Eternal Asatru and Counterfeit Christianity
Jim Bowery
"Eternal Asatru and Counterfeit Christianity"
Part II, by Thor Sannhet
"A people which takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote
ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered by noble
descendants. -- Thomas Macaulay, History of England From the Accession
of James II, p. 1526
"In the final analysis, people get the religion they deserve. If they
betray their indigenous deities, their Gods will turn their backs on
them. Errant people lay themselves open to predation by alien interests
who can gain control within their political, economic and religious
institutions, distort their indigenous culture, and subvert their
capacity to survive as a people. Even Proverbs (29:18) states that,
'Where there is no vision, the people perish [or cast off restraint]'"
-- T. Sannhet
"SHADOW" CONTRIBUTORS TO EARLY CHRISTIANITY
I would be remiss to not mention other theories about the origin of
Christianity. An excellent summary of them is found in "The Essene-
Christian Faith: A study in the Sources of Western Religion" by Dr.
Martin A. Larson (Costa Mesa, CA Noontide Press, 1822 1/2 Newport Blvd.;
1989). One of the great gaps in the New Testament is the total omission
of the Essene Movement, the third major force in Palestine besides the
Pharisees and Sadducees. The Jewish historian Josephus (37?-100 AD),
author of "The Jewish War" and a book on Jewish antiquities, provided
detailed coverage of all three movements in his works. Interestingly
enough, although Josephus provided a detailed history of Palestine from
Herod's predecessors until the end of the Jewish War (66-73 AD), the
closest he came to anything suggesting Jesus in Greek manuscripts of his
work is the brief passage at the beginning of Chapter 7 "Judea under
Roman Rule" of "The Jewish War".
"The territory of Archelaus was brought under direct Roman rule, and a
man of equestrian rank at Rome, Coponius, was sent as a procurator with
authority from Caesar to inflict the death penalty. In his time a
Galilaean named Judas tried to stir the natives to revolt, saying they
would be cowards if they submitted to paying taxes to the Romans, and
after serving God alone accepted human masters. This man was a rabbi
with a sect of his own, and was quite unlike the others." (page 133,
New York: Dorset Press, 1970).
There was a Slavonic version of "The Jewish War" translated into old
Russian around 1250 AD with passages about Christianity that have no
parallel in the Greek version. According to the English scholar E. Mary
Smallwood, the questionable Slavonic text gives "highly garbled accounts
of John the Baptist and the ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ (neither of them referred to by name), and a picture of the early
church as a faith-healing movement. There are basically three possible
interpretations of them: that Josephus, who is likely to have been
aware of the main facts of Christ's life and of the existence of the
Church as a schismatic sect, wrote them; that they are wholesale
interpretations (by whom? hardly by a Christian, since such travesties
of the New Testament tradition would have done little to promote belief
or to enhance the prestige of the Church); or that they are elaborations
of shorter, less sensational passages written by Josephus." (page 470,
Appendix F, Smallwood on "The Jewish War").
Is a rabbi who encourages a tax revolt the same person as Jesus Christ
who says, "Render therefore to Ceasar the things that are Caesar's, and
to God the things that are God's"? (Matthew 22:21-22). If Josephus is
willing to devote over five pages to describe the Essenes in "The Jewish
War", why would he devote a few vague sentences to the "Greatest Story
Ever Told," if in fact that is what he was talking about?
The Dead Sea scrolls also validate the existence of the Essenes but do
not specifically mention the Jesus of the Gospels. Justus of Tiberias,
a native of Galilee, wrote a history covering the period in which Jesus
allegedly lived; although his works have perished, they were read by
Photius, a 9th century Christian bishop in Constantinople, who said "He
(Justus) makes not the least mention of the appearance of Christ, or
what things happened to him, or the wonderful work that he did."
(Jackson 1988). Dr. Madalyn O'Hair of the American Atheist [PO Box
140195] has concluded that there was in all likelihood no historical
Jesus, just a compilation of many myths from other religions that were
spun around a largely fictitious story of a Jewish messiah and tenants
of Judaism. In 1988 "American Atheist" published a paper titled "Did
Jesus Exist?" by Frank Zindler that explained a number of arguments and
contradictions within the Gospels that cause him to doubt the existence
of Jesus. "Pagan Christs", by J. M. Robertson, first published in 1903,
also doubts a historical Jesus.
Several points need to be made about the way in which Christianity
infiltrated Rome and competed with mystery religions that had similar
characteristics: (a) The elements that pagan religions share in common
with Christianity suggest the extent to which Christianity was a
"copycat" or "fabricated" religion that stole ideas from them or filled
a similar "niche" in the "psychological market" of the various peoples
in the Empire (b) The Italic invaders whose descendants created the
Roman Republic were a semi-Nordic/Nordic people who traced their
ancestry from the north. The same was true of the golden-haired Dorians
and Ionians who were the predecessors of the Greeks of the classical
era. As the Romans and Greeks became more prosperous, alien peoples
were imported as labor or immigrated to share in their prosperity and
interbred with them. As their prosperous civilizations reduced the
rigors of survival, the dysgenic decay process described in "Why
Civilizations Self-Destruct" by Dr. Elmer Pendell (Cape Canaveral, FL:
Howard Allen, Box 76; 1977) set in and degraded the innate competency
and fitness level of their population. This step down the evolutionary
scale had already had a major impact prior to the alleged time of
Christ. Hence it is not surprising that so many Romans gravitated away
from the heroic Greco-Roman religion, which is a cousin of Asatru, to
the more mystical religions of mercy. However, while the other pagan
religions stressed sentimental themes, Christianity was unique in its
use of sentimentality and mysticism to promote revolutionary themes,
mass movement propaganda, and class resentment. (One might recollect
how the beggar Lazarus goes to heaven and the rich man goes to Hades in
Luke 16:19-31). (c) Christianity was unique compared to the other
religions of mercy through its attempts to graft its adherents to Jewish
tribal history. Although the Jews are portrayed as accessories to the
crucifixion, the New Testament also dignifies them as a special people
chosen by God and as the heroes of the Old Testament. Furthermore, they
can be saved through the Christian doctrine of redemption, and hence
must be tolerated. Ultimately the Jewish people gained more than they
lost with this theology. (d) None of the merciful pagan religions ever
elicited the kind of hostile reaction that Christianity provoked on the
part of the Roman emperors. Most Bible movies portray anti-Christian
emperors as wicked people; however, since Sir Edward Gibbon offered the
view in his classic work "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" that
Christianity was a major cause of the fall of Rome, many intellectuals
have taken a less moralistic viewpoint.
"The Western Heritage", by Kagan, Ozment, and Turner (New York:
Macmillan, 1983), describes a pagan competitor of Christianity called
Manichaeism. It was "...an especially potent rival of Christianity.
Named for its founder, Mani, a Persian who lived in the third century
A.D., it contained aspects of various religious traditions, including
Zoroastrianism from Persia and both Judaism and Christianity. The
Manichaeans pictured a world in which light and darkness, good and evil,
were constantly at war. Good was spiritual and evil was material;
because human beings were made of matter, their bodies were a prison of
evil and darkness, but they also contained an element of light and good.
The 'Father of Goodness' had sent Mani, among other prophets, to free
humanity and gain its salvation. To achieve salvation, humans must want
to reach the realm of light and to abandon all physical desires."
Mithraism was another important competitor to Christianity that was
transmitted into the Roman world in the first century B.C. and spread
almost as rapidly as its arch rival Christianity. The deity Mithra was
quite old, going back to the very ancient Vedas of the Indo-European
invaders of the Indus valley. Mithraism was favored by a number of
Roman Emperors prior to the conversion of the Emperor Constantine to
Christianity. Considered to be a pagan "mystery religion", which had
rituals that were often conducted in secret, it had a doctrine of heaven
and hell, a battle between good and evil, the concept of the
resurrection of the flesh, and other similarities to Christianity.
However, it seemed to be restricted to males, was more state-oriented,
and had degrees of initiation.
According to "The Western Heritage", some other pagan cults of mercy
thrived in Rome, such as the cult of Sarapis, which began as worship of
an Egyptian combination of deities Osiris-Apis, and also a cult of
Cybele, the Great Mother, that came from Asia Minor and Isis in Egypt.
"In the troubled time of the 4th and 5th centuries, people sought
powerful, personal deities who would bring them safety and prosperity in
this world and immortality in the next... Each [cult] had become popular
by the third century by virtue of its universality and intensely
personal qualities. Anyone, regardless of class, race, or condition,
could join and observe and take part of the rituals...which included
dramatic reenactments of the suffering, death, and resurrection of the
god. The mystery cults invited each initiate into a common fellowship
and morality, encouraged prayer directly to the god without priestly
intervention, and held out the hope of eternal life." (p. 235).
Christianity originated as a cult comprised of only Jewish adherents
until it became reconfigured for export to the Gentile world. It is
important to understand the resources available to Jewish people as well
as their role in the Roman Empire during the formative stages of
Christianity. Contrary to the impression created by the Gospels that
the Jewish people were a pastoral people concentrated in Palestine, the
bulk of them were actually quiet the opposite: heavily urbanized, well-
established in trade, and scattered about the Roman Empire and
Babylonia. According to rabbi Lewis Browne in "Stranger That Fiction",
"The scattering of the Jews through foreign lands--the Diaspora as it is
usually called-- had already been in process for many centuries before
the fall of Jerusalem (70 A.D.). Perhaps as early as the days of
Solomon there were little colonies of Hebrew traders in strange lands.
Certainly there were many after the destruction of the Northern Kingdom
in 722 B.C., and still more after the destruction of the Southern
Kingdom in 586 B.C. Indeed, some scholars say that from the last date
on, there were always more Jews living outside the borders of Palestine
than within them." (pages 160-161). According to Isaac Asimov, "The
Jews never really returned from Babylon en masse. Even after the
rebuilding of the Temple and the walls of Jerusalem, important
communities of Jews remained in the cities of Babylonia. These
persisted throughout Biblical times and well beyond. After the
destruction of the second Temple by the Romans in A.D. 70, Babylonia
became the center of Jewish intellectual life for a thousand years."
(page 576, Asimov's Guide to the Bible, New York: Avenel Books, 1969).
The substantial Jewish presence throughout the Roman empire was noted by
Romans such as Cicero (106-43 B.C.) and at times their presence was
resented. Josephus devoted an entire book in rebuttal to an anti-
Semitic tract written by a Greek named Apion (Robertson, p. 157). A
large self-governing Jewish community existed in Alexandria, Egypt,
where the greatest library held works on the known religions of the day.
According to Lewis Browne, "One of the greatest writers of the
Hellenistic world was an Alexandrian Jew named Philo, and his work
influenced the thought of all early Christian scholars." (Browne, page
161)
Many Jewish leaders such as Saul of Tarsus (Paul) were very well
educated and could speak many languages. Traveling back and forth to
Egypt from Palestine was not too difficult for anyone who wanted to
access the great library. It was certainly far easier than Paul's
journeys to Rome or the continuous intercourse between Babylonia and
Jerusalem. In Matthew 2:14-15 we even read about how the parents of
Jesus went to Egypt to flee Herod. In other words, if a group of people
wanted to fabricate a religion, all of the intellectual resources were
certainly available in abundance during the alleged time of Christ.
The Essenes provided an important element of the Christianity puzzle
because they provided a highly disciplined and radicalized cadre that
was spring-loaded to document and disseminate new religious ideology.
The Essenes were an ascetic Jewish community, much like Christian monks
in a later period, devoted to writing scripture and living an anti-
materialist, faith-oriented interpretation of religion. They shared all
of their property, swore themselves to lives of poverty, and supported
themselves with various crafts. Their hard frugality and self-
supporting work caused them to accumulate considerable wealth, which was
kept in common and cached in various areas of Palestine, much like the
Dead Sea scrolls that they produced.
Dr. Larson points out that the Essene concept was nothing new; the
Greek philosopher and pagan Pythagoras, synthesized a religious system
that emphasized renunciation, celibacy, and Communism in the 6th Century
B.C. (Larson, page 11). Pythagorean communities spread across the
Mediterranean. It bears mentioning that Buddhist orders based upon
similar lifestyle principles spread from India in the centuries before
the alleged time of Christ as well. According to Dr. Larson, "About 105
B.C., the Essenes incorporated the doctrines and practices of the
Pythagoreans into their own system and superimposed these upon the
Zoroastrianism which they had already adopted about seventy years
earlier. By so doing, they became the transmission belt by which the
principle elements of Egyptian, Persian, Indian, and Greek mystery
religions became integral portions of the western faith."
John the Baptist, if he in fact was a real person rather than a
fictitious character, was more than likely an Essene. Needless to say,
there was no love lost between the Essenes and the nationalistic
Pharisees and Sadducees. These latter groups viewed the Essenes as a
subversive and traitorous fifth column whose focus on mysticism was
subverting their worldly nationalistic goals of throwing off the Roman
yoke and restoring an autonomous Jewish state. The Pharisees and
Saduccees were looking for a hardy nationalistic hero similar to King
David or Judas "The Hammer" Maccabeus. They had less love for a
pacifistic, literal-equalitarian movement than the John Birch Society in
the 1960's felt for the Chicago Seven or the hippie movement.
We see similar conflict and polarization today between secular Jews and
Orthodox Jews in Israel. Many of the orthodox Jews insist on a strictly
kosher lifestyle and communal values. Most Kibbutz's are deep in the
red financially because of their inefficient communal operations. Many
Orthodox Jews advocate pacifism. Some Orthodox Jews refuse military
service, and even in Brooklyn today one can find Lubavitch Jews who
believe that secular Zionism is wrong and that a supernatural return of
a messiah should precede any physical return of the Jewish people to the
promised land. As the saying goes, "The more things change, the more
they stay the same."
A problem with Nietzschaen-Ravage fabrication theory is that it
typically takes too much control over media and other resources to pull
off a big lie all at once. Paul himself could have hardly "theologized"
vast segments of the Mediterranean within his lifetime. More often what
happens is that propagandists will embellish a small truth and
continuously add on to it over time with exaggerations so that the truth
content slips from 100% down to less than 20%. I observe a related
phenomenon while working on a project that involved researching the
antiquities of indigenous peoples. Tribesmen who lack a written
tradition will usually provide reasonably accurate and realistic
versions of events that occurred during their lifetimes. However, as
they go back in time to the deeds of their grandparents and great
grandparents, the episodes and personalities become increasingly
fantastic and even supernatural in character. The accounts written
about Jesus came along after his alleged lifetime and have many
contradictions. According to John Jackson in "Pagan Origins of the
Christ Myth":
"The dates of origin of the Four Gospels have been estimated as follows:
Mark -- A.D. 70 to 100; Luke -- about A.D. 100; Matthew -- A.D. 100-110;
John -- sometime between A.D. 100 and 160. That these Gospel stories
are replete with inaccuracies and contradictions is obvious to all who
read with a discerning eye. In Matthew 2:1, we are told that Jesus
Christ was born "in the days of Herod." But in Luke 2:2, we are told
that the Christ child first saw the light of day, "when Cyrenius was
governor of Syria." There is here a discrepancy of at least ten years,
for Herod died in the year 4. B.C. while Cyrenius or Quirinius, as the
is known in Roman history, did not become governor of Syria until the
year A.D. 7 ...Matthew 1:6-16 lists twenty eight generations from David
to Jesus while Luke 3:23-38 tabulates forty three...
There may have been an actual person who existed prior to the alleged
time of Jesus who inspired the Christ myth. According to Dr. Larson's
book "The Essene-Christian Faith", "An Essene Teacher of Righteousness,
born about 95-90 B.C., during the reign of King Alexander Jannaeus,
became the revered head and prophet of the Essene Order; he was slain or
executed by the Jewish authorities about 70 or 69 B.C.; his followers
believed that he was actually God himself, appearing briefly as a man
among men and that he was resurrected and returned to heaven on the
third day, and would, in due course, send a divine representative for
the purpose of establishing the Kingdom of Saints on earth." Dr. Larson
provides more details regarding this leader, based upon "The Damascus
Document" found in Old Cairo in 1896 by Solomon Schechter, that tells
the story know as the "Toledoth Yeshu". According to Dr. Larson,
although this legend is not found in the Talmud or the Orthodox Jewish
tradition, it was known to Celsius, an anti-Christian Platonist who
composed his "True Discourse" about 170 A.D.
There are some interesting similarities between the life of Yeshu and
that of Jesus. Yeshu's father went into self-imposed exile to Egypt
when Yeshu was a baby. At an early age Yeshu engaged in an impudent
discussion with Jewish sages, saying that Moses could not have been the
greatest of prophets if he had to seek the counsel of Jethro, the pagan
priest. Yeshu was able to discover the letters of the ineffable name of
Yahweh in the Temple in Jerusalem, and by copying and then memorizing
them, was able to cure cripples and lepers by uttering them. Some Jews
worshipped him as a Messiah, others denounced him as a sorcerer.
According to the story, he revived a corpse and used a millstone as a
boat in the Sea of Galilee. Yeshu gained the favor of Queen Hellene of
the Jewish nation, but met his demise when he was faced by an antagonist
in court that worked feats of magic. Yeshu became "defiled" by his
opponent, and both of them fell down powerless and forgot the letters of
the ineffable Name. In order to relearn the letters of the ineffable
Name, Yeshu returned to Jerusalem with 310 adherents on the eve of the
Passover. He rode into the city on an ass and entered the Temple with
his disciples, who had sworn not to reveal his identity. However, a
follower, Juda Iskarito, betrayed him by bowing to him. He was seized
by the authorities in the Temple, and was subsequently put to death by
hanging from a tree on the eve of the Passover Sabbath. On the first
day of the week, followers went to Queen Hellene and said that Yeshu was
the Messiah and had risen to heaven. The Queen demanded that the sages
produce the body. A gardener, who foresaw the deception of Yeshu's
followers, produced the body, which was tied to the tail of a horse and
dragged before the Queen. Although the Queen became disillusioned, many
of Yeshu's followers kept their faith. Fore thirty years the followers
of Yeshu created commotion in Israel by claiming that Yeshu was indeed
the Messiah and had risen to heaven. (Larson, pages 151-154).
The messianic aspect of the Toledoth Yeshu story is part of a continuing
pattern in Jewish history. The messianic tradition goes back to Moses,
portrayed in the Old Testament as a military-messianic leader who
delivers his people from bondage. Then there are the leaders of the
Book of Judges who fight the Philistines and other oppressors. Some
leaders, such as Isaiah, were more messianic. Other leaders like Judas
"the Hammer" Maccabeus were more militaristic. "The Hammer" led a
revolt that resulted in recapture of the Temple in 165 B.C. This became
the basis of the annual Feast of Lights called Hanukkah.
There were also Jewish leaders who continually added on to the body of
Jewish scripture. The Old Testament was not enough. The Babylonian
Talmud was created in the 5th Century A.D. Even later came more
mystical works such as the Zohar and Kabbalah. According to Lewis
Browne in "Stranger than Fiction", (page 258), the Zohar was created in
the 13th century by "a Spanish Jew named Moses de Leon, who sponsored
the book, claimed it had been written by a wonder working rabbi eleven
hundred years earlier, and that the manuscript had lain hidden away all
the intervening years in a mysterious cave. In all probability,
however, he had compiled it himself from stolen manuscripts lifted by
him from Hindu, Persian, and Hebrew writings." Brown mentions men like
Sabbatai Zevi (1622-1676), who "was one of the many 'false messiahs' who
appeared among the Jews generation after generation, excited them with
wild and impossible hopes, and then came to some bad end." (page 264).
He also mentions Baal Shem Tov, born in an Eastern European settlement
around 1700. According to Browne (page 287), "a strange and wondrous
man was he -- one who in his whole life and work seems to have been a
true brother to that other 'Kind Master,' Jesus of Nazareth. And like
Jesus, very little is definitely known about Baal Shem Tov, for he too
left no writings. Only naive and confused legends remain to tell us of
his life, and it is not easy to decide just what in them is fact and
what is fancy."
The concept that the Toledoth Yeshu story was "doctored up" into the
Gospels would be consistent with the later activities of men like Moses
de Leon. It would also be consistent with the opinions of members of
the Jesus Seminar about the fabricated nature of Scripture. There is
also evidence that a very good literary environment for "doctoring"
existed during the first and second century AD. A number of writings
from that period have been rejected by Christian authorities, such as
the Gnostic scriptures and "The Lost Books of the Bible and the
Forgotten Books of Eden." The latter phrase is the title of a volume
(New York: New American Library/Penguin, first published in 1926 and
more recently in 1974 in paperback) that includes such books as "Mary",
"Protevangelion", "I Infancy", "II Infancy", "Christ and Abgarus",
"Nicodemus", "The Apostles' Creed", "Laodiceans", "Paul and Seneca",
"Paul and Thecla", and fifteen other books. Other books, such as
"Tobit", "Judith", "1 Maccabees", and "2 Maccabees" appeared in the
Catholic Apocrypha but have been excluded from Protestant Bibles. An
environment that generated so many books that were later declared
counterfeit by various Christian churches leaves us with a question
about the credibility of what is deemed authentic.
Speaking of counterfeit books, Isaaic Asimov, in "Asimov's Guide to the
Bible", says that the Old Testament book of Esther "can only be
described as a piece of historical fiction." Asimov notes that the
Greek historian Herodotus makes no mention of the incidents described in
the Book of Ester regarding the reign of Ahasuerus/Xerxes (519?-465
B.C.). He points out that "...Esther may have been written as late as
130 B.C. and it breathes air of nationalism one would expect of that
period in which the Jews were finally living in an independent kingdom
again after having undergone a period of savage persecution. It is
propbably the chauvinistic nationalism of the book that made it so
popular among Jews as to force its inclusion in the Biblical cannon."
(The book of Esther, incidentally, is also the basis of the annual
Jewish Purim celebration). Given that so much spurious literature
originated between 200 BC and 200 AD, perhaps it would be a wonder if
the story of Jesus were NOT a fabrication.
A SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY ABOUT THE ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY
Dr. Marvin Harris, one of America's leading anthropologists, gives us
another important piece of the Christian jigsaw puzzle in his book Cows,
Pigs, Wars, and Witches: The Riddle of Culture (New York: Random
House, 1989 paperback verison). He interprets the sayings of Jesus in
the Gospels to be a coded form of a military-messianic movement, which
he attempts to define in anthropological terms. For every pacifist
saying attributed to Jesus, such as, "Blessed are the peacemakers"
(Matthew 5:9), one can find a militant phrase, "Think not that I am come
to send peace on earth, I come not to send peace but a sword" (Matthew
10:34). Another example: "All that take the sword shall perish with
the sword" (Matthew 26:52) compares with "He that hath no sword, let him
sell his garments and buy one" (Luke 22:26). Also: "Love thine
enemies; do good to them that hate you" (Luke 6:27) compares with "And
when he made a scourge of small cords, he drove them out of the
temple...and poured out the changer's money and overthrew the tables."
(John 2:15) (Harris, page 190).
According to Harris, this ambiguity allowed Jewish people who lived
throughout the Roman empire to interface more readily with Gentiles than
when they practiced straight Judaism. "The primary converts to this new
religion -- if not in number, certainly in influence -- continued to be
urban Jews scattered all over eastern Mediterranean. Contrary to
legend, Christianity made no headway at all among the great mass of
peasants and slaves who constituted the bulk of the population of the
empire. As the historian Salo W. Baron points out, paganus, the Latin
word for 'peasant,' became for the Christians a synonym for "heathen".
[The word "heathen", incidentally, means 'from the heath or country'.]
Christianity was eminently the religion of the displaced ethnic
urbanites. 'In cities where Jews had often amounted to one third of the
population and more, this, so to speak, new variety of Judaism marched
triumphantly ahead.'" (Harris, page 202).
Hence, we shatter another myth propagated by Bible movies, namely that
Christianity was spearheaded by the oppressed underclasses fed up with
Roman wickedness. We can now better explain how Jewish apostles such as
Paul could travel around the Roman empire and find support. We see all
of the elements of any successful revolutionary effort: a highly
disciplined cadre (such as the Essenes), an organizational nexus (the
early disciples, led by Paul), revolutionary documentation and
manifestos (the Old Testament, combined with the various forms of Essene
and Christian New Testament literature), and a combination of money
power and ethnic in-group cohesion and out-group antagonism held by
Jewish communities as well as by various disaffected Gentile groups
through out the Roman Empire. Certainly an important exacerbation of
the ethnic antagonism was the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.
Much of the human interest material and parables of the Gospels came
from over a hundred years of missionary experience on the part of the
Essenes and other mystical teachers.
THE FIRST ESTATE FRANCHISE THEORY
All of the aforementioned theories help explain how Christianity could
grow to take control of Rome. One remaining theory, which I call the
"First Estate Franchise" theory, helps to explain how Christianity
spread to Nordic countries.
The Christianization of Scandinavia required several centuries and
encountered considerable resistance. The Vikings were a different
people from most of the urban dwellers in the decadent Roman world. In
many cases the Christianization process was a very bloody affair that
was engineered only after considerable intrigue, persistence,
incremental accommodations, and deception planning. An important factor
was the ability of the church bureaucracy to continually fling
missionaries and conquering armies at the heathens. It could also
immediately supply the funds and expertise to build churches at each
mission post, offer religious literature, provide "pre-packaged" ritual
and vestments, and staff posts with dedicated personnel. In contrast,
the heathens practiced a very intuitive and decentralized form of
religion in which they had no bureaucracy or centers of learning with
which to create effective counter measures to Christian propaganda and
franchise expansion. The most effective intellectual counter measures
began with the Enlightenment, which began in European universities in
the 17th century, but this was too late to save the Vikings.
The Viking era began with the Viking raid on the Lindisfarne Priory, a
Christian propaganda center, in 793 AD. Iceland succumbed to
Christianity through a "democratic" process in the year 1000 AD, thanks
in part to some muscle supplied by the King of Norway. The last hold
out was the pagan temple in Uppsala, Sweden, that lasted until the
twelfth century. The Viking era was effectively over in 1066 at the
conclusion of a three way fratricidal war for control of England among
Viking-descended kings and their armies. This war resulted in the
triumph of William of Normandy and the deaths of Kind Harald Godwinson
of England and King Harald Hardrada of Norway. By this time all of the
kings and armies involved in the power struggle had become
Christianized.
Christian rulers pressured Viking leaders to convert in order to obtain
treaty concessions or the financial backing to raise armies. A good
example was Olaf Tryggvason, King of Norway, who was supplied with a
large sum of Danegold (protection money) by the English along with a new
faith in 994 AD. He used his new muscle to pressure the Icelanders into
conversion and impose his new faith on Norway. Norway quickly reverted
to paganism after he died, but subsequent Christian Kings such as the
(not so saintly) St. Olaf was killed in the battle of Stiklastader in
1030 fighting against an army of yeoman Norse farmers near Trondheim
Norway. The farmers were unimpressed with his "Christian" leadership or
the crosses worn by Olaf's men on their helmets. Unfortunately by then
even the farmers themselves had become heavily infiltrated by
Christianity. In order to fight Olaf, they had to accept both the
support and hegemony of Christianized Danes. Worse yet, after the
victory the Danes tried to tax the farmers so heavily that the Norwegian
public began to view Olaf as a martyr and nationalist hero. This
dignified Olaf's Christian trappings and helped to elevate him to
sainthood. Some scholars put the year 1030 rather than 1066, as the end
of the Viking era.
The clergy, or First Estate, helped the rulers and nobility, or Second
Estate to stay in power. Their ability to collect tithes and taxes was
unknown in the times of decentralized pagan religion. Christian
ideology created a thoroughly indoctrinated and radicalized army of
priests fanatically dedicated to supporting the system, complete with a
centralized hierarchy. It was a ruthless system from the genetic
viewpoint, because whole armies of very capable men were forced into
celibacy and did not pass on their genes, thereby fostering dysgenic
decay. The confessor system created a centralized intelligence network
or "KGB" for each arch Bishop, who in turn whispered in the ear of their
King.
The "value added" by this new form of religious domination was
questioned by Soledad de Montalvo in "The Church's Holy War Against
Hygiene" (American Atheist, Feb. 1989). After Christians gained
monopolistic religious power in Rome, they continued their "war against
the flesh." The Roman baths and other measures taken by "clean living"
pagans were neglected. Sanitary standards dropped precipitously through
out Europe, as Christians were exhorted, "All those who have been washed
[baptized] in Jesus Christ need no further purifications." Vermin
infestation became prevalent. According to Montalvo, "Christians were
forced to pay tithes to a rapacious clergy and the equally rapacious
aristocracy and for centuries the ordinary standard of living in all
Christian countries was actually lower than it had been in Neolithic
times. Between the ninth and eleventh centuries, famines killed off
half the population of Europe."
If anything, the First Estate became too effective and too powerful, a
kind of sorcerer's apprentice that threatened to get completely out of
control. The more secure dominion that European rulers gained initially
was offset by terrible power struggles further down the line. In
English history, Henry II's knights cut down Thomas Becket in Canterbury
Cathedral as a result of the First Estate vs. Second Estate power
struggle Henry VIII beheaded Sir Thomas Moore in another power struggle.
The English struggle between the First and Second Estate ended with a
victory for the Second Estate when King Henry VIII seceded from Rome and
declared himself the head of the Protestant Church of England. Because
Henry had the English Channel as a moat and a strong army and navy as
well, the Pope could only retaliate by condemning Henry to eternal
damnation. A subsequent Pope authorized the unsuccessful invasion
effort of the Spanish Armada.
In France, the First Estate gained the upper hand in the 17th Century.
Cardinal de Richelieu, made famous in Dumas' classic "The Three
Musketeers", became more powerful than King Louis XIII. The major break
in the power of the Church had to wait until the French Revolution.
SUMMARY
Which theory is more correct? The Nietzschean/Ravage conspiratorial
theory? The theory that the Toledoth Yeshu story was the seed crystal
behind the Gospel accounts of Christ? The theory of Dr. Harris that
Christianity was really a military/messianic movement in coded form to
help Jewish communities adapt to gentile surroundings while maintaining
a messianic dream? The "pagan Christ" theory that Christianity
extracted elements of various pagan resurrection mythologies (some of
which were Indo-European in origin) to become a superior form of
"religious software" that would tend to spread on its own among Indo-
European peoples? The First Estate franchise theory, that Christianity
provided a valuable tool for rulers to dominate and control the peoples
under them?
My best guess is: all of the above. Each provides, in varying degrees,
insight into contributing factors behind the evolution of Christianity
among different individuals and peoples at different times. However,
each insight provides only a part of the truth rather than the whole.
---------------------------------------------------------
[The following notice appears in VOR TRU -- JB]
VOR TRU (Our Faith) is a journal devoted to the old Norse
and Germanic religion of Asatru, and is dedicated to the
restoration of that Faith as epitomized during the
pre-Christian era in Europe. VOR TRU is published by
and for the Asatru Alliance of Independent Kindreds.
Subscriptions are $12 per year with first class postage
in North America, and $16 per year with surface postage
overseas, airmail overseas is $25 per year. Please
make all payments in U.S. funds to VOR TRU by cash,
check or money order, to
VOR TRU
Post Office Box 961
Payson, AZ 85547 U.S.A.
---------------------------------------------------------
[Notice: I am not organizationally affiliated with the
authors or publications that I quote -- JB]
--
The promotion of politics exterminates apolitical genes in the population.
The promotion of frontiers gives apolitical genes a route to survival.
Change the tools and you change the rules.
tda...@cruzio.com
Friends,
We certainly have verbose visitors amongst us today. The temptation
to elder is certainly great, even though probably not a true
leading.
Peace,
Tom Davis
--
h
Jim Bowery
By Thor Sannhet
[picture of Greek statue]
The Winged Victory of Samothrace, c. 200 BCE, captures the beauty,
elegance, and sublimity of a branch of our heroic Indo-European religion
that lingered amidst a decadent and darkening Hellenistic Greece. The
winged female form was later stolen by Christians, as was much else
that was pagan, pure, and true to the religious instincts of our people.
The statue now resides in The Louvre in Paris.
"Should the subduing talisman, the Cross, break, then will come roaring
forth the wild madness of the old champions, the insane berserker-rage
of which the Northern poets sing. That talisman is brittle, and the day
will come when it will pitifully break. The old stone gods will rise
from the long forgotten ruin and rub the dust of a thousand Years from
their eyes: and Thor, leaping to life with his giant Hammer, will crush
the Gothic Cathedrals."
-- Heinrich Heine, 19th Century German-Jewish poet.
There are no stone gods, only the living life Force of our ancestors --
the holy Aesir and Vanir. They lovingly speak to us today, as they have
quietly tried to speak to all generations, even when suppressed by the
Levantine inspired confusion generated by the alien Christ cult. Our
Gods call upon us to defend all that is sublime, chivalrous, and noble
in Western Civilization -- to include the great Gothic Cathedrals --
that have sprung from our collective soul forged in the rigorous
ancestral Lands of Northern Europe and Northern Eurasia. Now that our
civilization and people are in growing danger, we must attune ourselves
to the emergency frequency of group survival and invest our instinctive
altruism wisely. The thirst for knowledge of Odin, our Tireless and
unlimited capacity to create real and useful things, and our sacred
traditions of scientific inquiry and rational government all of these
noble traits are needed now more than ever. We must unite in common
purpose to take control of our destiny, reach for the stars, and create
a sane and viable world."
--Thor Sannhet, a 20th Century Asatruar who wishes to defend the noble
faith of his ancestors from Heinrich Heine's disinformation.
The December 2, 1991 Christian News; published the article "Scholars
Say Jesus Never Claimed to Be Son of God." A lot of people like myself
who disagree With the Fundamentalist Christian theology of its editor,
Rev Herman Otten, nevertheless admire his honesty in reprinting articles
that appear from all over the spectrum, ranging from Revolutionary
Communist Worker, with its inflammatory rhetoric that glorifies a future
insurrection in which minorities set fire to American cities, to
rightist publications, such as the anti-Christian Liberty Bell whose
authors have submitted criticisms to his paper. According to the Jesus
Seminar article, the scholars claim that, "The real Jesus was a Jewish
peasant, probably illiterate, who healed the sick in God's name and
preached radical equality...The most influential figure in Western
history did not think of himself as the only son of God, the scholars
say, nor claim he would return after his death." The Jesus Seminar
consists of nearly 200 reputable Bible scholars from major universities
and mainstream churches. The March 18, 1991 Christian News published a
front page article that began, "After rejecting all but one saying of
Jesus in the Gospel of John, the controversial Jesus Seminar has
completed its six-year study of sayings attributed to Jesus and decided
that only 20 per cent of those in the Bible may have come from him."
I know of a lot of Christians who are fundamentally decent and honorable
people with good instincts. It is my hope that we can achieve a dialog
with them that breaches the fearsome impressions and emotional labels
created by propagandists such as Heinrich Heine. For starters, while
most Christians feel increasingly confused by the erosion of their
faith, they still grimace at the thought of a "pagan" alternative.
Howard Lindsell, editor of Christianity Today, has a surprise for
Christians. He says in his book The New Paganism: understanding American
Culture & The Role of The Church (New York: Harper & Row, 1987): "The
purpose of this book is to document the fact that Western culture today
is dominated by paganism." He calls the United States a post-Christian
nation. In other words, old pagan gods have in fact already revived.
That part Heinrich Heine got right in his prediction. The "catch" is
that they are not our gods. They are the literal-equalitarian gods of
liberal secular humanism, self-indulgence, and permissiveness. They
encourage philandering rather than shouldering the manly and womanly
responsibilities over using a family. They are also the neo-Marxist gods
of "political correctness" which have sabotaged academic freedom and
excellence in our universities. They include internationalist "one
world" order gods that seek to dissolve U.S. sovereignty, erase our
borders, destroy our Constitution, and eliminate our right to taxation
with representation. Everywhere that these gods do their mischief, they
seek to take the diversity of indigenous peoples and mix them up into a
drab, proletarianized global monoculture, thereby robbing the peoples of
this world of their variety, uniqueness, and sense of rootedness.
No, these are not the old Norse Gods who we can feel in the quiet birch
forests, cascading mountain streams, and ocean-blue winding fjords. They
are not the Gods who say "Yes"' to life, who unite us with our
ancestors, and work for a brighter future for our people. They are
demonic gremlins that relentlessly tear our social order apart, sew deep
confusion in our land, and alienate our people from themselves.
Another alien aspect of the new pagan cosmology is its Manichaean
dichotomy between good and evil and its emphasis upon appearances rather
than substance. Words are used as labels and as weapons to conceal or
dodge truths rather than reveal it. Under the "political correctness"
mania now rampant in our universities, students are punished more for
how words sound than how they relate to logical and factual arguments.
Our ancestors lived in harmony with nature and their instincts. It was a
very cold, cruel, and unforgiving environment, particularly during the
long winters, but that only selected for higher instincts and abilities.
Our ancestors dealt with the forces of destructiveness and decay in a
pragmatic way without heavy moralization. They prided themselves in
their kinship and ancestry, and saw only good in working for the
survival of their own people. They upheld honor and valor not as
convoluted legalisms, but as compulsions deeply ingrained in their
hearts and mental fiber. It was always better to get the job done with
some rough edges than to attend to the edges but not complete the job.
They saw life in terms of the costs and benefits of every action, which
they themselves were most competent to judge. They did not need
arrogant, intolerant, self-anointed ,and dogmatic messiahs to try to
kidnap 1 heir religious sensibilities and install alien dogma. They did
not need to be preached to like little children about the "goodies"
and "baddies" of life. They had logical, rational, analytical brains
which were sufficient to perceive the order of the universe and impose
order and discipline within their own existence. Our heathen ancestors
were hardy, healthy, noble, brave, and free-spirited peoples. They lived
fully and well before an alien and low-cunning religious virus from
degenerate and balmy southlands seduced their minds and sapped their
will.
The new paganism drowns us in its minutia and its vicious double
standards. It slyly instructs us to be nicer to alien interests than to
own kind. With devious delight it prioritizes the value of money before
the survival of our people. It is Byzantine, oily, and stifling to our
souls. It is more corrupt and degraded than the worst aspects of
conservative Christianity. At least conservative Christians among our
people tend to have a sense of rootedness, social responsibility, and
healthy spiritual instincts.
There are many contradictory passages between the Old Testament and the
New Testament. The Old Testament is slanted towards "eye-for-an eye"
ethics and Hebrew tribalism. It is "rightist." The New Testament is
slanted towards "turn the other cheek" ethics and universalism. It is
"leftist." Christians who consult both find a Ouija Board to guide
their instincts. Their scattered readings, combined with their prayerful
meditation, help to evoke their most fundamental feelings of
spirituality. Ironically, tuning into fundamental religious instincts is
what Asatru is all about. But we use a different medium to achieve a
sense of spirituality than the Christians. We find it in the ancient
Norse wisdom and sagas. We also find it in the fellowship of our
kindreds. We like our religious instincts because we like ourselves as
a people. We like the Viking thirst for knowledge, exploratory drive,
valor, and gusto for life. We like all of the great things that they and
their descendants and all closely related European peoples have
contributed to Western Civilization: their sublime Gothic cathedrals,
their long-standing track record of rational and restrained forms of
government, to include republican and democratic institutions, and their
awesome progress in science, technology, culture, and all other arts of
civilization. Our forebears and ancestral close cousins created the
greatness of pagan Greece and Rome. With the spirit of Asatru in our
hearts we will reverse the decline of the West and promulgate a space
age civilization that will take our people to the stars.
Although I disagree with the Fundamentalist Christian theology of the
Reverend Herman Otter, the editor of the Christian News [Rural Route 1,
Box 309A, NewHaven, Missouri 63068], who reported the Jesus Seminar, I
am in full agreement with his basic values that favor our nation first,
the family, honesty, and community service. Like the good Reverend
Otten, I deeply resent the sustained attacks currently being made by
special interests in this country on our Constitutional rights. And like
the good Reverend I detest the grating assaults made daily upon the
folkways and heritage of the Northern European descended peoples in the
United States.
Having said all of this, I approach the task of presenting theories
about. the origins of Judeo-Christianity with some wariness. We live an
age in which it is becoming increasingly more difficult for an
intellectually honest person to dispassionately consider ideas. Liberal
Jewish and Christian organizations have submitted model legislation
proposals in state legislatures to dramatically restrict First Amendment
freedoms in the name of averting "hate crimes" or "ethnic
intimidation."' The sad day may come in America in which any person who
speaks critically of a religion or ethnic group will risk suffering
criminal penalties simply because someone, somewhere, finds something
offensive in that criticism.
The good news is that by aggressively speaking out now in favor of the
First Amendment, Western Civilization, and Asatru, we can begin to
enlighten enough people to prevent the nightmare destruction of our most
fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution.
In both the Winter 2242 issue of Vor Tru [Box 961, Payson, AZ 85547],
which contains a transcript of a lecture that Oak Thorgeir and I gave to
the Leif Erikson Society of New York, and in the Fall 2241 issue, which
contains my article "'Vinland Revisited, Revisits the Aesir" article,
I touched upon a variety of areas of criticism regarding Christianity.
In the Fall article I mentioned the Nietzschean theory that Christian
ideology and New Testament documentation were deliberately fabricated as
a psychological warfare weapon to unhinge the Roman Empire. This merits
clarification and some information about additional theories that help
to put this theory into its proper context.
Before looking at the origins of Christianity, we must first look at how
our genuine indigenous ancestral faith of Asatru never died out and
lived on among the Vikings for centuries after they superficially
converted to Christianity.
THE NORSE SIDE OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY
The book Viking: hammer of the North by the Icelandic scholar Magnus
Magnusson depicts a photo of the roof of a beautiful stave church at
Fagusnes in Borgund, Norway. It was built in the twelfth century, which
was the same century in which the Asatru temple in Uppsala, Sweden was
razed and replaced with Christian Church. On the two lower roofs of the
Norwegian church are two crosses, but on the two roofs above them are
Asatru Viking ships also carried dragon heads.
Viking: Hammer of the North also has scenes from the twelfth century
church at Urnes, in Sogn, Norway, which shows Yggdrasil, the world tree,
with a stag that seems to be under attack from the serpent Nidhogg.
Elsewhere in Magnusson's book is a series of pictures of Sigurd fighting
the dragon from the Poetic Edda that comes from the twelfth century
stave church at Hylestad, Norway.
In my Asatru library I also have slides which depict the following
scenes: a wood carving of Odin from the Hegge stave church in Norway, a
twelfth century tapestry depicting Odin, Thor, and Frey from the Skog
church in Sweden, and a carving of the wolf Fenris found high in there
after of the Fantoft stave church near Bergen, Norway. (These slides
come from the series "The Gods of the Norsemen" by Mr. Rolf Erikson,
available for $35.00 from the Religion and Ethics Institute, P.O. Box
5510, Evanston, IL 60204)According to Erikson, "The Norse [pagan]temples
were torn down as required by the Church, and the churches were often
erected on the same spots [called 'stave' churches because
the bows of the upright timbers or 'staves, used in their construction].
It is thought that the churches were built in the same style" although
no contemporary depiction's of Norse temples exist."
[picture of Stag and Nidhogg carved on the porch of the Urnes stave
church in Norway]
The pagan spirit lived on even through the (Christian leaders. According
to Rolf Erickson:
Even in book illustrations in the Christian medieval period there was
blending of the two religions. The Christian artists very likely a monk,
had .problem depicting the "pagan " king Harald the Fair Hair cutting
the fetters; of the giant Dofri who was to become his foster father.
The cults which grew up around the Christian saints such as St. Olaf
have unmistakable Norse overtones. St. Olaf, regarded as a great warrior
king, became in effect a substitute for Thor and was even shown with an
ax in his hand. Over his grave a magnificent cathedral [Nidaros] Was
erected in Trondheim, Norway St. Magnus of the Orkney Islands was also a
popular "jarl" or earl. Shortly after he was killed in a political
struggle, he was declared a martyr and a large cathedral, begun in 1137,
was erected to him in Kirkwall. Worship of these saints were
translations of Norse hero cults into the Christian mythology.
It was only after the pagan traditions had been allowed to fade with
each passing generation, and the invention of the printing press made it
economical to insert Biblical dogma into every household, that the
really deep indoctrination began. Initially, Christian churches
compromised heavily with pagan traditions in order to fasten themselves
on to their subject populations. They expropriated the "Yule"
celebration of the winter solstice and in England renamed it
"Christmas. "Scandinavia the rightful name of "Yule" or "Jul" in
Norwegian) has fortunately survived. In England, Scandanavia, and
Germany the Church allowed the indigenous names for the days of the week
to remain, such as Tuesday for Tyr, Wednesday for Wodan, Thursday for
Thor, and Friday for Frigg, wife of Odin. In the Greek and Latin-
speaking countries, the old supreme deity of Zeus became "Deus," as in
the slogan of the Crusades "Deus Vult" ("God wills it"). In the
Northern lands, there were many variations of the name of our All-
Father: Odhinn (Old Norse), Woden (Anglo-Saxon), Wodan (Old High
German), and Godan (Frankis, Lombardic). Instead of importing the
Hebraic names of "YHVH" or Yahweh (used 6,600 times in the Bible) or
Elohim (used 2,600 times in Hebrew scriptures), the Anglo-Saxon Church
wound up with "God," a name very similar to the "Godan" used by
Charlemagne's forebear's minus the last syllable. Finally, the angles
and cherubs in the Old Testament are male (cf. Jude 1:9 about the
archangel Michael) and are even composite creatures (Ezekiel 1:6 "every
one had four faces and four wings"); beautiful, two-winged, Valkyrian
females came from European paganism.
In 11th century Norway, a "conversion" to Christianity simply meant
taking an oath to Christ. It did not imply any deep indoctrination.
The basic structure of the beliefs of the people in Norway from the 11th
to 15th centuries arguably remained more Asatru than Christian despite
the outward Christian names and symbols. The people simply swapped
Thor's hammer for the cross and the Odin-Thor-Frey Trinity for the
Father-Son-Holy Ghost Trinity, but the underlying religious instincts
remained identical and the general approach to worship bore many
similarities.
Even the external appearances of the quaint, rustic, and hardy stave
churches of Norway, of which fourty still survive to this day, look more
Asatru to me than Christian. The esthetics and style of the buildings
and the nature of the worship were clearly more Norse than anything
else. The stag and Nidhogg carving at Urnes is early nineth century
pagan. Some scholars believe that the stave churches closely resemble
the pagan temples that came before them. This is hard to prove since
the pagan temples were supposedly torn down and new Christian churches
were built over the old sites. Would not it be wonderful if the truth
is that some of those beautiful old stave churches are really old Asatru
temples in which a few dragon heads on the rafters got swapped with
crosses, while other dragon heads were left alone?
In speaking about the majestic churches of Europe, we have to remind
ourselves that Christianity originated among the Jewish people. The
Jewish people have historically had more of an ideological, literary,
and mercantile tradition than a "physical culture" ideal. The Fourth
Commandment (Exodus 20:4) states "You shall not make for yourself a
graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or
that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the
earth..." At various times in Jewish history this commandment resulted
in bans by rabbis against all forms of art work. "The Dispossessed
Majority", Wilmot Robertson writes that, "The religious writings of
the Jews were their only lasting contribution to ancient civilization,
unless one insists on adding the chauvinistic philosophy of Philo and
the allegorical histories of Josephus. Almost no Jewish painting or
sculpture -- against which there were Biblical injunctions -- and only
the barest traces of Jewish music, architecture or science have survived
from classical times."
In "Stranger Than Fiction: A Short History of the Jews From Earliest
Times to Today", (New York: Macmillan, 1929), Rabbi Lewis Browne talks
about how rabbis in Jewish communities spent their leisure hours
disputing ideological points.
"They discussed not merely what prayers should be recited in the
synagogues, and what writings were holy enough to be read there, but
also why Negroes have flat feet, how the stars move in the heavens, in
what manner to set a broken bone, and just how beautiful a girl was
Ruth.
All of their free hours and days and years they spent in those houses of
learning, gravely worrying about everything under the sun. Sporet they
frowned upon, for by very temperament they could not enjoy it. So
instead of playing in the sun in their spare time, instead of runnign
races or throwing javelins like the Romans, they withdrew into their
dark little schools and talked.
And thus a new type of man became their idol -- not the great athelete
but the great scholar. And a new sort of aristocracy arose among them -
- an aristocracy not of birth or wealth but of learning (pages 165-
166)."
This contrasts with the pagan delight of Indo-European Greeks and Romans
who created statues of heroic nudes and built temples that appeared so
majestic and elegant that the buildings themselves commanded reverence.
Isaac Asimov's "Guide to the Bible" discusses how Jewish religiuos
leaders in the Maccabean era castigated "Hellenized" Jews who were
overly infatuated with Greek art and culture and were overly desirous of
imitating it. Before Rabbi Kahane was assassinated, I saw a number of
his columns in the "Jewish Press" castigating "Hellenized"
contemporary Jews who he felt identified too heavily with Western
cultural values. The book "The Painted Word" by the American author
and social critic Tom Wolfe discusses the tendency towards abstract art
rather than representational art among Jewish artists and Jewish people
who patronize or interpret art. The title of the book was taken from an
analysis by a modern art critic which Wolfe uses to support his
underlying thesis that the development of modern art has been
transformed by people who relate more to ideology and the "word" than
to classical or romantic concepts of artistic aesthetics.
The 16 Oct 89 "Time" article "Time for a New Temple?" discusses
current plans for the creation of the Third Temple in Jerusalem (which
will require the politically and religiously explosive removal of the
Dome of the Rock, the third holiest shrine in Islam). The article
depicts a building that is small and austere compared to virtually all
the major Gothic and Romanesque cathedrals in Europe.
There are some complexities involved in interpreting the pagan
tendencies of Northern Europeans through the temples that they built in
either the pagan period or the later Christian period. According to the
Roman writer Tacitus, the Germans tended to hold their pagan ceremonies
outdors in sacred groves, because they felt that the spirit of their God
was so great that it could not be held within a building. A simlar
pattern was found among Celts. Among the Norse, the religious leaders
tended to be the heads of households and they too often used sacred
groves. With the exception of a very small priesthood by ppsala, Sweden
and possibly in Trondheim, Norway, there were no permanent priest
classes or formalized religious institutions. There is an eyewitness
account of a pagan temple at the home of Odin in Uppsala, Sweden by the
twelfth century Christian traveler Adam of Bremen who described walls
coated with gold. Statues of Odin, Thor, and Frey stood in the
interior. There are accounts of other temples elsewhere, but most of
them were written down two hundred years or more after the alleged pagan
temples were torn down.
Of course we need to keep in mind that the Nordic and Celtic peoples of
the pre-Christian era were largely rural, and that temple building tends
to be an urban phenomenon. The coming of Christianity to Northern
Europe also correlated with its growing urbanization. Early paganism
correlates with free-spirited nomads, rural people, and stout-hearted
hunter-warriors. More on this later.
When late medieval Spaniards decided to build the great cathedral at
Seville, they said, "We will build a cathedral so large that the whole
world will think us mad for doing so!" I have toured cathedrals in
such European countries as Germany, Italy, France, and Britain and have
detected a similar spirit. The desire to capture the quest for ever
broadening frontiers and the sublime in the form of a building was
really more of a pagan Indo-European spirit than an expression of Jewish
culture. The yearning to explore what lies over the horizon came long
before the Vikings. It is the spirit of frost zone hunter-warriors and
nomads of their meager environments. The ones who were not this way
died out and did not pass on their genes or temperamental traits. I
believe that the attitude that "The spirit of God is too great to be
held by walls" became transformed into "God is so great that we must
create a great and sublime building to be His house."
I have toured the Romanesque cathedrals of Italy, and in them I feel
more of the thundering power of the Greco Roman Gods, cousins of our
Gods, than the spirit of Levantine Christianity. The Parthenon in
Athens Greece, site of formalized experiments in republicanism and
democracy by fair haired Greeks, has a sublime spirituality to it. The
great literature of the ancient Greeks and Romans, which includes the
Iliad and Odyssey, has the heroic and chivalrous spirit of the Norse
Sagas. It describes essentially the same kinds of light haired and
ilght-eyed people as the Thingvellir site in Iceland, the site of the
Norse pagan founding of longstanding republican government that began in
930 AD, or the home of Odin in Uppsala, Sweden, are all hallowed, sacred
land. The truly holy lands of our planet for our people are west of the
Bosporus and north of the Caucasus mountains. The areas of our most
direct sources of spiritual inspiration lie north of the Alps.
[picture of God and Adam and Eve, all blonds in painted ceiling at Al
stave church in Norway]
In his book "The Dispossessed Majority", Wilmot Robertson describes in
his chapter "The Secularization of Religion" how Christianity became
transformed in its fundamental character as it spread from its Asiatic
home base. This suppots my thesis, once again, that in the first few
centuries after the advent of Christianity, the religion practiced by
the Norse was in important respects more Asatru than Christian.
Professor Guignebert of the University of Paris, perhaps the most
informed modern biblical scholar, has provided an interesting sidelight
on the development of Christianity by noting the changing "appearance"
of Jesus through the ages. The first depictions of Jesus made him
hairy, ugly, and abject. Later in Gothic rose windows and statuary and
in Renaissance paintings and frescoes, Christ was endowed with Nordic
features and at times looked more like Siegfried than the sone of a
Mediterranean carpenter. Many paintings of the Holy Family portrayed
the Virgin and the Christ Child with blond hair and blue eyes. The
Aesthetic Prop [Nordic features] was everywhere visible in the greatest
masterpieces of Church-sponsored art.
Robertson actually understates his case. According to the booklet
"Pagan Origins of the Christ Myth", by John Jackson, published by
"American Atheist" [Box 140195, Austin, TX 78714-0195], there are
uncanny connections between the name "Christ," which Webster's
Dictionary says is dervived from Christos in Greek or "anointed," and
the similar -sounding name of Krishna, referred to by Encyclopeaedia
Britannica as the dark aboriginal leader of the Hindu faith first
mentioned in the very ancient Vedas of India. Krishna is a central
figure in the "Bhagavad Gita" written around 500 B.C. John Jackson
describes the similarities between Christ and Krishna:
"Another great pagan christ was Krishna of India. In the sacred books
of India it is recorded that Krishna was born of a virgin Devaki, that
his nativity was heralded by a star, and that though of royal lineage,
he was born in a cave (according to the apocryphal gospel
Protevangelion, a work attributed to James, the brother of Jesus, the
Christian savior was born in a cave). A the time of Krishna's birth,
the cave was mysteriously illuminated. (At the birth of Jesus, "there
was a great light in the cave, so the eyes of Joseph and the Midwife
could not bear it.") The infant Krishna spoke to his mother soon after
his birth. ("Jesus spake even when he was in the cradle, and said to
his mother, -- Mary I am Jesus the Son of God...according to apocryphal
gospels of 1 and 2 Infancy). Krishna was born while his foster father
Nanda was in the city to pay his tax to the governor -- Luke 2:1-3,5).
The babe Krishna was adored by cowherds. (The infant Jesus was adored
by shepherds). King Kansa sought the life of the Indian Christ by
ordering the massacre of all male children born during the same night as
was Krishna. This is almost identical with the story of the slaughter
of the innocents, ordered by Herod -- Matthew 2:16.) Nanda was warned
by a heavenly voice to flee with the infant Krishna across the Jumna
River, to Gakul, to escape King Kansa. (Joseph was warned by a voice in
a dream to flee into Egypt with the Christ-child to escape the wrath of
Herod.) Krishna performed many miracles in the city of Malhura.
(Jesus, while in Egypt, lived in a town named Matarea, where he
performed many miracles.) Krishna was a crucified christ. He is
pictured in Indian art as hanging on a cross with arms extended. (Dr.
Thomas Inman, a celebrated authority on pagan and Christian symbolism,
states that Crishna, whose history so closely resembles our Lord's, was
also like him in his being crucified.) Krishna was pierced by an arrow
while hanging on the cross. (Jesus was pierced by a spear during his
crucifixion). The light of the sun was blotted out at noon on the day
of Krishna's death. (The sun was darkened from the sixth to the ninth
hour on the day of the crucifixion of Christ). Krishna descended into
hell to raise the dead before returning to the abode of the gods. (We
read of Jesus Christ that: he descended into hell, and on the third day
rose again from the dead." The Descent into Hell of Jesus is described
in the apocryphal gospel of Nicodemus.) Krishna rose from the grave,
and finally ascended bodily to heaven in the presence of a multitude of
spectators. (A similar story is related to Jesus Christ). In Indian
art, Krishna is represented as a man of black complexion. The word
Krishna literally means "The Black." (In early Christian art Jesus is
almost invariably represented as a Black man.) Sir Godfrey Higgins made
a thorough investigation of the pictures and images of Black Infants and
Madonnas in the cathedrals of Europe:
In all the Romish counties of Europe," says he, "in France,
Italy, Germany, the God Christ, as well as his mother, are
described in their old pictures and statues to be black. The
infant God in the arms of his black mother, his eyes and drapery
white, is himself perfectly black. If the reader doubts my word,
he may go to the cathedral at Moulins -- to the famous chapel of
the Virgin at Loretto -- to the church of the Annunciata -- the
church of St. Lazaro, to the church of St. Stephen at Genoa -- to
St. Francisco at Pisa -- to the church at Brixen, in the Tyrol,
and to that at Padua -- to the church of St. Theodore, at Munic,
in the last of which the whiteness of the eyes and teeth, and the
studied redness of the lips, are very observable; -- to a church
and to the cathedral at Augsburg, where a black virgin and child
as large as life; to Rome, and the Borghese chapel Maria Maggiore
-- to the Pantheon -- to a small chapel of St. Peters, on the
right-hand side of entering, near the door; and, in fact, to
almost innumerable other churches, in countries professing the
Romish religion.
There is scarcely an old church in Italy where some remains of the
worship of the Black Virgin and Black Child are not to be met
with. Very often the black figures have given way to white ones,
and in these cases the black ones, as being held sacred, were put
into retired places in the churches, but were not destroyed, and
are yet to be found there...
When the circumstances has been named to the Romish priests, they
have endeavored to disguise the fact, by pretending that the child
had become black by the smoke of the candles; but it was black
where the smoke of a candle never came: and, besides, how came the
candles not to black the white of the eyes, the teeth, and the
shirt, and how came they to redden the lips?...Their real
blackness is not to be questioned for a moment...
A black virgin and child among the white Germans, Swiss, French
and Italians!!! [Higgins, Anacalypsis, vol. 1, pp. 138-139]
Krishna was the second person in the Hindu Trinity, which consisted of:
-- (1) Brahma, (2) Vishnu and (3) Siva. Krishna was the human
incarnation of Vishnu. (Jesus Christ is consicdered to be the second
person in the Christian Trinity)."
The Penguin paperback of "The Bhagavad Gita" has an introduction by
Juan Mascaro that cites simlarities between the sayings of Krishna and
Jesus. (Page 30) Krishna: "For this is my word of promise, that he
who loves me shall not perish." Gita, 9. 31. "He who in oneness of
love, loves me in whatever he sees, wherever this man may live, in truth
this man lives in me" 6. 31. Over five hundred years after the Gita
was written, John 8:12: "Again, Jesus spoke to them saying, 'I am the
light of the world; he who walks with me will not walk in darkness, but
will have the light of life.'" Another passage: "I am the way and
the truth and the light, no one comes to the Father except by me." On
page 33, Krishna is quoted: "Whatever you do, or eat, or give, or
offer in adoration, let it be an offering to me, and whatever you
suffer, suffer it for me." According to Mascaro, this is the same
voice as Paul to the Corinthians: "Whether therefore you eat, or
drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God." (I Cor.
10:31).
In "Pagan Origins of the Christ Myth", John Jackson also identifies
similarities between the story of Buddha and the story of Christ that
came five centuries later:
"The close parallels between the life-stories of Buddha and Christ are
just as remarkable as those between Krishna and Christ. Buddha [said by
secular minds to have been a mortal sage whose name was Siddartha
Guatama who lived from 563 to 483 B.C.] was born of a virgin named Maya,
or Mary. His birthday was celebrated on December 25. He was visited by
wise men who acknowledged his divinity. The life of Buddha was sought
by King Bimbasara, who feared that some day the child would endanger the
throne. At the age of twelve, Buddha excelled the learned men of the
temple in knowledge and wisdom. His ancestry was traced back to Maha
Sammata, the first monarch in the world). Buddha was tempted by Mara
(the Author of Evil), who said: "Go not forth to adopt a religious
life and in seven days though shalt become an emperor of the world."
Buddha replied: "Get thee away from me." Also. Buddha was
transfigured on a mountain top. His form was illumined by an aura of
bright light. (Jesus was likewise transfigured on a mountain top. "And
his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light."
-- Matthew 17:2). After the completion of his earthly mission, Buddha
ascended bodily to the celestial realms."
So there we have it. A black Jesus with a Buddha-like body that somehow
turned into "Siegfried" [or Sigurd or the God Thor] further north.
Our ancestors who whole heartedly accepted Christianity believed that
the "alien" nature of the faith meant that it was "not of this
world." The joke was on them. Christianity is actually very much a
part of this world -- just a very different part of it -- "south of the
border" and far, far, away. I am not kidding when I speak of the
"Asiatic" home base of Christianity. Buddha, incidentally, attacked
the Hindu caste system with his literal-equalitarian philosophy. The
Hindu system was started by the Indo-European invaders to the Indus
Valley circa 1,500 BCE to provide a way to perpetuate their own kind in
the presence of other peoples.
When we hear the soarign rhapsodies of Bach and angelic choirs within
Gothic Cathedrals, or reflect upon the chivalrous traditions of
knighthood in the medieval era, or think of the Roman Republic or city
states of classical Greece, we have to remind ourselves that everything
that is truly decent, noble, rational, orderly, majestic, and sublime in
the innate soul of Western man is found in the heroic Mediterranean
peoples, who shared our Indo-European religious sentiments, are truly
the ancestors of everything that came later. In Asatru today we want to
continue to buld upon our sublime instincts. We may not currently have
the financial means to build Asatru cathedrals in order to duplicate in
spirit and beauty the great Gothic cathedrals, but the same instinctive
sense of the sublime that lay within our ancestors lies within us as
well. At least now we have more control over the way in which we can
interpret and express our religious instincts without being lorded over
by some self-proclaimed book of infallible dogma devised in an exotic
land by a foreign people.
(Part I to be continued)
rafael cardenas
> emperors as wicked people; however, since Sir Edward Gibbon offered the
> view in his classic work "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" that
What is your evidence that Gibbon was ever knighted?
rafael cardenas huitlodayo
Swarfmire College, Goscote, UK
Al Billings
with Asatru and its gods?
Jim just seems to like to post anything that is both political and
anti-semitic.
Jim, by the way, have you been getting permission to post all of these
articles? They are copyrighted...
Rich Neitzel
jabo...@netcom.com (Jim Bowery) writes (or rather quotes):
|>
|> VOR TRU (Our Faith) is a journal devoted to the old Norse
|> and Germanic religion of Asatru, and is dedicated to the
|> restoration of that Faith as epitomized during the
|> pre-Christian era in Europe. VOR TRU is published by
Nitpicking practical question - how do you decide which one of you gets to
be hanged as an offering to Ošin?
--
Richard Neitzel th...@atd.ucar.edu Torren med sitt skjegg
National Center For Atmospheric Research lokkar borni under sole-vegg
Box 3000 Boulder, CO 80307-3000 Gjų'i med sitt shinn
303-497-2057 jagar borni inn.
Gwendolyn M Piper
: In article <jaboweryD...@netcom.com>,
: jabo...@netcom.com (Jim Bowery) writes (or rather quotes):
: |>
: |> VOR TRU (Our Faith) is a journal devoted to the old Norse
: |> and Germanic religion of Asatru, and is dedicated to the
: |> restoration of that Faith as epitomized during the
: |> pre-Christian era in Europe. VOR TRU is published by
: Nitpicking practical question - how do you decide which one of you gets to
: be hanged as an offering to Oğin?
Whoever fits the gravity boots.
magic rat
--
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{{{ Don't ask me, Midgarder, I just work here...}}
------------They don't scurry when something bigger comes their way----
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