#35 HIRAM OF TYRE [971-939 BC]
Sharing the northern border with ancient Israel is a strip of coastal land backed by a deeply forested hinterland; some of today’s Lebanon was yesterday’s Phoenicia. In 969BC, Tyre was a sleepy fishing town near two small islands. From it King Hiram created (969-936BC) a thriving market economy, which will become the seafaring capital of the ancient world.
Hiram was a builder, an engineer of public works, a merchant and a traveller, but most of all he was a skilful diplomat who placated his neighbours with treaties to allow his rich caravans safe passage through their lands. Tyre, the city King Hiram built, was constructed from an offshore island and linked to other small islands. With landfill, a causeway connected it to the mainland. He then strongly fortified it and used the new safe harbour to develop a merchant fleet.
It is said that Hiram built a palace for King David but for his son, Solomon he built two palaces and a temple. His work for King Solomon would have been accomplished after he completed the legendary palace for himself and a number of temples for the local sea god, Melkart, who was the son of Poseidon and Astarte.
Hiram is mentioned many times in the Bible as an example of a rich and powerful king who eventually thought himself to be a god.
This will be the second time we meet a prior life of Joseph of Arimathea.
Conversation with the Gatekeeper
“How did Hiram get to be King of Tyre?”
“His father was a tribal Semite chieftain from Assyrian background called Ramiyrak.”
“We have a different name for his father. The name we have is Abibal.”
“That was his title which means son of Baal or son of god. It was just one of his titles as a chieftain. Hiram became king at twenty-four because all but two of his brothers died in war.”
“Did he get a chance to be educated?”
“Yes, he was well-educated and urbane, schooled by Greek tutors imported by his father and by a Jewish Rabbi.”
“What kind of a man was he?”
“This man was very bright, astute, shrewd, a good politician, a man of great responsibility and fair dealings. Hiram was a very good king to his people. Remember, this is a reincarnation of Boaz. He was a big, bear-like man with scarred forearms from sword cuts and blue-black hair with a large bluish beard, Semitic features with striking blue eyes from his Persian mother. He was extremely handsome and exceptionally tall for the time, standing at least six foot. And he was burly, in excess of two hundred pounds and physically strong. You would say he blocked the light if he stood stooped in a doorway.”
“What did he think of his half-brother Hiram?”
“He was very fond of his half brother, but wary of him. As a king, he was a bit paranoid about people who were very intelligent and had a possible birthright to the throne. Hiram thought his brother may have ambitions, which of course he did not.”
“Was the King responsible for building the harbour at Tyre and linking its two islands?”
“He built the greatest seawall in the ancient world. It was a giant breakwater which converted the two islands into a seaport with a large harbour. He used Egyptian engineers.”
“After, did he establish a merchant fleet?”
“Not at first. First of all, he organised trade with other nations until Tyre had so many goods flowing into its city they did not know what to do with them. Hiram organised trade with Egypt and the infant Greek colonies around the Aegean Sea. He encouraged caravans to travel to Mesopotamia and south to Arabia. With Israel and Judea bang-smack on his southern caravan routes he buttered up to Solomon and was able to give Solomon his heart’s desire, a temple. In return, Solomon gave him free and safe access to the caravan routes while Hiram gave Solomon, Lebanese cedars and craftsman.
Hiram greatly admired Solomon and on a trip into the south he told one of his major customers about Solomon’s wisdom, wealth, attractiveness and power. The Queen of Sheba was enraptured and as a result wanted to see for herself.”
“Gatekeeper, could you tell me her name; she is always referred to by her title?”
“Her name was beautiful… it is Balkiss and she made a triumphant entry into Jerusalem from her home near Aden in what is now Yemen but then it was called Sheba… which means the south. She was black and bewitching, but it is hard to say who bewitched who.”
“Is that why in the Song of Solomon it says: ‘I am black, but comely… Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me’?”
“Yes! Balkiss was stunningly beautiful, much like modern Sudanese, tall, beautiful, graceful and coal black. All her clothing was silk, orange, red and yellow interwoven. She had a chuckling laugh and she was very sensuous.”
“Did Solomon actually fall in love with her or was it just lust?”
“It was a meeting of thunder and lightning of El Moyra and Pallas Athene and his major psalmist wrote the Song of Solomon for his Queen of Sheba… When Balkiss bore Solomon a son, she obeyed Solomon’s wishes and brought him up as a Jew. He was called Rueben Rasmullah or the priest prince. He would eventually go to Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) after the collapse of his mother’s kingdom and found a colony of people who followed the Jewish religion. Rueben took with him one of his father’s titles: the Lion of Judah and founded a royal line. The apostles, James the Less and Thomas, would preach to his descendants as fellow Jews and from their missionary zeal would come the Coptic Orthodox Christianity. Great ones affect the future and this is merely one of the significant results of Hiram’s life.”
“Back to the prosaic… then did he establish a merchant fleet?”
“Hiram was a born manager who, as he solved problems, the solutions would lead him to extending his power bases. Yes, he built a merchant fleet but once you have a merchant fleet you have, in fact, a navy. But let’s be clear about what these boats were; they were glorified rowing boats with lateen square sails. They were designed for the coastal trade, which up until then had been dominated by the Greeks.
Hiram built up an excess of raw materials through his trade. Rather than store it he encouraged craftsman to start adding value to their surplus through manufacturing. Tyre became the port which exported olive oil, jewellery, perfume, spices, furs, and it was the best source of timber and of shipwrights in the Mediterranean.”
“What was his greatest achievement?”
“We will divide his temporal achievements from his spiritual. Hiram made an insignificant tract of country, not more than a beach with a forest behind it, into one of the most powerful places in the Middle East. He created Phoenicia and with the Phoenicians, travelled many innovations and ideas. For us, the most important was the spread of the White Order throughout the Mediterranean. His spiritual achievement was that in everything that he did he never relinquished his devotion to fairness. He was the embodiment of all that was good in the Australian sense: fairness and justice for all. He was a compassionate man who was not formally devout but a good man.”
“Whether he was devout or not he would be credited with building two great temples; one to Astarte and another to Melkart which was so famous Alexander himself went there to pray. What do you think about his temple building?”
“Let’s first understand why he built temples. The members of the White Order were temple builders and believers in one god. Hiram needed to simplify Tyre’s religions to unify his people. They had Egyptian and Jewish gods and many others nation’s gods as well. ‘What’s wrong with Melkart?’, he asked, ‘he’s ours’. So he promoted Melkart as part of his program of creating a national identity and much of the mythology around Melkart was borrowed from other sources including the Egyptian goddess Maat and would later go over to Hercules.”
“When Alexander visited the temple of Melkart to worship, two pillars were described; one of gold and one of emerald. They seem to me like the inspiration for Solomon’s Temple and its columns. Is that right?”
“Solomon had visited the temple at Tyre on invitation of the king. There was a pillar overlaid with gold leaf and another constructed with chrysoprase. They were constructed by Hiram Abiff and that’s why Solomon wanted him to build his temple. One column represented light, one represented darkness and they balanced the space around them with truth in the middle. It was taken from Maat, the Egyptian goddess who inspired Libra to balance the scales between good and evil. The temple was an attempt to symbolise balance and the Count is focussed on truth.”
“Did he build other monuments?”
“A great palace at Sidon, a great fortress in Accra and palaces for David and Solomon.”
“Why would St Germain choose a life as Hiram of Tyre?”
“It was an opportunity to explore so many of his strengths: nation builder, sailor, explorer, engineer, politician, merchant, freemason, diplomat and once more he was an educator, which we haven’t even started to talk about yet. Hiram founded the first university in the market place outside Greece… called an agora University. He brought in Greeks, Persians, and Egyptians, to teach the students who were only admitted by their ability. There were no fees. The teachers were paid by the state and provided with accommodation. All this was paid from taxes levied on trading.”
“What qualities of St Germain did Hiram bring?”
“He brought in his gift as a master facilitator as someone who made things happen, who could cement bonds between different cultures, who had a capacity to engineer projects in public works and in events like the founding of the royal line in Ethiopia.”
“What did Hiram need to learn in this life?”
“It was a life crammed full of beginnings for his other lives. Of most importance was the setting up of his life as Jeshua’s uncle as Joseph of Arimathea forming a relationship with Hiram, his brother, who would be Jeshua’s father Joseph ben Mathias. Hiram would enjoy every minute of his life.”
“Although we can’t say the same for his brother! We believe King Hiram lived a long life and reigned for thirty-four years - how did he die?”
“He died of a massive stroke at fifty-eight.”
“About six miles outside Tyre, on the road to Qana, which might be the Cana of the Gospel’s wedding feast, there is a tomb which archaeologists have dated from 550-330BC, which is the Persian period. Traditionally this monument has been called the Tomb of Hiram. Is he actually buried there?”
“Yes. Archaeologists have not been there for a long time but it will be re-explored with the return of stability in the area. It is not a sumptuous tomb and in it is a reasonably simple sarcophagus and in it there is not even an embalmed body. He was cremated and his ashes buried there.”
“How will we know if we have found his tomb?”
“It is inscribed on a tablet.”
“Gatekeeper, you seem to like Hiram very much.”
“Hiram is almost impossible to dislike. He is a very appealing character who was absolutely exhausting but he is fun. This is a beautiful line of St Germain. He’s alive now, working to bring peace in the Middle East and if you ask me ‘who?’ I’ll say to you ‘work it out’.”
I couldn’t!
THINKING ABOUT THESE LIVES
These two chapters embrace six lives scattered over a thousand years. Unusually in Aaron and Samuel, we can observe two prominent lives that are contiguous of St Germain himself. They are well documented in three books of the Bible: Exodus, Numbers and Samuel allowing us an opportunity to see how the mistakes made in one life can be rectified in the next. Saint-Germain moves from being an idolator as Aaron to being the champion of monotheism and the scourge of idolatry as Samuel.
In both lives, he hears the voice of God conveying him messages but it is in his life as Samuel where he overcomes Aaron’s preening vanity and his desire to be showing off entertaining everyone with his tricks. In this way this line of Saint-German, which is the Comte de Saint-Germain himself, is being readied for his humble life as Joseph, Christ’s father, a life which the Comte will constantly say was one of his most difficult.
Ruth is a simpler life, a rest for Mary before her challenging life as Maya and it is a chance to work with Joseph of Arimathea’s energy as Boaz.
Two lives of Boaz and Joachin are mentioned in passing, two men whose names will be immortalised as the names of columns in Solomon’s Temple. The columns were to symbolise light and dark and the balance between the polarities of truth. St Germain and Mary will balance their lives and St Germain, often incarnating as one of the world’s greatest philosophers Lao Tzu, Plato and Voltaire for example - will define and play with truth. In this chapter saintly, lighter lives co-exist with challenging darker lives where all aspects are of the same being demonstrating that our spiritual DNA has all the complexity and diversity of our physical DNA.
No better example of the complexity of our spiritual DNA exists than the magician, Aaron, the judge Samuel and the sacrificed architect Hiram Abiff – it is hard to see what they have in common yet not only are they all St Germain but they are also from the Count’s line: Saint-Germain.
They share his traits of intelligence but, while the flamboyant Aaron ducks leadership, the prayerful Samuel embraces it and Hiram stands in the shadows designing and constructing the most perfect building ever created and then allowing himself to be sacrificed and buried in its crypt. The divergence in these lives gives us an indication of the complexity of our own spiritual DNA and that our search for our soul mates could provide us with multi-million opportunities, none of whom will be a facsimile of ourselves.
The life of the shadowy Hiram Abiff is one of the Count’s most unusual lives in that it prompts the rituals of Freemasonry and it is the immediate precursor of the life of Joseph, the father of Jesus. Hiram Abiff spends five to six years designing and building Solomon’s Temple, the place of worship of God. At the heart of worship is surrender – surrender to God. Hiram both surrendered and sacrificed his life. It was the first sacrifice in the Temple. Hiram was preparing spiritually for his fathership of the Christ and his half-brother King Hiram for the critical role he would play in the leadership of Jesus’ family after Joseph’s death and in the unique assignment Jesus would give him in the foundation of Christianity.
The mysterious White Order remains in the background, inspiring and influencing events and spreading via Phoenicia’s merchant fleet, the most perplexing of all as a moral reconfiguration of the past.
