Earth, Air, Water, Fire and the Eye of the Pyramid

Up and Down, High and Low


The STONE the builders rejected has become the CORNERSTONE. By the LORD has this been done, it is wonderful in our eyes. (Psalms 118:22-23)



Music is God’s gift to man, the only art of Heaven given to Earth, the only art of Earth we take to Heaven. - Walter Savage Landor



You are Peter, and upon this ROCK I will build my church and the Gates of Hell will not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18)



I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the Earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how he could look up into Heaven and say there is no God. (Abraham Lincoln)

See, I am laying a STONE in Zion, a STONE that has been tested, a precious CORNERSTONE as a sure foundation. He who put his faith in it will not be shaken. (Isaiah 28:16)


A Tanna taught: The hornet did not pass over Jordan with them; but behold it is written: And I will send the hornet before thee! R. Simeon b. Lakish said: It stood by the bank of the Jordan and injected a virus into the Canaanites which blinded their eyes above...as it is said: Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars...yet I destroyed his fruit from above and his roots from beneath. - Sotah 36a


The STONE the builders rejected has become the CORNERSTONE. By the LORD has this been done, it is wonderful in our eyes. (Psalms 118:22-23)

R. Ishmael son of R. Jose exclaimed, ‘He of whom the holy people is in need may well stride over the heads of the holy people; but how dare he of whom the holy people has no need stride over the heads of the holy people!’ (Yebamoth 105b)



This is the Seal of the Living God. The Symbol of God the Father.

And the other said: The eyes of him who offers up prayers shall be directed towards the Heavens above, for it is said Let us lift up our heart with our hand. (Yebamoth 105b)



From him shall come the cornerstone, from him the tent peg, from him the battle bow, from him every ruler- all of them together.(Zechariah 10:4)

How do we know that the castration of a man is forbidden? From the verse, neither shall ye do thus in your land: this means ye shall not do [thus] to yourselves: the words of R. Hanina! (Shabbath 110b)


Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never read in the Scriptures: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?’ (Matthew 21:4)


Resh Lakish said: 'He who devotes his strength to prayer below has no enemies to overcome above.' R. Johanan said: ‘One should ever implore mercy that all Heavenly beings may support his effort in prayer so that he may have no enemies on high.’ (Sanhedrin 44b)

May the LORD God bless you in the name of the Judeo-Christian Tradition.

The Eyes of the Star of David

Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the Seal of the Living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the earth and the sea: (Revelation 7:2)

The Fire

Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. (Ephesians 2:20)


The Eye Above and the Eye Below the Pyramid


Every one is (morally) blind until his eyes are opened for him from above. (Genesis Rabba 53)

The Air

For in Scripture it says: ‘See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.’ (Peter 2:6)

If a man sees his fellow drowning, mauled by beasts, or attacked by robbers, he is bound to save him. (Babylonian Talmud, Nezikin III, Sanhedrin 73a)



He looked directly at them and said, “What then is this that is written: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone‘? (Luke 20:17)



The alien residing among you will rise higher and higher above you...He will lend to you, not you to him. He will become the head, you the tail. (Deuteronomy 28:43-44)

The Water

Sink the Bible to the bottom of the sea, and man’s obligation to God would be unchanged. He would have the same path to tread, only his lamp and his guide would be gone; he would have the same voyage to make, only his compass and chart would be overboard. - Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) American politician.


For the LORD is the great God, the great king over all gods...who owns the tops of the mountains. (Psalms 95:3-4)



This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.
(Acts 4:11)



Raise a glad cry you Heavens, the LORD has done this...Break forth, you mountains, into song. (Isaiah 44:23)



Have you not read this Scripture: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone?’
- Mark 12:10


You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket. It is set on a lamp stand, where it gives light to all in the house. (Matthew 5:14-15)

The Earth

Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set or who laid its cornerstone while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? (Job 38:5-7)



The one who comes from above is above all. The one who is of the earth is earthy…but the one who comes from heaven is above all. (John 3:31)



‘Tis the old secret of the gods that they come in low disguises. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

May the LORD God bless you in the name of the Judeo-Christian Tradition.

An Eye for an Eye

Here is a simple, yet elegant ikonographic understanding of taking an Eye for an Eye, a Tooth for a Tooth:

Go thence down BELOW, and make yourself firm, and be a FOUNDATION for the lower things, and it happened and he went down and fixed himself, and became the FOUNDATION for the lower things, and below the darkness there is nothing else. (Enoch 26:4)


The Bible is God’s chart for you to steer by, to keep you from the bottom of the sea, and to show you where the harbor is, and how to reach it without running on rocks or bars. (Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) American politician.)



Everyone who falls on that STONE will be dashed to pieces, and IT will crush anyone on whom it falls. (Luke 20:18)


You [Lucifer] said in your heart: “I will scale the heavens, above the stars of God I will set up my throne; I will take my seat on the Mount of Assembly, in the recesses of the North. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will be like the Most High!” Yet down to the nether world you go, to the recesses of the pit! (Isaiah 14:13-15)

All this is of significance because it is concerned with the fact that there is an age-old Western tradition, much battered and destroyed in recent generations, that has sent up new, living shoots of vigorous growth since 1945. (Tragedy & Hope, by Carroll Quigley, p.1232)


Upon a high and lofty mountain you made your bed, and there you went up to offer sacrifice. Behind the door and the doorpost you placed your indecent symbol. Deserting me, you spread out your high, wide bed, and of those whose embraces you love you carved the symbol and gazed upon it…While you sent your ambassadors far away, down even to the nether world (Isaiah 57:7-9)


When you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back. (Nietzsche)



Beware! I am against you, destroying mountain, destroyer of the entire earth, says the LORD; I will stretch forth my hand against you, roll you down over the cliffs, and make you a burnt mountain. They will not take from you a cornerstone, or a foundation stone; ruins forever shall you be, says the LORD. (Jeremiah 51:25-26)

An angel of the LORD appeared to him in fire flaming out of a bush. As he looked on, he was surprised to see that the bush, though on fire, was not consumed. So Moses decided, ‘I must go over to look at this remarkable sight, and see why the bush is not burned.’ - Exodus 3:2-3


May the LORD God bless you in the name of St. Judas Maccabaeus.

Seeing Eye to Eye about the Cornerstone

Here are just a few examples of what it actually means when it comes to meeting eye to eye about metaphor and meaning:


Abel, the lamb slain since the foundation of the world.




Solomon was in a different category, because he ruled over the denizens of the upper world as well as of the lower. (Babylonian Talmud, Mo’ed IV, Megillah 11b)



The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. (Psalm 118:22)




So the LORD put a mark on Cain, lest anyone should kill him at sight. (Genesis 4:15)




The princes of Zoan have acted foolishly, the princes of Memphis are deluded. Those who are the cornerstone of her tribes have led Egypt astray.(Isaiah 19:13)



It forced all the people…to be given a mark on their right hand or their forehead, so that no one could buy or sell except one who had the mark of the beast. (Revelation 13:16-17)



The LORD says: ‘See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed.’ (Isaiah 28:16)



Solomon was in a different category, because he ruled over the denizens of the upper world as well as of the lower.(Babylonian Talmud, Mo’ed IV, Megillah 11b)



‘No rock will be taken from you for a cornerstone, nor any stone for a foundation, for you will be desolate forever,’ declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 51:26)



The gold that Solomon received every year weighed 666 gold talents. (I Kings 10:14)



Then I saw another angel…holding the seal of the living God. He cried out in a loud voice to the four angels…‘Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees until we put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.’ I heard the number of those who had been marked with the seal, one hundred and forty-four thousand marked from every tribe of the Israelites. (Revelation 7:2-4)


This calls for wisdom: let anyone with understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. His number is 666. (Revelation 13:18)



Legend states that Christ was crucified with three 9 inch metal nails.




The calm, deceitful eye of Cain who was ‘a murderer from the beginning [and] when he tells a lie, he speaks in character, because he is a liar and the father of all lies.’ (John 8:44)



Number 9, Number 9, Number 9. (Revloution, by the Beatles, the White Album)




God will wipe away tears from off all faces. This means from the faces of non-Jews as well as Jews. (Babylonian Talmud, Genesis Rabba 26)



Medical science tells us that, for whatever reason, our eyes actually see everything upside down. The brain is then required to reverse the images it receives, thus resulting in normal visual perception .


If all your life is given up to the pursuit of earthly things, it is quite consistent for you to look downwards; but if you pursue the higher life, look upwards. (Talmud, Midrash Psalms 32)



‘Your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground.’ (Genesis 4:11)



May the LORD God bless you in the name of the Judeo-Christian Tradition.