Galilean and Jewish Mysticism

(March 25, 2025) This large shipwreck, known as North Caesarea 1, is one of the few fully excavated Hellenistic or early imperial hulls in the Eastern Mediterranean. It was found off the coast of Caesarea Maritima that bears the same name which was built by King Herod between in 22–10/9 BCE.

Not all of the hull survives and no cargo has been found indicating it was all salvaged if the ship was wrecked in a storm.

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(July 9, 2022) This shows the Zodiac wheel circling around an image of sun power spirit Helios. The four corner powers of the seasons seem to be represented a bird women. This wheel begins with the summer solstice which begins the time of Cancer the crab at the top and goes counter-clockwise:

(December 28, 2023) The opening of the magic trail and the sea trade routes between India and Egypt resulted in an exchange of goods and ideas. This is shown by this recent discovery of an eastern influenced statuette in Egypt. This statue seems to have been made from stone quarried in the region just south of modern Istanbul, Turkey. 

Excavations by an American-Polish expedition uncovered this statuette. The most recent discovery was made by Rodney Ast from the University of Heidelberg and his team. The statue was placed in the forecourt of the main early Roman period temple of the town dedicated to the goddess Isis. The statue is 71 cm high and depicts the deity or holy person standing and holding part of his clothing in the Roman style (the news release breathlessly claims this is a statue of Buddha). Around his head is a disc (halo) with sunrays depicted on it. Next to him stands a lotus flower. 

Apart from this statue, archaeologists also found an inscription in an Indian language (Sanskrit) dating to the rule of the Roman emperor Philip the Arab (244–249 CE). This inscription is later than the statue. Other inscriptions in the same temple were in Greek, dating from the early first century CE up to 305 CE. Archaeologists also found in the temple two 2nd-century CE coins from the central-Indian kingdom of the Satavahanas. 

Egypt was at the center of a trade route that connected the Roman Empire with many areas of the ancient world, including India. There were several Roman-era harbors on the Red Sea coast of Egypt involved in this commerce, the most important of which was Berenike. Ships from India arrived there with products, such as pepper, semi-precious stones, textiles, and ivory. At Berenike, they were offloaded, and the cargo was transferred to camels that conveyed the goods across the desert to the Nile. Other ships then transported the merchandise to Alexandria and, from there, to the rest of the Roman Empire.

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Some of the first examples of Nature Pagan symbols like the Pentacle, "Celtic Knot," and Gateway Star (which became the Star of David when its lines are not intertwined) are found in the white synagogue at Capernaum (Capharnaum). This synagogue dates to 375 CE based upon Roman coins (Loffreda 1985) and it seems to be built upon an earlier one which could go back to the time of Jesus. This earlier building is built out of the local black basalt.

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