Confucius. "Signs and symbols rule the world, not words nor laws."
Saint Augustine. "Symbols are powerful because they are visible signs of invisible realities."
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Isidore of Seville (560 - 636 AD) described an early map of the world known as the "T and O" map. Over time it has appeared in various guises, yet the basic T and O symbology remains the same.
Note the pattée crosses around this one. It's showing an ancient world divided in to three continents: Asia, Europe and Africa.
Here is another version with more details.
Below Asia is the name Sem, sometimes referred to as Shem. Below Europe is the name Japeth and below Africa is the name Cham, sometimes referred to as Ham. Sem, Japeth and Cham were the sons of Noah who survived the great flood with him and their wives. They seem to have each been given the guardianship of a continent in order to repopulate the Earth with their wives.
The map shows a world surrounded by sea and ocean.
The three continents were separated by three seas and two great rivers. Europe and Africa were separated by the Mediterranean Sea. In turn they were separated from Asia by the River Don (aka River Tanais) and the Black Sea to the north and by the River Nile and the Red Sea to the south.
The centre of the horizontal and vertical T bars was said to be Jerusalem, the centre of the ancient world. Asia was also know as Paradise, i.e. the Garden of Eden.
Where else might we see this T and O symbolism?
Well, it would appear that the Druids were very familiar with it for a start.
Who else might be displaying the T and O symbolism and how lofty does it go? Let's aim as high as we can.
How about the royal families of the continent of Europe?
Here it is on the UK's Imperial State Crown. It looks like they've opted to turn the world upside down. It's an inversion of the T and O symbology we've seen before. Asia now seems altogether southerly by comparison.
The technical name for this piece of jewellery is a monde from the French word for world. Again, it symbolises an ancient world of three continents. The monde on the Imperial State Crown sits directly below a triangular croix pattée, a footed cross.
This is a German royal crown from the kingdom of Hannover.
Once more there is a T and O monde sitting directly below a triangular croix pattée or Tatzenkreuz as the Germans call it.
The Dutch royal crown. More mondes and pattée crosses.
Ukraine's crown of Rus.
It soon becomes apparent that triangular pattée crosses and mondes dominate European crown designs and symbology.
The exceptions to this are few, yet they do exist.
Here's the crown of Queen Elisabeta of Romania. The familiar monde is there, but the cross design is a crosslet cross.
This was the crown of the French king Louis XV. No crosses or mondes are to be seen. There is a fleur-de-lys atop a three layered circlet instead.
The point being that Europe is a predominantly Christian continent, but why are there no Christian crosses on any of the royal crowns? Why are triangular pattée crosses so predominant?
Let's look at these questions on a deeper level and come at them from a different angle.
Did the Pope ever wear a crown?
Yes and no. But apparently more so yes, actually. The Pope's crown was officially termed the papal tiara. It was last worn by Pope Paul VI in 1963. Yet the Popes continue to receive papal tiaras to this day. Pope Francis' papal tiara was made by the nuns of the Rajcica monastery in Macedonia.
First of all there are three crowns on it. All manner of suggestions can be found as to what the three crowns symbolise. None of the suggestions mention the three continents of the T and O map. So I'm going to break the mould and suggest it with evidence of more besides.
In private the Pope might just be acknowledged as at least the public front who rules over not just three, but five continents of the world.
Pope Francis' coat of arms.
Looking at the depiction of his papal tiara with T and O eyes on I can see Asia at the top, followed by Europe and Africa and finally North America and South America at the bottom.
Judging by the rest of the symbolism, he's a member of just about every big club going!
Again, the cross atop Francis' papal tiara is not a Christian cross. It's an eight pointed cross design, possibly a variation of a basic pommy cross.
Let's have a look now at Francis' inauguration.
He appears to be wearing a variation of the T and O map on his head, just like the mitre of Saint Augustine near the top of this post. The T shape is also similar to the cross of Saint Anthony of Egypt, aka the tau cross. His pallium shows four triangular pattée crosses around his neck, with a fifth and sixth on the back and front. In broad terms I think the first four are celestial in nature and probably depict solstices and equinoxes?
Once again there isn't a Christian cross to be seen. The geometry of the staff's cross is faintly that of a pattée cross with pommy effects. Furthermore it is slightly eight pointed from the intersection. It does appear to be sitting atop a monde of some description, similar to royal sceptres like the UK one, for example.
Following this I'll look at symbols related to what's been described here and try to connect some big dots of further relevance to our true history and origins.
To be continued.