Friday, September 28, 2012

Alpha and Omega

As a Christian symbol, the Alpha and Omega represent the eternal nature of Jesus Christ. Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. The symbol recalls a line in the Book of Revelation:

“I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord.”
The alpha and omega as symbols of eternity pre-existed Christianity, the letters are commonly found in similar context in the pagan mysteries. The omega itself is an ancient symbol of the goddess Ishtar, and originally represented her head-dress (and later that of the goddess Hathor), while the alpha is derived from the ox-horn headdress ascribed to a series of male deities and divine kings.

The Alpha and Omega are included also in the name IAO, a Greco-Roman rendition of the Hebrew tetragrammaton which was also used as a sacred name of Bacchus/Dionysus and as “Iao Sabaoth” represented the Gnostic demiurge.

Alpha and Omega

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