NOM

GM, can you expand on this a bit? Some general backgound: Clinton was the Governor of New York at the time and was responsible for the Erie Canal project. He also came this close to winning the US presidency. He was one of the most important people in bringing the Mound Builder Myth to the ...

I also found that interesting. Also fascinating was that the popularization of the subject among non academics came from New York Governor DeWitt Clinton. I have had a hunch for some time that the Smith family had an affinity for DeWitt Clinton based on multiple lines of evidence.

Hey Hagoth- I picked up that book a couple of months ago. It was a fascinating read. I think the author presents adequate evidence to support his thesis that the narrative that mounds not being built by the natives was a colonial narrative to deligitimize the rights of the Native Americans. When ...

There is a good deal of evidence that Neibaur had not only Kabbalistic texts, but also was familiar with their meanings. He may have provided additional insight that Joseph used. Let's examine the data in support of conclusion which was, in effect, put forth by Lance Owens. Before we do that ...

George, thanks for taking the time to respond. Please, no need to apologize for any delay. I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic. If you don't want to derail this thread I'm happy to DM you, however I'm also fine with discussing it in this current thread. I was first exposed to this ...

Does George Oliver ever, by any chance, refer to Spurious Masonry by the term "secret signs and combinations?" p.s. I find it deliciously nerdy that this is what we're thinking about on Christmas Eve. Hagoth- I am glad to hear that you were enjoying my post on Christmas eve. I too find this stuff ...

If Joseph Smith was using Antiquities of Freemasonry as a source to differentiate Egyptian Hieroglyphs into 5 degrees, then we might expect evidence in Antiquities of Freemasonry to point to 5 degrees in ancient Speculative and Spurious Masonry. Speculative Masonry In trying to define the nature of ...

In the previous post we noted that Joseph Smith claimed that the Egyptian language was to be interpreted in 5 different degrees . I then posited that if Joseph Smith had access to Antiquities of Freemasonry he would potentially have thought that Egyptian Freemasons taught how to translate ...

Another parallel that struck me from the masonic sources are the order of the words faith, hope and charity, parroted in Moroni and other Mormon scriptures: 20 Wherefore, there must be faith; and if there must be faith there must also be hope; and if there must be hope there must also be charity ...

George, I'm really enjoying these posts. In my view Joseph's perspective was definitely colored by Freemasonry and Kabbalah so it is nice to see you walking through the Book of Abraham's ties to Masonry, which are significant. Somewhat unrelated, are you aware of the almost verbatim quotes of the ...

Sometimes secret Masonic words work their way into the modern world. Like the One Ring of Sauron, they want to be found. Consider the original words for Dion's song, Abraham, Martin and John . There was a verse that asked, "has anybody here seen zub zool oan?", but that was changed to "my old ...

In the previous post we noted that we find in Joseph Smith's Egyptian Alphabet ( EA ) and the Grammar and Alphabet of the Egyptian Language ( GAEL ) a conceptualization of the Egyptian hieroglyphics as being able to be dissected. This has similarities with what we see in AoF . In addition, we find ...

Interesting that two different components are interpreted as Ki. Do these two Kis have different meanings? Also interesting that two of the grapheme combinations from the same character are suspiciously similar to the name Abraham. Hey Hagoth- It is great to hear from you. As always you are asking ...

In the next series of posts I will examine two hieroglyphs translated by Joseph Smith from Part 3 (Purple Column) of the Book of Abraham Papyri. I have chosen to start with these two characters because they are two of the most easily explained hieroglyphics for several reasons. The first hieroglyph ...

Sorry for the delay guys. Hagoth, thanks for bumping the thread. I have been busy with end of the semester grading. In addition, it has taken some time for me to create the next set of graphics. In the previous posts we discussed how Joseph Smith's understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphics has ...

So in Oliver's corner of reality Egyptian Hieroglyphics are merely a cipher which could be decoded directly back to Enoch writing? In large part you are correct. However, lets look a little closer to note some nuances which are very important to consider. Let's discuss Oliver's ideas about ...

Unfortunately, Joseph was caught up in the pseudo-science of phrenology, which was very popular in the 19th century. That you could tell a person's character from the bumps on one's head, or the lines in one's face. There's some great literature on this historical phenomenon, it was popular in ...

In the last post we established that underlying the Egyptian Alphabet's translations is a notion that Hebrew, Egyptian, and Greek are interrelated languages. In fact, several historians of Mormonism have discussed the somewhat unique role that the study of languages played in Joseph Smith's ...

This all reminds me of the apologetic I read which asserted that there were indeed relationships between Hebrew and Egyptian language with a result could well be Joseph's "reformed Egyptian". Sadly, I am not a scholar and don't have the opportunity to pursue all such angles, but if it's anything ...

We have established a solid connection between the Hor Book of Breathing and the Egyptian Alphabet in that the untranslated hieroglyphs from Part 2 and the all of the hieroglyphs from Parts 3-5 were copied in order from the Hor Book of Breathings directly into the Egyptian Alphabet. To better ...