Sibyl’s Cave, Templars and the Epicenter of World Occultism
Sibyl’s Cave, Templars and the Epicenter of World Occultism
Edgar Poe as Cultural Warrior Part 10
Part 1: The Society of the Cincinnatus: Solving a 170 Year Murder Mystery
Part 2: Poe, Beethoven and Houdini VS the Cult of Artificial Intelligence
Part 3: Poe’s Tales of Ratiocination and the Real C. Auguste Dupin
Part 4: Culture Wars: Mazzini's Minions Enter the Stage
Part 5: Poe's Eureka vs Emerson's Transcendentalism
Part 6: The Syncretic Revival of Paganism- Transcendentalists and Theosophists
Part 7: The Mormon Role in the the Purge of Republican Freemasonry
Part 8: Why Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Despised Edgar Allan Poe
Part 9: The Occult Underpinnings of Mary Rogers’ Murder: An Exercise in Ratiocination
In the previous installment, you were introduced to the ritual murder of Mary Rogers and her fiancee Daniel Payne near a strange place dubbed ‘Sibyl’s Cave’ in Hoboken New Jersey.
In this sequel, we will explore the darker meaning of the Sibyls as a center of world occultism and especially in regard to the subversion of America’s constitutional traditions which Edgar Allan Poe resisted with all his might prior to his own untimely assassination in 1849.
Introducing The Sibyls
In Ancient times, pagan oracles represented the bridges between the spirit realm where demons, gods, spirits and the dead lived, and the material realm of mortals. These oracles took the name Sibyls and according to Greek legend, there were ten such dominant Sibyls spread across the Roman Empire. [8]
It was the Cumaen Sibyl (aka: the seventh sibyl) who was reputed to have sold the famed Sibyline books, featuring symbolism-laced transcripts of the drugged up musings of the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi) to Rome’s last king Tarquin in 500 BC.
These Sibyline books, three in number, interpreted only by a high priest caste, were consulted for the Roman Senate’s every major policy decision for the ensuing centuries (at least until 86 BC when they were burned and replaced with new oracular prophecies also dubbed ‘The Sibyline Books’).
The Cumaen Sibyl was housed in a cave in Naples above thousands of subterranean tunnels built during the Roman empire which were also used for initiation rituals that haven’t been fully disclosed to this day.
In The Aenid, it was the Cumaen Sibyl that directed the hero Aeneas to the underworld to seek council with his dead father.
Although the Cumaen Sibyl is the most well-known of the ancient oracles, Sibyl’s Cave in Hoboken New Jersey was not built in homage of her, but rather to a stranger oracle dubbed ‘The Apennine Sibyl’ (aka: the 11th Sibyl of the Ancient world) located in the mountains of Nursia, Italia- which was the home town of a Roman patrician turned mystic Christian named Saint Benedict and his twin sister Scholastica in 480.
The relevance of St. Benedict’s connection to this location will become clearer later.
At the base of the Sibillini mountains, are found the Elysian Fields named after the section of the underworld reserved for the demigods and heroes.
The Apennine Sibyl: Epicenter of World Occultism
So I folded me in fears,
And DANTE searched the triple spheres,
Moulding Nature at his will,
So shaped, so colored, swift or still,
And, sculptor-like, his large design
Etched on Alp and Apennine.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
According to the ancient greek writings of Hesiod and Pindar, the domain of Hades dubbed ‘The Elysian fields’ was something of a hedonistic Garden of Eden which promised its tenants immortal pleasures without any limits.
Medieval legends spoke of the Apennine cave entrance near one of the peaks of the Sibillini Mountain in Nursia as an access point to the underground kingdom of Queen Sibilla- also known as ‘the Queen of the Faeries’.
This fabled kingdom was said to be fed by underground water from caverns which promised immortality and voluptuous pleasure forever. Knights would venture far and wide to find this Queen Sibilla whose countless fairies would take on the appearance of beautiful women in the daylight, yet who would turn into monsters at night. During the day, they would have to keep their legs hidden, or else their goat feet would be visible, and frighten young men before they could become addicted to the charm of the subterranean kingdom (from which few would ever return since both the seductions and horrors which an initiate was promised to experience were so powerful).
Since the 1960s, the cave’s entrance has been inaccessible due to damage caused by violent earthquakes making modern exploration of the cave extremely difficult. However in the year 2000, a team of scientists from the Department of Earth Sciences at Camarino University carried out geo-radar surveys confirming the existence of a vast underground complex of tunnels and caverns 15 meters below ground level of the Sibillini Mountains with some cavities over 150 meters in length.
Amidst the Elysian fields is a lake called ‘The Lake of Pilato’ named after the burial site of Pontius Pilate who governed Judea from 26-36 CE and oversaw the execution of Jesus of Nazareth.
The Epicenter of World Occultism
Dr. M. Talamè, the Officer for Sustainable Tourism and Education for the Sibillini National Park describes the history of the Sibylline Caves of Naples and the Apennine Sibyl in the following manner:
“She [The Cumean Sibyl] lived in a cave near the summit of Mount Sibilla and since time immemorial she shaped the culture and in the imagination of the people of the Monti Sibillini, firstly as a pagan symbol of fertility, venerated within the tradition of earth worshiping, and then later she also became part of Christian iconography, which is evidenced by numerous paintings in some local churches. The 'Apennine Sibyl' is a controversial figure, whose fame as a witch and heretic enchantress was actually renowned in many parts of Europe in the fifteenth century, and the name of these mountains is a tribute to her importance.
In front of her cave opens the beautiful valley of 'Lago di Pilato', and legend relates that this lake is the tomb or resting place of the Roman consul who condemned Jesus Christ to death. Both Monte Sibilla and Lago di Pilato were frequented for centuries by necromancers, esoterics and by mysterious people. Throughout history these two sites repeatedly attracted the attention of the Pope who sought to physically prevent access to these locations in order to repress what was perceived as dangerous tendencies. There are reports that entire villages in the Sibillini, like that of Montemonaco, were excommunicated. Pitchforks were placed on the high altitude mountain routes as a warning to travellers.
Certainly some people came with the intention of consecrating their magic books to the devil, but perhaps others were harmless herbalists who at the time were already fascinated by the biodiversity of these mountains.”
As Dr. M. Talamè alluded in her sales pitch to convince tourists to visit Monte Sibilla, the Lago Pilato (Lake of Pilate) held a sacred reverence for gnostics ever since the murder of Jesus of Nazareth which is why this particular cave represented such a sacred destination for Gnostic pilgrimage for centuries.
Domenico Aringoli and Gilberto Pambianchi of the University of Camarino describe the importance of the caverns within the Apennine mountain of Nursia for initiation rites and their still-existent influence for occult pilgrims today:
“The intrinsic mystery of the initiatory cults practised in caves, and in particular in the high hypogeal site of the Sibilla mountain (known in Europe back in the ancient times as the centre of the Apennine oracle), as well as having been transmitted from the Middle Age onward through "cult" narration, continued, and still continues, to be virtually alive for a large number of the pilgrims that have passed by here in time”. [9]
This site is likely second only to the Isle of Capri (off the coast of Amalfi, Italy) which was given over to the Benedictine Order in the 5th century and which housed both the vast caves of Mithra, and temples of Cybele where Emperor Tiberius (the uncle in law of Pilate) hosted his orgiastic rituals fusing the sexual frenzy of Dionysius and Bachus at night mixed with Apollonian rituals of the Solar Deity by day.
In The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Roman historian Suetonius records how Emperor Vitellius “celebrated a sacred vigil on the slopes of the Alpennines”. Another Roman historian recounted how in 268 CE, Emperor Claudius Gothicus sought a prophesy from the Apennine Sibyl.
The poet Fazio degli Uberti published an account of the Apennine Sibyl in his Dittamondo saying: “I don’t want to overlook the renown of the Mount of Pilatus, where a lake is… to which as described in Simon the Sorcerer, people used to ascend to consecrate their spellbooks according to what local people say”.
Simon the Sorcerer and the Gnostic Roots of Rosicrucianism
To make this point explicit, “Simon the Sorcerer” is a reference to “Simon the Magi” from the Bible- a Samaritan mystic who came to Rome during the reign of Claudius and who attempted to infiltrate the early Christian Church. According to the writings of 2nd century church leaders Justin Martyr, Irenaeus of Lyons and Eusibius, Simon the Sorcerer promoted sacred orgies, cannibalism and child sacrifice within a Christian framework.
Simon also promoted himself off as a god-man who had mastered and superceded the teachings of Jesus Christ, and like Jesus has hid ‘sacred prostitute’ Mary Magdalene (according to gnostic doctrine), had prostitute priestess named Helen, who was herself an incarnation of the gnostic archon Sophia. As long as his followers practiced the dark rites taught by Simon the Magi, they were promised physical immortality, forever cheating death and free to indulge in base hedonism for all eternity.
This would be a similar promise of the mythical kingdom of the Apennine Sibyl and became a foundation stone of all Rosicrucian pursuits in later years in the form the mythical ‘elixer of life’ and ‘philosopher stone’.
Despite being exposed as a fraud by the Apostle Peter (according to the book of Acts), Simon the Sorcerer’s disciples founded the syncretic movement of Gnosticism and continued his practices with the most influential among his followers being Meander, Marcion, Valentinius, Basilides and Saturnius. These gnostic leaders went to war with early Christianity and despite the 5th century defeat of their cults, merely went underground and formed a type of gnostic sainthood to witches covens and Rosicrucian sects across the ages.
Even the orders of Druids (which included Transcendentalist founder Ralph Waldo Emerson as a member) claim Simon the Magician as one of their spiritual leaders.
Christian Rosenkreutz and Sibyl’s Cave
Among the various carvings noted within the Grotto of the Apennine Sibyl was the marking of the year “1378” representing the supposed birthdate of Kristian Rosenkreuz (the mythic german occultist that authored the influential 1457 text The Chemical Wedding and founded Rosicrucianism) and dozens of symbols of roses and crosses.