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Christ as sun god

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lordrelayer

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Aug 3, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/3/00

I have repeatedly seen Christ referred to as a "sun god" in occult
literature. While I understand the paralells exist between Mithraic, Osirian
and Christian myths, I'm not sure that I get this leap. Does this refer
specifically to the sacrifice and resurrection? With all of his much vaunted
messages of love, I would have thought to look for J.C. in the sphere of
Venus.

Son_of_Chive_Mynde

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Aug 3, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/3/00

You need to study Egyptian mythology more closely.

The Mithraic, Osirian and Christian myths are ONE and the SAME.

The "Jesus" of the NT is Osiris arisen.

- SOCkM

-----------------------------------------------------------

Got questions? Get answers over the phone at Keen.com.
Up to 100 minutes free!
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Cameron Mandrake

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Aug 3, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/3/00

lordrelayer <lordr...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
: I have repeatedly seen Christ referred to as a "sun god" in occult
: literature. While I understand the paralells exist between Mithraic, Osirian
: and Christian myths, I'm not sure that I get this leap. Does this refer
: specifically to the sacrifice and resurrection? With all of his much vaunted
: messages of love, I would have thought to look for J.C. in the sphere of
: Venus.

There are a number of reasons for this, including the Osirian connections,
etc. Christ is attributed to Tiphareth on the Tree of Life, as is 'Christ
Consciousness'. Tiphareth is also linked with the Sun.

We see that the early Church decided to celebrate the birth of Jesus near
the Winter Solstice, which is also a time of celebration of the birth
of the Sun God.

My favorite thing involving Christ as a Sun God is the use of the
monstrance in the Catholic churches. The monstrance, for those who don't
know, is a highly decorative device, usually in the shape of a sunburst,
that is used to display the Host for the purpose of benediction or
adoration. Esoterically, it allows people to see the radiance of the Host
despite not having the skill of 'otherworldly' vision. The Seventh Day
Adventist church started calling the Catholics Sun God worshippers. While
you can still find sunburst monstrances, they are becoming less and less
common, while other shapes are slowly taking over.

You have no doubt about Christ as a Sun God when you see the level of
veneration that is given to an enthroned Host in a monstrance. More and
more churches around the country set up chapels with perpetual adoration
with nuns and priests praying and sitting vigil in front of a Host in a
monstrance.

-Cameron+

--
Fr. Cameron J. Mandrake mand...@dragon.org
Coming soon, Dragon Spirit Magazine at http://www.dragon.org
Submissions needed. Please visit the site for details.

Invisigoth

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Aug 3, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/3/00

lordrelayer (lordr...@yahoo.co.uk) wrote:
: I have repeatedly seen Christ referred to as a "sun god" in occult
: literature. While I understand the paralells exist between Mithraic, Osirian
: and Christian myths, I'm not sure that I get this leap. Does this refer
: specifically to the sacrifice and resurrection? With all of his much vaunted
: messages of love, I would have thought to look for J.C. in the sphere of
: Venus.

You might want to add the Sol Invictus (Unconquered Sun) cult to your list
there. I believe this cult was particularly associated with the Roman
emperors (as the Unconquered Sun themselves). Constantine, famous for
making Christianity a licit religion in the Roman Empire, had himself
buried among twelve other sarcophagi, with his as the 13th, in a way
suspiciously reminiscent of Jesus and the twelve disciples referred to in
the NT.

-- Jordan
@>--->--->---->

Fate's Knight

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Aug 3, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/3/00

Son_of_Chive_Mynde wrote:

> "lordrelayer" <lordr...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> >I have repeatedly seen Christ referred to as a "sun god" in
> occult
> >literature. While I understand the paralells exist between
> Mithraic, Osirian
> >and Christian myths, I'm not sure that I get this leap. Does
> this refer
> >specifically to the sacrifice and resurrection? With all of his
> much vaunted
> >messages of love, I would have thought to look for J.C. in the
> sphere of
> >Venus.
> >
>

> You need to study Egyptian mythology more closely.
>
> The Mithraic, Osirian and Christian myths are ONE and the SAME.

Disagree.

>
>
> The "Jesus" of the NT is Osiris arisen.

In your not so humble opinion. It is a matter of faith, not fact. I can
just as easily claim that Dennis Miller is Osiris risen; that does not
make it so.

>
>
> - SOCkM
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------
>
> Got questions? Get answers over the phone at Keen.com.
> Up to 100 minutes free!
> http://www.keen.com

Fate's Knight
--
"First vampires, now witches. No wonder you can still afford a house
in Sunnydale." --Xander "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"

Project Mayhem

Fate's Knight

unread,

Aug 3, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/3/00

lordrelayer wrote:

> I have repeatedly seen Christ referred to as a "sun god" in occult
> literature. While I understand the paralells exist between Mithraic, Osirian
> and Christian myths, I'm not sure that I get this leap. Does this refer
> specifically to the sacrifice and resurrection? With all of his much vaunted
> messages of love, I would have thought to look for J.C. in the sphere of
> Venus.

It is also often done as a lame attempt to artificially graft Christianity to
some aspect of paganism. Much akin to refering to the Virgin Mary as the
Goddess. It's artificial and it doesn't work incredibly well because they two
are not the same. And much like many other things in most religions, they are
not truly compatable.

Son_of_Chive_Mynde

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Aug 3, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/3/00

Fate's Knight <Fates...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:

>> The "Jesus" of the NT is Osiris arisen.
>
>In your not so humble opinion. It is a matter of faith, not
>fact.

Nope. It is a matter of fact, not faith.

Was the New Testament Influenced by Pagan Religions

by Ronald Nash

from the Christian Research Journal, Winter 1994, page 8. The
Editor-in-Chief of the Christian Research Journal is Elliot
Miller.

Summary

Many Christian college students have encountered criticisms of
Christianity based on claims that early Christianity and the New
Testament borrowed important beliefs and practices from a number
of pagan mystery religions. Since these claims undermine such
central Christian doctrines as Christ's death and resurrection,
the charges are serious. But the evidence for such claims, when
it even exists, often lies in sources several centuries older
than the New Testament. Moreover, the alleged parallels often
result from liberal scholars uncritically describing pagan
beliefs and practices in Christian language and then marveling
at the striking parallels they think they've discovered.

During the first half of the twentieth century, a number of
liberal authors and professors claimed that the New Testament
teaching about
Jesus' death and resurrection, the New Birth, and the Christian
practices of baptism and the Lord's Supper were derived from the
pagan
mystery religions. Of major concern in all this is the charge
that the New Testament doctrine of salvation parallels themes
commonly found
in the mystery religions: a savior-god dies violently for those
he will eventually deliver, after which that god is restored to
life.

Was the New Testament influenced by the pagan religions of the
first century A.D.? Even though I surveyed this matter in a 1992
book,[1] the issues are so important -- especially for Christian
college students who often do not know where to look for
answers -- that there is considerable merit in addressing this
question in a popular, nontechnical format.

WHAT WERE THE MYSTERY RELIGIONS?

Other than Judaism and Christianity, the mystery religions were
the most influential religions in the early centuries after
Christ. The reason these cults were
called "mystery religions" is that they involved secret
ceremonies known only to those initiated into the cult. The
major benefit of these practices was thought to be some kind of
salvation.

The mystery religions were not, of course, the only
manifestations of the religious spirit in the eastern Roman
Empire. One could also find public cults not
requiring an initiation ceremony into secret beliefs and
practices. The Greek Olympian religion and its Roman counterpart
are examples of this type of religion.

Each Mediterranean region produced its own mystery religion. Out
of Greece came the cults of Demeter and Dionysus, as well as the
Eleusinian and Orphic mystery religions, which developed later.
[2] Asia Minor gave birth to the cult of Cybele, the Great
Mother, and her beloved, a shepherd named Attis. The cult of
Isis and Osiris (later changed to Serapis) originated in Egypt,
while Syria and Palestine saw the rise of the cult of Adonis.
Finally, Persia
(Iran) was a leading early locale for the cult of Mithras,
which -- due to its frequent use of the imagery of war -- held a
special appeal to Roman soldiers. The earlier Greek mystery
religions were state religions in the sense that they attained
the status of a public or civil cult and served a national or
public function. The later non-Greek mysteries were personal,
private, and individualistic.

Basic Traits

One must avoid any suggestion that there was one common mystery
religion. While a tendency toward eclecticism or synthesis
developed after A.D. 300, each of the mystery cults was a
separate and distinct religion during the century that saw the
birth of the Christian church. Moreover, each mystery cult
assumed different forms in different cultural settings and
underwent significant changes, especially after A.D. 100.
Nevertheless, the mystery religions exhibited five common traits.

(1) Central to each mystery was its use of an annual
vegetation cycle in which life is renewed each spring and dies
each fall. Followers of the mystery cults found deep
symbolic significance in the natural processes of growth, death,
decay, and rebirth.

(2) As noted above, each cult made important use of secret
ceremonies or mysteries, often in connection with an initiation
rite. Each mystery religion also passed on a "secret" to the
initiate that included information about the life of the cult's
god or goddess and how humans might achieve unity with that
deity. This "knowledge" was always a secret or esoteric
knowledge, unattainable by any outside the circle of the cult.

(3) Each mystery also centered around a myth in which the
deity either returned to life after death or else triumphed over
his enemies. Implicit in the myth was the theme of
redemption from everything earthly and temporal. The secret
meaning of the cult and its accompanying myth was expressed
in a "sacramental drama" that appealed largely to the feelings
and emotions of the initiates. This religious ecstasy was
supposed to lead them to think they were experiencing the
beginning of a new life.

(4) The mysteries had little or no use for doctrine and
correct belief. They were primarily concerned with the emotional
life of their followers. The cults used many different means
to affect the emotions and imaginations of initiates and hence
bring about "union with the god": processions, fasting, a
play, acts of purification, blazing lights, and esoteric
liturgies. This lack of any emphasis on correct belief marked an
important difference between the mysteries and Christianity.
The Christian faith was exclusivistic in the sense that it
recognized only one legitimate path to God and salvation,
Jesus Christ. The mysteries were inclusivistic in the sense that
nothing prevented a believer in one cult from following other
mysteries.

(5) The immediate goal of the initiates was a mystical
experience that led them to feel they had achieved union with
their god. Beyond this quest for mystical union were two
more ultimate goals: some kind of redemption or salvation, and
immortality.

Evolution

Before A.D. 100, the mystery religions were still largely
confined to specific localities and were still a relatively
novel phenomenon. After A.D. 100, they gradually began to attain
a widespread popular influence throughout the Roman Empire. But
they also underwent significant changes that often resulted from
the various cults absorbing elements from each other. As
devotees of the mysteries became increasingly eclectic in their
beliefs and practices, new and odd combinations of the older
mysteries began to emerge. And as the cults continued to tone
down the more objectionable features of their older practices,
they began to attract greater numbers of followers.

RECONSTRUCTING THE MYSTERIES

It is not until we come to the third century A.D. that we find
sufficient source material (i.e., information about the mystery
religions from the writings of the time) to permit a relatively
complete reconstruction of their content. Far too many writers
use this late source material (after A.D. 200) to form
reconstructions of the third-century mystery experience and then
uncritically reason back to what they think must have been the
earlier nature of the cults. This practice is exceptionally bad
scholarship and should not be allowed to stand without
challenge. Information about a cult that comes several hundred
years after the close of the New Testament canon must not be
read back into what is presumed to be the status of the cult
during the first century A.D. The crucial question is not what
possible influence the mysteries may have had on segments of
Christendom after A.D. 400, but what effect the emerging
mysteries may have had on the New Testament in the first
century.

The Cult of Isis and Osiris

The cult of Isis originated in Egypt and went through two major
stages. In its older Egyptian version, which was not a mystery
religion, Isis was regarded as the goddess of heaven, earth, the
sea, and the unseen world below. In this earlier stage, Isis had
a husband named Osiris. The cult of Isis became a mystery
religion only after Ptolemy the First introduced major changes,
sometime after 300 B.C. In the later stage, a new god named
Serapis became Isis's consort. Ptolemy introduced these changes
in order to synthesize Egyptian and Greek concerns in his
kingdom, thus hastening the Hellenization of Egypt.

From Egypt, the cult of Isis gradually made its way to Rome.
While Rome was at first repelled by the cult, the religion
finally entered the city during the reign of Caligula (A.D. 37-
41). Its influence spread gradually during the next two
centuries, and in some locales it became a major rival of
Christianity. The cult's success in the Roman Empire seems to
have resulted from its impressive ritual and the hope of
immortality offered to its followers.

The basic myth of the Isis cult concerned Osiris, her husband
during the earlier Egyptian and nonmystery stage of the
religion. According to the most common version of the myth,
Osiris was murdered by his brother who then sank the coffin
containing Osiris's body into the Nile river. Isis discovered
the body and returned it to Egypt. But her brother-in-law once
again gained access to the body, this time dismembering it into
fourteen pieces which he scattered widely. Following a long
search, Isis recovered each part of the body. It is at this
point that the language used to describe what followed is
crucial. Sometimes those telling the story are satisfied to say
that Osiris came back to life, even though such language claims
far more than the myth allows. Some writers go even further and
refer to the alleged "resurrection" of Osiris. One liberal
scholar illustrates how biased some writers are when they
describe the pagan myth in Christian language: "The dead body of
Osiris floated in the Nile and he returned to life, this being
accomplished by a baptism in the waters of the Nile."[3]

This biased and sloppy use of language suggests three misleading
analogies between Osiris and Christ: (1) a savior god dies and
(2) then experiences a resurrection accompanied by (3) water
baptism. But the alleged similarities, as well as the language
used to describe them, turn out to be fabrications of the modern
scholar and are not part of the original myth. Comparisons
between the resurrection of Jesus and the resuscitation of
Osiris are greatly exaggerated.[4] Not every version of the myth
has Osiris returning to life; in some he simply becomes king of
the underworld. Equally far-fetched are attempts to find an
analogue of Christian baptism in the Osiris myth.[5] The fate of
Osiris's coffin in the Nile is as relevant to baptism as the
sinking of Atlantis.

As previously noted, during its later mystery stage, the male
deity of the Isis cult is no longer the dying Osiris but
Serapis. Serapis is often portrayed as a sun god, and it is
clear that he was not a dying god. Obviously then, neither could
he be a rising god. Thus, it is worth remembering that the post-
Ptolemaic mystery version of the Isis cult that was in
circulation from about 300 B.C. through the early centuries of
the Christian era had absolutely nothing that could resemble a
dying and rising savior-god.

The Cult of Cybele and Attis

Cybele, also known as the Great Mother, was worshiped through
much of the Hellenistic world. She undoubtedly began as a
goddess of nature. Her early worship included orgiastic
ceremonies in which her frenzied male worshipers were led to
castrate themselves, following which they became "Galli" or
eunuch-priests of the goddess. Cybele eventually came to be
viewed as the Mother of all gods and the mistress of all life.

Most of our information about the cult describes its practices
during its later Roman period. But the details are slim and
almost all the source material is relatively late, certainly
datable long after the close of the New Testament canon.

According to myth, Cybele loved a shepherd named Attis. Because
Attis was unfaithful, she drove him insane. Overcome by madness,
Attis castrated himself and died. This drove Cybele into great
mourning, and it introduced death into the natural world. But
then Cybele restored Attis to life, an event that also brought
the world of nature back to life.

The presuppositions of the interpreter tend to determine the
language used to describe what followed Attis's death. Many
writers refer carelessly to the "resurrection of Attis." But
surely this is an exaggeration. There is no mention of anything
resembling a resurrection in the myth, which suggests that
Cybele could only preserve Attis's dead body. Beyond this, there
is mention of the body's hair continuing to grow, along with
some movement of his little finger. In some versions of the
myth, Attis's return to life took the form of his being changed
into an evergreen tree. Since the basic idea underlying the myth
was the annual vegetation cycle, any resemblance to the bodily
resurrection of Christ is greatly exaggerated.

Eventually a public rehearsal of the Attis myth became an annual
event in which worshipers shared in Attis's "immortality." Each
spring the followers of Cybele would mourn for the dead Attis in
acts of fasting and flagellation.

It was only during the later Roman celebrations (after A.D. 300)
of the spring festival that anything remotely connected with
a "resurrection" appears. The pine tree symbolizing Attis was
cut down and then carried corpse-like into the sanctuary. Later
in the prolonged festival, the tree was buried while the
initiates worked themselves into a frenzy that included gashing
themselves with knives. The next night, the "grave" of the tree
was opened and the "resurrection of Attis" was celebrated. But
the language of these late sources is highly ambiguous. In
truth, no clear-cut, unambiguous reference to the
supposed "resurrection" of Attis appears, even in the very late
literature from the fourth century after Christ.

The Taurobolium

The best-known rite of the cult of the Great Mother was the
taurobolium. It is important to note, however, that this ritual
was not part of the cult in its earlier stages. It entered the
religion sometime after the middle of the second century A.D.

During the ceremony, initiates stood or reclined in a pit as a
bull was slaughtered on a platform above them.[6] The initiate
would then be bathed in the

warm blood of the dying animal. It has been alleged that the
taurobolium was a source for Christian language about being
washed in the blood of the lamb (Rev. 7:14) or sprinkled with
the blood of Jesus (1 Pet. 1:2). It has also been cited as the
source for Paul's teaching in Romans 6:1-4, where he relates
Christian baptism to the Christian's identification with
Christ's death and resurrection.

No notion of death and resurrection was ever part of the
taurobolium, however. The best available evidence requires us to
date the ritual about one hundred years after Paul wrote Romans
6:1-4. Not one existing text supports the claim that the
taurobolium memorialized the death and "resurrection" of Attis.
The pagan rite could not possibly have been the source for
Paul's teaching in Romans 6. Only near the end of the fourth
century A.D. did the ritual add the notion of rebirth. Several
important scholars see a Christian influence at work in this
later development.[7] It is clear, then, that the chronological
development of the rite makes it impossible for it to have
influenced first-century Christianity. The New Testament
teaching about the shedding of blood
should be viewed in the context of its Old Testament background -
- the Passover and the temple sacrifice.

Mithraism

Attempts to reconstruct the beliefs and practices of Mithraism
face enormous challenges because of the scanty information that
has survived. Proponents of the cult explained the world in
terms of two ultimate and opposing principles, one good
(depicted as light) and the other evil (darkness). Human beings
must choose which side they will fight for; they are trapped in
the conflict between light and darkness. Mithra came to be
regarded as the most powerful mediator who could help humans
ward off attacks from demonic forces.[8]

The major reason why no Mithraic influence on first-century
Christianity is possible is the timing: it's all wrong! The
flowering of Mithraism occurred after

the close of the New Testament canon, much too late for it to
have influenced anything that appears in the New Testament.[9]
Moreover, no monuments for the cult can be dated earlier than
A.D. 90-100, and even this dating requires us to make some
exceedingly generous assumptions. Chronological
difficulties, then, make the possibility of a Mithraic influence
on early Christianity extremely improbable. Certainly, there
remains no credible evidence for
such an influence.

STRIKING PARALLELS?

Enough has been said thus far to permit comment on one of the
major faults of the above-mentioned liberal scholars. I refer to
the frequency with which their writings evidence a careless,
even sloppy use of language. One frequently encounters scholars
who first use Christian terminology to describe pagan beliefs
and practices, and then marvel at the striking parallels they
think they have discovered. One can go a long way
toward "proving" early Christian dependence on the mysteries by
describing some mystery belief or practice in Christian
terminology. J. Godwin does this in his book, Mystery
Religions in the Ancient World, which describes the criobolium
(see footnote 6) as a "blood baptism" in which the initiate
is "washed in the blood of the lamb."[10] While uninformed
readers might be stunned by this remarkable similarity to
Christianity (see Rev. 7:14), knowledgeable readers will see
such a claim as the reflection of a strong, negative bias
against Christianity.

Exaggerations and oversimplifications abound in this kind of
literature. One encounters overblown claims about alleged
likenesses between baptism and the Lord's Supper and
similar "sacraments" in certain mystery cults. Attempts to find
analogies between the resurrection of Christ and the
alleged "resurrections" of the mystery deities involve massive
amounts of oversimplification and inattention to detail.

Pagan Rituals and the Christian Sacraments

The mere fact that Christianity has a sacred meal and a washing
of the body is supposed to prove that it borrowed these
ceremonies from similar meals and washings in the pagan cults.
By themselves, of course, such outward similarities prove
nothing. After all, religious ceremonies can assume only a
limited number of forms, and they will naturally relate to
important or common aspects of human life. The more important
question is the meaning of the pagan practices. Ceremonial
washings that antedate the New Testament have a different
meaning from New Testament baptism, while pagan washings after
A.D. 100 come too late to influence the New Testament and,
indeed, might themselves have been influenced by Christianity.
[11] Sacred meals in the pre-Christian Greek mysteries fail to
prove anything since the chronology is all wrong. The Greek
ceremonies that are supposed to have influenced first-century
Christians had long since disappeared by the time we get to
Jesus and Paul. Sacred meals in such post-Christian mysteries as
Mithraism come too late.

In contrast with pagan initiation ceremonies, Christian baptism
is not a mechanical or magical ceremony. It is clear that the
sources of Christian baptism

are not to be found either in the taurobolium (which is post
first-century anyway) or in the washings of the pagan mysteries.
Its sources lie rather in the washings of purification found in
the Old Testament and in the Jewish practice of baptizing
proselytes, the latter being the most likely source for the
baptistic practices of John the Baptist.

Of all the mystery cults, only Mithraism had anything that
resembled the Lord's Supper. A piece of bread and a cup of water
were placed before initiates while the priest of Mithra spoke
some ceremonial words. But the late introduction of this ritual
precludes its having any influence upon first-century
Christianity.

person and to something He did in history. The occasion for
Jesus' introduction of the Christian Lord's Supper was the
Jewish Passover feast. Attempts to find pagan sources for
baptism and the Lord's Supper must be judged to fail.

The Death of the Mystery Gods and the Death of Jesus

The best way to evaluate the alleged dependence of early
Christian beliefs about Christ's death and resurrection on the
pagan myths of a dying and rising savior-god is to examine
carefully the supposed parallels. The death of Jesus differs
from the deaths of the pagan gods in at least six ways:

(1) None of the so-called savior-gods died for someone else.
The notion of the Son of God dying in place of His creatures is
unique to
Christianity.[13]

(2) Only Jesus died for sin. As Gunter Wagner observes, to
none of the pagan gods "has the intention of helping men been
attributed. The sort of death that they died is quite
different (hunting accident,
self-emasculation, etc.)."[14]

(3) Jesus died once and for all (Heb. 7:27; 9:25-28; 10:10-
14). In contrast, the mystery gods were vegetation deities whose
repeated deaths and resuscitations depict the annual cycle
of nature.

death and resurrection was grounded in an actual historical
event makes absurd any attempt to derive this belief from the
mythical, nonhistorical stories of the pagan cults.[15]

(5) Unlike the mystery gods, Jesus died voluntarily. Nothing
like this appears even implicitly in the mysteries.

(6) And finally, Jesus' death was not a defeat but a
triumph. Christianity stands entirely apart from the pagan
mysteries in that its report of Jesus' death is a message of
triumph. Even as Jesus was experiencing the pain and humiliation
of the cross, He was the victor. The New Testament's mood of
exultation contrasts sharply with that of the mystery religions,
whose followers wept and mourned for the terrible fate that
overtook their gods.[16]

The Risen Christ and the "Rising Savior-Gods"

Which mystery gods actually experienced a resurrection from the
dead? Certainly no early texts refer to any resurrection of
Attis. Nor is the case for a resurrection of Osiris any
stronger. One can speak of a "resurrection" in the stories of
Osiris, Attis, and Adonis only in the most extended of senses.
[17] For example, after Isis gathered together the pieces of
Osiris's dismembered body, Osiris became "Lord of the
Underworld." This is a poor substitute for a resurrection like
that of Jesus Christ. And, no claim can be made that Mithras was
a dying and rising god. The tide of scholarly opinion has turned
dramatically against attempts to make early Christianity
dependent on the so-called dying and rising gods of Hellenistic
paganism.[18] Any unbiased examination of the evidence shows
that such claims must be rejected.

Christian Rebirth and Cultic Initiation Rites

Liberal writings on the subject are full of sweeping
generalizations to the effect that early Christianity borrowed
its notion of rebirth from the pagan mysteries.[19] But the
evidence makes it clear that there was no pre-Christian doctrine
of rebirth for the Christians to borrow. There are actually very
few references to the notion of rebirth in the evidence that has
survived, and even these are either very late or very ambiguous.
They provide no help in settling the question of the source of
the New Testament use of the concept. The claim that pre-
Christian mysteries regarded their initiation rites as a kind of
rebirth is unsupported by any evidence contemporary with such
alleged practices. Instead, a view found in much later texts is
read back into earlier rites, which are then interpreted quite
speculatively as dramatic portrayals of the initiate's "new
birth." The belief that pre-Christian mysteries used "rebirth"
as a technical term lacks support from even one single text.

Most contemporary scholars maintain that the mystery use of the
concept of rebirth (testified to only in evidence dated after
A.D. 300) differs so significantly from its New Testament usage
that any possibility of a close link is ruled out. The most that
such scholars are willing to concede is the possibility that
some Christians borrowed the metaphor or imagery from the common
speech of the time and recast it to fit their distinctive
theological beliefs. So even if the metaphor of rebirth was
Hellenistic, its content within Christianity was unique.[20]

SEVEN ARGUMENTS AGAINST CHRISTIAN DEPENDENCE ON THE MYSTERIES

I conclude by noting seven points that undermine liberal efforts
to show that first-century Christianity borrowed essential
beliefs and practices from the pagan mystery religions.

(1) Arguments offered to "prove" a Christian dependence on
the mysteries illustrate the logical fallacy of false cause.
This fallacy is committed whenever someone reasons that just
because two things exist side by side, one of them must have
caused the other. As we all should know, mere coincidence
does not prove causal connection. Nor does similarity prove
dependence.

(2) Many alleged similarities between Christianity and the
mysteries are either greatly exaggerated or fabricated. Scholars
often describe pagan rituals in language they borrow from
Christianity. The careless use of language could lead one to
speak of a "Last Supper" in Mithraism or a "baptism" in the
cult of Isis. It is inexcusable nonsense to take the
word "savior" with all of its New Testament connotations and
apply it to Osiris or Attis as though they were savior-gods
in any similar sense.

(3) The chronology is all wrong. Almost all of our sources
of information about the pagan religions alleged to have
influenced early Christianity are dated very late. We
frequently find writers quoting from documents written 300 years
later than Paul in efforts to produce ideas that allegedly
influenced Paul. We must reject the assumption that just because
a cult had a certain belief or practice in the third or fourth
century after Christ, it therefore had the same belief or
practice in the first century.

(4) Paul would never have consciously borrowed from the
pagan religions. All of our information about him makes it
highly unlikely that he was in any sense influenced by pagan
sources. He placed great emphasis on his early training in a
strict form of Judaism (Phil. 3:5). He warned the
Colossians against the very sort of influence that advocates
of Christian syncretism have attributed to him, namely, letting
their minds be captured by alien speculations (Col. 2:8).

(5) Early Christianity was an exclusivistic faith. As J.
Machen explains, the mystery cults were nonexclusive. "A man
could become initiated into the mysteries of Isis or Mithras
without at all giving up his former beliefs; but if he were to
be received into the Church, according to the preaching of
Paul, he must forsake all other Saviors for the Lord Jesus
Christ....Amid the prevailing syncretism of the Greco-Roman
world, the religion of Paul, with the religion of Israel,
stands absolutely alone."[21] This Christian exclusivism should
be a starting point for all reflection about the possible
relations between Christianity and its pagan competitors. Any
hint of syncretism in the New Testament would have caused
immediate controversy.

(6) Unlike the mysteries, the religion of Paul was grounded
on events that actually happened in history. The mysticism of
the mystery cults was essentially nonhistorical. Their myths
were dramas, or pictures, of what the initiate went through, not
real historical events, as Paul regarded Christ's death and
resurrection to be. The Christian affirmation that the death and
resurrection of Christ happened to a historical person at a
particular time and place has absolutely no parallel in any
pagan mystery religion.

(7) What few parallels may still remain may reflect a
Christian influence on the pagan systems. As Bruce Metzger has
argued, "It must not be uncritically assumed that the
Mysteries always influenced Christianity, for it is not only
possible but probable that in certain cases, the influence
moved in the opposite direction."[22] It should not be
surprising that leaders of cults that were being successfully
challenged by Christianity should do something to counter
the challenge. What better way to do this than by offering a
pagan substitute? Pagan attempts to counter the growing
influence of Christianity by imitating it are clearly apparent
in measures instituted by Julian the Apostate, who was the Roman
emperor from A.D. 361 to 363.

A FINAL WORD

Liberal efforts to undermine the uniqueness of the Christian
revelation via claims of a pagan religious influence collapse
quickly once a full account of the

information is available. It is clear that the liberal arguments
exhibit astoundingly bad scholarship. Indeed, this conclusion
may be too generous. According
to one writer, a more accurate account of these bad arguments
would describe them as "prejudiced irresponsibility."[23] But in
order to become completely informed on these matters, wise
readers will work through material cited in the brief
bibliography.

NOTES

1 See Ronald Nash, The Gospel and the Greeks (Richardson, TX:
Probe Books, 1992). The book was originally published in 1984
under the title,
Christianity and the Hellenist World.
2 I must pass over these Greek versions of the mystery cults.
See Nash, 131-36. 3 Joseph Klausner, From Jesus to Paul (New
York: Macmillan, 1943), 104. 4 See Edwin Yamauchi, "Easter --
Myth, Hallucination, or History?" Christianity Today, 29 March
1974, 660-63.
5 See Gunter Wagner, Pauline Baptism and the Pagan Mysteries
(Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1967), 260ff.
6 When the ceremony used a lamb, it was the criobolium. Since
lambs cost far less than bulls, this modification was rather
common.
7 See Nash, chapter 9.
8 For more detail, see Nash, 143-48.
9 See Franz Cumont, The Mysteries of Mithra (Chicago: Open
Court, 1903), 87ff. 10 Joscelyn Godwin, Mystery Religions in the
Ancient World (New York: Harper and Row, 1981), 111.
11 See Nash, chapter 9.
12 See Herman Ridderbos, Paul: An Outline of His Theology (Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975), 24.
13 See Martin Hengel, The Son of God (Philadelphia: Fortress
Press, 1976), 26. 14 Wagner, 284.
15 See W. K. C. Guthrie, Ortheus and Greek Religion, 2d ed.
(London: Methuen, 1952), 268.
16 See A. D. Nock, "Early Gentile Christianity and Its
Hellenistic Background," in Essays on the Trinity and the
Incarnation, ed. A. E. J. Rawlinson (London: Longmans, Green,
1928), 106.
17 See J. Gresham Machen, The Origin of Paul's Religion (New
York: Macmillan, 1925), 234-35.
18 See Nash, 161-99.
19 See Nash, 173-78.
20 See W. F. Flemington, The New Testament Doctrine of Baptism
(London: SPCK, 1948), 76-81.
21 Machen, 9.
22 Bruce M. Metzger, Historical and Literary Studies: Pagan,
Jewish, and Christian (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1968), 11. The
possible parallels in view here would naturally be dated late,
after A.D. 200 for the most part. 23 Gordon H. Clark, Thales to
Dewey (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1957), 195.

Son_of_Chive_Mynde

unread,

Aug 3, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/3/00

The last post I quoted defended Christianity from those who
claim it is composed of earlier mysteries, rites, and pagan
religions. Yes, those defenders refuse to acknowledge the facts.

Isis
(Aset, Eset)

http://osiris.colorado.edu/LAB/GODS/isis.html

"Throne". Egyptian mother goddess. Daughter of Geb and Nut
according to the Heliopolitan genealogy. Sister and wife of
Osiris. Mother of Horus. She was depicted in human form, crowned
either by a throne or by cow horns enclosing a sun disk. A
vulture was also sometimes incorporated in her crown. She is
sometimes depicted as a kite above the mummified body of Osiris.
As the personification of the throne, she was an important
source of the pharaoh's power. Her cult was popular throughout
Egypt, but the most important sanctuaries were at Giza and at
Behbeit El-Hagar in the Nile delta. Isis later had an importan
cult in the Greco-Roman world, with sanctuaries at Delos and
Pompeii. Her Latin epithet was Stella Maris, or "star of the
sea".

It was Isis who retrieved and reassembled the body of Osiris
after his murder and dismemberment by Seth. In this connection
she took on the role of a goddess of the dead and of funeral
rites. Isis impregnated herself from the corpse and subsequently
gave birth to Horus. She gave birth in secrecy at Khemmis in the
Nile delta and hid the child from Seth in the papyrus swamps.
Horus later defeated Seth and became the first ruler of a united
Egypt. Isis, as mother of Horus, was by extension regarded as
the mother and protectress of the pharaohs. The relationship
between Isis and Horus may also have influenced the Christian
conception of the relationship between Mary and the infant Jesus
Christ. The depiction of the seated holding or suckling the
child Horus is certainly reminiscent of the iconography of Mary
and Jesus.

Invokation of Osiris
http://www.golden-dawn.org/osiris.html

"I am Osiris Onnophris who is found perfect before the Gods. I
hath said: These are the elements of my Body perfected through
suffering, glorified through trial. The scent of the dying Rose
is as the repressed sigh of my Suffering. And the flame-red Fire
as the energy of mine undaunted Will. And the Cup of Wine is the
pouring out of the blood of my heart, sacrificed unto
Regeneration, unto the newer life. And the bread and salt are as
the foundations of my body, which I destroy in order that they
may be renewed.

For I am Osiris Triumphant. Even Osiris Onnophris the Justified
One. I am He who is clothed with the body of flesh yet in whom
flames the spirit of the eternal Gods. I am the Lord of Life. I
am triumphant over Death, and whosoever partaketh with me shall
with me arise. I am the manifester in Matter of Those whose
abode is the Invisible. I am the purified. I stand upon the
Universe. I am it's Reconciler with the eternal Gods. I am the
Perfector of Matter, and without me the Universe is not."

The Egyptian Mysteries
http://www.golden-dawn.org/egypt.html

Osiris plays a key role and is a central figure in the ancient
Egyptian mysteries and in the Order Of The Morning Star. It was
Osiris who was the beloved pharaoh of Egypt. It was Osiris who
taught the people of the land of Egypt about farming. Osiris was
and is one of the first "Green Men", in that he was also the god
of vegetation. When Osiris became ruler over the land of Egypt,
the people were engaged in the practice of cannibalism. Osiris
helped them to evolve beyond cannibalism and to learn farming
skills.

Osiris is the husband of Isis. After thousands of years, all
female goddesses became merged as an aspect of Isis, she too is
central to Egyptian symbolism. Isis was well known for her
powerful magic, her cunning and wisdom - she was the "breath of
life" that brought life unto what was dead. A good example of
this is portrayed in the fable of "The Legend of Isis and Ra" as
well as in the tale of how she restored her husband, Osiris back
to life. Most scholars know of the tragic story of the death of
Osiris. He was murdered by his evil brother Set. Set is equated
with Typhon-Apophis of the Greeks. Set is the destructive aspect
that the alchemical principal must undergo, and thus be reborn
into a new and purified creation. That is exactly what happened
to Osiris. His death or as the alchemist would say his
putrefaction was carefully evolved through the power of Isis
under the magical direction of Thoth.

Essentially, a formula was being created in the mythos. It is
the alchemical formula of I.A.O., Isis, Apophis, Osiris, Birth,
Death, resurrection. To the Adept this is a powerful process of
transformation that unlocks the keys of magical power and of
immortality.

For as Osiris died, through the power of Birth (Isis) under the
authority and skill of Thoth (The Higher Genius) Osiris arose on
the physical plane as the great avenging god Horus, his son. On
the spiritual plane Osiris became the great god of the
underworld. Like Christ he became the god that the Egyptians
needed to become in order to be saved. What this means is that
unless the initiate allows for the complete transformation of
the self under the direct guidance of the Higher, no true and
lasting power can be obtained. Osiris is the reconciler with the
Lower Selfhood in which no birth or death is necessary. We can
refer to it as "The Bornless One."

To the Egyptians one must become Osiris. In that no one can or
could deliver the forty-two negative confessions in the hall of
truth, because no one is perfect in earthly life. By
identification with Osiris the candidate who stands in the Hall
of Truth can indeed deliver the negative confession. The reason
is clear, it is not him, but him in Osiris that is delivering
the negative confession. The candidate in the Hall of Truth is
redeemed by his unification with Osiris.This unification in the
Morning Star system takes place in the grade of 5=6, Adeptus
Minor. Of the details I can speak no more.

In the Hall of the Neophyte it is the Hierophant who sits in the
Osirisian position on the path of Samekh outside of Tiphareth.
Osiris is the one in the Hall of the Neophyte who confirms the
initiation on the new candidate. This is done after the
candidate has taken the oath and is placed in the northwest part
of the hall.

"I am the only being in an abyss of Darkness. From an abyss of
Darkness came I forth ere my birth, from the silence of a primal
sleep. And the voice of ages said unto my soul, 'I am he who
formulates in Darkness, the Light that shineth in the Darkness,
yet the Darkness comprehendeth it not.' Let the mystical
circumambulation take place onto the Path of Darkness that
leadeth unto Light with the Lamp of Hidden Knowledge to guide
the way."

The Triad
http://www.kirtland.cc.mi.us/honors/goddess/triad.htm

The Great Goddess was a "triad," or trio, or, more properly, she
was the single embodiment of three "aspects"--Maiden, Mother,
Crone (sometimes "Hag"), each of whom might have had a different
name, or set of names and epithets . Clearly, her triadic nature
suggests that she is the embodiment of the cycle of human and
biological existence-birth, growth, fullness, decay, and death.
She was the source of fruitfulness and nourishment, the giver of
all life, and the taker.

Matriarchy
http://www.kirtland.cc.mi.us/honors/goddess/matriarc.htm

One of the most heated controversies of ancient mythology
centers on these related questions:

Were the goddess's priestly intermediaries, i.e., the
administrators of the goddess's rites, females or males?
Some are convinced that the goddess's priests were originally
women. These women both administered the goddess's rites and
were her earthly embodiments and representatives. Later, through
the social changes sketched above, male priests arose.

Were the societies who worshipped the goddess matrilineal or
patrilineal (did descent, kinship, property, or title pass
through the mother's or the father's line)?

As early as the late 1850s, J. J. Bachofen argued that
matriarchy and matrilineality had flourished in early human
societies, citing considerable mythological evidence, and
arguing that, since woman is the living counterpart to the
tilled earth, the feminine principle reigned supreme in early
agricultural societies; kinship, title, and property descended
through the female line; and the male role in procreation was
secondary. It was in these societies that the mythologies of the
Great Goddess were born.

Were the societies who worshipped the goddess matriarchal or
patriarchal (did women or men dominate and rule)?

Some mythologists are convinced that matriarchy was a feature of
the societies for whom the Great Goddess was supreme, that is,
rule by, and superior social status for, women. Others allow for
the possibility. Still others reject the idea as unproved.

The Great Goddesses of Later Times
http://www.kirtland.cc.mi.us/honors/goddess/later.htm

A core group of specific goddesses appears to be direct
descendants of the original Great Goddess, or, perhaps, they are
the original variant forms of the Great Goddess herself in their
respective world regions:

Anat, Anath, Anit, Anatu, Anahita, Neith, Athene, Athena
Artemis
Asherah, Athirat, Astarte, Athtarath, Ishara, Ishtar
Cybele, Kubele
De, Da, Don, Dan, Danu, Dea
Devi
Ge, Geae, Gaia
Inanna, Nana
Isis, Au Set, Eset

The Gods
Adonis (Greece)
Attis (Anatolia)
Dumuzi (Sumeria)
Osiris (Egypt)
Tammuz (Babylonia)

Frazer, Adonis, and Wilde
http://landow.stg.brown.edu/victorian/decadence/wilde/dawson11.ht
ml

Terence Dawson, Senior Lecturer, National University of Singapore

Sir James Frazer describes Adonis as a "dying-god"
who "represented the yearly decay and revival of life, especally
of vegetable life" (p. 6). The evolution of this mythological
motif illustrates how human consciousness gradually absorbs
unconscious material. In the first stage, Adonis is a god. In
the next stage, represented by Ovid's version of the story,
Adonis becomes a mortal with whom a goddess falls in love. In
other words, human consciusness can now see Adonis's situation
or dilemma as real, even if the interaction itself is imagined
as occasioned by divine factors. In the third stage, represented
by Dorian and Sibyl, both protagonists are mortal, and the
entire encounter occurs in realistic terms. Dorian's experiences
still retain the basic pattern of the myth, but he can make
decisions in a way that neither the original dying-god nor
Ovid's protagonist can. In this way, numinous experiences are
slowly assimilated or integrated by consciousness, allowing the
ego to assume ever greater responsibility for his actions.

References
Frazer, J. (1922) The Golden Bough, Part IV, vol 1. London:
Macmillan.

Sir James (George) Frazer (1854-1941)
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/jfrazer.htm

British anthropologist, historian of religion and classical
scholar, whose best-known study THE GOLDEN BOUGH: A STUDY IN
COMPARATIVE RELIGION traced the evolution of human behavior,
ancient and primitive myth, magic, religion, ritual, and taboo.
The study appeared first in two volumes in 1890 and finally in
12 volumes in 1911-15. It was named after the golden bough in
the sacred grove at Nemi, near Rome. Frazer did much to
popularize anthropology and made its agnostic tendencies
acceptable, although his conclusions are now outdated.

James Frazer was born in Glaskow, Scotland, into a pious middle-
class family, as the eldest of four children of Daniel K.
Frazer, a pharmacist, and Katherine (Brown) Frazer. He was
educated at Larchfield Academy, Helensburgh, and University of
Glaskow and then at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he became
a classics fellow from 1871 until his death. Except for one
year, 1907-08, spent at the University of Liverpool as professor
of social anthropology, Frazer remained from 1908 most of his
life in Cambridge.

Frazer also studied law because of his father's wishes. He was
called to the English Bar in 1879, but he never practiced. His
wife, Elisabeth Grove Frazier, whom he married in 1896, devoted
herself into guarding his peace of writing and research. As a
scholar Frazer started first with a translation and commentary
of Pausanias, a Greek travel writer of the second century. The
work was finally published in six volumes in 1898.

Frazer's interest in social anthropology was aroused by reading
E.B. Taylor's Primitive Culture (1871) and encouraged by his
friend W. Robertson-Smith. In Golden Bough he argued, that
everywhere in human mental evolution a belief in magic preceded
religion, which in turn was followed in the West by science. In
the first stage a false causality was seen to exist between
rituals and natural events. Religion appeared in the second
stage and the third stage was science. Customs deriving from
earlier periods persisted as survivals into later ages where
they were frequently reinterpreted according to the dominant
mode of thought.

Golden Bough stimulated a number of writers, including D.H.
Lawrence an T.S. Eliot, whose The Waste Land (1922) is perhaps
the best example of its literary influence, where, for example,
the Fisher King and Waste-Land shape the motifs. An abridged,
one-volume edition was published in 1922. Its influence can be
found in the writings of Synge, Yeats, and Joyce. Frazer himself
did not write much fiction. These works, including THE QUEST OF
THE GORGON'S HEAD (1920) were assembled in SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY
AND OTHER LITERARY PIECES (1920). Freud used in his mythological
studies Frazer's report that primitives often called the
afterbirth brother, sister or twin, and even fed it and took
care of it for a while.

"The killing of the god, that is, of his human incarnation, is
therefore a merely a necessary step to his revival or
resurrection in a better form. Far from being an extinction of
the divine spirit, it is only the beginning of a purer and
stronger manifestation of it." (from The New Golden Bough, ed.
by Theodor H. Gaster, 1959)
The Golden Bough has given inspiration to many fantasy stories,
among them the myth of Diana and the sacrifical killing of the
Year King by his successor in a rite of renewal. When the vigor
of the king begans to decline, he must died so that - in fantasy
terms - the land can begin to experience the healing. Frazer
believed that the ritual derived from a universal psychic
impulse. In this view he drew paralles between the death and
resurrection of Christ and ancient beliefs. However,
anthropologist have criticized Frazer's theories and field work
has shown that similar institutions have widely dissimilar
origins.

Today Frazer's books are still considered a storehouse of
ethnographic information, although his theories belong rather in
the history than current orientation of anthropology. Frazer
traveled little and did not have time to do field work. His
knowledge of primitive societies was entirely second-hand,
gathered largely from questionnaires sent to missionaries among
primitive people. Frazer's notions of totemism were finally
destroyed by Lévi-Stauss.

Among Frazer's other works are PSYCHE'S TASK (1909), TOTEMISM
AND EXOGAMY (1910), which was a primary source for Freud's Totem
und Taboo, THE BELIEF IN IMORTALITY AND THE WORSHIP OF THE DEAD
(1913-24), FOLKLORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT (1918). He published
commentary on Pausanias (1898), edition of Ovid's Fasti (1929),
and other works on classical and literary topics.

Frazer was knighted in 1914. Aside from occasional trips to
Greece and the Continent, he and Lady Frazer rarely left
Cambridge. In 1931 he went blind but continued his work with the
aid of secretaries and amanuenses. Frazer died in Cambridge on
May 7, 1941.

Quote: "It is said, too, that sailors, beating up against the
wind in the Gulf of Finland, sometimes see a strange sail heave
in sight astern and overhaul them hand over over hand. On she
comes with a cloud of canvas - all her studding-sails out -
right in the teeth of the wind, forging her way through the
foaming billows, dashing back the spray in sheets from her
cutwater, every sail swollen to bursting, every rope to strained
to cracking. The sailors know that she hails from Finland."
(from The New Golden Bough, ed. by Theodor H. Gaster, 1959)
FOR FURTHER READING: James George Frazer: The Portrait of a
Scholar by R.A. Downie (1940); The Tangled Bank by S.E. Hyman
(1962); Frazer and the Goden Bough by R.A. Downie (1970); The
Literary Impact of the Golden Bough by J.B. Vickery (1973); J.G.
Frazer by R. Ackerman (1987); Sir James Frazer and the Literary
Imagination, ed. by R. Frazer (1991); Myth, Rhetoric, and the
Voice of Authority by M. Manganaro (1992)
Selected works:

TOTEMISM, 1884
THE GOLDEN BOUGH, 1890 (2 vols.)
translation: Pausanias's Description of Greece, 1898
GOLDEN BOUGH, 1900 (3 vols.)
PAUSANIAS AND OTHER GREEK SKETCHES, 1900 (reissued as Studies in
Greek Scenery, Legend and History, 1917)
LECTURE ON THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE KINGSHIP, 1905 (resissued as
The Magical Origins of Kings, 1920
ADONIS, ATTIS, OSIRIS, 1906
PSYCHE'S TASK, 1909
TOTEMISM AND EXOGAMY, 1910 (4 vols.)
THE DYING GOD, 1911
THE MAGIC ART AND THE EVOLUTION OF KINGS, 1911 (2 vols.)
TABOO AND PERILS OF THE SOUL, 1911
ed.: LETTERS OF WILLIAM COWPER, 1912
SPIRITS OF THE CORN AND OF THE WILD, 1912 (2 vols.)
THE SCAPEGOAT, 1913
BALDER THE BEAUTIFUL, 1913 (2 vols.)
GOLDEN BOUGH, 1911-1915 (12 vols. - abridged edition in 1922)
ed.: ESSAYS OF JOSEPH ADDISON, 1915
THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY AND THE WORSHIP OF THE DEAD, 1913-24
FOLKLORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT, 1918 (3 vols.)
SIR ROGER DE COVERLY AND OTHER LITERARY PIECES, 1920
ed. and transl.: The Library by Apollodorus, 1921 (2 vols.)
THE WORSHIP OF NATURE, 1926
THE GORGON'S HEAD AND OTHER LITERARY PIECES, 1927
ed. and transl.: Fasti by Ovid, 1929 (5 vols.)
THE GROWTH OF PLATO'S IDEAL THEORY, 1930
GRAECIA ANTIQUA (compiled with A.W. Van Buren), 1930
MYTHS OF THE ORIGIN OF FIRE, 1930
GARNERED SHEAVES, 1931
THE FEAR OF THE DEAD IN PRIMITIVE RELIGION, 1933-36 (3 vols.)
CREATION AND EVOLUTION IN PRIMITIVE COSMOGONIES AND OTHER
PIECES, 1935
AFTERMATH: A SUPPLEMENT TO THE GOLDEN BOUGH, 1936
TOTEMICA: A SUPPLEMENT TO TOTEMISM AND EXOGAMY, 1937
ANTHOLOGIA ANTHROPOLOGICA, 1938-39 (4 vols.)
MAGIC AND RELIGION, 1944

MITHRAISM
http://www.crystalinks.com/mithra.html

The name Mithras was the Persian word for 'contract'. Mithras
was also known throughout Europe and Asia by the names Mithra,
Mitra, Meitros, Mihr, Mehr, and Meher. The veneration of this
God began about 4000 years ago in Persia, where it was soon
imbedded with Babylonian doctrines.

The faith spread east through India to China, and reached west
throughout the entire length of the Roman frontier-- from
Scotland to the Sahara Desert, from Spain to the Black Sea.
Sites of Mithraic worship have been found in Britain, Italy,
Romania, Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey, Persia, Armenia,
Syria, Israel, and North Africa.

Rome

Mithraism is the ancient Roman mystery cult of the god Mithras.
Roman worship of Mithras began sometime during the early Roman
empire, perhaps during the late first century of the Common Era
(hereafter CE), and flourished from the second through the
fourth centuries CE.

During which it came under the influence of Greek and Roman
mythologies. The Mithraic cult maintained secrecy. Its teaching
were only reveled to initiates.

While it is fairly certain that Romans encountered worship of
the deity Mithras as part of Zoroastrianism in the eastern
provinces of the empire, particularly in Asia Minor (now modern
Turkey), the exact origins of cult practices in the Roman cult
of Mithras remain controversial.

The evidence for this cult is mostly archaeological, consisting
of the remains of mithraic temples, dedicatory inscriptions, and
iconographic representations of the god and other aspects of the
cult in stone sculpture, sculpted stone relief, wall painting,
and mosaic. There is very little literary evidence pertaining to
the cult.

Remains of Mithraic temples can be found throughout the Roman
Empire, from Palestine across north of Africa, and across
central Europe to northern England.

For over three hundred years the rulers of the Roman Empire
worshipped the god Mithras. In Rome, more than a hundred
inscriptions dedicated to Mithras have been found, in addition
to 75 sculpture fragments, and a series of Mithraic temples
situated in all parts of the city. One of the largest Mithraic
temples built in Italy now lies under the present site of the
Church of St. Clemente, near the Colosseum in Rome.

Persia

In Persia Mithra was the protector God of the tribal society
until the Zoroaster's reformation of Persian polytheism (628-
55BC). Mithra like the rest of the gods and goddess of the
Iranian Pantheon was stripped of his sovereignty, and all his
powers and attributes were bestowed upon Zarathrustra.

Mithraism began in Persia where originally a multitude of gods
were worshipped. Amongst them were Ahura-Mazda, god of the
skies, and Ahriman, god of darkness. In the sixth and seventh
century B.C., a vast reformation of the Persian pantheon was
undertaken by Zarathustra (known in Greek as Zoroaster), a
prophet from the kingdom of Bactria. The stature of Ahura-Mazda
was elevated to that of supreme god of goodness, whereas the god
Ahriman became the ultimate embodiment of evil.

In the same way that Ahkenaton, Abraham, Heliogabalus, and
Mohammed later initiated henotheistic cults from the worship of
their respective deities, Zarathustra created a henotheistic
dualism with the gods Ahura-Mazda and Ahriman. As a result of
the Babylonian captivity of the Jews (597 B.C.) and their later
emancipation by King Cyrus the Great of Persia (538 B.C.),
Zoroastrian dualism was to influence the Jewish belief in the
existence of HaShatan, the malicious Adversary of the god
Yahweh, and later permit the evolution of the Christian Satan-
Jehovah dichotomy. Persian religious dualism became the
foundation of an ethical system that has lasted until this day.

The reformation of Zarathustra retained the hundreds of Persian
deities, assembling them into a complex hierarchical system
of 'Immortals' and 'Adored Ones' under the rule of either Ahura-
Mazda or Ahriman. Within this vast pantheon, Mithras gained the
title of 'Judger of Souls'. He became the divine representative
of Ahura-Mazda on earth, and was directed to protect the
righteous from the demonic forces of Ahriman. Mithras was called
omniscient, undeceivable, infallible, eternally watchful, and
never-resting.

In the Avesta, the holy book of the religion of Zarathustra,
Ahura-Mazda was said to have created Mithras in order to
guarantee the authority of contracts and the keeping of
promises. The name Mithras was, in fact, the Persian word
for 'contract'. The divine duty of Mithras was to ensure general
prosperity through good contractual relations between men. It
was believed that misfortune would befall the entire land if a
contract was ever broken.

Ahura-Mazda was said to have created Mithras to be as great and
worthy as himself. He would fight the spirits of evil to protect
the creations of Ahura-Mazda and cause even Ahriman to tremble.
Mithras was seen as the protector of just souls from demons
seeking to drag them down to Hell, and the guide of these souls
to Paradise. As Lord of the Sky, he took the role of psychopomp,
conducting the souls of the righteous dead to paradise.

According to Persian traditions, the god Mithras was actually
incarnated into the human form of the Saviour expected by
Zarathustra. Mithras was born of Anahita, an immaculate virgin
mother once worshipped as a fertility goddess before the
hierarchical reformation. Anahita was said to have conceived the
Saviour from the seed of Zarathustra preserved in the waters of
Lake Hamun in the Persian province of Sistan. Mithra's ascension
to heaven was said to have occurred in 208 B.C., 64 years after
his birth. Parthian coins and documents bear a double date with
this 64 year interval.

Mithras was 'The Great King' highly revered by the nobility and
monarchs, who looked upon him as their special protector. A
great number of the nobility took theophorous (god-bearing)
names compounded with Mithras. The title of the god Mithras was
used in the dynasties of Pontus, Parthia, Cappadocia, Armenia
and Commagene by emperors with the name Mithradates. Mithradates
VI, king of Pontus (northern Turkey) in 120-63 B.C. became
famous for being the first monarch to practice immunization by
taking poisons in gradually increased doses. The terms
mithridatism and mithridate (a pharmacological elixir) were
named after him. The Parthian princes of Armenia were all
priests of Mithras, and an entire district of this land was
dedicated to the Virgin Mother Anahita. Many Mithraeums, or
Mithraic temples, were built in Armenia, which remained one of
the last strongholds of Mithraism.

The largest near-eastern Mithtraeum was built in western Persia
at Kangavar, dedicated to 'Anahita, the Immaculate Virgin Mother
of the Lord Mithras'. Other Mithraic temples were built in
Khuzestan and in Central Iran near present-day Mahallat, where
at the temple of Khorheh a few tall columns still stand.
Excavations in Nisa, later renamed Mithradatkirt, have uncovered
Mithraic mausoleums and shrines. Mithraic sanctuaries and
mausoleums were built in the city of Hatra in upper Mesopotamia.
West of Hatra at Dura Europos, Mithraeums were found with
figures of Mithras on horseback.

Persian Mithraism was more a collection of traditions and rites
than a body of doctrines. However, once the Babylonians took the
Mithraic rituals and mythology from the Persians, they
thoroughly refined its theology. The Babylonian clergy
assimilated Ahura-Mazda to the god Baal, Anahita to the goddess
Ishtar, and Mithras to Shamash, their god of justice, victory
and protection (and the sun god from whom King Hammurabi
received his code of laws in the 18th century B.C.) As a result
of the solar and astronomical associations of the Babylonians,
Mithras later was referred to by Roman worshippers as 'Sol
invictus', or the invincible sun. The sun itself was considered
to be "the eye of Mithras". The Persian crown, from which all
present day crowns ar derived, was designed to represent the
golden sun-disc sacred to Mithras.

As a deity connected with the sun and its life-giving powers,
Mithras was known as 'The Lord of the Wide Pastures' who was
believed to cause the plants to spring forth from the ground. In
the time of Cyrus and Darius the Great, the rulers of Persia
received the first fruits of the fall harvest at the festival of
Mehragan. At this time they wore their most brilliant clothing
and drank wine. In the Persian calendar, the seventh month and
the sixteenth day of each month were also dedicated to Mithras.

According to Persian mythology, Mithras was born of a virgin
given the title 'Mother of God'. The God remained celibate
throughout his life, and valued self-control, renunciation and
resistance to sensuality among his worshippers. Mithras
represented a system of ethics in which brotherhood was
encouraged in order to unify against the forces of evil.

The Persians called Mithras 'The Mediator' since he was believed
to stand between the light of Ahura-Mazda and the darkness of
Ahriman. He was said to have 1000 eyes, expressing the
conviction that no man could conceal his wrongdoing from the
god. Mithras was known as the God of Truth, and Lord of Heavenly
Light, and said to have stated "I am a star which goes with thee
and shines out of the depths".

Mithras was worshipped as guardian of arms, and patron of
soldiers and armies. The handshake was developed by those who
worshipped him as a token of friendship and as a gesture to show
that you were unarmed. When Mithras later became the Roman god
of contracts, the handshake gesture was imported throughout the
Mediterranean and Europe by Roman soldiers.

In Armenian tradition, Mithras was believed to shut himself up
in a cave from which he emerged once a year, born anew. The
Persians introduced initiates to the mysteries in natural caves,
according to Porphyry, the third century neoplatonic
philosopher. These cave temples were created in the image of the
World Cave that Mithras had created, according to the Persian
creation myth.

As 'God of Truth and Integrity', Mithras was invoked in solemn
oaths to pledge the fulfillment of contracts and punish liars.
He was believed to maintain peace, wisdom, honour, prosperity,
and cause harmony to reign among all his worshippers. According
to the Avesta, Mithras could decide when different periods of
world history were completed. He would judge mortal souls at
death and brandish his mace over hell three times each day so
that demons would not inflict greater punishment on sinners than
they deserved.

India--Vedic

Mithra is an Indo-Iranian sun god.In Hinduism he is praised as
the binomial Mitra-Varuna. A hymn is also dedicated to him alone
in Rig Veda. He is the Lord of Heavenly light, protector of
truth, and is invoked when a contract or oath is taken.

Babylonian

The Babylonians also incorporated their belief in destiny into
the Mithraic worship of Zurvan, the Persian god of infinite time
and father of the gods Ahura-Mazda and Ahriman. They
superimposed astrology, the use of the zodiac, and the
deification of the four seasons onto the Persian rites of
Mithraism.

China

Mithra is also seen in Chinese mythology, where he is known as
The Friend. Mithra is represented as a Military General in
Chinese statues, and is considered to be the friend of man in
this life and his protector against evil in the next.

Degrees of Initiation

There were seven degrees of initiation, these degrees allowed
the neophyte to proceed through the seven celestial bodies.
Allowing the reversing of the human soulÕs descend into the
world at birth.

The first degree was of corax(Raven) under Mercury. This stage
symbolized death of neophyte. In ancient Persia it was a custom
to expose dead bodies to be eaten by ravens on funeral towers.
Raven as symbol of death can also be seen in some tarot packs as
card 13 instead of Grim Reaper. At this stage the neophyte dies
and is re-born into a spiritual path. A mantra was given to him
to repeat and his sins were washed away by baptism in water.

The next degree is of Nymphus(male-bride) under Venus. The
neophyte wears a veil and carries a lamp in his hand. He is
unable to see the Ôlight of truthÕ until the Ôveil of realityÕ
is lifted. He is vowed to the cult, and becomes celibate for at
least duration of this stage. He is a bride(lover) of Mithra. He
also offers a cup of water to the statute of Mithra, the cup is
his heart and the water is his love.

On reaching Miles(solider) under Mars, the neophyte had to kneel
(submission to religious authority, naked (casting off old
life), blindfolded with hands tied. He was then offered a crown
on the point of a sword . Once crowned, his binds were cut with
a single stroke of the sword and blindfold removed. This
represented his liberation from bondageÕs of the material world.
He would then remove the crown from his head and placing it on
his shoulder, saying: ÒMithra is my only crownÓ(Fanz Cumont, The
Mysteries of Mithra). This also symbolizes the removing the head
(intellect) itself, allowing Mithra to be the guide.

At this stage the neophyte starts the real battle against his
lower self, a solider is one actively struggels with the real
enemy.

The stage of Leo(lion) is first of the senior degrees and is
under Jupiter. He is entering the element of fire. Therefore the
lions were not allowed to touch water during the ritual, and
instead honey was offered to the initiate to wash his hands and
anoint his tongue. The lions carry the food for the ritual meal
that was prepared by the lower grades to the ritual feast, and
take part. Lions duties included attending the sacred altar
flame. The ritual feast represented Mithras last supper of bread
and wine with his companions, before his ascend to the heavens
in SunÕs chariot.

The degree of Perses (Persian) under moon, The initiate to this
grade obtained through it an affiliation to that race which
alone was worthy of receiving the highest revelations of wisdom
of Magi (Fanz Cumont, Rapport sur une mission a Rome, in
Academic des inscrition et Belles-Letters, Comptes Rendes, 1945
p.418). The emblem for this stage was a harpe, the harpe that
Persus decapitated the Gorgon. Symbolizing the destruction of
the lower and animal aspect of the initiate. The initiate was
also purified with honey as he was under the protection of the
Moon. Honey is associated with purity and fertility of the moon
as this was, in ancient Iran believed to be the source of honey,
and thus the expression of honey-moon denotes not the period of
a month after marriage, but continued love and fertility in
married life. (Dr. Masoud Homayouri, Origin of Persian Gnosis).

In grade of Heliodromus(sun runner) under sun, the initiate
imitates Sun at the ritual banquet. Sitting next to Mithra
(Father), dressed in red, color of sun, fire and blood of life.

Highest grade was of Pater(father) under Saturn. He was Mithras
earthly representative, light of heaven embodied, the teacher of
congregation which he lead, wearing a redcap and as well as a
red baggy Persian trousers, carrying a staff symbol of his
spiritual office. (Charles Daniels, Mithras and his temples on
the Wall).

Astrology

Mithra also presided over changing of seasons and the movement
of heavens themselves. The scene of Mithra slaying a bull
represents the precession of the equinoxes. Mithra was in effect
moving the entire universe.

Mithra is represented by constellation Persus changes the
position of the celestial sphere by slaying constellation Taurus
and moving the earth into constellation Aries at spring equinox.
This miracle of Mithra is a product of Roman astrologers and a
latter development that is not seen in Iran to same extent.
However the celebration for changing of seasons was carried out
both by western and eastern followers of Mithra: Nou-roz(spring
equinox), Mehregan(autumn equinox), Shab-Yalda(winter solstice)
and summer solstice.

Link to Christianity

As Christianity gathered momentum and eventually became the
Roman Empires state religion, Mithraism was not tolerated. The
Apologist saw it as a satanic transversty of the holiest rites
of their religion. Nevertheless Catholicism has preserved some
of the outer form of Mithraism to name some; the timing of
Christmas, Bishops adaptation of miters as sign of their office,
Christians priests becoming 'Father' despite Jesus' specific
proscription of the acceptance of such title. The Mithraic Holy
father wore a red cap and garment and a ring, and carried a
shepherdÕs staff. The Head Christian adopted the same title and
outfitted himself in the same manner. While the outer appearance
of Mithraism can be detected in Catholicism, some traces of the
inner teachings of Mithraism can be found in Sufisim, therefore
study of Sufisim allows a new insight into Mithraism, and
possibly vise versa.

Belief Systems

The faithful referred to Mithras as "the Light of the World",
symbol of truth, justice, and loyalty. He was mediator between
heaven and earth and was a member of a Holy Trinity.

The worshippers of Mithras held strong beliefs in a celestial
heaven and an infernal hell. They believed that the benevolent
powers of the god would sympathize with their suffering and
grant them the final justice of immortality and eternal
salvation in the world to come. They looked forward to a final
day of judgement in which the dead would resurrect, and to a
final conflict that would destroy the existing order of all
things to bring about the triumph of light over darkness.

Purification through a ritualistic baptism was required of the
faithful, who also took part in a ceremony in which they drank
wine and ate bread to symbolize the body and blood of the god.
Sundays were held sacred, and the birth of the god was
celebrated annually on December the 25th. After the earthly
mission of this god had been accomplished, he took part in a
Last Supper with his companions before ascending to heaven, to
forever protect the faithful from above.

However, it would be a vast oversimplification to suggest that
Mithraism was the single forerunner of early Christianity. Aside
from Christ and Mithras, there were plenty of other deities
(such as Osiris, Tammuz, Adonis, Balder, Attis, and Dionysus)
said to have died and resurrected. Many classical heroic
figures, such as Hercules, Perseus, and Theseus, were said to
have been born through the union of a virgin mother and divine
father. Virtually every pagan religious practice and festivity
that couldn't be suppressed or driven underground was eventually
incorporated into the rites of Christianity as it spread across
Europe and throughout the world.

THE NATIVITY AND THE MAGI...HAVE THE STORIES BEEN TOLD LONG
BEFORE YESHUA?
http://faithofyeshua.faithweb.com/X%20NO%2052%20THE%20NATIVITY%
20AND%20THE%20MAGI...HAVE%20THE%20STORIES%20BEEN%20TOLD%20LONG%
20BEFORE%20YESHUA.htm

I don’t relish being the Grinch who stole Christmas, but
dedication to G-d and to Truth requires me, and others
affiliated with Bet Emet Ministries, to search for and teach the
truth to all. As a believer in Yeshua, teaching Truth to all
means having to verify all that is said and taught in the New
Testament. The reason we must do that is that much of the New
Testament and the Gospels can be shown to be less than reliable
when compared to Biblical history, Biblical language, and
Biblical Culture which often contradicts with facts what is
supposed to be taken on “faith” in the New Testament. Thus we
are forced to search-out and verify what is presented in the New
Testament as supposedly “truths.” This is a difficult assignment
because, as stated before, the New Testament is unfortunately
laden with untruths as the religious agenda of the early Gentile
Church replaced historical facts. Our task then is simplified:
verification of what is said in the New Testament to prove its
authenticity! This also means exposing untruths as they are
found. So far in our study we have exposed the errors connected
with a man-made concocted genealogies as well as the virgin-
birth parallel story. Now our attention will be focused on the
Nativity and the story of the Magi.

3 WISE MEN OR WERE THERE MORE?
There appears only in the book of Matthew a curious account of
the Magi, or "three" Wise Men, who came from the east to visit
the new-born Yeshua. Even though the NT doesn't say there were
three wise men in number, this has been the tradition because,
first of all, they brought three gifts to the baby Yeshua-gold,
frankincense, and myrrh. But, this explanation, just like the
Gospel "Wise Men" themselves, isn't anywhere near the truth! How
this curious story came to be in Matthew is accounted for in the
same manner that other pagan traditions came to be associated
with Yeshua.

First of all, most biblical historians seem to agree that the
Magi were from Persia, the land of Mithraism!

“MAGI”...PAGAN PERSIAN PRIESTS COME SEEKING THE MESSIAH OF THE
JEWS? OH...COME ON NOW!
In fact, the word "Magi" is of Persian origin. Webster's
Dictionary tells us that the word is from the Old Persian word
Magus which has two meanings:

The priestly caste in ancient Media and Persia, supposedly
having occult powers.
Douay Bible, the wise men from the East, (in later tradition,
three in number) who came bearing gifts to the infant Yeshua. "
(The dictionary also tells us that it is from the word Magi that
we get the English "magic!")
Asimov's Guide to the Bible writes, "'Wise men” is a translation
of the Greek 'magoi,' which has entered our language by way of
the Latin as 'magi.' The word is derived from 'magu,' the name
given to their priests by the Persian Zoroastrians. Throughout
ancient history, the priests were considered the repositories of
important knowledge. Not only did they know the techniques for
the propitiation of the gods, but IN BABYLONIA PARTICULARLY THEY
STUDIED THE HEAVENLY BODIES AND THEIR INFLUENCE UPON THE COURSE
OF HUMAN AFFAIRS. THE PRIESTS WERE THEREFORE LEARNED
ASTROLOGERS. It is interesting to mention here that the "relics"
of the "Three Wise Men" are said to be in the Cathedral of
Cologne. When these bones were examined some years ago, they
were found to be the bones of children and not adults! (Barthel,
What the Bible Really Says, p. 304).

Before We Continue....Let Us Re-State Our Intent And Purpose

Besides what was just mentioned, this article will present you
with some very interesting and important information which most
Christians have never seen, and which when evaluated will help
them gravitate to a more authentic and Hebraic centered faith as
G-d always had intended. I must go on record to state that I
wish to hurt no one or to destroy anyone’s faith. My purpose is
solely to expose false religion wherever we find it. In such an
endeavor sometimes it is necessary to reveal truths very
shocking in nature. To this ruthless pursuit of truth I offer no
apologies. It is our sincere desire at Bet Emet that you become
of which Yeshua spoke..”the Father is seeking those to worship
Him in Spirit and in Truth.” With such an aim clearly in focus
the benefits of our research is laid before you for your
evaluation and judgment. Now to the presentation of such data.
Let us continue.

WERE THE WRITERS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT GUILTY OF PLAGIARISM BY
MAKING MITHRAISM ONE OF THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF CHRISTIANITY?
T.W. Doane notes, the Mithraites of Persia not only have a very
similar birth account to that of the baby Yeshua but "three
wise" men as well. He goes on to note that when the three Wise
Men of Mithraism came to visit the baby savior-god Mithra, they
brought him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh! (Bible Myths,
p. 152, cited from Inman, Ancient Faiths, vol. ii, p. 353). Let
me reiterate that this false religious cult preceded
Christianity and the Messiah Yeshua.

Answer for yourself: As this account predates Yeshua by hundreds
of years, here, plainly stated, can you see that this is the
origin of the "Three Wise Men" tradition in Christianity?

We should never forget, as this study progresses, that the many
pagan beliefs associated with early Christianity and which are
held dear to most Christians came directly from the Mystery
Religion of Babylon. Adherence to such false beliefs when
attached to our worship constitute Idolatry. From there these
false religious beliefs and pagan religious traditions of
Babylon (where the first false religion began) were filtered
through Egypt into every ancient nation on earth. Thus, in the
Egyptian Mysteries, the forerunner of the Persian account, there
was a belief that the three stars in the Belt of Orion were
represented by the "Three Wise Men," and that they pointed to
Osiris' Star Sothis, which rose in the east to announce the
coming of the savior at the season of the Nile flood (Walker,
The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, p. 565, citing
Jobes, Gertrude and James. Outer Space, (New York: Scarecrow
Press, Inc, 1964) p. 221).

But, as far as the history of Christianity is concerned, in
particular the account of Yeshua's birth, we are principally
concerned with the Mithraic version of the Babylonian Mystery
Religion for one very important reason. It is very significant
that in first century Rome the worship of Mithra was the most
popular of all the versions of the Mysteries and would become
the chief competitor with Christianity for acceptance by all
people as the universal faith. It is also significant that the
Roman Mithraites had Wise Men, or Magi, acting as priests of
that religion. In other words, the first century Roman Magi were
nothing more than the Mithraic priests of Nimrod/Tammuz
dominating the religious structure of Rome. When one entertains
the materials available in the study of Mithra one can see for
himself how thoroughly the worship of Mithra was assimilated
into the first century Roman Catholic Church. Indeed Mithraism
was, by all accounts, at times indistinguishable from the
Christian Church. The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. X, pp. 402-404
records for us that some Christian Churches tried to draw a line
in this part of history to show that the Church of Rome had
completely gone down a path of apostasy, while in the East, the
true Christian Church still remained. In other words, alive in
the first century were those who knew better and who stood their
ground and failed to compromise truths inherited from the
Apostles and Yeshua. Others thought compromise not a problem,
and unfortunately they will win out over time.

In the spirit of compromise and assimilation, it is therefore
not surprising to find that the Catholic Christian Church has a
Feast of Epiphany, which was identical to the Mithraic Feast of
Epiphany; both being celebrated at the same time! The
Christian "feast" celebrated Yeshua's "appearance to the
Shepherds [and] to the three Kings." The Mithraic feast
celebrated the arrival of the Sun-Priest-Magi at the birthplace
of their savior-god Mithra in Persia! (Walker, op. cit.,p. 665.
See also, The Dictionary of Christian Lore and Legend, p. 94).
In other words, the early Gentile Christian Church adopted
wholesale the pagan accounts of Mithra's birth. The Magi,
or "Three Wise Men" story was simply a part of the same process!

Answer for yourself: Can we continue to blame a satanic
counterfeit as some early Christian writers did once they
learned that Mithra's birth account had been grafted directly
onto the later Gospel story of Yeshua's birth? I hardly think so
when it was the work of men!

Space does not allow in this one article to delineate the
tremendous similarities of Mithraism to Christianity which I
must add caused me considerable concern and I am sure you as
well once we come to the knowledge of the facts. In fact, as my
research intensified, my concerns turned to fear: fear that my
Christianity was nothing but regurgitated Mithraic doctrine.
Indeed, history relates that for the first three centuries of
this era Mithraism and Christianity competed with one another
(or perhaps it is best said that Christianity competed with
Mithraism) for supremacy in the Roman Empire. This continued,
until, finally and through tremendous compromises Christianity
won out.

Answer for yourself: Where in all of this is to be found the
faith and religious belief system of a Rabbi named Yeshua?
Nowhere!

RELIGIOUS ASSIMILATION WITH PAGANISM IS THE ORDER OF THE DAY FOR
THE GENTILE CHURCH
It is interesting to understand that Mithraism was quite
tolerant of other religions which, of course, accounted for its
ultimate demise. But, unlike Mithraism, the new Universal
Christian Church had no tolerance for any other faith. Following
the plan of its founders, from the beginning Gentile
Christianity [notice I said Gentile Christianity and not Jewish
Christianity] had set out to conquer rivals by any means which
usually meant the total assimilation of their theology. In other
words if you can't beat them join them. So, once the church
fathers had assimilated Mithraism and mixed their doctrines with
Apostolic Doctrine, the very memory of the once dominant pagan
religion was erased from the memories of Christianity, while
indeed, its savior-god simply became a virgin-born deity renamed
Yeshua the Christ. This is when the real Jewish Joshua/Yeshua
had to become the son of the supreme god of the reestablished
Babylonian Trinity, after which, it would then follow that he
had to die on a cross for the sins of the world as had Mithra.

Before you quit reading let me explain further. Atonement is a
tricky doctrine in the Bible for there are truths connected to
the death of Yeshua as well as untruths, and without a
comprehensive understanding of the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur)
one cannot understand correctly the efficacy found in the death
of Yeshua. But suffice it to say, the similarities to Mithra’s
death and atonement are prevalent, if not over-exaggerated in
parts in the New Testament. Such concepts expressed in the New
Testament connected with the death of Yeshua are totally absent
from the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. This is
problematic in that the New Testament is supposed to be the Old
Testament fulfilled. Notice I said fulfilled, and
not “rewritten.” For a correct understanding of Biblical
Atonement and Yeshua as the Lamb of G-d who died yearly on Yom
Kippur for the sins of Israel, it is necessary to understand
that such a lamb that was sacrificed on Yom Kippur ONLY ATONED
FOR THE SINS OF THE FIRST TABLE OF THE LAW...AND NOT THE SECOND.
Such was not the case with Mithra, thus the death of Yeshua
offers a more true picture of Atonement and what G-d always
intended. The sins of the Second Tablet of the Law and their
relationship to our salvation is “worked out individually”
through prayer, repentance, alms, etc. Request our research into
Atonement and your questions will be answered to your
satisfaction.

UNIQUENESS OF MITHRAISM VS. OTHER SUN-GOD WORSHIP
Now, within Mithraism we find an interesting twist as opposed to
the other Sun-god type religions descended from Babylon. This
difference in the account of Mithra at once tells us that it was
his identity that was grafted onto the life of the real Jewish
Joshua/Yeshua: Mithra, it was said, WAS BORN OF A MORTAL VIRGIN
and attended by shepherds and Magi who brought gifts to the
little new-born savior-god (Walker, op. cit.,p. 663)

In fact, this legend was responsible for the Christian account
of Yeshua being born in a cave. Accordingly, a cave was found in
Bethlehem in which Yeshua was supposed to have been born, and
over which the Catholics have long since raised a church. Many
Christian writers have elaborated on this point in the relation
to Yeshua's birth. Tertullian (200 C.E.), the great Catholic
Church father, was the earliest to relate the story of a cave
birth for Yeshua. Regarding this cave, the Catholic Church of
the Nativity in Bethlehem still holds a celebration there. It
is, in fact, in the same cave that the heathen once celebrated
the birth of Adonis! (Doane, op. cit.,p. 155).

If you need further convincing that Mithra's birth was the
source of the Gospel legends, consider that, according to
Forlong's Encyclopedia of Religions, THE BIRTH CAVE OF JESUS IN
BETHLEHEM WAS A PAGAN PLACE OF WORSHIP LONG BEFORE HIS TIME. IN
THIS CAVE TAMMUZ WAS SAID TO HAVE BEEN BORN OF HIS VIRGIN-MOTHER
AND IT WAS THERE THAT HE WAS LATER MOURNED AFTER HIS
CRUCIFIXION. In other words, the ancient Israelite apostate
worship of Tammuz was flourishing in Bethlehem at a remote time,
where, according to pagan-Israelite tradition, he was said to
have been born. And it was this same cave that was later
assigned as Yeshua's birthplace by the Christian Church!
(Ezekiel 8:14).

Perhaps we can completely understand how thorough the Christian
Church fathers were in their process of assimilation by relating
the other deeds of Mithra before his death and resurrection and
comparing them to Yeshua's deeds. They included healing the
sick, raising the dead, giving sight to the blind, and making
the lame walk. Mithra also was supposed to have cast out evil
demons, and interestingly enough, Mithra was called Peter and
bore the ancient Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven, which, remember,
was a peculiar feature of the Egyptian Mysteries (Walker, op.
cit.,p. 663).

MITHRA HAD A LAST SUPPER WITH HIS 12 DISCIPLES...THE
PERSIAN "MIZD" BECAME THE CATHOLIC MASS AND THE PROTESTANT
COMMUNION
Walker writes: "Before returning to heaven, Mithra celebrated a
Last Supper with his twelve disciples, who represented the
twelve signs of the zodiac. In memory of this, his worshippers
partook of a sacramental meal of bread marked with a cross." "It
was called mizd, Latin missa, English mass." (Walker, The
Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, p. 662). The fact
that the Roman Catholic Church took the mizd of the Persian
Mithra, and turned it into the Catholic mass, should be of
particular interest to any Christian. This same mass was called
the "Lord's Supper" by later Protestants. Some church
denominations go beyond this and resort to calling it the
Passover, although it is anything but the "OT" Passover! Such
ignorance on our part borders on blasphemy! In other words,
whether one celebrates the event once a year, or in the weekly
mass, it simply has its origins in the Catholic mass, or missa,
which is the Mithraic mizd! Such is the deception of Paganism
masquerading itself as righteousness.

When Mithra died on a cross, his image was laid to rest in a
rock tomb, which, when added to the above, tells us why The
Catholic Encyclopedia admitted that the similarities between
Mithraism and Christianity disturbed the early church fathers.
The Catholic Encyclopedia writes: "A similarity between Mithra
and Christ struck even early observers, such as Justin,
Tertullian, and other Fathers, and in recent times has been
urged to prove that Christianity is but an adaptation of
Mithraism, or at least the outcome of the same religious ideas
and aspirations." Vol. X, pp. 402-404. This article goes on to
outline many of the similarities. Legge writes: "Mithras and the
Sun-G-d are here shown as partaking of a ritual feast or banquet
in which grapes seem to figure. At Heddernheim, the grapes are
tendered to the two gods over the body of the dead bull . . . In
other monuments, the same scene generally appears as a banquet
at which Mithras and Helios are seated side by side at a table
sometimes alone, but at others in company with different persons
who can hardly be any other than initiates or worshippers. That
this represents some sort of sacrament where a drink giving
immortality was administered seems probable, and its likeness to
representations of the Last Supper is sufficient to explain the
complaint of Justin Martyr and other Fathers that the devil had
set on the Mithraists to imitate in this and other respects the
Church of Christ." op. cit.,ii, p. 247, citing Cumont, Franz.
Textes et Monumente relatifs aux Mysteres de Mithra, Bruxelles,
1896, 1899, 2 vols., vol. I, p. 175, Fig. 10, also, Justin
Martyr, First Apology, c. LVI.

HIDING THE PAGAN ASSIMILATION...LET US DESTROY THE EVIDENCE
It certainly should be clear why the early "church fathers" went
to great lengths to hide the truth from the following
generations of Christians by their wholesale destruction of
books and scrolls and writings that outlined the religions of
the old Sun-gods and their "virgin" Mother-goddesses. There
exists ample evidence of the wholesale destruction of books by
the Catholic Church during the centuries of their existence. Let
us look at yet one more account, which concerns the great
library of Alexandria, built by Ptolemy: "This Library became
the most extensive and celebrated of the ancient world,
containing some 700,000 manuscript books at the time it was
savagely destroyed, in 391 A.D., by the benighted Christian zeal
and fury of Bishop Theophilus of Alexandria and his crazy monks
of Nitria, as related in Kingsley's Hypatia or any history of
the times." Wheless, Forgery in Christianity, p. 58., states: “I
have often wondered how much it is that we don't know of
paganism thanks to the efforts of the Catholic Church. The
little information that has managed to survive sheds tremendous
light on the outright deception masquerading today as
Christianity. It takes little imagination to understand that if
the Catholic fathers had allowed the many libraries under their
control to continue, that the theology and stories of the New
Testament books would at once be found exposed. In fact, there
could have never been such a religion!”

Let me state his comment again: there could have never been such
a religion!”

Answer for yourself: Was is G-d’s intention that which
originally went into all the world as commanded by a Rabbi named
Yeshua end up as a Mithric compromise engineered by the early
Gentile Church which rejected its Hebraic Heritage? I think not.

The thought of such a comment is quite unsettling, especially in
light of the facts. But the problem we have is facing the facts
when it reveals to us that we have been deceived about the most
important thing for us in life....our relationship with G-d.

I say now that the damnable war on secular education is no
accident of history: it was and continues to be a well executed
plan that has robbed the human race of tremendous knowledge. In
fact, the very information you are reading here was the intended
target of this Catholic "holy" war. Although badly damaged,
thankfully enough of the truth of history remains to reveal the
deception.

THE "THREE WISE MEN"
In regards to the "Wise Men" of Matthew, let's recall here some
words from Asimov's Guide to the Bible : "'Wise men' is a
translation of the Greek 'magoi,' which has entered our language
by way of the Latin as 'magi.' The word is derived from 'magu,'
the name given to their priests by the Persian Zoroastrians.
Throughout ancient history, the priests were considered the
repositories of important knowledge. Not only did they know the
techniques for the propitiation of the gods, but in Babylonia
particularly they studied the heavenly bodies and their
influence upon the course of human affairs. The priests were
thereof learned astrologers" (p. 788).

Everyone is undoubtedly familiar with the story of the "magic"
star that the Magi saw in the east predicting the birth of
Yeshua, who, as it turns out in Christian legend, was a little
savior-god just like their beloved Mithra. They apparently
followed this star to Jerusalem, where it vanished,
unfortunately, just long enough to cause them to go to Herod and
ask about the King of the Jews.

Before preceding further, let's note that there is absolutely no
reference in the "OT" messianic prophecies to make a star
announce the birth of the Messiah, although a few attempts to
draw prophetic connections have been made. Some have utilized
Numbers 24:17: ". . . there shall come a Star out of Jacob . . .
and shall smite the corners of Moab . . ." to refer to the star
of the Magi. However, most scholars understand this to be a
reference to King David and not to Yeshua. Others cite Isaiah
60:3: "And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to
the brightness of thy rising." This passage, however, refers to
Isaiah's vision of an ideal Jerusalem yet in the distant future,
meaning in the end-time. Again the object of the prophecy is the
Torah as it emanates from Zion. This is not a reference to
Yeshua. But, in all fairness and given the tremendous pagan
implications, who can blame the many NT scholars for suppressing
their urge to explain this strange account from the "Old"
Testament?

Actually, even the author of Matthew doesn't attempt to relate
this story of the "prophetic star" to the "OT," which is odd
considering, as we've seen and will continue to see, he doesn't
seem to miss too many opportunities to connect the tales of
Yeshua to an "OT" prophecy or to create “fulfilled prophecy”!
What's more, in view of the fact that only Matthew has this
account, the entire episode is rather suspect in the birth
account of Yeshua unless we consider the legends from Persia,
the land of the Wise Men, and of their god Mithra!

Accordingly, the Jewish priests told both King Herod and the
Magi of a prophecy in Micah 5:2: "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah,
though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of
thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel;
whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." The
Tanakh gives the proper translation: "And you, O Bethlehem of
Ephrath, least among the clans of Judah, from you one shall come
forth to rule Israel for Me, one whose origin is from of old,
from ancient times" (Strong's, # 5769. We find that the word
means also ancient times, or from old times).

Of course, as in most New Testament "fulfillment's" of prophecy
(especially in Matthew), there is a problem here. First of all,
let us note that the rest of Micah's prophecy isn't related in
the NT account which it should be because it follows immediately
upon 5:2 and is part of the prophecy: "Therefore will he give
them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought
forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the
children of Israel. And he shall stand and feed in the strength
of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his G-d; and
they shall abide: for now shall he be great unto the ends of the
earth. And this man [this one] shall be the peace, when the
Assyrian shall come into our land" (Strong's #2088 )is the word
here translated man (See also The Interlinear Bible.) The Hebrew
in this verse means "and now shall be peace." See Gesenius, pp.
238-239, #2088, 2090. It implies "this one shall be responsible
for the peace" and is given as a mistranslation in the KJV as
man. Strong's follows this mistranslation, and lists the word as
#376).

The rest of the chapter goes on to show that this prophecy will
be fulfilled in the end time and was not fulfilled in Yeshua’
time! Please don't take my word for it! Turn to Micah 5 and read
this verse in context of the chapter: the time-setting is the
end when the restoration of Israel takes place!

Answer for yourself: Where is the 2,000 year gap between the
coming of the Messiah, the restoration of Israel, and the
Kingdom of G-d to be found in the entirety of "Old" Testament
prophecy? This is a question that will be answered later, but
for now keep it in mind as we look very closely at this
particular prophecy of the Israelite Messiah.

First of all, as so many biblical scholars point out, the
Messiah didn't necessarily have to be born in Bethlehem but
needed only to have come from a certain family/clan that
originated in this region: namely the House of David. We will
discuss this in some detail later, but suffice it to say that
once again we find an instance where the New Testament
composers, having no real understanding of messianic prophecy,
went to elaborate extremes to weave a sto, ry around Bethlehem in
the account of Yeshua's life. This was because the real
historical Yeshua, according to oral tradition, was from
Nazareth and not Bethlehem!

The real Yeshua was a Galilean and had no connection to the
birthplace of King David, which is proven by John 7:42-43. The
people of his day, when they heard Yeshua speak, said, "This is
the Christ. But others said, shall Christ come out of Galilee?
hath not the scripture said, That Christ cometh of the seed of
David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was? So
there was a division among the people because of him."

Throughout the Gospels Yeshua is constantly referred to as a
Galilean with no reference that he was from Bethlehem, outside
the birth narratives. This should make you think! Of course this
proved inconvenient for whoever wrote the books of Matthew and
Luke, because they knew that Yeshua, if he was the Messiah, had
to be of David's family (or the House of David): hence a
spurious genealogy was drafted. In their misunderstanding of
Scripture, the writers of these two Gospels believed that Yeshua
had to be literally from Bethlehem (the City of David, as they
call it): hence a spurious account of the birth of Yeshua in
Bethlehem was composed, which would also preserve the Mithraic
tradition of the pagan Christians converts. Of course, while
composing a Bethlehem birth account, the Gospel writers had to
also explain that Yeshua was from Nazareth because, undoubtedly,
at the time the Gospels were written too many people still knew
where the real Jewish Joshua/Yeshua was from.

AND WHAT ABOUT THE CENSUS?
Attempting to reconcile his misinterpretations of the messianic
prophecies to what both history and legend had related of
Yeshua, the author of the Gospel of Luke says: "And it came to
pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar
Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. And this taxing
was first made when Cyrenius [Quirinius] was governor of Syria.
And all went to be taxed every one into his own city. And Joseph
also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into
Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem;
because he was of the house and lineage of David" (Luke 2:1-4).

Luke 1:5 dates the birth of Yeshua in the "days of Herod, king
of Judea," who died in 4 B.C. Yet, we find the taxation and
journey from Galilee to Bethlehem to have occurred in response
to census in the time Quirinius was governor of Syria. History
plainly records that the one and only census conducted while
Quirinius was governor of Syria affected only Judea, not
Galilee, and it took place in 6-7 C.E., which was ten years
after the death of Herod the Great! (Brown, Raymond E. The Birth
of the Messiah, (New York: Doubleday, 1977), p. 413). I won't
even try and relate all the various arguments trying to work
around this one! The Collegeville Bible Commentary candidly
admits the problem, although they give the most offered
solution, which is that "Luke" "loosely" gives historical events
around the time of Yeshua birth!G-d does not provide “loose”
accounts and expect us to believe it infallible and inerrant!

Answer for yourself: So now that you know, how do you reconcile
Yeshua’ birth at 4 B.C. and the census believed taken when he
was an infant which the facts of history provide occurred
between 6-7 C.E. which is a difference of up to 11 years?

Answer for yourself: Where is the inspiration and inerrancy in
this?

This misinformation alone shoots a hole in the infallibility of
the Gospel assertion, but add to this the following reasoning.

Answer for yourself: Can you imagine the efficient Romans
requiring millions of people to suddenly become dislocated and
to start traveling back to their ancestral homes to register for
a simple tax?

Think of the disruption of commerce which could have hardly been
compensated by the few pennies per person such a tax would have
brought. It would be like one having to travel back to Oregon
(their birthplace) from Maine to pay one’s income tax, or to be
counted in a census! Isaac Asimov notes: "Though this device has
much to be said for it from the standpoint of literary economy,
it has nothing to be said for it in the way of plausibility. The
Romans couldn't possibly have conducted so queer a census as
that" (Asimov's Guide to the Bible, p. 927).

Again, this absurdity is told in an effort to reconcile the
historical fact that Yeshua was from Nazareth, and arose from a
misunderstanding of "OT" prophecy by the Gentiles who wove the
Gospel accounts! There was no reason for Joseph and Mary to be
in Bethlehem at the time of Yeshua's birth, except to connect
them to the Mithraic/Tammuz birth cave/stable found there.
Besides that documents exist that state that Galilee was exempt
from the census (the home area for Yeshua)! If you doubt this,
then consider that in another version of the Mithraic birth
account, the step-father of the "savior-god" goes to his
ancestral home to pay his taxes. It is during this visit that
the little "savior" is born and that the Three Wise Men bring
gifts of frankincense and myrrh!

Answer for yourself: Does G-d need to copy paganism to bring His
Son into the world?

Answer for yourself: Does G-d, who created the universe with a
spoken word, lack such creativity that he had to re-caste the
birth of His Messiah in Mithric garb?

Understand that this whole article is rather insignificant
because whether we believe in 3 Magi or not is inconsequential.
But behind such fairy tales and falsehoods are other teachings
in the New Testament which are of a dubious nature and which
when exposed to the light of Biblical language, history,
culture, and context, can be shown to be anti-Semitic lies. Such
teachings, as accepted today by those who hold to the inerrancy
and infallibility of the New Testament are often manifested in
conducts and behaviors which are not pleasing to G-d but to
which the believer is unaware for he has accepted “everything
written in the New Testament” by “faith.” Again, if we can show
that the New Testament is less than credible as a document that
many look to that replaces the Law and the Torah, then we have
created doubt which is the spring-board to examining other
teachings in the New Testament which Yeshua not only never would
teach, but never believed as well. It is such a purpose we at
Bet Emet endeavor to fulfill. Only by examining ruthlessly the
New Testament and revealing its many errors and anti-Semitic,
Gentile created replacement doctrines of the early Gentile
Catholic father, can we ever hope to help the Christian today to
return to “the faith once given to the saints.” More to follow.
Shalom.

Son_of_Chive_Mynde

unread,

Aug 3, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/3/00

THE MILL OF TIME
Celestial Cycles And Ancient Mythological Science
http://www.technosophy.com/milltime.htm

Terry Alden

We are on the verge today of a much greater appreciation for the
scientific achievements of the world's most ancient
civilizations and an understanding of the workings of the
ancient mind. At a time when it is still fashionable for
scientists to dismiss the possibility that the learned men of
remote antiquity, long before the classical-period Greeks or the
later Romans, could have known about phenomena like precession
(the extremely slow wobble of the Earth's axis of rotation)
without modern instruments, or about the spherical shape and
dimensions of our planetary spacecraft or its orbit about the
Sun as the center of a solar system, a few lone investigators
have recently found traces of a very high degree of scientific
sophistication and knowledge of the natural world preserved in a
metaphorical code which we call myth.

It is ultimately the purpose of this article to provide a
solution to the long-standing mystery of the "Star of Bethlehem"
and, in a closely-related problem, to announce the date of the
beginning of the New Age, the Age of Aquarius, as determined by
a method believed to be the same one used by the ancient Magi of
Chaldea and other astronomical priesthoods in very early times.
These topics will indeed be covered in the second part of this
report.

The validity of the statements to be made on these subjects,
however, rests on the foundation of the logic and integrity of
the system or method of very-long-term time reckoning which the
Magi and others, it is believed, followed -- a system based on
both planetary and precessional cycles. Therefore, it is
necessary to develop the background or context in which our more
specific later tasks will be seen to fit before dealing with
them individually. This context turns out to be nothing less
than the ancient holistic world-view or paradigm which Joseph
Campbell identified as the World Monomyth.

A good indication of the alienation of the modern psyche from
the ways of thought in ancient times is the current connotation
of the term, 'myth.' A myth to us is a fabrication, a made-up
story based solely on imagination, a lie. Outside of
this 'definition,' most people today have no idea of what a myth
actually is. Myths are metaphors expressing aspects of life in
the natural world of human experience.

Campbell once asked an interviewer he didn't particularly like
to give an example of a myth. After a long, uncomfortable
silence the disconcerted man finally came up with: "The man runs
like a deer." "That's not a myth," retorted Campbell. (It is a
simile.) "The man IS a deer," stated Campbell. "But that's a
lie," said the man. "No, that's a myth," said Campbell.

The meaning and intent of both expressions are much the same, to
declare the swiftness of a particular man, but there is a subtle
and profound difference. In the former case this is done merely
through a comparison of one factor, speed, between separated
entities, while in the latter there is an identification with
and participation in the qualities of the deer in a holistic and
non-separative sense. The ancient perception could distinguish
between a man and a deer as readily as any other, but a man
might identify with and celebrate admired qualities of animals
in this metaphorical way without contradiction.

Holistic, simultaneous, non-separative perception is for us a
very difficult proposition. It is involved in spiritual or
religious perception. It is the opposite of the logical,
sequential, objectified and difference-based mode of perception
which we revere as the hallmark of civilized and scientific
thought.

Mythology has been the victim of our scientific way of looking
at things. We saw only illogical stories and fantastic
adventures and not the resonance with life and nature which is
its reason for being. We relegated the subject to world
literature never guessing it might contain elements of wisdom to
help harmonize human life with the conditions of the
environment, and, in its fullest development, comprise an
integrated body of naturalist observation and recording
amounting to a 'pre-scientific' science.

Those readers familiar with the theory of the perceptual
qualities associated with the right and left hemispheres of the
brain will quickly relate the mythological form of knowing in
terms of a direct participation in the wholeness of nature with
the spiritual right hemispheric perception. The logical and
analytical left hemisphere is clearly the one dominant in the
scientific mode of perception.

Modern scholarship is indebted to the late mythologian, Joseph
Campbell, for rescuing mythology from its fallen state and for
discovering the common themes in the mythologies of all times
and all lands. He showed its origins in the basic facts and
conditions of life abstracted in icons, ritual objects and other
artistic renderings and in the fundamental realities of life --
the masculine and feminine mystiques, birth and child rearing,
food gathering, the transformations into adulthood and so on.
The ground of mythology was shown as the expression of natural
order in metaphorical form.

Not only is mythology based on nature, but there is an
unexpected similarity in the major themes of the core
mythologies of cultures widely separated by geography and time.
Campbell came to the conclusion that it was as though the same
story was being told over and over again, but with a vast number
of minor variations as each retelling occurred in one culture
and/or time period to the next. This universal story he termed
the One Myth or Monomyth.

The existence of a universal mythology is unexpected because of
the vast distances between ancient civilizations and cultures
spread around the entire globe and the presumed lack of contacts
between them. Here again, the modern scientific predisposition
is to assume separation and lack of contact. But even without
contacts, ancient cultures could have developed similar myths
because all are based on the same natural order to a large
extent with some variation for climate, locale, food sources,
etc.

Another possibility is that the core myths of world mythology
are much older than we suppose and have been handed down in a
continuous stream as a verbal but non-written tradition perhaps
from the earliest beginnings of human awareness. We have records
and artifacts dating back only about 5 - 6000 years, a period
which is brief by comparison with the time span of sentient man
on Earth.

Joseph Campbell saw the symbols of myth as universal archetypes,
as did psychologist Carl Jung, which appear again and again in
dreams and are the inspiration for religion and art. He
interpreted the heroic story of the Monomyth as a metaphor
representing the inner psychological transformations and
spiritual potentialities awaiting every man on his journey
through life.

Contemporary with Campbell but much less well known is another
investigator who wrote about the universality of the themes of
world mythology and connected them not with the inner life of
man but with his external environment, particularly the
celestial vault. His name is Giorgio de Santillana, and, back in
1969 when his book, Hamlet's Mill, was first published, he was a
Professor of Humanities at M.I.T. It is largely on the work of
Prof. de Santillana that this article and the suggestions
regarding the Star of Bethlehem and the Age of Aquarius in the
concluding part are based.

It is highly instructive and appropriate that Campbell and de
Santillana, though studying the same body of material, world
mythology, would arrive at what would seem to be two totally
different, even irreconcilable, interpretations of the
significance of the Monomyth narrative. On the one hand,
Campbell emphasized the inner psychological and spiritual
dimensions of the story and had much less to say about any
connections with astronomy. On the other, de Santillana had
little to say on the psychology of the Monomyth story, but wrote
nearly 500 pages connecting it with observational astronomy.

In the holistic mode of ancient thought, however, both
perspectives are valid simultaneously. The ancient dictum, "As
above, so below," is precisely an expression of this unity. The
motions of the stars and planets were thought to express the
same energies and natural laws as those which governed society
and the internal workings of the human body. The basic ideas of
astrology were born of this union of above and below. The
nighttime sky was like a blackboard on which appeared messages
from the Deity written in mysterious moving lights. If man could
understand the signals of the gods and even predict some of
their features, he might partake of divinity himself and control
his own destiny.

It is not possible to go into every facet of de Santillana's
argument and its extensive body of supporting material. Those
interested in this are referred to the book by de Santillana and
von Dechend cited above. However, an outline of the mythological
code which enshrined and preserved ancient knowledge of the
heavens can be given. De Santillana's own account is episodic
and somewhat difficult to follow. One of the present tasks,
therefore, is to collate his material and make it more coherent
and unified.

The Craftsman God is responsible for having constructed the
Universe we observe in nature. He is often depicted as a giant
blacksmith hammering out a piece of iron to fit up for the roof
of heaven. Sometimes he fashions the Universe by shaping it on a
potter's wheel which he spins with his feet.

He is also the possessor of a magical mill, similar to ancient
stone mills or querns used for grinding flour, except that this
mill produces not flour from its turning but Time. Never
ceasing, it turns out the days, years, centuries, millennia and
eons of time. The lower stone of the mill is the earth as the
foundation of heaven and the upper stone is the sky endlessly
turning on its axis by day and by night. The Craftsman God,
under many names in many cultures, rules the axis of the Earth's
rotation and the machine which generates Time.

The fixed stars, since their patterns in the constellations do
not appear to change over long periods, symbolize eternity, the
transcendent realm, that which is beyond or outside of time and
space. Saturn, which takes the longest time to travel around the
Zodiac of all the planets which are seen without a telescope,
was, therefore, considered the symbol of Time and identified
with the Craftsman God.

Saturn was also thought to be closest to the fixed stars and the
eternal realm because the planets were imagined to be caught up
in a Zodiacal whirlpool, and, as such, the ones closer to the
center revolved faster than the ones farther out, an excellent
model for the true structure and behavior of the planets of our
solar system revolving around the Sun.

The Sun was at the center of the whirlpool and the chief object
of Creation as the god which provided light and warmth for the
continuance of life, but Saturn seems to have held a special
position as King of all the Planets and Creator of the World,
the Sun and Moon being included as 'planets.'

Saturn had a rival, however, in the visually much brighter
planet, Jupiter, and Jupiter could regularly be seen to catch up
to and pass Saturn in the Zodiac due to his faster speed. This
rivalry and periodic close proximity seems to have led to some
interesting results for timekeeping in the way the ancients used
natural cycles to set up a system for studying time and space.

The Sun, of course, circuits the Zodiac in one year and defines
the seasons as it goes, so the year is bound to be one of the
fundamental units or cycles of time. Saturn takes nearly 30
years and Jupiter nearly 12 years to complete their cycles. The
numbers, 30 and 12, have clearly been very important in setting
up our temporal and spatial units and coordinates.

Is it because Jupiter takes 12 years to move around the Zodiac
that there are 12 constellations instead of some other number?
Multiplying 12 by 30 gives 360, the number of degrees in a
circle or a Zodiac of 12 signs of 30 degrees each. On the
Equinoxes we have 12 hours each of daylight and night. The day
has 24 hours (twice 12) of 60 minutes (twice 30) each. The
number 360 is also close to the number of days in a year. The
ancients had a calendar of 12 months of exactly 30 days each,
the extra five days inserted between calendars being dedicated
to the Lord of Misrule because they didn't fit in to the system.
This was the festival period of the Saturnalia when the normal
order was suspended and the fool was paraded as mock king.

De Santillana correlated the myths of cultures from all over the
world and identified their similarities, a major task
considering the sheer number of them. Most of the heroes of
world mythology have not been associated with actual planetary
bodies in the physical Universe in modern scholarship. Even the
association of the Greek god Zeus with the planet Jupiter or
Kronos with Saturn has been resisted by specialists in language,
for example, specialism being another sign of the separatism and
non-integration of modern science. Some have resisted the
phonetic connection between the Greek name for Saturn, Kronos,
and the root of English words related to time, such as 'chronic'
and 'chronometer.' Nevertheless, for the purpose of
demonstrating the large number of correlations which de
Santillana has made to the universal myth, a table has been
created. [See Table 1.]

Table 1
World Monomyth Gods/Heroes -- Forms of the Craftsman God

Ptah <S>
Egypt -- Memphis

Khnemu <S>
Egypt -- Elephantine

Thoth <S><*>
Egypt -- Hermopolis

Osiris <S><*>
Egypt -- Abydos

Amen, Amon, Amun <J>
Egypt -- Thebes

Ra, Aten <*>
Egypt -- Heliopolis, Akhetaten

Enki <S>
Sumeria

Gilgamesh <S>
Sumeria, Babylonia

Enlil <*>
Sumeria

Marduk <J><*>
Assyria, Babylonia

Ilmarinen <S>
Finland, Esthonia

Kaleva, Kullervo <S>
Finland, Esthonia

Hermes <S> [also Mercury]
Greece

Hephaistos <S>
Greece [form of Ptah]

Dionysos
Greece

Hercules <J>
Greece

Kronos, Cronus, Chronos <S>
Greece

Zeus <J>
Greece

Prometheus <S>
Greece [>India]

Pan
Greece

Phaethon <S>
Greece

Adonis-Tammuz
Greece

Orpheus <S>
Greece

Odysseus, Ulysses
Greece

Oedipus
Greece [>Egypt]

Freyr, Frodhi <S>
Iceland, Norway

Orendil, Orwandel
Iceland, Norway

Hamlet, Amleth, Amlodhi <S>
Iceland, Norway

Saturn <S>
Rome

Jupiter, Jove <J>
Rome

Kavag, Kaweh, Kawa <S>
Persia

Kai Ka'us <S>
Iran, Persia

Kai Khusrau <S>
Iran, Persia

Jamshyd, Yima, Yama <S>
Iran, Persia

Huang-ti <S>
China

Yu <S>
China

K'uei <S>
China

Vishnu
India

Krishna
India [incarnation of Vishnu]

Samson Kolyvanovic
Russia

Samson Agonistes
Israel [form of Orion]

Jehovah <S>
Israel

Susanowo <S>
Japan

Quetzalcouatl <S>
Mexico [Mayas]

Tane-of-Ancient-Waters <S>
Polynesia

Tahaki <J>
Polynesia

King Conchobar, King Arthur
Celts

Cuchulainn, Sir Gawain
Celts

Sir Lancelot, Sir Galahad, Perceval
England

Parzival, Parsifal
Germany

<J>=Jupiter <S>=Saturn <*>=Sun

In this table, I have listed most of the mythological god names
mentioned in Hamlet's Mill and indicated their national origins.
It will be seen that the list covers the globe with no major
world civilization being left out. Secondly, while most of these
heroes are archetypes associated with the Craftsman God and
Saturn, in some cases, where the indications seemed fairly
clear, the identification may be with Saturn's mythological son
or rival, Jupiter, or with the Sun. The letter <S> after the
name indicates Saturn, <J> indicates Jupiter, <*> indicates Sun.
A few have no attribution; their mythologies have elements of
the Monomyth but it is not clear which planet may have been
meant.

Upsetting the divine order and regularity of the cosmos was an
evil factor and this was associated with the phenomenon of the
precession. This is the very slow gyroscopic wobble of the Earth
in which its axis of rotation completes a circle in the sky in
about 25,800 years. [See Figure 1.] The motion causes the
seasons of the year to very slowly get out of sync with the
stars normally associated with those seasons. For example, Orion
is a winter constellation for us in the nighttime sky, being
mostly invisible in daytime skys during our summer months. In
about 13,000 years, it will be a summer constellation, seen at
night in the warm months.

There isn't usually a North Star either. The axis now happens to
point near Polaris but through most of the precession cycle
there is no star to mark the pole. In about 13,000 years another
star, Vega, will be near the North Celestial Pole.

The extreme slowness of the change made it seem insideous, and
the fact that it contradicted the perfection of heavenly order
caused it to be symbolized by the idea of "working iniquity in
secret." Thus, in the story of the Monomyth, a tyrant usurps the
legitimate authority, usually murdering the rightful king and
marrying his queen, setting the stage for the hero (the rightful
king's son) to journey into exile, live in disguise until the
right moment and ultimately avenge his father.

The story of Hamlet was adapted by Shakespeare from the
Icelandic and Norwegian myth of Amlodhi or, in a later version
of the name, Amleth, which became Hamlet. It is a Norse
retelling of the Monomyth. And Amlodhi was associated with a
mill and the planet Saturn, hence "Hamlet's Mill."

Current scholarship claims that precession was unknown before
the 2nd Century B.C. when it was 'discovered' by a Greek named
Hipparchus. This is because the effect is too small to be
detected in one human lifetime without modern precision
instruments. Our science doesn't say how Hipparchus discovered
it without modern instruments, however.

But modern instruments are not, in fact, required -- only
dedication and persistence in observing the major features of
the heavens over long periods of time, at least a few centuries.
This the ancients possessed in abundance. Festivals were held on
the solstices and equinoxes. The spring equinox was particularly
important. The Zodiacal constellation rising in the East before
the Sun as night turned to dawn was memorialized in myth.

These celebrations went on year after year for centuries and
precise astronomical records were also kept in many of the high
civilizations of antiquity. After only a century or two, the
changes due to precession would be noticeable to a trained
astronomical priesthood. And after 2000 years a whole new
constellation would be rising before the Sun on the Vernal
Equinox. The Equinox point itself moves backwards through the
Zodiac at a rate of about one degree in 72 years, or one 30
degree sign in about 2160 years. De Santillana believed that the
ancients not only knew about the phenomenon but were virtually
obsessed by it.

This is not to say that precession was understood in the terms
we know today, involving a torque or force on the spinning
planet from the gravitational pull principally of the Sun and
Moon acting upon the uneven distribution of the planetary mass.
It only means that they were well capable of observing its long-
term effects. They also knew the length of the precession cycle
to some degree of accuracy. Plato is said to have used a figure
of one degree per century which is a bit too slow, but the
excellent star watchers of ancient Babylon and Persia may have
had a more precise value.

De Santillana suggested that the Zodiacal figure rising before
the Sun on the Vernal Equinox held a special place in the
religious worship of ancient peoples and was celebrated in
ritual and storytelling during its tenure, on the average about
2160 years, before the next constellation took its place. The
period of the precession of the Vernal Equinox Point backwards
through one Zodiacal group is referred to as a World Age, and
each figure so rising before the Sun (called heliacal rising)
gave its name to the Age.

In all of recorded history, covering a mere 6000 years, only
three World Ages have taken place. These are the Ages of Taurus
(about 4400 - 2200 B.C.), Aries (2200 - 0 B.C.) and Pisces, the
current era (about 1 - 2200 A.D.). In the Taurean Age, according
to de Santillana, the Bull was worshipped as the chief religious
symbol. In the Arian, it was the Ram or Lamb, and, in the
Piscean, it is the Fishes, though this practice has been mostly
forgotten now.

Each age apparently put its own symbolic imprint upon the World
Monomyth and reworked the story with a new cast of characters.
Mostly it was just the names and incidental details which were
new; the basic themes did not change much. There was always a
hero whose birth was foretold by signs and portents in the
heavens who would come to save the people from the rule of a
tyrant. The tyrant is usually a usurper who has killed the
former king, often his own brother, tried to kill the hero while
still an infant because he is the legitimate heir, and has taken
the former king's queen for his wife.

The child is spirited away for his protection and grows up in
exile or in some foster home. He is recognized to have special
powers and often plans his revenge from an early age. However,
he must disguise himself and hide his great abilities from the
evil forces of the state until the proper time arrives to act.
To do this he feigns madness or folly. He convinces everyone
that he is either insane or a simpleton by doing and saying
absurd things. The chief Tarot card of the series of 22 major
trumps, number 0, The Fool, is the symbol of the Monomyth hero
in his disguise. It is also a pictorial representation of the
bright constellation, Orion.

In some versions, as that of Hamlet, for example, he thwarts the
tyrant-king's plots to find out if he is only pretending to be
mad and to kill him by sending him away with companions whose
orders are to see that he never returns. In these cases he
always shows his true genius by discovering the plot and turning
the situation to his advantage. There's no way the tyrant can
get rid of him. In the end, he always returns, kills the usurper
with his own sword and terminates the evil order. A new World
Age then begins.

Support for the idea that ancient religious worship was centered
on the constellations rising before the Sun on the Spring
Equinox has come from a recent book about the religion of
Mithras which has, for its central symbol, the killing of a
bull. Author David Ulansey has this to say in The Origins of the
Mithraic Mysteries (p. 83):

"... it would be difficult to conceive of a more appropriate
symbol for the precession than the symbol of the death of a
bull, representing the death of the previous Age of Taurus
brought about by the precession..."

While the ancients could easily have been aware of the effects
of precession in shifting the constellations with respect to the
seasonal reference points, the equinoxes and solstices, and
could have known the length of the Great Year, as they called
it, fairly well, they could not easily have determined the exact
moment of the start of a New Age and end of the old by observing
precession alone to an accuracy better than plus or minus a few
centuries. The movement is just too slow and the constellations
rising before the Sun on the Spring Equinox are bathed in the
growing light of dawn. This would make the fainter stars
disappear well before the full constellation had risen and make
the visual sighting of constellation boundaries a very tricky
matter.

This technique is obviously very inaccurate. However, nature and
human ingenuity contrived a very precise system for inaugurating
World Ages, making it possible to identifiy a period as short as
a day or two for the great transition rather than a century or
more. The ancients observed everything going on in the skies and
made records particularly of planetary motions which covered
long periods. They discovered a peculiar cyclic pattern in the
coming together of the planets Jupiter and Saturn which they
called Great Conjunctions to distinguish them from the more
frequent lesser conjunctions involving the other, faster-moving
planets. Great Conjunctions occurred about every 20 years but
every third Great Conjunction, in about 60-year intervals,
occurred most often in the same constellation of the Zodiac.

The 20-year conjunction points are roughly one-third of the
Zodiacal Circle around from each other. If the points are
connected, they form a near equilateral triangle within the
circle. Each successive 60-year Great Conjunction occurs an
average of about nine degrees farther down the track, in the
forward direction through the Zodiac, from the previous one.
Therefore, the entire triangle can be thought of as rotating in
the forward direction through the Zodiac in increments of nine
degrees every 60 years. This grand pattern is referred to as
the "Rotation of the Trigon of Great Conjunctions." Any one of
the corners of the triangle or trigon will move through 30
degrees in about 200 years and completely around the Zodiac in
2400 years. These intervals were easily discoverable by the
ancients with simple observational persistence and record
keeping; no sophisticated instruments were required.

Could this 60-year periodicity in the meetings of Jupiter and
Saturn in the same constellation have given extra importance to
the number 60 such that it was incorporated in the number of
seconds in a minute and minutes in an hour? Could the Trigon of
Great Conjunctions have suggested a harmony between all
constellations one-third of the circle around from each other
that came to be enshrined in the astrological idea of the
triplicities -- the air, fire, water and earth signs?

The time of one full rotation of the Trigon of Great
Conjunctions, 2400 years, is of an order close to the length of
an average World Age, roughly 2200 years. The Trigon would,
therefore, make a fine vernier for subdividing the lengthy ages
into smaller time units while still utilizing observable
features of the heavens. The sky becomes a Great Clock the 'hour
hand' of which is the Vernal Point moving very slowly backwards
through the Zodiac by precession and the 'minute hand' of which
is any corner of the Trigon of Great Conjunctions moving forward
through the Zodiac.

It doesn't matter that a complete rotation of the Trigon is not
exactly the length of an average World Age. All of these
observations would have been made in the real sky against the
background of the actual constellations of stars. The
constellations, as we know, are not of the same size.

Some, like Virgo and Scorpio, cover nearly twice as many degrees
along the Zodiac or Ecliptic as some others, like Cancer and
Libra. Therefore, the World Ages of Virgo and Scorpio may be
expected to last much longer than those of Cancer and Libra, by
as much as 1000 years or more! Similarly, a corner of the Trigon
will take longer to traverse the larger constellations than the
smaller ones.

All that is needed to precisely mark the moment of the beginning
of a New Age, however, is a unique but predictable event
selected from a convenient and known system for breaking down
world-age periods into smaller intervals. Here is how de
Santillana believed it was done. The mythology prescribes a
conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn "at the place of passage,"
meaning as close as possible to the location of the Vernal
Equinox Point as it precesses into the next World Age
constellation. This is all that is required, with some judicious
reasoning regarding constellation boundaries, to identify the
exact moment when a New Age might commence. The two hands of the
Cosmic Clock must coincide.

In mythological terms the Great Conjunctions were associated
with a magnanimous motif in which "Father Time," Saturn, King of
the Planets, gives "...all the measures of the whole creation"
to his son, Jupiter. Saturn is also "Lord of the Measures," that
is, of the sacred units for measuring the Universe he created,
the units of time, space and mass or weight. As his first
official act following Creation, the Craftsman God measures
everything he has made using himself as the fundamental unit-
maker. Thus he measures time and space "by his stride." And we
have seen that the orbital periods of Saturn and Jupiter may
have provided numbers which came to be the basis of our
coordinate and time-measuring systems. [See Figure 2.]

The writer hopes that something of the unity and naturalism of
this magnificent system for reading the signs and messages of
the gods writ large in the heavens, of its coherence and
integration on many levels from the celestial to the inwardly
human, and of the great reverence and worship which the ancients
gave to the cosmos as the inspiration for their mythology and
religion will come through to the reader. One must use one's own
right-hemispheric appreciation of wholeness and intuitive
insight to put the pieces of so large a puzzle together -- that
of rediscovering the significance of ancient mythological
science.

In Part 2, the world-age time-reckoning system developed here
will be applied to the question of the meaning of the Star of
Bethlehem or Star of the Magi and to the determination of the
true dawning of the Age of Aquarius. Some of the implications of
the World Monomyth for history and religion will also be
examined. And finally, the question will be posed whether a
resetting of coordinates in astrology will be needed when the
New Age begins.

Footnotes:

1. Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend, Hamlet's Mill:
An essay on myth and the frame of time, 2nd paperback ed.
(Boston: David R. Godine, 1983).

2. David Ulansey, The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries, 1st
paperback ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991).

T H E M I L L O F T I M E
Part 2

The Monomyth Retold: Beginning And End Of The Age Of Christ
Terry Alden

The first part of this article, entitled "Celestial Cycles And
Ancient Mythological Science," laid the foundation for the more
specific, though still immense, reconstructive task being
contemplated here. In it was discussed the metaphorical code of
mythology which has so long escaped our notice as the language
of pre-scientific science that it is. Myth was distinguished
from its modern connotation of falsehood or fantasy and
identified with the holistic, unified form of consciousness
associated in contemporary psychology with the right hemisphere
brain function.

The common denominators of the core mythologies of all times and
peoples were then presented in the form of the universal heroic
saga which the late mythologian, Joseph Campbell, dubbed the
World Monomyth. The Monomyth was found to work on more than one
level. Campbell saw in its scenes and symbols the psychological
and spiritual transformation of everyman through the phases of
life. Another investigator, Giorgio de Santillana, saw a
connection with the heavens and early astronomy. Both
perspectives, the inner and the outer, can be valid
simultaneously in the ancient holistic world-view summed up in
the phrase, As above, so below.

The de Santillana association of mythology with celestial
factors has not received to date the attention it deserves, and
part of the purpose of the present effort is to make this work
more widely known. It also leads to some surprising results in
connection with the Star of Bethlehem, the Age of Aquarius, and
the influence of mythology in history and religion.

Both parts of this article are based primarily on Prof. de
Santillana's landmark book, Hamlet's Mill.

Let us now apply the de Santillana hypothesis to what the author
firmly believes to be the solution to the long-standing mystery
of the nature of the Star of Bethlehem or Star of the Magi
referred to in the Bible, which astronomers and others have
struggled to interpret, as yet without reaching an acceptable
conclusion or consensus.

It is safe to say that everything under the Sun has been
proposed at one time or another to answer the question, "What
was this 'star' which led the Wise Men to Bethlehem and which
heralded the birth of Christ?" Was it something real, visible to
everyone looking up at the sky, or was it imaginary, miraculous
or hallucinatory and, therefore, 'visible' only to certain
individuals? Was it symbolic and neither psychic nor physical?

This investigator hopes to show that the basic, underlying story
of the life of Christ is a retelling of the World Monomyth and
is involved with the concept of World Ages and the symbolic
astronomy pertaining thereto. It is a big task for a short paper
but all of the critical elements are now in place. If we can put
ourselves into the holistic, unified, intuitive and mystical
mode of thought of the ancients, which relates to the now mostly
recessive right-hemispheric brain functioning, some of what
follows may even seem obvious.

Researchers looking for a physical explanation for the Star of
Bethlehem start by defining a time period, based on historical
sources, during which Christ's birth is estimated to have taken
place, usually about ten years before and after Year Zero. Then
they make every kind of guess as to what the star could have
been from all the types of known astronomical phenomena.
Finally, by searching historical references and running computer
simulations of the skies over the Middle East from 10 B.C. to 10
A.D., they look to discover any likely candidates in suitable
documentable phenomena falling within this period.

They have looked at meteors, comets, supernovae, eclipses and
planetary alignments. Of these, only the supernova looks and
behaves anything like a special, one-point-source star. Bright
supernovae are very rare, however, and would be expected to be
seen and recorded all over the world for the few to several days
of their normal duration. For example, a famous one was seen by
the Chinese in July of 1054 A.D. It was bright enough to be seen
in daylight, like the planet Venus, for 23 days. We now study
the remnants of this great stellar explosion as the Crab Nebula
and Pulsar, Messier Object Number One.

Unfortunately, no records corresponding to the apparition of a
supernova are found close to the time of Christ's birth.
Similarly, no strong evidence is found for very bright meteors
or comets occurring during this period. Christ's nativity is
often inferred in Biblical chronologies from the time of a total
lunar eclipse which Josephus said occurred not long before the
death of King Herod, so this was probably not the Christ Star.
No eclipses of the Sun were found to have occurred either
leaving planetary alignments as the only possibility.

The writer's experience in planetarium production and in
delivering countless "Christmas Star" shows has aided the
inquiry. In ancient usage the term 'star' was construed much
more broadly than it is today. Any luminous object or
configuration of objects in the sky could be termed a star of
one kind or another. There were the fixed stars of the
background. Planets were "wandering" stars (from the Greek,
planetai, wanderers), comets were "hairy" stars (from the Greek,
kometes, long-haired) and novae "new" stars (from the Latin,
novus, new). Therefore, it is not at all unreasonable to expect
that an important configuration or alignment of more than one
celestial object would also be termed a 'star,' as in "Star of
Bethlehem" or "Star of the Magi."

Closing in on a planetary configuration, a consensus seemed to
be emerging in the planetarium world that the triple conjunction
of Jupiter and Saturn in 6 B.C. was the most likely candidate.
Two planets may come close together in the heavens on more than
one occasion in a relatively short period of time due to what
are called retrograde motions. This occurred with Jupiter and
Saturn moving against the background stars of the constellation
of Pisces on about May 20th, October 17th and November 16th of
the year 6 B.C.

Just this last year (1991), however, and well in time for
Christmas, two new and imaginative ideas emerged concerning the
nature of the Star. One appeared in the October edition of Omni
and substituted a series of conjunctions of Jupiter with Venus
in 3-2 B.C. The other appeared in the San Jose Mercury News on
Christmas Eve and suggested an eclipse of Jupiter by the Moon,
technically termed an 'occultation' of Jupiter, in 6 B.C. The
point is that astronomers are still trying to solve the mystery
but have lacked a convincing proof or context in which to frame
the problem such that their 'solution' may be seen as the only
credible one. The missing context is, in this researcher's
opinion, the Monomyth-World Age time-reckoning system of the
ancient astronomical priesthoods.

Of all the great civilizations of antiquity, the one most noted
for its mathematical and astronomical prowess, and which has
influenced Western thought the most, is the Babylonian. In
Biblical times, Babylon or Mesopotamia was famed as the age-old
center of astrology by the Hebrews and all other cultures with
which it had contact.

Also called Chaldeans, their powers of divination by the stars
were held in such respect, even fear, that they were ascribed to
magic and works of the devil by their less-advanced neighbors
rather than to the careful observation and very long-term record-
keeping of celestial cycles coupled with the mathematical
calculations that were actually involved. The Babylonians were
noted for being able to predict eclipses of the Sun and Moon, a
very difficult problem, as well as for having set up the basic
celestial coordinate system which we still use today. Even our
modern dictionaries give as one definition of Chaldean, "an
astrologer, soothsayer, or enchanter."

The three Wise Men who are said to have paid homage to the
infant Jesus, bringing three gifts, are Magi, a class of
astronomer-priests and prognosticators from the general Chaldean-
Persian region reputed to possess supernatural powers. The
term, "Magi," is also assigned a definition as "astrologers,"
and is the root of the word, "magic." The Star of Bethlehem is
equally well-known as the Star of the Magi, those said to have
seen the heavenly sign when they were in the East (Chaldea-
Persia) and then to have traveled West to Jerusalem.

They are also the very people to have prophesied (predicted by
calculation) the beginning of a World Age. Their priesthood
would have observed the precession over the centuries and known
how to use the conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn to uniquely
select a precise starting date. They would have expressed these
ideas in mythological or metaphorical terms as a revision of the
universal story, the Monomyth, keeping most of the same basic
elements but incorporating the symbols of the new constellation
rising before the Sun on the Vernal Equinox.

In Part 1 it was suggested that many of the numbers used in
organizing our celestial, calendrical and time-keeping systems
(of Babylonian origin) are based on the orbital periods of
Jupiter and Saturn, about 12 and 30 years respectively, and
possibly also on their 60-year conjunction cycle. Now we shall
see that most of the chief factors in the life of Christ have
direct counterparts in both the standard Monomyth story and in
astrological symbolism related to the World Age of Pisces.

The author believes that the solution to all of the mysteries
can be found in a new consideration of the triple Great
Conjunction series in 6 B.C. However, where the astronomy
community came up with a good guess in choosing this as the most
likely candidate for the Star, we can now place these events
into their proper context and show that everything fits together
coherently.

What the astronomers have ignored about the Jupiter-Saturn
conjunctions of 6 B.C. is that they took place against the
background of the constellation of Pisces (both physically and
symbolically speaking). The fishes is a Christian symbol.
Furthermore, the Vernal Equinox Point at that time was just on
the border between the constellations of Aries and Pisces moving
backwards and, therefore, into Pisces.

Without knowing it, they discovered one hand of the Cosmic Clock
and also did not realize that there is another, and that both
come together to inaugurate a World Age as part of a tradition
probably older than the brief 6000-year span of recorded
history.

The limitations of space prevent reproducing figures for each of
the three Great Conjunctions that occurred in 6 B.C. Therefore,
only the first one is shown, the conjunction of Jupiter and
Saturn on May 20, 6 B.C. Figure 1 is a computer-generated
graphic reconstruction of a portion of the sky for this date.

The slanted dotted line represents the Ecliptic, the apparent
path of the Sun through the Zodiacal constellations with respect
to the background stars through the year. Planetary and other
positions referred to are to be understood as the positions of
the objects when projected onto the Ecliptic. A line at right
angles to the Ecliptic passing through the object will intersect
the Ecliptic at this projected position.

The horizontal dotted line represents the Celestial Equator, or
the Earth's Equator projected onto the Celestial Sphere. When
the Sun's position on the Ecliptic is one of two possible points
where the Ecliptic intersects the Celestial Equator, at noon on
that day the Sun will be directly overhead as observed by all
persons living on the Earth's Equator. The two points of
intersection are called the Equinoxes because, on the days when
the Sun is there, we experience an equal number of hours of
daylight and nighttime.

The figure shows the Equinox which, when the Sun is at this
position on about March 21, officially announces the beginning
of Spring in the calendar. This intersection of the two lines
(actually great circles around the sky) is called the Vernal
Equinox even when the Sun is not there, and is used as the
primary reference position for locating all directions in space
from Earth. It is the [0, 0] position of our celestial
coordinate systems.

It is this point of intersection, this zero reference point,
which is precessing slowly along the Ecliptic in the reverse
direction through the Zodiac as the Earth's axis wobbles. It is
as though, in the figure, the Zodiacal constellations are slowly
moving upward and to the left along the slanted Ecliptic while
the Equinox point remains stationary. Fortunately the
precessional motion is extremely slow or the Vernal Point would
not be much good as a stable reference. The movement is about 50
seconds of arc per year, less than 1/60th of a degree.

Other names are the Sigma Point (symbolized by the Greek capital
letter Sigma) and the First Point of Aries, which we will see is
something of a misnomer now. However, in 6 B.C. when the
positions were in effect, the Vernal Point was close to the
first point of the constellation, Aries, abbreviated 'Ari' in
Figure 1. The lines connecting the principal stars of each
constellation indicate its rough shape and extent along the
Ecliptic.

A line drawn at right angles to the Ecliptic and between the
constellations of Aries (Ari) and Pisces (Psc) in the figure
would cross the Ecliptic slightly to the upward-left of the
intersection point, the Vernal Point, shown.

It has been mentioned that observation of precession alone was
too inaccurate for the ancients to date a World Age within a
century. Adding the requirement of a Great Conjunction as close
as possible to the Vernal Point eliminated this difficulty.
However, it also meant that the Vernal Point would generally not
be exactly on the boundary between constellations when a new age
began. Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions return to any particular
constellation, as we shall see, approximately every 800 years.
Therefore, the closest position of the Vernal Point to the
constellation boundary must be chosen from the 800-year-
interval "windows of opportunity."

For the World Age of Pisces, the best Vernal Point position is
that shown in Figure 1, placing it somewhat inside of Pisces.
The earlier window, 800 years previously, would place the Vernal
Point about 10 degrees to the upper-left along the Ecliptic and
too far inside of Aries. This is the best position of the Vernal
Point Hour Hand of the Cosmic Clock for the start of the Piscean
(and synonymously the Christian) Age.

One of the trickiest problems in deciphering the meaning of the
Star of Bethlehem from its Biblical description, in terms of an
astronomical phenomenon, has been the statement that the star,
originally seen in the East by the Chaldean astrologers, somehow
travelled West with them as they journeyed, it is thought over
several months, first to Jerusalem and finally to Bethlehem,
where it seems to have settled in the West over the town,
guiding the Magi to the Child. Let us first dismiss the simple
explanation that everything in the sky rises in the East and
sets in the West by day and night. The story indicates something
occurring over a period of several months, the time it would
have taken in 6 B.C. to travel from Persia-Mesopotamia to
Jerusalem, and not a daily event taken by itself. Let us examine
the broader observational scenerio of Jupiter and Saturn from
May to November.

Figure 1 shows only the first of the three conjunctions which
occurred in 6 B.C. The computer's symbols for the planets show
them in exact conjunction as projected onto the close-by
Ecliptic. This was on May 20th. About five to six months later,
on October 17th and November 16th, they were again in exact
conjunction, a few degrees Westward (to the lower-right) of this
position due to retrograde motions.

On May 20th the Sun would have been about 60 degrees East of the
Vernal Point and the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction would have been
seen rising in the East very late at night, about four hours
before Sunrise. This might have been when the Magi first saw the
Sign of Christ's birth "while they were still in the East."

Because the Sun moves one degree along the Ecliptic eastward
each day, the planets would have risen earlier and earlier each
night until, several months later (not in exact conjunction but
still near each other), they would be found above the Western
horizon shortly before sunrise, having arced across the sky all
night, and would be rising soon after Sunset. In October and
November of 6 B.C., back in or close to exact conjunction, the
pair would have been seen high in the sky at sunset, and the
early hours of the evening would have found them gliding down to
the Western horizon to set around midnight.

They would have briefly touched the Western horizon at a
particular point before setting, perhaps suggesting the idea of
a star which came to rest over a single house. It must be borne
in mind that myth is metaphorical and symbolic, and should not
be interpreted in a very literal way. Over all, the
observational factors concerning Jupiter and Saturn in 6 B.C.
seem to work well as the prototype of the description of the
Star of Bethlehem's movement as poetically construed in the
Bible.

The story of the Magi's visit may be metaphorical. The journey
of the three Wise Men from the East, bearing a total of three
gifts, may be mythical code language indicating a connection
with Chaldean astrology and the fact that the Great Conjunction
of the New Age of Pisces was repeated three times over a period
of about six months, initially in the East for only a few hours
before Sunrise, and, at the end, as a star in the West, setting
well into the evening after the Sun.

Joseph Campbell has suggested that myth became more and more
concretized, literally construed and historically interpreted
over the centuries; it lost its "transparency to transcendence,"
to use his terms. The writer would argue that this was the
result of the parallel shift of perceptual dominance from the
right to the scientific, rational left hemisphere of the brain
which Marshall McLuhan and others have studied.

So the question becomes: "Is it real or is it Memorex?" Was
Jesus a real, historical person or the archetypal hero of the
World Monomyth, an ideal of what man should be? There is much to
connect his life story with the Monomyth.

As outlined in Part 1, the birth of the hero of the Monomyth is
usually prophesied long in advance and attended by omens,
celestial signs and the like. Certainly true of the Christ. His
arrival somehow threatens the established authority, often a
king who has taken the throne illegitimately, who is a tyrant,
and who determines to kill the hero while still a baby or child.
The astrologers went to King Herod bringing the news of the
Star, and Herod decided that he did not want a Messiah
challenging his rulership. He demanded to know when the Star
appeared and had all the male children born around that time
executed.

The hero escapes by being taken into exile for his safety and we
read that Jesus spent some time in Egypt for the same reason.
The hero always has special powers which he generally hides by
pretending to be insane or dull-witted, the theme of the feint
of folly, again for protection and disguise until the right time
to act. Christ performed miracles but did not pretend madness or
stupidity. However, the "King of the Jews" is mocked by the
crowd and made to wear a crown of thorns, recalling the fool's
theme in the Saturnalia festival when the village idiot was
paraded as mock king during the intercalary days before the New
Year.

In Part 1 a Table listed the numerous gods and heroes of
mythology whose symbols and lives are examples of the Monomyth
story, told and retold countless times over the ages. Most of
these are believed to be mythical Saturn and Jupiter archetypes.

Another table could be created of names which we have always
thought belonged to actual historical figures who lived as
physical human beings on Earth but whose life stories parallel
once again the themes and motifs of the Monomyth, leaving us to
wonder whether they really lived or not. This list would include
names such as Jesus, Moses, King David, Buddha, Socrates,
Alexander the Great, Emperor Claudius, Lucius Junius Brutus, and
others.

Recognizing that mythology and religion may be overly
interpreted as historical rather than as transcendent or
spiritual truth, the safest thing to say is that these persons
certainly could have existed but that the Monomyth is primary
and does not require the physical existence of human avatars
even though it may be written as a story about exactly that. It
exists as a universal instruction or guide in its own right with
or without human embodiments. It seems that the lives of certain
individuals may fall into the Monomyth pattern, however, and
become associated with it.

Associations of the Christ story with astronomical factors
abound. The Vernal Point and the Great Conjunction came together
in Pisces. As the Bull and Ram had been worshipped during the
preceding Ages of Taurus and Aries, the Fishes became the great
mystical symbol. Christ was said to be a "fisher of men" by way
of incorporating this into the updated Monomyth. Another
Christian symbol, the sacrificed lamb, likely refers to the end
of the prior age, Aries, just as the slaying of the Bull in the
Mithraic religion is believed to represent the end of the Age of
Taurus.

Similarly the death of Christ, the Crucifixion, I think contains
a symbolic reference to the end of the Age of Pisces when the
Age of Aquarius begins. Christ's body was fixed to the Cross
(Cruci-fixion) but astrologers know of something called
the "Fixed Cross." This is the group of four so-called "fixed"
Zodiacal signs forming a cross within the circle of the Zodiac:
Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius.

When the Vernal Point precesses into Aquarius, the four seasonal
points, the two Equinoxes and two Solstices, themselves always
forming a cross, will have moved into the fixed signs or Fixed
Cross of the Zodiac from the mutable signs where they are now.
And on the way to his Crucifixion, Christ also made twelve
stops, known as the "Stations of the Cross," another allusion to
the twelve Zodiacal signs.

As Pisces rises, Virgo, the Virgin, on the opposite side of the
Zodiac, sets, and vice versa. The idea of Christ's being born of
a Virgin is likely a reference to this relationship. The name,
Bethlehem, means "house of bread," another possible reference to
Virgo because the mythological constellation figure of the
Virgin shows her holding a sheaf of wheat.

Easter is the festival commemorating the resurrection of Christ
after death. It is observed on the first Sunday after the first
Full Moon after the Vernal Equinox. It was originally a spring
festival celebrating the return of the light after the bleak,
relatively dark winter, the days of warmer weather, more hours
of daylight, and renewed plant growth. Here again we see
elements of the story of Christ tied to celestial and seasonal
factors.

The present year-numbering system was intended to have begun
with the birth of Christ, a metaphor of the Monomyth-scripted
birth of the Age of Pisces. There is disagreement concerning the
correct date of Christ's birth, some scholars placing it in 2
B.C. and others some years earlier or later. If the meaning of
Christ's birth is really the birth of the Piscean Age, then 6
B.C. should have been Year Zero.

The person credited with having devised the current system of
reckoning dates from the birth of Christ is an abbot named
Dionysius Exiguus who lived more than 500 years later. From this
distance in time he was not able to calculate the date of the
Great Conjunction to better than the known 6-year error,
assuming he used astronomical records. He is also said to have
not included a Zero Year between 1 B.C. and 1 A.D., compounding
the error. Our time-reckoning system insists that there is an
entire year called Zero rather than merely a Zero Moment.

Just as the mystery of the Star of Bethlehem seemed finally to
have been solved and its timing accurately determined, a new
problem arose. There had been so much attention given to the 6
B.C. Great Conjunctions and the other candidates for the Star in
roughly this same time frame that it had not seemed necessary to
check that this was indeed the Great Conjunction closest to the
Vernal Point. Since the precession moves backwards along the
Ecliptic and the corners of the Trigon move in the forward
direction, it seems necessary to ensure that the Great
Conjunction taken to start a World Age be the one occurring
closest to the Vernal Point when the Vernal Point, in turn, is
closest to the constellation boundary.

In the year 54 A.D., one 60-year Trigon interval later, there
was another, and final, Great Conjunction in Pisces. It took
place only a degree or two from the Vernal Point and much closer
than any in the 6 B.C. triple series. This conjunction of
Jupiter and Saturn is depicted in Figure 2 and, by the ancient
system of the Magi, should have been the one to inaugurate the
Age of Pisces. However, there is another object in the picture.

The disk symbol just above the symbols for Jupiter and Saturn
represents the Sun. This Great Conjunction should have been
predicted but, occurring on March 18, 54 A.D., a few days before
the first day of spring, would not have been seen around the
time of exact alignment due to being in nearly the same
direction in space as the Sun. The event occurred in the day-
time! One can only guess that this is the reason why we do not
date the Christian/Piscean Age from this event instead of the
earlier one.

There is no problem, however, in determining the exact time of
the end of the Age of Pisces and the beginning of the New Age of
Aquarius. It is necessary, however, to first determine, as
before, the correct "window of opportunity."

Since the Trigon of Great Conjunctions completes a full cycle in
about 2400 years, it turns through one-third of the Zodiacal
Circle in 800 years. This means that when JupiterSaturn
conjunctions are occurring in any particular constellation as
one corner of the Trigon sweeps through, it will be about 800
years later before the next corner of the Trigon sweeps through
the same constellation and Great Conjunctions take place there
again.

In 800 years the Vernal Point moves westward about ten degrees.
It is from these ten-degree steps that we must choose the Vernal
Point position which most closely meets the boundary between
Zodiacal constellations. Figure 3 is a portion of a star map
showing the Ecliptic (slanted dotted line) as it passes through
the modern astronomical constellations of Pisces and Aquarius.
The Celestial Equator is the solid horizontal line labelled 0
degrees in the left margin. Since the star map used was prepared
for the precessional epoch of 1950 A.D., the Vernal Point, at
the intersection of these two lines, is shown in its position
for that year.

The modern boundary line between Pisces and Aquarius is the
lighter horizontal dotted line crossing the Ecliptic where the
astrological symbols for these constellations are located. It is
readily seen that the position of the Vernal Point (labelled
with the Greek capital letter Sigma) in the 25th Century, the
next window of opportunity, is much closer to the boundary than
the one 800 years later in the 33rd Century. This is, therefore,
the window we must choose.

The Zodiacal constellations are not of equal extent along the
Ecliptic. Some, like Virgo and Scorpio, are as much as twice as
big as some others, like Cancer and Libra. The World Ages of
these constellations, then, may differ in length by as much as
1000 to 2000 years. Furthermore, constellation boundaries, like
modern geographical boundaries, are set somewhat arbitrarily and
by convention. Who can say exactly where they were set in
ancient times or how accurately the Vernal Point could be
located in relation to them.

The point is that the ten-degree steps were accurate enough to
make the system work very well. One of them could always be
found in best agreement with the boundary region. The advantages
of precision, predictability and having a clear and visible sign
in the real sky of incorporating Great Conjunctions into the
World Age dating process far outweighed any disadvantage from
not locating the Vernal Point precisely on the boundary.

There was also the advantage of an automatic warning system of
the immanent commencement of a new World Age. When the
precession has reached its last ten-degree notch and it can no
longer be denied that a new constellation is rising before the
Sun on the first day of spring, there is then, on the average, a
200-year period in which the conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn
every 60 years in this constellation can be seen moving closer
and closer toward the Vernal Point. The ancients knew where the
Vernal Point was even when the Sun was not there, of course, in
relation to the background stars. The World Age conjunctions did
not have to occur on March 21st.

Applying this to the Age of Aquarius, there will be at least two
or three "Announcers" of the beginning of the Age before it
actually starts. Figure 4 is a diagram of the Cosmic Clock for
the dawning of the Aquarian Age. It shows a corner of the Trigon
sweeping through the astronomical constellation of Aquarius on
its way toward the Vernal Point. The Great Conjunctions in
Aquarius announcing (and preceding) the New Age will occur on
Feb. 2, 2259; April 27, 2318; and Feb. 18, 2378.

The minute and hour hands of the Big Clock will precisely
coincide on May 10-11, 2437 A.D. Figure 5 shows the Great
Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn on this date. It can be seen
in this computer simulation that the positions of the planets
are not merely in conjunction with each , other but so close to
the Vernal Equinox Point as to be in mutual conjunction with it.

This is surely the most precise celestial alignment possible for
the commencement of any World Age! While the politics and record-
keeping of Biblical times as well as the contingencies of
astronomical motions seem to have made something of a muddle of
the exact beginning of our current era, if we wish to continue
the tradition of the Magi into the next World Age, we can do so
now with an ease and precision which they certainly would have
envied.

So the popular song from the musical, "Hair," entitled "The Age
of Aquarius," was a little premature and got most of the details
wrong. It's doubtful that, anytime soon, peace will guide the
planets or love steer the stars. The true dawning of the Age of
Aquarius will have nothing to do with the Moon being in the 7th
or any other House, will involve Jupiter aligning with Saturn
and not Mars, and will be more than 450 years too late to have
been of any help to the flower children of the '60s. But it was
a nice thought and a great song at the time!

A few collateral considerations remain. If the astronomical time
reckoning system of the Babylonians is continued into the Age of
Aquarius, then the year 2437 A.D. will become a new Year Zero
A.D.A. The abbreviation A.D.A. stands for "Anno Domini Aquarii"
(in the Year of Our Lord of Aquarius).

We do not yet know the name of the new Avatar of the Aquarian
Age or even if there necessarily will be one, so we can only
number the present period by counting backwards from the
beginning of the Age and inserting a blank in the identifier.
Thus the year 1992 becomes the year 445 B.X. where the X stands
for the initial of the name of the Aquarian Avatar not yet born.

We can assume that the World Monomyth will need another revision
but will tell the same eternal story in a new updated way,
somehow utilizing the symbols associated with the constellations
of the Water Carrier and its opposite, Leo, the Lion. Perhaps
the hero of this Age will be born of or raised by a lion and
have a career in water conservation.

It has long seemed too coincidental that the astrological signs,
measured by regular 30-degree intervals from the Vernal Point,
are not much more than 30 degrees or one sign out of
synchronization with the actual star constellations. Precession
has moved the Vernal Point from the first degree of Aries to
about the 6th degree of Pisces now. When the Age of Aquarius
begins it will be at the beginning of Pisces moving backwards
through the back door of the constellation of Aquarius. It is a
misnomer to refer to it, as we still do, as the "First Point of
Aries" when clearly it will soon be at the first point of
Pisces.

And how did our astrological system come to be set up when the
Vernal Point was moving from Aries into Pisces at the time of
the birth of Christ when we know very well that the Magi had set
up the system and had been practicing astrology for thousands of
years before that? The misalignment of the stars with the
seasons should be at least two or three whole signs, not one.

The way out of this dilemma is to reset the coordinates at the
beginning of each New Age so the signs named and measured along
the Ecliptic from the Vernal Point are the same as the star
constellations in the same vicinity. This would require changing
the name of the Vernal Point from the First Point of Aries to
the First Point of Pisces and shifting all of the signs by one
House.

The 1st House would then be associated with Pisces, the 2nd with
Aries and so on around to the 12th which would be that of
Aquarius. Repeating the process each World Age, the signs and
constellations would never get more than one sign out of sync,
and this must have been what was done at the start of the Age of
Pisces. Astrology was invented long before the time of Christ's
birth; its coordinate system, however, must have been reset to
connect the 1st House with Aries instead of Taurus (as it would
have been from the beginning of the Age of Aries around 2200
B.C.).

The Precession Cycle and the long- and short-term movements of
the stars and planets in the heavens formed the central myth and
mystery around which ancient civilizations were organized. Each
new day provided a unique, never-to-be-exactly-repeated read-out
of the Cosmic Clock: its face the background of fixed stars and
the special group of twelve Zodiacal constellations and its
pointing hands the Vernal Point and the corners of the Trigon
coupled with the positions of all the planets, the Sun and Moon,
and anything else that might from time to time appear in the
sky.

The World Monomyth, on one level perhaps a kind of manual for
studying and interpreting the dials of the Universal Clock, in
combination with the body of astronomical knowledge with which
it is associated, is probably the oldest and most important
creative and scientific work of mankind to survive to the
present. It has been in use longer than we can know, 6 - 10,000
years, at least. Civilizations have devoted their energies for
millennia to the study, refinement and preservation of this
tradition. We might well continue to honor it through the
remainder of this Age and on to beyond the end of the next.

And yet, like all the works of Man, however grand, it is as
nothing in the face of Eternity -- a breath of wind, a flash of
light, a glimpse into the One Mind. We have taken the measure of
our greatness and our insignificance in but a few turns of the
Mill of Time.

The above Figure depicts the event which will inaugurate the Age
of Aquarius as it will be seen in the early morning hours just
before sunrise on May 11, 2437 A.D. from the latitude of San
Jose, California. The computer-generated image shows the exact
conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn with the Vernal Equinox very
close to the boundary between Pisces and Aquarius.

Footnotes:

1. Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend, Hamlet's Mill:
An essay on myth and the frame of time, 2nd paperback ed.
(Boston: David R. Godine, 1983).

2. VOYAGER: The Interactive Desktop Planetarium, V. 1.2 for the
Apple Macintosh (San Leandro, California: Carina Software,
1988).

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http://www.watch.pair.com/eucharist.html

The "gods" In Our Midst

By Ed Tarkowski

Alabama Discernment Ministries

November 11, 1996

In "MITHRAISM: The Legacy of the Roman Empire's Final Pagan
State Religion," written in 1993, David Fingrut quotes British
author and poet Rudyard Kiplingąs "A Song to Mithras":

"Mithras, God of the Morning, our trumpets waken the Wall!

Rome is above the Nations, but Thou art over all!"

Fingrut sees Christianity as an outgrowth of pagan religions,
and also equates the Christian faith with Roman Catholicism,
which of course I would dispute. But his research into the pagan
cults is interesting. In his Introduction, Fingrut writes,

"For over three hundred years the rulers of the Roman Empire

worshipped the god Mithras. Known throughout Europe and Asia by
the names Mithra, Mitra, Meitros, Mihr, Mehr, and Meher, the
veneration of this god began some 4000 years ago in Persia,
where it was soon embedded with Babylonian doctrines. . . .

"The widespread popularity and appeal of Mithraism as the final
and most refined form of pre-Christian paganism was discussed by
the Greek historian Herodotus, the Greek biographer Plutarch,
the neoplatonic philosopher Porphyry, the Gnostic heretic
Origen, and St. Jerome the church Father. Mithraism was quite
often noted by many historians for its many astonishing
similarities to Christianity.

"The faithful referred to Mithras as "the Light of the World",
symbol of truth, justice, and loyalty. He was mediator between

heaven and earth and was a member of a Holy Trinity. According

to Persian mythology, Mithras was born of a virgin given the

title 'Mother of God'. The god remained celibate throughout his

life, and valued self-control, renunciation and resistance to
sensuality among his worshippers. Mithras represented a system
of ethics in which brotherhood was encouraged in order to unify
against the forces of evil.

"The worshippers of Mithras held strong beliefs in a celestial

Europe and throughout the world…"

"The great festival of the Mithraic calendar was held on
December the 25th, and the 16th of every month was kept holy to
Mithras. The first day of the week was dedicated to the sun, to
whom prayers were recited in the morning, noon, and evening.
Services were held on Sundays, in which bells were sounded and
praises were offered to Mithras. On great occasions,
the 'soldiers of Mithras' took part in the sacrament of bread
and wine as sacred bulls were sacrificed."

The rites Fingrut notes in his last paragraph are easily
recognizable in the Catholic tradition today. Other writers and
researchers have written of similar likenesses between Mithra
and Catholicism:

"As Christianity gathered momentum and eventually became the
Roman Empires state religion, Mithraism was not tolerated. The

Apologist saw it as a Śsatanic transversty (sic) of the holiest
rites of their religioną (Fanz Cumont, The Mysteries of Mithra).

Nevertheless Catholicism has preserved some of the outer form of
Mithraism to name some; the timing of Christmas, Bishops
adaptation of miters as sign of their office, Christians priests

becoming ŚFatherą despite Jesusą specific proscription of the
acceptance of such title (Matthew 23:9), and Śthe Mithraic Holy

father wore a red cap and garment and a ring, and carried a

shepherdąs staff. The Head Christian adopted the same title and
outfitted himself in the same manner (citing William Harwood,
Mythologies Last Gods: Yahweh and Jesus).

"[Mithra] was the sun god of the Persians and the son of a
virgin. He was born on the 25th of December. Christmas and
Easter were two of the most important festivals of his church.
His worshipers observed baptism, confirmation, and Eucharist
supper at which time they would partake of their ŚGodą in the
form of bread and wine. . .

"Another cross has been unearthed in Ireland. It belongs to the
cult of the Persian god of the sun ŚMithra" and bears a
crucified effigy .

I want to mention one more parallel between the Cult of Mithra
and Catholicism. It is, I believe, a very important one. Fingrut
wrote,

"While Mithras was worshipped almost exclusively by men, most of
the wives and daughters of the Mithraists took part in the
worship of Magna-Mater, Ma-Bellona, Anahita, Cybele, and
Artemis. These goddess religions practiced a regeneration ritual
known as the Taurobolium, or bull sacrifice, in which the blood
of the slaughtered animal was allowed to fall down upon the
initiate, who would be lying, completely drenched in a pit
below. As a result of their association with practitioners of
this rite, Mithraists soon adopted the Taurobolium ritual as
their own.

"This baptism of blood became a renewal of the human soul, as
opposed to mere physical strength. Mithraic baptism wiped out
moral faults; the purity aimed at had become spiritual. The
descent into the pit was regarded as symbolic burial, from which
the initiate would emerge reborn, purified of all his crimes and
regarded as the equal of a god. Those who made it through the
Taurobolium were revered by their brethren, and accepted in the
fold of Mithraism."

He then quotes Franz Cumont's "Les Mysteres de Mithra":

"The taurobolium had become a means of obtaining a new and
eternal life; the ritualistic ablutions were no longer external
and material acts, but were supposed to cleanse the soul of its
impurities and to restore its original innocence; the sacred
repasts imparted an intimate virtue to the soul and furnished
sustenance to the spiritual life."

Fingrut continues,

"During the celebration of the vernal equinox, the Phrygian
priests of the Great Mother attributed the blood shed in the
Taurobolium to the redemptive power of the blood of the Divine
Lamb shed on the Christian Easter. It was maintained that the
dramatic Taurobolium purification ritual was more effective than
baptism. The food that was taken during the mystic feasts was
likened to the bread and wine of the communion; the Mother of
the Gods (Magna Mater) received greater worship than the Mother
of God (Mary), whose son also had risen again.

"An inscription in the Mithraeum under the Church of Santa
Prisca in Rome referred to Mithras saving men by shedding the
eternal blood of the bull. On the very spot on which the last
Taurobolium took place at the end of the fourth century, in the
Phrygianum, today stands the Vatican's St. Peter's Basilica."

The church in which the Popes say Mass at the Vatican, St.
Peterąs Basilica, is standing on one of many temple grounds
where the Cult of Mithras once practiced their rituals. Now,
letąs take one more look at how the Mithraic Communion ritual
took on such a deep spiritual significance.

Letąs run this stream of quotes:

"The [Mythraic] initiate was baptized in its [the Bulląs] blood,
partaking of its life-giving properties. It may be noted that
this part of the ceremonial closely resembled the ritual of the
cult of Cybele, the Great Mother of Asia Minor, which had been
brought to Rome three centuries before Christ. . . ." (Ninian
Smart, The Religious Experience of Mankind).

It is important to notice that the blood of the Bull had "life-
giving" properties. As stated earlier, baptism in the blood of
the bull was "a regeneration ritual. . . . As a result of their
association with practitioners of this rite, Mithraists soon
adopted the Taurobolium ritual as their own. This baptism of
blood became a renewal of the human soul . . . [a] symbolic
burial, from which the initiate would emerge reborn."

These "life-giving properties" were regenerative, bringing one
to a new birth. The Phrygian priests likened the power of the
bulląs blood to the power of Christąs shed blood. This power was
then released to the individual through the food taken at the
mystic feasts just as, they believed, the power of the Lamb was
released through the bread and wine of the Catholic communion

". . . . the Phrygian priests of the Great Mother attributed the
blood shed in the Taurobolium to the redemptive power of the
blood of the Divine Lamb shed on the Christian Easter. . . . The
food that was taken during the mystic feasts was likened to the
bread and wine of the communion."

This rebirth through the Mithraic Communion ritual was believed,
then, to be the actual receiving of their god, Mithra:

"[Mitraąs] worshipers observed . . . [the] Eucharist supper at
which time they would partake of their ŚGodą in the form of
bread and wine. . . . "

"He who will not eat of my body, nor drink of my blood so that
he may be one with me and I with him, shall not be saved."
("Mithraic Communion," M. J. Vermaseren, Mithras, The Secret
God).

Today, we find this same idea in the Catholic Communion, as we
see in this quote from Vatican II in Dave Huntąs book, "A Woman
Rides The Beast":

". . . . in the Eucharist we become partakers of the Body and
Blood of Godąs only Son . . . [and] the partaking of the Body
and Blood of Christ has no less effect than to change us into
what we have received" (Vatican II).

This idea of the present-day Eucharist being the actual łBody
and Blood of Godąs only Son˛ will be discussed in the next part
of this series. We will discuss some of the "Eucharistic
Miracles" that are reported as being on the increase.
These "Eucharistic miracles" are manifestations of the bread
being turned to actual flesh and the wine to actual blood - even
in the mouths of the communicants as they receive these species
during the Catholic Mass

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Egyptian and Pagan Themes in Christian Tradition
Egyptian Religious Concepts
http://home.fireplug.net/~rshand/reflections/messiah/pagan.html

Both Islam and Christianity "were in agreement with the basic
outlook of the ancient Egyptians in that they also promised
eternal life; they could therefore appear to a very ancient
attitude of mind. We can say whether Egyptian mummies may not
have had something to do with the Christian concept
of 'resurrection of the flesh', which belongs neither to the Old
Testament religion nor to that of the earliest Christians, let
alone to that of the Greeks? To the Christian it may seen
natural that man's everlasting life should be based on God. But
other religions, such as those of the Israelites and of the
ancient Greeks, teach that God's power does not extend beyond
the limits of this earthly existence; it cannot penetrate the
dark realms of Sheol or the gates of Hades."
- Seigfreid Morenz, Egyptian Religion

(a)

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the
government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be
called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting
Father, The Prince of Peace."
- Isaiah 9:6
There is "the influence of the Egyptian court chronicle upon the
literary form of the Israelites' chronicle account of David and
Solomon. Here we may mention the traces left by the Egyptian
royal ritual upon the courts of Israelite rulers, which affected
even Isaiah's famous list of appellations for the Prince of
Peace. For this, although mutilated, is probably derived from
the fivefold titulary of the Egyptian king. The similarity of
genres in this case extends even to Mesopotamia."
- Siegfried Morenz, Egyptian Religion

(b)

"In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and
the word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him
all things came to be, not one thing had its being but through
Him."
- John 1: 1-3
"The world itself came into existence through the utterance of a
word by Thoth."
- Quoted by E. A. Wallis Budge, Egyptian Magic

"Whereas the Ennead of Atum came into being by his semen and his
fingers, the Ennead [came into being according to Memphite
theology by] the teeth and lips in this mouth, which pronounced
the name of everything, from which Shu and Tefnut came forth,
and which was the fashioner of the Ennead."
- Shabaka inscription, 1.55

"With this sentence we have arrived at the quintessence of the
doctrine of creation through the word.
"It is 'the mouth which pronounced the name of everything from
which Shu and Tefnut came forth, followed by the world of nature
and ordered human history, embodied in the Ennead."
"The theology of Memphis also tells us how the creative words
came about: they are 'what the heart thought and the tongue
commanded', i.e., they are produced by the deity in that part of
his body which is the seat of life and thought, and are then
made known as an utterance."
- Siegfried Morenz, Egyptian Religion

(c)

"'I am the Alpha and the Omega,' says the Lord God, 'who is, and
who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.'"
- Book of Revelation 1:8
"I am the Universe, Past, Present and Future; no mortal made the
acquitance of me."
- Sanctuary of Neith in Sais (Plutarch and Proclos)

Neith/Neit/Nath was the (early) Egyptian goddess of war whose
worship was centered in Sais, in Western Delta of Nile River.
Her site was in a sycamore tree.

(d)

"I prayed therefore unto the Lord, and said, O Lord, lord, king
of the gods, destroy not thy people and thine inheritance...
- Deuteronomy 9:25 (Septuagint)
"Septuagint, the oldest Greek translation of the Bible...the
legend contained in the apocryphal letter of Aristeas, according
to which 72 elders of Israel, six from each tribe, translated
the LAW [Torah] into Greek in Alexandria, during the reign of
Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285-244 B.C.E.)...The designation
Septuagent was EXTENDED to the rest of the Bible and non-
canonical books that were translated to Greek during the
following two centuries."
- Encylopaedia Judaica, Volume 14

"...The Greek translation of the Old Testament made at
Alexandria and known as the Septuagint (3rd to 2nd century
B.C.E.) on account of the seventy translators employed on it.
This eventually became almost a kind of holy writ for
Christians. It can be demonstrated that the place of translation
left its mark on many passages. Certainly these were not of
crucial importance; nevertheless it is in Septuagint that we
find an invocation unknown to Israelite or Judaic
theology: 'Lord, lord, king of the gods'...This may be explained
without difficulty if one assumes that the translators had in
mind a designation of God which combined two proper names with
the title 'king of the gods'.(kudios [Gk.] also renders the
proper nameof Yahveh) This is precisely the case with Amon-
Rasonther, i.e. 'Amon-Re, king of the gods', who at that time
was still important."
- Seigfreid Morenz, Egyptian Religion

The version of the Septuagint that has survived to the present
time was prepared by Origen around 200 CE from available
manuscripts. Origen took an editorial hand to the transcriptions
and it is not know to what extent they differ from the
originals.

(e)

"Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to
make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?
- Romans 9:21
"For a man is clay and straw, and the god is his builder. He is
tearing down and building up every day. He makes a thousand poor
men as he wishes, he makes a thousand men as overseers."
- Amenemope XXIV, 13-17

"How complex the process may be within the Egyptian tradition
itself, and how large a part was played by Greek elements (Stoic
diatribes), emerged some years ago from an analysis of the
association between ship and tongue in the Epistle of St. James,
which was originally Egyptian. The way in which Egyptian
influence made itself felt is fairly clear in those cases where
it first affected images in the Old Testament (including the
Apocrypha) which were later taken over by New Testament writers.
This seems to me to be the case with two passages in the Epistle
to the Romans: the proverbial 'coals of fire' which were to be
heaped upon one's enemy - derived from a Late Egyptian
penitential rite - and, much more significantly, the Apostle's
words on the absolute power of the Creator to confer honor and
dishonor, so making a quite arbitrary distinction between his
creatures; here St. Paul is giving universal currency to a
formula that we first hear of with Amenemope."
- Seigfreid Morenz, Egyptian Religion

"Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give
him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his
head."
- Romans 12:20 after Proverbs 25:22

(f)

"As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are
offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing
in the word, and that there is none other God but one. For
though there be that are call gods, whether in heaven or in
earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many). But to us there
is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in
him..."
- 1 Corinthians 8:4-6
"...The acclamation 'God is One', used by the earliest Christian
communities...is derived from one employed in the service of
Serapis ('One is Zeus-Sarapis' [Egypto-Hellenistic]), and this
in turn comes from the early Egyptian theologians' form ('One is
Amon', etc.)."
- Seigfreid Morenz, Egyptian Religion

(g)

"Fear none of those things which thou salt suffer: behold, the
devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried;
and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto
death, and I will give thee a crown of life. "He that hath an
ear, let him hear what the sprit saith unto the churches; He
that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death."
- Revelation 2:10-11
"Not to die a second time on the part of the ba [spirit] of a
man."
- Book of the Dead, 64 Addendum

"What men fear and seek to avoid on this plane [the Egyptian
realm of the dead] is that second death mentioned in the titles
of so many spells in the Coffin Texts and the Book of the Dead,
e.g.: 'Spell of not Dying a Second Time in the Realm of the
Dead'."
"...The much-cited 'second death' in the Revelation of St.
John...may owe something to the widely disseminated Egyptian
concept of a second mortality. It is also present in the notion
of a 'crown of life', or in those of righteousness and glory, in
elucidating these concepts one must draw not only upon Greek
material but also upon the 'crown of righteousness' to which
there were so many references during the last centuries of
Egyptian paganism."
- Seigfreid Morenz, Egyptian Religion

(h)

"He then added, 'I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven
open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son
of Man.'"
- John 1:51
"Open to me heaven, O mother of the gods! Let me see the bark of
Phre [the sun god] descending and ascending...For I am Geb, heir
of the gods."
- The Demotic Magical Papyrus of London and Leiden X.23ff

(i)

"Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And
there are differences of administration, but the same Lord. And
there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God
which worketh all in all."
- 1 Corinthians 12:4-6
"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and
the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen."
- 2 Corinthians 13:14

"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."
-Matthew 28:19

"One is Bait, one is Hathor, one is Akori - to these belongs one
power. Be greeted, father of the world, be greeted, God in three
forms."
- Amulet (falcon-headed Bait, frog-headed Hathor & winged
serpent Akori - 100 C.E.)

"This distich contains the ['God is One'] acclamation...which
goes back at least to the Amon theology of the Rameside period;
the one God (father of the cosmos) has as attributes (to use the
Egyptian terminology) three hprw or b'w, 'forms'
or 'appearance', the three gods are combined and treated as a
single being, addressed in the singular."
- Seigfreid Morenz, Egyptian Religion

"The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at
the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. He looked up
and saw three men standing near him.
And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward
Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the Lord."
- Genesis 18:1-2, 22
"Characteristically, the Yahvist tale of the three divine beings
who called on Abraham at the sacred tree of Mamre does not lead
to any effort to resolve the theological problem raised by the
presence of three persons; instead, the narrator simply omits
the two who are superfluous."
- Seigfreid Morenz, Egyptian Religion

"To those who are able to distinguish [Moses] represents it as
something absolutely natural that one can be three and three can
be one, because according to the higher reasoning they are one."
- Philo of Alexandria, Quaset. in Genessim, IV, 2

The Effect of Pagan Mystery Religions

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever. Do
not be led away by diverse and strange teachings."
- Hebrews 13:8-9
While all the basic elements of first century Christian theology
can be shown to have derived from Judean sources,
correspondences with Savior God mythologies helped the spread of
Christianity throughout the Roman empire. The enthusiastic
adaptation of rituals taken from the mystery religions in the
4th c. C.E. and the merging of these belief systems in the
popular mind of secular authorities eventually lead to the
establishment of Christianity as the state religion of Rome in
337 C.E.

"As Bruce Metzger [Historical and Literary Studies: Pagan,
Jewish, and Christian (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1968), 11]* has
argued, 'It must not be critically assumed that the Mysteries

always influenced Christianity, for it is not only possible but
probable that in certain cases, the influence moved in the

opposite direction.' It should not be surprising that leaders of

cults that were being successfully challenged by Christianity
should do something to counter the challenge. What better way to
do this than by offering a pagan substitute? Pagan attempts to
counter the growing influence of Christianity by imitating it

are clearly apparent in measure instituted by Julian the
Apostate, who was the Roman emperor form A.D. 361 to 363."
*"The possible parallels in view here would naturally be dated

late, after A.D. 200 for the most part."

- Dr. Ronald H. Nash, "Was the New Testament Influenced by
Pagan Religions?"

(1) Savior Gods

Virgin Birth Stories

"People think we are insane when we name a crucified man as
second in rank after the unchangeable and eternal God, the
Creator of all things, for they do not discern the mystery
involved."
- Justin Martyr, Apologies, 1:13
"Virgin birth stories were farely common in pagan myths. The
following mythological characters were all believed to be have
been born to divinely impregnated virgins: Romulus and Remus,
Perseus, Zoroaster, Mithras, Osiris-Aion, Agdistis, Attis,
Tammuz, Adonis, Korybas, Dionysus."
- Hayyim ben Yehoshua, "Refuting Missionaries, Part 1: The
Myth of the Historical Jesus"

"According to Jerome, Hadrian desecrated the cave in Bethlehem
associated with Jesus' birth by consecrating it with a shrine of
Tammuz-Adonis. Although his cult spread from Byblos to the
GrecoRoman world, the worship of Adonis was never important and
was restricted to women."
- Edwin M. Yamauchid, "Easter: Myth, Hallucination, or
History?"

"By declaring the logos, the first begotten of God, our master
Jesus Christ to be born of a virgin, without any human mixture,
we (Christians) say no more in this than what you (pagans) say
of those whom you style the sons of Jove.
"As to the son of God called Jesus, should we allow him to be
nothing more than man, yet the title of the son of God is very
justifiable. Upon the account of his wisdom, considering that
you (pagans) have your Mercury in worship under the title of the
word a messenger of God. As to his, (that is Jesus Christ's)
being born of a virgin, you have your Perseus to balance that."
- Justin Martyr, First Apology, Volume I, chapter 22
Resurrected Gods
"Like many other such deities Tammuz, for example, the god of
ancient Summerian and Phoenician mystery teachings, had been
born of a virgin, died with a wound in his side and, after three
days, rose from his tomb, leaving it vacant with the rock at the
entrance rolled aside....It is significant that Bethlehem was
not only David's city, but also the ancient center of a Tammuz
cult, with a shrine that remained active well into biblical
times."
- Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln, The Messianic Legacy

"Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord's house
which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping
for Tammuz."
- Ezekiel 8:14
Each spring, the women ceremonially wept and wailed over his
death, and a few days later, celebrated his resurrection.

"Wittoba, one of the Hindu gods, is represented with holes
pierced in the hands and arms outstretched in the form of a
Roman cross (but not fastened). The figure is crowned with a
Parthian coronet, typical of all incarnations of Vishnu. The
feet are also pierced.
"In Anacalypsis by Godfrey Higgins, the god Indra is described
nailed to a cross with five wounds representing nail holes. In
the oldest accounts of Prometheus, it is stated that this
saviour was nailed to an upright beam of timber to which was
affixed arms of wood. The cross was situated on Mt. Caucusus,
near the Caspian Sea. The story of Prometheus' crucifixion,
burial and resurrection was acted in pantomime in ancient Athens
500 years before Christ".

"We find no less that twelve mythical-historical personages
before the advent of Christ, who are said to have suffered
crucifixion/death and to have risen from the dead. Among them
are:
Krishna
Wittoba
Osiris
Attis
Indra
Prometheus
Mithra
Dionysus
Hesus
Aesculapius
Adonis
Apollonius of Tyana
Several of these figures are said to have been crucified at the
spring equinox and to have risen on the third day."
- The Christian Conspiracy: The Orthodox Suppression of
Original Christianity

"Osiris was murdered and his body dismembered and scattered. The
pieces of his body were recovered and rejoined, and the god was
rejuvenated. However, he did not return to his former mode of
existence but rather journeyed to the underworld, where he
became the powerful lord of the dead. In no sense can Osiris be
said to have 'risen' in the sense required by the dying and
rising pattern."
"In no sense can the dramatic myth of his death and reanimation
be harmonized to the pattern of dying and rising gods."
- J. Smith, Dying and Rising Gods, pp. 524-525

"What is meant of Osiris being 'raised to life'? Simply that,
thanks to the ministrations of Isis, he is able to lead a life
beyond the tomb which is an almost perfect replica of earthly
existence. But he will never again come among the living and
will reign only over the dead....This revived god is in reality
a 'mummy' god "
- Roland de Vaux, The Bible and the Ancient Near East,
1971, p. 236

The abode of the Egyptian gods was not on earth, however, but in
the polar star - the celestial region of the goddess Nut.

"...The followers of Dionysus (Bacchus), the god of wine, did
believe in immortality. But they did not hope for a resurrection
of the body; nor did they base their faith on the reborn
Dionysus of the Orphics, but rather on their experience of
drunken ecstasy (cf. M. Nilsson, The Dionysiac Mysteries of the
Hellenistic and Roman Age, 1957)."
- Edwin M. Yamauchid, "Easter: Myth, Hallucination, or
History?"

"There is no suggestion of Adonis rising (in either the
Panyasisian form or the Ovidian form of the myth)."
- J. Smith, Dying and Rising Gods, p. 522

"P. Lambrechts has shown that there is no trace of a
resurrection in the early texts or pictorial representations of
Adonis; the four texts that speak of his resurrection are quite
late, dating from the second to the fourth centuries A.D.
('La 'resurrection' d'Adonis,' in Melanges Isidore Levy, 1955,
pp. 207-40). Lambrechts has also shown that Attis, the consort
of Cybele, does not appear as a 'resurrected' god until after
A.D. 1 50. ( 'Les Fetes 'phrygiennes' de Cybele et d' Attis,'
Bulletin de l'lnstitut Historique Belge de Rome, XXVII 11952],
141-70)."
- Edwin M. Yamauchid, "Easter: Myth, Hallucination, or
History?"

"True, the Hellenistic world was familiar with the death and
apotheosis of some predominantly barbarian demigods and heroes
of primeval times. Attis and Adonis were killed by a wild boar,
Osiris was torn to pieces by Typhon-Seth and Dionysus-Zagreus by
the Titans. Heracles alone of the 'Greeks' voluntarily immolated
himself of Mount Oeta. However, not only did all this take place
in the darkest and most distant past, but it was narrated in
questionable myths which had to be interpreted either
euhemeristically or at least allegorically. By contrast, to
believe that the one pre-existent Son of the one true God, the
mediator at creation and the redeemer of the world, had appeared
in very recent times in out-of-the-way Galilee as a member of
the obscure people of the Jews, and even worse, had died the
death of a common criminal on the cross, could only be regarded
as a sign of madness...The only possibility of something like
a 'crucified god' appearing on the periphery of the ancient
world was in the form of a malicious parody, intended to mock
the arbitrariness and wickedness of the father of the gods on
Olympus, who had now become obsolete. This happens in the
dialogue called Prometheus, written by Lucian, the Voltaire of
antiquity.".
- Martin Hengel of Tubingdon, Crucifixion in the Ancient
World and the Folly of the Message of the Cross 5-7, 11

"The category of dying and rising gods, once a major topic of
scholarly investigation, must now be understood to have been
largely a misnomer based on imaginative reconstructions and
exceedingly late or highly ambiguous texts."
"The category of dying and rising gods, as well as the pattern
of its mythic and ritual associations, received its earliest
full formulation in the influential work of James G. Frazer The
Golden Bough, especially in its two central volumes, The Dying
God and Adonis, Arris, Osiris. Frazer offered two
interpretations, one euhemerist, the other naturist. In the
former, which focused on the figure of the dying god, it was
held that a (sacred) king would be slain when his fertility
waned. This practice, it was suggested, would be later
mythologized, giving rise to a dying god. The naturist
explanation, which covered the full cycle of dying and rising,
held the deities to be personifications of the seasonal cycle of
vegetation. The two interpretations were linked by the notion
that death followed upon a loss of fertility, with a period of
sterility being followed by one of rejuvenation, either in the
transfer of the kingship to a successor or by the rebirth or
resurrection of the deity.
".There are empirical problems with the euhemerist theory. The
evidence for sacral regicide is limited and ambiguous; where it
appears to occur, there are no instances of a dying god figure.
The naturist explanation is flawed at the level of theory.
Modern scholarship has largely rejected, for good reasons, an
interpretation of deities as projections of natural phenomena.".

"....It is a commonplace within the history of religions that
immortality is not a prime characteristic of divinity: gods die.
Nor is the concomitant of omnipresence a widespread requisite:
gods disappear. The putative category of dying and rising
deities thus takes its place within the larger category of dying
gods and the even larger category of disappearing deities. Some
of these divine figures simply disappear; some disappear only to
return again in the near or distant future; some disappear and
reappear with monotonous frequency. All the deities that have
been identified as belonging to the class of dying and rising
deities can be subsumed under the two larger classes of
disappearing deities or dying deities. In the first case, the
deities return but have not died; in the second case, the gods
die but do not return. There is no unambiguous instance in the
history of religions of a dying and rising deity."
- Mircea Eliade, The Encyclopedia of Religion (Macmillian:
1987)

Assimilation of Mystery Traditions

"Before A.D. 100, the mystery religions were still largely
confined to specific localities and were still a relatively
novel phenomenon. After A.D. 100, they gradually began to attain
a widespread popular influence throughout the Roman Empire. But
they also underwent significant changes that often resulted from
the various cults absorbing elements from each other. As
devotees of the mysteries became increasingly eclectic in their
beliefs and practices, new and odd combinations of the older
mysteries began to emerge. And as the cults continued to tone
down the more objectionable features of their older practices,
they began to attract greater numbers of followers."

- Dr. Ronald H. Nash, "Was the New Testament Influenced by
Pagan Religions?"

Between the traditional date for the celebration of the winter
solstice, December 25, and the spring equinox (Easter, from the
Latin for earth goddess) there was a search for Osiris, the
Egyptian God of resurrection. This corresponds to the 40 days of
post-resurrection appearances by Jesus reported in Acts.

"Savior-gods and fertility-goddesses held their resurrection
festivals at the full moon following the vernal equinox.
Christianity celebrated its resurrection feast on the same date.
One of the best-known fertility-goddesses was Easter, also
spelled Ishtar, Astarte and Ashtaroth."
- William Harwood, Mythologies Last Gods: Yahweh and Jesus

"Easter was first the holiday of Eostre, which was a celebration
of death, rebirth and fertility, of the old [Celtic] Pagan God,
called the Green Man."
- "Angels Among Us! The Gnostic (Johannine) Christian Path"

"John's gospel...contains the image which links to the mysteries
of Eleusis and Egypt."
- John Ferguson, An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Mysticism
and the Mystery Religions

"In truth, in very truth I tell you, a grain of wheat remains a
solitary grain unless it falls into the ground and dies, but if
it dies it bears a rich harvest."
- John 12:24
"In contrast to the synoptic gospels, where the individual's
faith in God elicits the response of Jesus, in Graeco-Roman
writings the miraculous events lead to faith."
- Graham N. Stanton, The Gospels and Jesus, The Oxford
Bible Series (1989), paperback, p. 216

"For the earliest Christian communities, the resurrection of
Jesus could not be identified with the periodic death and
resurrection of the God of the mysteries. Like Christ's life,
suffering, and death, his resurrection had occurred in
history, 'in the days of Pontius Pilate'...It was a 'sign' that
formed part of the Messianic expectation of the Jewish people,
and as such it had its place in the religious history of Israel,
for the resurrection of the dead was an accompaniment of the
coming of the Time."
"In view of the 'inevitability' of initiation, it is surprising
that we find so little trace of initiatory scenarios and
terminology in primitive Christianity. St. Paul never uses
telete, a specific technical term of the mysteries."
"But with the spread of Christianity into all the provinces of
the Roman Empire, especially after its final triumph under
Constantine, there is a gradual change in perspective....We find
a threefold process of enrichment of primitive Christianity: (1)
by archaic symbols which will be rediscovered and revalued by
being new Christological meanings; (2) by borrowing from the
imagery and initiatory themes of the mysteries; (3) by the
assimilation of Greek philosophy."
- Mircea Eliade, Rites and Symbols of Initiation

"I am parched with thirst, and perishing.
But drink of me, the ever-flowing spring on the right, (where)
there is a fair cypress.
Who are you? Where are you from?
I am a child of Earth and of starry Heaven, but my race is of
Heaven (along)."
- Orphic Lamella from Thessaly
Paul's Use of Terminology from the Mysteries
"...When Paul entitles himself a 'master-builder', he is using a
word pre-eminently kabalistic, theurigic, and masonic, and one
which no other apostle uses."
- H. P. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled

"As a wise master-builder, I have laid the foundation. Know ye
not that ye are the temple of God, and that the spirit of God
dwelleth in you. Let a man so account of us as the minister of
Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
"Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not
the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that
come to naught. How that by revelation, be made known to us the
mystery of the Kingdom."
- 1 Corininthians 3:10
See The Festival at Eleusis for the derivation of "master
builder" from the sacred Greek rite of epopteia - "reception
into the secrets".

"Paul called Jesus "kyrios, the Greek equivalent to
adownay, 'His Lordship'. The application of such a title to
Jesus would not have caused confusion had adownay, Hellenised to
Adonis, not also been the name of a Syrian resurrected savior-
god with whom the Greek author of the second-century Gospel of
John was familiar. In the eastern parts of the Roman empire
Adownay/Adonis was known as the savior-god who, for love of the
fertility goddess Venus/Aphrodite, annually died and rose from
the dead at the full moon following the vernal equinox - in
other words, at Passover, when Jesus had also died and
allegedly 'risen'."
- William Harwood, Mythologies Last Gods: Yahweh and Jesus

"Even with the comparatively slight knowledge we have of
Mithraism and its liturgy, it is clear that many of Paul's
phrases [in his letters] savor much more of the terminology of
the Persian cult than that of the Gospels."
- E. Wynn-Tyson, Mithras

(2) Mithraism

Mithras, the Saviour

"Be of good cheer, sacred band of Initiates, your God has risen
from the dead. His pains and sufferings shall be your salvation."
- Words uttered by Mithraic priest
Mithraism "postulated an apocalypse, a day of judgment, a
resurrection of the flesh, and a second coming of Mithras
himself, who would finally defeat the principle of evil. Mithras
was said to have been born in a cave or grotto, where shepherds
attended him and regaled him with gifts."
- Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln, The Messianic Legacy

"Like Christians, the Mithraists believed that their savior had
descended from heaven to earth; had shared a last supper with 12
followers; had redeemed mankind from sin by shedding blood; and
had risen from the dead. They even baptized their converts
[though in bull's blood] to wash away past sins."
- Quest for the Past

Mithraism also has the following correspondences with
Christianity:

Mithras was said to have been sent by a father-god to vanquish
darkness and evil in the world

Mithras was born of a virgin (a birth witnessed only by
shepherds)

Mithras was described variously as the Way, the Truth, the
Light, the Word, the Son of God

He was also known as the Good Shepherd and was often depicted
carrying a lamb upon his shoulders
It is unclear whether Mithraism had a greater syncretic
influence on Christianity or vice-versa as the two religions
spread across the Roman empire. Certainly the alleged effect of
Mithraism on early Christian doctrine can be disputed.

"The only dated Mithraic inscriptions from the pre-Christian
period are the texts of Antiochus I of Commagene (69-34 B.C.) in
eastern Asia Minor. After that there is one text possibly from
the first century A.D., from Cappadocia, one from Phrygia dated
to A.D. 77-78, and one from Rome dated to Trajan's reign (A.D.
98-117). All other dated Mithraic inscriptions and monuments
belong to the second century (after A.D. 140), the third, and
the fourth century A.D. (M. J. Vermaseren, Corpus Inscriptionum
et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae, 1956)."
- Edwin M. Yamauchid, "Easter: Myth, Hallucination, or
History?"

"The flowering of Mithraism occurred after the close of the New
Testament canon, much too late for it to have influenced

anything that appears in the New Testament. Moreover, no

monuments for the cult can be dated earlier than A.D. 90-100,
and even this dating requires us to make some exceedingly
generous assumptions. Chronological difficulties, then, make the
possibility of a Mithraic influence on early Christianity
extremely improbable. Certainly, there remains no credible
evidence for such an influence."

- Dr. Ronald H. Nash, "Was the New Testament Influenced by
Pagan Religions?"

Born Again
"The liturgy of the Eucharist that John prescribes to the
converted in being 'born again' is necessary 'so that the
speaker might gaze upon the immortal beginning (Jesus) with the
immortal (Holy) spirit ... and be born again in thought.'
[Grese]."
"Some modern Christian believers are familar with this concept
of being born again through a spirit and regard it as unique to
Christianity. The just-quoted text however is from the pagan
Mithras Liturgy, a guidebook of sorts that assists in the
Eucharist and prepares the sojourner for his heavenly journey.
It advises the seeker of the Sun-god (father of Mithras) to pray
saying:"
- James Still, "The Gospel of John and the Hellenization of
Jesus"

"[F]irst beginning of my beginning, ...spirit of spirit, the
first spirit in me, ...now if it be your will, ...give me over
to immortal birth and, following that, to my underlying nature,
so that, after the present need which is pressing me
exceedingly, I may gaze upon the immortal beginning with the
immortal spirit, that I may be born again in thought."
- Mithras Liturgy
Rites and Festivals
"The cult also observed Black Friday, commemorating Mithras'
sacrificial bull-slaying which fructified the earth. Worn out by
the battle, Mithras is symbolically represented as a corpse and
is placed in a sacred rock tomb from which he is removed after
three days in a festival of rejoicing."
- Source unknown

"The setting and rising of the sun, symbol of the god Mithra,
recalled Christ's death and resurrection. Moreover, the Mithraic
festival in celebration of the sun god's birth was held on
December 25, recognized as Jesus' birthday."
- Ancient Wisdom and Secret Sects

Followers of Mithras celebrated December 25 (the winter
solstice) by ringing bells, singing hymns, lighting candles,
giving gifts, and administering a sacrament of bread and water.

Sacrament of Bread and Wine
"A usual feature of the ancient mystery religions was the
partaking of food and drink, and this communion celebration
often reenacted a holy meal established by the gods and
goddesses. In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter the Mother drinks the
kykeon instead of read wine, and her devotees likewise drank the
ceremonial kykeon instead of red wine, and her devotees likewise
drank the ceremonial kykeon in their mystic repast. Mithraic
monuments show Mithras and Sol (the Sun) sharing a meal on the
body or the hide of a bull, and this sacred feast functioned as
the prototype for a holy meal eaten by the Mithraic
mystai....One symbolon from the mysteries of Attis claims that a
mystes ate from a tambourine and drank from a cymbal in the
initiatory rites."
- Marvin W.Meyer (Editor), The Ancient Mysteries - A
Sourcebook (1987) p. 12

Both Mithraism and early Christianity "included a baptism and a
sacrament of bread and wine, and both guarded their central
rites from nonbelievers."
- Ancient Wisdom and Secret Sects

"He who will not eat of my body, nor drink of my blood so that
he may be one with me and I with him, shall not be saved."

- Mithraic Communion (M. J. Vermaseren, Mithras, The Secret
God)
"And as they were eating, Jesus, having taken bread, when he had
blessed, broke [it], and gave [it] to them, and said, Take
[this]: this is my body. And having taken [the] cup, when he had
given thanks, he gave [it] to them, and they all drank out of
it. And he said to them, This is my blood, that of the [new]
covenant, that shed for many."
- Mark 14:22-26 (English-Darby)

The Holy Fathers
Matthew "included Mark's last supper that equated Jesus with
Mithra, and also a repudiation of the Mithraic custom of calling
priests 'Father' and the chief priest 'Father of Fathers'."
- William Harwood, Mythologies Last Gods: Yahweh and Jesus

"But you are not to be called rabbi , for you have one teacher,
and you are all brethren. And call no man your father on earth,
for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called
masters, for you have one master, the Christ."
- Matthew 23:8-10
"The term rabbi, which means 'the great one', was to be reserved
for Jesus, according to Matthew: this restriction looks back on
Jesus from the distance of perhaps a half century or more, when
the term had taken on an honorific sense that Christians thought
should be applied to Jesus alone. The 'great one' in Christian
lore as the Anointed (v.10, the ultimate authority figure for
all Christians. Originally, the term meant something like 'sir'
or 'master' (with reference to the owner of slaves). In rabbinic
lore after 70 C.E., it came to be used predominantly for
teachers, which is the meaning it sometimes has in the gospels.
"Elisha calls Elijah father in the Hebrew Bible (2 Kings 2:12;
6:21). The patriarchs were customarily referred to as the
fathers. And distinguished rabbis of the time of Jesus may have
been called father, since one of the tractates of the Mishnah is
called 'The Fathers'."
- Robert W. Funk, Roy W. Hoover, and the Jesus Seminar, The
Five Gospels

"The Mithraic Holy Father wore a red cap and garment and a ring,
and carried a shepherd's staff. The Head Christian adopted the
same title and outfitted himself in the same manner. Christian
priests, like Mithraic priests, became 'Father', despite Jesus'
specific proscription of the acceptance of such a title (Matthew
23:9). That Jesus had been repudiating, not the Mithraists with
whom he was unfamiliar, but the Sanhedrin, whose President was
styled Father, is hardly relevant.
"Mithra's bishops wore a mithra, or miter, as their badge of
office. Christian bishops also adopted miters. Mithraists
commemorated the sun-god's ascension by eating a mizd, a sun-
shaped bun embossed with the sword (cross) of Mithra. The hot
cross bun and the mass were likewise adapted to Christianity.
The Roman Catholic mizd/mass wafer continues to retain its sun-
shape, although its Episcopal counterpart does not.
"All Roman Emperors from Julius Caesar to Gratian had been
pontifex maximus, high priest of the Roman gods. When Theodosius
refused the title as incompatible with his status as a
Christian, the Christian bishop of Rome picked it up. Magi,
priests of Zarathustra, wore robes that featured the sword of
Mithra. Identical robes are worn by Christian priests to this
day."
- William Harwood, Mythologies Last Gods: Yahweh and Jesus

(3) The Secret Stream

An inscription bearing the Chi Rho monogram on a tomb at Pompeii
dates from two and a half centuries before the death of
Constantine (337 CE).

"A third-century mosaic from the Mausoleum of the Julii
underneath present-day St. Peter's in Rome actually portrays
Jesus as Sol Invictus, driving the horses of the sun's chariot.
That Constantine himself mixed Christianity and the Sol Invictus
cult is clear form a second commemorative medallion issued by
him within two years of the first, on which he represented
himself with a Chi-Rho monogram on his helmet, and with a
leaping Sol chariot below.
"It was only when he was approaching death that he asked for, or
was accepted for, Christian baptism. As was still the custom, he
received this naked, thereafter renouncing forever the purple of
his imperial rank."
- Ian Wilson, Jesus, The Evidence

"The Roman emperor Aurelian found his Sol Invictis, or Hellos,
at Palmyra - the god whose birthday was on the twenty-fifth of
December. Ammon Ra was the sun, his solar disk becoming the
Aten, the one true god proclaimed by Egypt's heretic pharaoh,
Akhenaten."
"In the Palmyra temple's courtyard I found a huge stone block
bearing the image of a solar deity, with the sunburst nimbus
behind his head that would eventually become the trademark halo
of Jesus - and not long after Emperor Aurelian had dragged Queen
Xenobla through Rome in chains, and made December twenty-fifth,
birthday of his imported sun god, part of the most important
holiday in the Roman calendar."
- Paul William Roberts, Journey of the Magi (1995) p. 345

"Together, official Christianity and a number of the mystic
traditions (Orphic and Mithraic, Gnostic, Manichaean, and so
forth) were carried by Roman arms and colonization to northern
Europe, and there, following the victories of Constantine (324
A.D.) and promulgation of the Theodosian Code (438 A.D.) - which
banned in the Roman Empire all beliefs and cults save the
Christian - the mysteries, like a secret stream, went
underground..."
- Joseph Campbell, Creative Mythology

"The Lord [did] everything in a mystery, a baptism and a chrism
and a eucharist and a redemption and a bridal chamber."
"If anyone becomes a son of the bridal chamber....it is revealed
to him alone, not hidden in the darkness and the light, but
hidden in a perfect day and a holy light."
- Gospel of Philip 86: 5, 16-18
"Take care that you do not reveal the holy of holies, preserve
the mysteries of the hidden God so that the profane may not
partake of them and in your sacred illumination speak of the
sacred only to saints."
- The Pseudo-Areopagite

"It is interesting that the sacred marriage was expressed in the
earliest agricultural civilizations in the West as a union
between the mortal male and the divine female, whereas during
the Middle Ages the sacred marriage was most commonly depicted
as a union between the feminine (human) soul and the divine
male, Christ. The earlier version of the sacred marriage took
place at the center of society and was reenacted publicly in
ritual, whereas the bridal mysticism of medieval Christianity
was an inner, subjective phenomenon."
- An Encyclopedia of Archetypal Symbolism

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven
and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any
sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of
heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her
husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now
the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them.
They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and
be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes... One of
the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last
plagues came and said to me, 'Come, I will show you the bride,
the wife of the Lamb'. And he carried me away in the Spirit to a
mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God. "
- Revelation 21:1-4
"From the pattern of the ancient wedding practices, we see that,
like the bridegroom of ancient times, Jesus came to the home of
His bride for the betrothal, made a covenant with His bride and
sealed it with a glass of wine, paid the bride price with His
life and sent His bride gifts of the Holy Spirit."
- "Weddings of Ancient Israel - A Picture of the Messiah",
Return to God Magazine, Volume 1 Number 2

"He has placed his seal upon me that I may prefer no love to
Him. "The winter has passed; the turtle dove sings; the
vineyards burst into blossom. "With His own ring my Lord Jesus
Christ has wed me, and crowned me with a crown as His bride."
- The Roman Pontifical
"In this vision it pleased the Lord that I should see it thus.
He was not tall, but short, marvelously beautiful, with a face
which shone as though he were one of the highest of the angels,
who seem to be all of fire: they must be those whom we call
Seraphim....I was in his hands a long golden spear, and at the
point of the iron there seemed to be a little fire. This I
thought that he thrust several times into my heart, and that it
penetrated to my entrails. When he drew out the spear he seemed
to be drawing them with it, leaving me all on fire with a
wondrous love for God. The pain was so great that it caused me
to utter several moans; and yet so exceeding sweet is this
greatest of pains that It is impossible to desire to be rid of
it, or for the soul to be content with less than God."
- Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)

(The ineffable ecstasy of Christ was earlier reported by St.
Bernard.)

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Aug 3, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/3/00

http://www.islandnet.com/~luree/silly.html

Christmas and the Star of Bethlehem. - There is no historical
evidence that Christ was born on December 25th. December 25th
was officially adopted by Bishop Liberius of Rome in 354.
December 25th occurs during the rainy season in the Holy Land,
so it is highly unlikely that shepherds would be outside in
their pastures. The Hayden Planetarium in New York recreated the
heavens as they were in the time that Christ was allegedly born.
Although nothing spectacular happened in the skies on the date
of Christ's birth, the Planetarium went back to the year 6 B.C.
On that date, there were three stars in close proximity which
created a spectacularly bright beacon, which may account for the
stories of the Star of Bethlehem. The most plausible reason that
December 25 was chosen as a day to celebrate Christ's birth was
that the Christian fathers were trying to compete with another
growing religion, Mithraism - the worship of a sun god - whose
holy day was also December 25.

Easter - The name "Easter' derives from Eostre, the Anglo-Saxon
dawn goddess. She was traditionally honored at the beginning of
spring. Easter wasn't celebrated in North America until after
the Civil War when religious leaders decided that the country
needed a holiday which stressed rebirth.

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Ancient Traditions of the Messiah
http://home.fireplug.net/~rshand/reflections/messiah/messiah.html

The Annointed One
(1) Descendents of Aaron
"The word 'Messiah' comes from the Hebrew verb 'to anoint',
which itself is derived from the Egyptian word messeh, 'the holy
crocodile'. It was with the fat of the messeh that the Pharaoh's
sister-brides anointed their husbands on marriage. The Egyptian
custom sprang from kingly practice in old Mesopotamia."
- Sir Laurence Gardner, "The Hidden History of Jesus and
the Holy Grail" (from a lecture given at the Ranch, Yelm,
Washington, 30 April 1997)

"Remarkably and characteristically, the term Mashiah - of
which 'Messiah' is the Anglicized form - had preceded the
Messianic concept by many centuries. Originally, in Biblical
usage, it simply meant 'anointed', and referred to Aaron and his
sons, who were anointed with oil and thereby consecrated to the
service of God."
- Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts

"And you shall put them upon Aaron your brother, and upon his
sons with him, and shall anoint them and ordain them and
consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests."
- Exodus 28:41
"The legitimacy of the priesthood...was supposed to descend
lineally from Aaron through the Tribe of Levi. Thus, throughout
the Old Testament, the priesthood is the unique preserve of the
Levites. The Levite high priests who attend David and Solomon
are referred to as 'Zadok'- though it is not clear whether this
is a personal name or an hereditary title."
- Baigent, Leigh & Lincoln, The Messianic Legacy

Zadok or Sadduc means "Righteous One" and is symbolized by
TZADDIK - one of the two pillars which, according to Knight and
Lomas, stood at the doorway to Qumran). Two gigantic bronze
pillars flanked the entrance to the Temple of Solomon.

"The doorway was created by the pillars of 'tsedeq'
['righteousness' - always doing good to others] and mishpat'
['judgment'- divinely appointed order] with the holy arch
of 'shalom' ['peace' - prosperity, success, general well-being]."
"When these two spiritual pillars are in place with the Teacher
of Righteousness (tsedeq) on the left hand of God and the
earthly Davidic King (mishpat) on his right hand, the archway of
Yahweh's rule will be in place with the keystone of 'shalom'
locking everything together at its center.
"It was clear from our readings that 'tsedeq' was for Canaanites
a term associated with the sun god. The Canaanite sun god was
seen as the great judge who watched over the world, righted
wrongs and shone light unto the dark doings of hidden crimes."
- Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key:
Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of
Jesus

(2) Use of the term "Messiah"

The High Priest and King
"The High Priest, in particular, was termed 'the Anointed
[Mashiah] of God'. With the establishment of the monarchy, the
same term was applied to the king: he was 'the Anointed of the
Lord' because he was installed in the high office by receiving
the sacrament of anointment."
- Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts

"The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; against
them he will thunder in heaven. The LORD will judge the ends of
the earth; he will give strength to his king, and exalt the
power of his anointed."
- 1 Samuel 2:10
Solomon is anointed by Zadok, thereby becoming 'the Anointed
One', the 'Messiah' - 'ha-mashi'ah' in Hebrew."
- Baigent, Leigh & Lincoln, The Messianic Legacy

"Your throne, O God, endures for ever and ever.
Your royal scepter is a scepter of equity;
You love righteousness and hate wickedness.
Therefore God, your God has anointed you
[in the Greek of the Septuagint, enchrisen se, has made you
Christ]
with the oil of gladness above your fellows."
- Psalms 45:6-7
Annointed Prophets
"A third type of the divinely elected, the prophet, could also
undergo the ceremony of anointing: Elizah, we read, was
commanded by God to anoint Jehu as king over Israel, and Elisha
as prophet in his own place."
- Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts

"And Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint to be king over
Israel; and Eli'sha the son of Shaphat of A'bel-meho'lah you
shall anoint to be prophet in your place."
- 1 Kings 19:16
"In a few passages 'anointed one' is used of prophets (most
notably in Isa. 61:1) and of priests (Lev. 4:3, 5, 16), but
without further designation the term normally refers to the king
of Israel."

- Graham N. Stanton, The Gospels and Jesus, The Oxford

Bible Series (1989), paperback, p. 221

"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has
anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the
oppressed..."
- Isaiah 61:1 (Deutero-Isaiah 5th c. BCE)

(3) The Idealized King

"...In early monarchic days the person of 'the Anointed of the
Lord' came to be considered sacrosanct: to harm him or even to
curse him, was a capital offense."
- Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts

"But David said, 'What have I to do with you, you sons of
Zeru'iah, that you should this day be as an adversary to me?
Shall any one be put to death in Israel this day? For do I not
know that I am this day king over Israel?'"
- 2 Samuel 19:22
"A further development of this concept can be seen in the belief
that God provided special protection to His anointed king. The
Psalms contain several references to the idea of divine
intervention for 'the Anointed of the Lord', the idealized
Davidic king:"
- Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts

"Now I know that the Lord saveth His Anointed [Mashiah],
He will answer him from His holy heaven
With the mighty acts of His saving right hand."
- Psalms 20:7
"While David was king of Israel (tenth century B.C.E.), the
belief developed that his House would rule forever, not only
over Israel but also over all the nations:"
- Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts

"The God who giveth me vengeance,
And bringeth down peoples under me....
Therefore I praise Thee, O Lord, among the nations.
And will sing unto Thy name,
Who increaseth the victories of His king
And dealeth graciously with His Anointed,
With David and his seed for evermore."
- 2 Samuel 22:48-52, Psalms 18:42-52
In the seventh century B.C.E., Judah and its capital were
besieged by the Assyrians. Micah prophesized deliverance by
someone from Bethlehem, the home village of the house of David,
in terms that are resonant with Messianic expectations centuries
later:

"Now you are walled about with a wall; siege is laid against us;
with a rod they strike upon the cheek the ruler of Israel. But
you, O Bethlehem Eph'rathah, who are little to be among the
clans [or rulers] of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one
who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin [Hebrew 'goings
out' ] is from of old, from ancient days [olam or from days of
eternity]. Therefore he shall give them up until the time when
she who is in travail has brought forth; then the rest of his
brethren shall return to the people of Israel. And he shall
stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the
majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell
secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth."
- Micah 5:1-5
"The word 'olam' is derived from the primitive root alam,
meaning to veil from sight, to conceal. An analysis of the
passages where olam appears shows clearly that the word does not
express 'eternity' or 'everlasting' as it has been frequently
translated in the King James Version. Rather, it simply
expresses a duration, a time during which a person, thing, or
state of a thing exists - literally an age of time which has a
definite beginning and conclusion. the duration of an age in
scripture is sometimes defined and sometimes undefined."
- Dallas E. James, "Putting the Sword to Churchianity"

Zoroastrian Precedents
(1) The Babylonian Captivity
The Babylonian Captivity or Babylonian Exile was "the forced
detention of Jews in Babylonia following the latter's conquest
of the kingdom of Judah in 598/7 and 587/6 BC."
"Many scholars cite 597 BC as the date of the first deportation,
for in that year King Jehoiachin was deposed and apparently sent
into exile with his family, his court, and thousands of workers.
Others say the first deportation followed the destruction of
Jerusalem by Nebuchadrezzar in 586; if so, the Jews were held in
Babylonian captivity for 48 years. Among those who accept a
tradition (Jeremiah 29:10) that the exile lasted 70 years, some
choose the dates 608 to 538, others 586 to about 516 (the year
when the rebuilt Temple was dedicated in Jerusalem)."
"Although the Jews suffered greatly and faced powerful cultural
pressures in a foreign land, they maintained their national
spirit and religious identity. Elders supervised the Jewish
communities, and Ezekiel was one of several prophets who kept
alive the hope of one day returning home. This was possibly also
the period when synagogues were first established, for the Jews
observed the Sabbath and religious holidays, practiced
circumcision, and substituted prayers for former ritual
sacrifices in the Temple." "The exile formally ended in 538 BC,
when the Persian conqueror of Babylonia, Cyrus the Great, gave
the Jews permission to return to Palestine."
- "Babylonian Exile"

(2) An New Eschatology

The "Evil One"
"After the Exile of the Jewish people and later through contacts
with Jews of the Diaspora in many parts of the Mediterranean
world, Zoroastrian concepts influenced Jewish thought. Certain
ideas about last things, salvation, and Satan (the Evil One)
stem from Zoroastrianism."
- Ninian Smart, The Religious Experience of Mankind

"The Babylonian Captivity had exposed the Jews to the
Zoroastrian pantheon, with its good gods headed by Ahura Mazda
('God of Light' [more correctly 'Lord of Wisdom']) and its bad
god headed by Ahura Manah or Ahriman ('God of Darkness' [Ahriman
is Pahlavi for Angra Mainyu - 'Deceitful Spirit']). This led to
the belief that the prolonged overlordship that outlasted the
captivity was the fault of the bad gods, rebel messengers who
has refused to obey Yahweh's orders.
"Alternative versions of the seraphs' original disobedience were
postulated, the most popular being that they were the sons of
the gods who had sired the giants by illegally recreating with
mortal women. Such rebels had to have a leader, and since the
concept of a divine antagonist, a Jewish Ahriman, had been
assimilated before there was any speculation as to the
antagonist's identity, he was simply styled the Enemy (ha-stan).
The first reference to the Enemy as a male in Jewish mythology
was made by Zechariah in 520 BCE."

- William Harwood, Mythologies Last Gods: Yahweh and Jesus

"And the Lord said to Satan, 'The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The
Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand
plucked from the fire?'"
- Zechariah 3:2
The "Spirit of God"
"Ezra (fl 458 BCE) was a legal expert, a priest-scribe and
worshipper of Yahweh, who was attached to the court of the
Achaemenian ruler Artaxerxes, and included in his duties was the
inspection of the re-established temple at Jerusalem."
"Ezra 7:14 refers to the 'the king and his seven counselors',
and it is not impossible that this advisory chamber within the
royal court was a remnant of an earlier monarchical structure,
perhaps set up in imitation of the divine heptad, with the king
representing Ahura Mazda and the seven counselors representing
Spenta Mainyu ['Holy Spirit'] and the Amesha Spentas ['Bountiful
Beings']."
- Peter Clark, Zoroastrianism, An Introduction to an
Ancient Faith, p. 56, 57

"The old Persian faith was an abstract and subtle religion,
offering many new ways of looking at divinity and the idea of
the holy. Its influence upon the minds of Jewish scribes and
rulers, men like Nehemiah and Ezra, was probably greater than
surviving evidence can show. There are, however, numerous hints
of this influence in the Old Testament. The 'Spirit of God', for
example, that moves on the face of the waters in the opening of
Genesis is a most remarkable idea...Yet in surviving Persian
writings the idea of a 'spirit of god' [Spenta Mainyu] is a
common one."
- John Romer, Testament

"Now the earth was [or became] formless and empty, darkness was
over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God
[ruwach 'elohiym] was hovering over the waters."
- Genesis 1:2
Angels
In Zoroastrianism, angels or "bountiful immortals" were divine
beings which were aspects of Ahura Mazda. The angels -
"messengers" in Hebrew tradition - acquired the wings depicted
on guardian deities in Assyrian and Babylonian tradition, and
many of the spiritual powers of these divinities. The Bene
Elohim of Genesis evolved into an elaborate pantheon of warring
angels. (See "The Sons of God" for details.)

"This is the number of angels: in all they number three hundred
sixty-five. They all worked together until they completed each
limb of the psychical and material body. There were other angels
over the remaining passions, and I have not told you about them.
If you want to know about them, the information is recorded in
the Book of Zoroaster."
- from The Secret Book of John ("The Teaching of the
Savior") Nag Hammadi Codex II
Although the surviving edition of "The Teaching of the Savior"
dates from the fourth century CE (as part of the gnostic Nag
Hammadi library), it indicates a continuing tradition rooted in
Zoroastrianism.

The War Between Good and Evil
"The central importance of the king of Judah was demonstrated in
their New Year rituals, which followed Egyptian and Babylonian
models. Some of the most important ritual acts were intended to
ensure that the king continued to rule, an example of this being
a re-enactment by the king of the original battle of the triumph
of the forces of light over the forces of darkness and chaos.
The king and his priests chanted the 'Enuma elish' - the story
that tells how the chaos-dragon Tiamat was overcome to allow the
creation to take place."
- Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key:
Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of
Jesus

The influence of Zoroastrian belief is particularly evident in
the pseudepigraphical book of 1 Enoch and Jubilees as well as a
number of other texts in Dead Sea Scrolls.

"Now these two spirits, which are twins, revealed themselves at
first in a vision. Their two ways of thinking, speaking, and
acting were the better and the bad.
"Between these two ways the wise choose rightly, fools not so.
"And then when these two spirits first met, they created both
life and not-life, and that there should be at the last the
worst existence for the followers of the Lie, but, for the
followers of Truth, the best dwelling. Of the two spirits, the
one who follows the Lie chose doing the worst things; the Most
Bounteous Spirit who is clad in the hardest stones chose truth,
as do they who will willingly come with true actions to meet
Ahura Mazda."
- Yasna 30.3-5 [attributed to Zarathushtra]
"[The God of Knowledge] has created man to govern the world, and
has appointed for him two spirits in which to walk until the
time of His visitation: the spirits of truth and falsehood.
Those born of truth spring from a fountain of light, but those
born of falsehood spring from a source of darkness. All the
children of righteousness are ruled by the Prince of Light and
walk in the ways of light, but all the children of falsehood are
ruled by the Angel of Darkness and walk in the ways of darkness.
The Angel of Darkness leads all the children of righteousness
astray and until his end, all their sins, iniquities,
wickednesses ' and all their unlawful deeds are caused by his
dominion in accordance with the mysteries of God ... But the God
of Israel and His Angel of Truth will succour all the sons of
light. For it is He who created the spirits of Light and
Darkness and founded every action upon them and established
every deed [upon] their ways. And he loves the one everlastingly
and delights in its works for ever; but the counsel of the other
he loathes and for ever hates its ways."
- Community Rule 1 QS 3.18-21

"...Unlike the Persian Zoroastrians who could attribute the evil
in the world not to Ahura Mazda but to an independent hostile
power, the Jews could ascribe to Yahweh the claim that "I make
the light and I create the darkness, I make well being and I
create disaster" (Isaiah 45:7), a saying that is often
considered an early Jewish refutation of Zoroastrian dualism."
- Peter Clark, Zoroastrianism, An Introduction to an
Ancient Faith, p. 153

The Coming Savior
"...The Persian Mazda worshippers looked for the birth of a
Savior from a virgin mother."
- Frederick Thomas Elworthy, The Evil Eye

"We worship the guardian spirit of the holy maid Esetât-Jedhri,
who is called the all-conquering, for she will bring him forth
who will destroy the malice of the demons and of men."
- Sacred book of Zoroaster
"We know that Zarathushtra proclaimed a series or group of
saviors or 'bringers of benefit' who would 'heal the world'
and 'make existence brilliant' (Hom Yasht 30:9), and that he
believed himself to head this group. Similarly, although nearly
one thousand years later, as their exile drew to a close the
Jewish people began to develop a belief in messiah-type figures
who would re-establish their fortunes. Initially it seems that
any number of such figures was anticipated, and so the messianic
title could be granted to anyone who was thought to be sent by
Yahweh, and that such figures were not necessarily to be born of
Jewish blood - hence Cyrus' designation as the 'Lord's
anointed'. Over time this messianic character began to shed his
humanity and become almost divine, eventually merging into
a 'son of man' figure as expressed in the writings of Daniel,
who speaks of one on whom 'was conferred rule, honor and
kingship... (which)... will never come to an end' (Daniel 7:14).
There is in this 'kingdom' more than a passing resemblance to
the Zoroastrian frashokereti."
- Peter Clark, Zoroastrianism, An Introduction to an
Ancient Faith, p. 154

(3) Death and Resurrection

"...Some of the optimistic Persian notions of the afterlife seem
to have entered into the later Books of the Prophets in the
Bible. A rare view of the traditional Israelite afterlife (the
afterlife is not often mentioned in older biblical writings) is
briefly glimpsed in the tale of Saul's meeting with the dead
Prophet Samuel, who is 'called up' by the Witch of Endor (1
Samuel 28:7-21) from a kind of Hades; it is a shadowy survival."
- John Romer, Testament

"The king said to her, 'Have no fear; what do you see?' And the
woman said to Saul, 'I see a god coming up out of the earth.' He
said to her, 'What is his appearance?' And she said, 'An old man
is coming up; and he is wrapped in a robe.' And Saul knew that
it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground, and did
obeisance."
- 1 Samuel 28:13-14
"Prior to the exile there had been among the Hebrew peoples no
real interest in the afterlife, which was seemingly discussed
only in the vaguest terms. In fact pre-exilic Judaism was
distinctly non-eschatological, content to speak of a shadowy and
ill-defined place called Sheol, where a static kind of existence
continued indefinitely."
- Peter Clark, Zoroastrianism, An Introduction to an
Ancient Faith, p. 153-154

"The original prophet Isaiah - a great poet in his own right,
too - was also a consummate statesman in the court of King
Hezekiah, where he was not afraid to pour scorn upon the pagan
ritual sacrifices going on outside in Jerusalem's Temple."
- Paul William Roberts, Journey of the Magi (1995) p. 275

"I shall be held at the gates of Sheol for the rest of my
days;... I shall never see Yahweh again in the land of the
living."
- Isaiah 38:10-11
"But in the Book of Isaiah, which was certainly compiled after
the Babylonian exile, a full-blown theory of death and
resurrection is implicit throughout, a forerunner of one of the
major themes of the New Testament."
- John Romer, Testament

"Thy dead shall live,
My corpses shall arise,
Awake and sing
Ye dwellers of the dust,
For a dew of light is thy dew
And the earth shall bring forth [Hebrew tapil 'bring
down', 'cast out'] the shades [possibly an eschatological
earthquake]."
- Isaiah 26:19
"It seems that, following the conquest by Cyrus, the Jews had
progressively adopted the Zoroastrian belief in the matter of
eschatology, for the ideas of reward and punishment following
death begin to appear in Hebrew literature from this period,
and, later still, the concept of complete separation of good
from the evil - familiar from the Zoroastrian Gathas - is one
that figures prominently in some Christian texts concerning
eschatology. (It is also interesting that one word for heaven -
'paradise' - which begins to appear in Jewish literature at
this time, and is also found in the writings of the early
Christians, derives from the Persian word for 'garden'.)"
- Peter Clark, Zoroastrianism, An Introduction to an
Ancient Faith, p. 154
Hinnom Valley

"Greek geenna represents Aramaic gehinnam, which in turn
represents Hebrew ge-hinnom, an abbreviation of the full
title, 'valley of the son of Hinnom'. The name probably is that
of the original Jebusite owner of the property. In the Old
Testament this is a geographical term which divides ancient
Jerusalem (Zion) from the hills to the south and west. It is the
modern Wadi er Rababi, which joins the Wadi en Nar (the Kidron)
at the southern extremity of the hill of Zion.
"The valley was a point on the boundary between Judah and
Benjamin (Joshua 15:8, 18:16). This usage is reflected in
Nehemiah 11:30. The valley had an unholy reputation in later Old
Testament books because it was the site of Tophet, a cultic
shrine where human sacrifice was offered (2 Kings 23:10; 2
Chronicles 28:3, 33:6; Jeremiah 7:31, 19:2ff, 32:35)."
- John L. McKenzie in Endtime: The Doomsday Catalogue

(All books from Deuteronomy to 2 Kings were constructed from
various texts, such as the court narrative of King David, by D,
the Deuteronomist, most probably a single author living in the
age of exile - ca. 550-540 B.C.E.)

"There Jews who turned to foreign religions performed horrible
ceremonies, burning their children in honor of pagan gods (see
Jeremiah 7:30, 31)."
- Alan Millard, Discoveries From the Time of Jesus, p 38

"It is called simply 'the valley' (Jeremiah 2:23). Because of
this cult Jeremiah cursed the place and predicted that it would
be a place of death and corruption (7:32, 19:6ff). The valley is
referred to, not by name in Isaiah 66:14, as a place where the
dead bodies of the rebels against Yahweh shall lie. Their worm
shall not die nor shall their fire be quenched..."
- John L. McKenzie in Endtime: The Doomsday Catalogue

"The authors of Enoch ca. 150 BCE) [adapted] the physical
Gehenna to the mythology of Zarathustra to produce an
Essene/Pharisee purgatory, identical with the Christian Hell
except for the lack of permanence. Prior to Jesus, the Essenes
had pictured Gehenna as a monstrous torture chamber that sinners
needed to endure as the only method of cleansing them of their
sins and making them fit for the afterlife of the saints. It was
not...the suffering through which a sinner was purified, but
rather exposure to the sacred power of Fire. Zarathustra did not
quite deify Fire, but he saw it as an aspect of the divinity of
Ahura Mazda."

- William Harwood, Mythologies Last Gods: Yahweh and Jesus

"Their spirits are going to be thrown into a blazing furnace.
They are going to be wretched in their immense agony, and into
darkness and chains and burning flames...you will have no
peace....We have been tortured and destroyed and not hoped to
see life from day to day."
- 1 Enoch 98:3, 103:7-10
"In the first century it was the fires of burning refuse that
lit the valley. By that time its name had been put into Aramaic
as Gehenna, and had become a common Jewish word for hell."
- Alan Millard, Discoveries From the Time of Jesus, p 38

The author of Revelation over 200 years later would write of how
Hades itself would be consumed by fire:

"Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The
lake of fire is the second death."
- Revelation 20:14

Messianic Prophesies from the Age of Exile
(1) Cyrus the Great
Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered Babylon on 539 BCE and freed
the Israelites from their captivity.

"The degree to which the Jews looked upon Cyrus the Great as
their benefactor and a servant of their God is reflected at
several points in the Hebrew Bible, e.g., at Isaiah 45:1-3,
where he is actually called God's anointed."
- "Babylonian Exile"

"...After the period of exile, other major themes of both
Judaism and Christianity also begin to appear in the Bible, not
the least import of which is the idea of the Messiah -
the 'Anointed One'. Cyrus the Great is the first biblical person
to be given this title."
- John Romer, Testament

"Thus saith the Lord...that hath said of Cyrus: 'He is My
shepherd, and shall perform all My pleasure, even saying of
Jerusalem, 'She shall be built', and to the Temple, 'Thy
foundation shall be laid'."
"Thus saith the Lord to His Anointed [Hebrew: [mashiyach]
Messiah] to Cyrus whose right hand I have holden to subdue
nations before him....'I will go before thee and make the
crooked places straight...'"
- Isaiah 44:28-45:2
"The Greek historian Herodotus claimed to know many different
stories of Cyrus's death, but pointedly, he tells the version in
which the king is berated by a queen of the barbaric Scyths. Far
away beyond the River Oxus, Cyrus invades the Central Asian
steppes, only to be told that he is thoroughly aggressive
and 'insatiate of blood'. The Scyths then kill him in the
ensuing battle and their queen fills a wine-skin with human
blood, she seeks out Cyrus's corpse and stuffs the head of
the 'Lord's Anointed' into the wine-skin to take the revenge
which this man of war deserves."
-Robin Lane Fox, The Unauthorized Version

"Later, biblical scribes redefined the term [Messiah] so that it
came to mean, quite specifically, a son of the House of David, a
defender of the Children of Israel who will establish a new era
on earth and a new kingdom with its capital in Jerusalem."
-John Romer, Testament

"In the later Old Testament period hopes for a 'messianic age'
arose. Sometimes these hopes focused on a divinely appointed
King of David's line - i.e., a Messiah. But in many passages,
especially in Isa. 40-66, hopes for the future are expressed in
general terms. There is often no explicit reference to an agent
or Messiah through whom God would bring the longed-for new age
of salvation."

- Graham N. Stanton, The Gospels and Jesus, The Oxford

Bible Series (1989), paperback, p. 172

(2) Ben Adam - The Son of Man

"The book of Ezekiel is a long series of oracles received by the
priest Ezekiel, son of Buzi, who began to prophesy in Babylonia
in the fifth year of Jehoiachin's exile, c. 593 BC. He was
therefore born around 622 BC, and had been taken captive to
Babylon with Jehoiachin in 597 BC (cf. 2 Kings 24)."
"The entire book is dated according to the reign of Jehoiachin,
and covers the years from about 593 through 570 BC. The first
deportation of captives to Babylon from Judah occurred about 605
BC, leaving Jehoiachin as king in Jerusalem....The second
deportation occurred about 597 BC, which is when Ezekiel found
himself taken away. Jerusalem and the temple were pillaged, but
not destroyed. Nebuchadnezzar took Jehoiachin away as captive,
and left Zedekiah as king. In 586, Nebuchadnezzar sacked and
destroyed both Jerusalem and the temple. For further background,
read 2 Kings 23:36-25:30 and 2 Chronicles 36:5-21."
- Bible Survey - The Book of Ezekiel

"The word of the Lord came to me: 'Son of man, set your face
toward Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech
and Tubal, and prophesy against him and say, Thus says the Lord
God: Behold, I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech
and Tubal; and I will turn you about, and put hooks into your
jaws, and I will bring you forth, and all your army, horses and
horsemen, all of them clothed in full armor, a great company,
all of them with buckler and shield, wielding swords; Persia,
Cush, and Put are with them, all of them with shield and helmet;
Gomer and all his hordes; Beth-togar'mah from the uttermost
parts of the north with all his hordes--many peoples are with
you'."
-Ezekiel 38:1-6

"The shape of the future occupies a prominent place in the
prophecies of Ezekiel....Among his prophecies are two which
subsequently became the basic building blocks of the Messianic
myth. One is that of the great apocalyptic war of Gog and Magog,
and the other his famous vision of the dry bones."
-Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts

"And I saw, and behold, there were upon them sinews, and flesh
came up, and skin stretched upon them on the top, but spirit was
not in them. And He said to me: Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy
Son of Man, and say to the spirit: Thus saith the Lord God: From
the four winds come, O spirit, and breathe into these slain ones
so that they may live! And I prophesied as He commanded me, and
the spirit came into them and they live, and they stood upon
their feet, an army, very, very great. And he said to me: Son of
Man! These bones are all the House of Israel."
-Ezekiel 37 7-14
"In the Hebrew Bible, the phrase 'son of Adam' [son of Man] is
used in three different senses.

1. The phrase is employed to refer to the human species as
insignificant creatures in the presence of God."

"How then can a man be righteous before God? How can one born of
woman be pure? If even the moon is not bright and the stars are
not pure in his eyes, how much less man, who is but a maggot - a
son of man, who is only a worm!"
- Job 25:4-6
2. "The phrase was also used to identify human beings as next to
god in the order of creation."

"When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the
moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man
that you are mindful of him, the son of man, that you care for
him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
[or 'than God'] and crowned him with glory and honor."
- Psalms 8:3-5
3. "The Jewish scriptures portray the human being as the agent
to exercise control over every living creature (Genesis 1:28).
This ideal decisively shaped Jewish visions of the end of
history."

- Robert W. Funk, Roy W. Hoover, and the Jesus Seminar, The
Five Gospels

"God blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in
number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the
sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that
moves on the ground.'"
- Genesis 1:28
"You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put
everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beasts
of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all
that swim the paths of the seas."
- Psalms 8:6-8

"There are some more evidence(s) which draw us much nearer to
the assumption, that the Babylonean Atrahasis, who saves and
saves again humanity from disaster, the son of the god Ea, and
who is directly (explicitly) called 'Ben Adam' [i.e. Son of Man]
was merged in the Jewish-Aramaic tradition of the Messiah, in
the manner he was conceived according to the Messianic
prophesies in the Bible."
- From the Stone Age quoted in Yehuda Dveer, Bar Kokhva,
the Man and the Messiah, in the light of the Jewish Sages and
the DDS, p. 62

"Ezekiel claimed, in chapter after chapter (2:1, 3:1, 4:1), that
Yahweh habitually addressed him as Ben Adam. This salutation,
usually translated 'son of man', is more accurately
rendered 'descendant of Adam', or simply 'human'. [Ezekiel in
the original Hebrew has 'son of man' without a definite article -
i.e., a human being.] Because the title ben Adam carried the
implication that the person so styled was the second Adam it
came to be viewed as a title for the messiah, once the concept
of a messiah was invented in post-exilic days. Both the Book of
Daniel (7:13) and the Book of Enoch (46) referred to Ben Adam in
terms that persons with a messiah-belief were bound to view as
messianic."
-William Harwood, Mythologies Last Gods: Yahweh and Jesus

"Ever since Ezekiel, 'Son of Man' has been a designation
signifying special nearness to God of the person so called."
Ezekiel's "prophecy of Resurrection in contemporary with the
destruction of the First Temple of Jerusalem (586 B.C.E.).
Ezekiel, however, had no Messianic idea in mind; the purpose of
his prophecy was theological-political-psychological: he wanted
to implant the belief in a speedy return to their own land into
the hearts of the despairing Judean exiles in Babylonia."
-Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts

(3) The New Moses

"Just as Moses had brought the Children of Israel to the
threshold of the Promised Land and then died, so the Messiah
leads them to victory over Gog and Magog, culminating in the
elimination of Armilus [their Satanic master], and then fades
away, disappears from the scene."
-Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts

"As for you, son of man, thus says the Lord God: Speak to the
birds of every sort and to all beasts of the field, 'Assemble
and come, gather from all sides to the sacrificial feast which I
am preparing for you, a great sacrificial feast upon the
mountains of Israel, and you shall eat flesh and drink blood.
You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of
the princes of the earth--of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of
bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan. And you shall eat fat
till you are filled, and drink blood till you are drunk, at the
sacrificial feast which I am preparing for you. And you shall be
filled at my table with horses and riders, with mighty men and
all kinds of warriors,' says the Lord God."
-Ezekiel 39:17-20
"It is God who resurrects the dead, who judges the pious and the
wicked, who sits with the saintly at the great feast, who pours
wine into their cups, who entertains them by dancing before
them, who teaches them the new Tora, and who receives the homage
of the entire rejuvenated, and sanctified world. Where is the
Messiah in all this? We are told nothing of him, and were it not
that in the earlier phases of the Messianic myth we were assured
that he would, after the ultimate victory, reign in Jerusalem as
the Prince of Peace, we would not even suspect that he is
present."
"Thus, and in this primarily, the Messiah proves to be
essentially a Moses figure, and Moses to be the accurate
prefiguration of the Messiah. Both are Redeemers, but neither of
them has a part in the great era to whose threshold they lead
their people at the price of their lifeblood."
-Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts

"In Christian tradition, where so much in the Old Testament is
taken as a symbolic prefiguring of the events of the New, Moses
is - inevitably, one might almost say - taken to prefigure
Jesus, who was the superior and culminating figure."
-David Daiches, Moses - Man in the Wilderness

"For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses,
inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honor than
the house. For every house is builded by some man; but he that
built all things is God. And Moses verily was faithful in all
his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which
were to be spoken after; but Christ as a son over his own house;
whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the
rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end."
-Hebrews 3:3-6
"The Book of Ezekiel goes on to tell how he [Ezekiel] was
commanded in another vision to take two staffs, inscribe them
with the names 'Judah' and 'Joseph' and join them into one,
symbolically reuniting the two kingdoms. One king will rule over
them and Yahweh will save her from apostasy (sliding back into
having 'relationships' with other gods), purify her from all
uncleanness and bring her into a new covenant relationship.
Under the rule of his servant David she will live in obedience
and faithfulness and occupy the land of the fathers. The
covenant of peace, like all the blessings and benefits of the
new age, will be everlasting; but above all Yahweh will dwell in
the midst of his people. The presence of his sanctuary in their
midst is a pledge that the covenant has been renewed and
therefore the nations will see that Yahweh has sanctified his
people and has thereby set them apart."
- Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key:
Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of
Jesus

Another of Ezekiel's visions was that of the reconstructed and
cleansed Temple (after its destruction by the Babylonians.)

Hopes for a New Heaven and a New Earth
(1) A Universal God
"The exile had meant that the Jews were for the first time
separated from their god, and so as their captivity continued
they began to reconsider how they should understand him. Because
it would be unthinkable to suggest that he had completely
detached himself from them, the Jews began to view him in more
universalist terms, ceasing to confine him to one geographical
area and even questioning his exclusive identification with one
ethnic group. Since Cyrus brought at least some Zoroastrian
beliefs with him into Babylon (where, incidentally, he was also
influenced by Babylonian practice), it is highly probable that
the Jews were in some way affected by his religious beliefs in
this and other matters."
- Peter Clark, Zoroastrianism, An Introduction to an
Ancient Faith, pp. 152-153

"About half a century after Ezekiel, there lived in Babylonia
the anonymous prophet of consolation and Israel's national
restoration, usually referred to a Deutero-Isaiah."
-Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts

Scholars assign chapters 40-65 of the Book of Isaiah to Deutero-
Isaiah - Second Isaiah.

"…It is in this unknown master's soaring verses that Yahweh is
first celebrated as the Creator of the Universe and everything
in it - in just the same way as Zoroaster had celebrated Ahura
Mazda."
- Paul William Roberts, Journey of the Magi (1995) p. 275

"Yes, although Thou are the First One, I realized Thee to be
(ever) young in mind, Wise One, when I grasped Thee in a vision
to be the Father of good thinking, the real Creator of truth,
(and) the Lord of existence in Thy actions."
- Yasna 31:8

"I am the Lord, and there is none else. I form the light, and
create darkness: I make peace, and create evil. I the Lord do
all these things."
- Isaiah 45:6-7 (Deutero-Isaiah 5th c. BCE)

"Since the section of Isaiah from which this verse is taken was
written after the exile, when Persians and Jews had enjoyed
considerable contact, it is likely that, in the period leading
up to its composition, their awareness of Ahuramazda's universal
nature had conditioned their perception of Yahweh, about whom
they had already begun to think in more universalist terms as a
response to their captivity. Not only did Cyrus liberate the
Jews from Babylonian rule, he also encouraged them in their
religious customs and allowed them to return home. Furthermore,
although Cyrus had permitted those Jews who so wished to go back
to Jerusalem (where a new temple was eventually built with
Persian funds), many decided to remain in Mesopotamian territory
where they continued to prosper under the Achaemenian empire. As
the two cultures mingled, ideas on the natures of their
respective religions will have been exchanged between them."
- Peter Clark, Zoroastrianism, An Introduction to an
Ancient Faith, p. 153

(2) The Suffering Servant

"Behold, My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect whom My soul
wanteth: I have put My spirit upon him; he shall send out
justice to the nations."
-Isaiah 42:1 (Deutero-Isaiah 5th c. BCE)
"This great poet-prophet (Deutero-Isaiah) spoke repeatedly about
the 'Servant of the Lord', describing the call, mission,
sufferings, death and resurrection of this mysterious
individual."
-Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts

"He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and
familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our
infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him
stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was
pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our
iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone
astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has
laid on him the iniquity of us all. "
-Isaiah 53:3-6 (Deutero-Isaiah 5th c. BCE)
Messiah ben Joseph?
"As to the identification of the 'Servant', there is no
scholarly consensus to this day. However, the Aggada, the
Talmudic legend, unhesitatingly identifies him with the Messiah,
and understands especially the descriptions of his sufferings as
referring to Messiah ben Joseph."
"Messiah ben Joseph, also called Messiah ben Ephraim, referring
to his ancestor Ephraim, the son of Joseph, is imagined as the
first commander of the army of Israel in the Messianic wars. He
will achieve many signal victories, but his fate is to die at
the hands of Armilus in a great battle in which Israel is
defeated by Gog and Magog. His corpse is left unburied in the
streets of Jerusalem for forty days, but neither beast nor bird
of prey dares to touch it. Then Messiah ben David comes, and his
first act is to bring about the resurrection of his tragic
forerunner."
-Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts

"Who is this mysterious suffering and/or dying Messiah? What is
the origin of the concept? This question has troubled scholars
for decades. Apparently, speculation concerning Zech 12.10 --
'they will look on him/me whom they have pierced' -- had
something to do with it, as the Targum to that passage
indicates; also reference to the sufferings endured by the
patriach Joseph surely lies in the background of the designation
Messiah ben Joseph. May we also suggest that the connection
between this Messiah figure and the apocalyptic warfare against
Amalek [enemies of the Israelites during the Exodus] is not
coincidental, but is partially a product of Jewish midrash on
the Amalek episode in which ihsouV [Joshua, Moses' successor],
from the tribe of Ephraim, both fought the foe and was told to
remember that in a future battle, God would finish the job there
begun."
- Robert A. Kraft, "Was there a 'Messiah-Joshua Tradition
at the Turn of the Era?"

The Teacher of Righteousness?
"Dupont-Sommer [a noted Dead Sea Scrolls scholar] examines the
second part of Isaiah, often termed Deutero-Isaiah, which was
long believed to have been written during the Babylonian exile
200 years after the first part. Here appears the account of
the 'Suffering Servant despised and rejected by men, a man of
sorrows' who has 'been wounded for our transgressions' yet by
whose 'stripes we are healed'. Christians have taken this as
prophesying Jesus, but Dupont-Sommer argues that it is a direct
reference to the Teacher of Righteousness [of Dead Sea Scroll
fame] added to Isaiah as late as the intertestamental period.
Dupont-Sommer urges a re-examination of other Old Testament
passages in Daniel, Zechariah, Psalms and the Songs of the
Servant of Yahweh in Deutero-Isaiah believing them to be all
possibly inserted references to the Teacher of Righteousness."
- Mike D. Magee, "Jesus and the Righteous One"

(3) Visions of a Second Coming

The Psalms

"Wondrously show thy steadfast love, O savior of those who seek
refuge from their adversaries at thy right hand. Keep me as the
apple of the eye; hide me in the shadow of thy wings, from the
wicked who despoil me, my deadly enemies who surround me. They
close their hearts to pity; with their mouths they speak
arrogantly. They track me down; now they surround me; they set
their eyes to cast me to the ground. They are like a lion eager
to tear, as a young lion lurking in ambush. Arise, O Lord!
Confront them, overthrow them! Deliver my life from the wicked
by thy sword, from men by thy hand, O Lord, from men whose
portion in life is of the world."
- Psalms 17:7-14

"Once you spoke in a vision, to your faithful people you
said: 'I have bestowed strength on a warrior; I have exalted a
young man from among the people.'"
- Psalms 89:19
"I'm struck by Ps 89:19: 'then you spoke in a VISION to your
faithful one ....' there follows what looks like a description,
not of a 'vision' as we normally think of it, but a
straightforward description of a cultic ceremony on royal
enthronement with complex mythological interpretation which is
transparently public. In this instance the 'vision' is, as are
all visions in the Jewish apocalyptic worldview, a revelation of
reality as it truly is, beyond the barely empirical, for those
who are in the know, who are part of God's people - those 'walk
in the light of his countenance' v. 17."
- Crispin Fletcher-Louis (Divine Mediators)

The first forty-two Psalms are attributed to King David. Book
two (Psalms 42-72) was probably written during Solomon's reign
and Books III (73-89) and IV (90-106) date from the days of the
Babylonian Exile, and the final book (107-150) dates from the
post-exile period of Ezra.

Zerubbabel
The Persian emperor Darius restored a number of temples in
Egypt "adding to others or embellishing existing work-in the
tradition of Egyptian rulers. This concern with the beliefs of
subject nations exceeds any expediency or necessity. Excessive
interest in other religions was not just limited to Egypt,
either. Darius soon announced his intention to make good Cyrus
the Great's legendary promise to the Jews - made after
conquering Babylon and ending the Captivity in 538 B.C.-by
rebuilding Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem.
"The supervisor of this ambitious project was Zorobabel
(or 'Zerubbabel'), a Jew who features prominently in the books
of some Old Testament prophets, and also in one of the more
fanciful Exilic texts - omitted from many Bibles - known as The
First Book of Esdras.
Esdras depicts Zorobabel as one of three courtiers who are also
close friends of the Persian king-emperor."
"Some less unorthodox Old Testament books - particularly Ezra -
present Zorobabel more prosaically as an official representative
of the Persian court, sent to supervise the Temple project. His
name also appears in lists of prominent Jewish nobles returning
from Babylon when the Captivity or Exile is over - although it
would seem that he left Babylon for Persia long before he
returned to Jerusalem."
- Paul William Roberts, Journey of the Magi (1995) pp. 265-
266

"The tremendous cruelties of the age [of exile] were rejected in
visions of a Second Coming leading to a new Heaven and new
Earth. This vision, that had first been seen and recorded by
prophets in Babylon, was now celebrated in the Book of Psalms,
that wonderful collection of hymns ancient and modern designed
for use in the new Temple that Zerubbabel built in Jerusalem
[between 520 and 515 B.C.E.]. All illness, all wickedness will
be banished from the earth, they tell us; Jehovah's Law will be
written not on papyrus not on scrolls of vellum but on men's
hearts, so that they will grow in understanding of their God. It
was a dream of paradise, a paradise prepared for the nation that
kept Jehovah's Law."
- John Romer, Testament

"In the New Testament...both Matthew and Luke include Zorobabel
in their genealogies of Jesus' ancestors - all of whom are, of
course, direct descendants of King David. Except that Luke
traces his blood line through David's lesser son, Nathan, not
through the royal line of Solomon, as Matthew's more
traditionally Jewish gospel presents him."
- Paul William Roberts, Journey of the Magi (1995) pp. 265-
266

"The Lord swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn
back: 'One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne.
If your sons keep my covenant and my testimonies which I shall
teach them, their sons also for ever shall sit upon your
throne.' For the Lord has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his
habitation: 'This is my resting place for ever; here I will
dwell, for I have desired it. I will abundantly bless her
provisions; I will satisfy her poor with bread. Her priests I
will clothe with salvation, and her saints will shout for joy.
There I will make a horn to sprout for David; I have prepared a
lamp for my anointed. His enemies I will clothe with shame, but
upon himself his crown will shed its luster'."
- Psalms 132:11-18
"…Zorobabel is the Davidic Messiah of the Jews. His partner in
rebuilding the Temple is Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, who
himself becomes the first High Priest of the Jews - a clear
indication that his own genealogy is the Zadokite or priestly
line descended from Aaron. The relationship between these two
men is exactly the same as that between Jesus and John the
Baptist. Zechariah (4:11-13) even defines the role they will
play as joint leaders of the community after the exile: 'a
government divided equally between priest and prince.' They are
equal, but 'priest' still comes before 'prince' - unlike the
situation Solomon created, banishing one of his father's two
high priests and assuming both roles himself, a situation which
eventually tore the kingdom in half, with northern Israel
forming itself around King David's old high priest. Furthermore,
Zechariah continues, they are 'the two anointed ones who stand
before the Lord of the whole world'."
"Later (6:11-13), Zechariah also mentions Zorobabel's crowning
as Davidic ruler- except it is Joshua's name we now read in this
section. After Zorobabel's (apparent) death the messianic
expectation became concentrated in the priest or Zadokite; and
what is termed by some theologians an 'Inspired rereading' of
the text caused Joshua's name to replace that of Zorobabel….Any
Jew 2,500 years ago would have known that Joshua could not
possibly have become the princely Davidic ruler: his job is
control of the temple and cultic activities. Besides, only
Zorobabel has applied to him - by the prophet Haggai (2:23), for
example - the language of royal messianism: '[Sa'th the Lord,
I] ... will make thee as a signet: for I have chosen thee.'
Haggai (1:11) also makes it clear that the Covenant
made 'between God and every living creature of all flesh that is
upon the earth' (Genesis 9:17) has been broken. But, through the
work of Zorobabel and Joshua - that is, the rebuilt Temple-God's
covenant, which has never been broken spiritually, will be
restored physically, too. This emphasis on a material symbol for
what is only a spiritual process of unification seems to be
according to the prophets - Judaism's downfall.
""Haggai describes Zorobabel first as 'the son of ... the
governor of Judah,' and later as the 'governor of Judah.' His
father, Salathiel (or She'alti'el), also appears in the Matthew-
Luke genealogies, of course, and thus, like his son, is cut off
from the royal blood line by Luke…"
- Paul William Roberts, Journey of the Magi (1995) pp. 267-
268

4 Ezra

"I, Ezra, saw on Mount Zion a great multitude, which I could not
number, and they all were praising the Lord with songs. In their
midst was a young man of great stature, taller than any of the
others, and on the head of each of them he placed a crown, but
he was more exalted than they. And I was held spellbound.
Then I asked an angel, 'Who are these, my lord?'
He answered and said to me, 'These are they who have put off
mortal clothing and have put on the immortal, and they have
confessed the name of God; now they are being crowned, and
receive palms.'
Then I said to the angel, 'Who is that young man who places
crowns on them and puts palms in their hands?'
He answered and said to me, 'He is the Son of God, whom they
confessed in the world.' So I began to praise those who had
stood valiantly for the name of the Lord.
Then the angel said to me, 'Go, tell my people how great and
many are the wonders of the Lord God which you have seen.'"
- 4 Ezra 2:42-48 (Christian Greek addition - 2nd c. CE)
"...The author of 4 Ezra unmistakably refers to the
Messiah...when he puts words in the mouth of God to the effect
that after four hundred years (counted from when?) My son the
Messiah shall die."
-Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts

"And whosoever is delivered from the predicted evil shall see My
wonders. For My son, the Messiah, shall be revealed, together
with those who are with him, and shall gladden the survivors
four hundred years. And it shall be, after those years, that My
son, the Messiah, shall die, and all in whom there is human
breath. Then shall the world be turned into the primeval silence
seven days, as it was at the first beginnings..."
- 4 Ezra 7:27-30 (Jewish Apocalypse - end 1st c. CE)
The Current Hope
"When the death of the Messiah became an established tenet in
Talmudic times, this was felt to be irreconcilable with the
belief in the Messiah as Redeemer who would usher in the
blissful millennium of the Messianic Age. The dilemma was solved
by splitting the person of the Messiah in two: one of them,
called Messiah ben Joseph, was to raise the armies of Israel
against their enemies, and, after many victories and miracles,
would fall victim Gog and Magog. The other, Messiah ben David,
will come after him (in some legends will bring him back to
life, which psychologically hints at the identity of the two),
and will lead Israel to the ultimate victory, the triumph, and
the Messianic era of bliss."
-Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts, p. 166

"Jews still hope for the coming of the Messiah, who will hand
out eternal judgment and reward to all. This hope is largely
communal; the entire Jewish race and the whole of creation is in
view more than individual men.
"In the end the moral life of man here on earth is considered
the most proper concern of man; final judgments are best left to
God."
- "The Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error 2", compiled
by Steven Cory (Moody Bible Institute of Chicago)

"How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings
the news, announcing peace, bringing good news, announcing
salvation, saying to Zion, 'Your God reigns as king!'"
- Isaiah 52:7

Son_of_Chive_Mynde

unread,

Aug 3, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/3/00

Mythology (Richard McLaughlin)
http://hometown.aol.com/mmqchome2/mythnotes.htm

Ritualism [Sir James Frazier (The Golden Bough)]:

All humans began in one place and spread throughout the world,
carrying the culture (gods, stories) with them.
If two separate peoples have the same gods and/or stories, there
must have been contact in which the more sophisticated group
gave the ideas to the more primitive group.
Parallelism [Karl Jung (diametrically opposed to ritualism)]:

Mythology/religion evolved out of the popularity of evolutionary
thought.
Human beings react similarly to similar stimuli because they are
human -- they are genetically patterned to react that way.
The passing on of acquired traits: after a long time of reacting
a certain way, humans pass on (draw from the collective
unconscious) the reaction because they are human. Therefore,
gods and stories develop because the reactivity is a part of the
collective unconscious.
Ritualist School (Frazier):

to understand a mythological story you must understand the
ritual behind it

Structuralist School:

must know the entire body of mythology to properly understand
individual myths

Psychological School (Freud):

psychoanalyze gods and other mythological characters

Diffusionist School:

humanity began in one place and dispersed itself and its stories
throughout the world
if two totally disparate cultures have the same motifs or gods,
they must have been in contact at some point
Parallelist School (Carl Jung):

different groups have the same gods and motifs just because they
are human -- ideas are passed on genetically through the
collective unconscious

There is usually a top echelon of named gods with specific roles
and characteristics as well as an army of unnamed gods. Each of
the top gods ordinarily has an epithet.

Myths of the Ancient Near East

Myths of Sumer
Myths of Babylon
Myths of Canaan
Myths of Egypt
Judaism
Myths of Persia
Christianity
Myths of Scandinavia

Myths of the Ancient Near East

The Ancient Near East consists of the geographical area from the
Indus Valley to the Mediterranean, plus Egypt and Greece. These
are the myths of the Sumerians, Babylonians, Canaanites,
Egyptians, Hebrews, Persians, Christians, and Greeks.

I. Persian Plateau (Persia)

II. Mesopotamia (surrounded by Tigris & Euphrates Rivers)

III. The Levant (Strip of land on eastern coast of the
Mediterranean)

IV. Anatolia (North of the Levant, modern-day Turkey)

V. Iberia (Modern-day Spain)

Afro-Asiatic language family: Hamitic (North Africa) and Semitic
(Hebrews, Arabs, etc.)

Indo-European language family: a postulated language (none
found, no words known, no origin known). The Persians, for
example, were an Indo-European people.

c. 5000 B.C. A semitic civilization existed in Mesopotamia: the
Akkadians. They were a highly civilized people.

c. 4000 B.C. Sumerians conquered southern Mesopotamia and
Akkadia.

1800 B.C. King Hammurabi does away with the Sumerians. Builds
Hammurabi City which becomes Babylon, capital of Mesopotamia (or
Babylonia).

The Canaanites were inhabiting the Levant (Canaan) by 2000 B.C.

c. 1300 B.C. the Assyrians conquered (northern) Mesopotamia and
eventually everything.

c. 600 B.C. the (Neo-) Babylonians rebel and defeat Assyria,
taking over the world.

500 B.C. Neo-Babylonia falls to the Persians

c. 350 B.C. Alexander the Great spreads Hellenism. The Great
Ancient Near East lasts until Alexander the Great and is
finished by the start of the Roman Empire.

Myths of Sumer

The Sumerians

The Gods of Sumer

Ninurta Saves the World from Draught

Ninhursag's Garden

Enki's Palace Temple

The Wooing of Inanna or The Courting of Inanna

Inanna's Descent to the Underworld

The Sumerians

The Sumerian language may be a sister language to an Indo-
European language. The Sumerians came up through the Persian
Gulf. No one knows where they came from. They were "light-
haired" (i.e., their hair was not jet black like everyone else
in the region), "light-eyed" (i.e., not black-brown), "light-
skinned" (i.e., olive) [They were, in other words, not an Aryan
people.], hairy, short, and squatty. They invented the wheel,
writing (c. 3400 B.C. they invented a stylus to write in
cuneiform -- wedge-writing). All cultures of the ancient Near
East used cuneiform. The Sumerians came from a mountainous
countryside. They created ziggurats (step-pyramids) and used
them to worship on. They made illustrated books for their myths
and legends. They carved cylinder seals out of stone to roll
imprints on wet clay. Sumerian priests shaved their entire
bodies bald. Other men had huge beards and long wavy hair, thick
eyebrows, and enormous eyes (as depicted in the artwork of the
time). The eyes of statues were made of shell for the white and
lapis lazuli for the iris [Possible explanation: Conquerors
never want to merge with the conquered so they accentuate the
differences between them in often exaggerated detail.]. The
Akkadians were heavily influenced by the Sumerians ->
Babylonians worshipped similar gods.

Gods of Sumer: (Babylonian equivalents noted in parentheses)

Nammu, the great primeval chaotic ocean/goddess/mother figure.
Archetype: Pre-Creation Chaos

From Nammu, came a mountian of dry land: Anki, the "Cosmic
Mountain," represented by the ziggurat. From the Cosmic Mountain
came Enlil, (Lord of the Wind) God of Air, son of Anki who is
both male ("An" the sky) and female ("Ki" the earth). ("An"
is "Anu" in Babylonian myth). Ki -> Ninhursag (another name for
Ki).

An ("Anu") is the sky god, thought of as being a god, but as the
sky he is a solid dome made of lapis lazuli. Since he emerged
from chaos, An represents the principle of order. He becomes
king of the gods. (Typically the high priest representing a god
is also the king of that god's city. If two cities fought, it
was believed that the two gods of those cities were also
fighting each other.) "An" is a word which represents kingship --
order through unquestioned obedience to An and his high priest.
An is thought of as a busy older man, king of the universe.

As for Ki, Enlil returns home one day and rapes her (his
mother). This union yields all living things on earth. Ki is
then called the "Mother of All Living Things." An and Ki are
parents of the gods.

Enlil is the god of air. By separating An and Ki (through the
rape of his mother), he holds them apart forever (a common
archetype). He is a very powerful god and the second in command.
He is characteristically unpredictable like the wind. He is a
god of wisdom. He gave humanity a gift: a pickaxe. This is the
symbol for agriculture (taught by Enlil). The pick side
symbolizes (phallic) the rape of the virgin soil, thus the rape
of Ki. Enlil eventually evolves into a god who seems to slowly
replace An as king of the gods because An has become too busy
with keeping the universe in balance. People begin eventually to
pray to Enlil.

Enki, ("Ea") "Lord of the Soil", God of Water. He is a
trickster, a prankster, a liar. He loves to win. He is totally
unpredictable. He is very clever. He has an advantage: he is the
only god who knows magic in addition to his deified powers. This
allows him to win virtually every time. But no one ever goes to
him first. He is usually the third god approached. He gives to
humanity the knowledge of writing (cuneiform). Written and
spoken language are both closely associated with magic. Enki's
tricks always catch up with him. His magic doesn't keep him out
of trouble. Enki lives in the Abzu (the Abyss -- the bottom of
the Euphrates). Enki is also associated with law. Trials were
often performed as trials by ordeal. The accused would be thrown
into the Euphrates to let Enki decide his innocence or guilt. If
Enki kept him (drowning), he was guilty and considered justly
punished. If Enki threw him back (survival), he must be
innocent. Many men were acquitted this way. Later on, they began
tying people up first before sugjecting them to this trial. Enki
has a thunderbird, called Imdugud. Imdugud is considered to be
the South Wind. It carries the rain on its back. It has the body
of a bird and the head of a lion (to explain the roar of
thunder). Enki is a patron god of artisans. (The only real raw
material that existed for the Sumerians was clay. Water is
needed to work with the soil and make clay. This is why Enki was
known as the Lord of the Soil. The words En and Ki literally
mean "Lord of the Soil.") Enki is represented with rays coming
off him directed downward, symbolizing water, with fish swimming
in the rays.

En = "Lord of"

Nin = "Lady of" (usually; it is sometimes a masculine name as
well)

Nanna ("Sin") is the God of the Moon. Nanna is an extremely
powerful god who came from An and Ki. The moon is often
portrayed as feminine, but Nanna is male. He taught the seasonal
planting and harvesting, the lunar month (calendar), tides,
astrology (also including astronomy).

The Children of Nanna

Utu ("Shamash"), the God of the Sun (a reversal of the common
archetype in which the sun is considered the superior figure).
The word "shamash" means "sun." (A "shamash" candle lights the
menorah.) Utu is the Judge of the Gods. He is immensely wise and
inescapable (because the sun is always watching). He is
tremendously powerful. (Shamash is depicted giving Hammurabi the
Code of Law). He is depicted as an ordinary Sumerian man, with
rays coming off him, and holding either a comb (to separate the
truth from the lie) or a saw (to cut through to the truth).

Kur, the Underworld. "Kur" can mean three things:

"the Underworld"
"the land of the dead personified"
"a river of dead stagnant water that flows through the
Underworld"
Nergal, God of the Underworld. A very powerful but not very
popular god. (Death and the gods related to it are not usually
considered to be evil, but they are not popular.) Nergal abducts
a consort from the living world (because no one likes him enough
to come willingly). Her name is Ereshkigal. She becomes queen of
the Underworld and pushes Nergal out of the picture. No one can
come from outside the Underworld and force her in any way (a
typical archetype). She is not an evil goddess; she is just
unpopular. Ereshkigal cannot be fooled. She has a gatekeeper (a
position of tremendous honor) called Neti. Along one side of
Ereshkigal's throne room sit seven judges called the Anunaki.
They are called the "Seven Judges of the Underworld." When
lightning seems to come up from the ground, it is said that the
Anunaki are raising their torches.

Ninurta, Lord of the Plow. He is the Storm God, "Lord of the
South Wind." He is thought of like Imdugud. He is also a God of
War, but atypically he PREVENTS war, like a peace officer. He is
the son of An and Ki and is very dear to his mother. He is the
patron god of farmers and herdsmen. His herds are the clouds.

Inanna, daughter of Nanna. She is also called (in
Babylonian) "Ishtar." She is the goddess of fertility (in
humans), of lust, and of love. She is the goddess of hate, war,
and slaughter. Love between a man and a woman was considered to
be a form of insanity (passion). This kind of love leads to
irrational behavior. Passion is a driving emotion which cannot
be overcome. To be struck by this goddess meant complete
insanity. Therefore, one shouldn't make any serious decisions in
this state of mind (e.g., marriage). There was therefore ample
provision for divorce in Sumerian society, because it was
understodd that the insanity would eventually pass. Inanna
shoots barbed arrows. If one of the spouses does not wish to be
divorced, it was justifiable to effect the divorce "Italian
Style" (murder); this was considered a crime of passion. The
passionate insanity of love was considered an acceptable defense
for murder. Hate is equally passionate and powerful (e.g.,
Euripides's "Medea": "Love is diseased."). The worst thing that
can happen to a man is to be noticed by Inanna who will
immediately want to have an affair with him, after which she
will kill him. If he refuses her, she will kill him anyway. She
is irresistibly beautiful and totally self-centered. She always
holds a grudge and never forgives. Men were always positive that
women were scheming to get them and that they used magical
charms to do it. (In Celtic folklore, women were said to
have "cast a glamour" meaning that a woman's beauty is an
illusion.) [One of the three major revolutions of civilization
was the medieval advent of courtly love, when the woman became
an object of adoration.]

Dumuzi is the God of Fertility in Animals. Dumuzi is brash,
impetuous, and he never stops talking. He is very egocentric. He
eventually marries Inanna.

Enkimdu is the God of Fertility in Vegetation. Enkimdu is rather
shy, modest, unassuming.

There are demons in these early cultures.

Asag, demon of draught.

Myths of Sumer

Ninurta Saves the World from Draught

The world was in the grips of a terrible draught. Ninurta
resolves to go find Asag, face him in battle, and destroy him.
He knows Asag wis hiding in Kur. Ninurta sets out to find him.
Suddenly, he comes face to face with him and then turns and
flees in terror. Later, Ninurta returns to face Asag in battle
(this differentiates bravery and courage) and kills him. Kur
reacts in horror. The Underworld water floods to the surface of
the earth -- dead stagnant water that would kill everything.
Ninurta is worried because he knows it's his fault. He begins to
throw boulders into the fault out of which the water springs
forth. He manages to build a mountain which stops the waters.
The mountain is called Hursag. Ki, Ninurta's mother, sees his
accomplishment and is terribly proud. As a reward, she comes
down to give him her blessing. He is flattered. To return her
favor, he bestows upon her an honorary name, Ninhursag, the Lady
of the Mountain.

Ninhursag's Garden

Ninhursag is kind of a loner, although most gods tend to be
noisy and boisterous. At one point the heat was becoming
unbearable, so Ninhursag decides to plant a garden, intending to
make a place she could go to for solitude and shelter from the
heat. She goes to a very barren plain called Edinu. She asks Utu
to help her. She asks that, as he goes through the Underworld
during the night, he should break open the ground and let fresh
water come forth. He does this. She plants eight plants,
nurturing and tending to them. Eventually there is a huge garden
which is very cool and moist.

One day, An summons her to visit. She is worried that wild
animals will come and destroy her garden. But Enki comes by with
his prime minister Isimud. Ninhursag asks them to guard her
garden in her absence, and they agree. She leaves. Later, Enki
begins to get hungry. Isimud says that he should eat the fruit
of the garden, but Enki declines. Isimud encourages him further.
Eventually, Enki eats the entire garden -- down to the ground.
Everything is gone. They leave.

When Ninhursag returns, she's furious. She utters eight curses
(for the eight plants), each striking a different part of the
body of the culprit. Enki begins to die. His magic can't cure
him. The gods are unable to help him. He realizes that he must
confess. The gods bring him to Ninhursag and she forgives him
(gods don't hold grudges). She has to create eight minor
goddesses to cure each of the curses. [Pun is a very popular
literary device throughout history - each of the 8 goddesses has
a name which is a pun: Ninti, is the Lady of Life (who gives
life) while her name also means Lady of the Rib (the part of
Enki which she cures). Christian parallels: Examine the name of
the garden. Edinu -> Eden. The taboo of eating the fruit of the
garden which results in punishment. Eve is referred to as
the "mother of living things." Parallel of the rib.]

Archetype: The Curing of the Curse

Enki's Palace Temple

Enki lives in the Abzu. At one point, he feels that he should
have a palace temple (city) for himself. He builds Eridu in the
depths of the Abzu. It floats to the surface and he attaches it
to the shore. Then he begins to worry because he hasn't gotten
An's permission and blessing. He travels to An's city, Uruk
("Erech"). He has a great feast with much wine and beer. Enki
asks An if he might build a city and if An would bless it. An
grants permission and gives Enki the Seven Tablets of Law or
Civilization as a blessing. Enki takes them back to his city,
making his city the most important city in Mesopotamia.

Later, Inanna, who shares Uruk with An, decides that she should
have the greatest city and resolves to wrest the power away from
Enki. She takes her prime minister Ninshubur and they sail down
the Euphrates. When they arrive at Eridu, they surprise Enki. He
asks them why they've come. Inanna expresses concern for him.
Enki, foolishly, is flattered. He lays out a great feast in her
honor. Enki drinks a lot and then says that if there is anything
he can do for Inanna, she need only ask. Inanna asks to "borrow"
the Seven Tablets, to which Enki agrees. She and Ninshubur take
them and leave immediately. As Enki sobers, he realizes he has
been duped and sends Isimud after Inanna in another boat. He
catches them and asks for the tablets back. They refuse. He
conjures up monsters, but the two are oblivious. They arrive in
Uruk and keep the tablets.

Eridu and Uruk are real cities of the ancient world < 3,000 B.C.
Eridu was the greatest. Power shifted to Uruk at some point.
These stories are a political allegory to explain this transfer
of power.

The Wooing of Inanna or The Courting of Inanna

Dumuzi and Enkimdu were courting Inanna. The courtships lead to
a debate. Utu, Inanna's brother, favors Dumuzi for Inanna
because of his brashness. But Inanna favors Enkimdu because of
his certain controllability. Dumuzi leaps up and begins boasting
of his greatness. He is very persuasive and charismatic. His
attempts are so convincing that Enkimdu then gets up and
says, "You know, he's the one you should marry," and he leaves.
Inanna takes Dumuzi to be her consort. Dumuzi later assumes
Enkimdu's role as well, placing the control of all fertility
between Dumuzi and Inanna.

Archetype: Enmity Between the Farmer and the Herdsman

Inanna's Descent to the Underworld

Inanna is ruling in Uruk. One day, she decides she ought to be
ruling over a much greater realm. She decides to go to the
Underworld and take it from Ereshkigal and add it to her realm.
She has an idea. She dresses herself up in all of her greatest
finery. She is unbelievably beautiful. She plans to stun
everyone into submission. Ninshubur is worried about this plot.
Inanna tells Ninshubur that if she does not return in 3 days, he
should get help and rescue her.

Inanna goes to Ereshkigal's gate, pounding imperiously. The gate
slowly opens and Neti is there, looking a little confused. He
sees Inanna and asks what she wants. She is caught off guard.
Remembering her success in Eridu, she doesn't expect to be
challenged. She says that she is very concerned for Ereshkigal.
Neti is not deceived. He says, "Wait here, I'll ask my
mistress," and closes the gate in her face. He reports to
Ereshkigal, who is not pleased but decides to give Inanna a
chance to tell the truth. Inanna is brought in "in the usual
way." Neti opens the gate, and Inanna enters. Neti removes her
tiara saying it is the law. She goes through 6 more gates and
finally enters the throne room completely naked. Ereshkigal asks
why she has come. Inanna holds to her lie. Ereshkigal becomes
very angry. She nods to the Anunaki and they turn the eyes of
death upon Inanna, turning her into a corpse. A servant comes
and takes her body and hangs it up on a meathook on the wall.

Meanwhile, Ninshubur is frantic. He goes to An for help. An says
that he would like to help but he cannot command Ereshkigal.
Ninshubur goes to Enlil, who says the same thing. He then goes
to Enki, who says he'll think of something. He comes up with a
fascinating plot:

First, Enki creates two sexless beings out of the dirt from
under his fingernails. He gives them instructions and sends them
on their way. They go to the Underworld, carrying with them the
Water of Life. Neti opens the gate and asks what they want. They
say they are ambassadors of Enki with a message for Ereshkigal.
He brings them in. Ereshkigal tells Neti to give them whatever
they want and then bring them before her. They bathe, eat, and
rest, then go to Ereshkigal. They say that she must release
Inanna. She asks why. They say if she does not, they will hold
her to the Universal Laws (a prominent archetype). One of the
laws is the Law of the Host and Guest -- the guest must arrive
home as safely as they arrived at the host's door. Another law:
Anyone who eats and/or drinks in the Underworld may never leave
(a worldwide archetype). Ereshkigal can not obey both laws
unless she releases Inanna which she ends up doing. The sexless
beings sprinkle the Water of Life on Inanna's body and she comes
to life.

Ereshkigal is not happy. She wants more than the two sexless
beings, which are meaningless and expendable. She makes a
demand: Inanna is to choose a real being to come down and take
her place. She agrees. Ereshkigal sends two creatures with
Inanna (they are sometimes called the Hounds of Hell -- they
have long claws & fingers to drag their victims to the
Underworld). They arrive in Uruk and Ninshubur come out to greet
them. His robes are torn, his face tearstreaked. He is overjoyed
to see Inanna. The Hounds want to take him, but Inanna refuses.
Dumuzi comes out wearing his finest robes, assumedly in honor of
Inanna's return. She says she is pleased to see how anxious he
has been for her return. Dumuzi replies, "Oh, were you gone?"
She gives him to the Hounds of Hell. The world turns brown
because the God of Animal & Vegetable Fertility is gone. The
gods get together and agree that they must get Dumuzi back. They
plead with Ereshkigal, but she has fallen in love with him and
doesn't want to give him up. She makes a deal to give him back
every other six months, thus explaining the portion of the year
when the world is fertile.

Archetype: The Dying God Theme

Myths of Babylon

The Babylonian Creation Story

Adapa and Anu

Gilgamesh in the Land of the Living

The Babylonians further developed the concept of the demon
called the utukku. Sumerian equivalents are shown in parentheses.

The Utukku

Edimmu. A being that comes into existence when someone who has
died isn't given the proper funeral feast. He harangues the
person who was supposed to give the funeral feast -> ("haunt").
The only way to appease him is to carry out the funeral feast
properly.

Shedu. Everyone has a guardian shedu. A pair guard each temple
doorway. They are invisible, 35 feet tall with the body of a
bull, the head of a man, and gigantic wings. The plural of shedu
is shedubim (like "cherubim").

Arallu. They spread crime, disease, war, and family disunity.
They will even attack the gods -- especially Sin (Nanna), the
moon god. They ambush him, stuff him in a sack and he has to
fight his way out (a lunar eclipse). They are all male, so they
can't reproduce. They are immortal. Originally, they issued from
the bile of Ea (Enki), from the stagnant water under the Kur.
They have the body of a man, the head of a lion, lion's paws,
huge wings, and small goat horns. The Assyrian name is Pazuzu.
He does possess bodies (i.e., demonic possession) and must be
exorcised. He is considered very powerful. (Modern film
reference: "Exorcist II: The Heretic")

The Babylonian Creation Story

Apsu and Tiamat were in the beginning and nothing else. Apsu,
the male proto-god, is the fresh water (Apsu, the inanimate =
Abzu). Tiamat, Apsu's consort, is the great chaotic primeval
ocean and the dragon, great maternal mother goddess. They give
birth to the pantheon of gods and to Muumuu, who is mist, water
vapor, fog (a very weak proto-god). Muumuu hangs around the Apsu
all the time as a counselor.

There's nothing for them to do because there is nothing, so the
gods party all the time, making so much noise that Tiamat and
Apsu cannot sleep. Apsu becomes irritated and wants to kill all
the gods. Muumuu encourages him. He goes to Tiamat and tells her
what he wants to do. She says, "These are my children. I'm not
going to help you kill them. You're just going to have to do it
yourself." Apsu sends word to the other gods that he is going to
kill them. They are terrified and decide that Anu (An), the
oldest and greatest, must go forth. He takes one look at Apsu
and flees. Enlil is next. It is then Ea's turn. He brings a
large coil of rope with him. The moment he catches sight of
Apsu, he throws the rope around him and ties him up tight and
kills him. He then kills Muumuu. Ea then becomes the god of all
fresh waters.

Tiamat is furious. She decides to go and kill them herself.
First, she creates an army of demons. One, Kingu, is larger than
the rest. He is her new consort. She sends word to the gods. Now
they are truly terrified. No one will face her. Ea's son Marduk
steps up, a vigorous young warrior, and says he will go face
Tiamat. They all burst out laughing in derision. His idea is
that if each of the gods gives him all their power, he will be
strong enough to face Tiamat. They consent. They bestow their
powers on him (without losing them).

Marduk goes out in a storm chariot pulled by storm horses. He
has a bow and arrow (lightning bolts), a huge net, and two giant
sacks tied at the mouth. In one are the four directional winds.
In the other sack are the seven evil winds. Tiamat sees him
coming. She laughs and opens her mouth to devour him. He opens
the sack with the seven evil winds, which rush straight into her
mouth and blow her up like a balloon. He throws the net over her
and releases the other sack. Each of the four directional winds
takes a corner of the net so she can't float away. Then he
shoots arrows down her throat into her heart and kills her. He
kills Kingu and the rest of the demons easily.

Out of Tiamat's carcass, Marduk slits her in half lengthwise and
creates the universe (a common archetype). Her skull is the
solid dome of the sky. Her blood is the ocean. Her bones are
stones and her hair vegetation. He wants someone to look after
the universe for him. He notices a small pool of Kingu's blood
from which he creates human beings. He goes back to the gods who
complement him and ask for their powers back. He decides to keep
the powers and be their king. They all consent. Marduk has 50
names.

The Enuma Elish ("When above . . .") is a poem found on seven
tablets.

Allegories: a way to tame the waters; political -- each of the
various semitic states had an army. After some time, all the
city-states yielded their power to Hammurabi, King of Babylon,
who then conquered Sumeria and then refused to surrender their
autonomy. (Marduk = God of Babylon)

Adapa and Anu

Adapa is the prime minister of Ea, who favors him so much that
he has taught him all of his secrets. One day, Adapa is fishing
in a boat on the Euphrates. He has just hooked the biggest fish
he's ever seen when a sudden squall capsizes his boat. He loses
the fish and utters a curse, breaking the wing of the South
Wind. When Anu hears of this, he wants to meet him. Adapa is
terrified and prays to Ea for guidance. Ea tells him what to do
and then says, "But remember, you mustn't accept any food or
drink from Anu because it is the Food of Death." Adapa tears his
robe and spreads ashes over himself and then goes to Anu,
clearly in mourning. There he meets Tammuz (Dumuzi) and
Ningizsida, a god of fertility,who died. He is a snake with a
human head.

When Adapa arrives, he is questioned. They ask why he is
mourning. He says it is because two of the great gods have died.
They are flattered and put in a good word for him with Anu. Anu
then questions him, and then offers him food and drink. Adapa
refuses. Anu is surprised and sends away the food and then
laughs saying that he has just refused the Food of Immortality.
He gives him a new robe. The robe is to remind everyone that
priests get special treatment. The robe is symbolic of the
expectation placed on the recipient of the robe. Archetype: The
Lying Messenger

In Assyria, King Ashurbanipal (Ashur was the main god; the land
was cald Ashuria.) lived in Nineveh. He was a great patron of
the arts but was also one of the cruelest of the Assyrian kings.
He wanted to build a library so he sent men out to gather
literature. The Rescension, or the Nineveh Rescension, refers to
the translation and editing of this literature. All the myths
come from this, as does the story of Gilgamesh, King of Uruk. It
is a story written on twelve tablets called "Gilgamesh in the
Land of the Living," an epic. The story consists of Sumerian
episodes put together by a Babylonian editor. This, not Homer,
is the first epic. It was found in Nineveh in four different
languages: Sumerian, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Hittite (from
Anatolia). It was completely written in poetry.

Gilgamesh in the Land of the Living

Gilgamesh was two thirds god and one third man (i.e., two of his
parents were gods and one was human). He was notorious for being
a cruel tyrant because of his superiority. He took anything he
wanted.

At one point, the people are desperate so they go over
Gilgamesh's head, praying directly to the gods for help. The
gods hear them. One of the goddesses takes some earth and
creates Enkidu, a wild man. He is stronger than a lion, faster
than a gazelle, and friends with the animals. He has long hair
and beard. He is naked and eats only grass. He drinks only water
from the ditches or milk from female animals. A notice comes to
the city elders that this wild man keeps rescuing the wild
animals they have captured. The elders perceive Enkidu to be the
answer to their prayers. They set out to capture him and bring
him back. They select a temple prostitute. She meets a hunter
and sets out after Enkidu. The hunter says, "There he is. Bare
yourself to him and seduce him." So she opens her robe and they
have a wild sexual union for seven days and seven nights. Enkidu
then goes to run with the animals but finds himself "strangely
weak." He is contaminated by the civilized and the animals
reject him. He has no choice but to join civilization. The
prostitute and the hunter cut and curl his hair. They wash him
and anoint him with oil. They put a robe on him. (Both the
anointment and the robe symbolize selection for a task.) They
give him bread and beer (both synthetic). They go to Uruk.

Enkidu and Gilgamesh grapple (wrestle). Enkidu goes down on one
knee. He has lost. But Gilgamesh takes him to be his comrade
because he has finally found a peer. They become lifelong
comrades. Enkidu considers himself a lesser person, so he always
goes before Gilgamesh. They decide to travel to the Cedar Forest
(Lebanon) which is guarded by a giant, called Humbaba (in
Assyrian, Huwawa). Gilgamesh is presented with a beautiful
bronze axe and sword by the elders. The Cedar Forest was placed
there by Enlil, now head of the gods, and Humbaba was made to
guard the forest. Enkidu pushes the gate of the forest with his
hand and immediately his right side becomes paralyzed. They meet
Humbaba, have a great fight, and win. Humbaba pleads for his
life. Gilgamesh agrees to spare him. But Enkidu insists they
kill him so Gilgamesh decapitates him with his great axe. They
return to Uruk, exalting in their victory.

Gilgamesh looks incredibly god-like. He is so magnificent that
Inanna notices him and becomes interested. She appears before
him and suggests a liaison. He refuses, remembering Dumuzi's
fate. Enkidu laughs. Inanna goes stomping back to Enlil and
demands that he kill them both. Because they just killed his
giant, he allows Inanna to send the Great Bull of Heaven after
them. He comes charging out of heaven killing one hundred men
with his first snort, two hundred with his second, etc. The
people see him coming. Gilgamesh is pleased about the impending
fight. Enkidu takes no weapon but stands in front of Gilgamesh.
The second the bull gets to him he leaps up and does a
handspring off the bull's back. The bull turns to see what has
happened and Gilgamesh plunges his sword into the bull's breast
(the Minoans of Crete did this same kind of bull jumping as a
sport). Gilgamesh takes the prime cut (the right rear thigh) of
the bull to place it on Enlil's altar, thinking Enlil is angry
about Humbaba's death. Just then Inanna appears. Seeing Enkidu
holding the meat, she says she accepts his offering. So Enkidu
either throws the cut onto her altar with a sneer or throws the
bull's genitals onto her altar (depending on the telling). She
is furious. She goes to Enlil demanding their death. Enlil
declines. Inanna says Enkidu at least must die. And Enlil can't
think of a reason why not. So Enkidu falls ill and dies in three
days. Gilgamesh mourns. He begins contemplating that if Enkidu
was his equal and he died -- could he die as well? This worries
him considerably. So he promises the spirirt of Enkidu that he
will wear a lion skin on his back, until it falls off him, in
Enkidu's honor. He also promises to travel to the Land of the
Living where the immortal man and his wife live. The immortal
man is Ziusiudra in Sumerian and Utnapishtim in Babylonian.

Everywhere Gilgamesh goes, people ask him for his story. He
eventually meets a barmaid and he asks her where the ferry to
the Land of the Living is. She tells him. But the ferryman
Urshanabi isn't there. Gilgamesh finds some stones in the boat
and smashes the stones on the ground in anger. But Urshanabi
then appears and says that these stones would have powered the
boat. So they have to cut saplings to pull themselves across.
Once across, first thing, Utnapishtim fires Urshanabi in anger.
Gilgamesh tells Utnapishtim that he wants to live forever.
Utnapishtim says he couldn't even stay awake for seven days let
alone live forever. Gilgamesh says, "I can, too." So he sits
down and immediately sleeps for seven days (Utnapishtim's wife
places a fresh loaf of bread beside him each day, marking the
time.) So Gilgamesh agrees that he cannot live forever.

But Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh where to find the herb of
eternal youth, a plant with thorns and beautiful flower at the
bottom of the sea. So Gilgamesh ties large rocks to the bottoms
of his feet, sinks to the bottom, gets the herb, and then cuts
the ropes and floats back up (the origins of deep sea diving).
Urshanabi and Gilgamesh travel together. They get to a cool pool
of water. Gilgamesh puts down the herb of eternal youth so he
can bathe. A snake comes out of the water, swallows the herb,
and goes back into the water, thus explaining why snakes become
young again and again. Gilgamesh has learned humility. He
becomes the greatest king ever known.

Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh the story of how he became immortal.
It parallels the story of Noah's ark.

Myths of Canaan

The Canaanites

The Gods of Canaan

Baal Defeats Yamm

Baal's Palace

Baal Challenges Mot

The Canaanites

c. 3000 - 2000 B.C. People moved into the Levant (the eastern
end of the Mediterranean boundaried by mountains). They were the
Canaanites. They were the best merchants of the ancient world.
Clothing at this time was always very drab. People used
vegetable dyes which are not very vivid. The Canaanites
developed a dye that was vivid and colorfast from the murex
shell/animal which made a very vivid maroon color that wouldn't
fade. One drop of the dye could be extracted from each murex.
Only the wealthy could afford this luxury -- only nobility. In
Greece, all the young nobles wanted it (Royal Purple). The
Greeks went to the Canaanites and called them the Phoenicians
(Phoenix -> Purple). They were great navigators, sailors,
mariners -- the greatest in the world. They were not a bellicose
people. They were merchants. But they had pretty good land,
several cities (Tyre, Sidon, Byblos -- port cities).

c. 1250 - 1200 B.C. Other people began moving: Aramaans,
Hebrews, the Philistines (Philistine is now Palestine). The
Canaanites colonized. They discovered the Atlantic Ocean. They
colonized most of the Mediterranean except for the Aegean. They
traded with the Azores (halfway across the Atlantic). They may
have had tin mines in Cornwall. They found Carthage and settled
it c. 800 B.C., controlling all of the Mediterranean. They
circumnavigated Africa in 500 B.C. They were the first great
sharp traders. They invented their own form of writing. (1)
syllabary (like kanji - Japanese characer text) (2) the first
alphabet with 22 letters and no vowels -- the basis for
virtually every alphabet in the modern world. The Greeks added
vowels.

Gods of Canaan

El, king of the gods (El means "God" - the plural is Elohim), a
fertility god, represented by a bull or by a man wearing a
helmet with bull horns. An elderly man with a mustache and
goatee. He lives on a place called Har Mo'ed (the apostrophe
represents a glottal stop, it used to be represented by "h" in
English), "the mount of assembly", or "the mount of the North."
The Hebrews called this "the place of the last battle" or
Armageddon.

Dagon, fertility god, rain/water god, grain god. He is portayed
with a sheaf of grain for hair and the body of a fish from the
waist down (a merman). He doesn't appear in Canaanite mythology
because he was adopted by the Philistines (in Biblical history,
Samson destroyed the Temple of Dagon). Dagon is probably El's
brother. His son holds a position which is traditionally that of
the king's nephew.

Baal (son of Dagon) is a young, impetuous fertility god. He is
portrayed as a man with bull horns on his helmet or as a calf --
sometimes a golden calf. He is also a storm god. His major
epithet is "He Who Mounts the Clouds." The clouds are
called "the heavenly herd of cows." He is often the butt of
jokes. "Baal" = "lord." He is called "Lord Prince" or "Baal
Zebul" (-> Beelzebub, Hebrew for "Lord of the Insects" -> "Lord
of the Flies").

Kothar, artisan of the gods, smith of the gods (a widespread
archetype). He can make anything.

Yamm (also Lotan), the great primeval chaotic ocean. He is male,
a very old dragon with seven heads (like the Greeks' Hydra). A
dragon with many heads as god of the ocean, with seven heads
especially -- this image is perhaps inspired by the giant
octopus.

Mot moves freely from the upper world to the Underworld. When in
the upper world, he is sterility and usually lives in the
desert. In the Underworld he is death. He is not a very popular
god, but he is not evil.

Shapash (from Shamash), goddess of the sun. Epithet: "the Torch
of the Gods."

Asherah, Anat, Ashtoreth (Archetype: The Triple Goddess):

Asherah is the consort of El and is called "Mother of the 70
Gods" (i.e., all of them). She is El's best friend and loving
consort AND his bitterest enemy. She is the goddess of love and
hate, the mother goddess. She is shown as standing between two
goats up on their hind legs. She holds a sheaf of grain in each
hand, feeding them (they are sometimes gazelles). She is
eventually shown as the Tree of Life, with goats eating of her
fruit.

Anat is Baal's consort and sister. Her real interest is
destroying things. She is the goddess of war and slaughter. She
is depicted with a sword in each hand with a big smile on her
face. Human arms, heads, and legs are flying through the air all
around her.

Ashtoreth is unbelievably beautiful (like Inanna). She is not
anyone's consort. She is the goddess of love. She likes being
single. She is associated with the moon and with the oceans. The
crescent moon is her symbol -- she wears it in her hair. The
Greeks referred to her as Astarte, a moon goddess. All three are
inspired by Inanna/Ishtar. The Greeks had Hera (As[hera]h),
Athena (from Anat), Aphrodite (from Ashtoreth). The Egyptians
made Isis from Asherah and Hathor from Anat/Ashtoreth.

I. Baal Defeats Yamm

The world has just been created. No one is yet ruling. Two gods
want to: Baal and Yamm. They go to El to ask for his judgment
and wisdom. El chooses Yamm to be the first King of Earth. Yamm
builds himself a palace and has a wonderful time. Eventually, he
begins to get very arrogant. He sends messengers to Har Mo'ed to
tell the gods he demands tribute. The gods are uneasy; Baal is
furious. Ashtoreth says she can solve the problem.

She dresses up in her greatest finery and goes to talk Yamm out
of his foolishness. She struts back and forth on the shore in
front of the ocean to lure Yamm out. He doesn't come. She begins
to undress (a strip tease) until eventually he comes out. He
dispatches his messengers immediately saying he demands tribute
AND Ashtoreth as his consort. Baal leaps up and drives the
messengers out of Har Mo'ed, kicking their backsides as they go,
saying he will destroy Yamm. The other gods praise his courage,
given Yamm's greater size and strength. Baal worries. He goes to
Kothar and asks him for weapons that will make him equal to
Yamm. Kothar makes two weapons (axes or hammers) which, when
thrown, will go straight to their mark and then return to Baal's
hand (thunderbolts). He goes to Earth armed and stands on the
seashore screaming insults until Yamm is furious and comes
slithering up out of the ocean. Baal throws the first hammer,
hits Yamm between the eyes, and knocks him out cold. Baal goes
up to Yamm to kill him. Anat appears and says it will give him
no glory to kill an unconscious victim. So Baal kicks him back
into the ocean, throws a net over him, and stakes the net down
to the ocean floor. Now Baal becomes King of Earth.

II. Baal's Palace

Now Baal wants his own palace but is afraid to build without the
consent of El and afraid to ask. So he asks Anat if she will go
with him and intercede on his behalf. She agrees but suggests
that they solicit Asherah's help as well. Baal leads a donkey,
which Asherah rides, with Anat walking behind. They arrive at
Har Mo'ed and talk to El. El doesn't mind at all but says he
will not build the palace for Baal. Baal says of course . . .
and asks Kothar to build it for him. Kothar begins building and
says he ought to put a window in the turret, but Baal refuses.
Kothar reluctantly leaves out the window. Eventually the palace
is finished. All the gods ask why there isn't a window. Baal
fears that Yamm will sneak in through the window and kill him.
So he thinks to do the same to Yamm. He kills Yamm, and then
asks Kothar to put the window in after all. It is from that
window that Baal hurls his lightning bolts.

III. Baal Challenges Mot

Baal begins to become arrogant and sends a message to Mot in the
Underworld that he's going to come down and take over. Mot is
furious and says he will devour him. Baal insists. Mot
says, "Okay, come down and visit, we'll sit down and have a bite
to eat . . ." Baal is gullible enough to go. After a meal and
drink, he is stuck in the Underworld (see common archetypes).
The fertility of the earth ends for six years. In the seventh
year, Anat feels the lack of a consort and wants to bring back
Baal. She asks Shapash to find his body when she travels through
the Underworld and to bring it back. Shapash does this. Anat is
unable to bring him back to life. She mourns. One day she
encounters Mot and asks him to bring Baal back to life. Mot
says, "No way." She seizes Mot. With a blade, she cleaves him;
with a shovel, she winnows him; with fire she parches him; with
a stone, she grinds him; and then she scatters him in the field.
Baal comes back to life. This is symbolic of the harvest as well
as the sowing and fertilization of the ground. Seven years
later, Mot pulls himself together and battles with Baal. This
cycle reverses on itself every seven years.

Baal vs.Yamm - young god borrows weapons, imprisons the great
primeval chaotic ocean and then kills it (Marduk vs.Tiamat, Enki
vs.Apsu, etc. -- archetype)

Baal builds a palace -> parallel to Enki's palace

Baal and Mot -> Inanna's Descent to the Underworld (Archetype:
The Dying God Theme). A seven year cycle because the Canaanites
had little arable land -- enough but very little. They could
only plant year-round to accomodate their available agriculture.
Every seventh year they would leave the ground fallow (the year
of rest they called "sabbath"). They stored food for the year of
famine. Sometimes, though, Mot would win the battle, and the
year of sabbath did not replenish the land sufficiently. Crops
would be poor and this made the next year of sabbath more
difficult to prepare for. Their years were measured in
centuries. 7x7=49+1=50 The extra 1 is an extra year lying
fallow. This year was spent in festivals and was
called "Jubilee." If Mot won the battle on the seventh cycle,
they would have two years of famine. Then they would have to
look elsewhere for food, most likely in Egypt, because a bad
year in Canaan usually meant a bad year in all of the Near East.
This led to the Biblical story of Joseph's journey to Egypt and
the seven years of famine, etc. In the year of Jubilee,
Canaanites would greet each other by asking "'Yit Zebul?" which
would be followed by the response "'Yi Zebul!" which
translates: "Does the prince live? Yes, the prince lives!"
Children born in the year of Jubilee were named appropriately.
Queen Jezebel of Tyre was born in Jubilee. Her father Ethzebel
must have been as well.

Myths of Egypt

The Egyptians

Gods of Egypt

Death and the Underworld

Set Betrays Osiris

The Egyptians

Dynastic = historic

Pre-dynastic = prehistoric (before 3200 B.C.).

Egypt, the Upside-Down Country. Upper Egypt is dry. Lower Egypt
is a fertile delta. The two kingdoms, Upper and Lower Egypt,
feuded. Lower Egypt was more advanced than Upper Egypt because
of Mediterranean connections. Lower Egyptians created writing
systems, papyrus, etc.

Hieroglyphics = sacred carvings.

Hieratic = the legal writing system.

Demotic = the writing of the people (shorthand).

Most of our knowledge of Egypt comes from the occupation of the
Greeks (i.e., Ptolemaic Dynasty). Alexander the Great and
Ptolemy built Alexandria, which became the most cosmopolitan
city of its time. People spoke and wrote Greek. There were 32
dynasties, listed by the Greeks.

Pharaohs: 18th Dynasty - 1300 B.C. Amenhotep III, enamored of
Amon, the ram-headed god. Amenhotep III built a huge city with
statues of Amon called Karnak. Amenhotep IV destroyed the city
because he hated Amon. He loved Ra, the sun god, and changed his
name to Akhenaten ("Servant of the Sun"). He built a city for Ra
in which he forbade the worship of other gods. He failed in his
attempts to form a monotheism, but he tried. He was very
unpopular. He was ugly. His wife was Nefertiti, the most
beautiful queen in Egyptian history. Akhenaten's nephew came to
the throne after his death. His advisors instructed him to
restore all the gods and he did so. He became very popular but
died at the age of 19. His name was Tutenkhamen.

Egyptians liked sex. They were not uncomfortable with it. They
practiced incest. The eldest son and daughter of the pharaoh
married and became the next pharaoh and queen. Understandably,
dynasties died out very quickly to infertility and
feeblemindedness. But incest was only practiced in the dynastic
house (this was also true of the Spanish court). There were many
fine Egyptian poets, almost all women of high birth, who wrote
beautiful erotic love poetry. Hatshepsut was the only female
pharaoh.

Egypt was invaded and occupied only twice. Once, c. 1700 B.C.,
the Hyksos moved in and occupied Egypt. They built a fortified
area in Goshen. There were Hyksos pharaohs for 125 years. In 850
B.C. the people of Kush occupied Egypt, giving rise to the
Kushite pharaohs, a magnificent black African kingdom. In 770
B.C., the Assyrians attempted to wrest Egypt from the Kushites
and failed. Assyrians and Egyptians together eventually defeated
the Kushites. When Egypt was conquered by Rome, it ceases to be
Egypt any longer. Egypt was conquered by the Muslims in 600 A.D.

Gods of Egypt

Nun, the great primeval chaotic ocean, a goddess. From that
ocean came a mound of dry land, a hill.

Ra, Atum, Amon, depending on where you hear about it --
ultimately all three merge into one god anyway. The Sun God. Ra,
the sun god, is the first divine pharaoh. He creates Shu and
Tefnut. (See Ra)

Ptah, a god, is in one city considered to be the god who created
Nun. When gods create other gods, they masturbate, thereby
creating the next god.

Shu, god of air, god of wisdom. In his headdress he wears a
Ma'at feather, the feather of truth and wisdom. Shu was the
second divine pharaoh. A cartouche appears beside the image of a
person in Egyptian artwork or hieroglyphics to identify him or
her. The Ma'at feather appears in Shu's name. Shu and Tefnut
give birth to Geb and Nut.

Geb is the earth (male), and Nut is the sky (female). This is a
reversal of the archetype. Geb becomes the third divine pharaoh.
Geb is usually shown with a green upper and a brown lower body,
symbolizing vegetation and soil. Nut is portrayed a as beautiful
woman, or as a cow, or as a woman with a cow's head. She has a
flower vase on her head (even when she is a cow) which also
appears in her name cartouche.

Nut is inordinately gorgeous, and Ra is very attracted to her.
Ra has aged and retired. He is a crotchety, whimsical,
egocentric old man. Nut is true to her brother/husband and
rejects Ra. Ra is furious. He sends his son Shu to separate Geb
and Nut who splits them apart and holds them apart forever (a
familiar archetype with roles shifted). Ra, in his anger,
decrees that they may never have a child during any month of the
year. Geb and Nut pray to an ancient god (Thoth) who decides to
help them. He gambles with the moon and wins four intercalary
days (days not on the calendar). Geb and Nut have four children,
one on each day. Thoth becomes the god of the moon. Nut is shown
stretched from horizon to horizon with stars on her belly and a
vase on her head. Geb is shown lying beneath her, an arm and
knee (representing mountains) reaching for her. Shu holds Nut
up.

[Note: Most gods are shown ithnaphallic (with erect penis), and
it was the Egyptians who invented circumcision.]

Geb and Nut's children are Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys.

Set comes from a god of Upper Egypt. He becomes considered a god
of sterility. He is only shown with an animal head on a human
body. Archaeologists have called the animal "the Typhonian
animal" because they couldn't recognize the animal. It could be
an okapi or an aardvark (earth pig). Set is a scheming unpopular
character. His face has been chipped away and replaced in bas-
reliefs.

Nephthys is the goddess of mist, vapor, and fog. She is barren.
One night she sneaks over to Osiris and seduces him in the dark.
She has a son, Anubis, the jackal-headed god. He was abandoned
at birth to be raised by Isis. He becomes the inventor of
embalming and funeral ritual, the god of funerals. He dwells in
the Underworld. In Egypt, bodies were eviscerated. The internal
organs were placed in clay canopic jars whose lids were sealed
with wax or paraffin. The jar of the heart and lungs bore the
head of Anubis.

Osiris is the fertility god (primarily of vegetation). He
becomes pharaoh after Geb. When he was born, a voice spoke in
the universe proclaiming him universal lord. As he grew up, his
wisdom and sincerity were so clear that his epithets were "The
Good One" and "True of Voice." When he becomes pharaoh, he
institutes great changes. He outlawed cannibalism. He taught how
to worship the gods by building temples and therefore towns and
cities. He taught law (considered the father of civilization)
and agriculture (primarily grain), and how to make bread and
beer.

Osiris decides to go out and conquer the world with gentleness
(i.e., civilize). He leaves Isis on the throne to go out and
achieve his goal. When he returns, he is murdered by his brother
Set. Isis brings him back to life and feels he should retire to
the Underworld and become king there. Osiris is almost always
shown in a winding shroud with just his hands showing holding a
shepherd's crook and a flail. Both are symbols of kingship.
Osiris is green.

Isis is very beautiful. She bears the maternal aspect of a
goddess who is beautiful and loving but also dangerous to cross.
She can also be shown as a cow. She has a throne on her head.
She taught women how to grind grain, spin flax, and how to weave
cloth. She taught men medicine. She is the goddess of healing.
After she brings Osiris back to life, they have a son Horus. She
wanted for her husband and son the powers of Ra. She knew that
each day Ra went for a long stroll. She waits by his path, picks
up some of the mud made by Ra's drool and makes a poisonous
snake. The next day, she places the snake in the same place. It
bites him and slithers away and he begins to die. He is unable
to cure himself (because he doesn't know the source of the
curse). The gods go to Isis. She talks privately with Ra and
tells him he must tell her his true name. He does and she cures
him. She now has his power. (Archetypes: (1) The Curing of the
Curse (2) The True Name)

Hathor, goddess of love, beauty, the arts. She is a terrifying
warrior. A combination -- Isis and Hathor are two goddesses of
the triple goddess. Hathor is patron goddess of single women,
goddess of female graces (art, music, literature). She can also
be shown as a cow. She has cow horns with a sistrum between
them. She is very beautiful but can be unbelievably destructive.

Ra became fed up with human beings so he sent Hathor to destroy
humankind. So she came to Earth and began slaughtering. She went
into a blood frenzy (battle hysteria). Ra changes his mind, but
to stop her, he must destroy her or knock her out. She is shown
with a sword in each hand (Anat), a smile on her face, and body
parts flying about her. Ra plots her course and sees that she
will eventually come to a gigantic field with a high wall
surrounding it. So Ra fills the field with beer and turns the
beer red. When she gets there, she thinks it is blood and drinks
it all and passes out cold. When she awakens, the blood lust is
gone -- replaced by a horrible headache.

Ra - Before rising and just at setting, he is called Atum ("to
be complete" or "to not exist"). As he is rising, he becomes
Kheper ("scarab" - a dung beetle which laid its egg and encased
it in its own feces and then rolled it along in front of itself
to protect it. In reality, the beetle gathered food and rolled
it back to its nest.) representing the principle of rebirth -
new life encased in refuse. At this point, Ra is either shown as
a scarab or as a man whose head is a scarab. Kheper also means
the concept of coming into existence or rebirth. They liked to
show this because they could show the solar disk of the sun
being pushed by the scarab. Once the sun is fully past rising,
he becomes Ra. Ra rides in the Man Jet Boat. He is, at this
point, either a falcon or a man with a falcon's head. He sits in
the boat, at the stern, with the solar disk in the boat in front
of him. At the very front of the boat are Shu and Thoth. They
are sailing across the celestial Nile River - the heavenly Nile
(the Milky Way). There is a deadly peril in the form of a
gigantic dragon/serpent called Apep. He hates the gods and waits
for them in ambush. They are great warriors and Apep is seldom
successful in ambushing them. But once in a while there is a
battle with crashing weapons. We see the sparks and hear the
crashes and a lot of the river's water splashes and falls on us
(a rainstorm). Once in a very great while, Apep surprises them
completely and devours them, but they battle until they get out
again (an eclipse). Then Ra becomes Atum again because he is
complete and he sets. He goes to a new boat and his name changes
after setting to Auf ("meat" or "corpse"). As he sails through
the Underworld, he has to pass twelve deadly perils (one per
hour). One time very early in the universe, Ra wept and his
tears fell to the ground and humans were created (in
Egyptian, "tear" and "human" are the same word). One time Ra had
an enormously powerful weapon: his right eye, the deadliest
weapon in the universe (Archetype: The Evil Eye). The eye has a
will of its own. One day it was out and it didn't come back when
it was supposed to. Ra created a new one to put in its place.
The eye then came back and was furious. Ra placed it in the
center of his forehead, a place of great honor. The eye goes on
to be identified as the Uraeus (the cobra on the front of a
king's crown, representing the pharaoh). All pharaohs are
thought to be descended from Ra. Ra is always shown with the
solar disk on his head.

Thoth is a very ancient god, dating back to the pre-dynastic
period. The animals that represent him are the dog-headed ape
(less common) or a human with the head of a dog-headed ape
(baboon) or the ibis (more common) or as a man with an ibis's
head, in which case he is shown wearing a necklace and headdress
with the ibis's head in the headdress. This god was used to
replace the face of Set. Thoth is a very wise and benevolent
god. He is Osiris's counselor and that of the next pharaoh. Then
Thoth becomes the last divine pharaoh. He is the god of magic
and therefore the god of writing ("The Lord of the Holy Words").
He invented and taught hieroglyphics. When he retired from
kingship, he became "The Heavenly Scribe," a very important
position -- the recorder of all history. In heaven, he is the
Arbiter of the Gods, a referee for minor squabbles. He is the
Spokesman of the Gods and therefore the Ambassador as well.

Horus comes from a god of Lower Egypt. He is very often shown as
a 7-8 year old Egyptian prince. A prince would have his head
shaved except for a single sidelock. If he is shown as an adult,
like Ra, he is shown as a falcon or as a falcon-headed man.
Horus, later in life, got control of the Eye of Ra and it began
to be called the Eye of Horus. Some images depict Horus and Set
working together even before the merging of the two kingdoms.

Death and the Underworld

In the Underworld, the soul or sprit is represented as a small
bird with a human head. The person's soul enters and immediately
encounters Anubis, who is holding a balance scale. The heart is
placed on one of the pans of the balance and the Ma'at feather
is placed on the other pan. If they balance, the person has been
good and is sent on to meet Osiris. Thoth records these
proceedings. The spirit appears before Osiris on his throne with
Isis behind him on his right and Nephthys behind him on his
left. Osiris then relegates the soul to its proper place in the
Underworld. If the heart does not balance with the feather, the
soul is sent to a waiting creature in the ground, "The Devourer
of Souls" (it has the hindquarters of a hippopotamus, the
forequarters of a leopard, and the head of a crocodile), who
then eats the heart. Sitting at the back of a huge hall on
thrones are all of the gods (a reflection of the Anunaki).

Set Betrays Osiris

Osiris is returning to Egypt after conquering the world by
gentleness. Once he gets back, he immediately gets an invitation
to come to a great dinner festival, alone, by Set. He feels he
must accept. As he is sitting there waiting for dinner, Set's
men bring in a long beautifully carved box and they begin
laughing and climbing into it and jumping back out again.
Whoever fits it perfectly gets to keep it. Osiris is invited to
try. He climbs in, and Set slams it shut, nails it closed, and
throws it into the Nile where Osiris drowns. But the box drifts
out into the Mediterranean. It drifts across and lands on the
shore of Byblos of Canaan. It comes to rest at the foot of a
straggly tree. The tree grows like crazy, encloses the box, and
grows very tall. The king of the city is building a palace so he
sends men out to fell the tree. The moment the axe bites into
it, a smell fills the air -- the sweetest smell ever. Isis hears
about this and figures out what happened. She goes to Byblos and
asks the king if they can cut the tree open because Osiris is
inside. The king agrees. She takes Osiris back to Egypt. (This
is an explanation for the existence of the cedars of Canaan.)
She wants to bring Osiris back to life but must first return to
the throne and tend to business. She decides to hide the body
deep in the swamps of the Nile Delta to protect it from Set. Set
sneaks into the delta, finds the body, chops it into fourteen
pieces, and scatters them all over the world. Isis discovers
what has happened. She patiently goes out and gathers all the
pieces, finding the last one on the shore of China. [Alternate:
Isis finds thirteen of the fourteen pieces. The piece not found
was the phallus. It was not found because "it had fallen into
the brackish water of the Nile Delta and was devoured by crabs."
The crabs were then made so bitter that they could not be eaten,
even today.] She brings him to life, and from that union comes
Horus.

Isis worries about Horus as he grows up because of the threat of
Set and his desire to take the throne. Isis hides Horus in the
swamps of the Nile Delta. Set immediately comes slithering in as
a poisonous snake, bites Horus, and leaves. So Horus begins to
die. Isis is unable to cure him because she doesn't know the
source of the curse. Isis prays to Ra who is passing over head
at that moment. Ra stops the sun for two hours, during which
time he and Shu and Thoth come to Earth and the four of them
stand around Horus and focus their powers and cure him (breaking
the archetype). Horus safely grows up because Set doesn't know
he is still alive. (In Biblical history, Joshua prays to God to
stop the sun so that he can continue battle.) Horus becomes
ready to claim the throne, but Set wants it, too. They battle
one another in different forms of animals to no avail. Isis
won't relinquish the throne until this is settled.

The feud between Horus and Set was much too big for Thoth to
resolve. So a tribunal was called. Ra presides. Set and Horus
stand up one at a t, ime and argue back and forth. The gods agree
with whomever most recently spoke, or Ra inhibits the
decisionmaking with his senility. The trial continues for eighty
years. At one point, Isis is ejected because she is so
vociferously on her son's side. She turns herself into a
beautiful young woman, slips into the trial, and sits beside
Set. She begins to weep heavily. Set asks her why she is
weeping. She tells him and everyone hears what she says. She
says that she and her husband have a flock of sheep, intended to
be left to their son. But her husband's brother treacherously
murdered her husband to steal the flock from her son. Set
exclaims that this is horrible. "Your son deserves your flock.
Your husband's brother should be punished." Isis immediately
turns into a swallow, flies into the rafters, and screams
out, "You have condemned yourself!" The gods agree. Set
disagrees. Ra disagrees (because it wasn't his idea). And the
trial has made no progress. The only way to resolve this is to
call the only god who isn't there - "He Who Is True of Voice,"
Osiris who is in the Underworld. He comes and stands before them
and tells them he has thought it over carefully and that Horus
is best suited to the throne. The gods agree. But Ra says the
decision is invalid because Osiris is Horus's father. Osiris
steps up a second time and says that they can reach any
conclusion they want, but that he has at his disposal savage-
faced messengers who can drag down to the Underworld the heart
of anyone Osiris commands. Horus becomes Pharaoh. Set is chained
in the desert where he must be the god of sterility, where he
must provide the wind which drives the Man Jet Boat. Thoth
becomes Horus's counselor. Thoth eventually becomes the last
pharaoh.

Judaism

The Children of Israel

"The One True God"

The Creation Story

Adam's First Wife

Cain and Abel

The Flood

Samson,the Nazarite

c. 1700 B.C. Through the Levant travel a series of groups of
people who are land pirates (mostly Canaanites, some Hittites,
etc.) called by the Egyptians the Hyksos ("Shepherd Kings"), who
conquered Egypt and ruled for 150 years.

c. 1550 B.C. The Egyptians ousted them and forced them back
eastward. It took 50-100 years to clear them all out. They
returned to their nomadic existence. They were primarily
goatherders, tribally divided. Among the Hyksos are a group of
twelve tribes who consider themselves to be related by blood.
Each tribe is named for its ancestors: twelve brothers, the sons
of Israel (Jacob). They called themselves the Children of
Israel.

The Children of Israel

They were called Habiru ('displaced people') which
became 'Hebrew.' They wandered in the northern Arabian Desert
for 50-100 years. While there, they knew the only way they could
be safe was to emphasize their blood-related kinship. Each tribe
was ruled by the oldest grandfather in the tribe who was the
ruler and high priest (a patriarchy). This was known ast the
Time of the Patriarchs. There was much tribal disunity. The
elders of the tribes figured out a clever way to bring the
tribes together. They took a Canaanite god from their past, an
ancient god named Yaw, who might have been a fertility god, and
developed Yhwh. They were not permitted to pronounce his name
aloud. They used instead the name Tetragrammaton, "The Four-
Letter Thing." Because they couldn't speak his name, they called
him Elohim, or "Gods" (Canaanite), the Hebrew word for "lord,"
Adonai, and they used vowels to make Yahowah, which in English
became Jehovah. This is wrong. The correct translation is
Yahweh.

Having wandered in the wilderness for a long time, once they
developed this god figure, the first thing he did was to demand
a temple. Because they were nomads, they built it out of a tent,
a portable temple, the tabernacle. In the inner chamber ("The
Holy of Holies," also called from the Latin, "The Inner
Sanctum") was kept the Ark of the Covenant. Only priests could
enter the Holy of Holies on pain of death. Yahweh spoke to the
priests through the Ark of the Covenant which was built to his
specifications. In the Ark were kept the two stone tablets of
the Ten Commandments. The Children of Israel used the Ark as
their secret weapon in battle. But they lost it in battle to the
Philistines. The Philistines' punishment was an affliction of
hemorrhoids. Their goldsmiths had to make gold hemorrhoids to
cure them. After some time, the Hebrews decided to settle in
Canaan. Yahweh directs them to it as the Promised Land. The
Hebrews put villages "to the edge of the sword," killing every
living thing, in order to occupy land they wanted. They moved
into Canaan. They wanted to oust the Philistines (from present
day Palestine), but the Philistines were bigger and fought with
iron weapons.

1250 B.C. There was a southern group made up of one huge tribe
called Judah and one small trive called Benjamin. The other ten
tribes settled in the north and were simply called Israel. They
didn't like each other. Once they get into Canaan, they decide
they like a lot of the Canaanite gods, so they worship them
until about 800 B.C. And they no longer needed patriarchs. Each
local area was ruled by a judge. In general, they were ruled by
prophets who warned them constantly about the Philistines and
the Canaanites.

1100 B.C. Samuel the Prophet was ruling. People came to him and
demanded tha they be ruled by a king. He chooses Saul because he
is a very tall (VERY tall), strong man. Samuel anoints him king.
He was a warrior, a simple man. He tried his best to be king. He
tried to unify the tribes. Samuel generally gave much direction
to Saul. One day Samuel said Yahweh commanded that he put a
village to the edge of the sword. But Saul was trying to make a
deal with a Philistine leader. Samuel comes and hacks the
Philistine to bits with a sword and says the kingship is
withdrawn. Samuel annoints David to be the next king. David was
not related to Saul. Samuel had, by selecting David, cut off
Saul's line. Saul becomes a manic-depressive. The Hebrews
brought David before him to play music for him. They became
friends. Saul gives David a daughter for a wife. One day, Saul
throws a spear at David. He misses, but David leaves and goes
into exile as a cutthroat and a robber, hiring himself and his
followers out to a Philistine king.

At this point, Samuel is dead. Saul is going to battle with the
Philistines. Saul tells one of his generals he wants to speak to
a witch. He goes to the Witch of Endor and asks to speak to the
ghost of Samuel. She does call him up, although she is terrified
of Saul. Samuel's ghost appears and rails at Saul, telling him
he will lose. The next day, he loses. He commits suicide. His
son Jonathan is killed as well. David becomes king.

David is a true charismatic. People just WANT to follow him.
David moves the capital of the nation to Jerusalem and builds an
extra quarter called Zion. He begins to rule. He sees a woman
called Bathsheba and invites her over. She becomes pregnant.
She's married to a Hittite mercenary in David's army named
Uriah. He is captain of 100 men. David sends for Uriah. He
rewards him and says spend the night with your wife, hoping that
they will sleep together and cover the shame of the pregnancy.
But Uriah instead sleeps on David's doorstep. So David writes a
letter to the general of the army. Uriah is to deliver it. He is
honored. The letter says to place Uriah at the hottest point in
the battle and just leave him there. He is killed. David marries
Bathsheba. The baby she carries dies in a very short time. This
is perceived to be their punishment. Later, Bathsheba becomes
pregnant again and gives birth to Solomon. Things begin to go
awry in the land. A prophet Nathan comes to court. Nathan says
he is pleading a suit for another man who owned a single female
ewe. His neighbor owned a whole flock of sheep. One day, his
neighbor rose up and murdered this man just to steal the ewe.
David rises up and asks where the man is and exclaims that he
won't get away with such a deed. Nathan replies, "Thou art the
man." David repents. He is from that point on a great king.
David is doomed never to have a happy life. All of his children
grow up to be rotten and rebellious. On his deathbed, he makes
Solomon his co-ruler because Solomon is not in line for the
throne. David dies. Solomon has both of the brothers who lay
claim to the throne as well as a supporting general murdered.
Solomon is king.

Solomon was very wise and very wealthy -- the wealthiest king in
the history of the Hebrews. He built the Temple of Solomon. He
taxed his people to death. He put them into forced labor all to
build his temple. The Queen of Sheba came to visit him . . . and
from that union came a son Menelek. He founded a new dynasty
called the Lion of Judah.

The story of the baby which Solomon suggests should be cut in
half to appease the two women who lay claim to him is a
political allegory for Solomon's willingness to divide up
Israel. The Song of Solomon and Proverbs were written long after
his death. He had 300 wives and 600 concubines. He was not the
best of kings. By the time of his death, the unification work
was undone. He did not choose a successor. His death marks the
end of the Golden Age of Israel (Saul, David, Solomon). This age
is limited to the reign of David for the Hebrews.

700 B.C. Assyrians are in control. Israel's leaders and families
were replaced by foreigners. Thus the "ten years of the lost
tribes." Judah believed all of Israel was done away with.

600 - 500 B.C. Babylonian Captivity. King Nebuchadnezzar of
Babylon took all the people from Jerusalem to Babylon to build
(700 - 615 B.C.). They were freed when the Persians defeated
Babylon. Eventually, they went back to Jerusalem after having
been heavily influenced by the Babylonians and the Persians.

c. 1500 B.C. The Maccabees, led by Judas Macabee ("The Hammer"),
revolted and regained Jewish independence then lost it to the
Romans. The victory is celebrated at Chanukah. Jerusalem was
destroyed by the Romans 70-72 A.D. The Hebrews dispersed
throughout the world in what is called the Diaspora.

In the beginning . . .

Yahweh was jealous, vengeful, mean, nasty, easily duped (not
exceptionally bright) -- he bore all the faults of humans. He
was the strongest of all the gods, signifying only that the
Hebrews recognized "all the gods." The Tower of Babel was a
tower being built to reach the gods. The gods realized the
people were going to succeed, so the gods struck them with many
languages, causing disunity. Language divided groups spread
throughout the world. Then all the gods spread throughout the
world and chose the groups they wanted to take. Yahweh, the
strongest of all, CHOSE the Hebrews. Thus they are called
the "Chosen People." When the Hebrews came to Babylon, they saw
the ruins of a great ziggurat. The Babylonians called it Bab'
El, "The Gate of God." They were referring to Marduk. The
Hebrews altered this meaning. There was a contest, at one point,
between Yahweh and Baal (Elisha and the Priests of Baal). The
Two Altars.

Yahweh is a mean god. Anyone who breaks the law is finished. A
village was put to the sword. One man kept a small bag of gold.
His punishment: he dies, his immediate family dies, all his
relatives and all their descendants are cursed forever. Yahweh
hardens Pharaoh's heart to NOT let the Hebrews go and then
punishes him by killing the first born of all the Egyptian
families. He is not omnipotent, not omniscient, not smart. Satan
tricked God twice (with Job). Yahweh is very primitive, slow-
witted.

The Hebrews may have developed monotheism from Akhenaten (or
vice versa). The Hebrews practiced temple prostitution.

When the Hebrews returned from Babylon, they brought back ideas
quickly absorbed by the Hebrew people. For instance, second and
third level gods were introduced. After Yahweh, a top echelon of
named gods, and then, millions of unnamed gods were added. They
called those the Watchers (like guardian angels).

c. 800 B.C. The Books of the Hebrews. Edited in 500 B.C. after
the return from Babylon. c. 300 B.C. They created a canon called
the Torah. Shortly thereafter, the Jewish ghetto in Alexandria
could no longer speak or read in Hebrew. Alexandrians spoke
Greek. The Greek translation of the holy scriptures is called
the Septuagint (translated by 70 scholars, yielding a Greek
translation of the Torah in 70 B.C.). Later, a new Torah was
written, throwing out 14 books of scripture. The original Torah,
from which the Septuagint was translated, is no more. From the
Septuagint come the Old Testament of all Christian Catholic
Bibles. In 1611, King James translated from the Torah, resulting
in the Protestant Bible plus the Apocrypha. All the books that
did not get into the Torah are called the Pseudepigraphia, "The
False Books." Included among these is, for instance, the Book of
Enoch. The Midrash, a written documentation of oral tradition,
was written by the Hebrew priests and rabbis circa the Middle
Ages.

Talmud. Explanations and precedents. In 1946, a shepherd found
the Dead Sea Scrolls at Kumran. They are now being translated.
They are the oldest extant books we know of, circa 100 B.C.

The Watchers. There is no English translation. We call
them "messengers" instead. Messengers and Great Messengers. In
Greek, these are the Angelloi and the Archangelloi. These were
gods.

The Hebrews loved lists and labels. A list of the four most
commonly encountered of the lower gods is as follows (none of
these four existed before the Babylonian Captivity):

Michael. (Micha 'El) "He Who Is Like 'El' (God)." The leader of
Yahweh's armies. He is known as the Prince of Peace. He stands
on Yahweh's right. (There were no armchair generals and there
were no left-handed people. The sword was carried in the right
hand. The best warrior defends the vulnerable right side.) He is
the scribe of the gods and a special champion of Israel. He is a
very important figure. He did not exist before the return from
Babylon.

Gabriel. (Gabri 'El) "The Strength of El." He stands on Yahweh's
left. He is the next in power. He is a great judge made of fire
(derived from Shamash). The Announcer. He did not exist before
the Babylonian Captivity.

Raphael. (Rapha 'El) "The Healing Power of El." The god of
healing and and medicine and the physical well-being of humans,
their spiritual and physical welfare. He presides over the souls
of humans. He appears in the Apocrypha.

Uriel. (Uri 'El) "The Fire of El." Described as a divine
emanation, divine radiance. He resides in the Underworld. He is
also knwon as Nasargiel, which probably doesn't mean anything
but is rather a Hebrewization of Nergal of the Babylonians. He
is a psychopomp, a leader of souls. He leads spirits to the
Underworld, and can also lead souls from the Underworld to the
place of judgment.

Sammael. (Samma 'El) "The Poison of El." God of death. He has a
thousand eyes. You cannot escape him. He was sent to destroy the
Egyptian firstborn at the first Passover, when the Hebrews were
told to spread fresh lamb's blood over the doorway to protect
their own children. The feast of Passover is actually a much
more ancient Canaanite feast, the reason for which the Hebrews
couldn't remember.

Rahab. "The Arrogant One." God of the ocean.

Among the lower echelon of gods were the Cherubim, looking like
the Shedu, found on the top of the Ark of the Covenant. They
hold up Yahweh's throne.

The Seraphim are fiery serpents (actually made of fire) with six
pairs of wings. Their role is to fly around the throne of Yahweh
singing "Holy Holy Holy."

Demons

Demons are usually unpleasant. In three ways, they are like
humans: (1) They take nourishment , (2) they propagate, and (3)
they die. In three ways, they are like gods: (1) They know the
future, (2) they can pass through solid objects unhindered, and
(3) they can fly. They can be invisible. They can change size.
They inhabit places humans avoid. They like to spread familial
disunity and unhappiness. They steal things so people will
accuse each other. But deoms have no power over anything which
has been measured, counted, packaged, or sealed.

Creation

The 1st Creation Story. In the beginning, there was the great
primeval chaotic ocean and the spirit of Yahweh. The first thing
he created was light (with the sound of his voice). There were
six days of creation. He created man in his own image. The
seventh day was the Sabbath (from Canaanites), and so he rested.

Chapter 2 begins the 2nd Creation Story. All there is is desert.
A flood comes up and waters the land. The first thing Yahweh
does is create man. He creates the Garden of Eden with the Tree
of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Yahweh
comes looking for Adam. Adam and Eve were hiding because they
were ashamed of their nakedness. Yahweh asks, "Who told you you
were naked?" When the serpent is discovered to be the culprit,
snakes are cursed to crawl on their bellies. Enmity is
established between man and snakes. Women will experience pain
in childbirth and be subject to their husbands. Eve is
the "Mother of All Living Things" (see the Sumerian
Ki/Ninhursag). Yahweh says, "Man has become like us," and he
sends man from the Garden of Eden to keep him from eating of the
Tree of Life and living forever (Archetype: The Lying
Messenger).

The 4th Creation Story appears in Job Chapter 38. It is
architectural and poetic.

The 3rd Creation Story (there are references to it throughout
the Old Testament) surrounds the character called Leviathan. Job
38:8 ". . .who shut in the sea with doors . . . imprisoned the
pride of the ocean." Psalm 74:13 "Thou didst divide the sea by
Thy might, break the heads of the dragons, crushed the head of
Leviathan." (The ocean is a many-headed dragon.) Job 26 ". . .
power stilled the sea, by understanding smote Rahab . . .his
hand pierced the fleeing serpent." Isaiah 27 "Yahweh will punish
Leviathan, the fleeing serpent . . .will slay the dragon." Job
41 Yahweh says, "Leviathan, the sea monster associated with
chaos. Man cannot conquer Leviathan. He is king over all the
sons of pride." Rahab is just a name for Leviathan. Yahweh
imprisoned him and one day will go back and kill him. Leviathan
comes from Lotan. In Hebrew, the word for "ocean" is Tehom, the
plural is Tehomet (from Tiamat). The word was once a proper
noun. Parallels: Ninurta imprisons Kur, Ea kills Apsu, Marduk
kills Tiamat, Baal kills Lotan, and Yahweh defeats Leviathan.

Adam's First Wife

Adamah ("the second layer of soil," "the red clay" [The clay
looked like flesh, like blood. For Hebrews, life is in the
blood.]). Sammael says to Yahweh, he's having difficulty getting
a consort. He asks Yahweh to create one out of the same red
clay. Yahweh creates Lilith. But she didn't like Sammael much
either. She liked Adam, so she went to be his consort. In almost
no time, she began to become uppity. She thought they should be
equal. She demanded the occasional upper position in sex. Adam
refused. She left him. She went off and began having 100
children a day on her own (demons). They are called Lilim. Adam
complains to Yahweh, so Yahweh creates three minor gods and
sends them to bring Lilith back. She refuses. So they begin to
kill 100 of her children a day. She is furious. At one point,
Lilith sneaked in and seduced Adam and gave birth to Shedim,
another group of demons. (Yahweh made Eve of the red clay, too.
She and Adam didn't get along so Yahweh destroyed her and made
another one. Yahweh made and destroyed 6 Eves before making the
7th Eve from Adam's rib. She was Adam's 8th wife.) Lilith goes
on to become two separate characters:

(1) Lilith, also called the "Desert Night Monster" or the "Hairy
Night Monster." She's still angry about the death of her
children. She loves to find women in childbirth, murder the
woman, and devour the infant. (This story used to be used to
explain disposing of children who were born physically
imperfect.) This can be avoided by wearing a medallion around
your neck with the name of Yahweh on it.

(2) A very beautiful woman called Lamia who visits men in their
dreams, seduces them, and drains the life out of them. (The
Romans borrowed this idea in the form of a male, Incubus, and a
female, Succubus.) Lamia can be recognized because she has eyes
on her breasts.

Cain and Abel

Abel is accepted, and Cain is not. This demonstrates the
archetypal preference of herding over farming. The actual murder
is an allegory. Cain murders Abel out in the field. This is a
fertility sacrifice. Yahweh curses Cain: the ground will no
longer yield to him and he must wander. Yahweh protects Cain
from murder by promising vengeance sevenfold on the murderer.

Cain is an eponymous ancestor of the people called
Kenites. "Cain" = "smith." The Mark of Cain lies in an
interesting place. Law in this time had to be law of vengeance
as a deterrent, but it only worked if everyone recognized you
came from a strong tribe. The mark had to be on the hands or
face to be visible. The Kenites would tattoo a simple mark --
two concentric circles or a circle with two perpendicular
transecting lines in the center -- using a piece of copper or
soft metal which can be tapped with a hammer, on their
foreheads. This led to the Greek story of the Cyclops.

Seth is the ancestor of the same people (although it seems
different in the listing). Then Enos and Lamech. In the second
list, there are ten patriarchs (Adam -> Noah). This shows the
Hebrews getting in line with the Sumerian and Babylonian
tradition of King Lists (10 kings before the flood). In all
three lists, all kings live abnormally long lives and the
seventh king is especially favored. Enoch was seventh on the
Hebrew list. He was taken alive into heaven. Lamech is a blind
old man who murders Cain and his grandson in a fit of peak.

The Flood

Genesis 6 (Read the Book of Enoch). At this time, humans became
wild and bored and decadent, and Yahweh became angry. So he sent
a deputation of gods led by Azazel to earth to straighten them
out. They saw what men were doing -- gambling, chasing beautiful
women, fighting, drinking. They decided to chase women, too.
These unions gave birth to demons called Nephilim. They taught
humans how to make weapons and wage war and the art of make-up
and charms (to women). The Nephilim began eating humans and then
each other (cannibalistic giants). This is what caused Yahweh to
decide to destroy the world and everyone in it. He sent a great
flood. Noah and his family all survived. Azazel was chained in
the desert where he became a desert monster -- a sterility god
(Set). Ever after, Azazel and his followers are called the
Fallen Gods, the Fallen Angels. Every year near autumn, Hebrews
would take two goats with a medallion bearing the name of Yahweh
and of Azazel on each. The goat of Yahweh was sacrificed to
Yahweh. The goat of Azazel was ritualistically blamed for all
the sins of the Hebrews. They then drove it out into the desert
to be killed by Azazel ("scapegoat"). This was done on the Day
of Atonement or Yom Kippur.

Flood Story # 1
(Babylonian form)
Flood Story #2
(Sumerian - more scholarly)

Genesis 6:8 Noah found favor. Genesis 6:9 Noah was righteous.
Genesis 7:6 Noah was 600 years old. Genesis 7:11 2/17 600 years.
Genesis 6:19 Two of every animal Genesis 7:2 seven pair of
every clean animal,
one pair of every unclean animal

Yahweh says he will never again destroy mankind. Hamm, father of
Canaan, saw Noah's nakedness. Canaan was cursed. Noah had a
reputation for being a drunk. Shem, Hamm, and Japheth were his
sons. Hamm's son Canaan is 12 years old. Noah fully intended to
have another son who could be the ancestor of all the servants
of his three sons. Canaan didn't like the idea because he didn't
want to share the world with more people. He knew of Noah's
problem with alcohol. He waited for him to be passed out naked,
and he castrated him so that Noah awakens and realizes what has
happened. This is all a political allegory which justifies the
violent takeover of Canaan. (Later, this was used as a
justification for taking African slaves.) Noah could no longer
be a patriarch because he was physically maimed.

The Hebrews also borrowed from the Persians. They borrowed a
philosophy called dualism, a belief that there is only good and
evil in the universe and that they are constantly at odds. On
each side, there is a great god and the two are approximately
equal in power. c. 500 B.C. The Hebrews began to tailor their
religion around this idea. There was a huge gap of time during
which no one is apparently leading the forces of evil. There was
no god powerful enough to challenge Yahweh. So bit by bit for
the next two centuries, they developed an intriguing complex.
They began with the name of a role -> the satan, which means "an
adversary." The job of the satan was to be the Devil's Advocate.
This could be any god filling this position. His job is to tempt
or frighten, to test, to see if people are being true to Yahweh.
The role eventually evolved into a being, Satan. They built into
this character traits from other gods.

From Sammael, Satan takes on the role of the unpopular god who
inhabits the Underworld and is associated with hell. He smells
of sulfur (brimstone).

From Leviathan, Satan has tremendous strength, eagerness to do
battle with Yahweh. He is a disgusting kind of creature,
consumed by arrogance.

From Azazel, Satan disobeys Yahweh. He is a sterility figure.
The Army of Fallen Angels is his. He is THE Fallen Angel. The
goat sacrificed to Azazel gives Satan that association
("capricious" = "goat-like"). The horns, cloven hooves, tail,
goatee.

By 200 B.C., Satan has become a great character. He is a very
late figure in the progression of this religion. Christians used
a reference in Isaiah: "How you are fallen, O Lucifer, Child of
the Dawn." Saint Jerome said that must be it. Lucifer must have
been an archangel, etc., etc. However, Isaiah 14 speaks to King
Nebuchadnezzar, who caused the Babylonian Captivity. He had
fallen insane. "Child of the Dawn" (Lucifer = morning star =
Venus [Latin]) is merely a reference to Nebuchadnezzar's amazing
rise and fall from greatness. The Christian story of Lucifer has
no bibilical foundation.

Samson, the Nazarite

As a young man, Samson kills a lion with his bare hands. He is a
great Hebrew judge except that he loves Philistine women.
Eventually, he ends up with a Philistine temple prostitute named
Delilah. He is incredibly big, unbelievably strong, and really
stupid. Four times, Delilah asked him the secret of his strength
and betrayed him. Eventually he gives in to her and reveals the
secret of his strength: his long hair which is never to be cut.
She betrays him again. The Philistines cut his hair as he sleeps
and seize him, easily overpowering the weakened man. He ends up
replacing an ox on a grinding mill, blind and feeble. But during
his captivity, his hair begins to grow back. He is taken to the
Temple of Dagon, where with his renewed strength, he pushes the
pillars out and kills everyone, including himself. "Samson"
comes from "Shamash." He has a parallel in Greek mythology,
Heracles (Hercules). Heracels kills a lion whose skin cannot be
pierced. He strangles it, skins it, and wears the skin for the
rest of his life. He is done in because of a woman. He builds a
funeral pyre, climbs up on it, and destroys himself. Samson
comes from Enkidu in the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Myths of Persia

The Persians

The Creation Story

Zarathustra

The Universe as Zarathustra Saw It

The After Life

The Persians (An Indo-European Nation)

There were Aryans in the Indus Valley. Some went to India, some
to Persia. Persians call themselves Aryans. They were
called "Persian" by the Greeks. Their religion changed circa 600
B.C. Before this, the gods were Aryan, i.e., Indo-European.
Persia was very insular. They moved in and took the world away
from Babylon in 500 B.C. On the Persian plateau, there were many
petty kingdoms which combined into an empire c. 600 B.C. In
about 100 years, they took over the world.

The Creation Story

In the beginning, Earth was a flat plain under a solid dome with
178 stars and a sun and moon fixed to the dome. The land was
surrounded by the cosmic ocean. Outside the dome were two vague
amorphous deities: the "Benevolent One" Ahura Mazda, and
the "Malevolent One" Angra Mainyu, both of whom were male.

One day, Angra Mainyu decided to mess things up. He broke
through the dome, went down into the ocean, and came back up
through the earth, forming a volcanic mountain. He continued to
do this until the earth was covered with mountains and valleys.
The jarring vibration broke all the stars and the sun and moon
loose and they began to slide westward. At the horizon, they
broke out of the dome, went around to the other side and came
back in. Each made a separate hole, leaving 180 holes on each
side (as in angular degrees).

Ahura Mazda decides to be creative because things are now in
motion. This is the beginning of life. He plants two trees: the
Tree of Seeds (the source of all the other trees in the
universe) and the Tree of White Haoma. Haoma is a sacred drink
(like the Indian "Soma") which gave the gods immortality and all
manner of inspiration. It is considered either very alcoholic or
very narcotic. No one is sure. It is pressed from a plant. It is
a milky white fluid that turns yellow while fermenting. Another
name for it is Amrita, which is the same as Ambrosia, the food
of the Greek gods. It is a vital drink for the gods. Angra
Mainyu is against the Haoma. He sends a great lizard of the
ocean to chew on the roots of the Tree of White Haoma. Ahura
Mazda sends 13 fish to swin in around the roots and keep the
lizard at bay. Eventually the lizard will prevail, but the fish
help to delay this. The Tree of Seeds brings forth all other
trees. All life begins.

Haoma is also personified as a god (very vague) but only to
justify its worship.

Vayu, the God of the Wind. "He Who Goes Forward and He Who Goes
Backward." A very powerful early god. He is neutral until Ahura
Mazda and Angra Mainyu give sacrifices to him. Then Vayu allies
himself with Ahura Mazda.

Anahita, the Great Goddess of Human Fertility. The source of the
cosmic ocean. She purifies the male seed and the mother's womb
and the mother's milk. A very popular goddess worshipped by
temple prostitution. (As a conscription, all young women had to
serve as temple prostitutes. But they were buried alive if they
were caught having sex outside the temple before marriage.)

Tishtrya, the God of Plant and Animal Fertility. Also a storm
god. He brings the rain. In oppostion to Tishtrya is Apaosha,
the God of Draught. The first time they fought, Tishtrya was a
great white stallion with gold trappings and Apaosha was a black
stallion with all black trappings. They fought very hard and
Apaosha was winning. Tishtrya complained to Ahura Mazda that the
reason he was losing was that mankind was not giving him the
proper rituals. So Ahura Mazda himself performed a ritual giving
Tishtrya the strength to win. And humanity learned by this
example never to forget to perform the rituals to Tishtrya. A
complement to Tishtrya is a figure called Rapithwin, the Lord of
the Noonday Heat. This is the heat that is necessary for the
plants to grow. In the winter, Rapithwin retreats to the
Underworld and keeps the subterranean waters warm so the roots
of the plants won't freeze.

Atar. People will say the Persians were fire worshippers. They
did have fire temples devoted to a sacred flame. But they were
not worshipping fire itself. Ahura Mazda has by this time become
the sun god. The Persians really idolize him. He is most
powerful. They thought the sun was made of fire, and that fire
on Earth was sent from the sun, arriving via lightning bolts.
That means that fire on earth is simply an extension of Ahura
Mazda himself. Thus the use of fire in their worship rituals.
But they called earthbound fire Atar, a deity, like a surrogat
Ahura Mazda. To make their sacred flame, they would gather a
huge stack of cut wood to be blessed by a priest outside the
temple. They would bring some wood in and ignite it. To make it
sacred, they poured clarified goat butter on it. Then it would
be sacred and eternal. If a priest let it go out, he would be
buried alive. Their attitude toward fire was different. Our view
is that fire is a purifying agent. But if something fell into
the flame, the Persians considered the flame to be contaminated
and it had to be extinguished.

Zarathustra

628 B.C. Zarathustra is born. 551 B.C. He dies.

He was an enormounsly important prophet. The Persians were
astrologers. The Greeks called him Zoroaster (Zodiac Star). But
he was not an astrologer. Before he was born, his birth was
announced to his mother. He was born with a Favr (an aura --
believed to be a special link with the gods). Zarathustra then
smiled, indicating that even at birth, he was aware. In his
early teens, he withdrew from the world and disappeared. He was
working on his version of true religion. At age 30, he
reappeared. Angra Mainyu tried to tempt him and frighten him out
of teaching his new religion. Zarathustra resisted and began
teaching. (Note the parallels in this story to the stories of
Christ and Buddha.) For ten years, no one would listen to
Zarathustra. Finally he converted a king, and the kingdom
followed. But the king's counselors were jealous and slandered
Zarathustra, landing him in prison. He talked a lot with Ahura
Mazda and wrote what became the core of the Persian canon the
Avesta. He was later released and became a leader. At 77, he was
worshiping in a fire temple when robbers broke in and he was
killed.

The Universe as Zarathustra Saw It

Ahura Mazda is most powerful. He created Spenta Mainyu and Angra
Mainyu. They have free choice of the principles they embrace.
Spenta Mainyu chose Asha (good) and Angra Mainyu chose Druj
(evil), thus the advent of dualism. We are all products of
dualism. This ideology has prevaded the entire Western World.
There are also Righteousness and Wickedness, Order and Chaos,
Truth and The Lie (Persians are in the Truth category --
everyone else is part of The Lie). Each side has an army. Spenta
Mainyu has the Ahuras. Angra Mainyu has the Daevas. Ahura Mazda
is on the side of Spenta Mainyu. They eventually merge into a
single god Ormazd. Angra Mainyu becomes Ahriman.

There are also a number of "archangels" in several categories:

(1) Amesha Spenta, "The Blessed Beloved Ones." There are six of
them. Each has two characteristics: something in nature and some
human virtue.

(2) Yazata. There are 40 of them. They are all standard gods.
The most famous is Mithras whose cult spread throughout the
world. He was a god of oaths and vows and contracts, all of
which were sealed by swearing to Mithras. He is shown grabbing a
bull's head and thrusting a sword into it. His name comes to
mean "contract" as a common noun.

The After Life

When a man dies, the spirit waits for three days on Earth. On
each of the three nights, it contemplates: (1) the things he
said, (2) the things he thought, and (3) the things he did. The
spirit then travels to Chinvat, "The Bridge of the Requiter"
("requite" = "to give back in kind") where one is going to get
one's comeuppances. If you were middle of the road, you would go
to Hamstagen, total oblivion. If you were really good, you would
be met by a beautiful young girl who would take you by the hand
and lead you across the Chinvat. The young woman represents the
conscience, which is hardly used in the life of one who is good.
That is why she is young. If you have been evil, you are met by
a disgustingly ugly old hag who signals to a couple of ogres who
take clubs and drive you onto the bridge, which is now like a
sword blade turned on edge. You cut yourself up and fall right
off into a vat of molten metal. You end up in the House of the
Lie, a place of eternal torment, depending on what you did. If
you were good, you go to the House of Song, an eternal paradise.
Followers of Zarathustra thought this was too harsh. Even when
he was an old man, they were beginning to change this: On a day
called Frashkart, "The Rehabilitation of the Universe," a person
called Saoshyant, "He Who Saves," will save everyone. They hoped
it would be Zarathustra, but after he died, it developed so that
it would just be a descendant of Zarathustra and they would know
by the stars. Frashkart meant that the Saoshyant would reunite
the souls to the bodies. They would all pass through the molten
metal, only it would not hurt and they would be cleansed to go
on to the House of Song. Ahriman and his followers would either
be annihilated or sent to the House of the Lie.

Christianity

Yeshuah -> Jesus Christ

The Immaculate Conception

The Crucifixion

The Passover Plot

Christmas

The Holly and the Ivy
Saint Nicholas
Advent
Halloween

Easter

Christianity borrowed heaven, hell, and limbo (the afterlife
destination for anyone never exposed to Christianity) from the
Persians. Christians added Purgatory. "Washed in the Blood of
the Lamb" comes from the passage through molten metal (see "The
After Life" in Myths of Persia). Virtually all the tenets of
Christianity come from this culture.

Yeshuah - "Yahweh is Salvation" -> Joshua. The New Testament was
all written in Greek. Yeshuah was translated as "Jesus." Yeshuah
was born in Nazareth. His " last name" was Messiah or "the
Annointed One." In Geeek, this was translated to Christos. He
was a real man. Our only sources of information are the four
gospels ("gospel" = the good message) which should be in the
order Mark, Matthew, Luke, John, rather than that with which we
are familiar. John is the inspirational one. Mark was not
written earlier than 72 A.D., and was based on an earilier
written work in oral tradition. Matthew and Luke were written
circa 80-85 A.D. Both were based on Mark and the "Q Document"
(of unknown origin). John was written circa 90-110 A.D. None of
these men were disciples. In addition, we have a pseudepigraphic
text for the New Testament which is referred to as the "Lost
Books of the Bible." The Christian canon was not set until c.
400 A.D. by Saint Jerome, with these other books left out. The
authors of the gospels had quite a challenge in writing the
biography of a man dead now forty or fifty years. Only Mark saw
Yeshuah alive. Yeshuah never said anything about his background.
Matthew and Luke tried to write full biographies. Luke is known
as the man who gave us Christmas. Mark started in Yeshuah's
adult life. Matthew and Luke are called mythographers. They had
to make the beginning up, so they first set out to fulfuill all
the prophecies from Isaiah, etc. We have to try to figure out
what might have actually happened.

The predicted appearance of the Messiah led to the appearance of
many Messiahs. Yeshuah was born in the reign of Herod (20 B.C. -
4 B.C.) When Gregory was setting up the calendar, he missed one
olympiad. It is believed he was actually born in 20 B.C. because
he was called "rabbi" which was a title only used on men over
50. He was descended from the house of Jesse (as was David). The
genealogies in Matthew and Luke are not the same but both trace
Yeshuah back to Jesse.

The Immaculate Conception

The "Immaculate Conception" actually refers to the conception of
Mary and not that of Yeshuah. Her mother's name was Anna. Her
father was Joachim. Anna became pregnant without Joachim.
Christians believed that sin passed through the father. ("Divine
Conception" is almost always the coupling of a male god and a
human woman. Usually the god takes the form of a bird.) Anna
gives birth to Miriam (whose name becomes Mary much later). She
was a very bizarre young lady. No man wanted her. In the village
of Nazareth, all the single men were called out. Joseph's
walking staff suddenly sprouted leaves and a dove perched on top
of it. He was selected to betrothe himself to Mary. Joseph knew
that if people saw Mary pregnant, they would stone her. (In
1852, the Pope declared Mary a permanent virgin.)

When the readers of the Septuagint saw that the Messiah would be
born to an Almah (a young woman old enough to give birth), they
could only translate this into "virgin," as there is no
equivalent word. From that, the writers of Matthew and Luke
thought that, in order to fulfill prophecy, Mary had to be a
virgin. Luke 2, A Roman census is to be taken. (1) But Romans
would not allow men to leave their home to be counted. (2) No
Roman census was taken at this time. One of the reasons Yeshuah
was not accepted by the Jews is that he was a Nazarene, i.e.,
not a Jew born in Bethlehem. We have no idea what time of year
it was. Until 400 A.D., Christmas was celebrated in May. So they
went to Bethlehem and there was no room at the inn -- why? To
symbolize a simple, humble beginning. His birth was signalled by
the stars. (In the pseudepigraphia, it is said that this stellar
message was in accordance with the prophecy of Zarathustra.) In
the story of Abraham, at his birth a star moved from the East
and stood over the place of his birth. Zarathustra, Buddha,
Noah, Moses, etc. -- all were born with an aura. This set the
precedent for Jesus. The magi arrived (Persian
astrologers) "according to the prophecy of Zarathustra,"
bringing gold, frankincense, and myrrh (symbolizing earthly
kingship, spritual kingship, and early death). By the Middle
Ages, the three magi have names and physical descriptions.
Kaspar is a tall, slim elderly man (70-80 years old). Melchior
is younger, shorter, more robust (40-50 years old). Balthazar is
taller and black (40-50 years old). The crêche is the nativity
scene. The magi go to Herod and tell him of the birth of the
child which they have read in the stars. Herod sends soldiers
into Bethlehem to slaughter every male under the age of 2.
(Classically, it is called the Slaughter of the Innocents. This
is historically innacurate. It is an archetype.)

An angel sends Mary and Joseph to Egypt to escape the purge,
(called the "Flight to Egypt") which fulfills an Old Testament
prophecy: "Out of Egypt I have called my son . . ." But this
text is really referring to the Exodus. Jesus's other appearance
before adulthood is at the temple (analogy to Buddha). It is not
just his wisdom that astounds the priests, but the fact that he
knows EVERYTHING. Mark 6:3 discusses Jesus's brothers and
sisters. There are 18 lost years before Yeshuah appears and
begins teaching. Yeshuah is not very nice to his mother. Some
believe he had to have been married as a young man in the
occupation of a carpenter (rather than a prophet). John 2 (when
Jesus turns the water into wine) may be a recounting of Jesus's
wedding. Who is being married? Customarily, the groom provided
the food and drink. It does not make much sense that Mary would
have come to Jesus to tell him that the wine had run out if he
was merely a guest at the wedding. Perhaps he was married to
Mary Magdalene. There is no evidence that she was ever a
prostitute. Yeshuah was very well-versed in the teachings of the
Essene.

When Yeshuah begins his work, he is baptized by John the
Baptist. Yeshuah goes into the wilderness for 40 days and 40
nights to be tempted (like Zarathustra and Buddha). Yeshuah was
a first-class charismatic (and very appealing to the poor). He
never claims to be the Messiah. Only his followers do. There is
scientific evidence of the validity of "faith healing" or what
is medically referred to as "hysterical reversal." In Luke 8,
the hemorrhaging woman looks to be healed by touching the
garment of Jesus. "Someone touched me, for I felt the power go
out of me." The resurrection of Lazarus is part of
the "Wandering Jew" archetype, a synthesis of Cain, Lazarus, and
Cartophilus (a Greek Jew standing on the Street of Sorrows where
the cross was carried -- Yeshuah looks at him and says, "You
shall wait here until I return."). As in the Rime of the Ancient
Mariner, for example.

Yeshuah was a very bright man. Much of what is told is
fascinating because of the eyewitness detail. The priests were
threatened by Yeshuah. They would try to trap him verbally, test
him publicly with dilemmas. He spoke in parables because it was
safer to avoid arrest. He used to squat down and doodle in the
dirt before answering the dilemmas.

The Crucifixion

Yeshuah comes into Jerusalem on a white donkey. Palm fronds are
laid in his path. He has The Last Supper, followed by The Arrest
(The Betrayal by Judas Iscariot). He is taken to the Sanhedron
and found guilty of heresy. He is turned over to the Romans, and
Pontius Pilate finds him guiltless. But to appease the mobs of
people and the Jewish leaders, he has Jesus scourged and then
crucified. He washes his hands. Jesus is crucified at 9 A.M. on
Friday. While he is on the cross, he is offered vinegar and gall
on a sponge to ease the pain. At 3 P.M. he dies. Joseph of
Arimathea takes his body to his own tomb. Three days pass. The
Harrowing of Hell. He returns on Sunday and stays for 40 days,
after which he ascends (The Ascension).

In the Passover Plot by Schonfield, it is hypothesized that
James, his brother, may have taken his place on the cross, and
that Yeshuah fled to Japan. The book is the result of much
research. Yeshuah was constantly doing things without the
disciples' knowledge. Mary Magdalene and Judas Iscariot were his
inner circle. But a lot of plans were in motion. The entrance
into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday) was all prearranged. Yehsuah
arranged for Judas to turn him in. A reference is made to this
at the Last Supper. As he prays at the Mount of Olives, Yeshuah
says, "Take this cup from me." Judas's kiss on the cheek was
unnecessary because Yeshuah was easily identifiable. He was
condemned by the Sanhedron without saying a word. We know that
Pontius Pilate was a vicious sadistic animal who crucified every
chance he got. Crucifixion was a form of humiliation on a main
traveled road. The victims were hung completely naked, their
feet less than 18 inches off the ground. The public was
encouraged to taunt and hurt the victims. They were tied to the
cross. Nails were driven through the hands and feet
occasionally. Crucifixion was mainly death by asphyxiation
caused by the victim's inability to properly breathe when
suspended in that position. Yeshuah's brother James was a
physician. Between Judas and James, this was set up. The
narcotic in the sponge made him appear dead. Passover begins at
sunset on the day of the crucifixion. Hebrew law does not allow
crucifixion on any holy day. He appears to die. Jospeh of
Arimathea goes to Pilate asking for "the body of my master,"
Pilate says, "You can have the corpse." A spear is thrust in the
side of the body by a Roman guard to make certain that he is
dead. They could not have foreseen the scourging and the spear
in the side. Yeshuah could not have foreseen this. The sightings
after his death. Mary Magdalene, his constant companion for
several years, goes to see Yeshuah's body. She sees a gardener
who tells her the body is gone. She thinks the gardener is
Yeshuah? Two disciples are walking to Emmaus and see a man who
asks why they are so glum. They think the guy must have been
Yeshuah. Even in the Upper Room, Yeshuah appears. Doubting
Thomas questions him. Schonfield feels the whole thing was a
plan to take the heat off him for a while.

When he dies, the temple curtain is rent in twain, signifying
the opening of the sanctuary. In the pseudepigraphia, the murder
of Zechariah (John the Baptist's father) led to the same thing.
Judas Iscariot dies two different ways according to the New
Testament. No real information is available.

All of this is in the Persian tradition referred to earlier.

Yeshuah is looked upon as the sacrificial lamb. In
Hebrew, "Pascha" is the word for Passover. Yeshuah is the Pascal
lamb whose blood turns away the Angel of Death (Sammael). In the
Eastern Orthodox Church, between Good Friday and Easter Sunday,
the priests say to the congregation, "Is Christ risen?" to which
the congregation responds, "Yes, he is risen!" This parallels
the ritual greeting of worshipers of Baal. In the Book of Mark,
the Ascension is discussed. This discussion was not part of the
original text. It was added later. Easter is celebrated on the
first Sunday after the first full moon, after the Vernal
Equinox. This date is linked with fertility ritual and not with
the actual date of Christ's resurrection.

Christmas

In Mediterranean, or more specifically Roman, tradition, the
Winter Solstice marked the beginning of an 8-day celebration
called Saturnalia. This celebration was dedicated to Saturn, the
god of fertility, and was meant to bring back fertility after
the harsh winter. Masters and slaves would change places for the
8-day period and they would exchange gifts. Another significant
day fell during this period. It was the birthday of Mithras, and
it fell on December 25. It is also called the Birth of Sol
Invictus, the "Incomparable Sun" (Natalis Sol Invictus).
Mithras, the sun, had been getting weaker since Summer Solstice.
The Winter Solstice on December 21 symbolized rebirth and new
strength. Symbols of rebirth and fertility were widely used.
Evergreen trees were placed in every house and also in the
public square. A sunburst was placed on the top of the tree to
represent Sol himself. All-colored trinkets were hung on the
tree to symbolize forthcoming blooms.

In Northern Europe, Scandinavian and Celtic traditions
intermingled. The Scandinavians were worshiping their sun god
Frey, a golden beam with a solid gold boar (sunburst). Their
view was that Frey was receding from the earth. On Mother Night
(the longest night of the year) he began to turn around, taking
12 days. Theirs was a celebration of his impending return. The
sun was thought of as a huge wheel rolling across the sky. Jul
Tide (pronounced "yule tide") means "Season of the Wheel." This
was the 12 day celebration. A huge feast was had. The golden
boar was the symbol of Frey, so a roast pig or boar was served
with an apple in the boar's mouth served whole. Many early
English carols reference the boar's head. Many inns bear the
symbol in their name or decor because it is a symbol of
celebration and good will. In Scandinavia, of course, it was
VERY cold at this time of the year. The towns would bring in
a "Jul" log. They chose oak (which was sacred to Thor) to be the
yule log. The whole trunk and roots would be uprooted and set in
the center of the town to burn for 12 days straight. Eventually
this tradition was cut back to 12 hours because of the shortage
of wood. Today, at the end of the 12 hour period, they put out
the fire and keep one small piece of the wood and store it away
with the Christmas decorations. Next year they ignite the new
log with the small piece to link last year's good fortune to the
next. Outside, the druids had their own form of worship. They
gathered around the sacred ash tree (like the World Tree in
Scandinavian mythology) to worship Frey. They hung a golden
(painted) apple on the tree to represent the sun and flowers,
and they lit candles. The tree became a very popular celebration
symbol.

Yeshua was probably born in May. December 25 was the date set in
400 A.D. to coincide with the Birth of Mithras to overlay
previous pagan practice with Christian ideals. By the Middle
Ages, a common decoration was called the "paradise tree" which
was hung ordinary apples (i.e., Eden) and a Star of Bethlehem on
top. In Germany, especially, the tree was very treasured. In the
mid-1500's, Martin Luther was going out to cut a tree down and
he saw stars through the branches and put candles on the tree
emulate this. In Germany, the Christmas tree was put up only for
a day, so the tree was very wet -- not the same fire hazard it
is today to place candles on the branches.

In America, c. 1810, everyone has the trees. In England, c.
1900, Prince Albert wanted a reminder of Germany and instituted
the tradition there as well.

The Holly & the Ivy

The holly and the ivy represent the male and the female. Both
are plants not damaged by winter and therefore considered hearty
and brave. Ivy is female, it clings to things. Holly grows up
through the snow and is male because of the phallic spines on
the leaves. Druids used little golden sicles to cut mistletoe
off trees, a symbol of friendship although it is actually a
parasite. If two foes met for battle and discovered they were
standing under a tree with mistletoe on it, they would not fight
that day. Later it was used in homes for a kiss on the cheek.
You are supposed to take one berry off for each kiss.

Mexican people used Poinsettias for a starburst symbol. In the
1800's, the plants were brought in by Dr. Joel Poinset
(ambassador to Mexico).

Saint Nicholas

Nicholas was a real man (maybe), but a saint for sure. He was
born in 270 A.D. on the southwest coast of Anatolia (Asia
Minor). Orphaned at the age of 9, he was taken in by a good
family. Aware of his good fortune, he was very generous. He
would always help and give to the poor. In the village lived a
nobleman with his three daughters. At some point, the nobleman
went broke. He could not allow anyone to find out. The town
would be devastated. All three daughters were marriageable but
they had no dowry. He asked the servants to leave secretly. They
had to cook and clean. They had to hang clothing inside the
house to dry. Nicholas, at the age of 16 or 17, found out what
had befallen the nobleman. He worked hard for a whole year and
took the money and made it into a solid gold ball. He went to
the nobleman's house, threw the gold ball in the window and ran
away. The ball landed in one of the stockings which had been
hung up to dry inside the house. So now the oldest daughter
could get married. After two more years, Nicholas did it again.
The final time, the nobleman went outside to see who was doing
this. Nicholas had saved them. Nicholas left and traveled to
Myra (south coast of Anatolia, further east). There was a storm
on the sea while he was on the ship. He calmed the storm. In
Myra, the Bishop died and the priests could not decide who would
replace him. One had a vision. Yahweh told him that tomorrow
morning, the first person to walk into the church would be the
next bishop. Of course it was Nicholas. Nicholas felt unworthy
but the priests insisted. He reigned as bishop for nearly 60
years. While he was bishop, three young boys went on a trip and
didn't return. The parents went to Nicholas for help. Nicholas
went off to find them. They had stopped at an inn with some
money. The innkeeper had murdered them, chopped them into pieces
and put them in a pickling barrel to hide them. Nicholas brought
them back to life whole. Thus his title as the Patron Saint of
Children. He died December 6, 323 A.D. -> Saint Nicholas Day.

The story of the golden balls became symbolic of getting help
from others -> golden balls were displayed outside of pawn
shops. 1000 A.D. Nicholas became the Patron Saint of Russia.
1100 A.D. he became the Patron Saint of the Norman French, too.
He became more popular than any other saint. By 1400, over 500
sings had been written about him. Because of his generosity,
Norman French nuns began giving to the poor on Saint Nicholas
Day (or Eve). This tradition spread through Europe. The Church
used the Alms box. They would open it and distribute from it to
the poor on what was called "Boxing Day." Employers set up boxes
for the same thing which would be given to employees. In
Germany, "Christ Bundles" was the name used for gifts given at
this time. Annual parades included a Chirst child distributing
gifts to children. In Holland, a very economically ingenious
country, the Dutch encouraged children to put money all year
into a yule box. At the end of the year, the money was used to
help pay for the roast pig. This evolved into the modern usage
of piggy banks. Saint Nicholas rides in the German parade, tall
and slim in a red bishop's robe. An amalgam of Odin's Wild Ride,
Nicholas' long white beard, Father Christmas with red robe and
red hood (Père Noel) began to emerge. The Dutch preferred
Nicholas and brought him to America when they came. He had
become by that time an elf called Sinte(r) Klaas -> Santa Claus.
He always wore a fur-lined coat, smoked a pipe, and would ride
in a sled pulled by reindeer. When Germans came over, they
contributed the name Krist Kindle (Christ Child) -> Kris
Kringle.

The Santa Claus figure grew in this country. In Europe, Father
Christmas is his counterpart. As soon as gifts began being given
in the same of St. Nick, parents began bribing their children
with it. If you were bad, a little bad guy would bring you
either coal or a bundle of switches to be used all year long.
The dark associate of Father Christmas does not apply to Santa
Claus. Washington Irving in the "Knickerbocker Tales" discusses
the elf Santa Claus who puts presents in stockings just like St.
Nick. Circa 1820, the first breakthrough: Clement Clark Moore
wrote a poem for his daughters called "Twas the Night Before
Christmas." The real name is "A Visit from Saint Nicholas." He
introduced many new elements, i.e., eight named reindeer, etc.
Donner is supposed to be Donder (Thunder). But the Santa image
was still an elf with eight tiny reindeer. During the Civil
War, "Harper's Weekly" had in its employ Thomas Nast (considered
by many to be the greatest political cartoonist ever), who was
commissioned to draw a series of Santa Claus cartoons. After the
Civil War, Nast went on to draw Santa Claus. The publishing
company (McLaughlin Brothers Printing Company) experimented with
the color of the leather of Santa's dress. They rested finally
on red. In the early 20th Century, many famous illustrators
painted Santa Claus. But in 1931, the final change took place. A
large company hired Haddon Sundblom (a Scandinavian) to
illustrate Santa Claus. He was delighted, but before his work
was complete, his model died. A friend suggested he use himself
as model. For 25 years, he fashioned Santa after his own face.
The company was Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola Santa Claus with black
belt and boots is now virtually an unchangeable icon of the
Christmas tradition.

In 1941, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was invented by a man
working for a radio station. He wrote a poem and eventually met
up with a songweriter who wrote the music. Gene Autry made the
first recording of the song.

Advent started in the 9th Century, The countdown is started on
the Sunday nearest to Saint Andrews Day (November 30).

Halloween (Hallow E'en) Hallowed Evening/All Hallows Evening.

In ancient times, the new day was believed to have begun at
sunset. The celebration of the festival of the dead goes back to
prehistoric times. It was a celebration to commemorate the dead.
The time of year was selected because the harvest is over, the
earth is now dying. The dead get to come back to the earth from
sunset to sunrise. They tended not to be in a very good mood.
Graveyards were decorated to put the spirits in a better mood.
Colored leaves, shocks of wheat or grain, dead flowers were all
used. Homes were set up with food and drink for the dead. In
Babylonia, this was done once a month. Indo-Europeans enjoyed
this celebration the most. They were a wild bunch, boisterous
and exuberant. The quintessential Indo-Europeans were the Celts.
They divided the year into four quarters, marked by four major
days:

November 1 - Samhain (pronounces SOW-en), the Day of the Dead,
New Year's Day. (The celebration was only for the dead of this
past year who are awaiting going to the Underworld.) If the dead
could take over someone else's body, they could avoid going to
the Underworld. Those who were believed to have already been
taken over were sacrificed to protect the others. Only the evil
dead tried to do this. To avoid the evil ones: (1) The Celts
would put out the hearth fire (a fire which otherwise burned all
year round) -- all but one live coal which was carried to a
hillside where a bonfire was laid out and ready to be lit. Then
all the villagers would toss their coals in. The bonfire was
meant to frighten the spirits away. (2) The people of the town
dressed up as corpses to frighten the evil spirits. Good spirits
were going to come hom, so homes were decorated. Meals were
prepared. People dressed as spirits of the dead would wander
through the village and ask for food and drink in exchange for a
performance. These wanderers were called mummers. This practice
slowly devolved to teenagers instead of adult. It was then used
as a method of getting revenge. In the 20th Century, smaller
children began participating. Ghouls = eaters of human flesh
(corpses). Necrophygy = the eating of the dead. The church
objected to pagan rituals so they overlaid the festival with
Christian principles. In 600 A.D., Pope Gregory I set November 1
to be All Hallows Day, or All Saints Day, to commemorate all
saints and martyrs known or unknown. c. 900 A.D., November 2 was
made All Souls Day to commemorate all the dead.

The church began to campaign against Halloween because it was
one of the witches' sabbaths. Witchcraft is a very ancient and
honored profession with both male and female practitioners.
Witches use magic, not the miraculous power of a god. Egyptians
and Sumerians had gods who knew magic. But witches knew magic
better than priests. c. 1000 B.C., Hebrews outlawed witchcraft.
They knew witches could call up spirits of the dead. c. 300
B.C., witches became associated with Satan. On the Witches'
Sabbath, witches' covens would meet and perform fertility
rituals. They built a bonfire, danced around it, had orgies,
performed "sympathetic magic" for fertility [Christians
perverted this event in the telling, saying they danced around
naked and covered with oil from the fat of murdered infants,
helping to invoke Satan.] Halloween is the one time of the year
when Satan can be called up to ask questions about love. He
appears as a huge goat and each of the witches kisses his ,
behind. Then he has sex with every single witch, male or female.
They then all participate in Witches' Brew (a kind of porridge
made of dead babies, animal heads, insects, urine, excrement).
The common idea of a witch's appearance comes from the puritan
dress of elderly women. The broom is really a besom, a broom
made of twigs used to clean cottages. It is really a phallic
symbol (riding the broom). The witch needs a helper,
a "familiar" ( a spirit occupying the body of a small animal,
e.g., black cats, ravens, owls).

Irish wakes are a direct descendant of this celebration of the
dead. Long ago, there was a man named Jack -- a very mean and
nasty but clever man. One Halloween, he invoked Satan and
somehow tricked him into getting into a tree. He then carved a
cross into the tree so Satan couldn't leave. He then got him to
promise certain things before allowing him to get down out of
the tree. Jack died, and Saint Peter sent him down to hell.
Satan appeared and denied him entrance, and laid a curse on him
to wander the earth forever to lead traveler's astray to their
deaths. Satan hollowed out a turnip and lit an ember in it so
travelers would follow his lantern. The various derivatives of
the story are Jack o' Lantern, Will o' the Wisp, Foxfire,
Fairyfire, Fool's Fire (which comes from the Roman Ignis
Fatuus, "the fire of fools"). Nobody traveled at night, which
meant you went to an inn as soon as you saw it was getting dark.
Any sign of light would be an easy lure. (This possibly came
from instances of swamp fire caused by methane gas or static
electricity, like Saint Elmo's Fire or Ball Lightning.)

The colors black and orange represent death and the harvest.

Myths of Scandinavia

The Scandinavians

The Creation Story

The World Tree

Gods of Scandinavia

Loki and His Children

Treasures of the Gods

Idun's Apples

The Theft of Kvassir

Sleipnir (Odin's Mount)

Aegir's Kettle

The Theft (and Recovery) of Mjollnir

Thor Faces Geirrod

The City of Utgard-Loki

The Children of Odin

The Children of Thor

Those Who Died a Straw Death

Those Who Died Valiantly

Fimbul

The Scandinavians (an Indo-European people)

What we know today as Scandinavia was called Jutland. It was
first populated in 10,000 B.C. (meso/neo-lithic period). It was
primitive until 3000 B.C. with the beginning of agriculture. We
don't know how it developed. It was a tenable pursuit at that
time. 1500 B.C. Indo-Europeans came in and eclipsed the
population there because they had metal weapons (copper mostly,
some bronze). Indo-European (a language family) is a postulated
language (none found, no words known, no origin known). In the
19th Century, someone recognized Indian and European
similarities in certain words, investigated this, and discovered
that the languages of India, Persia, and most of Europe all had
cognates that were the same or slightly varied. It was
eventually figured out that a mother tongue possibly began
somewhere around the southern steppes of Russia, possibly as
faras Bulgaria. It spread in two directions, East and West. The
West is called the Centum Branch (100 Latin languages). The East
is called the Shatum Branch (100 Sanskrit languages). These are
the two major divisions. The Centum side is vast and varied.
This may explain the parallels between Celtic, Scandinavian, and
Indian, mythologies.

Indo-European:

Scandinavian/Germanic
Celtic
Romance
Slavic
Finno-Uguric:

Finnish
Estonian
Magyar: (a difficult language, 17 case endings for each noun not
counting gender and number) began very far north, the peoples
spread across Northern Russia, Manchuria, China, and Mongolia.
They were stopped by the Holy Roman Empire in the Hungarian
Basin where they stayed.
Basque: the maverick language of Europe. No origin is known. Not
very many speakers eacept in the Pyrenees and in Idaho. The
Basques have been in the Pyrenees as long as we know. They speak
Basque, French, and Spanish.

The Scandinavians (Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic) used
to be Norse (Swedish/Norwesgian), Jutlanders (or Jutes [next to
Denmark]), and from Denmark itself. What originally was the same
language family with dialectic differences evolved into separate
languages. The Jutes moved into Britain and settled into
southeast Kent. Jutland is the buffer between Denmark and
Germany.

The Scandinavians were not Vikings -- Norse, maybe. They are
best known as Vikings, but a Viking is a Scandinavian pirate --
a mariner who sails to the unknown, but basically a pirate.
Circa the 8th Century, they expanded like crazy. They wanted to
colonize, loot, trade, make war, obtain more land. They were a
very wild bunch. They could sail anywhere. Their boats were
designed so that 14 inches of water was sufficient depth for
them to sail. They sailed and plundered on every major river in
Europe. They went to Iceland. Erik the Red thought of calling
Greenland "Iceland" and Iceland "Greenland," despite their
respective characteristics. Those who went to Iceland, stayed
isolated. So today, old Norse text can still be read by
Icelanders. Thus our knowledge of their mythology. Circa 790,
they hit Britain and began to maraud. They made their way all
through France because of the rivers. In 920, Charles the Bold
(King of France) gave a large segment of land to the "Northmen."
It became known as Northmansland, or Normandy. William the
Conqueror was of Scandinavian descent, but the people of
Normandy spoke French. The Red People, the Rus, populated Russia
(those who went east). Most of Russia was populated by
Scandinavians. They went to Ireland and founded the Town of the
Black Pool, Dubhlinn, which became Dublin. Although, Dublin was
founded by Norsemen, Northern Irish was spoken there until the
1200's. The Norse sailed north around Scotland to get to
Ireland. Some settled in northern Scotland. Some went on to
Ireland. They were driven out and fled to the Western Scottish
Isles. Many Scots are not purely Celtic -- the northern and
western clans especially. There was a great deal of
intermarriage. Primary Scandinavian stock (Nordic stock) was
tall with light hair, light eyes, and light skin. Survival of
the fittest and selective breeding yielded a large, strong
people -- a very powerful people.

The Move into Scandinavia

The first Scandinavians (Indo-Europeans) came in 1500 B.C. In
500 B.C., iron weaponry developed, and a severe climatic shift
took place, destroying agriculture and herding. Food became
short. Circa 100 B.C., they came in contact with the Romans and
learned to value gold, money, ceramics for cookware and other
uses, cloth, fine linen. They didn\'t have much to trade but fur
(from wolves and bears) and slaves (Scandinavians didn't use
them, but the Romans did). The Vikings plundered because of the
values the Romans taught them. They were called Vikings in the
late 700's A.D.

The first official raid was in 789 in Portland Bill, England.
The mayor of the town sent a representative to the Vikings to
negotiate. The representative was beheaded. Vikings traveled 30-
40 men per boat. They were never in a good mood. They traveled
across ivy waters in terrible weather. They had to row. Even
their horses were mean.

The second major raid was an Abbey at the Scottish border on the
eastern coast of England. There are carvings of Vikings coming
with both hands raised, one with an axe and one with a sword.
They were big, powerful, dirty, angry men -- with axes. If met
by armed knights, their axes could remove a horse's head in one
blow. They hacked people to bits. They weren't afraid. They were
never sent into battle -- they were always led. The chief led
them at the forefront (not the divine right of kings system).
Men would kill the leader in a heartbeat. They chose the best
fighters to surround the leader. They chose nearly psychotic men
to be the armed guard. These men would go out alone and kill a
bear and wear the skin. Before battle, the armed guard would
drink lots of mead (a liqueur like Drambuie or Irish Mist). But
they drank to the point where they got to be mean drunks, not
falling-down drunk. They whipped themselves into a battle
frenzy. They were known as the Bear Shirts or the Bear Skirts ->
Berserk. They were called Berserkers. There were only a handful
of these men per Viking army.

Battle Frenzy

It is a worldwide phenomenon that various kinds of people do
various things to themselves to become invincible in battle. The
Hashashin (the origin of the word "assassin") in the East smoked
hashish before killing a man even though they would die. The
Celts decoratedthemselves like wild men and went into battle
naked. In Indo-China, warrior took opium to numb themselves and
wrapped wet bamboo around their testicles. When it dried, it
shrank, causing them great pain. This practice is what is known
as "running amok." In battle, these men would behave in a crazed
and fearless fashion, making them all the more dangerous. That's
why the .45 was invented in 1910. A successful weapon could not
just wound; it had to knock the enemy down. The Berserkers are
responsible for a large part of the Viking reputation. They
terrified the people of Europe. One reason for their fierceness
and cruelty is that Scandinavian religion was very pessimistic.
They had virtually nothing to live for. The best fate possible
was to die heroically. The worst fate was what was called a
Straw Death, or "to die on the straw bed," i.e., to die in one's
sleep. This attitude is similar to that of the Old American
West: "A cowboys gotta die with his boots on." Much of the
attitudes of Britain and Northern Europe comes from this. They
used understatement a lot. The British still love to use it. In
an Olde English poem called "The Battle of Mauldin," in
describing a king's bitter defeat, it says, ". . . and that king
had very little cause to rejoice." If captured, they might not
die bravely. They died sneering at their captors. They had to
prove their hatred. Another use of understatement appears in one
of the sagas: "Those new broad-plated boar spears are very
popular these days."

They lived a hard life, but had a strong sense of humor, and a
strong sense of pathos and love. They loved to laugh more than
anything. This explains the presence of humor in Scandinavian
mythology.

Pronunciation:

j = /y/ (as in "fjord")
ei = /i/
vowels are the same as in the rest of Europe
These stories are primarily from Iceland.

Myths of Scandinavia

The Creation Story

In the beginning, Muspelheim is in the South. Niflheim is in the
North. In between is the great spring Hvergelmir. Hvergelmir is
located in Ginungagap, a chasm between Muspelheim and Niflheim.
Ginungagap means "gap of gaps." Niflheim is nothing but ice.
Muspelheim is nothing but fire. Hvergelmir is a huge boiling
spring of water slowly melting the ice of Niflheim. Surtri is a
proto-god in Muspelheim. Surtri is the name of fire deified.
Niflheim is the largest area (Archetype: Most creation stories
begin with a body of chaotic water -- in Scandinavia the water
is frozen.). The action of the ice melting creates a giant
called Ymir. [Note: Male giants are pretty much inherently evil
in Scandinavian myth.] Ymir emerges from the ice and is hungry.
A second creature also emerges: Audhumla, a cow, which provides
Ymir with milk. Audhumla licks the ice for salt, and as she
licks she revelas more beings. From Ymir come more creatures as
well. From his legs (loins), a race of giants is created. Man
and woman are created from his armpit. Audhumla uncovers the
head of a proto-god (basically a god who comes before the ones
we want to talk about -- a god who precedes the pantheon of gods
in the mythology). He is called Buri which means "He Who Is
Born." He comes out of the ice and takes a giantess for a wife.
Audhumla then finds Borr (whose name means the same thing as
Buri). He, too, takes a giantess for a wife. They give birth to
some gods -- the first three.

Borr fathers Odin, Vili, and Ve. Odin goes on to become king of
the gods. Odin, Vili, and Ve recognize that Ymir is evil and
begin a war against him and the giants. They kill Ymir, and his
blood pours out and floods everything. It drowns the humand and
all of the giants except one couple: Bergelmir and his wife
escape in a boat. Later, the races of giants give the gods much
trouble because of this escape. When the blood subsides, Odin,
Vili, and Ve roll the body into Ginungagap and cut it up and
create the universe. (This adheres to the archetype: Gods create
the universe from the dead body of some huge being. The
archetype appears in Babylonian myth, Chinese, African, etc.)
His skull becomes the sky. His bones become rocks. His flesh
becomes the earth. His blood becomes the oceans, lakes, etc. His
hair becomes vegetation. Odin, Vili, and Ve find maggots in the
corpse. From the maggots they create elves and dwarves. There
are light elves and dark elves. Dark elves are sometimes seen as
being the same as dwarves. The skull of Ymir has to be held up
by the sky. They use four dark elves for this job: Nordri,
Sudri, Austri, and Oestri -- the four directions. Odin, Vili,
and Ve take a walk along the lakeshore. At some point, they
stop, and from two trees, they create man and woman to tend the
earth: Ask (the ash tree = male) and Embla (the elm or elder
tree = woman).

Odin (Wodin in German) - Wednesday

Thor, the Storm God - Thursday

Tyr, the God of Battle (Tiu in German) - Tuesday

Frey, the Sun God, & Freya, Frey's twin sister - Friday

Saturi, the Great Trickster (Loki) - Saturday

The World Tree

The World Tree, Yggdrasil (an ash tree), is the Universe. It has
three roots. Each of the roots reaches into a different land.
The three lands are Niflheim (home of the dead -- straw deaths
only), Jotunheim (home of the Frost Giants -- Jotuns are the
enemies of the gods), and Asgard (home of the gods). The Aesir
are the gods.["Heim" = home. "Gard" = place (e.g., garden).]

Beneath each of the tree roots is a well. The well of the root
of Jotunheim is Jot, or the Well of the Wyrds. It is home to the
three Wyrd Sisters. ["Wyrd" = fate, doom] The sisters are also
called the Norns. One spins the string of fate, one weaves it,
and one cuts it. One faces the past, one the present, and the
other the future. The well of Asgard, is Mimir's Well. Mimir is
the god who guards the well of knowledge of the future. He won't
let anyone drink from it. The well of Niflheim is the spring of
Hvergelmir. The only way into Asgard is to go across a bridge
called Bifrost (the rainbow). The Aesir don't want Frost Giants
in their city. So there is a gate at the end of the bridge made
of Ymir's eyebrows. Somewhere near the middle of the tree is the
land where the humans live. This land is called Midgard (Middle
Earth). Alfheim is the home of the elves. Svartalfheim is the
home of the dark elves ["svart" as in "swarthy"]. They are
thought to live underground.

In the branches and eating the leaves are various deer. Perched
up on a branch is an eagle which can look out over the universe
and see everything going on. On the eagle's forehead sits a hawk
who reports news to Odin. Wrapped around the roots is a serpent
called Nidhug who gnaws at the roots. If he gnaws through and
the tree topples, everything will collapse and be destroyed.
Running up and down Yggdrasil is a squirrel called Ratatosk, a
mischief maker who talks to the eagle and talks to him through
the snake, lying to both and telling each what terrible things
the other says about him. His name means "rat tooth." The deer
are not malevolent, but they could hurt the tree. In
Scandinavia, certain animals are looked on with and without
favor. The bear is respected. Snakes are despised. Birds of prey
are especially popular. Wolves have a checkered career -- mostly
evil. Squirrels are looked on with humor. The characters are
almost always male.

The Gods of Scandinavia

Vili and Ve pretty much disappear. But Odin never disappears. He
becomes the king of the gods, a just war god. Only in German and
Roman myth do war gods actively urge their people into war and
delight in it. Odin is too wise to urge people into war. People
are terrified of him. He is looked on with superstitious awe.
The battle cry is almost always to Odin.

There is a set of races among deified entities. There were once
two different races of gods, but they then merged and lived in
peace. (For example, Hera and Zeus both are storm gods and sky
gods -- marriage of the matriarchy and the patriarchy.) The
Aesir (who live in Asgard) are war gods. The Vanir (who live in
Vanaheim) are fertility and agricultural gods -- more peaceful.
The two races go to war. Eventually, they decide to call a
truce. Usually, some strong symbolism of the truce is needed.
Each set of gods lined up and spat into a cauldron, creating
Kvassir, the potion of poetic inspiration. (Also, when
personified Kvassir is the God of Ultimate Wisdom.) The dwarves
steal it at one point. They decide to exchange live-in hostages
(emissaries) to guarantee a peaceful existence. The Aesir send
Honir, who is tall, handsome, and strong, and Mimir, who is
short, unattractive, and smart, to Vanaheim. The Vanir are
pleased with Honir who is sensible and gives good solutions to
problems. The Vanir go to him for advice. Mimir is called away
at one point, and Honir is unable to help them. They are
outraged when they realize that Mimir is the brain behind the
mouth. When Mimir returns, they decapitate him in anger and send
his head back to Odin in Asgard. Odin liked Mimir and by magic
brings the head back to life. He places the head next to the
well of future knowledge and wisdom. Mimir thus becomes the
guardian of the well.

Odin is wild, furious, angry, almost mad with a wild kind of
unleashed fury. The All Father, the Val Father (God or Father of
the Valiant Dead). He knew he was king of the gods and must rule
wisely and with foreknowledge. He first went to Mimir to ask for
a drink from the well so he would have foreknowledge. Mimir
refused at first. He finally relented but for a heavy price: one
of Odin's eyes. So Odin took out a dagger and pried an eye out
and threw it into the well. Thus, Odin knows the long-range
future. His right eye is missing and he doesn't wear a patch
over the socket. Odin also knew that he needed ultimate wisdom.
So he took a spear and stabbed himself and hung himself on a
tree for nine days as a corpse. At the end of that time, he
turned himself back into a god again and had attained the wisdom
which he sought. (A possible manifestation of the crucifixion of
Christ? The enlightenment also parallels Buddha.) The tree is
called the Hanging Tree or the Gallows Tree. From this event
comes the phrase "riding the Gallows Tree" which refers to
hanging -- sometimes as a sacrifice to Odin. These are the two
forms of self-sacrifice Odin had to go through in order to rule
well. Annually, toward mid-winter (December), Odin goes out on a
hunt with friends (other gods) and dogs. He makes a tremendous
amount of noise as he rides across the sky. This is called the
Wild Hunt or the Wild Ride. If you see it, you will die. It is
good luck to hear it, but a human is never to look upon it. Odin
is a vigorous man with a long, grey beard (50-60 years old). He
is powerful, with armor and a long cloak. When on Earth, he
wears a floppy hat which covers his missing eye. He is a sky
god, so the cloak is blue or black. He carries a spear, called
the Invincible Spear. He has, as does each god, his own hall
with a throne only for him. From there, he can see almost
everything, yet he has information brought back to him
constantly by the eagle and hawk who sit high in the branches of
the World Tree and by two ravens who perch either on his
shoulder or on the back of his throne. The ravens are Thought
and Memory. At his feet sit two wolves or dogs. They do not have
names. Both wolves and ravens are associated with warfare and
death. No mild beings are associated with Odin. He is a fearsome
battle god.

Asgard

Heimdall is a god chosen for his talents to be the guard at the
gate on Bifrost bridge. He stands at the gate and is brilliant
in white armor (steel armor highly polished like a mirror). His
teeth are gold. He has a great sword. He is a fierce warrior and
very handsome. His talents are that he can see 200 miles in
complete darkness and that he can hear the grass growing. Three
gods vied for the position, but Heimdall's talents secured it
for him. Once a giant made a deal with an air spirit who was to
sneak into Asgard to listen to the Gods' plans and tell the
giant. Air spirits are invisible. The air spirit succeeded and
was listening in to Odin and the Gods. Heimdall came in and
said, "I have to resign because I have somehow sensed that
something got past me and I di not stop it." So Odin magically
freezes the air spirit, who is thus nabbed. They force an oath
from the air spirit never to come again. And Heimdall is
persuaded to stay at his post. Heimdall carries a sword and the
Gjallar horn. When a god comes to the gate, he blows the horm
softly. If anyone tries to overwhelm him, he will blast it and
get help immediately.

Tyr is the bravest of all the Gods. He is the God of Battle.
Once he was King of the Gods, but he was later relegated to a
secondary position. He is a very powerful warrior. Anytime
something REALLY dangerous has to be done and all the Gods are
afraid, Tyr does it.

Loki is the Trickster of the Gods. He doesn't get along with
Heimdall. Originally, he was the God of Fire. He has fiery red
hair and is extremely funny and witty. He would do anything to
make people laugh. He is half giant but has been approved by
Odin. Eventually, his pranks devolved into practical jokes with
a streak of viciousness. He devolved further into a trickster, a
figure found in many cultures . The trickster amuses himself at
the expense of others. His jokes often backfire. He is arrogant,
funny, but not usually popular. For example, the American Indian
Trickster is the coyote (as in Wile E. Coyote). He steals and is
always caught and has to make restitution. Odin or Thor can
always make Loki tell the truth. He has several wives and
children. Loki is always aiming at the destruction of the Gods.
Heimdall aims to protect the Gods.

Donder (also Donar) is the God of Thunder, who becomes Thor, the
Storm God. He is the most colorful of the Gods. He almost always
travels with Loki. Loki is a shape-shifter, as is Odin. Thor is
a size-shifter. He is terribly heavy and hot, and he cannot
cross the Bifrost bridge. He must wade through the North Sea and
come around the long way. He is a storm god, so he has fiery red
hair and a bright red bristling beard (lightning). He has a red
nose -- he is an enormous drinker (lightning). His eyes are
always bloodshot (same reason). His voice is low, gruff and loud
(thunder). he rides in a chariot pulled by two goats (rams), one
of which travels with a limp. Hung on his chariot are pots and
pans which, make the noise of thunder. The serious limp suggests
the jagged path of lightning. Thor always has (1) a belt, which
is heavy, powerful, and wide -- the tighter he pulls it the
stronger he gets, and (2) a steel gauntlet (battle glove --
leather with steel plates sewn on) which is used with his (3)
hammer called Mjollnir, "The Destroyer." The hammer is a
lightning bolt -- Thor's Hammer. Thos ir not a mental wizard. He
is not a deep thinker, not a contemplator. His philosophy is
blast with the hammer and then ask what's going on. He has a
terrible temper (flash storms). He is a man of action, the
strongest of the Gods. But he is also gentle at times (like a
rainstorm). Loki is unpredictable as fire would be. Thor is
married to Sif, a beautiful goddess with LONG, gold-blond hair.
She is not very active, but gorgeous. Another feature of Thor's
Hammer is that when he turns it around and taps with the other
end, it can bring the dead to life. Whatever he hits is killed.
He is the Gods' chief protection against the Giants. Everyone is
afraid of Thor's wrath. He is unstoppable.

Frey, God of the Sun (solar deity). Frey and Freya are twins,
brother and sister. They are Vanir. Frey is also the god of warm
spring and summer showers. He is put in charge of Alfheim (home
of the light elves) because of his characteristics. The elves
obey him. Frey has a sword. He shines brilliant gold. So does
his sword, which will fight by itself and magically defeat any
enemy when he draws it. Not only does his gold color represent
the sun, it also represents the golden grain which grows because
of the sun's rays. Since he is the God of the Sun, at a certain
time of the year he is called Jul. The sun is though of as a
wheel in the sky. "Jul" means wheel. The wheel would roll away
and return beginning on Midwinter's Day. This is called
Yuletide -- the season of the wheel. It is a month of rejoicing.
The Scandinavians would take wheels of dry wood to hill tops,
set them alight with fire, and then roll them down into ponds.
This took place at Winter's Solstice.

Frey was Vanir and therefore a foreigner in Asgard. One day, he
even went to sit on Odin's throne because he didn't know any
better. Frey looked far north and saw the most beautiful woman
he had ever seen. She was the daughter of a giant. Her name was
Gerda. Frey wanted to marry her but was too shy to ask, so he
sat around and moped instead. Finally, his assistant Skyrnir
came to him to find out what was bothering him. Skyrnir
said, "I'll go in your place and woo her, but it will cost you
your magic sword." Frey consented, blinded by love. Skyrnir took
Frey's image (i.e., he looked like him) to court Gerda who
wasn't interested. Finally he said, "If you don't consent, your
body will have no more heat. Your body will wither and dry up
and you will be an ugly old woman at whom no one will look." So
she agreed. She said she'd be there in nine days. The two were
married. The sword was lost. Gerda = Erda which means "earth."
The metaphor represents the sun wooing the earth with warmth
followed by nine months of winter.

Freya, the twin sister of Frey. She is considered the Goddess of
Love. She is strikingly gorgeous. Ans she is made even more
beautiful when she wears her Brising necklace which was made by
dwarves out of the twinkling of the stars. This is how she got
it: The dwarves made it and went to her and showed it to her.
She is very egocentric (archetypal trait of love goddesses) and
wants it very badly. The three ugly dwarves demand that she has
to have sex with all three of these ugly dwarves. She
says, "What?! -- All right." And she does it. (Having seduced
every male god in Asgard and Vanaheim, Loki accuses her of
leaping like a nannygoat from bed to bed.) Freya is also the
Goddess of War, because love and hate were seen as basically the
same emotion just redirected. After a battle, she comes down and
leads the Valkyries (beautiful women flying through the air on
horses), and they take the spirits back to Valhalla and splits
them with Odin. Freya and come and go from the Underworld
without any problem. For a while she was married to Odur (a
traveler), but he left her and never returned. She was
devastated and wept copiously. Some say she still weeps and the
tears fall to Earth where they land they sometimes turn stones
soft or turn them to gold. If her tears land in the sea, they
turn stones to amber. She has the falcon cloak (or "cape"
or "garb"). It is made of falcon feathers. The cloak enables the
wearer to fly. She rides in a chariot drawn by cats (an
interesting symbol). ALL the Frost Giants lust after her.

Frigga is a goddess closely associated with Frey and Freya. No
one is sure after which of the three "Friday" is named. Frigga
and Freya may be alteregos. Frigga is the Goddess of Cloudy
Skies (not of Vanir but Aesir). She is always wearing either a
black robe or a white robe. Sometimes Odin is displayed in a
black robe. Sometimes the robe has stars on it. This could be
associated with the current concept of a wizard's robe. The robe
is the night sky because Odin is a storm god. Frigga is Odin's
wife. She is Queen of the Gods. She has knowledge of the future
but WILL NOT tell. She is very beautiful, but she is not thought
of the same way as Freya. She has a maternal and wifely kind of
beauty. Freya is the Goddess of War and Love. Frigga does love
beautiful jewelry and clothing. She wears in her tiara plumes of
heron, symbolizing silence (this suggests her refusal to reveal
the future). She wears a ring of keys at her belt (like a
jailer) symbolizing her role as housewife (a standard
Scandinavian symbol). Females ran the household in complete
dominance -- Frigga is the patron goddess of housewives and
mothers. Because of this, she is almost always alone, as wives
tended to be. She sits at a spinning wheel, spinning alone for
long hours in the Hall of Mists. (In the night sky, what we know
as the Belt of Orion, is known to the Sacndinavians as "Frigga's
Spinning Wheel.") It is not a terribly joyful life. And yet she
has her own large hall to which the spirits of certain people go
when they die. It is the hall which houses the spirits of true
lovers, and they are never parted. Frigga has other names:
Jörd /yerd/ = Earth; Bertha or Ertha. She does control some
aspects of fertility. Another of her names is Eastra /ay ahs'
tra/ = spring (origin of our word "Easter").

Three gods came from Vanir: Frey, Freya, and their father Njord.
He bore his children on his sister, and the Aesir did not like
that very much. It makes the Vanir look more primitive, thus
making the Aesir superior. Njord is associated with the ocean
and shores. He is the God of Offshore Waters and the Winds. His
palace is on the seashore. (Most temples to him are also on the
seashore.) Njord is the patron god of fishermen and
commerce/merchants. Under Njord's control are ALL ships entering
and leaving port, thus all trade belongs to him. In addition, he
is the God of Summer because climates are most temperate near
the seashore. He is portrayed as a handsome young man wearing a
short green tunic and a crown of seashells and seaweed. The
Scandinavians prayed to Njord to stop storms and for a good
harvest. Njord eventually marries Skadi. She is the Goddess of
Scandinavian Weather.

Idun, Goddess of Eternal Youth. She has a large basket of apples
known as Idun's Apples or the Apples of Immortality. Annually,
the Gods eat from her basket to stay young. Her basket is
eternally full.

Bragi, the poet and musician of the Gods (the Aesir)

Aegir is considered a proto-god, but he is also the God of the
Sea -- an ancient god who is God of the Sea. He dwells in the
sea and is old. He makes great storms and tempests and
hurricanes in the ocean as he pleases. He takes great pleasure
in sinking shiips. He sees sailors as intruders. His major
epithet is "The Concealer." He hides ships forever. The ocean is
called "Aegir's Brewing Vat." Like the sea gods of other
cultures, he has sway over whatever goes on in the ocean.

Ran is Aegir's wife and sister. Her names means "robber." She is
not quite as "nice" as Aegir. She likes to entice mariners and
then snares them with her net. She then slowly draws them down
to the bottom of the sea and drowns them, robbing their
families. When someone dies at sea, Ran is considered a Goddess
of Death (at sea). She has a weakness: she LOVES gold. Many
mariners in a storm would throw gold overboard to appease her.
She is called "Mother of the Nine Waves" (which are thought of
as daughters). It was popular to believe that waves came in
groups of nine. Nine is thought to be a magic number in many
cultures.

Nicors (or Nixies) lived in the sea also. They were mermen. Some
people believe "Nicor" is the source of "Old Nick," who is
Satan. Mermaids are called Undines. They sit on the rocks and
sing when sailors steer closer to rocks, causing them to crash
(similar to the Sirens of the Greek), and everyone would drown.
They are not really evil. But they are not benevolent. They were
just irresistible when they sang. Lorelei is a German
derivative, but there is only one and she is only on the Rhine.
Sailors were notoriously non-swimmers, so crashes meant doom for
them.

Vali - He is sort of a personification of the returning sun, an
archer god (representative of the sun's long rays)

Vidar the Silent - the God of Resurrection and Renewal (like
spring)

Balder and Hoder are twin brother gods, the sons of Odin and
Frigga

Loki and His Children

Loki had a wife named Angur-Boda ("Anger-Bode," an omen of
evil), a giantess. Loki and Angur-Boda decide to have children.
The first child is male. They name him Fenrir. He is a wolf pup
who grows unbelievably quickly and gets to be very large (Fenris
wolf). He is able to speak. The Gods are afraid of him because
of his size. Tyr is the only god brave enough to feed him. Thor
isn't around. The Gods call a council. They decide to use godly
wiles to trick him. They go to Fenrir, oohing and aahing about
how strong he is. They say, "I'll bet if we tied you up with
this incredibly thick rope you couldn't break it." Fenrir
replies, "I could." So the Gods say, "Let's try it." Fenrir is
suspicious but he gives in. He breaks the ropes. The Gods bring
a chain. The same thing happens. He breaks every link. Odin
turns to Loki and says, "You brought him in -- you get him out."
Loki knows that Odin is serious. [Often a trickster is the third
in a set -- he resolves the problem in a third try.] Loki goes
to the dark elves (or dwarves) to make a magic cord for him. He
brings it back. This silken fine slim magic cord is made of the
roots of a mountain, the teeth of a chicken, the sound of a cat
walking, the beard of a woman, the unfulfilled desires of a bear
(none of these items exist). Fenrir suspects it is a trick when
the Gods bring this next cord to him. He will let them tie him
only if one of them will put his right hand in the wolf's mouth.
Tyr volunteers. Fenrir is unable to escape. He bites off Tyr's
sword hand. Odin throws him, bound, into Niflheim. Tyr does not
get his hand back. (The wrist is known as the "wolf's joint.")

Loki and Angur-Boda try again. They give birth to Jormungand. He
is a big snake who grows at the same unbelievable rate as
Fenrir. He has a foul disposition. He knows about Fenrir's
plight. He is horribly venomous and mad all the time. Just in
time, Thor comes home to Asgard. He takes one look at
Jormungand, loses his temper, grabs him, and throws him out of
Asgard. Jormungand lands in the cosmic ocean. He is still
growling. He completely surrounds the universe. He is biting his
tail. He is called the World Serpent. He never forgave Thor. The
two are forever in enmity (as are Loki and Heimdall and Odin and
Fenrir).

Loki and Angur-Boda try again. They have a normal daughter
called Hel (or Hela). She grows into a beautiful woman. But only
half of her. She is split vertically. The one half is a
beautiful woman, the other is a dead putrefying corpse. She is
not an evil being, but she is not really popular. She resents
her unpopularity and chooses to leave Asgard. She goes to
Niflheim and becomes Queen of the Land of the Dead (only those
who died a straw death), whence comes our term "Hell." She has
complete power in the Underworld. This is a standard archetype
in all cultures.

Treasures of the Gods

One morning, Sif and Thor wake up. Thor is aghast. Sif's hair
has been chopped off and is gone. He is furious and hunts Loki
down and drags him into the court of Odin in the presence of all
the Gods. Loki promises to replace Sif's hair and make it better
than before if he is freed. Odin adds that he must also give
something extra for himself and Frey. So Loki makes the promise
and goes off to the dwarves. He has a friend there named Dvalin
who is a master smith. Dvalin agrees to help. So a few days go
by and Loki returns with gifts for the Gods. He has spun gold
finer and softer than Sif's hair had been and far more
beautiful. For Odin, he brings the Invincible Spear Gungnir. For
Frey, he brings Skidbladnir, a boat which will fold up and fit
into Frey's pouch but when opened can get large enough to carry
all the Gods. It can travel over water, earth, or sky. The boat
represents a cloud. Loki becomes very arrogant about how grand
the treasures are. A dwarf nearby named Brock hears Loki
bragging and is very irritated. So he challenges Loki that his
cousin Sindri can make even better treasures. Loki, in his
arrogance and stupidity, wagers his head that Sindri cannot.
Sindri is furious with Brock. They go to Sindri's forge. Brock,
working on the bellows, MUST NOT miss a beat if the magic is to
work. Loki is beginning to worry. He turns himself into a gadfly
and sneaks into the forge to see what's going on. Loki stings
Brock and it really hurts and blood flows but he knows it will
ruin the magic if he hesitates. Sindri withdraws a ring called
Draupnir which is to be for Odin. (Rings and arm bracelets were
very popular with the Scandinavians. The leader in battle was
called the "ring giver" because he would distribute the booty.)
It was a solid gold ring from which, on every ninth day, eight
more rings would drop off it. (Compare to the ring Wagner used
in his opera and the one Tolkien used in his stories.) Sindri
and Brock go back to work on Frey's gift. Loki stings Brock's
cheek but fails to interrupt him. Sindri draws out of the forge
Gullin-Bursti, a large living wild boar made of solid gold. (The
name means "Golden Bristle." It represents the rays of the sun
and sheafs of golden grain. It also represents the sun itself.)
And now to make something for Thor. Loki desperately stings
Brock above his eye. Blood flows into his eye and he pauses to
wipe it away. The product from the forge is flawed. It is
Mjollnir the Hammer. It is a large mallet with a small handle
because of Brock's pause. The Gods are pleased and Mjollnir is
judged to be far superior to Sif's hair, so Loki loses but he
disappears. Thor goes after him. Thor finds him and drags him
back kicking and screaming. Brock wants that head. This marks
the ONLY time Thor ever has a good idea: Thor says he can take
the head but he can't damage the neck because that wasn't part
of the bargain (as in Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice": "A
pound of flesh, but not one drop of blood."). So Brock takes a
big needle and a thong and sews up Loki's lips. And it takes a
long time and much suffering for Loki to get the thong out
again. [Note: Mjollnir. The Scandinavians wore an upside down
gold hammer around their necks. Christians copied this tradition
with the crucifix. The hammer represented strength and
protection, etc.]

Freya's Brising Necklace

Idun's Apples

One day, Odin, Loki, and Honir are out traveling somewhere (Loki
usually travels with Thor; Honir is not usually an active god).
They didn't bring food, and so they have to forage. They make
camp. They find a herd of oxen. They select one and slaughter it
and put it on a spit over the fire. They wait till it's done and
take it off the fire to find that it's still raw. They put it
back on the fire and wait again. Once again, it's still raw.
They realize it must be magic. They look around. They are
sitting near a large tree. An eagle is sitting in the tree. He
has particularly bright eyes (which indicates that he is a shape
shifter). The eagle comes down and talks to them. He says, "Yes,
I am responsible, and if I wish, it will never cook. It will
only cook if I can have as much as I want." The gods are so
hungry that they agree. So the eagle allows the ox to cook quite
quickly. The eagle begins bolting down the meat. It is most
provoking. Loki grabs a big stick and pokes at the eagle's
underbelly. The stick sticks to the eagle and Loki's hands won't
come off the stick. The eagle, angry, takes off and Loki
dangles, terrified, at the end of the stick. He flies so high
that Loki can barely see the earth. The eagle threatens to
release Loki if he doesn't agree to ANYTHING. Loki agrees. The
eagle is really a Frost Giant named Thjassi. He really wants
Idun's apples. He makes Loki swear to bring them to him. The
eagle returns Loki and leaves knowing that Loki must keep his
word. Loki goes home and doesn't tell anyone what has happened.
One day, he goes to Idun and says he has found something as
great as her apples. He asks her to come and see. Idun is never
separated from her apples. She goes with Loki out of Asgard. The
eagle takes Idun and her apples away. Loki returns to Asgard.
Within a day, all the Gods begin to age rapidly. They search
frantically for Idun and her apples but cannot find her. Someone
remembers seeing Idun and Loki leaving Asgard. Loki must go and
bring Idun and her apples back. Thjassi owns a cloak of eagle
feathers which turns him into an eagle. Loki borrows Freya's
cloak of falcon feathers and does the same. He flies away. He
gets to Thjassi's home. Thjassi is out for the moment but is due
back shortly. Loki begins changing Idun's shape. First, he turns
Idun into a little grain and puts her out in the fields with all
the grain. Thjassi has great power and he knows and goes to find
her. Loki turns Idun into a small nut and grasps her in one
talon and the apples in the other and flies away. Thjassi sees
them leave and grabs his robe of eagle feathers and goes after
them. Larger birds are faster, but smaller birds are quicker.
The eagle gains on the falcon. Loki sees Thjassi. Heimdall is
watching from the gate and alerts the gods. He sees the eagle
chasing the falcon. The Gods come up with a plan. Everyone grabs
firewood. They throw it in the courtyard. They don't light it
until Loki enters Asgard. Thjassi flies straight into the
bonfire and is instantly destroyed. The Gods become young again
with the help of Idun's apples.

One day in Asgard, a giantess named Skadi came to the gate. She
is the daughter of the dead Thjassi. She is allowed in. She says
she is furious that the Gods have murdered her father. They feel
badly. So they offer her a husband from the Gods -- a kind of
potluck husband. She must wear a blindfold and must choose her
husband by his feet. So she sees a handsome pair of feet and
chooses Njord. She is disappointed, but they get married. She
wants to live in her father's home which is far to the north and
very cold. Njord refuses. They go to his palace and live there
for three months. Skadi hates it. So they go to her palace.
Njord lives there for nine months, but they finally break up.
This explains the three months of summer and the nine months of
winter in Scandinavia. [At one point, Skadi had just wanted
vengeance. The Gods say if they can make her laugh, she must
forgive them. But no one can make her laugh. Then Loki succeeds.
He takes a goat and leashes himself by the testicles to the
goat's neck. The goat jumps around. She laughs. Her whole name
is Skadi Naja -> Scandinavia. She is the Goddess of Scandinavian
Weather.

When there was no great wall around Asgard, the city was
vulnerable to attack from the outside. Snorri is a giant who is
an architect. He has a black stallion named Svadilfari. He
offers to build a wall. What he wants in return is Freya. The
Gods don't like it, and Freya isn't around to decide one way or
another. Loki says, "We'll just set a time limit too short for
him to meet." The time limit is one year. Snorri agrees
furiously. Freya says she won't marry him anyway. Svadilfari is
unbelievably capable of carrying huge quantities of brick and
mortar very quickly. The giant and the stallion work together.
After a few months, the wall looks to be almost done. When three
days are left, the Gods know Snorri is going to make it. Freya
still refuses. Loki is responsible to set things aright. When
there is one day left, Loki changes himself into a beautiful
mare with red hair. Svadilfari falls in love and chases after
her. Snorri is panic-stricken. He knows he cannot finish without
his horse. The sun sets and he fails. The Gods say, Sorry, no
marriage. Snorri reveals that he is a giant and Thor kills him.
[Or they knew all along and Thor kills him anyway.] Loki doesn't
come back for a long time. He then returns leading a young colt
and gives it (his son) to Odin. The colt runs very quickly
because it has eight legs. It is named Sleipnir. It becomes
Odin's mount. There is a famous riddle: "What is it that goes
like the wind, has ten legs, and three eyes?" The answer: "Odin
riding Sleipnir." Sleipnir is VERY fast. [A scholar once
theorized that Odin is a kind of God of Death. When one dies,
the corpse is carried on a bier with four men bearing it. Odin
represents the corpse riding the bier with eight legs.]

The Theft of Kvassir

The Vanir and the Aesir decide to call a truce, thus they make
kvassir. The kvassir was stolen by two dwarves. They add honey
to it and divide it into three smaller cauldrons. They want to
hide it. They put the cauldrons in a cave guarded by Gunnlod, a
daughter of the giant Suttung. She is in the cave and they seal
the cave entrance. Odin is angry. He decides it's time for him
to do something himself. He comes to Earth disguised as a human
being: a stranger named Bollverk ("doer of evil," "worker of
evil"). Suttung's cousin lives near the cave. The cousin has
many men (nine of them) working for him because it is harvest
time. Bollverk wanders along the road and stops and watches them
at work. They are all complaining because their scythes are so
dull (scythes were made of iron and became dull very quickly).
Bollverk starts talking to them. He says he has a stone which
will sharpen their scythes and make them razor sharp. He
sharpens them. Now they all want the stone. Bollverk says okay
and throws the stone up in the air, catch as catch can. Grasping
for the stone, they all lop off each other's heads. Suttung is
now left with no workers. They have been done in by their own
greed. Bollverk says, "All your men are dead -- let me do the
work." He harvests everything very quickly. He gets Suttung to
show him where the kvassir cave is. So they go to the cave, and
Suttung owes Bollverk a great debt. Bollverk makes Suttung begin
boring into the rock until he gets through. Odin plans to
slither through as a snake. Odin doesn't trust Suttung. He tells
him to blow in the hole to see if it's all the way through. Odin
knows the hole is incomplete. He drills all the way through.
Odin is too fast. He gets in as a snake and then turns himself
into a very charming handsome young fellow and meets Gunnlod,
who is fairly attractive. For three days, they become "quite
close." Having seduced her for three days straight, he says he
is thirsty and needs a drink. With the honey, the kvassir has
become a fermented drink, like mead. Gunnlod tells Odin he can
drink whatever he can hold. He drains all three vats and slips
back out. He turns into an eagle and carries the kvassir back to
Asgard in his mouth. Suttung sees him go. He grabs his cloak of
eagle feathers. It's bonfire time again. Suttung falls for it
and is destroyed. Odin spits the kvassir back out. As he flew, a
few drops fell. Those who drank of it became hack poets --
poetasters. Those who drank of the real poetic inspiration
became great poets. Nine months later, Gunnlod gives birth to
Bragi, the poet and musician of the Gods (in Asgard). He has one
disadvantage: that he grows old. He is portrayed as an old man
with white hair and a white beard and a gold harp. He marries
Idun. Bragi has a fascinating ritual at yuletide. Whole families
would gather together and the men would begin the ritual. The
eldest man would start with a schooner of mead and make the sign
of the hammer (like the cross) with his hand. He would then tell
of what great deeds if valor he had planned for the coming year.
He would then drink the entire schooner of mead (called a
Bragaful after Bragi). This would go all the way around the
table, each man trying to top the others. This is the origin of
the term "to brag." They kept going around the table until
everyone passed out.

Aegir's Kettle

One day, Aegir invites the Gods to a feast. They are pleased.
But he says he doesn't have a big enough cauldron to brew beer
for their feast. There is a giant called Hymir who owns an
extremely famous fabulous kettle (The Kettle of Hymir) which is
one mile deep. Thor and Tyr set out to get it. They go to
Hymir's house. He's not at home. But his wife is there. She
worries for them when they tell her their intent. She has them
hide under some overturned kettles off to one side. Hymir comes
in saying, "I smell Gods." She calms him down (as in Jack and
the Beanstalk) and introduces Thor and Tyr. Hymir is a little
drunk by this time, so he is able to play host. He has a prize
herd of oxen -- big ones. He kills three for a feast. Thor eats
two of them. Hymir is dismayed. He says they can borrow his vat
but he wants Thor to accompany him fishing the next day. Hymir
gives Thor no bait. He says, "Get your own." Thor picks the
biggest prize ox in the herd and lops off its head for bait.
Hymir is both irritated and frightened. Hymir makes Thor carry
the boat down to the water and makes him row. Hymir catches a
few whales. Thor keeps rowing. Hymir becomes really frightened.
He doesn't know where he is. Thor finally stops and throws his
line out and gets a bite. It is something really strong because
it pulls back. Thor tightens his belt and keeps pulling. He
breaks his feet through the bottom of the boat, but he just
makes himself bigger and stands upright in the water. Out of the
water, Thor pulls Jormungand, the World Snake. They are both
REALLY mad. Thor grabs his hammer. But Hymir is afraid and cuts
the line. Thor picks up the boat and dumps Hymir into the water.
Thor wades back to shore. Hymir has to swim hundreds of miles
back. He says they can take the kettle but first he picks up a
stone goblet and says, "You have to throw this down and break
it." Thor throws the goblet down and breaks a hole in the floor
and breaks a stone pillar, but the goblet will not break.
Hymir's wife tells Thor that the only thing harder than the
goblet is Hymir's forehead. So Thor succeeds in shattering the
goblet. Thor picks up the kettle, turns it over and wears it as
a hat to carry it home. Thor and Tyr turn to see Hymir coming at
them with all his giant friends. Thor is pleased. He takes out
Mjollnir and kills them all. So Aegir can now keep the kettle.

The Theft (and Recovery) of Mjollnir

One morning, Thor wakes up to find that Mjollnir has been stolen
and Loki is not responsible. Thrym, the Frost Giant, has the
hammer. A message is brought to Asgard from Thrym saying he
wants Freya in exchange for the hammer. Freya refuses, even
though the Gods think it's a good idea. The Gods turn to Loki
who comes up with an idea (some stories say Heimdall created the
idea). They send a message back in acceptance. A few weeks go by
and finally the wedding caravan arrives at Thrym's home. Loki is
in charge. Freya is there, and she is beautiful. Thrym's whole
family is there. Thrym's sisters are grotesquely ugly. [Note:
Only ugly giantesses are evil.] His friends are all evil as
well. The feast is ready. Wonderful food is brought out. Thrym
is disconcerted because Freya eats eight salmon and three oxen
all by herself. Thrym worries. Loki says she's been so excited
she hasn't eaten in a while. Thrym wants to sneak a peak under
the veil and he notices that her eyes are very red. Loki says
she hasn't slept from all the excitement. Thrym puts the hammer
in front of "Freya" who reaches out with his big brawny fist and
destroys everyone because of course it is really Thor. And Thor
and Loki went home and had a lot of fun that day.

Thor Faces Geirrod

One day, Loki is bored in Asgard. He wants to have fun going to
see the giants. He asks Freya if he may borrow her robe of
falcon feathers. He flies to the home of a giant named Geirrod,
who has two ugly daughters Gjalp and Greip. Loki comes to rest
on a branch outside the window where Geirrod can see him.
Geirrod sends out one of his men to nab the hawk. Loki teases
the giant, causing him to chase him up a wall to make him fall
but his foot gets caught and he can't get away. The giant
catches him and takes him inside. Geirrod sees that his eyes are
bright red and full of many colors. He knows that he is a god.
He squeezes him to force him to tell who he is. Loki refuses.
Geirrod puts him in a cage and starves him for three months. He
then chokes him until he tells him who he is. Geirrod says he
won't free Loki unless he brings back Thor without Mjollnir, the
glove, or his belt of strength. Loki goes back (and eats for
several days). He lures Thor out for a short walk, telling him
he doesn't need the hammer, glove, or belt. He says, "Geirrod's
daughters aren't so bad. Let's meet them -- Geirrod is a
friendly host." So Thor agrees. It is some distance. So they
stop at the house of Grid the giantess. She is the former wife
of Odin. She welcomes them. After Loki goes to sleep, Grid stirs
Thor and tells him he can't visit Geirrod unarmed. He takes
Grid's own belt, iron gloves, and an unbreakable staff. Loki is
concerned about Thor's new weapons. They come to a torrential
river of water and menstrual blood. They must cross. They are
wading across, Loki's arms around Thor's neck. Because of the
current, they are swept away several times. Thor finally angrily
grabs hold of a tree. He wades up stream. He sees Gjalp damming
part of the river up with her body to increase the current and
bleeding into it. Thor heaves a boulder at her. He breaks
several bones. So she goes off maimed. They finally get to
Geirrod's home. He isn't there. A servant greets them. He takes
them outside to an odd shed-like house with dirty straw for
beds. These are their quarters. Thor is angry but silent. Thor
sits down on a bench. Loki leaves to relieve himself. Thor feels
like he is still in the river. He realizes he and the bench are
rising toward the ceiling at a rapid rate. He grabs the staff,
pushing it against the ceiling, sending him down to the floor,
and crushing Gjalp and Greip who were hiding under the bench.
Thor and Loki enter the house to complain. Geirrod is furious
and ready to kill. He has a pair of tongs in his hand. He grabs
a white hot bolt and throws it at Thor, thinking he doesn't have
his gauntlet. But with Grid's iron gloves, he catches it and
throws it back with all his strength. Geirrod steps behind a
solid iron pillar. The bolt goes all the way through the pillar,
through Geirrod, through the wall behind him, and is embedded in
the mountain out back. Some stories say they go home but first
send for Thor's weapons and go wandering through Jotunheim, et
cetera. Thus the famous story:

The City of Utgard-Loki

In Thor's chariot drawn by two rams/goats (Toothgrinder and
Toothgnasher), they come to a farm owned by humans, and they
decide to stop and rest. The farmer, a widower, has a son
Thjalfi and a daughter Roskva. The farmer is flattered that they
wish to stay with him, but he is poor. He only has a little
gruel. Thor refuses it in sympathy. He takes one of his goats
and blasts it on the head with his hammer, skins it, and roasts
it on a spit. But he says they mustn't break any bones. Thor and
Loki are both voracious eaters. The humans are hungry. Thjalfi
unwittingly breaks a bone to suck the marrow out. They retire
for the night. The next morning, Thor takes the goat skin, puts
all the bones back in, and touches it with the end of his
hammer. The goat comes back to life but with a bad limp because
of the broken bone. Thor is furious. The farmer is terrified. He
begs forgiveness and promises Thjalfi and Roskva into servitude.
Thjalfi becomes a valet and Roskva becomes the maidservant of
Sif, Thor's wife. Roskva is sent back to Asgard in the chariot.
So now, Loki, Thor, and Thjalfi (who is a very fast runner)
continue together on foot. Night begins to fall and there is no
place to stay. They come to a clearing in the woods. There is an
odd building. It is huge but there is no wall on the front face.
They enter. They travel down endlessly long halls. They turn
back four times. Finally, they find a short hallway with nothing
at the end. So they stop there to rest for the night. They begin
to hear a muffled roar outside, so loud that it hurts their
heads. Thor sits up and waits, poised with the hammer. Dawn
breaks. They realize they have been sleeping in a giant glove.
And the giant is lying right there snoring, thus explaining the
roar. Thor hits him with the hammer. The giant wakes up. He
begins to talk. His name is Skrymir. He asks who they are. When
he finds out, his face falls in disappointment at Thor's size.
But he says, "My king would like to meet you, and my people
would love to see you." So they decide to go and see his king.
Skrymir is out of sight immediately because of the size of his
strides. They catch up with him hours later. He offers them food
from his pouch which is tied. Loki and Thjalfi can't untie or
break the cord. Neither can Thor. Skrymir leaves again. They
must follow. Skrymir is asleep by the time they catch up. Thor
climbs a hill and blasts him on the head. Skrymir stirs and
says, "Did a leaf just fall on my head?" Thor smashes him again
in his sleep. Skrymir thinks it was a bird. Thor tightens his
belt and blasts Skrymir as hard as he can. This time Skrymir
thinks it was an acorn. They get to the city Utgard-Loki (which
is also the name of the king). ["Utgard" means "outland"] The
king comes to the gate. He is disappointed by Thor but welcomes
them in for a feast. They go to the feasting hall and are just
about to eat when the king stops them and says that they play
games first to whet the appetite. He asks if they would like to
run a race. Thjalfi will race against Hugi. They will run 25
yards to a post and come back. In a flash, Thjalfi gets there
first, goes around the post, and finds that Hugi is already
back. It is a humiliating defeat. Thor DOES NOT like to lose.
The king says he has heard Loki is a voracious eater. He
challenges him to an eating contest with Logi. They set up a
trough filled with roast meat. They start at opposite ends and
eat their way inward. They meet at the exact center. It is a
tie. Thor doesn't like it. Utgard-Loki says that Logi also ate
the bones and the trough itself so he wins. Thor is angry.
Utgard-Loki challenges Thor to a drinking contest. He must drain
a horn in one draught to prove his manhood. Thor takes an
incredibly long drink, but he has just barely lowered the level
of the liquid. Utgard-Loki challenges his strength. Thor says he
will wrestle anyone. Utgard-Loki brings in a little old lady so
that Thor won't be crushed. Her name is Ulli. They lock. Thor is
straining with all his might, and Ulli is just standing there.
Thor goes down on one knee. He has lost. Utgard-Loki
says, "Look, here's an old cat. Can you lift it off the ground?"
Thor can only manage to lift one paw off the ground. Thor is a
furious frustrated loser. Utgard-Loki says he is worried about
them and sends them away. The king closes the gate part way and
then tells them that he is Utgard-Loki the master magician,
master of illusion. He had said he was Skrymir to protect
himself. The cords on the food pouch were steel bands. He did
not sleep at all. He put mountains beside his head to protect
himself from the blows of Mjollnir. The mountains are now
valleys. "I was hoping to lose you but you followed." So he
rigged the contests. Hugi was thought personified. No one is
faster. But even so, Thjalfi got to the post first. Logi was
fire personified, and yet Loki kept up. It is amazing. The
drinking horn was attached at the other end to the sea. Thor's
drinking created neap tide. Ulli was old age itself personified.
No one can hold out against it, but Thor held out for a long
time. The cat was Jormungand. Thor almost picked him up, which
is terrifying because the Universe would have been torn apart.
The city disappears before Thor can smash it with his hammer.
This demonstrates that nothing can defeat Thor but magic. [Logi
is an alterego of Loki, God of Fire. Utgard-Loki is another
persona of Loki, who would play such tricks.]

The Children of Odin

There is a giant named Billing and his daughter Rinda. Many
suitors came for Rinda. She is not pleased with any of them.
Billing knows that he will soon be invaded by a nearby hostile
army. Odin sees how beautiful Rinda is and becomes the leader of
Billing's army. He leads them to a resounding victory. Odin
decides then to woo Rinda. How can she refuse? But she rejects
him, too. Odin has a real eye for beautiful women, no matter
what kind, and never fails -- until now. Odin returns as a
jewelry maker. He makes magnificent jewelry for Rinda, and she
still refuses him. He returns as a handsome young man. She
refuses a third time. He takes out his rune staff and reads a
spell. She is in a trance. Odin leaves. Billing is devastated.
Odin shows up as an old woman who says she knows what to do. She
ties Rinda to a chair. After Odin rapes her, a child is born.
The child is called Vali. He is sort of a personification of the
returning sun (Jul). He is an archer god (representative of the
sun's long rays). It only took him one day to reach manhood.
Vali may be the source of the image of a cupid with bow and
arrow -> "Valentine."

Another of Odin's sons was born to Grid. He is Vidar the Silent.
He is the God of Resurrection and Renewal (like spring). He is
silent because he represents the Primeval Forest. He is a very
strong eternal force of nature either way. He is tall and
handsome and armored. On his right foot is a THICK leather shoe
made up of scraps of leather. [Scandinavians throw all scraps
away for Vidar's shoe.]

Balder and Hoder are twin brother gods, the sons of Odin and
Frigga. Balder is the most glorious and beautiful of all the
Gods. He is very even-tempered, compassionate, and pleasant.
Hoder is short, dark, almost ugly, and blind. The two brothers
possibly represent day and night. Balder has a nightmare which
depresses him badly. He prophesies his own death. He sees
himself dead in the near future. Odin knows the truth already
and , says nothing. Frigga also knows but refuses to accept it.
She goes throughout the universe and extracts promises from
everyone and everything not to harm Balder. And when she
returns, she tells the Gods, who are skeptical at first. But in
trying, they see that rocks REFUSE to hit him, as do arrows and
spears. Nothing can harm him. Frigga still can't watch the "fun"
without being disturbed. She goes to rest in her hall and an
old, old woman visits her. Frigga cheers up the seemingly sad
stranger with the story of how she is protecting her son. The
woman questions her, "Everything?" But there was one thing that
was too insignificant for Frigga to bother with: mistletoe. The
old woman leaves and goes around the corner where she turns back
into Loki the Trickster. Loki slips out to the edge of the Gods
having their fun with Balder. He sits beside Hoder and asks why
he isn't joining in. Loki picks up some mistletoe and magically
turns it into a hardened dart (a short javelin). He offers it to
the blind Hoder to throw. Hoder hesitates, but Loki says he will
guide his throw. Hoder throws, piercing Balder straight through
the heart. Balder falls down dead. Loki slips away. The Gods see
Hoder as a murderer. Hoder doesn't even know what has happened.
When he finds out, he too is stunned. The Gods realize that Loki
is guilty. Some of them set out to find him. Frigga is heart-
broken. She should have known better because she can see the
future. She begs anyone for help, refusing to give up. A god
named Hermod offers to help by taking Sleipnir to the Underworld
and requesting that Hela release Balder. It takes him nine days
and nights at top speed to get there. Hela says if they can get
EVERYONE to shed a tear for him, she will release Balder. The
Gods go throughout all the nine worlds -- everyone is weeping.
But in Jotunheim, a giantess named Thokk refuses to weep. Later
they realize that Thokk was Loki. They put the corpse on
Balder's ship. Odin puts Draupnir on Balder's chest. He leans
down and whispers something to the corpse. No one can hear. The
ship, loaded with gold, is too heavy to push out to sea. They
send for a giantess renowned for her strength to push the ship.
She arrives, riding in on a wild-eyed timberwolf with a bridle
of poisonous snakes. Hyrokkin is her name. Odin sets four
berserkers in charge of the wolf and snakes. Hyrokkin goes and
gives the ship a heavy kick. The ship rolls out so fast it sets
the roller logs on fire. Thor arrives and almost bashes her head
in, but the Gods stop him. The ship burns and Balder is lost to
them. Thor and Kvassir (personified spit) and several others go
out to find Loki, who is hiding in a fisherman's cottage near a
river, idly weaving a fishing net. He hears them coming. He
burns the net and turns himself into a fish (a salmon) in the
river. Kvassir, God of Ultimate Wisdom, sees the ashes of the
net and immediately discerns the situation. The Gods immediately
set to work making another net. When they are finished, Thor
stands on one side of the river, and all the other Gods stand on
the other side. The salmon swims under the net. They sew rocks
to the bottom of the net to drag the river. Loki jumps over the
net. Now the Gods split up -- some on each side of the river
with Thor wading behind the net. He is miffed. Loki panics. He
swims with all his speed and leaps up but Thor catches him by
the tail. (From that time forward, the salmon has had a crimped
tail.) Loki doesn't bother pleading for mercy. They must give
him a kind of eternal punishment. They must tie him in one place
forever but the bonds must be magical. Loki's other wife Sygin
has two sons Narvi and Vali. The Gods turn Vali into a wild wolf
who immediately attacks and rips apart Narvi. They use Narvi's
intestines to make bonds to tie up Loki. They take him into a
cave and tie him to a rock. He cannot move. Skadi comes along.
Loke made her laugh and she hates him for it. Her vengeance is
to bring in a gigantic venomous serpent. The Gods place it on a
ledge directly above his face. The poison constantly drips on to
his face (causing a burning, searing pain). They leave him like
that. Sygin decides to help him. She sits beside him with a bowl
in her hands over his face to keep the poison from hurting him.
But of course the bowl fills up once in a while. At those times,
his pain is so horrible that his entire body shakes and quivers
(earthquakes).

The Children of Thor

Magni and Modi are the sons of Thor and Jarnsaxa, a giantess.
[A "sax(a)" is a heavy knife or short sword, hand axe. "Jarn"
= "iron."] Magni is the personification of strength. Modi is the
personification of courage. In one story, Thor has just killed a
giant. He has a stone embedded in his forehead. The giant's leg
falls on top of Thor, who is injured and can't lift it. Magni,
when only three hours old, lifts the leg when none of the Gods
could.

Those Who Died a Straw Death

Niflheim. The entrance to Niflheim is far away. One god, riding
the eight-legged horse, took nine days and nights at top speed,
through rocky and icy terrain, to get there. The corpse must be
left with hell shoes to make the journey. After a long trek, the
spirit comes to the Gjoll River, which is spanned by the Gjollar
Bridge. It is the same name as Heinmdall's horn. The bridge is
huge and high and made of crystal, hung by a single hair. The
spirit must cross the bridge carefully to reach a toll gate
attended by Modgud, a very ugly skeleton woman. The spirit must
pay a toll, thus the corpse must be left with hell money. The
spirit must then go through the Ironwood Forest. The trees are
made of iron and have no leaves. They are very thick, and they
scratch the passers badly. Then comes the Hellgate, beside which
is the Gnipa Cave, hiding in which is Garm, a giant ferocious
wild dog who hates Odin (and Odin hates him back). The only way
to pass is to throw him hell cakes (which must also be left with
the corpse) and slip past. Then the spirit can hear the spring
Hvergelmir bubbling. Then the spirit can enter Hela's hall,
which is named Misery. Your eternal fate is decided by what kind
of life you have led. The innocents go into a state of negative
bliss or oblivion. Those not innocent are banished to walk along
Nastrond, a strand of rotting corpses, out into the water. At
the end, they must keep going. They must wade through streams of
ice cold snake venom. [Snakes were hated culturally . The
imagery of the cold venom is similar to a very hot jalapeno from
the freezer -- ice cold but fiery hot.] They they make their way
through a long cave crawling with poisonous snakes. They reach
the end of the cave and water gushes through and washes the
corpse/spirit down to Hvergelmir (a spring of boiling water).
All the flesh is boiled off the bones. Nidhug stops gnawing the
roots of the World Tree to gnaw the bones. Various people are
accused at the annual Thing or Althing, They are placed before
the Althing. The tribunal would declare them an outlaw or not.
An outlaw became fair game. You can take back what he owes, but
you have to do it yourself, similar to the Old West.

Those Who Died Valiantly

Those who meet their death on the battlefield are taken by Freya
and her Valkyries up to Asgard. Some are taken to Valhalla, a
huge hall. Those dead who stay in Valhalla are the Einheriar.
There are more there each year. They are waiting. And while they
are waiting, they get up each morning and go boar hunting
carrying long spears. [Like the Greeks, the Scandinavians had a
strong passion for boar hunting. The boar is good for food. But
the full size male is a very dangerous animal.] Someone beats
the bushes till the boar comes out, and he is MAD. The Einheriar
stand in a circle around the boar. Each man hopes he will be
chosen by the boar to be attacked. As the boar charges, the
chosen one drops down on his left knee and holds his spear out.
The boar runs into the spear. The boar, impaled, runs along the
spear until it is able to gouge the thigh of its attacker. Then
the chosen man kills the boar with his sword. The Greeks loved
it. The Scandinavians put a cross bar on the end of the spear to
simplify matters. They take the boar back to Valhalla for a
grand feast with much mead. Every morning, the boar is alive
again -- the same one -- and they hunt it again. Valhalla's door
is large enough for 800 abreast to march through.

Fimbul

A day is going to come for the Fimbul winter (winter of winters)
when brothers will be fighting brothers, parents will abandon
their children, children will turn on their parents. There will
be three winters with no summer. At the end of the winter it
will be Ragnarok (German name Gotterdämmerung -- "the Twilight
of the Gods," see Wagnerian opera). On Ragnarok, many things
will happen. Nidhug will gnaw through the roots of Yggdrasil at
which time Jormungand will arise from out of the ocean and
Fenrir will burst his bonds. Then Loki will be broken free and
will lead the Frost Giants and all their dead souls into open
combat against the Gods (like Satan in Christian mythology).
They will have to cross a river on a raft Nagilfari which must
be completed before Ragnarok. The raft is made from the
fingernails of corpses (Scandinavians always cut the nails of
the dead). Hela has to release everyone. Garm breaks out of the
Gnipa cave. All of this is accompanied by a great noise and
commotion. Heimdall sees what is happening, blows a long blast
on the Gjallar horn. All the Gods know what is happening and arm
themselves. There is a tremendous number of horrid beings to
face but the Gods are in high spirits. They are joined by the
Einheriar who awaited this day for all time. Loki leads the
baddies across the river, headed toward a plan called Vigrid.
There they meet in the battle of Ragnarok, a meeting of all the
foes. Garm comes charging out of nowhere. Tyr faces Garm and the
battle is long. They kill each other (because Tyr has no right
hand). Loki comes charging up to face Heimdall. A long battle
ensues, ending in the death of both. Even Surtri from Muspelheim
appears and fights agains the Gods. Only Frey can equal him in
brilliance. They meet in battle. Frey doesn't have his sword; he
is killed. Surtri lives. Odin spies Fenrir coming. Odin has
Gungnir, but Fenrir attacks him from his blind side and kills
him. But Vidar, Odin's son, jumps forward (the silent one with
his thick shoe) and steps on Fenrir's lower jaw, grabs the upper
jaw and rips the wolf in half. Thor can't wait to get at
Jormungand, who is likewise full of fury. Thor blasts him with a
blow that completely crushes his head, killing him instantly.
But his mouth is full of poison which pours over Thor. Thor
staggers back nine steps and falls down dead. Then Surtri
gathers his fire demons and they pour fire forth and destroy
most of the universe. It is the end of the world. Nobody wins.
There is a ray of hope: Mimir the Wise takes two human beings
and hides them in the folds of the trunk of Yggdrasil asleep.
Lif (male) and Lifthrasir (female). They live through the
battle. In English, their names are translated "Life"
and "Lifethirster." They sleep for years. The earth begins to
turn green again. They wake. They come forth to begin
repopulation. And they see that some gods are now reappearing.
Honir, Thor's sons Magni and Modi (strength and courage), Odin's
sons Vidar and Vali (second generation -- more peaceable), and
Hoder and Balder (Balder is the symbol of peace now ushered in --
the natural leader). They find some chess pieces in the grass
and they sit and play chess. And life will be peaceful forever.

Myths of the Celts

The Celts

Mythological Waves of Celts Coming to Ireland

The Celts (an Indo-European people)

The Greeks said the Celts called themselves KELTOI, thus our
pronunciation. "Gaelic," "Gaul," "Gallic," are all of the same
word "Celt"/"Celtic." They appear very early in Indo-European
history. They settled around the source of the Danube River
circa 1000 B.C. and spread throughout Europe. They were not a
homogeneous group. They were wild men. They didn't get along
with anyone or with each other. They were a loose confederation -
- almost. They just knew each other and fought outsiders more
than they did each other. They were very heavily influenced by
the Scythians, who in the old world of Europe were premier
goldworkers. This rubbed off on the Celts. They wore big
sweeping mustaches. The Celts learned horsemanship from the
Scythians who were quite good. The Scythians wore
pants/trousers. The Celts learned to weave wool in a tartan
pattern from the Scythians. The Celts learned of the spoked
wheel (which was good for chariot speed) from the Scythians. The
Celts also learned to make iron tires for their wheels. The
Celts began to spread through Europe. They frightened the
Romans.

Circa 900 B.C., the Celts were moving into Gaul. After two or
three centuries, they moved across the Pyrenees into Iberia.
Those who moved there stayed a while and mixed with the
Phoenicians in South Iberia (Canaanites). There was a cultural
mingling. The Celts learned to sail from the Phoenicians who
were brilliant mariners. From this contact, they sailed from the
South Iberian Peninsula out to the Atlantic to Brittania (the
present day United Kingdom). Some believe the Phoenicians,
bringing the Celts, found the way to the New World. A Celtic
form of writing in the Canaanite language was found in the
Americas. (America's "Stonehenge" in New Hampshire and various
other places in the Northeast.)

Circa 400 B.C., the Celts invaded Italy. They had been trading
with the Etruscans for years. Circa 390 B.C., they sacked Rome
and several other cities. They only pulled out after the Romans
paid a huge ransom in gold. [A Celtic chieftain weighed out the
gold in scales. A sword was added after a complaint: "Woe to the
vanquished."]

Circa 350 B.C., the Celts in Europe moved in a different
direction. They sacked the shrine at Delphi and moved into
Anatoly (Anatolia/Turkey) and established a colony which became
the city of Galatia. As the Celts moved south and the
Mediterraneans moved north, they mixed. Thus the coloration of
northern and southern Italians, northern and southern Spaniards,
and northern and southern Frenchmen. We think of the Celts as
primarily moving into the British Isles.

Many of the Celts went into battle naked (wild men). [The Druids
(magicians and priests) believed the naked body to be sacred.]
They loved fighting and drinking and partying. They wore their
hair long. In battle, they mixed mud, lime, and water into their
hair. They pulled it out to stick out in points in battle. They
all roared as loud as they could to go into battle. They used
iron weapons (40-inch swords, spears, shortswords). The Celts
didn't cross the English Channel. They went around the North
Atlantic coast.

The first wave were the Q-Celts, known as Goidelic (Q). They
were made up of three sets: (1) Irish, (2) Manx, and (3) Scots,
which were made up of the Scotiae and the Picts.

Q-Celts (Goidelic)

Irish
Manx
Scots
Scotiae
Picts
The Picts were very war-like. They used blue joad dye on their
clothing. In the summer, they went into battle naked with their
bodies painted blue. The Scotiae were less irrespressible. We
don't know when these people came in. The Picts are very
mysterious. They gave everyone trouble. They were absorbed circa
800 A.D. The Mc/Mac prefix comes from the Q-Celts. It means "Son
of." Ireland's "O" prefix (i.e., O'Brien, O'Connell)
means "Grandson of." Goidelic = Gaelic. The Manx were on the
Isle of Mann.

P-Celts: Brythonic (P) = British -> (1) Britons (2) Cymric
(Welsh) [Wales = Cambria] (3) Cornish (from Cornwall). The Gauls
are of the P-Celts. They share the same language group.

P-Celts (Brythonic)

Britons
Cymric
Cornish
Q uses "Mac" for "son of"; P uses "Map" or "Ap" for "son of."
Thus the phonetic category = name. In Latin, "horse" = "equus."
In Greek, "horse" = "hippos." -> P's and Q's.

The tribes did not get along like a nation. They were comparable
to street gangs. Before the Romans, these existed in Britain.
The Romans were the first to come (under Julius Caesar) to
Britain as non-Celts. The Romans battled and won and made the
main isle of Britain in 55 B.C. their major military settlement
until 410 A.D. They left because they were called back to deal
with a new barbarian threat to Rome. The Romans didn't venture
much out of Britain. The Britons had trouble with the Picts when
the Romans departed. They had been taken care of by the Romans
and were not able to fight. They sent for mercenary armies from
Germany -> Angles, Saxons, Jutes. These overcame the Picts,
driving them back north again. The Britons paid them, but the
mercenaries decided not to leave. This led to war, circa 490
A.D., which lasted for 40 years. Circa 530 or 540 A.D., the
Germans drove out the Britons and took over their land. The
Jutes went to the southeastern tip. The Angles and Saxons
(tribal German armies) blended into one group: the Anglo-Saxons.
The region becomes known as Angle-Land which became "England."
Those Britons who had been driven out fled south to a peninsula
in the north of France: Brittany. They become the Bretons. At
this point in England, the Angles and Saxons can't get north in
to Scotland because the Celts are too strong. The Romans built
Hadrian's Wall to keep the Picts and the Scotiae out. The wall
was then used by the Anglo-Saxons to divide. There is a place in
Wales called Welsh Mardes - "No Man's Land," pretty much. They
did get into Cornwall, though.

Circa 800 A.D., the Vikings appear and wreak havoc everywhere.
The Celts of Ireland are heavily infiltrated. This is also true
in north and west Scotland. Circa 1100, many Irish went to Alba
(now Scotland) and mingled with the Scotiae and the
Scandinavians, who absorbed or destroyed the Picts, yielding the
Scots. Highland Scots are more Scandinavian. Lowland Scots are
more Anglo-Saxon.

In Ireland, there is already a mixture of people who loved
battle. The Scots and the Irish are sort of insular. The Welsh
were unable to do that and lost their war-like aspect. Great
Britain is very heterogeneous. Many Celts of Britain call
themselves Cymric brothers and dislike the Anglo-Saxon English.
Circa 1600+, James I (a Scot) took the throne of England and
allowed many Scots to move to Ireland with land grants. He did
it to spread the Protestant faith. They ended up in northern
Ireland. This is the origin of Protestant Northern Ireland.

Circa 1700, huge numbers of Scots moved to America. They were
called Scotch-Irish. Finally, the Scots and the English came to
peaceful terms after the Uprising of '45 (1745). By 1800, there
was no more warfare between the Scots and the English. The
English won and forbade the Scots to wear tartans. Not till 1810
could the Scots wear kilts again. Ireland does not and never has
liked England. The Irish want Northern Ireland back. They lived
under miserable conditions for 200 years AND there's nothing to
do ("idle hands . . ."). The English never got along with the
Celts, but then the Celts never got along with the Celts either.
In Scotland, however, because the people are less wild and more
intellectual, the Gods of Ireland, Wales, and Gaul are virtually
the same, so they predate the arrival of the Celts in Great
Britain.

Irish pronunciation:

CH - aspirated (like German)

LL - lateral /L/ aspirated with tongue tip at alveolar ridge --
valmost /CL/ with aspiration at sides of tongue.

BD - /V/

BH - /V/

DH - /TH/ (not aspirated)

Examples:

"Conchobar" = kuh - nuh - "CH"or' = "Connor"
"Cuchulainn" = kuh - "CH"ul' - en
"Culaigne" = koo' - lee = "Cooley"

The Myths of the Celts

The Three Sorrows of Storytelling

The Children of Lyr

The Murder of Cian

Fomors lived on and around Ireland. They were giants mostly.
They represent the powerful but dark forces of nature. Heavy
dark storms, etc. They are often represented as being deformed
and/or ugly. They fight virtually every wave of new settlers.
Oddly, occasionally a VERY handsome man emerges. For instance,
Bres, who is so unbelievably beautiful, he becomes the measuring
standard for beauty, although he is still mean inside. At one
point, a tower of glass is built on an island by the Fomors,
from which they rule Ireland. The two Fomors who built the tower
are Mork and Conan. The Fomors often use dark magic. Irish magic
is usually druidic, primarily illusion. This is the origin of
the phrase "casting a glamour," which means an illusion. In the
Celtic language, phrasing usually places adjectives after nouns.
In English, only a Celtic word illustrates this: galore, as
in, "There were people galore." Another such word is slew, as
in "a slew of things." This word is used in Celtic as in "army
of faeries" = "slew of faeries."

Mythological Waves of Celts Coming to Ireland

The first settlers after the flood were the Partholons (named
after Partholon, a leader who came from Greece with twenty-four
males and twenty-four females on May 1st). Circa 2600 B.C., they
met and battled the Fomors. They won. In 300 years, their
numbers increased to 5,000. On May 1st, 300 years after their
arrival, all of the Partholons were stricken by the same disease
and died on the plain of their arrival. They brought: basic
ideas of law and ritual, working of gold, the first domesticated
cattle, cattle breeding/raising, the first cauldron (of course
because they could make porridge [milk with pork, beef, two
whole goats, lots of fat, and oatmeal -- salt to taste]). They
washed down this porridge with beer, which was one of their
developments.

Next came the Nemeds, lead by Nemed. They came from Scythia.
They had to defeat the Fomors four times. A lot of Nemeds died
(including Nemed) of the same epidemic as the Partholons because
they were weak. The Fomors could do new things. Two Fomor kings
(Mork and Conan) built a Glass Tower on Tory Island. They
exacted a tribute annually from the Nemeds: two-thirds of their
grain, two-thirds of their milk, and two thirds of their
children. This tribute was collected on the first of November
every year. Finally, only thirty Nemeds were left. They left the
island, but not together. Fifteen went south to "Greece."
Fifteen went to "the North of the World," i.e., Alba.

The next wave of settlers was more important. They were the Fir
Bolgs and Fir Gailioin. They were like the people of Belgium and
the people of Gaul. These are the southern group of Nemeds who
left and are now returning. They take over. But later the
northern group returns as well. They are the Tuatha De Danann.
They had learned magic and poetry. They said they either came
from the north of from the sky. When they arrived, it rained
fire and blood for three days and a heavy fog covered everything
so they could land. This was druidic work -- illusion. They
understood the druidic glamour. They brought with them four
treasures: 1) Nuada's Sword (Nuada was their king; none could
escape his sword.), 2) Lugh's Spear (The spear would tear
through the ranks of the enemy and wipe them out.), 3) The
Dagda's Cauldron (from which none ever left hungry), 4) The
Stone of Fal (a stone which would cry out when touched by the
lawful king -- see Excalibur stone and the Stone of Scone of the
Scots which sat beneath the throne when the king was crowned).

The Tuatha's landed and met the Fir Bolgs on a huge plain called
Magh Tuiredh /moi - tyü' - ruh/. Nuada, king of the Tuatha De
Danann, and Eochaid, king of the Fir Bolgs, send out envoys to
meet and discuss the details of the battle. The Fir Bolgs,
carrying short heavy spears, are shorter, heavier, and darker.
The Tuatha De Danann are concerned by these weapons. The Fir
Bolgs are scared by the long slender spears of the Tuatha De
Danann. They agree to a short 105 day truce while each side
makes weapons to match those of the opponent. The battle is
individual between heroes -- not mélées. Eochaid is called. In
this battle, Nuada loses his right hand at the wrist. The Tuatha
De Danann are winning. When only 300 Fir Bolgs are left, a truce
is called on the condition that the Fir Bolgs must move to one
corner of the island. They move to what we call Connacht (also
Connaught) in the northwestern corner of Ireland. This area
takes up one fifth of the land. At this time, there were five
parts to Ireland. The Modern Irish (Dark or Black Irish) are
considered to be descended from the Fir Bolgs. The Northwest is
Connacht. The Northeast is Ulster. The Center East is Meath. The
Southeast is Munster. The Southwest is Leinster. Meath has since
disappeared. Ireland is now in four quarters. The Fir Bolgs were
confined to Connacht. The Tuatha De Danann becaome the gods of
Ireland.

The Tuatha De Danann (TDD) manage to keep peace with the Fomors.
Eventually, Nuada must step down because the king is required to
be perfect, and he has lost his hand. This is a dilemma. The
Fomors suggest Bres (the beautiful one), who is king of the
Fomors and a sort of subjugate king of the TDD. Ultimately, Bres
is removed from the throne. This leads to imminent war. The
Second Battle of Magh Tuiredh. The TDD win. Now the Milesians,
led by Mil, appear on May 1st from the "Underworld" (possibly
Spain). A magic battle ensues. The TDD are defeated. The
Milesians are the ancestors of the rest of the Irish. In one
version of the telling, several boatloads of the TDD sail west
to Tir Nan Og ("Land of the Young"). Another version says they
go to a large island named after one of their leaders, Breasail
(Breasail's Land = "big island" = Brazil). The rest of them go
underground, living in barrows (tumulus, burial mound) with an
entrance stone as shown at right. They were called Sidhe /shee/.
The Men of Sidhe: Fir Sidhe, and the Women of Sidhe: Bean Sidhe,
which evolved into our word "banshee." Later, they shrank and
became known as Leprechauns.

Domnu. The people known as the Children of Domnu are the Fomors.
She was a great and powerful earth goddess. Balor is the epitome
of the evil Fomor. His father was a druid but not good because
Fomors were inherently evil beings. When Balor was a boy, his
father had druids over to dabble in magic. Balor, curious, crept
up to the window to spy on them. The window was open partly.
Unhappily, some of the smoke blew into Balor's eye. He screamed
in pain, but his eye had become affected and anyone he looked at
with that eye died instantly (Archetype:"The Evil Eye"). He grew
to be an enormous giant. He could hardly move around on his own.
The Fomors knew he was the ultimate weapon. They would go into
battle and face the seated Balor in front of the enemy. But they
had to have a crane with a hook to open his eyelid because the
eye was always kept shut. Archetypally, this is fairly
widespread. Ra, in Egypt, had such an eye. Shiva, in India, has
a third eye in the forehead, which is the ultimate weaspon of
the universe. The Fomors represented the dark side of nature as
well as storms (so the eye represents lightning). The TDD are
called the Children of Danu becuase they are the children of the
earth goddess Danu. Her husband is Bile /bee' lay/ or Beli,
depending on whether his name is being spoken in Gaelic or
Irish. Bile is a war god and the god of death. Danu is sometimes
also known as Don or Anu. She is the goddess of earthly
fruitfulness (hills are called the "breasts of Danu") and
fertility -- prosperity, abundance, and fertility. But Danu and
Domnu are somehow connected ultimately. In Gaul, Danu is called
Donau. In Slavic languages, there is a river called Dunai. We
call it Danube. Dann is a river of Russia. Much of Eastern
Europe reflects Danu's following. Western cultures are almost
always matriarchally religious. Bile is considered the father of
the Milesians. This implies the same goddess is the goddess of
the Fomors, the TDD, and the Milesians -- three different waves
of civilization unknowingly worshipping the same deity.

Nuada (Nudd, Lludd -- British or Welsh). Nuada Argetlam. There
is a gate in England called Lludd Gate. Lludd's Town became
London. "Argetlam" originates as follows: "lam"
= "limb", "Arget" = "silver", "argetlam" means "silver hand"
or "silver limb." Nuada's missing hand is replaced by a silver
one so finely wrought that it is actually usable as a real hand.
It is all articulated, but it is silver and beautifully carved
with arabesques. Nuada is a god of war, a very grim aspect. His
followers often sacrificed to him -- occasionally humans --
sometimes for success in battle or fertility. In "The Wicker
Man," a modern version of Celts sacrificing someone to gain
fertility for their fields appears. This was commonplace. Nuada
is killed in the Second Battle of Magh Tuiredh. But first, he
has several wives. 1) Fea, "hateful one," 2) Nemon, "venomous"
or "frenzy" [She is a goddess who, with a terrifying cry, sends
panic through armies. The Celts loved battle frenzy.], 3)
Babh, "Fury" and "raven" [the Celts call a raven the hoddy crow -
- a carrion eater after battle], 4) Macha, "battle" [difficult
to distinguish from wife #5], 5) Morrigu, the most important of
the wives. She is "the great or phantom queen." She carries
spears in both hands and is a deadly fighter. She can be helpful
in battle or a wicked and destructive force. She goes on the
mainland to become Morgana of the Brits. She then becomes Morgan
Lafee (the Fairy of Arthur).

The Dagda. "The Good God." God of fertility, abundance, earth. A
kind of comic god. Pot-bellied, all grey, considered very ugly.
He wears horsehide boots with the hairy side out (anti-
cultural). He wears a brown, low-necked tunic (like a smock)
baring his backside and genitals. He wears a cloak with a hood
which comes just below his shoulders. He has an air of the
Otherworld (often called Faerie /fay'-er-ee/.) The Dagda's
Cauldron is called The Undry (never dry or empty). This magical
abundance is an association with the Otherworld. The Dagda has a
reputation for his ability to control weather and crops. He has
a harp made of oak. He plays and calls new seasons into
existence (this is very important to the Celts). He has a club,
which is too heavy to carry. It would require eight men to carry
it, so there's a wheel built into the end to drag it around. It
leaves a track like a boundary mark. In Celtic society, one
would be killed for moving a boundary stone -- this is very
important to them. The heavy end of the club can kill anything.
The light end can bring life back. (See Mjollnir.) The Dagda is
lord over life and death.

He has a wife Boanne -> Boann. Once there was a well in Ireland
over which grew nine hazel trees. Hazelnuts were believed to
impart wisdom. The nuts would fall into the water. Salmon would
eat them and become magical (the Salmon of Knowledge and
Wisdom). So eating salmon was taboo. Boann had to know whether
there was any truth to the belief. She approached the well (even
that was taboo) and the water reacted. It burst out of the well,
forming a river called Boyne.

Brigit (pronounced like "breeched") is the daughter of the
Dagda. She is the goddess of fire and the hearth, poetry,
patroness of arts and crafts. This is part of the Triple Goddess
Archetype. The phenomenon appears as 1) goddess of many things
and people split her into three separate goddesses with similar
names and the same characteristics, or 2) three separate
goddesses are combined into one who gets the name of the most
important goddess and the characteristics of all three. Brigit
is number two, "the exalted one." She came from a goddess of
healing, a goddess of poetry and learning, and a goddess of arts
and crafts. When Christianity came to Ireland, she became Saint
Brigid, who became Saint Bridget. She was supposedly born at
sunrise and the house appeared to be on fire. When she took her
vows, a veil of fire rose from her head. Fire was so sacred, for
centuries they had a perpetual flame that burned for her.

Ogma is the son of the Dagda and Boann. Romans called him
Hercules. He is immensely strong and carries a huge club like
his father. He has two epithets: 1) "The Honeymouthed" because
he is the god of eloquence and is clearly highly prized by the
Irish who, like all those of the British Isles, treasure
language. He is bald, old, grey-skinned and wrinkled from the
sun. He is immensely strong but friendly, thus his second
epithet 2) "The Sunnyfaced." He is shown as leading a band of
five or six people, each of whom is attached to him by a thin
gold chain which leads from his tongue to their ears. He
invented a form of writing called Ogham writing. It consists of
a series of lines across a transverse line as shown to the right
(graphic pending). It was easy to carve in stones. Ogma is a god
of literature. His wife is Etain. Tuiren and Cairpre are their
sons. Cairpre becomes the bard of the TDD.

Angus Mac Oc is the son of the Dagda and Boann. "Oc" is
sometimes spelled "Og." His name means "Son of the Young One"
or "Son of the Youthful One." He is a kind of Eros, god of love
and beauty. He has a golden harp. He sings and whispers
beautiful things to young lovers. His kisses and whispers are
seen as birds hovering above. The Celts say, "Angus Mac Oc is
passing." He is also a very willful trickster. The Dagda and
Boann caused the sun to stand still for nine months so that
Angus Mac Oc was conceived and born on the same day.

Mider is another son of the Dagda and Boann. He is an Underworld-
ish god. The Isle of Mann is associated with the Underworld.
Mider is victimized by other gods. He is often the butt of the
joke.

Bobh the Red replaces Nuada and Bres. He becomes the last king
of the TDD. He is identified with southern Ireland, Munster and
Leinster.

Diancecht /jun-keCHt'/ is the Druid of the TDD. He is a magician
primarily. He is sort of holy but priests are unnecessary. He
can cure, cast glamours, give life sometimes. He is the main
healer of the gods. He is very wise. Morrigu gives birth to a
child, a son. It is unbelievably horrible-looking -- as ugly as
they come. Diancecht said horrible things will come from this.
Destruction, danger. The child must be destroyed. Morrigu
protests but the gods agree with Diancecht. Diancecht kills it
with a sword. He cuts open the child's heart, where he finds
three poisonous snakes. He kills them. But the bodies could
cause great havoc. So he burns the bodies then throws the ashes
into the nearest river, killing everything in the river. The
river begins to boil and becomes incredibly turbulent. It is
named Barrow, which means "to boil." It is called the River
Barrow (the word order is Celtic and necessary).

Lyr (Llyr) = "the sea" Lyr is god of the sea. He has twenty-
seven sons and at least three wives. We know nothing of the
first. Lyr is widowed. He then marries Aebh /eef/, the
granddaughter of the Dagda. Aebh has four children (three sons
and one daughter) with Lyr. She dies. Lyr marries Aeife /eef'-
uh/. She appears to be a loving wife and mother. But she becomes
jealous. So she casts a REAL spell. She turns the children into
swans. They will be swans for "three sets of three hundred
years." She repents somewhat but doesn't tell Lyr. Lyr searches
for his children. He comes to the lake where the swans are
swimming and they tell him what has happened. Lyr cannot break
the spell. He goes to Bobh the Red, the father of Aebh. Bobh is
furious. He can't help Lyr, but he can exact vengeance. He turns
Aeife into the one thing she fears most: a shrieking demon. At
the end of the three sets of three hundred years, the children
are turned back into human beings, but because they are nine
hundred years old, they fall dead immediately and disintegrate.
This is the first of the Three Sorrows of Storytelling. It is
called the Story of the Children of Lyr. This is the source,
indirectly, of Shakespeare's "King Lear." CAER LLYR, the Romans
called LLYR CASTRA ("Llyr Camp"), the English called
it "Leicester."

Manannan Mac Lir, son of Lyr. Patron god of sailors. God of the
headlands, of the headwaters, and god of merchants. He has a
sword called "The Retaliator" which never fails to kill. He has
a helmet with two magic jewels that (like the helmet) shine like
the sun. He has a cloak of invisibility. He has a horse
called "Shining Mane" which can go anywhere, and a
boat "Wavesweeper" which can sail anywhere with or without water
(like Frey, who was the son of Njord, a similar god). He keeps
pigs. They magically renew themselves when eaten once a year
because they bestow eternal youth at the Feast of Age. (See the
feast of the Einheriar at Valhalla.) Manhannan Mac Lir rides a
chariot. The waves are his horses. But storms are referred to as
the tresses of his wife. He is associated wit the Otherworld
(Faerie) because when the TDD split, he led a party westward to
the Island of the Abhilach /ah'-vee-laCH/ ["Island of Apples"]
(Isle of Avalon = Catalina), or the Isle of Mann (named after
Manannan Mac Lir).

Goibhniu /goyv'-nyu/ is the smith of the TDD. He makes tools and
weapons. Any of his weapons will find its mark and anyone
wounded by one will survive (under ordinary circumstances). He
is also a healer. He is invoked to cure wounds. He can heal or
cure any WOUND. He is also a builder. Goibhniu the Architect (an
epithet) has the Feast of Goibhniu -- an Otherworld Feast.
Anyone who eats it will be exempt from disease and old age. It
makes the gods virtually immortal.

Lugh Lamfadha. Lugh means "light," like the Latin "lux." Lam
means "limb," "arm," or "hand." Fadha means "far" or "farther."
His name is translated Lugh of the Long Hand, "the Far Shooter,"
because of a sling he uses. He is usually dressed in green. He
is a kind of sun god. He is young, handsome and athletic. His
great grandfather is Diancecht the Druid. He is the maternal
great grandson of Balor, the Fomor with the evil eye. He is a
kind of solar deity. His sling is called Lugh's Chain. It is a
reference to the Milky Way. The Celts were very fear-inspiring
in battle. They took the dead and hung their heads on doors and
the like as trophies. They also killed the enemy, took heads,
removed the brains, and pushed a rock into the center of the
brain and let it dry and harden (like a snowball with a rock
inside). In warfare, when fighting the same enemy, they would
sling the brains back at their enemies. This was a form of
psychological warfare. Lugh also has a spear (one of the four
treasures). The spear is analogous to Gungnir, but it is alive.
It kills the enemy on its own. However, it was so bloodthirsty
that the head had to be kept in a potion made from puppies at
all times. Immediately upon taking it out, Lugh had to have a
firm grip on it. When let go, it would burst into flame and tear
through the ranks, killing everyone. (It is a lightning bolt.)
Lugh had a hound. (The Irish love cattle, hounds, and fine
horses.) It was a warrior hound -- also magic. When it went into
a lake or pond or pool, the water would become mead. Lugh was
master of ALL the arts. [Archetype: Young god who has combined
powers of all the gods and is capable of killing some huge
monster (like the Babylonian Marduk).]

The final confrontation between the TDD and the Fomors. It
starts at a place where Nuada has his silver hand attached to
his wrist. The TDD need a new king. The TDD asked Bres to be
king. he had taken a TDD wife, Brigit. Bres must give a huge
number of hostages and promise abdication to the TDD to insure
everyone's well-being and just rule. Bres begins putting on
pressure. He taxes them. He tricks them out of all the milk
their cattle produce. He forces them into labor for him. The
Dagda builds castles. Ogma carries lumbers and firewood daily.
They begin losing strength because Bres is stingy with their
food. Diancecht's two children (a son Miach and a daughter
Airmid) have learned their father's art. They go to Nuada's
castle. They find out where Nuada's hand is buried and dig it
up. They take it into the castle. His silver hand had begun to
fester around his wrist. He was going to die. They magically
healed him and gave his hand back to him. Diancecht is furious
because he is jealous of their power. So he calls them to him.
Miach approached. Diancecht took a sword and struck him over the
head, laying open the flesh. Miach healed himself. Diancecht
struck him again. This time he was cut to the bone, but he
healed himself yet again. Next he was cut to the brain, and
again he healed himself. The fourth blow cut his brain in two.
Miach died. Diancecht does not punish Airmid.

Cairpre, the bard, visited Bres. The Celts really honor singers
and poets. Minstrels wandered from manor house to manor house to
entertain. Cairpre is put in the smallest of Bres's rooms and
sent table scraps to eat. He is insulted. He wrote a singing
satire that caused boils to break out all over Bres's once-
beautiful face. He is not perfect anymore. He must step down
from the throne. Bres is furious. He goes back to the Fomors and
demands war against the TDD.

The capital city of the TDD is Tara.

Lugh comes to visit at Nuada's castle. Nuada will be king again.
Lugh offers his assistance. [When Airmid and Miach come to
Nuada's gate, the porter at first won't let them in unless they
prove their powers. Miach grabs a cat, takes an eye and places
it int the porter's empty socket and magically makes it his own.
The porter allows them in. But the porter now suffers the
following: 1) all day long the one eye tries to sleep, and 2)
all night long it keeps popping open and looking for mice. There
is a similar comic interlude in Shakespeare's "Macbeth."]
Everyone is skeptical that Lugh can help. He shows he can do
anything as well as or better than the other gods. At Nuada's
insistence, Lugh teaches them much of what he knows in
preparation for war against the Fomors. Seven years go by. The
Fomors arrive ready to attack. But the TDD aren't quite ready.
They send the Dagda over to the Fomors' camp to stall for time
as a visitor. The Fomors offer a bowl of porridge to him. He
accepts. They've dug a giant pit in the ground and filled it
with porridge. It would be rude for the Dagda not to finish all
of it. So the Dagda took a ladle-like spoon and began eating. He
ended up scraping the dirt out of the bottom of the bowl and
eating it too. But he took his time. This works out well for the
TDD.

Diancecht -> his son Cian -> his son Lugh. Ogma -> Tuirenn ->
Brian, Iochar, Iocharba.

Before the battle begins, the Second Sorrow of Storytelling
occurs. Cian, father of Lugh, was carrying on a feud with the
sons of Tuirenn for years. Cian is out gathering men to fight
for the TDD. He sees Brian, Iochar, and Iocharba in the
distance. He knows this means trouble. There is a blood feud
between them. He sees several pigs in the field. He turns
himself into a pig to avoid trouble. But the three brothers have
already seen him. They know. Brian turns Iochar and Iocharba
into dogs to root Cian out and corral him off to one side. Brian
turns Iochar and Iocharba back into men and they spear Cian
while he is still a pig. He asks for quarter and they refuse. So
he begs them at least to allow him to become a man again. They
agree. Then he demands they release him on pain of blood fine
(family vendetta, his son is Lugh), but they figure if they kill
him now, no one will know that they have killed him anyway. But
he says their weapons will tell. They put them down. They pick
up stones and stone him to death and bury him in his own depth.
The earth throws him back up six times and only keeps him down
the seventh time because of the horror of his murder. Lugh
begins to worry and goes out looking. He passes that field and
the stones cry out about the murder of his father and who did
it. He realizes the cruel murder that has taken place. He
returns to Tara and calls everyone together and demands the
blood fine. They must pay him whatever he says or he will kill
them. The three brothers are very frightened. He tells them he
wants three apples, a pigskin, a spear, seven pigs, a cooking
spit, three shouts on a hill, et cetera. They accept his
demands. He then tells them the rest of his demands. The apples
are to be the golden apples of Hesperides (Hercules once went
after them as well). Each of these things is magical and
virtually impossible to get. They finally get the apples. The
pigskin will cure anyone. The spear turns water into wine. The
pigs will return once eaten. Eventually they have gotten every
item except the three shouts on a hill. Lugh refused to let them
off. The hill is in Alba owned by a king who has made it a taboo
for any noise to be made. The entire Scottish army comes after
them. All three are mortally wounded. They return but they are
dying. Lugh releases them of the blood fine. They ask if he will
use the magic pig skin to cure them. He says, "My father asked
for mercy and you gave him none. You shall get none." And they
die. This is the Second Sorrow of Storytelling and explains the
popularity of the name Brian.

Now the battle ensues, champion against champion. Every day the
Fomors are confused because they see TDD who have been wounded
or even killed reappear on the battlefield each day. They send
Ruadan, son of Bres and Brigit, to sneak into the TDD camp. He
finds Goibhniu repairing broken weapons magically overnight.
Ruadan sneaks up behind Goibhniu, takes a spear, and runs him
through. Goibhniu pulls out the spear, wheels around and
mortally wounds Ruadan, who staggers back to his camp and dies.
Bres and Brigit are so devastated that they begin mourning. They
invent the high pitched screaming wail known as keening.
Goibhniu goes to Diancecht. He and Airmid are dipping people
into a magic spring which instantly heals. The Fomors sneak over
and fill up the pool with rocks. The battle breaks down into a
melee. Pitched open battle. Everyone except Lugh. He is so
valuable that they keep him back behind the lines with
bodyguards. Ogma has great strength. But the Fomors have Balor.
Nuada is killed, as is his wife Macha. Lugh canÕt stand it. He
goes out to face Balor. The eye is closed but they begin
cranking the lid up. But they forgot about LughÕs sling. Lugh
lets a stone fly that goes straight through the eye and out the
back of BalorÕs head, killing nine other Fomors. The Fomors are
heavily defeated, driven back under the sea. Bres is spared
because he must teach them the rules of planting and harvesting.
So he and Brigit are brought back with the TDD. Then the
Milesians appear and they are driven underground to become gods.

May 1st: Beltaine (Òlord of life and deathÓ)

Eastra (Frigga), the Scandinavian goddess of fertility is
similar to Beltaine. ÒDying God ThemeÓ - the God of Fertility
gies and goes to the Underworld every autumn causing the autumn
characteristics. He is then reborn in the spring. Eastra gives
out eggs, decorated brightly to represent spring. She sends out
rabbits, which are famously avid reproducers, as helpers. (The
Maypole, another celebration ritual of the rebirth, is a phallic
symbol.) Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon
after the vernal equinox (March 20 or 21).]

August 1: Lughnasadh (Harvest Festival or Festival of Lugh)
November 1: the beginning of the Celtic year Samhain [säÕ wen]
ÒMourning of the End of Summer and for the DeadÓ February 1:
Imbolg (MidwinterÕs Festival)

The Ulster Cycle [Ulster is the northeast quarter of Ireland]

The champions of Ulster are enormously famous. There are three
cycles: Tuatha is the first. Ulster is the second.

Conchobar (Connor) - King of Ulster (Conchobar Mac Nessa)
Cathbad - the Chief Druid, ancestor to a number of great heroes
Bricriu of the Bitter Tongue - a troublemaker Aillel/Medh -
King/Queen of Connacht (the northwest quarter). Medh is tall and
powerfully beautiful with long think blonde hair. Conall the
Victorious - a hero Laegaire the Battlewinner - a hero Sencha -
a great poet and a great judge Fergus Mac Rogh - has the
strength of 700 men, tall as a giant. He eats 7 hogs, 7 deer, 7
cows, and drinks 7 vats of mead at each meal. He has a magic
sword called Caladholg. The sword is as long as the rainbow is
high (symb.).

All these characters are Milesians. But Curoi Mac Daire, the
King of Muenster, is descended from the TDD. He has a castle
which spins around every night so no one can find the door. It
is thought to be a tomb. The axe represents a thunderbolt
(standard storm deity). After the age of seven, Curoi was never
in Ireland long enough to eat a meal or fight a battle.

The Queen of the Kingdom was once Ness. Her first husband died.
She marries his brother Fergus Mac Rogh. She will marry him ONLY
if her young son Conchobar is allowed to reign as king for one
year. Fergus agrees. Conchobar rules brilliantly. The people
want him to carry on his reign. Fergus surrenders the throne to
Conchobar. He would rather eat than fight. Conchobar recognizes
that he must invite and retain the greatest warriors in order to
make Ulster great. Knights flock to him (Arthurian).

Aillel and Medh in Connacht are a periodic source of triouble.

A wedding is planned between Dechtire (woman) and Sualtam (great
warrior chieftain). They have the wedding feast (before the
wedding). Dechtire reaches for her cup of wine, not seeing that
a mayfly has fallen in to it. She drinks it. She becomes
pregnant. She takes a nap and dreams of Lugh, who tells her he
was the mayfly (Archetype: Divine/Immaculate Conception).
Dechtire goes out with her 50 handmaidens and they are all
turned into swans. They fly away. The wedding is postponed. Nine
months later, while out hunting, Conchobar and a hunting party
see a flock of birds and follow it. They get to a cottage where
a very handsome tall young man dressed in green and with a
slighjtly green tint to him comes out and welcomes them to camp.
They are awakened by the cry of a newborn baby. The green man
reveals himself as Lugh. He explains that Dechtire has a son
called Setanta.

Sencha proclaims that the child will be a great hero. Everyone
is amazed. The child is legally adopted by Sualtam but is
actually adopted by everyone. They teach him to be the hero he
will be. He is very big, very strong. He loves to play athletic
games with other boys -- the BoysÕ Army: boys around the age of
12 were trained to be heroes. Setanta is only 7.

Conchobar is invited to a feast by Culann the Smith. As
Conchobar and his retinue travel, they pass a field where boys
are playing hurley (the BoysÕ Army vs. Setanta). ItÕs illegal --
they are playing in secret. Conchobar is impressed. He invites
Setanta to come to the feast. Setanta is honored but he wants to
win first. He offers to meet them at the feast. There is a
gigantic dog outside of CulannÕs house. ItÕs a famous dog.
Culann chains the dog and invites his guests in asking, ÒIs this
all of you?Ó They reply, ÒYes.Ó He releases the dog and bars the
door. The dog is as strong as 100 men. Setanta arrives with his
stick and ball. The dog attacks him. He grabs the ball, throws
it down the dogÕs throat, grabs it by the hind legs, raises it
over his head and thrashes its head to the ground, killing it
instantly. Culann is heartbroken. Setanta says, ÒGive me the pup
from this dog and I will train it for two years.Ó All that time,
he acts as the guard dog for Culann and takes the name which
means ÒDog of CulannÓ -- Cuchulinn, the hound of Culann, is the
greatest hero Ulster ever knew.

He grows to be a very handsome young man who has the magic
sevens. Seven fingers on each hand, seven toes on each foot, and
seven pupils in each eye. His hair is dark at the roots, red in
the middle, and blonde at the ends. But when he goes into
battle, the battle frenzy changes him. He turns completely
around inside his skin so his feet are facing the rear. He hair
stands straight out on end and sparks fly out of every strand.
From the top of his head shoots a pillar of black blood as tall
as a mast. Fire spurts out of his open mouth. One eye protrudes
and the other recedes. And the Heroes Moon appears on his
forehead (a protruding vein).

Cuchulinn must find himself a wife. He wants Emer, the daughter
of Forgall, for she is the most beautiful. But Forgall is wary.
He swears loudly that his daughter will never marry but to one
trained by the Amazon Skathack (a woman warrior and witch). So
Cuchulinn vows to go be trained and to then marry Emer. Skathach
lives on an island east of Alba -- thought to be the Isle of
Skye. The two other heroes Laegaire and Conall accompany him.
But they lose heart quickly and return. Cuchulinn continues on.
He must cross the Plain of Ill Luck, a muddy plain where, as
your feet get stuck, razor sharp grass grows up to pierce them.
Lugh appears (CuchulinnÕs father) and gives him a wheel of stone
and instructs him to roll it in front of him so that he may
cross. He then goes through the Perilous Glen, filled with
devouring animals. No sweat. He then finds himself facing the
Bridge of Leaps which throws you off as you try to cross it. He
resorts to using his HeroÕs SalmonÕs Leap. He leaps as the
bridge tries to throw him and lands safely on the other side.
Skathach agrees to teach him the secrets of being a great
warrior. He studies for a year and a day. At which time she
gives him a weapon: Gae Bolg, a spear made from the bones of sea
monsters. It has many forked points and is deadly. Skathach goes
into battle with Aiofe, another woman warrior. Cuchulinn decides
to face Aiofe on her island in SkathachÕs place. Skathach has
fallen in love with him and doesnÕt want him to go. She drugs
him -- enough for a day and a night. The effect only lasts for
an hour. He goes and defeats Aiofe. And from that union comes a
son. He says to Skathach before he leaves that if she has a son
he places a Geise(e) [GAYSH, plural GAYSH-uh] on the baby. A
Geis is a taboo placed on a person that they may not EVER break.
His son must never tell anyone his name and must never turn down
a battle. The son is Connlach.

Cuchulinn returns to Ulster, kills Forgall, and takes Emer as a
wife. [At one time, Emer discovers her husband with a mistress
and she says, ÒThe new is always sweet, and the familiar is
always stale.Ó Cuchulinn realzes the wisdom in this, etc.]

BricriuÕs Feast Bricriu builds himself a palace so that he can
invite all of UlsterÕs men to a feast. It takes a year to build.
Everyone knows heÕs up to trouble. They agree to come only if he
will stay in another room. Before they go, Bricriu takes aside
the three heroes one at a time and tells each: ÒWhen you get to
the feast, traditionally the championÕs portion is given out
first. And because youÕre the greatest, of course IÕll give it
to you.Ó The three argue at the feast. Sencha must intervene and
settle the matter. Bricriu goes to the wives of the heroes and
says to each of them, one at a time: ÒThe first wife who comes
back through the door of the hall will be the wife of the
champion.Ó As theyÕre entering, the three wives act as if
nothing is afoot. Eventually, they grab their skirts up and run.
Emer is falling behind, so Chuchulinn lifts the wall so that she
can enter first. When he drops the wall, it sinks a foot into
the ground, setting the house at a tilt. They then go through a
series of tests. Aillel and Medh are asked to judge. Cuchulinn
wins every test hands down. But the other two heroes refuse to
accept it. Three cups are brought in. A bronze cup for Conall, a
silver cup for Laegaire, and a golden one for Cuchulinn. They
still refuse to accept it. A stranger appears. A very brutish-
looking fellow carrying a HUGE axe. He says heÕs there to join
in the games. The game he suggests is this: ÒYou can take my axe
and lop my head off, but then you have to let me do the same to
you.Ó Conall does it. Laegaire, too. The strangerÕs body picks
up its head and says, ÒIÕll be back tomorrow for my turn.Ó Only
Cuchulinn is brave enough to face him. Curoi Mac Daire reveals
himself. Cuchulinn has won the contest [Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight -- the Beheading Game].

The Third Sorrow of Storytelling Dierdre and the Sons of Uisnach
When Dierdre was born, Cathbad the Druid predicted she would be
the most beautiful woman and that she would marry a foreign
king, but that she would bring ruin to Ireland. Conchobar said
if she would be so beautiful, he would marry her, and because he
isnÕt foreign, would thus break the prophecy. Her nurse
Lavarcham helped keep ker isolated as she grew up to be VERY
beautiful. In midwinter, she looks out a window and sees a hired
hand whoÕs just killed a calf for dinner. There is blood on the
snow. Ravens come down. She says, ÒI want a man with those three
colors. Hair as black as the raven, skin as white as the snow,
and lips as red as blood.Ó This is not Conchobar. Lavarcham
knows of such a man: Naoise [na EE see], eldest son of Uisnach.
The other sons are Ardan and Ainle. She falls in love with
Naoise on first sight and he with her. So they flee to Alba. But
local kings keep falling in love with Dierdre, so they have to
keep moving. Dierdre, Naoise, Ardan, and Ainle sit around a lot
and play chess. Conchobar makes a plan. He goes to the heroes
(Cuchulinn, Laegaire, and Conall) and asks what they would do if
their king broke his word. Their answer was, ÒWreak havoc --
king or no king.Ó Conchobar goes to Fergus, his uncle and poses
the same question. Fergus responds, ÒI would stay loyal -- he is
the king.Ó So Conchobar tells Fergus that he would like him to
bring Dierdre, Naoise, Ardan, and Ainle back because he has
forgiven all. Fergus believes him. Conchobar asks FergusÕ oath
that he will let nothing interfere with his getting them back.
Fergus takes his two sons Ilann and Buinne [Ilann the Fair and
Buinne the Ruthless Red] with him to Alba. He invites the four
back. Dierdre is sure Conchobar is lying. But Fergus says that
Conchobar gave his word. The four accede, Dierdre protesting.
They sail back. Just after landing, they go through a kingdom
and meet a prince who stops them. The prince had gotten a secret
letter from Conchobar. He invites Fergus to stay for dinner.
Fergus is under a Geis that he may NEVER refuse to eat, but he
has given an oath to Conchobar that he will bring Dierdre,
Naoise, Ardan, and Ainle back directly. So he sends his two
sons. Dierdre is suspicious. But they go. All the knights stay
in ConchobarÕs castle. He also has a longhouse called the Red
Branch House. They know if he puts them in the Red Branch House,
there will be trouble for them. Conchobar sends for Lavarcham,
who says that Dierdre is no longer beautiful but actually ugly.
A man named Trendhorn says, ÒLet me go and see. IÕll tell you if
sheÕs still beautiful.Ó Trendhorn has a grudge against Naoise
and his brothers. They wonÕt let him in. He climbs up on the
roof (while theyÕre playing chess). He finds a skylight. Naoise
sees him and throws a chess piece, knocking out one of
TrendhornÕs eyes. He says to Conchobar, ÒI got a glimpse of
Dierdre, and it was worth losing my eye.Ó Conchobar wants her.
His formidable knights would never think of helping him in this.
So he hires mercenaries. They attack in waves. Buinne comes out
and is hacking them to bits. The king bribes Buinne, who sells
out for a parcel of land (a very sad event). The moment Buinne
sells out, that parcel of land becomes sterile. Ilann is
mortified and lives in shame forever. Angry, kiling right and
left, ConchobarÕs son Fiancha goes into battle and takes
ConchobarÕs magic shield which will scream anytime the bearer is
in danger. Ilann engages Fiancha in battle. Ilann is clearly
winning. Conall the Victorious hears the kingÕs shield screaming
and assumes the king is in danger. He draws his sword and kills
Ilann, realizing too late who it is. He wheels around and
decapitates Fiancha on the spot. But Ilann is gone. Conchobar
recognizes his defeat. He calls Cathbad and asks him to cast a
glamour to get Dierdre, Naoise, Ardan, and Ainle out. But heÕs a
good man. Conchobar must give his word he will not harm the four
before Cathbad accedes. Everyone inside thinks a flood hit and
they make their way out swimming under water. The mercenaries
grab them and tie them up. And Conchobar orders their execution.
No one will perform the task. Not even the mercenaries. Finally
Trendhorn (a Norwegian) volunteers because he hates them so
much. Each wants to be the first to die. Trendhorn lines them up
and, with one blow, decapitates them all. Conchobar takes
Dierdre to be his wife. She refuses to speak to him or touch
him. But the prophecy came true anyway. And Conchobar is ready
to give her up. SheÕs in a chariot one day and she leaps out and
bashes her head against a rock and dies. Fergus, furious, leaves
and goes to Connacht. Dierdre is recognized as the saddest woman
who ever lived. She did nothing to deserve her misery. Dierdre =
sadness.

The Story of Macha the Triple Goddess Macha comes to a farmer
because she loves him. They marry on the condition that he must
never tell anyone who she is. TheyÕre very happy until he goes
into the town (feudal castle) of Conchobar. They are having
horse races and chariot races. Everyone is crowing about how
great the winner is. The farmer boasts that his wife could beat
the winner -- in fact she could beat the horses. Conchobar sends
for Macha, who is just about to give birth. She must prove
herself or they will kill her husband. SheÕs angry. She steps in
front of a chariot, grabs the traces, and wins. She then falls
by the road and gives birth. She is furious. She places a curse
on everyone that anytime they are in peril, they will be weaker
than she in birth. Then she disappears. This is the curse of
Macha (they pass out for four and a half days or something).

Cattle Raid of Culaigne Mebh and Aillel are boasting about what
they each own (as king and queen of Connacht). Everything is
even except that Aillel owns a prized magic white bull. Mebh
(the witch queen) does NOT like it. She knows that, in an area
of Ulster called Culaigne, a fellow owns a prized brown bull.
She sends a deputation over to borrow the bull for a year. The
owner is perfectly amenable and even feeds the messengers. The
messengers are drinki, ng and boasting that, even if he hadnÕt
agreed, they would have taken the bull. At this, the fellow
refuses. Mebh marches in war against Ulster. Everyone
immediately passes out except Cuchulinn -- he is the son of a
god. He employs guerilla tactics against the oncoming army,
keeping them away. Every stone he throws kills someone. Every
day, Mebh sends out heroes to be defeated by Cuchulinn. They
make a deal that they may march only when he is not fighting.
Fergus meets Cuchulinn. They agree to make it look as if he has
won -- they take turns. Macha is attracted to him. He turns her
down cold. He has so many wounds that he has to put twigs under
his clothes to keep them off his skin. Lugh comes and puts him
to sleep for 24 hours and cures him. The BoysÕ Army (exempt from
the curse) comes out to face MebhÕs army for the full 24 hours
until every one of them is dead. CuchulinnÕs stepfather Sualtam
had been away. He returns, takes CuchulinnÕs horse and races
back to Ulster to try to rouse everyone. The horse is called the
Grey of Macha, a big powerful mare. He gets to the castle,
reigns the horse in, and it stops INSTANTLY, causing him to
decapitate himself with his shield. The head rolls in screaming,
ÒWake up!Ó The bull is eventually taken, but the white bull and
the brown bull kill one another in the corral.

Cuchulinn meets a young man who is doing battle with and
defeating all the local warriors. He wonÕt say who he is.
Cuchulinn challenges the warrior to battle. The young man has a
geis on him, forcing him to accept the challenge. Cuchulinn
thinks heÕs in danger. He ducks down and, with the Gaebolg
spear, comes up under his challengerÕs shield and skewers him.
ÒI am Cuchulinn,Ó he says. ÒWho are you?Ó The challenger
replies, ÒI am Connlach, your son.Ó Cuchulinn had placed him
under the very geis -- never tell your name, never turn down a
battle.

Mebh gathers together huge armies planning to attack Ulster.
Especially families in enmity with Cuchulinn. (The Curse of
Macha was broken in the Cattle Raid.) Cuchulinn sees omens of
all sorts. He is lured out to a large plain where he sees three
old hags who offer him food. He cannot refuse. He eats. Only
then they tell him that he has eaten roast hound. But he is
under a geis never to do that. His left side becomes paralyzed.
As he is riding back, he sees a woman washing laundry which
becomes redder and redder. This is a bad omen of his own blood.
He takes a cup of wine and sips, only to find that it is blood.
He sees the Grey of Macha weeping -- the tears are blood. He
takes three spears. Cathbad says they will kill three kings. He
has a charioteer who has bright red hair, white skin, freckles,
and blue eyes. He is the greatest chariotee in the land. They go
to battle MebhÕs army. They come to some druids who are with
MebhÕs army, who challenge him to stop and threaten him.
Cuchulinn takes a spear and kills one of them. The second grabs
the spear, throws it back, and kills CuchulinnÕs charioteer (the
ÒkingÓ of all charioteers). The second spear kills the second
druid. The last druid throws it back, killing the Grey of Macha
(the ÒkingÓ of all horses). The horse races off into the army,
killing 50 men with each hoof and 100 with its teeth before it
dies. Cuchulinn throws the thrid spear and kills the third druid
who, before he dies, throws the spear back, mortally wounding
Cuchulinn (the ÒkingÓ of all warriors). Cuchulinn goes into a
battle frenzy. He backs up to a large stone, and using his belt
to keep from falling over, he wraps himself against the stone
and raises his arm with his sword and waits and dies. Lugaid (a
scoundrel) from MebhÕs army sees the heorÕs light go out. He
goes up to cut off his head, but he jars the body and the arm
falls and lops off his hand. In a fury, he cuts CuchulinnÕs head
off with his left hand. Conall had made a pact with Cuchulinn to
avenge his death. Conall hunts down Lugaid that day and kills
him so he canÕt boast of taking CuchulinnÕs head.

Years later, on Easter Sunday, Conchobar hears what happened to
Christ and he swings his arms around and his heart bursts and he
dies.

Extensions from the Ulster Cycle: Caladholg (FergusÕs sword) ->
Romans take over British ÒCaliburnusÓ -> Ex Calibur DagdaÕs
Cauldron ÒUndryÓ -> The Holy Grail Isle of Avlach -> Avalon
(Otherworld) Cuchulinn -> Sir Gawain Lugh Lamfadha -> Lancelot
du Lac Diancecht -> Cathbad -> Merlin

Succat (father was Roman living in Britain, right outside the
Welsh border) Succat grew up in Wales, the son of a Roman. When
he was 16, he was captured by pirates and taken to Ireland, sold
as a slave. He worked for six years as a shepherd and a
swineherd. one night he had a dream/vision that he was going to
return home, that a ship was ready, and where to go. He walked
200 miles and found a ship all rigged and ready to go. He sailed
home. Later (in his mid-twenties), he went to Gaul. He studied
Christianity, and changed his name to Patrick (400Õs A.D.). He
became a priest, then a bishop. The Church sent him to Ireland,
but he knew to go already because he had gotten a letter from an
angel named Victor, saying that Ireland needed him. There was
great opposition from the druids, etc. He never left Ireland
again. 461 493 A.D. He spent 32 years in Ireland. He drove all
the snakes from Ireland. When he came, there were no Christians;
when he died, there were no more pagans. He once made a fire out
of ice and snow. He built 385 churches with schools (it is more
likely that he converted Druidic colleges). He died on March
17th. The green is an association with spring and the green of
Ireland. Shamrocks represent the Trinity. Clay pipes associate
him with the common folk and leprechauns. He is considered the
great saint of Ireland, although he was Roman and Welsh.

St. Brendan

St. Brigit

King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table

The REAL Arthur: England was invaded and conquered by Rome in 55
B.C. It was occupied until 410 A.D. The Romans settled into
Britain, took wives, had children, etc. Roman names were used by
the soldiers, still fond of their heritage. The Romans were
called back in 410 to defend the Empire. They left Britain
undefended. Then came the Picts. The Britons were helpless. They
sent to Germany and asked the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes (all
Germanic tribes) to bring troops in to suppress the Picts. These
tribes succeeded in staving off the Picts. But then they
wouldnÕt leave. A new war broke out between the Britons and
these Germanic tribes. From 480-500 A.D., there was a 20-year
lull. Peace was made. But the Britons stood back warily. In 520,
war broke out again. The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes won a
decisive victory, driving out many Britons to Brittany (France).
The Jutes settled in Kent (in the southeast). The Angles and
Saxons absorbed and were absorbed by the remaining Britons. In
the late 500Õs, some form of history (in Welsh) called the
ÒAnnals of British HistoryÓ was written. Battles and wars were
discussed. A name was mentioned: Arcturus (Latin). He was called
a Dux Bellorum (battle leader, general). Arcturus was a young
Roman who had learned Roman military tactics and stayed in
Britain. He supplied the genius to fight the Germans in between
eight and twelve different battles, all of which he won. A
battle in 500 A.D. resulted in a decisive defeat against the
Germans. The Battle of Camlann (520 A.D.), Arcturus and Medraut
fell. The Germans won. There were many unanswered questions.
This is the progeny of the story of Arthur and Mordred as
enemies in the Battle of Camelot. Various little references to
Arthur became common. A monk claimed to have found the grave of
Arthur. (ÒHere lies Arthur, the one time king and the future
kingÓ -- the Once and Future King). He supposedly dug him up.
The bones were taken to a cathedral in Glastonbury. Someone said
they found a stone with a pawprint (made by ArthurÕs magic dog).
Around this time, stories began.

Arthur and Mordred are linked. Guinevere, ArthurÕs queen. 1136
Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote ÒHistoria Regum BritoniaeÓ -- History
of the Kings of Britain. Ambrosius -- king over Merlin. Merlin
magically set up Stonehenge. It purports to be the history of
the kings of Britain, but it is really pure Geoffrey of
Monmouth. He takes tremendous license.

The irony is that Arthur would not have stood for England -- he
fought for the Britons against the Angles.

Poems were written. Then in France, the Arthurian cycle caught
on (because all they had was Charlemagne). c. 1160, the Round
Table and the Knights have been fabricated. And much has been
written. In France, at this time, (12th century) much that had
been brewing is coming to a head. Chivalry and courtly love
suddenly fluorished (had been prepared for). Their minstrels
were primarily Bretons. Minstrels catered to the woman of the
house because she decided their pay. Guinevere takes a lover
outside of her home because this man is so passionately crazy
about her that its worthwhile. (Courtly love = illicit) The
Church (in a grand coup) came out with a law saying it is a sin
to enjoy sex with your spouse (it should pe purely for
propagation) -- this seemed to promulgate the efficacy of
adultery. Women began to get into this. Marriages were arranged
as business ventures. Some very powerful French women trained
men to be grand COURTLY lovers. Eleanor of Aquitaine and Marie
of Champagne opened this school, hired textwriters, etc.

In Rome, Ovid was a writer who wrote much humor. Manual(i.e.,
book of instruction)-writing was taken very seriously. So Ovid
wrote -- as a joke -- a manual called ÒThe Art of Love.Ó Because
love was considered to be unimportant and inconsequential.
Eleanor and Marie took this satire to be holy word. They hired a
man to update this to ÒThe Art of Courtly LoveÓ : Chrétien de
Troyes (Christian of Troy), a writer of French romances (poetic
novels). He was the best. c. 1160, recognized the value of the
influx of material on Arthur from England. Used heroes and
characters in his romances. He was a great writer. So
influential that Eleanor and Marie commissioned him to write a
romance in keeping with courtly love -> ÒThe Knight of the
Cart.Ó One day, when Arthur is at home with his court, a strange
knight challenges any knight to a joust. If he wins, he can have
anything he wants -- and what he wants is Guinevere. Sir Gawayne
wasnÕ there. Arthur was wary. Sir Chay, his boyhood friend,
demands as a return of favor to be allowed to joust. Chay loses
(handily), so the knight rides off with Guinevere. Sir Gawayne
returns and is furious. He is the greatest knight of the realm.
He resolves to bring Guinevere back. A junior knight begs to go
along. Gawayne agrees. The junior gallops off at top speed. He
rides his horse to death. Gawayne gives him a pack horse. This
guy ADORES Guinevere. They come to a brook to water their
horses. The junior knight finds GuinevereÕs comb in the grass.
He clasps it to his breast and passes out. Gawayne canÕt believe
it. He comes to, sees a long golden hair on the comb, and passes
out again. They come to a village. A dwarf says heÕll tell them
where to find Guinevere only if theyÕll ride through the town in
his cart (a humiliating thing -> execution). They reach a raging
river. The bridge is a huge sword turned on edge. Gawayne will
ford the river but he is swept away temporarily. The junior
knight makes it across the sword bridge. Finally, he is in the
courtyard ÒfightingÓ the abductor but he sees Guinevere and
canÕt take his eyes off her. She says to her lady-in-waiting
that heÕll be killed. She advises her to tell him. Yes, but who
is he? Sir Lancelot. She advises him. He turns around to fight
and watch her at the same time. (Chrétien quits here in disgust
with the mush -- completed by another author). The satire became
taken seriously. Lancelot du Lac becomes a famous character.

Courtly love = an illicit affair between a noble, courteous,
gentile bachelor knight and a married lady. It is never
consummated (on paper). It should be at a distance. The man is
slave to a cold hearted woman who loves him in secret.

Ulrich, a German knight in love with his neighborÕs wife,
courted her openly. He serenaded her, sent love messages -- for
two years. Then he went on horseback across Europe for several
months dressed as Aphrodite. He made everyone say that the
object of his affection was the most beautiful woman -- even
though they hadnÕt seen her. So he jousted. And when all was
said and done, he had broken 300 lances. Upon his return, her
husband died. They married, and within six months he was
courting another.

In France, other writers used ÒThe Knight of the CartÓ as a
springboard. There was a problem. Sir Gawayne was great.
Lancelot was a nobody. They had to do a little balancing act to
turn Lancelot into the greatest knight. Suppress one; embellish
the other. This took several centuries. But in France, Lancelot
became number one. In England, Lancelot was ignored. Gawayne was
not dedicated to any one woman. He had many affairs, because
courtly love had not yet caught on. Once Gawayne fell in love
and married. His wife died after two years. He is the hero in
England.

In 1460, a man is placed in jail for rape for a while (Sir
Thomas Malory). In jail (across from a library), he reads French
stories of Arthur. So he opted for the French tale when he wrote
Le Morte dÕArthur. He felt there was no way to explain the fall
of Camelot without corruption in the court. Thus, the
consummated love affair between Lancelot and Guinevere. This
established the new bent for the story of Arthur. Malory only
codified -- he invented virtually nothing.

Arthur. As a king, he is patterned after Conchobar of Ulster. He
gathers the greatest knights of the realm to come to his court
(Camlann -> Camelot). The idea of the round table came circa
1140, between Geoffrey Monmouth and Chrétien. Traditionally, the
greatest knight sits at the right of the king. Roundness does
away with this dilemma. They are all the greatest knights.
Lancelot and Galahad never existed before the poetic romance.
Arthur had the image of the Virgin Mary on his shield or back
plate of armor in the last battle he won. (The Story of Dierdre
and the Sons of Uisnach inspired the Arthur-Guinevere-Lancelot
tale.) Once said: ÒGuinevere was a very beautiful lady who had a
bad habit of being run off with.Ó It was an arranged marriage.
It was the greatest blow for Arthur to discover that his best
friend was the one with his wife -- it was really Lancelot he
cared about. (In the English version, Guinevere runs off with
Mordred and takes over the kingdom.) Arthur is killed as he is
killing. He is killing Mordred, and Mordred is killing him back.
He behaved as badly as Conchobar when he found out about
Guinevere. Sir Gawayne is the most colorful character. He is not
shackled by marriage. He defeats every single person he
challenges without exception. (Based on Cuchulinn -- also
unfaithful -- through the Welsh). Gawayne is believed to be a
kind of solar deity. His strength increases until noon and then
wanes. (He falls in love with a woman named Lunette, or ÒLittle
MoonÓ.) He is the nephew of Arthur (always the favorite over
sons). he is big, light haired, light-eyed, powerful, handsome.
But he has faults. He is a very popular character. He starred in
Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight -> ÒEvil to Him Who Evil ThinkÓ
(later assumed by the real Knights of the Garter). Sit Gawayne
eventually split into his four brothers. Gawayne rides the only
horse with a name, Gringolet. Gringolet is a dappled grey horse
with red ears, associated with Faerie (from the Grey of Macha).

Lailoken (Scottish cycle of stories), madman who lived in the
forest Cairmarthen on the border of Scotland. ÒBad man of the
forest.Ó He is a sorceror magician. The Britons had to move
south because of the Angles. They took these stories with them.
The Welsh liked the stories. In and around Wales, they
interpreted Cairmarthen as The Mound (Caer) of Myrddin ->
assumed this to be his name. Influence of Cathbad and Diancecht,
assumed he was the magician of that cycle. When that cycle
became a part of Arthurian legend, this was thought to be the
name of the court wizard. Geoffrey of Monmouth turned Myrddin
into a magician under Ambrosius and eventually under Arthur
himself. He set up Stonehenge, etc. ArthurÕs story moved to
France and then back to Britain. The British expanded it even
more. The cycle is known as ÒThe Matter of BritainÓ (Matter of
Rome -- Ancient Rome, Matter of France -- Charlemagne). Changed
Myrddin to Myrlin because of the auditory similarity to the
French ÒMerd.Ó

Lailoken is not associated with the court. In his 60s or 70s, he
fell in love with a 14 year-old girl called Nimue -- an
entrancing girl. She becomes his beloved on the condition that
he teach her everything he knows. He taught her for several
years. At the end of the time, she used his magic against him.
She lured him sexually into a cave and then sealed him into it
so he could never escape. (Tennyson calls her ÒVivian.Ó) [Sir
Gawayne is out riding and hears MerlinÕs voice. Gawayne tells
what has happened.] With Arthur, Morgan Lafey is a close
relation (Lafey = the Fairy) of ArthurÕs. A sister, sister-in-
law, or cousin. She has much power. She wants to bring ruin to
ArthurÕs Camelot. Comes from the Welsh Morgana (of battle and of
good and bad fortune), who comes from Morrigu. morgan is behind
the beheading game for Sir Gawayne. It is rumored that Morgan
put Nimue up to the whole plot with Merlin. Morgan becomes
attached in this cycle to Mordred (Medraut -> Mordred/Modred),
who fell at the Battle of Camlann. This legend becomes
inherently evil. A bastard nephew of ArthurÕs father.

crestfallen - joust origins standard bend - right to left / on
shield bend dexter - \ (bend sinister) = illegitimacy

Illegitimacy is why Mordred is always angry and evil. He is also
a very powerful warrior. When he and Arthur meet, they kill each
other. Mordred is always the dark figure. He is plotting
constantly. He represents the powers of darkness in all the
stories.

Sir Kay (first in Geoffrey MonmouthÕs history) a boyhood
acquaintance of Arthur, who was brought up by KayÕs father. He
is ArthurÕs comapnion knight. An excellent foil -> he loses all
the time. He needs to be saved or accounted for. Human weakness
is necessary for the stories. Too superficial.

Sir Bedevere (the Butler), which comes from ÒbottlerÓ or wine
steward. Ever faithful servant to Arthur. Bedevere is there as
Arthur dies. He requires that he take Excalibur to the lake and
throw it in. Arthur asks what he saw. Bedevere said nothing.
Arthur knew he lied. A second time, Bedevere said a monster
came. Once again, Arthur knew he was lying. On the third time,
Bedevere told Arthur that a hand came out of the water and drew
the sword under. Finally, Arthur knew that Bedevere had done as
he had asked.

Instead of dying, a boat from the lake with beautiful maidens,
takes him and they sail away to Faerie -- an island. The Isle of
Glass/Avalon. Arthur and all his knights are sleeping in a cave
on Avalon and will come to BritainÕs rescue if needed.

Lancelot du Lac - son of King Bann of Benwick. imported from
France. He is the epitome of the great knight, and was made so
in France. He catches GuinevereÕs eye. They ruin their courtly
love affair by having a physical consummation -- for quite some
time. He is a knight errant, i.e., he wanders aimlessly in
search of adventure. Lancelot decided to be errant for a while.
he stays with a friendly king who has a beautiful daughter who
falls in love with him. The king casts a spell, causing Lancelot
to forget Guinevere and fall in love with Elaine. Lancelot
marries Elaine. Their union produces a son. After two years,
Lancelot snaps out of the spell and is furious with the king. He
leaves Elaine and his son. Elaine commits suicide. Her father
raises the son, who goes to Camelot and is knighted: Sir
Galahad, who is seated to ArthurÕs left (Siege Perilous). This
seat is deadly. Only one who is totally pure could sit there.
galahad succeeded in surviving the test. He is PURE. Too pure.
He is the youngest of the knights. TennysonÕs ÒIdylls of the
KingÓ includes a poem about Galahad: ÒMy good sword carves the
casks of men, my tough lance thrusteth sure. My strength is as
the strength of ten because my heart is pure.Ó He is always a
blond, beardless youth. Celibate. He isnÕt very much fun. He
does get to do one thing...

Sir (Drustan -> Tristan ->) Tristram and his beloved Isolde
(Iseult) and King Mark

Final story: King Mark of Cornwall, castle Tintagel at the
southwest corner of Britain. Tintagel on small peninsula. His
nephew was Tristan. Loyal knight. Greatest in his area. Mark
wanted a bride. Heard about Princess Iseult in Ireland. Wanted
Tristan to go and fetch her for him. Mark wasnÕt sure sheÕd care
for him. Sent a nurse with a love potion which would cause her
to fall in love with the first person she sees. Tristant and
Iseult accidentally drank it together and instantly fell in
love, (In the original story, they fell in love on their own.),
making them blameless. She still has to marry Mark, who is very
jealous. Convinced they are carrying on an affair, which they
are not. His jealousy drives them together. The affair was
consummated (more than once). Iseult says she will undergo trial
by ordeal to prove her innocence (a red hot iron will or will
not burn). Tristan disguises himself as a pilgrim in priestly
robes. She trips, he catches her. She swears she hasnÕt been in
any oneÕs arms but his -- except the pilgrim who has just saved
me. She isnÕt burned. But Mark exiles Tristan. Once Mark is out
hunting and he stops and finds the two of them lying beside each
other with TristanÕs razor sharp sword lying between them. Mark
is mollified for a while. Ultimately, Mark arranges to have
Tristan assassinated. Tristan marries. Iseult of the White
Hands. Tristan is fatally wounded by the assasin but knows
Iseult can cure him. He asks to send for her. Stipulation: if
she is going to come and cure me, put up the white sails. If she
refuses, make the sails black. His wife is jealous. She lies and
tells him the sails are black. He rolls over and dies. Iseult
arrives and lies down beside him and dies. Similar to the story
of Theseus and Aegeus.

(Peredur, Perceval, Perlesvaus) -> Sir Percival (Gawayne,
Percival, and Tristan were originally the most important of the
knights -> later Lancelot and Galahad) Percival was the son of a
woman with a husband and two sons, all three were killed while
she was pregnant with Percival. She raised Percival without a
word about knighthood. She kept him as a country bumpkin. One
day, he was out in the field and five armed knights came and
asked for a drink of water. Once he saw them, he knew it was his
calling. He told his mother that he had to become a knight. She
was against it, but he was adamant. His mother said to be sure
to worship and keep holy. At one point, Percival comes to a
pavilion tent thinking itÕs a temple. He goes in and sees a
beautiful woman sleeping. He kisses her and leaves. Her husband
suspects somethingÕs amiss and beats her mercilessly. But
Percival goes on his way. He is almost laughed out of the court
(when he left, his mom fainted, but he went on undeterred).

A red knight has been charging up and down outside of Camelot.
Percival defeats him easily takes his armor. Some people in the
court take pity and teach him what he needs to know.

Older man/knight, sort of fatherly, takes him under his wing. He
says: ÒIf you want to do well, keep silent. DonÕt ask questions.
YouÕll learn more.Ó He came to an old man fishing. The man
invites him home for dinner. The old man is there, king and lord
of the castle. But he has a problem. He has been pierced through
both legs with a spear (called the Fisher King). Percival
doesnÕt say anything. People come through carrying things: 1) a
lance with one drop of blood on the end of it, 2) a candelabra,
3) a jeweled compote dish, called a GRAIL with a single wafer in
it (holy -> called a ÒhostÓ), 4) a carving plate. The fisher is
in immense pain; his old wounds are still bleeding. Percival
goes to sleep. He wakes up and the plce is magically deserted --
unlived in for a long time. He goes on his way. He has a few
adventures. He gets back to ArthurÕs court and is knighted (he
has defeated over 60 opponents by this time). A woman comes in
and rails at him for not bothering to ask about the Fisher King.
There was an old man and another man in another room: the Fisher
KingÕs father. His simply asking would have healed them both.
Another woman comes in and says the reason he didnÕt know any
better because he had been cruel to his mother who had died.
Result: the knights realize they should go and try to find the
Fisher King. But he has learned pity and humility. He becomes a
GREAT knight. This evolves into the legend of the Holy Grail.
Later, the knights are portrayed not seeking the Fisher King but
the Grail itself. It was supposed to have been used by Christ
and the Last Supper then given to Joseph of Arimathea who caught
the blood of Christ in the grail and then went to England, which
is of course why itÕs there. All the knights but one fail in
this quest. (Galahad gets to see it -- Gawayne and Percival are
said to have seen it in a vision). Lancelot never got to see it
because he did NASTY things.

Around 1910, Jessie Weston (a female scholar) used to point out
that the lance and the grail were male and female phallic
symbols. Could be distantly related to the DagdaÕs Cauldron ->
BranÕs magic drinking horn (horn in Latin is ÒcornuÓ; the host
is the body of Christ Òcors/corseÓ -> mistranslated?).

The Quest for the Holy Grail becomes a Christian core to the
Arthurian legends. It doesnÕt really fit very well. The Siege
Perilous is a spin off on the Stone of Fal.

King ArthurÕs weapon having a name is odd. But he also has a
spear called Ron (exactly like LughÕs spear). Arthur Pendragon,
son of Uther Pendragon (= Òson of the dragonÓ). Because Arthur
is said to have been taken to the Isle of Glass, many believe
this to be Glastonbury which has a hill called the Glastonbury
Tor, which often appeared as an island because of marshes at the
foot.

The Legend of Robin Hood

In English literature -> allegory -- extended metaphor. E.g.,
Piers Plowman c. 1377 written in alliteration, has a line: ÒI
ken not perfectly my paternoster --Ó First mention of Robin
Hood -- in contrast to the Paternoster. Well-known even by then.
c. 1400 ÒThe Geste of Robin Hood.Ó

Robyn Hode Robyn and his men are already in the forest. They
stop a knight and ask if he has money. He has £200. He owes £400
to the Abbott of Saint MaryÕs, who will take his home and his
sister. Robyn lends him the additional £200. The Abbott is
shocked and dismayed that the knight has come up with the sum.
Then a monk of Saint MaryÕs is stopped in the forest. Robyn asks
if he has money. The monk says no. Robyn says, ÒOh, then you can
go -- but letÕs search anyway.Ó They find £800 and take it
because he had said it wasnÕt his.

Little John wins an archery contest. They capture the Sheriff of
Nottingham. They let him go on his promise that he wonÕt
persecute them. he breaks his word. He devises a trap of an
archery contest for Robyn. They find refuge at the home of the
first knight Sir Richard of the Lee (lea -> meadow). The Sheriff
catches Richard. Robyn rescues him, and then kills the Sheriff.
Twenty-two years later, Robyn goes to visit his cousin the
princess at a convent. She has a secret lover who hates Robyn
Hode and points out that he looks like heÕs not feeling well.
She can fix him up. She bleeds him to death. There is no Maid
Marian. At the end of the story, he shoots an arrow to mark his
grave. They fought with bows and swords; no quarter staffs, no
lances. Only Edward, Our Comely King is mentioned. No Richard.
No John. No mention of his being a Saxon or fighting the
Normans. They were not social rebels in any way. Robyn was not a
knight, earl, or noble -- he was a yeoman (of the working
class/a foot soldier). There was no robbing of the rich to give
to the poor. Robyn gives advice: There are only two kinds of
people to rob -- bishops and archbishops.

Robin Hood Adam Bell, Clim of Clough, William of Cloudsley
Referred to in the 1400s (he had been around before). The Forest
of Inglewood, living off the KingÕs deer. The Sheriff is after
them constantly. They are very good at outwitting him and the
law. They have a battle. Wil is captured and taken to town. A
gallows is erected for him. A small peasant boy runs to tell
Adam and Clim. They manage to disguise themselves, trick their
way into town, and shoot the sheriff, rescue Wil and get back to
the Forest. Band, the forest, illegal life, bow and arrow,
disguise, sheriff, rescue -> Robin Hood. Other stories were
similar. Outlaws in the forests. All masters of disguise.
Skilled with weapons. To lure an aristocrat into the woods,
capture and release. Deman to know how much money he has. if the
person lies, they steal the money. Always yeomen. Traditionally,
Robin Hood in Nottinghamshire in Sherwood Forest. According to
early stories, however, Robin Hood more in Barnsdale (north of
Nottingham - southwest Yorkshire). Story of the forest arose
because of a feud with the sheriff.

c. 1330 or 1220, believed to be origin (too late for Richard and
John). Very near Barnsdale c. 1400-50 figure known as Robert
Hode (ÒRobinÓ = French and English nickname for Robert). Surname
ÒRobynhodeÓ appears in the same region. Legends always founded
in fact but become exaggerated.

India

Indus Valley (origin of ÒIndoÓ part of Indo-European kanguage).
c. 2000-1000 B.C. Europeans came into the Indus Valley. They
began to migrate, some to future Persia; the rest to future
Hindu India. They spoke Sanskrit. Northern India (fairer because
of European ancestry) leads to interesting parallels to Hindu
and Celtic stories.

1) Vedic - earlier gods, pre-ÒoccupationalÓ Shared by the
Persians and Indians. They had two major gods. 2) a. Dyaus -
male, sky god, called Dyaus Pitar = ÒGod, the FatherÓ
patriarchal -> Jupiter Dyaus <-> Zeus b. Prithivi a) bull, b)
cow (representation - fertility) a) Òvigorous godÓ (virile), b)
Òheroic femaleÓ Beneath these:

Varuna epithet ÒThe All-Encompassing OneÓ The night sky. An
ANCIENT god. he had originally created the universe using 1) his
creative will and 2) the sun. Eventually branches out. He has
1,000 eyes (stars) or a single powerful one (the sun). He
represents cosmic order and therefore law. Varuna is omniscient
but just (if severe). He carried a rope with him to bind sinners
and sometimes represents the crimes of a person -- strength of
the rope commensurate with the number of sins. After centuries,
Varuna became part of a triad. Varuna = guardian of night. Mitra
(s) = guardian of the day. Aryaman = ? [(no idea) but the same
name in Persia menas malevolent god of evil].

Indians changed their gods periodically. This triad was replaced
eventually by another. The second triad is called ÒThe Great
Triad of the Vedic GodsÓ: Agni, Surya, Indra

Agni - god of fire. The name appears via Roman in ÒigniteÓ, etc.
Said to be the youngest of the three gods. Personifies 1) sun,
2) lightning, 3) sacrificial fire. Three kinds of fire. Indians
and Persians believe sacrifical fire arrived here by lightning
of the sun, so earthbound fire is an extension of the sun
itself. During sacrifices to him, worshippers can put meat and
clarified butter into the flame. He purifies it to eat. In
Persia, clarified butter -- but NOTHING else - must be put on
the fire to make it sacred. Anything else would constitute
contamination. Whoever contaminates the sacred flame is buried
alive. In India, the fire will purify anything. Agni carries a
bow and arrow (representing lightning). He has red skin on his
arms and legs, golden hair (3 legs, 7 arms, 2 faces, 7 tongues).
He rides in a bright shining chariot with banners of black
smoke. The two faces suggest two forms of fire and being able to
move in two directions. He is a very friendly god. Spoken to in
personal terms (like a friend) in ritual. He really liked Soma
(a muscle-relaxantdrug -- a drink, pale amber fluid, sacred --
personified into a god).

Surya - very divine. Sun god. Has golden hair, golden skin.
Rides in a chariot drawn by seven red mares or a seven-headed
red mare. ÒThe Eye of VarunaÓ (epithet), also ÒThe Eye of
Mitras.Ó Source of great stability, security and permanence.
Called ÒThe Measurer,Ó set boundaries. Looked upon in a mystical
way. ÒStimulated the mind of manÓ to creativity, deep pensive
though, etc.

Indra - comical character (similar to Thor). A rival of Varuna
for a long time. [When the Indo-Europeans came into India, they
wanted to stay segregate from the locals -- used a class system -
> caste system: Brahmin, Kshatriya (warriors, nobles). Varuna
was the patron god of the Brahmin, and Indra of the Kshatriya.
Thus the power feud.] Indra has golden skin, red beard (warrior
god). Throne in a storm cloud. Golden chariot with tawny horses
(palominos). Wears the sky as his helmet. Four weapons: 1) a
common spear and Chakra - metal ring, razor sharp on the
outside, blunt on the inside, works like a discus, Ankus
(elephant goad - see figure) six or seven feet long and razor
sharp, Vajra - represents a lightning bolt (three pronged on
either end). Indra is very warlike. He is generous to his
followers (a necessary adjunct to warrior leaders). The clouds
are his cattle. He guards them (and the cattle of humans, as
well). Indra loves Soma and women beyond anything in the
universe -- anytime and in vast excess quantities. He canÕt just
take a drink of Soma. He must become falling down drunk
(representing earthquakes) and will have liaisons with ANY
woman. He is comparable to Thor. Indra is the son of Dyaus and
Prithivi (the whole triad is/are). At birth, Indra drinks Soma
to ready himself for battle. He always does this. As an adult
god, he kills his father Dyaus for his inheritance, which is
Soma. He does not want to wait. He takes the Soma and becomes
powerful and separates his father from his mother with his hands
(separation of the sky from the earth -- archetypal). He must go
out and face the demon of drought Vritra who causes drought
because he is a great dragon of the waters. He imprisons the
waters, pens them up. Indra must win to release the water. This
takes place every year at the end of summer.

(1) Asura(s) - thought of int contrast to (2) Deva(s) (good
benevolent gods mentioned above). Asuras are mostly demons, etc.
In the Persian, the opposite is true.

Danava(s) - unpleasant and malevolent beings (Vritra is one of
them). But the word means Òchildren of Danu.Ó Aditra(s) - more
neutral (Varuna is one).

(3) Rakshasa(s) - demons, mostly deformed, many ghouls,
misanthropes (ghoul - breaks open new grave and cannibalizes ->
an eater of the dead)

Tvashtri - artisan of the Vedic gods. Created IndraÕs weapons
starting with the Vajra. Also contains concepts of creativity
and abundance. He gives fertility to humanity. Has the bowl of
Soma that Indra steals in order to fight Vritra. Soma - a vague
god who has the characteristics of the drink. He is said to be a
moon god (because of his color). He is a source of physical
strength, inspiration, immortality. Artisan of the gods, had the
bowl of the source of immortality for the gods (like Goivniu).
Occasionally, Soma is thought of as a food (called Amrita)
instead of a drink (-> ambrosia/nectar). He is also the source
of military inspiration (like mead). When drunk by humans in the
underworld, it gives them immortality.

Dushan - wonder-working god who feeds and envigorates, source of
food, carries a spear or awl, rides in a chariot drawn by goats.
He has no teeth. He only eats porridge.

Brahmanic Gods: Headed by the Trimurti (three-headed): Brahma,
Vishnu, Shiva Brahma is the creator. Vishnu is the preserver.
Shiva is the destroyer. Shiva - comes from a pre-Indic pair of
gods: Rudra and Agni. Rudra- the red god (before Persia and
India split) of storms, lightning, cattle, and medicine. Lives
in the mountains. Shiva usually wears a breech cloth, body
smeared with ashes (mountain hermit, ascetic). He has a third
eye with a crescent around it in the middle of his forehead. His
headdress is made of venomous serpents. His hair is a tangled
mess (third eye sometimes shown in his hair). He wears a
necklace of human skulls. Sometimes shown with five faces. Four
arms. The third eye represents a lightning bolt, the most
powerful weapon of the gods. [Note: most of the gods have four
or more arms.] He is also the god of dance. He is often shown
dancing on the back of a demon. One couldnÕt show motion with
statues. Multiple arms created the illusion of motion. Shiva has
a white face (ashen), tiger skin over his shoulder in cold areas
of the country. he has a blue throat. He hangs out in graveyards
or battlefields or in the highest mountains of the Himalayas. He
inherits the fertility aspect (ÒLord of the BeastsÓ) from Rudra.
He is a demonslayer. Distributor of the seven holy rivers that
flow out from the Ganges. He is often shown in art with a river
splitting on his head.

Brahma and Vishnu one day meet and realize theyÕve met beside a
huge stone solumn, the top of which they canÕt see nor can they
see the bottom. TheyÕve never seen it before. One goes up. one
goes down to see where it goes. They both get exhausted and
canÕt find the ends. They are both mystified. Then it disappears
and Shiva shows up. They tell him and he listens then laughs. He
demonstrates somehow that the solumn was in fact his erect
phallus.

Shiva has some consorts. Primarily Devi. [Note: Hindus believe
in reincarnation, but lovers will be lovers eternally.] Devi -
originally a kind of earth mother goddess, but later she becomes
solely identified with Shiva. -> Durga - name taken from a demon
she slew, created solely to kill demons, fierce beautiful woman
with ten arms, riding a tiger,; Kali - also kills demons, called
black earth mother, has black skin and tusks, fangs, a third
eye, and blood smeared all over her face from demon-killing, a
necklace of alternating snakes and skulls. her tongue hangs to
the ground.

Brahma- the Creator God. He has red skin, four arms, four heads
(he had five, but lost one), rides a white goose. He once
created a consort for himself. She was very beautiful. He fell
in love with her instantly. His steady gaze embarrassed her. As
she tried to move away in different directions, new heads popped
up, leaving him with five heads altogether. Shiva appears and
lops off the fifth, leaving four.

Vishnu - [Avatar, Samsara, Kharma - Hindus believe in Samsara =
Òincarnation.Ó The appearance in the flesh is the avatar, and
the actual role is Kharma. It is not a pleasant thing to come
back. Life was difficult. But a person must keep coming back and
work off the wrongs he has committed. The next form under human
is the cow (which is why they do not kill cows in India). Kharma
is the debt owed. Once it is paid off, you can pass into
oblivion.] VishnuÕs skin is blue. He has four hands and rides a
huge white bird with a human face called Garuda. Gods and demons
are constantly waging war. Vishnu must assure rge demons donÕt
get the upper hand and offset the balance of the universe. He
has had nine avatars and has one still coming. (1st avatar) Manu
was fishing. Vishnu showed up as a fish (source of the word
ÒmanÓ) who is caught by Manu. The fish says, ÒIf youÕll spare
me, IÕll help you.Ó So Manu spares the fish. he puts him in a
fish bowl. The fish grew and grew. It said to Manu, ÒThere is a
huge flood coming. YouÕre going to have to build a giant boat.
Manu does as the fish says. Once the boat is in danger of
crashing and a huge fish with golden scales and a golden horn
appears. Manu lashes the boat to the horn and humanity is saved.
The reveals himself as Vishnu.

At one time, the gods began to lose vigor and strength, and the
Asuras began to gain mastery. Vishnu tells the gods to work
together with the Asuras. They take a giant mountain and turn it
over and place it in the cosmic ocean. They take the hugest
snake and wrap it round the mountain once. They hold the ends of
the snake and turn the mountain back and forth which churns the
ocean. But the mountain begins to bore into the earth. Vishnu
(2nd avatar) takes the form of a turtle, dives down and acts as
a pivot to protect the earth. From the foam of the ocean came
Amrita to keep the gods young. The snake opens its mouth and a
gigantic amount of poison comes out and is about to fall on the
earth and destroy all life. Shiva catches all the poison in his
mouth and takes it out to the universe and spews it out. Strong
poison -- turned his throat blue. (4th avatar) Lion-man, a man
with a lionÕs head and claws. (5th avatar) A demon named Bali
performs austerities for centuries until heÕs so strong he takes
over the universe. He becomes a tyrant. One day in BaliÕs court
a dwarf appears who pleases Bali with humor and the like. The
dwarf says he would like as a favor to own a place of his own.
Bali asks how much. The dwarf says only as much as I can cover
in three steps. Bali grants the wish. The dwarf is Vishnu. He
grows so huge that in one step he covers the whole universe and
says to Bali, ÒWhere shall I go now?Ó Bali is contrite in his
loss. He becomes ruler of the Underworld (there is a similar
story in Polynesian myth). (3rd avatar) a boar. (6th & 7th
avatars) The Kshatriya class had become too strong and were
taking over. A being called Parasurama (= Rama with the axe)
appears and begins wiping out the warrior class. He gets a blood
frenzy up and is unstoppable. Ramachandra appears (often called
Rama). This is also Vishnu. And he stopt Parasurama. Two
separate incarnations at the same time. Parasurama leaves. Sita -
RamaÕs beloved. (The couple is very famous in Indian lore.) In
a long poem, Sita was abducted by a demon Ravana, King of Lanka
(Sri Lanka). Rama goes after her, blah blah blah. (8th avatar)
Krishna (ÒDark OneÓ) When he was born, a demon knew he would
present danger, but only knew the name of his family clan. He
sent soldiers to kill all the infant sons (archetype: The
Slaughter of the Innocents). They miss him, of course. They
always do. Krishna escapes. He is a boy with blue skin. He grows
up. As a teenager, he has a series of very amorous adventures.
He loves to go out in the fields and have a nice time with girls
herding cows (Krishna with the Cow Girls). He used to ÒdanceÓ
with these young ladies. He once encountered thirteen of them.
They all wanted to Òdance.Ó So he cloned himself into twelve
others and they all ÒdancedÓ in a circle. He grows up and goes
after the demon who tried to kill him. At the gate, a mad
elephant attacks him and he clubs it to death and then goes in
and does the same to the demon. He then marries his lover
(equivalent of the Sita figure). At one point, two gigantic
clans prepare to go to war against each other. One is led by
Arjuna (Krishna was ArjunaÕs cousin). The night before the first
battle, Arjuna looks into the valley of the armies and feels sad
of the death that will occur. His chariot-driver talks to him
about whether he should go to battle (the charioteer is
Krishna). The Mahabhárata is a poem which describes the entire
war. The conversation between Krishna and Arjuna is the Bhagavad
Gita. Krishna sends Arjuna into war and they win. One day,
Krishna is out in the woods sitting beneath a tree and an archer
shoots an arrow not seeing Krishna. The arrow misses his mark
and hits Krishna in the heel and wounds him fatally (his one
vulnerable spot). Krishna forgives the archer, then dies and
becomes Vishnu again.

The Story of the 9th Avatar: Buddha - recent story. An obvious
attempt to subordinate Buddha to the Hindu gods. However the
real 9th avatar is to come. In the age of shallowness and
materialism and brother cheating brother , son killing father,
Vishnu will be Kalki [(1) a great white stallion, (2) Vishnu
riding a white stallion].

Brahma - one day = 4,320 million years. At the beginning of each
cosmic day, Vishnu lies asleep on the back of a thousand-headed
cobra, floating in the cosmic ocean. Immediately, a lotus grows
from VishnÕs navel. From the lotus, Brahma is born. brahma
creates the world and governs it. And at the end of the day,
Vishnu falls asleep and reabsorbs the entire universe back into
his body. 360 of those days form one year of Brahma. Vishnu will
live 100 of those years. Right now, Vishnu is 51. After the 100
years, Vishnu and Brahma will merge with the Imperial Absolute -
a life force. But a new Vishnu will appear and it will start all
over again.

Glossary of Mythological Terms

allegories - the use of symbolic or fictional figures to express
truths or generalizations about human existence and/or actual
events in history

archetype - characters, situations or events commonly
representative of throughout history and cultures, e.g., nagging
mother-in-law, boastful but cowardly soldier, the eternal
triangle/love triangle, a young god destroying the huge enemy of
the other gods, poetic justice.

Some common archetypes:

The air personified separates the earth from the sky.
The sky is male and the earth is female.
The sum is superior to the moon in power.
The Evil Eye - an all-powerful weapon, the bearer of the eye
need only look upon his victim to inflict instantaneous death.
The Curing of the Curse - (1) the victim can only be cured if
the source of the curse is known, (2) the victim can only be
cured by the person who lays the curse.
The True Name (a very widespread archetype) - Everything in the
universe has a true name which is the essence of that thing. The
name gives power over the entity. Godparents give a child a true
name. The name by which a person is actually called is the "eke
name" or "also name" -> "nickname".
Pre-Creation Chaos - The first major archetype: In the beginning
there is nothing but ocean or chaotic water or ice.
Enmity Between the Farmer and the Herdsman
Bitter feud between herdsman and farmer and the obvious
favoritism for the herdsman.
Universal Laws, for example:
Anyone who eats and/or drinks in the Underworld may never leave
The Law of the Host and Guest - the guest must arrive home as
safely as they arrived at the host's door [Macbeth's murder of
Duncan, a guest, was much more heinous than if he'd murdered a
stranger]
The Dying God Theme - Any fertility god is born in the spring,
lives half the year, then dies and goes to the Underworld until
it is spring again. The Greeks had three separate versions of
this story. Persephone, Adonis & Aphrodite, and Dionysus
(festivals in recognition of his death and rebirth -> drama for
the festivals. Dramas for the spring were comedy, and those for
the autumn were tragedy.)
The Triple Goddess -
three different goddesses combined into one who takes the name
of one and the powers of all three
a single goddess split into three variant forms of the original
goddessÕs name with similar or identical powers
The universe is created from the dead carcass of a great
primeval being.
The Lying Messenger/The Perverted Message - The theme is our
loss of a chance at immortality. Typically the messenger is sent
to tell humans how to get immortality for himself. The messenger
is almost always a snake. It parallels the Garden of Eden story.
The Slaughter of the Innocents - all the young children of a
given age and description are murdered to prevent the rise to
power of a prophesied leader.
canon - official sacred book of a culture (e.g., the Bible, the
Koran, etc.)

courtly love - an illicit affair between a noble, courteous,
gentile bachelor knight and a married lady. It is never
consummated (on paper). It should be at a distance. The man is
slave to a cold hearted woman who loves him in secret.

demon - a being halfway between the gods and humans, sometimes
minor gods

demi-god - offspring of the gods

dualism - a belief that there is only good and evil in the
universe and that they are constantly at odds

epithet - a label given to a god or person which reflects
certain chracteristics

eponymous ancestor - an ancestor created/invented to explain the
existence of something current

folklore - usually about people or animals -- always in a state
of flux (authors are anonymous)

god - An immortal? with supernatural powers? Their powers are
always connected to their aspects. They are associated with
nature. All have some virtues and weaknesses as humans do but
they are greatly exaggerated and limited to several specifics.

Law of Parsimony (stinginess): When faced with two or more
possible interpretations, you must select the one which makes
the least amount of assumption.

legend - exaggeration of a story of some REAL person; myth -
primarily deals with the gods

myth - a traditional story of ostensibly historical events that
serves to unfold part of the world view of a people, or explain
a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon. (What you believe is
religion; what he believes is myth.)

mythology - Humans interacting with gods, stories dealing with
such interaction. A series of illustrations for religious
doctrine -- explanations of natural phenomena which could not
otherwise be explained (mythology and folklore)

pantheon - the body of gods ( for a culture) demon - halfway
between humans and gods (elves, dwarves, etc.)

proto-god - any god which came before the gods which make up the
pantheon

Son_of_Chive_Mynde

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http://members.tripod.com/~pc93/lostlght.htm

The Lost Light

AN INTERPRETATION OF ANCIENT SCRIPTURES

Alvin Boyd Kuhn

496

Chapter XX

SUNS OF INTELLECT

As the human eye recoils before the overpowering splendor of the
solar disk in the sky, so the human mind strives in vain to
realize the marvel of sublime grandeur in the ancient religious
myth of the sun-gods. This was no curious faith of a diminutive
Parsee sect; it was the universal form and dress of religion.
The sun-myth was the heart’s core of all religion and philosophy
everywhere before the Dark Ages obscured the vision of truth.
And world religion will not fulfill its original function of
dispelling from the soul of mankind the dark earth-born vapors
that envelop it until the mind once again is irradiated with the
light of that transcendent knowledge. Christianity forsook its
high station on the mount illuminated by solar radiance when it
submerged the Christly sun-glory under the limitations of a
fleshly personage and dismissed solar religion as "pagan." In
converting the typical man into a man of history, it forswore
its early privilege of basking in the rays of the great solar
doctrine. Light, fire, the sun, spiritual glory--all went out in
eclipse under the clouds of mental fog that arose when the
direct radiance of the solar myth had been blanketed.
Christianity passed forthwith out of the light into the dreadful
shadows of the Dark Ages. And that dismal period will not end
until the bright glow of the solar wisdom is released once more
to enlighten benighted modernity. Ajax crying for the light is
still the appropriate heraldic figure on the modern shield, and
until the myth of the sun-gods is restored to its place in
knowledge, there will be no response to the cry but the echo.

Near the end of November, 1932, the public press reported the
announcement of Dr. George W. Crile, noted scientist of the
Cleveland laboratories, that he had discovered in the heart of
every cell of protoplasm tiny centers or foci of energy which he
called "hot points" or "radiogens," with estimated temperatures
of from 3,000 to 6,000 degrees

497

of heat. Protoplasm emitted radiations of various wave
lengths, "some as powerful as those emitted by the sun." "The
sun ‘shines’ in the protoplasm of animals and plants, and
therefore animals and plants can confer on atoms chemical
affinities such as are conferred by the sun."

"Who would think that there are ‘hot points’ in man and animals
on the order of the temperature of the surface of the sun? . . .
If one could look into protoplasm with an eye capable of
infinite magnification, one might expect to see the radiogens
spaced like stars as suns in infinite miniature . . . Without
exaggeration the concept may be taken to mean . . . that within
the very flesh of man burns the fierce fire of the sun, and that
within man’s body glow infinitely small counterparts of the
stars."1

This report, which fell more or less unheeded upon millions of
minds racked with economic fear, at last marks the discovery of
the direct point of contact between "science and religion," of
which the world has so long stood in such desperate need. It
provides that common ground of a mutual datum on which both can
meet with perfect accord at last. For this discovery of modern
science posits, after sixteen or more centuries of obscuration,
the fundamental authenticity of the solar myth, out of which all
religions took their rise. Science has now restored to religion
its basic principle, of which it had been bereft by nearly two
millennia of ignorance. Religion now returns to its place in the
sun, because the sun returns to its place in religion. Sunlight
builds all things that are the subjects of scientific scrutiny;
sunlight is also the Christly excellence in man’s life and body.
Science and religion meet at last in the happy glow of sunlight.
The Christ in man is a god of solar energy.

One is permitted to wonder what would be the amazement of Dr.
Crile and his fellow-moderns if it was shown to them that in an
old book on the Rosicrucians published about 1872 the following
brief sentence has stood in the silence of scientific scorn for
nearly seventy years:

"Every man has a little spark of the sun in his own bosom . . .
A spark of the original light is supposed to remain deep down in
the interior of every atom."2

The secret purpose of the "Fire Philosophers," whom modern
savants still like to class with imbeciles and children, was to
release that

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spark of solar flame from its trammels of the flesh and unite it
once again with the radix or point of emanation in "heaven."
This was the mysterious aim of the alchemical science,
whose "gold" was that Lux or Light of the Ineffable Source, into
which all baser forms of conscious manifestation had to be
transmuted. The sun was typed as gold and the moon as silver, a
poetization to which nature has been a party in the coloring of
the two orbs. For the gold was the radiant energy of the sun
embosomed in man’s interior being. It was his spiritual fire,
that true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the
world; while the silvery moon typed the feminine or bodily
nature which was to be raised by the alchemy of spiritual
vibration into the golden glow.

A spark of the sun in the inner heart of every human! That is
the center of light about which all religion and philosophy can
again rally their disconcerted forces of interpretation. That is
the point of gravity toward which all meanings can be seen to
tend with perfect constancy. This is the radiant gleam of mental
light, by which mankind may again see to read aright the ancient
books of wisdom. And this is the torch that will in our day
illumine the darkened portals of the temple of religion, so that
the menacing hordes of materialistic devastators will see its
beauty in time to stay their impious hands. It is only because a
benighted ecclesiasticism permitted religion to be divorced from
its basic principle which roots it in science, that the
partisans of a modern "scientific" interpretation of life have
been able to see no beauty or utility to it. To them religion
has seemed a delusion of fancy, a hallucination thrown over
feebler minds. To them it is not basically or structurally
related to nature. On the whole their repugnance to the system
was legitimate, for religion had been distorted into the
unnatural thing it has come to be. But with the restoration of
religion and philosophy to their ancient bases in true science,
and the god seen as the solar fire within man’s bosom,
resentment against it can no longer find apology. For science
now finds itself on bended knee before this tiny glint of solar
light at the heart of every atom; and when religion finds that
it, too, worships the counterpart of the same fire in man’s
heart, the two estranged brothers, science and religion, will
find themselves kneeling side by side at the same altar at last.

Not only is there a spark of solar fire in every particle of
matter, but every higher organism partakes of the empyreal
largesse in proportion

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to its grade of being. Thus every man harbors a solar god or
fiery spirit within him! Above man, the planets are cosmic
beings with resplendent souls of unimaginable glory. The suns
are the glowing hearts of the bodies of gods!

The sun was the center of religious ideology because it was the
center of all life. Religion was once organically constructed
about a nucleus of profound teaching directly related to the
phenomena of life. It was no detached scheme of emotionalism. It
was an alignment of devotion and conduct in relation to
knowledge of the elements and facts of life itself. The central
fact was the presence of a solar fragment, a spark of deity, in
the inner soul of every being, unintelligent below man,
intelligent for the first time in Atum, the Man. The immortal
soul was a beam from the eternal Sun, a spark of divine fire, an
irradiation of the essence of God’s own being. This spark of
cosmic intelligence was, as shown, the seventh emanation
crowning the elementary six, and summing their powers all in
itself. Man, in whom this spark was for the first time made
local in nature, was the crown and summation of all precedent
expression. All lower kingdoms are in him, the three sub-
mineral, the mineral, vegetable, animal and human thus far
evolved. They are comprehended in him in the constituency of his
four lower vehicles, which make him the composite being he is.
His physical form is from the earth, his emotion body from the
moon, his mind from the race evolved on Venus, and his spiritual
soul from the sun. The sun-spark was then the guiding
intelligence, the king, within him. By his body and his senses
he was linked with the earth, with nature; by his mind and soul
he was tied to the stars of heaven. Head in heaven, body on the
earth, said Egypt. "I am a child of earth and the starry skies,
but my race is of heaven alone," seconded the Orphic philosophy.
By virtue of the two lower creatures within him he is a mortal
being, doomed to temporal extinction; by the higher two he is
constituted an immortal entity, facing a future of endless
glorification. The lower rose from the earth by the force of the
expansion of powers elemental in the atom of matter, and was a
product of "natural" evolution. The higher was "the Lord from
heaven," as Paul names it. And the union of the two in one
organism gave to humanity a local habitation and a name, a form,
a character and a cosmic stage for its activities.

But the ancients knew that the history of each fragment of solar

500

light impounded in a corral of flesh on earth was a reflected
miniature of that of the great solar orb itself. And the growth
and progress of the tiny spark that had got individualized in
each man was studied in the light of its parental analogue in
the heavens. Hence the basis of religion was the course of the
sun through the solar year, which course again reflected the
round of the sun through the 25,868 years of the Great Year of
precession, and both were marked by the orb’s passage through
the twelve stages of zodiacal meaning. He who will interpret the
zodiac with full intelligibility will depict the life of man in
all its reaches. The knowledge of this stellar script, this book
with seven, then twelve great seals, was imparted in full or in
part in the sacred Mysteries of old. It is gravely doubtful if
anyone now living knows the import of the entire wheel. We catch
fragmentary glimpses of its meaning, but the deeper connotation
of the structure eludes the mind. Its profundity is next to
fathomless. We can but follow the hints given us by the archaic
sages in their writings.

It is clear, in outline, that the solar year is a marvelously
precise reflection in outer nature of the spiritual life of man
the individual and man the race. It is particularly a vivid
typograph of the history of the soul in and out of incarnation.
The two groups of upper signs, three air and three fire
(symbolically), represent the life of the soul when out of body
in the empyrean. The six lower signs, dubbed the
six "water"signs, cover the life of the soul in the watery
physical body. The lower six are a reflection or image of the
upper six, as water reflects what is above it in the air and the
light! That is to say that the life of man below is a reflected
counterpart of his life in spirit above. And the soul’s journey
round the wheel through the alternate realms of incarnate and
discarnate life comprises its cyclical history in this aeon. As
nature sets the norm in her life-method by her alternations of
day and night in the physical and astronomical domains, these
are seen to be typical of the experience undergone by the soul
in its successive sojourns in the realms of spiritual "day" and
material "night." The systole and diastole of the heart’s
action, the inhalation and exhalation of breath, are but the
common evidence and confirmation of the universal modus of
living procedure. The conscious immortal spirit in man swings
endlessly through the two phases of the zodiac, upper and lower,
of which circulation the daily and annual phenomenon of the
sun’s movements is an exact miniature copy. Solar

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religion was based solidly on the ground fact that the sun was
not only the type, but the essential essence of the divine soul
of man, and that its annual course was graphically pictorial of
the soul’s cyclical history. The sun’s annual round is typical,
first, of a single life history; secondly, of the entire series
of single lives making up the complete experience of the human
cycle. Like the stars, the galaxies and the super-galaxies now
seen by astronomy, many individual life cycles constitute a
larger cycle, and many of those a still larger one. It is futile
for the little mind of man to quarrel with the limitless
expansiveness of the Universe of Life. Such quarrel has already
cost us the loss of our clearest understanding of cosmic
processes, which by reflection open our minds to the meaning of
the lesser processes of our life here. Life is vast, and its
vastness would crush our thinking if philosophy did not fortify
us with the consideration that the little repeats the immense
and is identical with it. Each man is a solar universe, a
planetary system, comprised of infinite cells or minor systems,
and the spiritual light glowing at the center of his being is
the central sun of his system. And if he learns to control this
universe, he will be put in charge of larger spheres. "My mind
to me a kingdom is," and if one be found faithful in the
governance of that world of self, one will be made ruler over
many things. "The Framer made the creations six in number and
for the seventh he threw into the midst the fire of the sun," is
ancient truth. Likewise the seventh outgush of creative force
threw the sun of intellect into the midst of the six lower
natural energies, to become their head and ruler. This was the
work of the divine Father implanting the seminal seed of his
fiery spiritual consciousness into the body of Mother Nature,
and so closing her unfrutiful womb and stopping her wastage to
make her pregnant with Christ child. Hence the antipathy,
detected in ancient texts, between the menstruating woman and
the sun or fire. A verse in the Shayast La-Shayast (Ch. 2:29)
runs:

"A fiend so violent is that fiend of menstruation" that "where
another fiend does not smite anything with a look (akhsh) it
smites with a look," so that "the sun and other luminaries are
not to be looked at by her, and conversation with a righteous
man is not to be held by her. She must not look on fire, and a
fire must not be kindled in the same house that she is in."

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Wilson in his Parsee Religion (p. 224) writes:

"The flow was looked upon as the Azi-damp by which the devil
desired to extinguish the fire that Zarathustra brought from
heaven."

This is in the realm of symbolism, of course, intimating the
general significance of the divine soul, as fire, being
extinguished by the water of the body. It may not be utterly
fantastic to suggest that the fire of spirit that dires up
the "red sea" of the menstrual flow in the allegory may be the
subtle meaning behind the Exodus story of the drying up of the
Red Sea, alleged to be on the map. As we have seen, however,
modern translation has made it the "Reed Sea."

Leprosy was spoken of as the result of an offense against the
sun. Amenta, the realm of the six elementary powers, both in
nature and in the human body, was a land of chaos and darkness
until lighted up by the nocturnal sun, or the spirit buried in
the flesh. Hor-Apollo observes that the star which bears the
name of Seb signifies, amongst other things, the soul of the
male or virile adult. "This is the star of soul," they
said; "let us keep it pure and bright and shining star-like."

"This is the sun within us, the seminal source of life; do not
dim its lustre or cause it to suffer eclipse. Save your soul
(seminal) and do not sin against the sun of light."

And it is said of Osiris in the Ritual:

"Give ye glory as to the Sun; he is the chief, the only one ever
coming from the body, the head of those who belong to the race
of the Sun."

In the Clementine Gospel the Christ is portrayed in the
character of the sun-god. This eastern Christ says:

"I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day; the
night cometh when no man can work. When I am in the world I am
the light of the world."

The world was represented as being created from the drops of
bloody Gethsemanic sweat, or male seminal essence which fell
from the phallus of Ra, Tem, Atum or Khepera onto the earth. The
male creative fluid became the type of spiritual creative power.
It is the concentrated essence of the blood, which in turn is
highly charged with the electric soul of spiritual energy. It
was the seed of the gods’

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creative essence. It was therefore held to be a condensation of
solar energy. It is said that the holy emanation which proceeds
from Osiris vivifies gods, men, cattle and creeping things, and
that in his season he flows forth from his cavern in order
to "pour out the seed of his soul which produces offerings in
abundance for his Ka, and vivifies both gods and men." The
expulsion of the seeds of deity into lower realms of matter was
a part of the dismemberment or mutilation. In the case of Bata,
the younger brother of Anup, in the tale of the Two Brothers,
the phallus is torn away and thrown into the water and devoured
by a fish. The "masturbating deity" matched on the male side the
virgin mother and the immaculate conception on the female side.
He was Khepera, and his symbol was the male beetle, which
produced new life from his own body without conjunction with the
female.

"To denote an Only Begotten," says Hor-Apollo, "the Egyptians
delineate a Scarabaeus, because the Scarabaeus is a creature
self-produced, being unconceived by a female. The Scarabaeus
also symbolizes generation and a father, because it is
engendered by the father solely." Massey adds: "Khepr, the
beetle, buried himself, with his seed, in the earth; there he
transformed, and the father issued forth as the son."

The sun was the type of the male creative power in the universe,
but he was portrayed with feminine attributes to indicate his
subjection under matter when involving his energies in creation.
He was a kind of male-mother. His growing weak in the autumn was
likened to the feminine weakness in menstruation. "When the sun
becomes weak, he lets fall the sweat of his members and this
changes to a liquid; he bleeds much." Then he was called the sun
bound in linen, and wrapped as a woman. He was known as Osiris
Tesh-Tesh, in his bloody sweat in Smen. The male as sole
reproducer was spoken of in female terms. He is god the mother.
Num, Egyptian deity, was the Mother of Mothers as well as the
Father of Fathers. "In like manner Jove is designated by
Orpheus ‘the mother of the gods.’ He was Ju-matter, or Jupiter
creatress." Proclus in Timaeus says: "All things are contained
in the womb of Jupiter." Brahm is likewise feminized. "The great
Brahm is the womb of all those forms which are conceived in
every natural womb." "The great Brahm," says Krishna, "is my
womb and in it I place my foetus and from it is the procreation
of all nature"

504

(Moor’s Pantheon: Krishna, p. 211). Baal and Astarte exchange
genders in the Assyrian books. Nu was the original mother-
heaven, the feminine celestial firmament. Yet she is
masculinized: "It is the water or Nu who is the father of the
gods. I am the great God creating himself." Creative power was
conceived as feminine during the first creations. But when the
sun, Helios, came to govern planetary revolutions, the gender
was conceived as male. Life was androgyne before the
bifurcation. The only quarrel in ancient religions was over the
question whether deity was male or female in its first
manifestations. Deity frequently had to carry the functions of
both sexes.

The hidden purport back of the Egyptian symbolism of the beetle
and the self-begetting god was that which was really the nub of
the dispute in the early Christian Church over the creedal
rendering of the Greek term monogenes (Latin: unigenitus),
translated "only-begotten" in the Bible. It led to the great
Arius-Athanasius controversy which rent the early Church into
factions, which have not yet united. Had Egyptian symbolism been
envisaged understandingly, that grievous dispute could have been
avoided. The god who poured out and mixed his life blood with
earth, and the beetle that goes underground to come forth
renewed, are two vivid symbols of bright angelic spirit
incarnating in human life. Life buried itself to be born anew.
It is quite possible that Onan’s sin was a reference to the
first group of five legions of angels who, as it were, poured
out their spiritual substance in the direction of incarnation,
but who nevertheless failed to plant their seed fully in the
soil of mortal flesh. Their effort proved abortive. The old
books recite the story.

It is possible to see that the monogenetic theory was current in
early Christian times and could have been comprehended by
Christian exegetists if they had not already begun to look with
scorn upon all things pagan. Irenaeus alludes to the belief in
an excerpt from his book Against Heresies (I, Ch. 2:1, 4, Ante-
Nicene Library): "It was also taught by the Egyptian Valentinus
that the father produced in his own image without conjunction
with the female." Had a little analogical penetration been
displayed by the somber Fathers of the Church, there might have
been intelligence enough extant to save the translators from
perpetrating the damaging rendering of monogenes as "only-
begotten." The term meant, of course, simply born of the father
or male principle alone, without birthing in the womb of matter.
Yet it

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was at the same time the story of the father or spirit
incarnating in matter and reissuing on the opposite horizon as
his transformed son. The fatality of the incorrect translation
can not be seen until it is realized that the term "only-
begotten," misapplied to a single man in history, has operated
to dispossess every mortal in Christendom of the consciousness
of his own inborn divinity, the one inestimable boon that
religion was designed to extend to all the race.

The famous Litany of Ra describes Atum as the supreme sun-god in
man. In his descent into Amenta, which is at sunset, "his form
is that of an old man," while later in his resurrection it is
that of a lion. He sets as Ra; he rises again as Horus. Atum in
Amenta is the hidden soul of spiritual life, imaged by the
nocturnal sun, buried in darkness. He suffers dethronement and
exile in material darkness in order that he may "cause the
principles to arise." He brings the new generation of solar
power to birth, as in dying he is reborn from himself.

There is involved herein the secret of one of the most
inexplicable and, at first sight, most irrational customs, the
explanation of which has baffled anthropologists without end.
This was the couvade. When the student or casual reader
encounters the historical evidence establishing the fact that
many tribes in different parts of the world in archaic times
observed the strange custom of sending the father, instead of
the parturient mother, to the bed of confinement at childbirth,
the impression is that human mental processes had gone sadly
awry. But it is only necessary to keep ever in mind that the
sages and formulators of conventional practice were before all
else typologists, to see that the eccentric custom was only an
outward ritual of a very high spiritual commemoration indeed.
The practice was only a symbolic act to dramatize the fact that
in the birth of a son or daughter the father had injected his
seminal spirit into the bosom of matter, had buried his seed in
incarnation in the body of the babe, or had himself gone into
confinement or "under cover" of flesh in the new babe! IT only
adumbrated the eternal fact of the incarnation. The sun went
into retirement each evening, to be reborn on the morrow.
Couvade means "going under cover."

The Litany of Ra contains an apostrophe to the great sun-god:

"Homage to thee, Ra, the beetle (Khepr), that folds his wings,
that rests in the Empyrean, that is born as his own son!"

506

Khepr is designated "the Scarabaeus which enters life as its own
son." Ptah, who was an embodiment of Khepr-Ra, is thus addressed:

"O God, architect of the world, thou are without a father,
begotten by thine own becoming; thou art withtout a mother,
being born through repetition of thyself."

In another text we read:

"O divine Substance, created from itself! O God, who hath made
the substance which is in him. O God, who hast made his own
father and impregnated his own mother."3

Some accompaniments of the couvade are of great interest. In the
custom, as carried out by some Carib tribes, the father ate
neither fish nor fowl for six months. Here we have a direct
reference to the god, or father, as being deprived of water and
air, or any higher element than that of earth, during its
incubation period.

Hor-Apollo interestingly observes again: "They say also that the
beetle lives six months underground and six above." If he does,
nature surely has cast him in the role of Proserpina, not to say
that of the human soul, figuratively. The six lower signs typify
incarnate life.

But the beetle has further instruction for us. He observes that
the beetle deposits its ball of eggs rolled in dung in the earth
for the space of twenty-eight days--a lunar cycle--during which
the moon passes through its smaller round of the twelve zodiacal
signs. But on the twent-ninth day, the day of the resurrection
according to lunar markings, there occurs the baptism of the
beetle. The Scarabaeus then casts his ball into the water. It
opens to give birth to the young beetle. This immersion and
baptism leads to renewal and regeneration. So Taht, the lunar
god, was always declared to be self-created, never born.

The egg, as a primitive type of birth and rebirth, finds
intriguing relation to this exegesis. As the couvade figured the
return of the father’s powers in the embryo of his child,
incarnation betokened the return of the soul to its egg
state. "Oh! Sun in his egg!" is an exclamation in the Ritual.
The image used represented the return of "the sun or the dead"
(Massey) to the egg-state in the underworld for the rehatching,
or the couvade. And this furnishes the answer to Nicodemus’
question: the soul must return again and again to the egg-

507

state, to be rehatched--which is what has again been intimated
in the ark symbolism. Man--the god in man--is as it were a grub
worm hatched in the earth, and, expanding his wings of spirit as
he emerges like the chrysalis, flies away with body glistening
in the golden light of morning. The sun-god arising is thus
addressed: "Adoration to thee, who arisest out of the golden and
givest light to the earth!" The sun was emblemed as the winged
scarab. And the beetle follows the sun, keeping in the angle of
its direct rays, from morning till evening. The Christ is
the "sun of righteousness."

In Gnostic iconography the child Horus reappears as the mummy-
babe wearing the solar disk. The sun is again typified by the
hawk, with a disk encircled by an uraeus on its head. Seven apes
stand, four in front and three behind, denoting that the sun has
put under or behind him three of the elementary powers, but
faces the conquest of the other four in man.

The "Ur" from which Abraham, the first emanation from the
Father, came forth, means the original sea of elemental fire.
And when the emanation has gone to its death and rebirth in
matter, it has become a new creature and is given a new name.
The injection of the solar principle into material creation
lends to mythology or primitive theology its most striking
analogies and types. This is confirmed by Max Müller, who writes
(Selected Essays, Vol. I, 604): "As soon as Suryas or Helios
appears as a masculine form, we are in the very thick of
mythology." Suryas or Helios is the sun. Mythology deals with
the presence of this kingly force in life, its fight for
sovereignty and its dominance over the lower powers. It is the
central personage in all earthly myth and drama. The phoenix,
dying and being reborn from its own ashes, depicts the death of
the sun power in mortality and its renaissance from the grave.

The Egypto-Gnostics affirmed: "Seven powers glorify the Word."
These were the seven nature spirits, which out of gratitude to
the Propator, had each contributed of his best gift to the
production of the most perfect being, the Christ aeon. Like the
golden bough and the star atop the Christmas tree, he became the
beauteous flower at the summit of creation, comprehending and
synthesizing all lower elements in himself. He was thus the King
of Glory.

After this consummation the heaven of seven divisions is
described as rolling up like a scroll and passing away. Then the
new heaven

508

and the new earth are inaugurated. When the contents of the
seventh bowl are poured out, the book of life is sealed with the
seven seals, and the angel announces: "Behold I make all things
new." A zodiac of twelve signs was then requisite to portray the
life experience of the god in man. In the Book of Exodus we see
the one God Ihuh superseding all the other gods, El-Shadai and
the Elohim, when he assumes the suzerainty and orders that a
sanctuary be built in which he shall be lifted up. This shrine
or tabernacle was to be the hitherto unknown body of solar
glory, or body of the resurrection, that temple not to be built
with hands, eternal in the heavens of consciousness. "He subdues
the dwellers in the darkness and there is none who can resist
his power in the horizon." "He shineth like a new king in the
East." "The great god who is there is Ra himself . . . the water
of Maati is the road by which Atum-Ra goes to traverse the
fields of divine harvest."

The Book of the Dead is primarily a sketch of the journey of the
solar spark through the underworld across the Pool of Pant, or
Lake of Maati, by night. The soul follows the track of the all-
conquering sun, who is the cleaver of the way or opener of roads
through the tangled thickets of sense life. He builds a dwelling
of light for those who dwell in the darkness. The "Egyptians"
are in gloom, but the "Israelites have light in their
dwellings." The home of light for the glorified is Ammah, the
place of no more night. When we realize that the Israelites were
not an earth race, but a host of sun-fragments of intellect in
incarnation, we can catch the sublime imputations in these
figurative details of scripture.

The six (later seven) supplanted powers that come under the sway
of the central sun of mind become the "attendants"
or "companions" or "associates" of the sun-god. They are
depicted as seven doves that hover around Jesus in utero, the
seven solar rays that flash about his head, the seven lambs or
rams with him in the mount, the seven as stars with Jesus in
their midst, the seven as fishers in his boat, and finally the
seven who as communicants solemnized the Eucharist with the
loaves and fishes in the mortuary meal of the Roman catacombs.

The Pistis Sophia, furnishing much valuable material deleted
from the Gospels, describes Jesus, after superseding the seven
foundation pillars of the world, as passing through the twelve
signs of the zodiac, mentioning each by name, and gathering a
portion of the light from

509

each to incorporate in his own person. He says that he took the
twelve saviors of the treasure of light and bound them into the
bodies of your mothers. This is to say that he circumscribed the
operation of the twelve deific powers in bodies of mortal flesh.
He was thus to judge the twelve "tribes of Israel," or twelve
segmentations of idvine intelligence; those rays of cosmic mind
which figure as the twelve tribes, sons, stars, brothers, kings,
reapers, rowers, fishermen, sowers, and twelve voices and
teachers. All these had begun as powers of light in the physical
domain, and were in the end endowed with spiritual status with
Jesus in the Father’s kingdom. The Christ became the rose in the
center of twelve knights. And, says Paul, the whole creation
groaneth and travaileth to bring forth these twelve Sons of God,
or powers of spiritual light.

The Rig-Veda asks:

"Who has seen the primordial at the time of his being born? What
is that endowed with substance, which the unsubstantial
sustains? From the earth are the breath and blood, but where is
the soul? What is that one alone who has upheld these six
spheres in the shape of the unborn?"

And the answer is given by Egypt in the person of the solar
deity who was at last made the base and support of the six
spheres. When the fire that enlightens supplanted the powers of
Seb and Sut, there was present a new type of power as soul or
Sol. This unborn power was personalized as Ptah, in the form of
an embryo that transformed like the beetle to reproduce itself.
It is the sun-god performing his couvade to raise up both the
six spheres and himself. He is the hidden light, Amen-Ra, the
unborn god, the support and rock of the whole creation. He is
the unsubstantial, that nevertheless sustains substance.

Massey well expounds that "the Savior who came by spirit was the
soul of the sun." "This suffering deity was the god in matter."
When plunged into matter and ensouling creation, he became
Osiris. In this phase he was the stricken one, the dead, lying
inert in his mummy-case. He is figured as the "little old
child," with finger at mouth, wizened, impotent, decadent, as
the sun-god losing his power. He is the Jack of nursery legends,
the Scottish Assiepet, the Danish Askepot, the German
Aschenpüttel, who pokes in the ashes and blows up the fire, the
solar fire which he has to rekindle from dying embers. He is the
male Cinderella, the ash or ember maiden.

510

Before descending below the horizon of incarnation these souls
are denominated in Egypt the Hamemmet Beings. They originated as
the germs of souls emanating from the sun, whence Scipio saw
them abstracted in his vision. "Hamemmet" signifies "that which
is unembodied," not yet incorporated in material bodies. This
matches the "virgins" and the "Innocents" of Biblical
terminology. They are the embryonic souls of future beings,
children of the sun or Ra. They were the "children of Israel."
If the monster Apap or Herut could slay them "in the egg" he
would avert his later doom of having his head crushed under
their heel. At enmity with the sun, the dragon of darkness seeks
to devour the new-born sons of the light-god who are destined to
overthrow his rule in nature. So he lies in wait at the bight of
Amenta until the woman clothed with the sun shall give birth to
them. They are called, in addition to other names already
given, "the issue of Horus." Their slaughter is to be prevented,
as is indicated by the title of Chapter 42 of the
Ritual: "Chapter by which one hindreth the slaughter which is in
Suten-Khen," the birthplace. The Manes at this stage is the
child-Horus himself, and he says four times over: "I am the
babe." As the child of the incorruptible sun, no power can harm
him, and so "he steppeth onward through eternity," gathering up
all the manifold powers of ineffable Light. "Not to be seen is
my nest. Not to be broken is my egg." "I have made my nest in
the confines of heaven" (Rit., Ch. 85).

Lower Egypt was called "the desert in which the flocks of Ra
were shepherded and fed." Horus says to them:

"Protection for you, flocks of Ra, born of the great one who is
in the heavens. Breath to your nostrils, overthrowal of your
coffins" (Book of Hades, 5th Div., Legend D).

Horus indicates how he steps onward through eternity in the
statement: "I live in Tattu and I repeat daily my life after
death, like the sun."

It need hardly be repeated that the Christos was represented
under a different title and character during each 2155 years of
a cycle of precession. In Leo he was the lion of the house of
Judah (Iu-dah), and his whelp; in Cancer he was the "Good
Scarabaeus," ever renewing himself, the crab emerging from the
water onto the land; in

511

Gemini he was the twins, the two opposite phases of life
contending in the womb of being for supremacy; in Taurus, the
shining bull and golden calf; in ARies, the ram, the lamb of God
and the golden fleece; in Pisces the great whale and the little
fish with the gold in its mouth, the fisher of souls, the food
in the water; in Aquarius the emanator of the water of life in
two streams; in Capricorn the dual god again, half goat or land
animal, half fish or sea animal, duplicating the sign of Cancer
opposite, only that the crab is emerging from the water and the
goat is in the water; in Sagittarius again double as the
Centaur, half man and half horse, the archer aiming at the eye
of Horus to put it out on the downward course of the autumnal
sun, when deity is going blind; in Scorpio, double again as the
scorpion that stings divine power to "death" and the eagle that
soars aloft again; in Libra as the god of the two horizons
holding the scales of the balance between spirit and matter in
exact equilibrium; in Virgo double as the divine child of the
mother and the wheat for the bread of Christ, as well as the
branch of the true vine that was constellated in Virgo.

The Ritual states that Horus "is united at sunset with his
Father Ra, who goeth round the heavens" in the zodiacal cycles.
Perhaps the Gospels retain a parallel to this in the life of
Jesus in his retirement each night to the mountains to commune
with his Father. Horus says: "I see my father, the lord of the
gloaming, and I breathe." Horus again is called "the Lord of the
Staircase, at the top of which his father sat enthroned." He is
lord of the evolutionary ladder, the planes by which the soul
mounts up to godhead. Again he says: "I seek my father at sunset
in silence and I feed on life." Be it noted that he feeds on
life after his descent into embodiment, or in this world. And
once more the Ritual dispenses wisdom of transcendent importance
in the statement: "Thou settest as a living being within the
dark portal; . . . thou becomest a divine being in the earth.
Thou wakest as thou settest . . ."

The declarations of ancient wisdom that we are divinized on
earth and that the soul awakes as it sets, or incarnates, are
mighty items of knowledge for benighted mortals. But it has been
set forth that the descent is a swoon and a going into oblivion,
the very sleep of "death." Now it is pictured as an awakening.
Here again is exemplified the doubleness of esoteric methodology
in picturing the two aspects and movements of being. But the
paradox in all these reversals of imagery

512

is readily resolvable. The soul does fall under a spell of Lethe
when enshrouded in dense body; nevertheless it finds in that
very state the beginning of its true awakening to a higher sense
of reality than ever before. This world is "the place of
establishing forever," of bringing purely latent capacity to
dynamic realization. There is involved here the ultimate mystery
of life, which is the necessity of the soul’s "death" in matter
to gain a new birth.

The Egyptians, observes Plutarch, offer incense to the sun three
times a day: resin at its rising; myrrh when it is at midheaven;
and kyphi about the time of its setting. Here is the "gold,
frankincense and myrrh" of the later Hebrew myth, brought by the
solar triad of Atma-Buddhi-Manas, the three Magi or knowledge-
principles. The trident of Neptune was a Greek symbol of the
three-forked spiritual sun-power. The sun at mid-day zenith is
Ra; at the evening is Tum (Atum); at rising on the morrow he is
Khepr, renewing himself.

The three most celebrated emblems used in the Greek Mysteries
were the Phallus (I), the Egg (O) and the Serpent, symboled by
the Greek letter Phi, being the O bisected by the I. These are
the male symbol, the female and the two united. The union of the
two yields the great "serpent power" or the driving force of
life itself. It was this serpent power that the Ophite sect of
early Christianity elevated to dominant place in their system,
paying homage thus to the creative energy and power of endless
renewal, the serpent in this conception being by no means the
malefic principle "with the vulgar downward literal meaning that
we ascribe to it." Ra tells Seb to "be the guardian of the
serpents which are in thee," referring to the swirling
elementary life principles enwombed in the earth and matter.

The sun’s might as Jupiter was triform: Jupiter in the heavens,
Neptune in the sea, and Pluto in the underworld. Sunlight itself
has three primary colors, before it breaks into the seven. The
gods are male, but the three regions are made female, holding
the shakti powers that implemented their activity. The great
Hindu Mother Mahadevi divides into three colors, black, red and
white, to become Sarasvati, the shakti of Brahma; Lacksmi, that
of Vishnu; and Parvati, the consort of Siva. There is the Hecate
triad in Greece. The three Parcae or Fates of Greece are matched
by the Egyptian Neith, spinner of the web (net), and her two
sisters, Isis and Nephthys, and by the three Norns of the

513

Norse pantheon. Of the three Fates Atropos conferred the solar
power of generation; Clotho was lodged in the moon, as she who
joins, mingles and unites the light with the dark, spirit with
flesh; Lachesis is on the earth supervising the flow of mortal
events, "and with her does fortune very much participate."

The ancients conjoined the twin male and female triads and from
the union produced the interlaced triangles, or Soloman’s Seal,
the six-rayed star which is a perfect numerical typograph of the
linking of the three spiritual with the three physical
principles, the apices pointing in opposite directions. Their
inextricable interlinking bespeaks the incarnation or
entanglement of soul with body.

The Clementine Homilies set forth that the body of man consists
of three parts and derives its origin from the female; the
spirit consists of three parts and derives its origin from the
male. The sperm-cell of the male creative fluid is three-ply.
The union of the two triads in man makes him the sextuple being
he is. His life has six facets and manifests in a world where
any object has six faces, as a cube. The seventh principle is
that which subsumes the six of the cube in a higher synthesis,
which is achieved, however, on the plane of the dimension above
it. The seventh principle always lifts a creation up to the next
plane above it. It resolves the formation of the six into soul
and meaning. Its day is the Sun-day, crowning the natural or
secular operations with their apotheosis into spiritual being.
The mystic AUM is a concealed glyph of the trinity, we are told.
Our word "triumph," seen particularly well in its French form,
triomphe, is composed of the root tri, "three"; om, the
shortened AUM, the triple Logos; and phe, from the Greek,
meaning "spoken." Our cry of triumph will then be our ability to
unify again the "thrine-spoken word," or bring the three primary
rays of divine mind back to unity.

The two sexes are not only marked in man by the division into
male and female persons; there is another segmentation into sex
which is one of the great keys in theology. The division of
humanity into male and female is only an outward mark of an
inner sacrament which is the main theme of religion. The most
important sex division is that which inheres in man’s individual
life, whereby everyone is male on the spiritual side, and female
on the physical. The diaphragm is the horizon line in man
physiologically, for the individual is male above it and female
below it. The marriage of the Bride and the Lamb is to

514

take place between these two parties. The dividing wall is to be
broken down and the two united. The great Sphinx of Egypt
depicts this duality in man, proclaming under the zodiacal sign
of the Lion that each human is spirit-male and matter-female in
himself, facing the evolutionary duty of wedding the two. The
three psychic centers below the diaphragm are concerned with the
reproduction of body; the three above deal with spiritual
destiny, and the crowning one in the head will unify all seven.
Mythology teems with half-man, half-animal creatures, male in
front and female behind. And says the Hebrew Psalmist (Ps.
139:5): "Thou hast fashioned me Behind and Before." This must be
translated to say that we are humans in our upper half and beast
in the lower. This is the incontestable reading of the
symbology. The female is assigned the creation of the animal
body of man. The female’s interests are infinitely more directly
centered in the body than are the male’s. Man is, in the large,
the intellectual creator; woman the physical.

The ancients in their stellar configuration represented the
great Divine Man as facing the south, his back to the north.
Hence the south was male, the north female. The constellation of
the Great Bear the lower, hinder part, the thigh or womb, of
nature. The gods of the four quarters, the bases of the human
pyramid, the four "Sons of Horus," "are they who are behind the
thigh in the northern sky." They are the hind quarter of the
heavenly man and are the four lower elements in man’s
constitution. The haunch of the lion that is carried on the head
of Anhur is a sign of natural fecundity. The fore part, the face
and head of the lion, denotes the glory of solar radiance. "The
Lord God is a sun and shield," says the Psalm; and man is made
in his image. The rear material part shields mortal eye from the
too great effulgence of solar glory. But Samson sets fire to the
tails of 300 foxes, as a suggestion that the fire of soul must
light up and transform the rear or lower half of our nature.

In the Ritual chapter "of making the transformation into the god
that giveth light in the darkness," the Manes says he is the
robe of light that dispels the darkness, "which uniteth the two
fighting deities that dwell in my body through the mighty spell
of the words of my mouth." Two fighting deities in our bodies!
The robe alluded to is called elsewhere "the garment without a
seam," since the marriage obliterates the seam or dividing line.
The unification of these two war-

515

ring elements is each individual’s specific task, the main
reason for his incarnate existence and a pursuit worth all its
hardship.

In one of the hymns to Osiris the god is greeted:

"Hail to thee, Osiris, Lord of Eternity! When thou art in heaven
thou appearest as the sun, and thou renewest thyself in the
moon."

The soul of life, we have seen, renews itself by eternal rebirth
following cyclical death in matter. The moon is ancient symbol
for the physical half of human nature, since the two lower
elements and man’s two lower bodies, the physical and emotional,
were the products of a precedent evolution on the moon. And sun
and moon, in their interaction each lunar month, enact the whole
drama of human evolution with such graphic fidelity that the
delineation of it becomes a perpetual marvel. No graphology of
mythicism has excelled nature herself in vivid portrayal of the
dual history of the human being upon the very face of the moon,
where the story, endlessly repeated, has been enacted before the
eyes of successive generations of mortals, but never read since
the days of ancient Egypt. In the various phases and aspects of
the registration of the sun’s light upon its body, the moon
stages the entire symbolic drama of the blended physico-
spiritual life of mortal man with a precision so astonishing
that a mind which once follows the analogies can hardly escape
the conclusion that Intelligence presided at the ordering of the
movements of the three bodies, sun, moon and earth, in their
interrelation. As seen from the earth, the sun and moon together
depict in the heavens each month the record of man’s typical
life so fully that it becomes a prime enigma to account for the
loss of the wisdom to interpret this sky-book after it had once
been known. The rejection of paganism by Roman Christianity cost
the world the forfeiture of its ability to read this elementary
textbook and its story written in characters of light and
darkness.

As spirit was reborn periodically in matter, so the sun was
reborn monthly in the moon, matter’s planetary symbol. Both
Horus and Khunsu, two characters representing the renewed solar
deity, as well as Taht, were depicted in the disk of the full
moon. The planisphere of Denderah shows the two in this
position. Khunsu’s father is Amen, the hidden god, the youthful
Khunsu being his visible representative reborn in the new moon.
Horus was the renewed Ra, Osiris or Atum. That divine self which
in solar symbolism was reborn in the vernal

516

equinox or the eastern rim of morning, was re-dramatized in
lunar symbolism as finding its rebirth in the young crescent
moon. Osiris, Atum or Ra, sinking to feebleness and death in the
cycle of waning moon, came to their renaissance between the two
horns of the crescent in the west at nightfall. The moon
repeated thirteen times the death and resurrection story while
the sun traced it once. Ages of intelligence have gazed upon
this monthly drama without once descrying its tacit narrative.
Yet the Egyptians discoursed about the meaning of this
phenomenon in chapter after chapter. Must we conclude,
therefore, that ancient eyes penetrated deeper into nature’s
secrets than modern? The evidence is before us. This datum may
become again the bulwark of religion, rendering it impregnable
to materialistic or agnostic assault. For while sacred Bibles
may be brushed aside with scorn, the chart of man’s spiritual
constitution, written ineradicably on the open sheet of the
nightly sky, can not be gainsaid. Here is an indelible scripture
whose ever-turning pages the atheist must read alike with the
theist. Here is a book which no mind dare flout. Here are the
heavens themselves preaching a sermon and reciting a gospel
narrative that no mortal can contemn.

The story is by no means easy in the telling. It must be lived
with and be given time to mellow in the mind, ere it will bestir
the profoundest psychic intuitions. Only the groundwork for the
structure of beautiful meaning can be given in a series of
facts, relations and phenomena. Each one must in the end be his
own poet.

We have seen the sun-god pictured as passing through the dark
underworld at night. His voyage is made amid spiritual darkness.
The body is the soul’s dark prison, grave and tomb. The god is
then the sun in the dark underworld. Therefore it is a light in
the darkness. His mission is to bring light into this dark
region. Come to earth, his light ceased shining in heaven, as
the Chinese said, and shone only in the underworld for the
benighted inhabitants thereof. Jesus is the light of the world
by night.

Yet it is by no means his true full splendor that shines on our
darkness. It is a sadly diminished light that he shows, his full
radiance being dimmed by the veil of matter which is thrown
between it and our eyes. It is therefore a light, which, itself
hidden from sight, shines through an intermediary body, or
shines by reflection or indirect transmission. Now in the first
chapter of John’s Gospel there is that note-

517

worthy statement that there was a man sent of God to bear
witness to that "light that shineth in the darkness." "He was
not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light." He
was himself not the full or true light, but only the harbinger
of it. This was John the Baptizer, or leader of souls into the
waters of generation in the dark lower half of evolution. He was
typed as Anup, and again as Taht-Aan, the dark phase of the
moon, or the moon itself as the sun’s witness when it is not
itself shining on us. So the Christ-light within us is that
secondary or transmitted radiance which shines into our prisons
when the full glory of divinity is cut off from us and out of
our sight. If God is the full ineffable Sun of Divinity, then
the Christos is, as it were, the reflected radiance from that
Sun coming second-hand to us from the surface of bodies of
matter.

In the interpretation, this intermediary is the physical human
body, with its emotion apparatus. In the realm of astronomy it
is the moon. The lighted moon, then, is the symbol,
representative, vice-regent, of the sun when the orb is buried
in darkness. It holds the proxy of its power. It is the
transmitter of solar light when that itself is out of sight. It
is the only witness and evidence of the sun’s light when that
luminary is unable to shine on the world. It is the sun’s lower
or secondary self. The moon is the sun by night. So the Christos
is that reduced and reflected ray of the Father’s infinite
glory. When the sun is in full panoply in the heavens of day,
the moon is eclipsed. It is man’s "noon." But she comes into her
glory in the night. The moon stands between man and total
darkness, yet she has no light to give of herself. She but
transmits the brightness of one higher than herself. So the body
stands between man and his god and transmits what can not be
received directly.

Here, then, we have the two great characters in the drama, with
man the spectator and interpreter, and as he finally realizes to
his amazement, the ultimate actor. Meaning begins to rise as
soon as we have fixed the two chief dramatis personae and their
roles. The sun and moon play the parts of man’s soul and his
body respectively, and their interaction will be found to depict
in detail the connected history of the two on earth in the world
of the body.

These determinations lead to the second great fact, which opens
wide the door into a world of new meaning. If the sun represents
spirit and the soul body, the deduction is that the sun is male
and the moon

518

female. The stage is then set to register the play of the two
great interacting forces of life, the positive and negative
poles. The evolutionary conflict between the two, the battle
between Sut and Horus, the twins, which is reproduced everywhere
in nature, is transferred now to the lunar surface and re-
enacted there for man’s eternal behoof. As the moon encircles
her lord in monthly course, she traces a stream of significant
interrelations. From dark to full moon, it is the story of man’s
deification and glorification, his en-light-enment, through
repeated life in body; the nightly increase of the area of light
is the sealed promise of our ultimate divinization. By analogy,
the increase night by night endorses the postulate of the soul’s
reincarnations. It is the cycle of evolution. From full moon to
total obscuration it writes the record of involution, or the
spirit’s descent into matter. The following tabulation is
suggested for the readier tracing of the analogies:

Sun Moon

Spirt-soul-mind. Body.

Consciousness. Flesh.

Intellect. Sensation.

Male. Female.

Light-giving. Light-receiving.

Upper body. Lower body.

Fire. Water.

The god. The animal.

In its complete cycle the moon analogizes the conception, birth,
growth, perfection, decline, death and rebirth of the sun-god in
his incarnating cycle. The moon records the progress of the
rebegettal or divinization. Hence the principal moon-deity of
Egypt, Taht-Aan, is known as the recorder or scribe for Horus.
He keeps the record of the advance or decline of spiritual
light. And the moon’s function of bearing witness to the sun
when the latter was out of sight, constitutes Taht-Aan and Anup
the "two witnesses" for the hidden Christ. In the court of life
the body holds the record and bears witness of the character of
the deity who is buried out of sight within us!

601

CHAPTER XX

1. From an article in the New York Times of Nov. 25, 1932.

2. The Rosicrucians: Their Rites and Mysteries; Hargrave
Jennings, p. 211.

3. From a papyrus rendered by M. Chabas.

4. Thomas Taylor: Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries, p. 145.

5. Lecture on Luniolatry, p. 14.

6. Latin: "Emits blood from the genitals."

7. The Natural Genesis, I, pp. 44.

8. The Six Books of Proclus on the Theology of Plato, II, p. 148.

Son_of_Chive_Mynde

unread,

Aug 3, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/3/00

Fate's Knight <Fates...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>
>

>Son_of_Chive_Mynde wrote:

>
>> "lordrelayer" <lordr...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>> >I have repeatedly seen Christ referred to as a "sun god" in
>> occult
>> >literature. While I understand the paralells exist between
>> Mithraic, Osirian
>> >and Christian myths, I'm not sure that I get this leap. Does
>> this refer
>> >specifically to the sacrifice and resurrection? With all of
his
>> much vaunted
>> >messages of love, I would have thought to look for J.C. in
the

>> sphere of
>> >Venus.
>> >
>>

>> You need to study Egyptian mythology more closely.
>>
>> The Mithraic, Osirian and Christian myths are ONE and the
SAME.
>
>Disagree.
>
>>
>>

>> The "Jesus" of the NT is Osiris arisen.
>
>In your not so humble opinion. It is a matter of faith, not
fact.

Sorry, it is a matter of fact, not faith. Catholics *are* pagans.

Roman Catholicism [A Study Outline]
By Pastor Steve Harmon Th.G., B.S., Th.M., Th.D. (1991)

Maineville Baptist Church, 57 East Foster-Maineville Road
Maineville, Ohio 45039 (513) 683-6708 E-Mail drs...@iglou.com

-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------
------
Roman Catholicism
I. History - Constantine
A. Constantine followed the historical church period from 100
A.D. through 313 A.D. There are ten persecutions of the church
by the end of this church period.

1. Nero (64 - 68) - Killed Peter and Paul.

2. Domitian (81 - 96) - Killed thousands of believers. Banished
John to Patmos.

3. Trajan (98-117) - The first to pass laws against
Christianity.

4. Pius (137-161) - Killed Polycarp, a disciple of John.

5. Marcus Aurelius (161-180) - Thought Christianity an absurd
superstition. Beheaded Justin Martyr.

6. Severus (193-211) - Killed Origen's father.

7. Thracian (235-238) - Brutal barbarian who commanded all
Christian leaders to die.

8. Decius (249-251) - Determined to exterminate Christianity.

9. Valerian (253-260) - Killed Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage.

10. Diocleatian (284-305) - Last and most severe persecution.
For ten years believers were hunted in caves and forests. They
were burned, thrown to wild beasts, and put to death by every
torture cruelty could devise. But Diocletian's own wife and
daughter accepted Christ.

B. The next historical period saw the "marrying" of the pagan
religions and Christianity.

1. They were given over to many Greek idols, the two most
prominent were: a. Baccas - the god of revelry.

b. Asclepius - the god of healing.

C. Rome demanded cooperation of all groups under their reign.

D. Constantine "married" paganism and the church, the world and
the church.

E. Constantine was the son of a Roman emperor. He felt that he
should have the throne. He amassed an army and headed for Rome.

F. Constantine needed the backing of the Christians, as well as
the pagans, which he already had.

G. October 28, 312 A.D. at the Battle of Milvian Bridge on the
Tiber River, he had a vision; he saw a sign in the sky, which
said "In this sign conquer."

H. Constantine vowed that if the God of the Christians would
help him to win this battle, he would become a Christian.

I. Constantine, carefully described the cross he saw, and had it
placed on the shield of the soldiers.

J. The cross was an Egyptian "ankh" a T with a circle on top,
this is the sign of the sun God, and Tammuz.

{Graphic in booklet}

K. He won the battle, took Rome, and attributed it to the sign.

L. In 313 A.D., Constantine signed the edict of toleration (no
more persecution of the church). He declared himself to be
the "Protector of Christianity".

M. Constantine ordered the production of 50 copies of the Holy
Scriptures.

1. Eusebious produced these Bibles.

2. He used the Hexapolis. This was a parallel Bible with six
versions in it. He used the most corrupt of them.

3. This is the origin of false Bibles.

4. The Siniaticus and the Vaticanus were written during this
period.

a. These are often called the Septuagint.

b. The Septuagint was suppose to be a Greek translation of the
Old Testament, that Jesus quoted from.

c. There are NO earlier versions of the Septuagint.

d. I do not accept that there was a Septuagint.

II. Pagan Practices Married to the Church of Rome
The Church that never changes has been in a constant state of
change since is inception in the third century. Here is a
partial list of added practices complete with the dates that
they were started.

A. 312 A.D. Symbol of the cross (tau) for the church.

B. Cir-300 Infant baptism.

C. 300 A.D. Prayers for the dead.

D. 300 A.D. Making the sign of the cross.

E. 375 A.D. Worship of angels.

F. 375 A.D. Worship of saints.

G. 394 A.D. Mass instituted.

H. 431 A.D. Worship of Mary.

I. 500 A.D. Priests dressing differently from laymen.

J. 526 A.D. Extreme unction (Last Rights).

K. 593 A.D. Doctrine of purgatory.

L. 600 A.D. Services conducted in Latin.

M. 600 A.D. Prayers conducted to Mary.

N. 607 A.D. Boniface the third made the first Pope.

O. 709 A.D. Kissing of the Pope's foot.

P. 786 A.D. Worshipping of images and relics.

Q. 850 A.D. Use of Holy Water.

R. 995 A.D. Canonization of dead saints (You may now pray to
them).

S. 1079 A.D. Celibacy of the priesthood.

T. 1090 A.D. Rosary (prayer beads instituted).

U. 1215 A.D. Transubstantiation (The wafer becomes the literal
flesh of Jesus Christ).

V. 1220 A.D. Adoration of the wafer (host).

W. 1229 A.D. Bible is forbidden to the laymen.

X. 1414 A.D. Cup forbidden to be touched during Holy Communion.

Y. 1439 A.D. Doctrine of seven Sacraments affirmed.

Z. 1508 A.D. The Ave Maria approved. (Hail to Mary).

a. 1534 A.D. Jesuit order founded.

b. 1545 A.D. Tradition granted equal authority with the Bible.

c. 1546 A.D. Apocryphal books placed in the Bible.

d. 1854 A.D. Immaculate conception of Mary.

e. 1864 A.D. Syllabus of errors proclaimed.

f. 1870 A.D. Infallibility of the Pope declared.

g. 1935 A.D. Assumption of the Virgin Mary.

h. 1965 A.D. Mary proclaimed the Mother of the Church.

III. Mother / Son Worship - Starting Before Christ
A. Nimrod
Genesis 10:8-10 And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty
one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD:
wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before
the LORD. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech,
and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.

Genesis 11:1-9 And the whole earth was of one language, and of
one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the
east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they
dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make
brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone,
and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us
build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven;
and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the
face of the whole earth. And the LORD came down to see the city
and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the LORD
said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language;
and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained
from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go
down, and there confound their language, that they may not
understand one another's speech. So the LORD scattered them
abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left
off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel;
because the LORD did there confound the language of all the
earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the
face of all the earth.

1. Semiramis, his wife, deified Nimrod after his death.

2. Semiramis gave birth to a son, sometime after his death, and
said it was virgin born.

3. Tammuz was the name of her son.

4. She claimed him to be the promised seed.

Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman,
and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise his heel.

5. She and Tammuz were worshipped as deity.

B. Mother and son worship spread around the world.

Jeremiah 51:7 Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD'S hand,
that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her
wine; therefore the nations are mad.

Revelation 18:3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the
wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have
committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth
are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

C. Examples of Mother and Son worship:
1. Semiramis and Tammuz. (Babylon)

2. Shingmoo [or Holy Mother] and child. (China)

3. Virgin Hertha with Child. (Ancient Germany)

4. Disa with Child. (Scandinavia)

5. Nutria with child. (Etruscans)

6. Virgo-Patitura (the Mother of God) with Child. (Druids)

7. Indrani and Child. (India)

8. Aphrodite or Ceres. (Greeks)

9. Nana. (Sumarians)

10. Venus or Fortuna with child Jupiter. (Rome)

11. Devaki and Crishna. (India)

12. Isi and Iswara. (India)

13. Cybele and Deoius. (Asia) Wife of Baal, virgin queen of
heaven, fruit born without conception.

14. Ashtoreth (wife of Baal). (Philistines)(Phoenicians)

Judges 2:13 And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and
Ashtaroth.

Jeremiah 44:17-19 But we will certainly do whatsoever thing
goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen
of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have
done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the
cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had
we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil. But since
we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour
out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and
have been consumed by the sword and by the famine. And when we
burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink
offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and
pour out drink offerings unto her, without our men?

Jeremiah 44:25 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel,
saying; Ye and your wives have both spoken with your mouths, and
fulfilled with your hand, saying, We will surely perform our
vows that we have vowed, to burn incense to the queen of heaven,
and to pour out drink offerings unto her: ye will surely
accomplish your vows, and surely perform your vows.

15. Isis and Horus. (Egypt)

16. Diana. (Ephesus)

Acts 19:35 And when the town clerk had appeased the people, he
said, Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not how
that the city of the Ephesians is a worshiper of the great
goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter?

D. Illustrations of Mother-Son Gods.

{Graphics in booklet}

IV. Mary Worship
A. Mary worship had no part of early Christianity.

1. "...during the first centuries of the church, no emphasis was
placed on Mary whatsoever." - Encyclopedia Britanica, vol. 14,
p. 309.

2. "Devotion to Our Blessed Lady in its ultimate analysis must
be regarded as a practical application of the doctrine of the
Communion of Saints. Seeing that this doctrine is not contained,
at least explicitly, in the earlier forms of the Apostles'
Creed, there is perhaps no ground for surprise if we do not meet
with any clear traces of the cultus of the Blessed Virgin in the
first Christians centuries," the worship of Mary being a later
development. - The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 15, p. 459.

3. Epiphanius, died 403 A.D., denounced certain ones of Trace,
Arabia, and elsewhere, for worshipping Mary as a goddess and
offering cakes at her shrine. She should be held in honour, he
said, "but let no one adore Mary." - The Catholic Encyclopedia,
vol. 15, p. 460.

4. It was at the Council of Ephesus (Where Diana, the Mother
Goddess was worshipped) in 431 A.D. that an official doctrine
for Mary worship was adopted.

B. Mary's titles also show that this worship came from old
worship of a mother goddess.

1. Madonna; is the translation of one of the titles by which the
Babylonian goddess was known.

2. My Lady; translation of Baalti, the wife of Baal.

3. The Lady of the Sea; after the Phoenician mother goddess.

4. The Mediatrix; as a mediator, Mylitta, a title for mother
goddess. The Bible states that only Jesus is the mediator.

1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God
and men, the man Christ Jesus;

5. The Queen of Heaven; Ashtoreth was called this in the
scripture.

6. The Mother of God; Isis was called this, the theologians of
Alexander, Egypt put this on Mary. Mary is the mother of only
the physical body and human nature of Jesus, not His deity.

IV. Jezebel, Dan, Catholic Church Revelation 2:18-29
A. Jezebel - Like the others is a class of people rather than a
particular person.

1. Nicolaitanes - Meaning: to conquer the laity.

Revelation 2:6 But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of
the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate.

2. Antipas - Meaning: Against the Papacy or Fatherdom.

Revelation 2:13 I know thy works and where thou dwellest, even
where Satan's seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast
not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my
faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.

3. Doctrine of Balaam - The intermarriage of false gods.

Revelation 2:14 But I have a few things against thee, because
thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who
taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of
Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit
fornication.

B. As a Class of people who is Jezebel?

1. Dan is called a serpent, so is Satan.

Genesis 49:17 Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the
path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall
backward.

Genesis 3:1-4 Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of
the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the
woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the
garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the
fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree
which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not
eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the
serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

Genesis 3:13-15 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is
this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent
beguiled me, and I did eat. And the LORD God said unto the
serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all
cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt
thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I
will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed
and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise
his heel.

2. Dan is called a Lion, Satan is called a lion.

Deuteronomy 33:22 And of Dan he said, Dan is a lion's whelp: he
shall leap from Bashan.

1 Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the
devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may
devour:

3. Dan gets a young man to be a priest for his whole tribe, this
is against the Levitical law.

Judges 18:1-6 In those days there was no king in Israel: and in
those days the tribe of the Danites sought them an inheritance
to dwell in; for unto that day all their inheritance had not
fallen unto them among the tribes of Israel. And the children of
Dan sent of their family five men from their coasts, men of
valour, from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land, and
to search it; and they said unto them, Go, search the land: who
when they came to mount Ephraim, to the house of Micah, they
lodged there. When they were by the house of Micah, they knew
the voice of the young man the Levite: and they turned in
thither, and said unto him, Who bought thee hither? and what
makest thou in this place? and what hast thou here? And he said
unto them, Thus and thus dealeth Micah with me, and hath hired
me, and I am his priest. And they said unto him, Ask counsel, we
pray thee, of God, that we may know whether our way which we go
shall be prosperous. And the priest said unto them, Go in peace:
before the LORD is your way wherein ye go.

Judges 18:15-19 And they turned thitherward, and came to the
house of the young man the Levite, even unto the house of Micah,
and saluted him. And the six hundred men appointed with their
weapons of war, which were of the children of Dan, stood by the
entering of the gate. And the five men that went to spy out the
land went up, and came in thither, and took the graven image,
and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image: and the
priest stood in the entering of the gate with the six hundred
men that were appointed with weapons of war. And these went into
Micah's house, and fetched the carved image, the ephod, and the
teraphim, and the molten image. Then said the priest unto them,
What do ye, And they said unto him, Hold thy peace, lay thine
hand upon thy mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a
priest: is it better for thee to be a priest unto the house of
one man, or that thou be a priest unto a tribe and a family in
Israel?

4. This priest is called father.

Judges 17:10 And Micah said unto him, Dwell with me, and be unto
me a father and a priest, and I will give thee ten shekels of
silver by the year, and a suit of apparel, and thy victuals. So
the Levite went in.

Judges 18:19 And they said unto him, Hold thy peace, lay thine
hand upon thy mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a
priest: is it better for thee to be a priest unto the house of
one man, or that thou be a priest unto a tribe and a family in
Israel? We are commanded by Jesus to call no man father but God!

Matthew 23:9 And call no man your father upon the earth: for one
is your Father, which is in heaven.

5. This priest takes care of idols which are used as an aid to
worship.

Judges 18:20 And the priest's heart was glad, and he took the
ephod, and the teraphim, and the graven image, and went in the
midst of the people.

6. Dan settles up near Zidon and Tyre on the Phoenician coast.

Judges 18:28 And there was no deliverer, because it was far from
Zidon, and they had no business with any man; and it was in the
valley that lieth by Bethrehob. And they built a city, and dwelt
therein.

7. Dan is in total apostasy for nearly 1000 years, mixing with
the natives of the people.

Judges 18:30-31 And the children of Dan set up the graven image:
and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, he and
his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the
captivity of the land. And they set them up Micah's graven
image, which he made, all the time that the house of God was in
Shiloh.

8. The Canaanites settled this part of the country. They were
involved in Baal worship.

Genesis 10:19 And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon,
as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest, unto Sodom,
and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha.

9. King Ahab takes over, marries the daughter of the king of the
Zidonians, and serves Baal, the Phoenician god. His wife's'
name: Jezebel.

1 Kings 16:29-33 And in the thirty and eighth year of Asa king
of Judah began Ahab the son of Omri to reign over Israel: and
Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty and
two years. And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the
LORD above all that were before him. And it came to pass, as if
it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of
Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the
daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served
Baal, and worshipped him. And he reared up an altar for Baal in
the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. And Ahab made
a grove; and Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to
anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him.

10. Baal worship is conducted from 6 in the morning until noon.

1 Kings 18:26 And they took the bullock which was given them,
and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning
even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no
voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar
which was made.

11. They worshipped the fire and the sun on the sun god's day:
Sunday.

1 Kings 18:24-25 And call ye on the name of your gods, and I
will call on the name of the LORD: and the God that answereth by
fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, It
is well spoken. And Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal,
Choose you one bullock for yourselves, and dress it first; for
ye are many; and call on the name of your gods, but put no fire
under.

12. These priests mutilate their bodies to get what they want
from God.

1 Kings 18:28 And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after
their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out
upon them.

a. Though it is practiced today to gain favor with God, and get
forgiveness for sins, it was ridiculed in the early church. -
Athenagoras' "Legito pro Christ"; Wertzburg, 1777. Section 14,
page 134.

b. On Good Friday; in Rome, Madrid, and other holy cities;
thousands flock to see the flagellants beat themselves until
their blood flows from their body. -Herds' "Rites and
Ceremonies." Page 175.

c. The honoring of Christ's death by self beating until the
blood flowed was practiced by the followers of Osiris on the
anniversary of his death. - Hurd's "Rome in the 19th Century",
Volume 3, page 251.

13. These priests wear long robes called vestments.
Consequently, they have vestries and vestry men for their
vestments.

2 Kings 10:22 And he said unto him that was over the vestry,
Bring forth vestments for all the worshippers of Baal. And he
brought them forth vestments. Christ warns of people in long
robes, seeking the attention of man.

Mark 12:38-40 And he [Jesus] said unto them in his doctrine,
Beware of the scribes, which love to go in long clothing, and
love salutations in the marketplaces, And the chief seats in the
synagogues, and the uppermost rooms at feasts: Which devour
widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers: these
shall receive greater damnation.

14. These Baal worshippers cut down a tree and decked it with
gold, on their god's birthday; December 25.

Jeremiah 10:1-5 Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto
you, O house of Israel: Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way
of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for
the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people
are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of
the hands of the workman, with the ax. They deck it with silver
and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that
it move not. They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not:
they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid
of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to
do good.

a. December 25th, was celebrated as the birthday of the sun god.
Because at this time the days began to get longer. Winter
solstice.

b. "On the 24th of the tenth month [December] the Arabians
celebrated the birthday of the lord [the Moon god]." - Stanley's
History of Philosophy; London, 1687.

c. The ancient Saxon's celebrated the birth of any lord of the
Hosts of Heaven on this day.

d. December 25 was the "celebration of the victory of the
unconquered Sun". - Gieseler's Ecclesiastical History;
Edinburgh, 1846.

e. Trees as gods and in worship:

1). Egypt- Tree was a palm tree - Baal-Tamar.

2). Rome- Tree was a fir tree - Baal-Berith.

3). Greece- Adonis' mother was turned into a tree.

f. Yule log is burned on Christmas Eve and a Christmas tree
appears the next morning. The tree represents Zero-Ashta (god).

g. Yule log also represents the dead stock of Nimrod, cut down
by his enemies, but is reborn the next morning to shine again.
Represented by a tree carrying lighted candles.

15. They baked cakes to offer to their female deity who they
called "the queen of heaven" 1000 years before the birth of
Christ.

C. Dan and Ephraim removed from being tribes.
1. Dan is last mentioned in Amos.

a. He is never mentioned in the New Testament.

b. He is cursed to never be brought back up again.

c. Dan in not one of the Tribes at the coming of the Lord for
this reason.

d. Amos 8:14 They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy
god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beersheba liveth; even
they shall fall, and never rise up again.

2. Ephraim is cut off.
a. Ephraim is cut off, the Bow is filled with him. Zechariah 9:9-
13.

b. Joseph is raised up to replace Ephraim.Zechariah 10:6-7.

c. Ephraim is mentioned once in the New Testament, but this is
not a reference to the man, nor the tribe; but to a city by that
name. John 11:54

D. Charting the Twelve Tribes of Israel from Jacob through the
Tribulation.

1. The Twelve Tribes of Israel are Blessed by Jacob their
father. - Genesis 49:1-28.
a. Reuben v. 3

b. Simeon v. 5

c. Levi v. 5

d. Judah v. 8

e. Zebulun v. 13

f. Issachar v. 14

g. Dan v. 16

h. Gad v. 19

i. Asher v. 20

j. Naphtali v. 21

k. Joseph v. 22

l. Benjamin v. 27

2. The Twelve Tribes of Israel are Blessed by Moses their
leader. - Deuteronomy 33:6-25.
a. Reuben v. 6

b. Simeon Not Mentioned?

c. Levi v. 8

d. Judah v. 7

e. Zebulun v. 18

f. Issachar v. 18

g. Dan v. 22

h. Gad v. 20

i. Asher v. 24

j. Naphtali v. 23

k. Joseph v. 13

l. Benjamin v. 12

m. Ephraim v. 17 (Son of Joseph)

n. Manasseh v. 17 (Son of Joseph)

3. The Twelve tribes of Israel are divided according to their
portion of land, as reported by Ezekiel the Prophet. - Ezekiel
48:1-27.
a. Reuben v. 6

b. Simeon v. 25

c. Levi v. 10-22 (No Portion)

d. Judah v. 7

e. Zebulun v. 26

f. Issachar v. 25

g. Dan v. 1

h. Gad v. 27

i. Asher v. 2

j. Naphtali v. 3

k. Joseph (No Portion)

l. Benjamin v. 22

m. Ephraim v. 5 (Son of Joseph)

n. Manasseh v. 4 (Son of Joseph)

4. The Twelve thousand of each of the Twelve Tribes of Israel
sealed by God, in the Tribulation. - Revelation 7:4-8.
a. Reuben v. 5

b. Simeon v. 7

c. Levi v. 7

d. Judah v. 5

e. Zebulun v. 8

f. Issachar v. 7

g. Dan (No Longer a Tribe)

h. Gad v. 5

i. Asher v. 6

j. Naphtali v. 6

k. Joseph v. 8

l. Benjamin v. 8

m. Ephraim (No Longer a Tribe) (Son of Joseph)

n. Manasseh v. 6 (Son of Joseph)

V. Doctrine
A. Baptismal Regeneration.
1. "Absolute necessity for salvation ... regenerates us by a new
spiritual birth, making us children of God." - Hayes,
Bishop; "Sincere Christian", Doublin, Ireland, 1783. pp. 363,
356.

2. Two exceptions to this rule:
a. An infidel, converted in a heathen land, where it is
impossible to get baptism.

b. A martyr, who is baptized in his own blood.

3. Without baptism even an infant cannot enter into
heaven. "Before the gates (of hell) the cries of babes newborn,
when fate had from their tender mothers torn (before baptism)." -
Dryden, "Virgil", London, 1709. Volume 2, pages 427-429.

4. Baptism is for a person only after believing on the Lord
Jesus Christ as personal Saviour.
Acts 16:30-33 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I
do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And they spake unto him
the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. And he
took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes;
and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.

Acts 8:36-38 And as they went on their way, they came unto a
certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what
doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou
believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and
said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he
commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both
into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.

5. Method of Baptism: Sprinkling vs Immersion.
a. The practice of the Catholic church is to sprinkle babies and
new converts into the church.

b. "The most ancient form usually employed was unquestionably
immersion. This is not only evident from the writings of the
fathers and early rituals of both Latin and Oriental churches,
but, it can also be gathered from the Epistles of St. Paul....
In the Latin church, immersion seems to have prevailed until the
twelfth century.... Infusion and aspersion, however, were
growing common in the thirteenth century and gradually prevailed
in the western church." - The Catholic Encyclopedia Volume 2,
page 261:

c. Jesus was immersed. Mark 1:9-10 And it came to pass in those
days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized
of John in Jordan. And straightway coming up out of the water,
he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending
upon him:

6. Baptism before John the Baptist, or Christ.
a. "In certain sacred rites of the heathen (worship of Isis and
Mithra) the mode of initiation is by Baptism." - Tertullian, "De
Baptismo", Volume 1, page 1204-1205.

b. Baptism into the religions of ancient times was a rough and
formidable process, "if he survived, was then admitted to the
knowledge of the mysteries." - Gregorii Nazianzen: "Eliae
Comment", Orat. 4, page 245.

c. The worshipers of Odin, are known to have practiced baptismal
rites, which, taken in connection with their avowed o
Carlos D. Paniagua
Proverbs 19:21 - There are many devices in a man's heart;
nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand.

Fate's Knight

unread,

Aug 4, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/4/00

Son_of_Chive_Mynde wrote:

<snip>

> >> You need to study Egyptian mythology more closely.
> >>
> >> The Mithraic, Osirian and Christian myths are ONE and the
> SAME.
> >
> >Disagree.
> >
> >>
> >>
> >> The "Jesus" of the NT is Osiris arisen.
> >
> >In your not so humble opinion. It is a matter of faith, not
> fact.
>
> Sorry, it is a matter of fact, not faith. Catholics *are* pagans.

Yes, the Romans called the Christians pagans. I know of no pagans who
would claim Catholics as part of their ranks and vice versa, bucko.

>
>
> Roman Catholicism [A Study Outline]
> By Pastor Steve Harmon Th.G., B.S., Th.M., Th.D. (1991)
>
> Maineville Baptist Church, 57 East Foster-Maineville Road
> Maineville, Ohio 45039 (513) 683-6708 E-Mail drs...@iglou.com
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
> ------
> Roman Catholicism
> I. History - Constantine
> A. Constantine followed the historical church period from 100
> A.D. through 313 A.D. There are ten persecutions of the church
> by the end of this church period.
>
> 1. Nero (64 - 68) - Killed Peter and Paul.

And burned Rome to blame the Christians.

>
>
> 2. Domitian (81 - 96) - Killed thousands of believers. Banished
> John to Patmos.
>
> 3. Trajan (98-117) - The first to pass laws against
> Christianity.
>
> 4. Pius (137-161) - Killed Polycarp, a disciple of John.
>
> 5. Marcus Aurelius (161-180) - Thought Christianity an absurd
> superstition. Beheaded Justin Martyr.
>
> 6. Severus (193-211) - Killed Origen's father.
>
> 7. Thracian (235-238) - Brutal barbarian who commanded all
> Christian leaders to die.
>
> 8. Decius (249-251) - Determined to exterminate Christianity.
>
> 9. Valerian (253-260) - Killed Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage.
>
> 10. Diocleatian (284-305) - Last and most severe persecution.
> For ten years believers were hunted in caves and forests. They
> were burned, thrown to wild beasts, and put to death by every
> torture cruelty could devise. But Diocletian's own wife and
> daughter accepted Christ.

I love irony that way.

>
>
> B. The next historical period saw the "marrying" of the pagan
> religions and Christianity.

Here's where I give argument.

>
>
> 1. They were given over to many Greek idols, the two most
> prominent were: a. Baccas - the god of revelry.
>
> b. Asclepius - the god of healing.
>
> C. Rome demanded cooperation of all groups under their reign.
>
> D. Constantine "married" paganism and the church, the world and
> the church.

This does not ment that all things in Catholicism are pagan.
I have said this about a dozen times a month in the past year I have
posted here and I will say it again.
"Power is power, how we perceive it makes a religion"
For those at home who need help, this means two people can see the exact
same supernatural event, or even natural event and ascribe it to
supernatural reasons, and get two different interpretations, one is as
valid as the other.

> E. Constantine was the son of a Roman emperor. He felt that he
> should have the throne. He amassed an army and headed for Rome.
>
> F. Constantine needed the backing of the Christians, as well as
> the pagans, which he already had.
>
> G. October 28, 312 A.D. at the Battle of Milvian Bridge on the
> Tiber River, he had a vision; he saw a sign in the sky, which
> said "In this sign conquer."
>
> H. Constantine vowed that if the God of the Christians would
> help him to win this battle, he would become a Christian.
>

The die was cast.

>
> I. Constantine, carefully described the cross he saw, and had it
> placed on the shield of the soldiers.
>
> J. The cross was an Egyptian "ankh" a T with a circle on top,
> this is the sign of the sun God, and Tammuz.
>

It also looked like ancient Celtic symbols, but no one claims it from
them.

>
> {Graphic in booklet}
>
> K. He won the battle, took Rome, and attributed it to the sign.

Ahh, the merging of religious belief and luck.

>
>
> L. In 313 A.D., Constantine signed the edict of toleration (no
> more persecution of the church). He declared himself to be
> the "Protector of Christianity".
>
> M. Constantine ordered the production of 50 copies of the Holy
> Scriptures.
>
> 1. Eusebious produced these Bibles.
>
> 2. He used the Hexapolis. This was a parallel Bible with six
> versions in it. He used the most corrupt of them.
>
> 3. This is the origin of false Bibles.
>

Source me, and I mean besides this nutball.

>
> 4. The Siniaticus and the Vaticanus were written during this
> period.
>
> a. These are often called the Septuagint.
>

Long before this was put to paper.

>
> b. The Septuagint was suppose to be a Greek translation of the
> Old Testament, that Jesus quoted from.
>
> c. There are NO earlier versions of the Septuagint.
>
> d. I do not accept that there was a Septuagint.

Good for you, but you have shown little reason for it. You have made
occasional leaps in logic supported by pseudo-facts of the worst kind.
All of this is a fallact of authority anyway.

>
>
> II. Pagan Practices Married to the Church of Rome
> The Church that never changes has been in a constant state of
> change since is inception in the third century.

And first if you want to get technical about it. But I wouldn't since it
would only serve to prove you wrong.

> Here is a
> partial list of added practices complete with the dates that
> they were started.
>
> A. 312 A.D. Symbol of the cross (tau) for the church.
>
> B. Cir-300 Infant baptism.
>
> C. 300 A.D. Prayers for the dead.
>
> D. 300 A.D. Making the sign of the cross.
>
> E. 375 A.D. Worship of angels.

Long before that chummer

>
>
> F. 375 A.D. Worship of saints.
>

Neat trick considering the first saint wasn't cannonized until 397. (It
was Martin of Tours). Authenticity and proof wouldn't come for another
600 years.

>
> G. 394 A.D. Mass instituted.

Long before that.

>
>
> H. 431 A.D. Worship of Mary.

Earliest Marian rituals date to first century. You wanna try again?

>
>
> I. 500 A.D. Priests dressing differently from laymen.

Read City of God and get back to me.

>
>
> J. 526 A.D. Extreme unction (Last Rights).

Long before. Somewhere in second century IIRC

>
>
> K. 593 A.D. Doctrine of purgatory.

Or 1963, or 1514 or another of a million dates.

>
>
> L. 600 A.D. Services conducted in Latin.

Again, see St. Augustine

>
>
> M. 600 A.D. Prayers conducted to Mary.

You REALLLY need to read Augustine before you try doing a history of the
church.

>
>
> N. 607 A.D. Boniface the third made the first Pope.

Really wrong again. Peter was the first pope. If you don't want to
accept that, then you can't really accept any form of Papacy.

>
>
> O. 709 A.D. Kissing of the Pope's foot.
>
> P. 786 A.D. Worshipping of images and relics.

??????
I'm not even touching this one.

>
>
> Q. 850 A.D. Use of Holy Water.

No I mean it read Augustine.

>
>
> R. 995 A.D. Canonization of dead saints (You may now pray to
> them).

It was done before this, but this is failry close to the year that it
was set out in pretty form and verification was put to paper. Name the
saint.

>
>
> S. 1079 A.D. Celibacy of the priesthood.
>
> T. 1090 A.D. Rosary (prayer beads instituted).

See St. Benedict.

>
>
> U. 1215 A.D. Transubstantiation (The wafer becomes the literal
> flesh of Jesus Christ).

That's two right so far.

>
>
> V. 1220 A.D. Adoration of the wafer (host).

Never saw a recorded date for this, even from the Catholics. Homeboy is
pulling out of his ass.

>
>
> W. 1229 A.D. Bible is forbidden to the laymen.

>
>
> X. 1414 A.D. Cup forbidden to be touched during Holy Communion.

>
>
> Y. 1439 A.D. Doctrine of seven Sacraments affirmed.

Not according to my books.

>
>
> Z. 1508 A.D. The Ave Maria approved. (Hail to Mary).
>
> a. 1534 A.D. Jesuit order founded.

1540.

>
>
> b. 1545 A.D. Tradition granted equal authority with the Bible.

That's three right.

>
>
> c. 1546 A.D. Apocryphal books placed in the Bible.

Apocryphal (n). 1. those things found not to be accepted or cannon.
Non-cannonical.

>
>
> d. 1854 A.D. Immaculate conception of Mary.
>

That's four

>
> e. 1864 A.D. Syllabus of errors proclaimed.
>

Hey that's fove right

>
> f. 1870 A.D. Infallibility of the Pope declared.
>

3 in a row.

>
> g. 1935 A.D. Assumption of the Virgin Mary.
>

1950

>
> h. 1965 A.D. Mary proclaimed the Mother of the Church.

1950

So, she lied. Not a first in the Bible.

>
>
> 3. Tammuz was the name of her son.
>
> 4. She claimed him to be the promised seed.
>
> Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman,
> and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and
> thou shalt bruise his heel.
>
> 5. She and Tammuz were worshipped as deity.

Source me.

>
>
> B. Mother and son worship spread around the world.

Source me.

>
>
> Jeremiah 51:7 Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD'S hand,
> that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her
> wine; therefore the nations are mad.
>
> Revelation 18:3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the
> wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have
> committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth
> are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

You're going to use Revelations as solid proof of something? ROTFLMAO

>
>
> C. Examples of Mother and Son worship:
> 1. Semiramis and Tammuz. (Babylon)
>
> 2. Shingmoo [or Holy Mother] and child. (China)
>
> 3. Virgin Hertha with Child. (Ancient Germany)
>
> 4. Disa with Child. (Scandinavia)
>
> 5. Nutria with child. (Etruscans)
>
> 6. Virgo-Patitura (the Mother of God) with Child. (Druids)
>
> 7. Indrani and Child. (India)
>
> 8. Aphrodite or Ceres. (Greeks)
>
> 9. Nana. (Sumarians)
>
> 10. Venus or Fortuna with child Jupiter. (Rome)
>
> 11. Devaki and Crishna. (India)
>
> 12. Isi and Iswara. (India)
>
> 13. Cybele and Deoius. (Asia) Wife of Baal, virgin queen of
> heaven, fruit born without conception.
>
> 14. Ashtoreth (wife of Baal). (Philistines)(Phoenicians)

Therefore the Catholics stole from all these people, but it is 100%
inconceivable that the Catholics did this on their own.

READ FUCKING AUGUSTINE!!!!!

>
> 2. "Devotion to Our Blessed Lady in its ultimate analysis must
> be regarded as a practical application of the doctrine of the
> Communion of Saints. Seeing that this doctrine is not contained,
> at least explicitly, in the earlier forms of the Apostles'
> Creed, there is perhaps no ground for surprise if we do not meet
> with any clear traces of the cultus of the Blessed Virgin in the
> first Christians centuries," the worship of Mary being a later
> development. - The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 15, p. 459.
>
> 3. Epiphanius, died 403 A.D., denounced certain ones of Trace,
> Arabia, and elsewhere, for worshipping Mary as a goddess and
> offering cakes at her shrine. She should be held in honour, he
> said, "but let no one adore Mary." - The Catholic Encyclopedia,
> vol. 15, p. 460.
>

I would try to explain the doctorine to you, but I fear it would do
little good.

>
> 4. It was at the Council of Ephesus (Where Diana, the Mother
> Goddess was worshipped) in 431 A.D. that an official doctrine
> for Mary worship was adopted.
>
> B. Mary's titles also show that this worship came from old
> worship of a mother goddess.

You and I probably call our mothers the same thing, Mom. This doesn't
make them one in the same.

>
>
> 1. Madonna; is the translation of one of the titles by which the
> Babylonian goddess was known.
>
> 2. My Lady; translation of Baalti, the wife of Baal.

Also used to respect a lot of women.

>
>
> 3. The Lady of the Sea; after the Phoenician mother goddess.
>

New one by me, chummer.

>
> 4. The Mediatrix; as a mediator, Mylitta, a title for mother
> goddess. The Bible states that only Jesus is the mediator.

New one by me.

>
>
> 1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God
> and men, the man Christ Jesus;
>
> 5. The Queen of Heaven; Ashtoreth was called this in the
> scripture.
>
> 6. The Mother of God; Isis was called this, the theologians of
> Alexander, Egypt put this on Mary. Mary is the mother of only
> the physical body and human nature of Jesus, not His deity.

Gotta confess I never understood this one either, until one sees that in
Catholic belief that Jesus is seen as God, so in a real way Mary was the
mother of God.

>
>
> IV. Jezebel, Dan, Catholic Church Revelation 2:18-29
> A. Jezebel - Like the others is a class of people rather than a
> particular person.

Except for the fact that there was a historical Jezebel.

>
>
> 1. Nicolaitanes - Meaning: to conquer the laity.
>
> Revelation 2:6 But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of
> the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate.
>
> 2. Antipas - Meaning: Against the Papacy or Fatherdom.
>
> Revelation 2:13 I know thy works and where thou dwellest, even
> where Satan's seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast
> not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my
> faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.
>

This couldn't possibly refer to Herod Antipas, could it? No, it couldn't
refer to a puppet leader of Israel put in place by the Romans.

>
> 3. Doctrine of Balaam - The intermarriage of false gods.
>
> Revelation 2:14 But I have a few things against thee, because
> thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who
> taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of
> Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit
> fornication.
>
> B. As a Class of people who is Jezebel?
>
> 1. Dan is called a serpent, so is Satan.
>
> Genesis 49:17 Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the
> path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall
> backward.
>
> Genesis 3:1-4 Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of
> the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the
> woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the
> garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the
> fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree
> which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not
> eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the
> serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

1 and 2 don't correlate.

>
>
> Genesis 3:13-15 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is
> this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent
> beguiled me, and I did eat. And the LORD God said unto the
> serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all
> cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt
> thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I
> will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed
> and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise
> his heel.
>
> 2. Dan is called a Lion, Satan is called a lion.
>
> Deuteronomy 33:22 And of Dan he said, Dan is a lion's whelp: he
> shall leap from Bashan.
>
> 1 Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the
> devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may
> devour:

IIRC, the Tribe of Judah was also refered to as a lion. By your logic,
this would make all who decend from the tribe of Judah Satan.

Non sequitor.

>
>
> 5. This priest takes care of idols which are used as an aid to
> worship.

This is common to every religion, does that make them all bloody pagan?

>
>
> Judges 18:20 And the priest's heart was glad, and he took the
> ephod, and the teraphim, and the graven image, and went in the
> midst of the people.
>
> 6. Dan settles up near Zidon and Tyre on the Phoenician coast.
>
> Judges 18:28 And there was no deliverer, because it was far from
> Zidon, and they had no business with any man; and it was in the
> valley that lieth by Bethrehob. And they built a city, and dwelt
> therein.
>
> 7. Dan is in total apostasy for nearly 1000 years, mixing with
> the natives of the people.
>
> Judges 18:30-31 And the children of Dan set up the graven image:
> and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, he and
> his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the
> captivity of the land. And they set them up Micah's graven
> image, which he made, all the time that the house of God was in
> Shiloh.

Hence the Babylonian captivity.

>
>
> 8. The Canaanites settled this part of the country. They were
> involved in Baal worship.
>
> Genesis 10:19 And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon,
> as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest, unto Sodom,
> and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha.
>
> 9. King Ahab takes over, marries the daughter of the king of the
> Zidonians, and serves Baal, the Phoenician god. His wife's'
> name: Jezebel.
>

Then David came along. Read the whole Bible, not just what this guy
tells you to.

>
> 1 Kings 16:29-33 And in the thirty and eighth year of Asa king
> of Judah began Ahab the son of Omri to reign over Israel: and
> Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty and
> two years. And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the
> LORD above all that were before him. And it came to pass, as if
> it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of
> Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the
> daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served
> Baal, and worshipped him. And he reared up an altar for Baal in
> the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. And Ahab made
> a grove; and Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to
> anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him.
>
> 10. Baal worship is conducted from 6 in the morning until noon.
>
> 1 Kings 18:26 And they took the bullock which was given them,
> and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning
> even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no
> voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar
> which was made.
>

THEY WERE THEN PUNISHED!!!! How many more times do I have to bloody well
say it!

I got sick half way through of repeating myself. Non sequitors and
misinterpretations and blatant stupidity do not an arugment make.

Fate's Knight

unread,

Aug 4, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/4/00

<snip more tripe>
Now, I admire CM's use of a search engine in a vain effort to try and
prove an opinion. I also admire the fact that he has returned to his
spamming ways once again and merely tried argue other's points of view
instead of doing anything on his own. This would involve creativity and
intelligence. I took the time to respond, line by line to one of these
and that is in my opinion enough for one night.

lordrelayer

unread,

Aug 4, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/4/00

Ok, I understand all of this, but I'm still not sure why the church seeks to
portray Christ this way. Are the "solar" qualities particularly supported by
his teachings? Or does the church just feel compelled to remodell their
redeemer into a form palettable to the patriachal power base. All of the
above? None of the above? I see that the connection is made, but *why*?

Reuben.

"Cameron Mandrake" <mand...@tiamat.dragon.org> wrote in message
news:8mc00i$i20$1...@nnrp03.primenet.com...

> lordrelayer <lordr...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> : I have repeatedly seen Christ referred to as a "sun god" in occult
> : literature. While I understand the paralells exist between Mithraic,
Osirian
> : and Christian myths, I'm not sure that I get this leap. Does this refer
> : specifically to the sacrifice and resurrection? With all of his much
vaunted
> : messages of love, I would have thought to look for J.C. in the sphere of
> : Venus.
>

John B

unread,

Aug 4, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/4/00

>>
>> J. The cross was an Egyptian "ankh" a T with a circle on top,
>> this is the sign of the sun God, and Tammuz.
>>
>
>It also looked like ancient Celtic symbols, but no one claims it from
>them.
>
>>

You know, those Romans were pretty smart-alecky for crucifying criminals on
an egyptian symbol of eternal life. They probably thought they were being
clever...

Cameron Mandrake

unread,

Aug 4, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/4/00

lordrelayer <lordr...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
: Ok, I understand all of this, but I'm still not sure why the church seeks to

: portray Christ this way. Are the "solar" qualities particularly supported by
: his teachings? Or does the church just feel compelled to remodell their
: redeemer into a form palettable to the patriachal power base. All of the
: above? None of the above? I see that the connection is made, but *why*?

I don't think that the Church makes this connection as a general rule. I
think this connection is made by pagans, qabalists, and the esoteric
priesthoods for various reasons. The pagans want to bridge a gap, at
least in their own minds. The qabalists want to classify and catagorize,
and when you look at it, Christ fits very nicely in Tiphareth. The
esoteric priesthood, born out of the Liberal Catholic Church and the Old
Catholic Church of Holland, who are and were mostly occultists, follow the
same thought patterns as the qabalists. In fact, many of us are
qabalists or at least familiar with the qabala.

In fact, when the Seventh Day Adventists accused the Catholic Church of
Sun God worship, they denied it. Even other religions recognize the Sun
God aspects of the Catholic Church, even if the Church refuses to
acknowledge it themselves.

Is the direction taken by the Church directed by a particular faction or
person? I never really thought about it.

Many people, correctly or not, consider Mithraism the closest thing to the
roots of Christianity and Mithras was considered a Sun God. Was this the
reason for the connections? I couldn't say.

I don't know if I really have the answer here, but thank you for posing
the question. I will be looking at this very closely.

Wulfruna

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Aug 4, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/4/00

lordrelayer <lordr...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:Z49i5.17$gy5.5...@news.interact.net.au...

> I have repeatedly seen Christ referred to as a "sun god" in occult
> literature.

So *thats* why he wants us for a sunbeam.

It all becomes clear...

--
Wulfruna

Fate's Knight

unread,

Aug 4, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/4/00

lordrelayer wrote:

> Ok, I understand all of this, but I'm still not sure why the church seeks to
> portray Christ this way.

They don't. This is an interpretation, not an inferrence.

> Are the "solar" qualities particularly supported by
> his teachings?

Not especially, not anymore than his communist leanings.

> Or does the church just feel compelled to remodell their
> redeemer into a form palettable to the patriachal power base.

Patriarchy is handy because it was all anyone understood at the time.

> All of the
> above? None of the above? I see that the connection is made, but *why*?

To make Chive Mynde feel better. Lord, he is prolific.

> > -Cameron+
> >
> > --
> > Fr. Cameron J. Mandrake mand...@dragon.org
> > Coming soon, Dragon Spirit Magazine at http://www.dragon.org
> > Submissions needed. Please visit the site for details.

Fate's Knight

richard sprigg

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Aug 5, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/5/00

Son_of_Chive_Mynde wrote:

> M. Constantine ordered the production of 50 copies of the Holy
> Scriptures.
>
> 1. Eusebious produced these Bibles.
>
> 2. He used the Hexapolis. This was a parallel Bible with six
> versions in it. He used the most corrupt of them.
>
> 3. This is the origin of false Bibles.

There are known to have been countless versions of the "Gospels
according to" kicking around in the second century, when Iranaeus was
collecting and codifying acceptable texts.
Pagels, in "The Gnostic Gospels" suggests that Iranaeus' ruthless vision
for the church was responsible for many changes in the direction of the
emerging religion.

>
> 4. The Siniaticus and the Vaticanus were written during this
> period.
>
> a. These are often called the Septuagint.

Incorrectly, if they are.
I have never seen this nomenclature for any NT writings.

>
> b. The Septuagint was suppose to be a Greek translation of the
> Old Testament, that Jesus quoted from.

The Septuagint is supposed to be the Pentateuch rendered into Greek for
Hellenised Jews, plus some apocrypha not appearing in the original
Hebrew texts. Date of Translation is allegedly around 300 B.C.

That the Septuagint was used as well as the Pentateuch in translating
the OT into English is known, and has led to some confusion.
The newage belief that "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" should
read "....a poisoner to live" is based upon the Greek text rather than
the Hebrew original.

>
> c. There are NO earlier versions of the Septuagint.
>
> d. I do not accept that there was a Septuagint.

Academic anyway, in that there is no evidence to suggest that Jesus
spoke Greek. (I ignore the book that placed Jesus in Tibet for twenty
years, since humour is not the subject here)

DC

unread,

Aug 5, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/5/00

ion. It is a matter of faith, not
> fact.
>
> Sorry, it is a matter of fact, not faith. Catholics *are* pagans.
>
> Roman Catholicism [A Study Outline]
> By Pastor Steve Harmon Th.G., B.S., Th.M., Th.D. (1991)
>
> Maineville Baptist Church, 57 East Foster-Maineville Road
> Maineville, Ohio 45039 (513) 683-6708 E-Mail drs...@iglou.com
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------

>Baptists have always been paranoid about Catholics. It is the only way they (Baptists) can feel important and/or powerful. I wouldn't consider a book written by a Baptist minister as confirmation or refutation on anything concerning Catholics.

DC

unread,

Aug 5, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/5/00

Son_of_Chive_Mynde wrote:
>
> http://www.watch.pair.com/eucharist.html
>
> The "gods" In Our Midst
>
> By Ed Tarkowski
>
> Alabama Discernment Ministries
>
> November 11, 1996
>

Another source from Southern Fundamenetalist groups-they're sort of like
Highlander...there can be only one way...mine

Marvin Keating

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Aug 5, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/5/00

John B wrote:

> >>
> >> J. The cross was an Egyptian "ankh" a T with a circle on top,
> >> this is the sign of the sun God, and Tammuz.
> >>
> >
> >It also looked like ancient Celtic symbols, but no one claims it from
> >them.
> >
> >>
>

> You know, those Romans were pretty smart-alecky for crucifying criminals on
> an egyptian symbol of eternal life. They probably thought they were being
> clever...
>
> JB

The traditional Christian Cross was originally a symbol of the elements. It can
be seen more clearly in the Celtic Cross.

(Earth below, Air above, fire and water on each arm, spirit in the center)

To use the traditional Christian blessing :
Upper Father=Sky Father=Air "In the name of the Father
Lower Son=Earth (incarnation/Son of Man) "In the name of theSon"
Left Arm Holy Spirit=Fire (tongues of fire) "In the name of the Holy Spirit"
Right Arm Amen=Water (by exclusion) "Amen"
Center Spirit=joining point of all elements, symbolizes by Christ in the center
of the Cross
Upon further meditation, analogies can be made with the Zodiacal attributions
by sign e.g Taurus/Earth Lower point of cross, and also the planetary spirits
can be extrapolated by assigning the planets in their appropriate signs and
elements, and then even further extrapolation can be made of plants/incenses,
etc...

Anyway, my two cents worth.

Son_of_Chive_Mynde

unread,

Aug 5, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/5/00

DC <ub...@erols.com> wrote:

>Son_of_Chive_Mynde wrote:
>>
>> http://www.watch.pair.com/eucharist.html
>>
>> The "gods" In Our Midst
>>
>> By Ed Tarkowski
>>
>> Alabama Discernment Ministries
>>
>> November 11, 1996
>>

>Another source from Southern Fundamenetalist groups-they're
>sort of like Highlander...there can be only one way...mine

I thought it would be appropriate to present the opposing views
on this issue.

My own personal view tends to adhere to the middle path between
the academic study of the sun god mythologies of the past and
the Rosicrucian interpretation that Kuhn makes in "An
Interpretation of Ancient Scriptures," Chapter XX, Suns of
Intellect.

http://members.tripod.com/~pc93/lostlght.htm

"Near the end of November, 1932, the public press reported the
announcement of Dr. George W. Crile, noted scientist of the
Cleveland laboratories, that he had discovered in the heart of
every cell of protoplasm tiny centers or foci of energy which he
called "hot points" or "radiogens," with estimated temperatures

of from 3,000 to 6,000 degrees of heat. Protoplasm emitted
radiations of various wave lengths, "some as powerful as those

release that spark of solar flame from its trammels of the flesh

largesse in proportion to its grade of being. Thus every man

[...]

"The Pistis Sophia, furnishing much valuable material deleted
from the Gospels, describes Jesus, after superseding the seven
foundation pillars of the world, as passing through the twelve
signs of the zodiac, mentioning each by name, and gathering a

portion of the light from each to incorporate in his own person.

He says that he took the twelve saviors of the treasure of light
and bound them into the bodies of your mothers. This is to say
that he circumscribed the operation of the twelve deific powers
in bodies of mortal flesh. He was thus to judge the
twelve "tribes of Israel," or twelve segmentations of idvine
intelligence; those rays of cosmic mind which figure as the
twelve tribes, sons, stars, brothers, kings, reapers, rowers,
fishermen, sowers, and twelve voices and teachers. All these had

begun as powers of light in the physical domain, and were in the

The Rig-Veda asks:

[...]

"It need hardly be repeated that the Christos was represented
under a different title and character during each 2155 years of
a cycle of precession. In Leo he was the lion of the house of
Judah (Iu-dah), and his whelp; in Cancer he was the "Good
Scarabaeus," ever renewing himself, the crab emerging from the

water onto the land; in Gemini he was the twins, the two

opposite phases of life contending in the womb of being for
supremacy; in Taurus, the shining bull and golden calf; in
ARies, the ram, the lamb of God and the golden fleece; in Pisces
the great whale and the little fish with the gold in its mouth,

the fisher of souls, the food in the water; in Aquarius the

emanator of the water of life in two streams; in Capricorn the
dual god again, half goat or land animal, half fish or sea
animal, duplicating the sign of Cancer opposite, only that the
crab is emerging from the water and the goat is in the water; in

Sagittarius again double as the Centaur, half man and half

horse, the archer aiming at the eye of Horus to put it out on
the downward course of the autumnal sun, when deity is going
blind; in Scorpio, double again as the scorpion that stings
divine power to "death" and the eagle that soars aloft again; in
Libra as the god of the two horizons holding the scales of the
balance between spirit and matter in exact equilibrium; in Virgo
double as the divine child of the mother and the wheat for the
bread of Christ, as well as the branch of the true vine that was
constellated in Virgo."

Belladonna

unread,

Aug 12, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/12/00

regardless of the 'myths' or whatever.. the egyptian should
be emphasized here., i have my reasons why it should be. watch,
it'll come out in the news im sure.. anyway, what i do, is look
for what lies beneath the connections. what is the underlying
message, compassion? death/life?. .
venus is sensuality.. aphrodite yin to the extreme..
..think siren

Son_of_Chive_Mynde

unread,

Aug 12, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/12/00

Belladonna <belladonna...@aol.com.invalid> wrote:
>
> regardless of the 'myths' or whatever.. the egyptian should
>be emphasized here., i have my reasons why it should be. watch,
>it'll come out in the news im sure.. anyway, what i do, is look
>for what lies beneath the connections. what is the underlying
>message, compassion? death/life?. .
>venus is sensuality.. aphrodite yin to the extreme..

>...think siren

..think sirius.

- SOCkM

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