The Seat of Death

 

The 19th century map of Perillos identifies an area of the landscape as “Siège de la Mort”, the Seat of Death. This is a very particular reference, one which is rather rare. The “Seat of Death” is a very charged name, which is present in various religious traditions.

Christianity

The Calvary, or Golgotha, is known as the place of the skull. It symbolizes the seat of death, the 14 stages which led to Jesus’ death. Death ruled and reigned on Calvary – the stage of executions, the area ruled by Death.

Shamanism

Toxic mushrooms are sometimes called toadstools, which is translated from a German phrase meaning “seat of death”. This is linked to the idea that shamans using the substances were able to cross into the Land of the Dead, and make contact with the ancestors. The folklore of these magical mushrooms being seats for mythical beings is linked to these, as the shaman was believed to encounter “helpers” who aided him in his sojourn into the Otherworld.

The Greek author Aeschylus

Aeschylus (525 BC - 456 BC) was a playwright of ancient Greece. Born in Eleusis, the famous religious site, he wrote his first plays in 498 BC, but his earliest surviving play is possibly The Suppliants, written in approximately 490 BC. That same year, he participated in the Battle of Marathon, and in 480 BC he fought at the Battle of Salamis.

In Part 5 of EUMENDIDES, Aeschylus makes a reference to the Seat of Death.

Mythology

Aeschylus makes a general reference to death and its role within mythology. It is the seat of judgment, where the acts of man are recorded. This judgment will then influence what will happen to the soul in the Afterlife, whether it will be allowed to ascend to Heaven or not.

In Vedic literature, the drinking of the Soma, the divine nectar, is a key concept. Vedic literature has several hymns that present the aspects of the mystery of death. Some describe the realm of Yama, who was the first among mortals to reach the otherworld and who is Death personified. There is nothing fearful about the “seat of death;”it inspires a lofty idea of a paradise where the dead join Yama and the Gods in a heavenly feast, drinking Soma and hearing the flute and songs of praise. This is the idealisation of the “Divine Bliss”, drinking the Divine Nectar, which would befall the good souls that reached Heaven.

In Egyptian mythology, this role of Judge of the Death was largely identified with Osiris. Although, the meaning of his name is uncertain, it has been interpreted as “to create a throne” and as Seat or Power of the Eye – the Eye the symbol of his consort Isis. The Egyptian rendering of the name Osiris is therefore specifically linked with the throne, or seat, and as Lord of the Dead, Osiris is uniquely identified with the “Seat of Death”, or Judgment.

The “Seat of Death” can also be interpreted as a coffin. In Egypt, one of the forms of Osiris was that of the “encoffined Osiris”, which was the state of the God before his Resurrection and recognition as Ruler of the Underworld. In this, the comparison with the Christian symbolism of Jesus, his tomb and his subsequent resurrection from that tomb, is intriguing.

Entrance to the tomb of Jesus in Jerusalem

Interpreted within the framework of Perillos, we know that a “Tomb of Jesus” was identified on the model of Saunière, and that the Courtade register refers to a “royal tomb”. Symbolism normally overlaps on various levels, and apart from those, others could added: the seat of God for the Jews was visualised as the “Seat” on top of the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark, as Philip Coppens has identified in the appendix of The Canopus Revelation, is linked with the Osiris – reducing the scope of a wrong interpretation of what the “Seat of Death” refers to. At the same time, it enlarges the possibility of what the reference on the 19th century map might be…