the weight of the sky).

It is clear that that myth is anachronistic, because is very rear to the times in which the constellation of Hercules was in the vicinity of the Northern Pole (Herodotus, in its history, says that Heracles lived 17,000 years before the reign of the Egyptian Amasis). But let us look at the shape of the L (or Γ) that makes up the flexed leg of the zodiacal Hercules. It has a very distinctive appearance, which would have drawn much attention 12,000 years ago, when the pole was in Iota (i) Hercules.


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12,000 years ago the polar star of the moment (iota Hercules) was rotated for a figure in the form of gamma (Γ), which represents the "knee of Hercules". This may be the origin of the "esvastika".

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The esvastika is a complex sign that combines two ideas: the centrality (the pole) and the rotation (around the pole). Would make allusion to the rotation of the so-called "knee of Hercules" on the celestial pole (that twelve thousand years ago would be constituted by iota Hercules).

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Representation of the celestial pole in a Roman mosaic (Ostia). Here converge four columns (atlants) that hold the firmament.

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The celestial pole changes according to the "precesional era". Currently it is in the constellation of Ursa minor. 12,000 years ago it was in the constellation of Hercules.

Let us imagine that we are inhabitants of the northern hemisphere, 12,000 years ago. Perhaps we would not be surprised by this gamma (the stars called "knee of Hércules") circling the central axis of iota Hercules? Some 12,000 years ago took place the thaw that meant the end of the last Glacial era. Today it is known that it was an universal disaster that caused the extinction of seventy percent of the species of mammals, a sudden decline in the human population, and a dramatic change of climate and vegetation in most of the planet. In a nutshell, the end of the glaciers marks a catastrophic phenomenon that different cultures of the world have come to call something like the "fall of heaven".

That same idea (the "fall of heaven") is what would express the figure of the Crouching Atlas, holding the vault of heaven. In fact, Atlas derives from the Greek words "a" (not) and "tla" (sustain), and alludes to the failure, of the Titan, to bear the weight of the celestial vault, which eventually collapsed over the surface of the Earth; with the consequences already known: the end of the primary civilization, the flood, and the start of a new cycle in the history of humanity.

There are numerous figures, in the form of petroglyphs, which allude to the hero, or giant, which holds the dome of Heaven (atlante). They are found in Val Camonica, in the Italian Alps (several thousand years old), or in Greek, Mesopotamian and Mesoamerican art. The famous Farnese Atlas represents to him in a flexed position . It would mean that his heavy load (the vault of Heaven) is about to fall.

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Representations, in Val Camonica (Italy), of figures in attitude of pray, or perhaps of endure a weight or load (type "atlante"). Note the similarity with a graph of the"tifinagh" writing, characteristic of North Africa (see below). See also that this figure is associated to the labyrinth (which in turn is linked to the Mother Goddess).

It could be objected that Hercules went to the country of Hesperia (Spain, Canary Islands), located in the West. But not all the ancient mythographers agree. According to Apollodorus (II, 11): "When the works [of Hercules] had been executed... Eurystheus commanded Hercules, as his eleventh work, to collect the golden apples of the Hesperides... These apples were not, as some say, in Libya, but in Atlas, among the Hyperboreans". 

Isn't it more logical to think that the place where Atlas held the sky is the pole, not a more southern latitude? That is what we can see in the mosaic of Ostia of which we have already spoken of. It is very possible that the ancient (Romans and Greeks) associate the notion of centrality and Pole to the esvastika, because they shared the vision that Atlas was in fact in Hyperborea (North end), not in the Hesperian West.

Whatever it is, I think I'm able to prove: 1) that the symbol of the esvastika is very ancient, contemporary perhaps to the end of the glacial era, about 12,000 years ago; (2) its universality is explained by the mythical passage that the Hebrews called Exodus, which would coincide with the dispersal of the survivors of the primordial civilization that coined this icon; (3) the esvastika would allude to the flood, or to the end of Atlantis (a-tla, do not hold). 

In this way, the flexed knee, in the form of gamma (Γ), that rotates around the pole (i Hercules), would be a reminder, for later generations, of the end of a cycle, and of the beginning of a new era. This is why, according Guénon, the meaning of the esvastika goes far beyond its association to the Sun, "good luck", or "welfare". It is, undoubtedly, the fundamental symbol of the Primordial tradition, and the occult treasure of true initiated men and women (not only the Freemasons).

Unfortunately, the nazis made the esvastika a fetish of their particular aberrations. Time, and the knowledge of the precise facts, have put each one in place; and have cleaned this venerable symbol of the slag of its abuse.

Note again the glyphs of the "virgulae" in the pyramids of Khufu (Cheops) and Khafre, on the Giza plateau. If my theory is true, these "vírgulae" could represent, in fact, the "knee of Hercules", that rotated (12,000 years ago) around iota Hercules. That could mean two things: (1) in the moment in which these pyramids were built, there existed the memory of the flood, associated to that date; or (2) the pyramids were built on that date, constituting the "knee of Hercules" a sign that would clarify its dating (supposedly, 12,000 years back).

Is this nonsense? It would be if there were no other collateral evidences which could claim this possibility. The main of them is the existence of an inscription, in alphabet tifinagh (or Libyan), at the former entrance of the pyramid of Cheops (usually called "Syrinx", with the nickname of "luminous horizon"). To my knowledge, few scholars have attended to this curious circumstance.


Inscriptions on the ancient door of entrance of the pyramid of Cheops. Compare it with the old tifinagh writing (up to the right). 

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The tifinagh inscriptions in the Tassili, in the center of the Sahara, are accompanied of curious drawings of a culture very flourishing, dated some 9,000 years back (according to the antiquity of its pottery, of the VIII Millennium aC.).

In the center of the Sahara inscriptions can be found in tifinagh writing accompanying petroglyphs and paintings alluding to a cattle culture highly evolved, as seen in these clothes and hairstyles highly refined. This civilization had to exist before the climate change which produced the drying of the Sahara. Around 9,000 years ago, this area was made up of vast plains, favorable for a cattle ranching (which could have contributed to the drying of the area), with a profusion of rivers and lakes.

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The paintings of the Tassili allude to a highly refined culture.


The culture of the Tassili was specialized in livestock farming.

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The culture of the Tassili flowered 9,000 years ago (and even before), when the Sahara was a large meadow surrounded by rivers and occupied by vast lakes.

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The memory of that green Sahara disappeared thousands of years ago arrived to classical antiquity. On the maps of the Alexandrian astronomer Ptolemy is still depicted with its rivers and lakes (of which only Lake Chad remains).

It is possible that those who built the pyramids of the Giza plateau alluded to events that occurred 12,000 years ago. The sign in form of "vírgula" (that supposedly would give place to the symbol known as "esvastika") could be only a reminder of that event. In short, there is not proof of antiquity. But like the maps of Ptolemy, it may indicate that the Egyptians had very alive in their memory the rememberance of a cataclysm happened -perhaps- 12,000 years ago, as the priests of Sais told Solon the year 590 BC.

Or, who knows, the same people who wrote the inscriptions in the Tassili, with its distinctive tifinagh alphabet, at a time when that area was a fertile place populated with cattle and prosperous civilizations, perhaps carried out the inscription on the so-called "Syrinx" of the pyramid of Cheops, and used those signs in the form of "vírgula" to refer to that time (12,000 years ago) in which the "knee of Hercules" rotated around the celestial pole.

Whatever it is, the Egyptians called their pyramids with the name "mer" (mr, with the meaning of stairway). And let's not forget that the peoples of East called Meru their sacred mountain, and that the Jews called "merom" any mountain. Is the pyramid of Keops symbol in stone of the primordial mountain, pole (Atlas) in which 12,000 years ago rotated the celestial sphere?

The trisquel and the trinacria: the three legs

A reader (Diego Méndez) has very kindly made me an observation that gives credibility, and probative weight, to the theory of the origin of the exposed above esvastika (remember: as a relic of that time, 12,000 years ago, when the "knee of Hercules" rotated around the polar star of the moment: iota Hercules).  

Specifically he has submitted the following link, in which we find a series of geoglyphs in Kazakhstan, photographed by the Nasa, with -supposedly- at least 8,000 years of antiquity.



Geoglyph in Kazakhstan. Of its strange form I speak below.

Note the curious shape of this esvastika, in the form of complex trisquel, to which I will make reference below. Now I will only add, to what was said before, that a reader comment has made me think on a curious symbol already known to me before, but that by a strange circumstance, I didn't link to the so-called "knee of Hercules", despite its extraordinary similarity with the latter. The trisquel is a form of esvastika, very common in Europe (especially in areas of Celtic influence).

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Trisquel in Cambridge (England).

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Trisquel in Barcelona (Park Güell).

Trisquel derives from the Greek trisquelos (three legs). This symbol attach in a Center (the center of rotation) three spirals, three legs, or three "virgulae". Whatever it is, continues to be a figure in the form of esvastika, since represents a rotary motion, of two or more commas (or vírgulae, or gamma), around a central point. Thus, the esvastika can be composed of two virgulae, as we have seen above:


Trisquel with esvastikas of two vírgulae rotating around an eccentric point . See below.

Of three vírgulae:

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Esvastika of three virgulae, better known as trisquel.

Or of four virgulae:

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Basque Laburu, also known as "cross of virgulae".

But in the case of the geoglyph of Kazakhstan (see above), in contrast to the conventional esvastikas, the center of rotation of the whole is a point strange to each of the esvastikas of two virgulae. This suggests that all of them (which in themselves represent the same: rotacion around a point) orbit around a central axis. If we assume -as I think that it is the case- that the esvastika represents the apparent movement of the "knee of Hercules", 12,000 years ago, around the celestial pole of the moment, the geoglyph of Kazakhstan, with an eccentric center to the "celestial pole" (as viewed from the Earth's surface), allows to think that those who built it believed that the Earth is not the center of the universe, and that it orbits around a point that would be the true Centre, which gives idea of an advanced scientific and astronomical knowledge (mentioned in my article Visión del cosmos en la Antigüedad).

But ultimately, one of the forms of the trisquel is the trinacria, specific symbolic element in two islands: Sicily (Italy) and Man (Great Britain). Note the similarity of these with the so-called "knee of Hercules" of which I spoke previously:


Trinacria in Sicily (center) and in the Isle of Man (right). Compare with the "knee of Hercules" (left).

Here we see, without a doubt, the "knee of Hercules". In its Sicilian expression, as in the British Islands, includes three distinctive stars. In the trinacria of the island of Man the star of the heel (iota Hercules) is clearly highlighted, but also the one of the knee (theta Hercules) and that of the pelvis (pi Hercules). The same applies to the trinacria of Sicily. In the trinacria of the Isle of Man, we see clearly how the heel (iota Hercules) is the center of rotation. Either way, these two symbols, which are preserved from the origin of the times, would represent a stellar set: the "knee of Hercules. What else?

More esvastikas

Diego Méndez, reader and scholar, has sent me a full study of esvastikas around the world, across time and space. I have selected two sheets. It first would demonstrate its enormous antiquity, that is dated back at least to 10000 aC., when iota Hercules was the "polar star" of the time. I have not conducted a study in depth of these signs:

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Esvastikas in the Balkans and in Armenia.

The second one shows its extensión around the world. Note that the esvastikas may be accompanied by mazes in Arizona (United States):

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Esvastikas in America. They may be accompanied of mazes.

If you want to read the whole article:

Temas de Historia Oculta (2). Las doctrinas prohibidas