PHI-lology of an acrostich

Domenico Migliaccio

I would like to write something on acrostichs, and I chose this subject obviously for the famous AOMPS, engraved on the base of the Calvarium, in the garden of the Presbytery near the Magdalena of RLC.

Nothing that we do not know already: the acrostichs are short poetical compositions where the initials of verses, read in vertical direction, form a name or phrase (like on the tomb of Keats, in the Acatholic Cemetery of the Pyramid of Cestia at Rome) or, as the lovers of enigmas well know, it is about finding phrases where the initials give a name or word.

Indeed, in the acrostich, from a clause we go to an abbreviation and not vice versa. To describe the inverse procedure where we reconstruct a clause from an abbreviation, we should use the word "acronym" in reality.
The obvious example of a "true" acrostich is given by Fr` Apostolo Zeno from the Convent of the +Domenicani Osservanti delle Zattere; at Venice: we owe him thanks for giving a name to the anonymous author of Hypnerotomachia Polyphili, "Poliphile's Dream".

In 1512, the Dominican monk observed that: " librorum capita hoc ostendum, pro unoquoque libro prima littera, itaque simul junctae dicunt: "POLIAM FRATER FRANCISCVS COLVMNA PERAMAVIT" - "brother Francesco Colonna adored Polia (Ippolita Tarvisi)." Here, the initials of the 38 chapters of Hypnerotomachia forming the aforesaid acrostich :

The solution of a game so complicated, distributed over so many pages, suggests proximity to the author, if not his direct confidence. The latter consideration (less irritating than the unlikely cipher "with 7 keys" with which Saunihre's parchments were decrypted) would deserve more attention, but we're here to speak of AOMPS, not of +Strife of Love Dreamed by Poliphile;.

An anagram remains relegated among its letters. If I say that +SION-AC-SION-PLUS; (Sion and Sion again) is an anagram of +NICOLAS POUSSIN;, anyone can observe it's true. We can try to make others, but their number is rather limited. An acronym can, on the other hand, give an almost endless series of solutions whose limit is imposed by the imagination only of the one deciphering. 

But let's return to our enigmatic inscription: "CHRISTUS AOMPS DEFENDIT". Invoked is, last, Christ's protection on the AOMPS. But whom or what must the Lord defend? 

Someone, as paraphrase of the most famous Rosicrucian AMORC, has found it opportune to read: "Antiquus Ordo Mysticus Prioratus Sionis", the Mystical and Ancient Order of the Priory of Sion. A dear friend, member of an Italian forum, reads it as: the Ancient Order Martinist of Pistis Sophia. For someone else it means: "Alpha OMega Patris Sanguinis", the beginning and end of the Stock of the Father. For others the phrase is obvious: +Ab Opera Manifestum Patre Secretum;, Christ defends with Work the Secret revealed by Father.

I know with certainty the AOMPS is a hierarchical high grade of "CCC", a brotherhood of Parisian cataphiles whose adepts prowl and meet each other in the bowels and sewers of the underground Agharta, the Dark Town hiding its face a few metres under the mantle of the Ville Lumihre which, on the other hand, is for all to see. But I do not believe this Altier et Oublii et Magnifique PSycopomprs /Elevated and Forgotten and Magnificent PSychopomp/ deserves "Divine Protection" more than any of us. 

Acronyms and abbreviations are so made: we can read almost all we want.

I am lazy by nature and, fortunately, the case is simple. The solution (and every Roman knows that) is provided by the base of the obelisk erected by Sixtus V, "Er Papa Tosto", in 1586 in the middle of San Pietro's colonnade. Sixtus V was obsessed with obelisks: it was the first of the four hoisted by the Pope, and his pontificate lasted five years only!

Transported from Heliopolis to Rome in AD 37, under Caligula, the Vatican monolith is a red granit of twenty-five metres, reaching fourty if we add the base and the cross on the top. Like all obelisks, it represents the +Ray of Ra;, the Sun. Like many, it serves a big sundial as gnomon.

Among "exorcist" inscriptions releasing it from pagan dependency, we read: "Christus Ab Omni Malo Plebem Suam Defendat", at least in part taken from the Litaniae Sanctorum. The arcana discovered, the mystery unveiled. This phrase says explicity: Christ keeps his people from all evil."

On this point however somebody could object an acrostich is used to point out to a few which must pass unnoticed to many. You can assert "Ab Omni Malo Plebem Suam; is a better encrypted message of the simple AOMPS. The former, as "phrase in clear", escapes the attention of the observer who is attracted by the latter, in an attempt to give the abbreviation +a sensible sense;. Lighter than the language of men, there is only the thought of men!!

Then we feel, only for a minimum of historic data, our good sense keeps us from believing Sixtus V was a Great Initiate who mastered radiesthesia and geomantics, that he knew well the nodal points in the circulation of telluric currents and did not want to hide, under this phrase, another inexpressible truth relating to Sion.
But someone could again say historic notions and good sense lack the precision of mathematical equation: Sixtus V displayed SION even hiding in his heraldic device "NOXIIS TANTVM - Very for faults"

...and I say, to give you the proof, only that the World and the Chance are still unexplored languages.

ROMA ** XI - I - MMIV ** MD