"On this day, 17 February 1600, the flames of ignorance consumed the flesh of Giordano Bruno. An Italian philosopher, poet, alchemist, astrologer, cosmological seer, and esoteric adept, Bruno dared to unveil truths hidden beneath the dogma of his age. He gazed into the great cosmic forge and saw a universe without end—an infinity of suns, each orbited by worlds teeming with potential life. He spoke the heretical wisdom that the Earth, too, was but one wandering star within this vast celestial dance. For unveiling these secrets of the macrocosm and refusing to bow before the leaden weight of orthodoxy, he was delivered unto the pyre.

"For eight long years, Bruno endured the crucible of the Inquisition, his body imprisoned but his mind traversing higher spheres. He was accused not only of cosmological blasphemies but of delving into ancient mysteries—the cross, he declared, was but the echo of the Egyptian ankh, symbol of the life force. He whispered that the stars were as gods, and the planets their children, bearing the seeds of consciousness across the firmament. Threatened with death unless he recanted, Bruno stood unyielding. To his judges, he uttered the immortal words: “Perchance your fear in passing judgment on me is greater than mine in receiving it.”

"Upon the morning of his death, in the Campo de' Fiori—the Field of Flowers—Bruno was bound to the wooden axis mundi, the stake encircled by kindling. As fire coiled around him, he turned his face from the crucifix, rejecting the binding symbols of a faith that had shackled his vision. It is said he proclaimed himself a willing martyr, his soul rising with the smoke to the celestial realms. Before his death, he forged his own epitaph—a final decree—that he preferred a noble death to a life lived in fear. Today, upon the very ground where his mortal vessel was reduced to ash, a statue stands—a silent hierophant—bearing witness to the triumph of spirit over the chains of ignorance."

© JRJ with AI

COMING THIS NOWRUZ

What is most striking about The Life of Apollonius are the parallels to the account of the life and deeds of Jesus Christ in the Gospels [...] Apollonius was from Syria, specifically Tyana, after being initiated into the Pythagorean Order, he preached in Judea during the same years as the evangelizing of Jesus. [...]

Apollonius of Tyana performed the same miracles as “Jesus Christ.” He healed the sick, cast out demons (performed exorcisms), and raised the dead. As a powerful magician, he was known to be able to bilocate or to be in at least two places at once. Like Jesus, whose date of birth is only a few years off from that of Apollonius, the Tyanian was supposed to have had a miraculous birth from a virgin mother who was visited by a god taking the form of one of the ancient Egyptian deities.

[...]

Apollonius was eventually charged with heresy and sedition and handed over to the Roman authorities, who wanted to crucify him. But this silver-tongued Lucifer outwitted them, escaping crucifixion, and traveled through the Middle East, across the Persian Empire, where he met with many of the Magi, and on to northern India. Local Kashmiri legends claim that Jesus Christ, whom they call Isa Masih, survived crucifixion, traveled across the Persian Empire, and then settled in Kashmir, India, where he became a guru of great renown, grew old and died. They identify a particular tomb in Kashmir as being his.

There is little to no evidence of the existence of Jesus outside of the Bible, but Apollonius of Tyana was well known throughout the Roman Empire. Certain cities and towns even featured statues of him. [...] certain followers of John the Baptist, and also Simon Magus and his followers, claimed that “Jesus Christ” was a fraud. Centuries later, in the European Middle Ages, the Knights Templar were, to their demise, discovered to hold the same belief.

— Jason Reza Jorjani, Erosophia

Image: Cahetel Rosier, 2024