Ancient Near-East Compass

Based on the west-east axis, rather than the modern-day north-south one. This is because east is where the sun rises, and the new day begins. Astrologically, one's birth can be thought of as the snapshot/map of the moment of your birth. And the baseline that is used is the rising sun, which is termed your ascendant.

The E-W line is a constant direction no matter where you are located on the planet (except for the neighbourhood of the N-S axis). The eastern direction which you are facing is into the rising sun, the new day, whereas, when facing the north (in the northern hemisphere), you are orientated to the cold, the dark, the hidden.

In addition, the baseline of E-W is the equator, whereas there is an arbitrary baseline through Greenwich, England that is was determined by the then ruling empire and which has now became the de-facto baseline. My point here is that the first is determined by man, the second is a "natural" baseline easily verified and absolute across the globe. It is like using the size of a drop of water to determine a centimetre, as opposed to the length of the current regent's foot.

Notice (fig 2) that there is no up nor down in this interpretation. The up and down motion, the axis mundi, is tantamount to entering another dimension.

{I use N-S because it places N above S in the culture that represents this. Whereas I use W-E, because that is the direction of forward movement. When moving along the E-W line, one's forward movement is in the same direction as the earth. What a boost!

The S-N line has no up or down orientation, except for the fact that it arose as a baseline from the North, and so the cultural tendency is to refer to the north as up. However, the experience of North/South is different in the northern hemisphere to that in the Southern. Cold is south in the south, but north in the north. Sunnier and hotter is towards the north in the south, and the south in the north. Thus, even though the north south lines remain constant, the environment changes according to location.

In fact the Jewish calendar was based on quite a local environment, with the desert being in the south, and the cold being in the north. Some say it is even based on the setting of the mishkan.

The E-W compass is also easily represented as a circle, which has no up or down. Only once it is placed on a rectangular grid, can one begin to make such distinctions, which is, in main, just a negative (diminishing) or a postive (increasing).

In a spiritual sense, there is no different between the East wherever you may be, however, one can have a different sense of place on the north south line, wherever one may be. Perhaps the spiritual, not the empirical, meaning of the direction changes according to place. {This bolsters the idea that there might be other temples that need to be built. In fact, many.

But here we see the equator as the "crossing" line. The "meanings" cross over, reflect, along the N-S axis. Whereas the W-E line is following the spin of the earth, another "natural" phenomenon, and is invariant over most of the planet.

So perhaps it is necessary to take such cultural prejudices into account, and accept that the characteristics of the 4 directions might differ. meaning of the differ according to location. Will we one day be able to maintain our balance in a space of such multitudinal meaning? Will we be able to manage this refletion?

This can only be done if there is a firm foundation upon which you can rely on. This foundation does not have to be universal, except in the assertion of G-d's unity (which is, of course, based on the Truth of His Existence).

In this there is the melding of science and spirituality - something that was once known as Alchemy. The science of the compass requires magnetic north to orient itself, whereas the spiritual/human compass requires/uses the sun to orientate itself.

This is the merging (modern word: {entanglement} ) that is necessary in order to build the temple for G-d on the earth.