INVOKING

CELESTIAL FIRE

COMMANDING LIGHTNING

“When Moses stretched out his staff toward the sky, the LORD sent thunder
and hail, and lightning flashed down to the ground.” (Exodus 9:23)

“It is related in our Annals, that by certain sacred rites and imprecations,
thunder-storms may be compelled or invoked. There is an old report in
Etruria, that thunder was invoked by King Porsenna. And L. Piso, a very
respectable author, states in the first book of his Annals, that this had been
frequently done before his time by Numa, and that Tullus Hostilius,
imitating him, but not having properly performed the ceremonies, was struck
with the lightning. We have also groves, and altars, and sacred places, and,
among the titles of Jupiter, as Stator, Tonans, and Feretrius, we have a
Jupiter Elicius … To believe that we can command nature is the mark of a
bold mind …”1

The cult of Jupiter Elicius is associated with the belief that humans could
command lightning from the heavens. This phenomenon appears to derive
its origin from Egyptian practises that attempted to attract lightning strikes
on their architectural edifices.

The pyramidia or capstones of Egyptian pyramids were the apex of the

structures and were the closest point of contact between humans and
thunderbolts thrown towards earth. They were coated in conductive metals
such as gold leaf or electrum.

Obelisks were also surmounted by pyramidia and formed the tallest

structures framing the entrance to Egyptian temples. These were the
structures that humans devised to bring down lightning from the gods.

Electrum is an alloy of silver and gold and was used to cover the
pyramidions (capstones) of the pyramids and obelisks of ancient Egypt. The
adornment of buildings with electrum in antiquity is attested by Homer. “In
all gold ore there is some silver, in varying proportions … An artificial
electrum, too, is made, by mixing silver with gold … Electrum, too, was
highly esteemed in ancient times, as we learn from the testimony of Homer,
who represents the palace of Menelaus as refulgent with gold and electrum,
silver and ivory.”2

In the recent excavation of the Old Kingdom Sahure pyramid complex

limestone reliefs were discovered depicting the construction of the pyramid.
The inscription describes the pyramidion (capstone) as being covered in
electrum.

The adornment of the summits of these tall structures with conductive

metals such as electrum created a highly alluring target for lightning strikes.
This would have created a sacred bond by binding the actions of the gods
with the structures of humans.

The Pyramid Texts clearly refer to lightning and it appears that the pharaoh
was carried up into the heavens by the action of lightning striking the tall
edifices that were designed for this purpose.

Utterance 261
Unas is he who burns before the wind to the limits of heaven, to the limits of
earth, as soon as the hands of Lightning are emptied of Unas.

Unas stands on the East side of the vault of heaven and what rises to the road
(of heaven) is brought to him.
It is Unas, the message of the Storm.

Utterance 247
To the lord of the storm, wrath is forbidden when he carries you.
It is he who will carry Atum.

Utterance 313
The phallus of Babi is pulled out (lock of door), the doors of the sky are
open.
The doors of the sky are locked, (the way leads) over the fire glow,
under that which assembles the gods.
What lets every Horus glide through will also let Unas glide through,
over the fire glow, under that which assemble the gods.
They make a way for Unas that Unas may pass along it.

Thus the soul of Unas traverses the air and passes over the earth. The hands
of the lightning make a path and allow the human to ascend towards the
doors of the sky. The lightning thrown by the gods is the path to immortality.
“Unas traverses the air and passes over the earth. He kisses the Red Crowns
as one hurled by a god.” (Utterance 261)
That the obelisks were struck by lightning and that these events were
considered significant is attested by the record of the lightning strike on the
obelisk in the Circus Maximus. By order of Constantius Augustus an obelisk
was transported from Egypt and erected in the Circus Maximus in Rome.
Ammianus Marcellinus documented this event.

The obelisk “was gradually drawn up on high through the empty air, and
after hanging for a long time, while many thousand men turned wheels
resembling millstones, it was finally placed in the middle of the circus and
capped by a bronze globe gleaming with gold leaf; this was immediately
struck by a bolt of the divine fire and therefore removed and replaced by a
bronze figure of a torch, likewise overlaid with gold foil and glowing like a
mass of flame.”3

In ancient Rome the stone, object or place struck by lightning became

defined as sacred. The Puteal Libonis in the Roman forum was a shrine
marking a location that had been struck by lightning. The space was defined
as a bidental and was tended by priests who affirmed its sacred category by
sacrificing sheep there.

Seneca suggests that the sacred lightning could be brought down from the
heavens through entreaties to Jupiter. Humans could “summon or, to use a
more polite word, invite Jupiter to share a sacrificial feast with us. If he
happens to be angry with his host when he is invited, then his coming,
Caecina says, is fraught with danger to his entertainers.”4

Livy also describes the way humans by invoking sacred rites could bring
down lightning from the heavens. “Tradition records that the king, whilst
examining the commentaries of Numa, found there a description of certain
sacrificial rites paid to Jupiter Elicius: he withdrew into privacy whilst
occupied with these rites, but their performance was marred by omissions or
mistakes. Not only was no sign from heaven vouchsafed to him, but the
anger of Jupiter was roused by the false worship rendered to him, and he
burnt up the king and his house by a stroke of lightning.”5
The place or building that was struck by lightning thrown by the god
assumed a sacred status. Lightning was a manifestation of heavenly
phenomena that included meteorite strikes. Pliny draws parallels between
meteorites and stones that had been struck by lightning and consequently
attained magical powers.

“Sotacus mentions also two other varieties of ceraunia, one black and the
other red; and he says that they resemble axes in shape. Those which are
black and round, he says, are looked upon as sacred, and by their assistance
cities and fleets are attacked and taken … They make out also that there is
another kind rarely to be met with, and much in request for the practises of
magic, it never being found in any place but one that has been struck by
lightning.”6

Thus when a specific location had been struck by lightning from the god
then a circular barrier was to be constructed around the sacred location and
the space above left open to the heavens. “Furthermore, it is said that Numa
built the temple of Vesta, where the perpetual fire was kept, of a circular
form, not in imitation of the shape of the earth, believing Vesta to be the
earth, but of the entire universe, at the centre of which the Pythagoreans
place the element of fire, and call it Vesta and Unit. And they hold that the
earth is neither motionless nor situated in the centre of surrounding space,
but that it revolves in a circle around the central fire, not being one of the
most important, nor even one of the primary elements of the universe”7

This architectural format followed archaic instructions that laid out

procedures governing the sanctity of a location struck by lightning. These
specified that the space penetrated by the lightning strike should remain
open to the heavens to propitiate the gods. Hence the Pantheon in Rome has
a large oculus that is open to the sky.

The original building on the site of the Pantheon was struck by lightning and
destroyed in 110 CE. Orosius records that “lightning struck and burned the
Pantheon at Rome.” The new construction in the reign of Hadrian was
designed to commemorate this lightning strike that had been hurled by the
gods.

The Pantheon was therefore constructed on new foundations as a huge

circular drum that encased the area that had been struck by the lightning.
The change in the architectural format from a rectangular to a circular form
reflects the new purpose of the reconstructed building. In commemoration of
the lightning that had struck its predecessor the interior of the dome was
originally gilded so reflecting the celestial fire that the building celebrated.

By striking a specific location with lightning the gods defined a sacred space
that was their own. The space was contained by the circular confining drum
of the walls. Above these the open oculus allowed the god to enter and
occupy the space that the deity itself had chosen by striking it with lightning.

This then is the architectural genesis of the Pantheon that is defined by its
circular form and oculus that is open to the sky. Lightning also determined
the architecture of the Erectheion in Athens. The temple, adjacent to the
Parthenon, has a space in the roof of a porch that is open to the sky. This is
bound to the myth that Erechtheus was struck by lightning thrown by Zeus.

As in the Pantheon the space that was deliberately inserted into the roof
structure expresses the belief that the location struck by lightning should be
left open to the heavens. Beneath the aperture in the roof there is a gap in the
paving of the floor showing the rock beneath and so marking the specific
location of the lightning strike.

These structures celebrate the purifying celestial fire that came from the
domain of the gods. It was reasoned that as lightning was the pure fire of the
gods it purified the mortal bodies of the humans that were struck. The
celestial fire also allowed the humans that survived the strike to transcend
their mortality and achieve heroic status. The thunderbolt conferred a divine
status on its victim. “For no one who has been struck by a thunderbolt is
without honour, wherefore he is revered even as a god.”8
The ideas behind the sacred architecture that enclosed and protected the
space struck by lightning from the profane world were also applied to human
victims. Humans that were killed by the celestial fire acquired an
incorruptible sacred status. Like the place that had been struck the body had
to be fenced around and left open to the sky. Plutarch informs us that there
was a general belief that the bodies of those killed by lightning never
putrefy.

“But that which is most wonderful, and which everybody knows, is this, -
the bodies of those that are killed by lightning never putrefy. For many
neither burn nor bury such bodies, but let them lie above ground with a fence
about them, so that every one may see they remain uncorrupted … And I
believe brimstone is called divine, because its smell is like that fiery
offensive scent which rises from bodies that are thunderstruck. And I
suppose that, because of this scent, dogs and birds will not prey on such
carcasses.”9

This belief also explains the ancient Egyptian desire to attract lightning to
their pyramids, temples and funerary monuments. The purifying celestial fire
of the gods rendered the mortal bodies of humans incorruptible. The
lightning additionally laid out a burning forked path that allowed the
purified body to ascend to the stars.

“It is not generally known, what has been discovered by men who are most
eminent for their learning, in consequence of their assiduous observations of
the heavens, that the fires which fall upon the earth, and receive the name of
thunderbolts, proceed from the three superior stars, but principally from the
one which is situated in the middle. It may perhaps depend on the
superabundance of moisture from the superior orbit communicating with the
heat from the inferior, which are expelled in this manner; and hence it is
commonly said, the thunderbolts are darted by Jupiter. And as, in burning
wood, the burnt part is cast off with a crackling noise, so does the star throw
off this celestial fire, bearing the omens of future events …”10
1. Pliny - Natural History 2.54
2. Pliny - Natural History 33.23
3. Ammianus Marcellinus - Res Gestae 17.4
4. Seneca - Quaestiones Naturales 2.49
5. Livy - History of Rome 1.31
6. Pliny - Natural History 37.51
7. Plutarch - The Life of Numa
8. Artemidorus - Oneirocritica 2.9
9. Plutarch - Quaestiones Convivales 4.2
10. Pliny - Natural history 2.18