IMPORTANT BOOKS

ASTRO-THEOLOGY
& Sidereal Mythology



 

 APPENDIX FOUR
Important Books


From
Symbols, Sex and the Stars

by Ernest Busenbark









The Lunar Cult

The very earliest records of the ancient nations best known to us date from 3000 to 4000 BC, to a time when the sun cults were already gaining the ascendancy. Consequently, such knowledge as we have of the moon cults us derived from myths and legends which have continued to live in literature and customs so many centuries after the forms of worship to which they related had dissolved in the mists of the ages.



Library of Sardanapalus

Created by King Assurbanipul at Nineveh in Assyria and rediscovered in 1853. Gives us most of our knowledge of the Babylonians.



Age of Taurus

About 3,000 years ago was the time when the Solar Cult began gaining the ascendancy.



In fact, sun worship does not appear to have existed as a distinct and wholly separate system, but was simply grafted on the older cult; and after the two became fused, the sun eventually became the dominant figure…but it is evident that as the new cults took root, new deities were created, and the scope of the religion was greatly enlarged, making it more complex and giving it a new orientation.



The Dove - Queen of the Windows

I turn the male to the female and the female to the male. Connected with Venus, sexual initiation and fate. The Dove is her symbol. See how it still appears on the regalia of the Queen of England. The Dove or Columba, is a constellation that is in Taurus. It was a paranatellon of Scorpio. Ishtar descends into the Underworld. She was the original goddess of the rites of the Underworld. She is the original Persephone. The dove is a constellation in Scorpio, so Ishtar may be related to the signs on the western horizon. As goddess of the dark cycle she was also called Ashtaroth or Astarte. She later becomes Aphrodite and Venus. She is often seen naked with a crescent moon under her feet.



Brahmanic Wedding Ceremonies

The male says, I am the sun, thou art the earth, let us wed



The Mass

Mas was a Persian word for the Moon.



The Virgin Mary

The word Almah in the Bible was mistranslated to mean virgin, when it really meant unmarried mother.



August 15th

Sacred to the Virgin Mary. The day of her so called Assumption. In August the sign of Virgo, the Virgin disappears from view.



September 8th

This is the day of the Virgin’s birth. It is when the sign of Virgo can again be seen, after the sun has passed through the sign.



Spring Equinox

The Virgin was again honored in March at the vernal equinox, with the eating of hot cross buns.



Kronus Dismembering Uranus

Is another story about the moon and the 14 phases.



Osiris and 19

Osiris died on the seventeenth day of the month Aythr…when the sun entered the lower signs of the zodiac which symbolized the Underworld. On the nineteenth of the month the priests proclaimed that Osiris was found.



Sign of the Witness

Made with one arm pointing up and the other down.



108

Number of beads in the rosaries of Buddhists and Brahmins.



Kunti

Wife of the sun in India. Similar to Kuin or Queen.



Klachan

Gaelic word meaning "stone." It is still used in the slang for going to the church.



Sexual Perfection

The Jews believed that only the sexually perfect were fit to serve the lord of generation and the Mosaic Laws provided that a man who was “wounded in the stones” emasculated or otherwise sexually imperfect could not serve as a priest, nor could he enter the house of the congregation. The extent to which the Biblical injunction regarding physical perfection of priests is observed today in the selection of Popes and is known only to higher ecclesiastics.






◊ ◊ ◊




From

Book of the Words

by Albert Pike









Dimensions of Pillars of the Temple

The pillars of the temple were 18 cubits high and 12 cubits in circumference. When multiplied, this makes 216 (a variant of 2160, the sacred Precessional Number).



Hiram Abiff

From the Phoenician khirom. A very ancient word.



Cyrus


Khiros, or Khuros – means, the Sun

Khuros, is also Huros, or Horus – the Sun

Kuros, the Persian word for the sun

Apollo was adored as Kurra

Khoresch – comes from the Sun

With the letter "K" rendered as "C," we get Cyrus (the name of the Persian King). Kur, was the name of the Sun in Crete



Hermes


And Tet, or Hermes, was also the Serpent God, the serpent being the symbol of Wisdom. TT signifies, in Egyptian, to speak, consequently speech, which is equivalent to Logos, the Word...and Thoth is this same Revealing God of the Spirit. In Phoenician it meant Serpent.

Thoth

Scholars think the word also indicates a “pillar” or column. Columns could be inscribed with sacred, or secret writings, and commemorations. Teti was one of Thoth’s earliest names.



Horus

Was also known as Ahi, or Ahih, meaning “Assister.”



Pythagoras


Pythagoras…passed twenty-two years in Egypt and learned all the wisdom of the Priests, and was initiated in all the Mysteries of the Gods

Adon (or Adonai)

Means “Possessor,” “Owner,” “Husband,” “Lord of the Woman” or “Master.”



Neka

Means to “destroy.”



Michael

From Makal, the “Word of God”



Juda
From Hud, meaning the “Splendid Ones” “The Outshining of God” “progeny of god” etc,.



Lebanon
From Labanah, meaning Lunar, of the Moon.



Emmanuel
From Ammon-el.







◊ ◊ ◊





From

Jesus and the Lost Goddess
by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy







Historical myths were the Jews' speciality...

As the foundations of Christianity continue to crumble under the weight of new evidence about its origins, the Establishment is all the more eager to conceal information that reveals the truth about its origins. As we have stated throughout our work, it has only been through a ruthless age old campaign of suppression and confiscation that the Church authorities have been able to perpetuate their Jesus fraud. We have also insisted that the intelligence operating from behind the Christian Church today is the same that operates behind Judaism and Freemasonry. Atonism was the sole originator of Judaism, Catholicism, and Protestantism. It is the trunk from which most well-known monotheistic branches of religion grow.



In order to conceal the true origins of Judaism and Christianity, theories are frequently put forward that speak of the "hidden origins" of religion. The vast majority of these theories focus on obscure, but often plausible, connections between Christianity and Judaism. Some focus on the little known connections between Christianity, Judaism, Paganism, and Gnosticism. Unlike hardline Literalists, Gnostic Jews and Christians saw Jesus as a spiritual archetype. They knew that he did not physically exist. For this reason the Gnostics were opposed to the teachings of Jewish and Christian Literalists who adamantly believed in an living incarnate Jesus. The Literalists selected the Four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, which present Jesus as a man as well as a god.



In their book Jesus and the Lost Goddess, authors Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy theorize that the origin of modern Christianity was Gnostic Judaism and Paganism. Certain Jewish philosophers, they write, were deeply influenced by ancient Paganism and Gnosticism. They even contend that the Paganism which once influenced Jewish occult sects dates from the time of Moses.



Of course, this piece of information is of great importance, particularly to those readers familiar with the works of Moustafa Gadalla, Ahmed Osman, and Ralph Ellis, and previous scholars who knew full well that the original Moses was none other than the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaton, and that the so-called "Israelites" of the Old Testament were none other than the Hyksos People. (Sadly Freke and Gandy apparently know nothing of the theories of their contemporaries Gadalla, Osman, and Ellis. This is betrayed by statements such as "The Exodus initiation allegory, which also appears to have no basis in actual history...")



In the opinion of Freke and Gandy, Christianity as we know it, was originally a fusion and adaptation of Jewish Gnosticism and Paganism. The hardline "Literalist" Christianity of later times split off from the egalitarian form that originally honored the goddess and permitted women status within society. Eventually, after their own Church grew in strength, the founders of the Latin form of hardline Literalist Christianity saw to it that the Gnostics and esoterically minded Jewish sects were eradicated and their works destroyed. The Literalists then tampered with the Gnostic traditions and writings, tweaking them to suit their own version of the Jesus story. According to Freke and Gandy, St. Paul was of a Gnostic persuasion. Unlike the gospels, the works of Paul do not compel readers to accept and believe in a living incarnate Jesus. For Paul, Jesus was a spiritual archetype. Later, write Freke and Gandy, Paul's writings were tampered with to give them a hardline complexion. (This is, however, not a theory that we personally accept. Our theories on Paul and the origins of Judaism and Christianity are presented in Volume Two of The Irish Origins of Civilization.)



Of course, from one perspective, the theories put forth by Freke and Gandy appear to answer many mysteries. They apparently answer the question of how so many pagan elements are to be found within the iconography and dogma of both Judaism and Christianity.



However, as we advocate in our works Astro-Theology and Sidereal Mythology, and The Irish Origins of Civilization, Christianity was not the product of Gnosticism, Stoicism, Judaism or some other Pagan sect. It was the creation of the Egyptian Atonists whose peculiar form of solar worship became the basis both for Judaism and Christianity. Indeed, author Ralph Ellis has shown that the very word "Judaism" directly refers to the Atonists of Egypt. So when authors such as Freke and Gandy speak about Christianity developing out of "Judaism," they fail to understand that the Judaism to which they refer is, in fact, little more than Egyptian Atonism. If Christianity and Judaism possess "pagan" leitmotifs, it is to Egypt that we must look for their origin.



We do not doubt that there were egalitarian minds working within the early Christian Church. We do not deny that many Jewish and Christian philosophers and adepts working in Alexandria and Athens, were fascinated by paganism and ancient Egyptian mystery traditions. And we do not doubt that there are innumerable examples of plagiarism in Jewish and Christian scriptures. We know that these works could not exist without the influence of ancient esoteric doctrines. But we do not accept theories that labor to identify the hardline prohibitive, and ultimately destructive, form of Christianity as merely a perverse branch of an earlier egalitarian and permissive version put together by well-meaning Jews, Pagans, and Gnostics. We take exception to passages such as "Later the Jesus story fell into the hands of those with a more political agenda and became distorted and confused." Later! Does this single word not exonerate the early Atonists who destroyed Egypt? Does it not exonerate the Christian Culdeans who ravaged Britain? Does it not imply that Judaism and Christianity was essentially pristinebefore the rise of Constantine's Roman Church?



In our opinion, believing theories of this kind serves the punitive Christian establishment. Theories of this kind ultimately insinuate the idea that if only the hardline version could be scaled back, men would be better off with the more pristine form of Judaism and Christianity known in earlier days. This is exactly the kind of false inference that the Vatican establishment hopes for. This is because the establishment have long been reconciled to the death of the hardline punitive version of Christianity (Atonism) that they has served them well for over two thousand years. They are quite prepared for Christianity Mark II to emerge in its place. The rise of a popular upgraded and updated version of Christianity does not threaten the elite Atonists in the least, because it too, is of their own invention. As we mentioned in Volume One of The Irish Origins of Civilization, regardless of whether we are speaking of the exoteric branches or the esoteric branches of Judaism and Christianity, we are speaking Atonism. And the Atonism remains regardless of what color the walls of its hideous temple are painted or what sign is from time to time posted above its dark unhallowed doorway. In other words, in our opinion, the same sinister hand works behind the Literalist Papal schools of Christianity and the permissive, egalitarian, or Gnostic, schools.



For this reason, we must be somewhat cautious when reading books such as Jesus and the Lost Goddess. Even though books of this sort (of which there are many) contain valuable information, much of it accurate and revelatory, they also contain much to be wary of, information that not only leads us away from the true secrets of religion, but which, when accepted on face value, serves the powers that be.


- Michael Tsarion



◊





Western Culture Ravaged by Christians


...Christian Literalism, now the only legal religion in the Roman Empire, launched a brutal crusade to completely eradicate its old rivals, Christian Gnosticism and ancient Paganism. In an orgy of violence, armies of fanatical Christian Literalists tore down the architectural wonders of the Pagan world. They built infernal bonfires of books containing the spiritual wisdom and scientific knowledge of the ages. They subjected to grisly torture and a painful death philosophers, priestesses, and scientists - anyone who disagreed. They did not stop until they had cut the head off Western culture, leaving it to wander like an amnesiac in an ignorant stupor. They did not stop until they had cut the heart out of Western spirituality, bleeding it dry of its mystical vitality. The corpse of a religion which remained offered nothing but hope of a better afterlife in return for blind belief in its irrational opinions and unquestioning allegiance to power-crazed popes. This tyrannical empire of the soul extended the arm of the state right into the inner sanctum of every individual, denying the right to spiritual autonomy and compelling all to acquiesce or burn

What is Christianity?


After years of painstaking research we concluded that the traditional history of Christianity was at best hopelessly inaccurate and at worst a pack of lies...



...The evidence demanded that we think the unthinkable. Christianity was not the cult of a first-century Messiah, but a Jewish adaption of the ancient Pagan Mystery religion. We could find no evidence that there ever had been an historical Jesus, because the gospel story was a Jewish reworking of ancient Pagan myths of a dying and resurrected Son of God



Later the Jesus story fell into the hands of those with a more political agenda and became distorted and confused, but the underlying initiatory allegory which is its foundation remains

The Therapeutae


We even ventured an informed guess as to who may have authored the original Jesus myth - a sect of mystical Jews called the Therapeutae

Jewish Proto-Christians


Amongst some Jewish Gnostics a school developed which synthesized Jewish and Pagan mythology to produce distinctive new myths. In retrospect we can see that this was the beginnings of what we now call 'Christianity'

Jewish Gnostics


Jewish Gnostics claimed to be inheritors of secret mystical teachings passed down from their own great Gnostic master, Moses. These teachings were so similar to those of Pagan Gnosticism that many Jews claimed that the great Pagan philosophers had originally received their wisdom from Moses. This belief encouraged Jews to enthusiastically embrace the philosophy and mythology of the Pagan Gnostics to augment their own tradition, producing a large number of spiritual treatises which synthesize Pagan and Jewish motifs...



...The spirituality of the Therapeutae and Essenes is an example of this fusion of Jewish and Pagan Gnosticism

Gnostic Judaism and the Cynics


Following the practice of the Cynic school of Pagan Gnosticism, these Jewish Gnostics called their spiritual tradition simply 'the Way' - a term also adopted by the original Christians

Gnostic Jews, Plato, and Pythagoras


The Christian myth of descent or origination is a synthesis and elaboration of the Jewish Genesis myth and Timaeus, a Pythagorean treatise by the Pagan Gnostic Plato

The Two Jesuses


The name 'Jesus' itself comes from Exodus. In Greek the Hebrew name 'Joshua' becomes 'Jesus.' Today it is normal practice to use 'Joshua' for the hero of Exodus and 'Jesus' for the hero of the gospels, which avoids any comparison of the two. At the time, however, it would have been completely obvious that they shared the same name

Plagiarism in the Gospels


It has long been known to scholars, for example, that the entire passion narrative in the gospels has been created from motifs taken from Psalms 22, 23, 38, and 39 and from the depiction of the 'suffering servant' in the Book of Isaiah

Jewish Master Forgers


Historical myths were the Jews' speciality. The Exodus initiation allegory, which also appears to have no basis in actual history, is written in the form of a pseudo-historical narrative. When Jewish Gnostics developed their new myth of Jesus the Jewish dying and resurrecting Godman, it was inevitable they would eventually also set this allegory in a historical context. As with the Exodus myth, the creators of the Jesus story mixed together mythical figures, such as Jesus and Mary, with a handful of historical figures which were also used to play symbolic roles in the initiation allegory. Unlike Exodus, the new Jesus myth could not be set in archaic times, because it was portrayed as a revelation of a new Messiah. It was set, therefore, in the recent past and incorporated figures who were important to Jewish Gnostics, such as the much revered John the Baptist and the much hated Pontius Pilate, the Roman ruler of Judea



At the end of the first century CE, when the original Christians were casting the Jesus myth in an historical setting, Israel was in deep crisis. Jews needed an explanation for the terrible events which were befalling them. In 70 CE the Jerusalem Temple, the very heart of Jewish Literalism, had been torn down by the Romans. By 135 CE the hole of Israel would be laid waste and cease to exist for 2,000 years. Jewish Gnosticism deliberately set the Jesus story in the years in which the crisis began

Early Proto-Christian Sects


By the first half of the first century there were already three distinct schools of Christian Gnosticism, which suggests, once again that, in some form or another Christianity had been in existence for some time. These schools are the Simonians, Paulists and Ebionites. The issue which divided them was the relationship of Christianity to traditional Jewish religion. The Simonians were radical internationalists who rejected Judaism and its tribal deity Jehovah as redundant Literalist nonsense. The Paulists were also internationalists who wanted to free Christianity from close ties with Judaism, but took a more moderate view, seeing Christianity as fulfilling and therefore surpassing Judaism. The Ebionites were nationalists who saw Christianity as a specifically Jewish cult and wanted Christians to conform to traditional Jewish religious customs...None of these Christians were practicing Christianity as we would recognize it today. Christian Literalism, from which nearly all forms of modern Christianity have evolved, didn't begin to appear until the middle of the second century

Paul


Paul, like Simon, was an internationalist who wanted to liberate Christianity from any baggage it had inherited from Jewish Literalism...However, although Paul wants to dump Judaism, he doesn't completely condemn it, as Simon did...Paul's internationalist Christianity flourished amongst Gentiles, but was largely unacceptable to Jews.

Book of Luke's Advice


...Despite the fact that in The Gospel of Luke Jesus teaches, 'Everyone when his training is complete will reach his teacher's level,' the Gnostic idea that Christianity was about oneself becoming a Christ became branded as blasphemous heresy

The Literalist Fraud


There were no historical disciples. There were no early Literalists. They all had to be invented. The earliest Christian whose writings suggest he was a Literalist was Justin Martyr, c. 150. But even Justin still saw Christianity as a branch of philosophy and set up his own philosophical school in Rome



The traditional history of Christianity is that Literalist took the world by storm, whilst Christian Gnosticism remained a minor heretical fringe movement. This is nonsense.



Christian Literalism was initially a minor school of Christianity which developed in Rome toward the end of the second century. By this time Christian Gnosticism was an international movement which had spread throughout much of the Mediterranean, flourishing in cosmopolitan cities such as Alexandria, Edessa, Antioch, Epheseus, and Rome...There is no sign of any form of Christianity which resembles Roman Catholicism in Egypt until Bishop Demetrius at the end of the third century



Over the course of the third century, despite the flimsiness of its claims to be the authentic Christian lineage, Literalism grew in popularity in Rome and the West, though Eastern Christianity remained overwhelmingly Gnostic. Eventually, however, it was inevitable that the simplistic certainties and offer of vicarious atonement of Christian Literalism would attract more adherents than Christian Gnosticism, with its puzzling promise of Gnosis through mystical transformation



Christian Literalism was an ideal candidate...It was exactly what a Roman despot like Constantine required - a populist and authoritarian religion which had freed itself from Gnostic radicals

Christian Literalism and the Old Testament


Literalist Christianity took as its scriptural backdrop the Jewish Old Testament, with its patriarchal monotheism

Inherent Paganism


As Christian Literalism grew in power it adopted more of the trappings of the Pagan Literalism it replaced. Its ritual processions were identical to those of the Pagan cults. Although Jesus had specifically said, 'Call no man "father",' Christian Literalists adopted the Mithraic practice of calling priests 'father.' In imitation of the Mithraic bishops, Christian bishops wore a 'mithra' or 'mitre' and carried a shepherd's staff. Eventually the Bishop of Rome took up the title Pontifex Maximus, the ancient name for the Pagan high priest, a title still held by the Pope today.

School of Mani


The school of the third-century master Mani became a world religion in his own lifetime. Eventually reaching from Spain in the West to China in the East, Manicheism flourished for 1,000 years...His followers taught that 'Judaism, Paganism, Christianity, and Manicheism are one and the same doctrine






◊ ◊ ◊





From
Templar Revelation
by Picknett and Prince






Our whole culture is unquestionably understood to be Judeo-Christian, but what would it mean if we are right and it should be, in fact, Egypto-Christian instead?

St. Peter (Capricorn)
The Church was laid on this the ‘First Apostle.’ But in astro-theological terms this apostle represented the sign of Capricorn, which is the first house of the calendar year, the place of the sun’s rebirth. Upon this Rock I will build my Church.

Apostola Apostolorum
Meaning the "Apostle of Apostles," or the First Apostle, was a tem used for Mary Magdalene.

Women of the Bible


…although women had not been minor characters in the primary Christian drama, Paul and his henchmen made sure that they would be pushed to the margin throughout history - (page 63)

This can be confusing when it later seems that women suddenly appear from nowhere to take the central place around the cross - (page 63)

It is said of Mary and the women around Jesus that they: "Ministered unto him of their substance" - (page 233)


…it is of supreme importance that the person who anoints Jesus – marking him out for his true destiny – is a woman - (page 254)


In the Synoptic Gospels the woman who anoints Jesus is not named, although they make the point that she is a sinner - (page 254)

In Luke, the anointing woman is described as ‘a woman in the city, which was a sinner’ - (page 254)

At the Tomb


If we read that the women played a little role in the life of Jesus why is that they are the only ones to come around the tomb after the crucifixion - (page 260 )

Peter’s hatred


Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of life - (Gospel of Thomas)

Horasis


The ritual of anointing in which the entire male body becomes a symbolic phallus, the column of Geb, ready for intercourse with the goddess - (page 260)

Spikenard
From a rare Indian plant was extremely expensive, and was known to be used only for ritual purposes, for the head and feet. It was also used for burial rites.

Burial Ritual


Mary of Bethany ‘Christ-ened’ Jesus with the Spikenard, an unguent that had very likely, been kept for that occasion, and was an ointment associated with burial rites. Jesus himself remarked of the anointing (Mark 14:8); ‘…she has come a forehand to anoint my body to the burying’. In his mind, at least, it was intended to be a ritual...the ceremony is hardly typical of Judaic practice - (page 256)

Mary as Lucifer


Mary was also called by Jesus, Mary Lucifer, Mary the Light-Bringer - (page 261)

Priestess


Significantly, the original word for such a priestess in hierodule, which means ‘sacred servant.’ The word ‘prostitute,’ with all its implied moral judgment, was a Victorian rendering. Moreover, this temple servant, is unlike the secular prostitute, acknowledged to be in control of the situation and the man who visits her, and both of them receive benefits in terms of physical, spiritual and magical empowerment - (page 257)

Isis worship


Isis worship continued openly until the end of the fourth century, but its greatest rival was Christianity…the Christians destroyed the Serpeum in Alexandria and took measures to suppress the cult whenever it was found. The last official Isian festival of the old days was celebrated in Rome in 394 - (page 298)

Morality of the Isis Cult


Jesus is perceived to be one person who almost invented compassion, love and altruism. Clearly, however, this is not the case: obviously there have always been good people from every culture and religion, but specifically the Isian religion of that time placed great emphasis on personal responsibilities and morality, on upholding family values and respect for all people - (page 341)

…the Egyptians were not known as particularly licentious people, but were remarkable for their spirituality - (page 364)

New Appraisals


Archaeological discoveries such as the Nag Hammadi texts and the Dead Sea Scrolls have revealed much more about the time and culture in which Jesus lived - and suddenly it seems that many of the aspects of Christianity that used to be considered unique were no such thing. Even the most well-worn familiar Christian concepts can now be seen as having had a completely different meaning in the context of first-century Palestine - (page 228)

That the New Testament analysis as we know it only began in the nineteenth century reflects the almost superstitious reluctance to examine the original texts that came out of the Church’s age-long prohibition on Bible reading for the masses. For centuries only priests read the Scriptures – in fact, in most cases they had the monopoly of literacy - (page 265)

Sexual Repression


The consequences of the Church’s attitude to sex and sexual love for our culture have, as we have seen, been terrible repression on such a scale has been responsible, not only for personal torment and unnecessary soul-searching, but also for countless crimes against women and children – many of which the authorities have chosen to ignore - (page 364)

In its fervor to establish itself as the one and only religion, Christianity has always waged war on pagans. Temples were destroyed and people tortured and killed, from Iceland to South America, from Ireland to Egypt, in the name of Jesus Christ. Yet if we are right, and Jesus himself was a pagan, then this Christian fervor was not only once again a denial of common humanity, but also of their founder’s own principles - (page 364)

Jesus as "Lord"


This has been proven to be merely a common title of respect, given even from children to parents, etc,.

Dead Sea Scrolls


…there is no proof that the Scrolls themselves were of Essene origin – that was simply the immediate assumption when they were found - (page 230)

Jesus the Carpenter


This comes from the Aramaic word naggar, which means scholar or learned man- (page 235)

Council of Nicea


In 325 AD, they decided to leave out over fifty legitimate works and keep only four.

Heresy


A word that means ‘choice.’





◊ ◊ ◊





From

The Serpent Grail

By Philip Gardiner and Gary Osborn









Holy Grail


Sir Thomas Mallory, author of the fifteenth-century Morte d’Arthur, was the first to use the words ‘Holy Grail’ and said that the Sangkreal was the blessed blood of Christ. But in his English Etymology, Walter Skeat (1833-1912), one of the greatest investigators of the roots of the English language, states that the etymology of the Holy Grail ‘was very early falsified by an intentional change from San Greal (Holy Dish) to Sang Real (Holy Blood)…We found that such misinterpretations, or deliberate falsifications, have appeared ever since the Grail’s ancient origins'

Fisher King, and Lucifer


Lucifer…is another alchemical reference. In Old French, luce means ‘fish,’ as does the Latin word locus – (p.58)

John (Aquarius/Pisces)
Oannes comes from the Philistine fish god. The word John comes from this.



Dagon

In the Talmud, we have dagh, meaning fish. This gives dagon, and Dagda, the all-father. It also gives Daddy.



Newts
The Jews used the symbol of a newt’s tail to inscribe the letter Yod.



Pendragon

May derive from pendryvan or pendravan, the word for newt. The word also connoted fiveness, and also contains pen, meaning “head.”



John the Baptist
He was known as the Great Nazar, and El Khidr meaning the "Green Man.”



Bacchus
He bore the same title as Jesus, the "fish.”



Cross
Comes from the Latin word ceras, which also means “serpent.”



The Cross
In Chinese the symbol character mag is a cross, and that referred to the magician.



Cadmus
God of the alphabet. He was worshipped as a serpent.



Ninazu
Sumerian god of healing called “Lord of Physicians.” His son’s symbol was the double-headed snake.



Chi Ro
A term given to Jesus, seems related to cheiro – meaning “snake-handler” and which is one part of the name Ophiuchus, based on Aesculapius or Imhotep.



Brigid
The original lady of the lake.



Avalon
Island of the apples, from avla.



Brigit

Brigit was keeper of the orchards.



Eve
From the Hebrew Havvah, which means serpent.


The figure of Eve is based upon much older mythology and may be traced back to the ancient Mother Goddess or World Mother and the serpent cults of the pre-biblical period. Closer examination of the name ‘Eve’ revealed her serpent origins, for the Hebrew for Eve is havvah, meaning ‘mother of all things,’ but also ‘serpent.’ Likewise, the Arabic words for ‘snake,’ ‘life,’ and ‘teaching,’ are closely related to the word or name “Eve.’

Stonehenge

The stones originated in Naase Ireland, a place-name connoting the serpent.



Thor
His other name was Adar, near to Adder. He was also known as Sigg.



Kukulkan
Ku – god, Kan – serpent.



Knights of Rhodes
They were great healers and Rhodes was said to have become the new Alexandria.







◊ ◊ ◊





From
Middle Ages Revisited
by Alexander Del Mar





King John


What if it can be shown that John was only among the last of a long line of vassal kings who bowed the knee to Rome and saddled upon the people of Britain a responsibility for institutes which they had no hand in framing and which were utterly opposed to their racial aptitudes and tendencies?

Emperor Demetrius


He planted an army of wives, concubines, slaves, and catamites in the Parthenon, which he “so polluted with his debaucheries that it appeared to be kept comparatively clean when he indulged himself only with such abandoned creatures as Lamia, Demo, and Antieyra.” He bestowed upon his principal wife the sacrilegious name of Dei-damia, or the Spouse of God.

Carthage


After the downfall of Carthage, Rome, whose dominion had hitherto been restricted to Italy and Greece, rapidly became a continental power.

Why Catholicism?


To keep together so vast an empire, to assimilate under one government such heterogeneous populations as had recently been brought under its sway; to command the respect of distant kings; to curb the ambition and repress the avarice of proconsuls who had become mightier than kings; and to preserve the private fortunes that had been carved out of the dying republic; some greater elements of power and authority and some more efficacious means of subordination were required to be wielded at Rome that those which had failed in the hands of Sylla and Pompey.

The additional powers and discipline which for these reasons were needed to maintain the ascendancy of Rome were found in the peculiar organization and privileges of the Sacred College and in the mysteries of religion. These the ambitious and unscrupulous Caesar hastened to seize with the office of high-priest and the assumption of sacerdotal powers, which, in proportion as they exceeded the attributes of earthly kings, rivaled those of gods. To this discipline and subordination was added that moral influence which the church alone could wield, the influence of blind faith, of religious myths and superstition, the respect for ecclesiastical displeasure, the fear of committing sacrilege, and the dread of excommunication and anathema. These are elements of power and government which no statesman in any age, can afford to despise, and which we may feel assured were not permitted to lie unused by so profound a politician as Julius Caesar.

Winter Solstice BC 48


Julius Caesar is deified at the Temple of Jupiter Ammon. He was now the Son of God.

Caesar Augustus


When the tremendous commotion caused by the death of Julius Caesar had spent itself in civil wars, and in the firm establishment of the Messianic religion and ritual, Augustus ascended the sacred throne of his martyred sire and was in turn addressed as the Son of God, whilst Julius was worshipped as the Father. The flamens of the Sacred college erected and consecrated to the worship of Julius Caesar a magnificent temple in Rome…they organized a body of priests called the Julii, or the Juliani. These priests were selected from the most ancient order, the Luperci

Emperor Tiberius
He refused to be deified as a god. Declaring himself to be mortal he was upbraided.

You Must Die!


When Caesar was assassinated, Augustus was still in his teens…One of the first acts of Augustus was the destruction of Perugia, a city which refused to acknowledge his authority. The fall of this place was followed by the sacrificial placation of Julius the Father. In this atrocious rite…the consul, Lucius Anthony (brother of Marc), besides Cannutius C. Flavius, Clodius Bithynicus, and the principal magistrates and council for Perugia, together with 300 senators and knights, were immolated as human sacrifices, upon the altar of Julius, erected for the occasion. The greater part of the abominable auto da fe was executed in the presence of Augustus himself, whose only reply to those who implored and shrieked for mercy, was; “You must die.”

The Real Massacre of the Innocents


When, before the Nativity, the divine oracle at Velitre predicted that “Nature was about to bring forth a Prince over the Roman people,” the Senate passed an Act, A.U. 692, ordering that, “No male child born that year should be reared or brought up.” Thus, every boy born within the Roman pale was devoted to destruction, and a frightful Slaughter of Innocents would have ensued, had not those who expected children, removed the tablets of the law from the walls of the aerarium; and thus defeated the atrocious act.

Feudalism


…we trust to be able to show that the feudal system was connected and necessarily connected with the church; that it was a development of the Sacred constitution of the Roman Empire and legally expired with it; that it began with that constitution and its requirements; that it existed long before the establishment of the military tenures referred to….that feudal estates of land were not founded upon military services, but on the inalienability of lands belonging to the church…

The strange Separatism of the Emperors


The deified Julius appears in his statues and coins covered with a veil. Augustus was repeatedly absent in the provinces, whence he returned to Rome in a secret manner. In the city he dwelt in a retired portion of his palace, a lofty chamber, which he called the Syracuse, and he commonly supped alone.

Government by Proxy


To the last, the emperors of Constantinople lived in seclusion, governed the empire by proxy, and were to be approached only with difficulty, mystery and the most servile homage.

Hierarchies of control


The exclusive relations thus established between the sacred monarch and the nobles or priests who surrounded his person, soon came to be repeated between those nobles and the rank next below them…Another barrier between the artificially exalted monarch and the artificially degraded people, another social rank thus had to be formed; and so it went on, until the lowest substratum of the civil order was reached...This is called the “Involution of rank.” No Gothic chieftain ever ruled by proxy.

Church Power


In the reign of Augustus some dying persons provided by will that an offering should be made to the church in gratitude for the signal favour that the Son of God, as they esteemed their emperor, had appeared on earth during their lifetime. From these and other superstitious sources the pagan church acquired immense landed estates in every part of the empire. These estates were worked by slaves...

Power Families of Rome


Anciani
Bassi
Paulini
Gracchi

The Barbarians


…the barbarians did not receive Christianity as a gift from on high. To them it was a phase of the imperial power, and they never accepted it peacefully, nor without a valuable consideration. They had to be lured into it, coaxed or cajoled into it, tempted into it, married into it, bribed into it, or else forced into it. In all efforts the Church had to yield something of principle in return. The Christianity, as well as the Imperialism, of this period wore many coats, and underwent many mutations.





◊ ◊ ◊





From
Secret Origins of the Bible
by Tim Callahan









Josephus
Josephus (Joseph) was a Pharisee and a reluctant leader in the Jewish revolt against Rome (67-70 CE). He was captured by the Romans and, seeing the Jewish cause as hopeless, switched sides and acted as an interpreter for the Roman general (and later emperor) Titus. Joseph eventually became a Roman citizen and took the family name, Flavius, of the Roman emperors Vespasian and Titus, who were his benefactors.

Biblical Authenticity
…there is no historical support for certain other famous biblical stories, such as the Exodus. Likewise every attempt to validate Joshua's conquest of Canaan is frustrated by the archaeological record. It is, in fact, doubtful that any of the conquest narrative related in Joshua is true.

Anachronisms
Anachronisms are not the only internal clues which reflect on the historical validity of a given biblical narrative. The literary forms used that indicate changes in authorship in a work attributed to one man, as in Isaiah, and the use of words or even a language from a later period, as in the Aramaic laced with Greek words in parts of Daniel, are other clues. So too are internal inconsistencies in the Bible, such as where there are two or more accounts of how something happened within the same book. The two creation stories of Genesis 1 and 2 are an obvious example.

Lack of Original Documents
The real reason ancient inscriptions are given any more credibility than the Bible is that the biblical record was transmitted to us via scribal copies. Unfortunately, neither parchment nor papyrus holds up as well as either stone or clay. Thus, the earliest copies we have of the Hebrew scriptures are the Dead Sea Scrolls from the religious community at Qumran, most of which were made during the lifetime of Jesus, though some date from the second century BCE. The Elephantine papyri, records kept by the community of a Jewish garrison in southern Egypt, date from ca. 400 BCE and mention persons also mentioned in Ezra and Nehemiah. One thing the Dead Sea Scrolls tell us is that once a biblical narrative was considered canonical—that is, once it was thought to be divinely inspired—it was transmitted from one copyist to the next virtually free of error. The books of the Masoretic Text (abbreviated MT, Hebrew scriptures refined in the Middle Ages) though its earliest surviving copies date from about 1100 CE, are nearly identical to those found at Qumran.

Before the Jews Fled Egypt
For anything dating from before the Exile, the only written records we have from Judah and Israel are inscribed medallions, bits of broken pottery on which notes had been written, a few inscriptions scrawled on walls and, of course, that silver scroll bearing the Aaronic benediction—the only preserved biblical text dating from before 200 BCE.

What we know about Babylon
Compared with this paucity of evidence from Palestine we have libraries from several Mesopotamian cities, among them Nuzi, Mari, Nineveh, Babylon, Ur, and Erech, stretching over a time period of literally thousands of years. In some cases these were copies, but in some cases we have not only the copies—often altered to fit political agendas—but the originals as well. The Mesopotamians made these records by inscribing letters into tablets of soft clay with a stylus, then baking the tablets in a kiln. The baked clay tablets are supplemented by monumental inscriptions such as the black obelisk of Shalmaneser III. Thus the Mesopotamian narratives are likely to have been made at or close to the actual time of the events they record. The same is true of the Amarna tablets from Egypt in the time of Akhenaten.

What we know about the Romans
With respect particularly to Roman records, coins and monumental inscriptions are plentiful enough to give us corroborating evidence of the Roman emperors and their conquests. Unfortunately, we have far fewer coins and inscriptions from Israel and from the early Christian church.

Interpretation and Mythmongering
…the vagaries of transmission also impact how we must view myths of various cultures. While we can be reasonably sure when a myth was written down, we cannot know how long before that time it existed in oral form. In the case of ancient Greek myths many were not collected until Roman times. However, we have depictions of scenes from the myths on vases dating into pre-Classical times, often with the names of the characters written on the vases. Yet, as is often the case when pagan myths have been recorded by Christian chroniclers, layers of later mythologizing must be removed to understand the true nature of the original myth. This may well be true of Greek and Phoenician myths recorded in Roman times. Though the original material may well be ancient, the mythographer might have insinuated the bias of his own culture and conformed the material to fit the Classical synthesis of Hellenistic and Roman culture, and again one must sift the material and judiciously strip away cultural contaminants. Only then can one be sure as to whether there are or are not parallels between these myths and the mythic systems of the Near East out of which rose the biblical narratives.

Recurrent Mythological Motifs
One of these motifs is mat of the hero who, as an infant, is either left to die of exposure, lost, or spirited away to be hidden from powerful enemies, and is either reared in obscurity, rescued by humble folk, or nursed by animals. Such heroes include Paris and Oedipus (exposed and rescued by shepherds), Romulus and Remus (raised by wolves), and Theseus and Arthur who were raised in obscurity and required to retrieve a sword to prove their kingship. Theseus had to roll away a massive boulder covering the sword. Arthur did the reverse, removing the sword from the stone rather than the stone from the sword. Likewise, the Norse hero Sigurd (Siegfried in German) was raised in the forest by a dwarf-smith and had to pull a sword out of a massive ash tree. Another variant of this motif is the story of the infant Perseus and his mother, Danae, who were shut up in a chest and cast into the sea, only to be washed ashore and rescued by a fisherman. Sargon I of Akkad (2371-2316 BCE) had a similar legendary origin. His mother, a priestess who became impregnated by an anonymous pilgrim—possibly she was a temple prostitute—knew that all children born to her were destined to be sacrificed. Therefore, she gave birth in secret, placed the infant in a tar-daubed basket woven of rushes, and put the basket in the Euphrates river were it floated into an irrigation canal and was discovered by Akki, the royal gardener. The story of the infant Moses hidden in just such a basket among the bulrushes so that he would likewise escape being killed is too close to Sargon's story to be coincidence. Since Sargon's tale dates anywhere from 800 to 1100 years before Moses is likely to have lived, assuming Moses to be a historical character, the story in Exodus was the copy. Therefore the story of Moses' birth was a typological fiction rather than true history.

Three diverging accounts of the taking of Jerusalem
Both the historical validity and the supposed divine inspiration of the Bible are called into doubt when one book contradicts another. For example, Josh. 12:8 says that Joshua gave the land of, among others, the Jebusites, to the people of Israel, and Josh. 12:10 lists the king of Jerusalem as among those defeated by the children of Israel. At the time Jerusalem was also called Jebus. So, according to Joshua 12, it was in Israelite hands before Joshua's death. Yet Josh. 15:63 says that the tribe of Judah could not drive out the Jebusites, who remain there "to this day," and Jud.l:8 says that the men of Judah took Jerusalem after Joshua's death. Judges 1:21 says that the tribe of Benjamin could notdrive out the Jebusites who dwelt in Jerusalem, and it is an important part of the story of the outrage at Gibeah that Jebus is still in Canaanite hands (see Jud. 19:10-12). We find, in fact, that Jebus is still a Canaanite city until it is taken by King David (2 Sam. 5:6,7), hundreds of years after the time of the supposed conquest. Here we have three different versions of the conquest of Jebus/Jerusalem: that it was taken by Joshua, that it was taken by the tribe of Judah after Joshua's death, and that it was independent until David took it and made it his capital. Clearly we have a problem in historical validity: They cannot all be right.

Sexual Prohibitions and Sexism
…a couple having sexual relations during the wife's menstrual period would be put to death if the act was discovered. Most of us would consider our decision as to whether to have sex with our wives during menstruation to be our own business. In fact, the prohibition against sex during menstruation has to do with another Levitical code, that of ritual impurity. Leviticus 15:19-30 goes into great detail about how a woman is unclean during her period, how anything she touches becomes unclean, how anyone who touches her or anything she has touched is unclean for a day and must bathe to be cleansed, and how at the end of her period she is to offer two pigeons or doves to be sacrificed, one as a sin offering, so that the priest can "make atonement for her before the Lord for her unclean discharge" (Lev. 15:30).

Hypocrisy and Double Standards
Specifically, Jesus was quite plain both in prohibiting divorce except in cases of adultery (Mk. 10:11,12; Lk. 16:18; Mt 5:31.32) and in his condemnation of wealth and the accumulation of material goods.1 Yet the divorce rate does not vary greatly between seculars and evengelicals, and fundamentalists are among the most avid of capitalists.

Jesus and Wealth
Among the many attacks on the accumulation of wealth in the Gospels are the famous statements that it will be harder for a rich man to enter heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle (Mk. 10:2127; Mt. 19:21-26; Lk. 28:22-27), injunctions in the Sermon on the Mount against laying up treasures on earth (Mt. 6:19-21; Lk. 12:33,34), and the caution that one cannot serve both God and Mammon (Mt. 6:24; Lk. 16:13). Luke also adds to the Beatitudes a condemnation of the rich (Lk. 6:24,25) and includes two parables condemning the accumulation of wealth (Lk. 12:16-21,16:19-31). In Acts 4:32-35 the early Christian church is depicted as quite communal. And in Acts 5:1 -11 a couple that tries to hold back some of their own property are struck dead supernaturally.)

The Old Testament
...But this "Old Testament" is, of course, a Jewish document. Thus, it could just as logically be presented as it is in the Hebrew scriptures, or Tanakh. The word Tanakh is an acronym for the divisions of the Jewish Bible. These are the Torah or Law (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy), the Nevi'im or Prophets, and the Kethuvimor Writings. The way in which each of these divisions of the Hebrew scriptures was built up was far from linear. This is particularly true of the Torah.

Moses Not the Author of Torah (or Pentateuch)
In spite of the great antiquity of much of its material, the Torah was probably not in its finalized canonical form until about 400 BCE, well after the return of the exiles from Babylon; nor was the Torah (also called the Pentateuch—Greek for "five scrolls") written by Moses as is the traditional view. It must be remembered that in ancient times it was common to attribute certain kinds of literature to an author of that type of material as a way of legitimizing it. Since Moses was the law-giver, all books pertaining to the law were attributed to him.

The Yahwist School
The earliest holy writing of the Jews, embedded in Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers, was the work referred to by Bible scholars as the "J," or Yahwist document (the J comes from the German spelling of Yahweh—Jahveh), possibly initially written in the reign of Rehoboam, between 960 and 915 BCE, but with probable additions as late as the reign of Jehoram, 849-842 BCE, and probably written at the court by a Judean official with a strong bias toward the Davidic line of kings. The J document starts with the second creation story, and God is portrayed in very human, anthropomorphic terms.

The Elohist School
A rival document, the E, or Elohist material, was written in the northern kingdom, possibly at the court in Samaria ca. 850 BCE. The name of God in this document was more often given as Elohim instead of Yahweh, and the writings have a bias favoring Israel over Judah, and particularly favoring the tribe of Ephraim. It starts with the covenant of Abraham and focuses on Jacob. Many of the stories of Jacob and most of those of Joseph, ancestor of the Ephraimites, who dominated the northern kingdom, derive from this document.

The E School
After the conquest of Israel by the Assyrians in 721 BCE, the E document was brought to Jerusalem by refugees. The material was blended by various redactors who attempted, with limited success, to harmonize the two documents.

The Prophets
Independent of these documents were the writings of those reformers we know of as prophets, particularly Hosea, Amos, the first Isaiah, and Jeremiah. They wrote in a time period from just prior to the Assyrian conquest of Israel to the Babylonian captivity. The prophets represent a faction urging the purification of the worship of Yahweh and the expulsion of the rival cults of Baal and Ashtart. One might wonder why such a purification would be necessary, since the children of Israel are represented in the Book of Joshua as having practically exterminated the Canaanites before the origin of the monarchy.

Deuteronomist School
…during the lifetime of Jeremiah, as repairs were being made on the Temple (621 BCE), a book of laws was found mysteriously hidden in its walls and was brought to King Josiah (2 Kings. 22:8). Once he had read it, Josiah tore his clothes and ordered the nation to beg mercy of God for having previously transgressed God's laws. This was eventually considered the second giving of the law, and so the document was named Deuteronomy (Gr. "second law"). Why God would allow his law to be hidden from the time of Moses to the time of Josiah is never explained, and it seems rather odd that God would allow his people to sin in ignorance for centuries. While the material in Deuteronomy undoubtedly reflects traditional law and religious codes of the Yahwist cult already in existence, most biblical scholars feel the book itself (hence the codification of these laws) was written at the time of its "discovery" and was not, as its so-called discoverers claimed, from the time or hand of Moses. The authors of Deuteronomy, most probably members of the prophetic faction, were referred to collectively as the Deuteronomists (their material being designated D).

History of the Kingdoms
In addition to writing Deuteronomy they also seem to have compiled a history of the kingdom derived from legendary material, kingly chronicles from Israel and Judah, and various other sources. This history eventually became the books of Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings. According to the original Documentary Hypothesis the Priestly material (P) was assumed to have been written during the Exile, after the fell of Jerusalem in 586 BCE.

Early Critics and Criticisms
In point of fact, the origins of biblical criticism go back to the early Middle Ages. Jerome (340-420 CE), one of the most important architects of Christian doctrine, and one respected nearly as much as his contemporary and ally, Augustine, accepted the view that the Book of Daniel was written later than 200 BCE (although its authors wrote it as an eye-witness account of events that took place 300 years earlier). At about 500 CE Jewish scholars were having doubts about the Mosaic authorship of the Torah because certain expressions in it obviously came from periods well after the death of Moses. In the eleventh century Isaac Ibn Yashush, court physician to a Moslem ruler in Spain, pointed out that the list of Edomite kings in Genesis 36 had to be from a time long after Moses died. Though he was a devout Orthodox Jew, Ibn Yashush's contemporary, Abraham Ben Meir Ibn Ezra (1092-1167), a scholar and poet from Moslem Spain, also had some doubts about certain passages in the Torah. Despite having castigated Ibn Yashush and saying that his book should be burned, Ibn Ezra suspected that the Book of Isaiah was actually the work of two different authors. With the invention of the printing press access to me Bible and, with it, biblical criticism, increased. Andreas Karlstadt (1480-1541), Protestant reformer and close ally of Martin Luther, noted in 1520 mat since the death of Moses takes place near the end of Deuteronomy (Deut. 34:5), verses 34:6-10 had to have been written by someone else. However, he also noted mat mere was no change in the style in those last verses. Since it appeared that the verses before and after Moses's death were by the same author, Karlstadt reasoned that the author of Deuteronomy could not be Moses. Catholic scholars of the period also found problems with the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch.

In his commentary on the Book of Joshua (1574), Andreas Du Maes (1514-1575) conjectured that the Pentateuch was actually compiled by Ezra, who he assumed had edited ancient documents, including those written by Moses. Du Maes noted that the cities of Dan and Hebron were referred to by those names in Genesis, even though they were not given their names until after Moses's death. Previously they were known as Laish and Kirjaharba, respectively. Joshua 14:35 says that Hebron was named Kirjah-arba before it became the inheritance of Caleb. The conquest and renaming of Laish by the Danites is described in Judges 18. The Catholic Church did not take kindly to what Du Maes wrote and placed his book on the Index of Prohibited Books.

The Jewish-Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) published a thorough critical analysis of the Torah showing that it simply could not have been written by Moses. Having already been excommunicated from Judaism, Spinoza now found his work condemned by Protestants and Catholics as well, the latter placing it in the Index of Prohibited Books. In addition, an attempt was made on his life. Writing to refute Spinoza, Catholic priest Richard Simon (1638-1712) stated that the Pentateuch was compiled from several documents, some inspired and some of purely human origin. His contemporary, Jean Le Clerc (1657-1736), believed that the author of the Pentateuch lived in Babylonia during the Exile.

Jean Astruc
Though these persistent suspicions stretch clear back to the beginnings of the Middle Ages, it was not until the eighteenth century that the first Documentary Hypothesis came into being. French physician Jean Astruc (1684-1766) noticed not only that there were often two different versions of incidents in the Pentateuch (i.e. two creation stories, two versions of how many animals of each kind were taken on Noah's ark, etc.) but that God was referred to in different verses as either Yahweh or Elohim. He also noted that the Yahweh and Elohim verses tended to occur in clusters in which one or the other name predominated. Separating the Yahweh (J) material and the Elohim (E) material into different strands, he noticed that each strand made a fairly coherent story and reasoned that Moses had compiled the Pentateuch from two or more traditions. Though most scholars now agree that the J and E documents were written well after the time of Moses, Astruc did come up with the basic idea of the Documentary Hypothesis. Ironically, his work was intended as a defence against sceptics who had cited the opposing versions as a basis for doubting the divine origin if the Pentateuch. Astruc saw Moses as divinely inspired, but still editing earlier material. Independent of Astruc, J. G. Eichhorn of Leipzig came up with a similar hypothesis in 1785.

Judaism and Paganism
...the monotheistic worship of Yahweh was not separated and purified of its pagan associations until about that same time. As we examine the books of the Bible in greater detail, we shall see that much of what is inexplicable in what is supposed to be the word of God is more easily understood if we remember that the Jewish religion was only extracted by degrees through rough struggle from a pagan system of fertility gods replete with sexual rites and child sacrifice.

Canaanite and Phoenician Originals
…the Greek historian Philo Byblius, who was active during the reign of Nero (CE 54-68), reported that the Phoenicians of his day worshiped a god called Usuos, the Greek version of Esau. Gad ("good fortune") and Dan ("judge"), two of the patriarchs of the 12 tribes, were also originally gods in the Canaanite pantheon and were worshiped in ancient Ugarit.

Philistines and Canaanites
…Gaza was a Philistine city and that the Philistines had, even during the period of the Judges, accepted the Canaanite pantheon.

Sacrifice among the Jews
As far as Palestinian excavation illustrates the religious life of the Hebrews it is mostly on the darker side. The standing pillars of Gezer enable us to picture the orgiastic rites at the high places. The jars containing infants' bones are gruesome testimony to the revolting practice of child sacrifice...The nude and coarse Astarte figures that are found in all strata of the pre-exilic period give added emphasis to the fierce denunciations of the prophets...The name Egeliah ("bull-calf of Yah") on a potsherd from Samaria shows how far reaching was "the sin of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin." The religion of Elephantine is a survival of these crudities. (See North's Abingdon Bible Commentary, 1929)

The Name of God
Since Semitic alphabets did not originally have vowels, the name Yahweh was written, if transliterated into Roman characters, as YHWH. This is the Tetragrammaton, the unspeakable name of God. In fact, the name as it usually appears in Judah is YHW, or Yahu, and this is how the community at Elephantine wrote it. In Israel it is found as YH, read either as Yo or Yah. In other words, the golden calves (or more properly young bulls) set up by Jeroboam I—the act so excoriated by the Deuteronomist historian in 1 Kgs. 12:26-33—were representations of an aspect of Yahweh. It was common to add "Yah" or "Yahu" to the end of proper names in ancient Israel and Judah. The fairly common name Abdi, recently found on a seal identifying its owner as the "servant of Hoshea," the last king of Israel (see Lemaire, 1995) would have been in full "Abdiyo" or "Abadyahu," which is rendered in Protestant Bibles as Obadiah ("servant of Yahweh"), the name of both a courtier of King Ahab and one of the minor prophets.

Yahweh Among the Amorites and Egyptians
The Amorite city of Mari on the Euphrates also has inscriptions of such personal names as Yahu-Ili and Yahwi-Haddu. These names probably do not have anything to do with the worship of Yahweh, however, since his name means roughly "he who brings into existence." Thus Yahwi-Haddu could mean "the god Haddad causes (this child) to be." But the same cannot be said of place names, and an Egyptian list of place names in Edom south of ancient Israel, dating from the reign of Amenhotep III (1417-1379 BCE), includes the name YHW, which would probably read out as Ya-h-wi. In fact the worship of Yahweh seems to have originated in areas south of Israel, whence it was brought by whichever tribes actually did take part in the Exodus (and these were far fewer than the 12 tribes of the initial confederation).

Coin Depicting Yahweh
It is a coin from fourth century BCE Gaza which depicts Yahweh, with the inscription YHW, as a bearded man holding a hawk and sitting on a winged wheel, much the way Sumerian and Babylonian deities were portrayed (see fig. 1). These gods were essentially exalted humans much like the Olympians of ancient Greece. Further, the Sumerians had a rather technological view of how the gods could do miraculous things. How did the gods fly? Unless they were specifically represented as having wings—and most of them were not—they could not do this by themselves. Instead they had winged chariots. The graphic short-hand for a winged chariot was a winged wheel on which the god sat.

Dionysus and Yahweh (Adonai)
Another intriguing aspect of this coin, particularly in view of the possible Greek influence, is that what appears to be a mask lies at the seated figure's feet...That Yahweh's worship had its orgiastic aspects is not its only tie to Canaanite paganism. Yahweh is also referred to in the Bible as El, or its plural Elohim. The name El can merely mean a "god," or can mean the specific deity.

Melchizedek - also referred to as El Elyon

Jehovah and the Serpent of Chaos


Thou didst divide the sea by thy might;
thou didst break the heads of the dragons of the waters.
Thou didst crush the heads of Leviathan,
thou didst give him as food for the creatures of the wilderness
- Psalm 74:13-14

Was it not thou that didst cut Rahab in pieces, that didst pierce the dragon? - Isaiah 51:9b

In that day the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea - Isaiah 27:1


Clearly, such references serve to link Jehovah to other dragon-slaying gods such as Baal, Marduk, Zeus, Sigurd, Odin, Perseus, and so on.

Jews and the Goddess
As a result of the conquest of Judah by the Chaldeans, culminating in the sack of Jerusalem in 586 BCE, many Jews fled to Egypt. Eventually, during the Persian period, some of the Jews of the Egyptian Diaspora were settled in a military colony at Elephantine, south of Thebes near the first cataract of the Nile. There they built a temple where they worshiped Yahweh— along with the goddess Anath and two other deities called Eshem and Herem. That the worship of Yahweh was not separated from that of other Canaanite deities in some cases even after the Exile is significant but hardly surprising given evidence from the Bible itself. Jeremiah condemns the Jewish refugees in Egypt for burning incense and pouring libations out to the Queen of Heaven as well as baking cakes bearing her image (Jer. 44:15-28). The Queen of Heaven was the goddess variously known as Anath and Ashtart (Astarte). She was not the only deity other than Yahweh to be worshiped in Israel before the Exile.

Ishtar and Baal
The Canaanite gods were themselves often variants of Sumerian and Babylonian deities. Ashtart (Astarte) is the western version of Ishtar, and Baal is the western version of Bel.

Tammuz as Adonis
The myth of Ishtar and Tammuz was transferred to Greek mythology as the myth of Aphrodite and Adonis. The Greek name Adonis was actually a variant of another name for Tammuz, Adon or Adonai, which simply means "My Lord." In fact, when Abraham and other biblical personages refer to God as "Lord" the word often used in Hebrew isAdonai.

Moloch and Yahweh
Another common appellation of a god was "king," a word represented in the Semitic alphabet by letters equivalent to M- L-K, M-L- Ch or M- L-C. It is part of many western Semitic names such as Elimelech, Abimelech, and, of course, Molech (also spelled Moloch), that dread god to whom the Phoenicians supposedly sacrificed their children. In other variants of the name vowels were not always inserted between the L and the Ch (C), as in Melchizedek and Milcom…Another possibility, however, is that the sacrifices were not for Molech as a foreign god. According to Diodorus Siculus, a Greek historian from Sicily who lived in the first century BCE, human sacrifice in the eastern Mediterranean was limited to Kronos, the Greek equivalent of El. Thus, the god Molech, meaning "king," could be an epithet for El, and neither Ahaz nor Manasseh would have seen anything wrong with the practice of sacrificing their sons to him. (In other words, Moloch was not a specific god. The name referred to Yahweh or El).

Babylonian Origin of the Prometheus Myth
In both Atrahasis and Enuma elish the gods find the lullu too obstreperous to deal with and act to limit their powers. This is somewhat echoed in Adapa. There, Adapa, king of Eridu, seems to stand in the place of Adam. For example, he is given great wisdom so that he can give a name to every concept, just as Adam was given the honor of naming all things living. As I noted in the introduction, words were in ancient times thought to have magic power and the right to name something gave the one doing the naming power over what was named. (Having Adam name Eve is a further demotion for one who was once a goddess.) One day Adapa's power got out of hand, however, when he used a spell to break the wings of the south wind. Summoned before the gods, he is told by his father, the god Ea, not to eat or drink anything the gods give him, that what they offer him will be poison. Anu is so impressed by Adapa's contrition and piety that he offers him the bread and water of life that will make him immortal. When Adapa refuses them, Anu elicits from him that Ea had so counseled him. Anu laughs and sends Adapa back to earth doomed to die.

Anath
Baal's sister/lover was Anath, one of the deities associated with Yahweh at Elephantine. She is represented in Ugaritic texts as slaughtering the enemies of Baal and wading in their blood. She was also called Astarte or Ashtart in her role as a fertility goddess who was associated with Baal. Given that Anath was worshiped with Yahweh at Elephantine, and that Tammuz was the lover of Astarte, it is not surprising that women were weeping for Tammuz at the Temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem.

Asherah, Consort of Yahweh
Another prohibition, found in Deut. 16:21, forbids planting a tree as an Asherah, a representation of a goddess of the same name who was the consort of El in the Canaanite pantheon, next to the altar of God. In fact, it is probable that Asherah was considered to be the consort of Yahweh (just as she originally was of El) up until the time of the Exile.

The goddess Asherah, consort of Yahweh, was often represented in statuettes as a woman holding her breasts whose body below her breasts becomes a flaring tree-like base. These "pillar figurines," as they are called, are common in the archeological strata dating from the time of the Israelite kingdoms. Her image, perhaps a large wooden carving, stood next to the altar in the Jerusalem Temple.

Away from the Temple Asherah was worshiped in sacred groves…Indeed, her name means "grove" in Hebrew.

Ashratum
In the Sumerian and Babylonian pantheons Anu was the original ancient patriarch of the gods, and his wife was Ashratum, a variant of Asherah, consort of the West Semitic patriarch god EL.

Eve and Asherah
…it seems readily evident that Eve was at one time a goddess in her own right or at least an aspect of either Astarte or Asherah.

Hurrian Origins of the Primal Conflict
In Hurrian myth the first king of the gods is Anu, just as in Babylonian myth. He is castrated and overthrown by Kumarbi, who is in his turn overthrown by Teshub. This was mirrored in Greek myth by Ouranos (Uranus) being castrated and overthrown by Kronus (Saturn), who is in turn overthrown by Zeus (Jupiter).

The Hurrian (Caucasian) Eve
To understand the significance of Eve we must first consider that her name is the anglicized form of the Hebrew original Hawah (or Hawwah), which is related to the words hay "life" and hayyah "living." It might mean "life giving." It was originally written in Semitic alphabets as the equivalent of HWH. (or ChWH, since the first letter is heth rather than hey). By substitution of related consonants the name Hawwah, with a skeleton (Kh,H) _ (V,W,B,P) _ H, can be shown to be related to Hebe, the Greek goddess of youth. The dropping of the final h, which would be silent if retained in the goddess's name (Hebeh), parallels our own version of Hawwah, Eve (or Heveh, if the letter "h" is retained). Like the semivowels y and w, h is easily dropped in variations of a name. Hebe's role as cupbearer for the gods and as the goddess of youth meant that she was the guardian of the foods that conferred immortality. Hebe is a Greek word meaning "youth," a concept not that far from "life." The relationship of her name to that of Havvah might

Note: Officially, the Hurrians are considered to have originated in lands west of the Zagros mountains and perhaps in Armenia. They and their language make an appearance around 2700 BC. The Hurrian civilization was largely situated across modern day Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. They conquered the Hittites and had many kingdoms in Northern Mesopotamia. Their cultural and religious elements and linguistic tropes appear to have been adopted by the Babylonians, Hittites and Sumerians. (Teshub, a prototype of Zeus, and the deities Nergal and Ea find their antetypes in the Hurrian pantheon. This goes for the Biblical Eve who is a later variant of the Hurrian goddess Hebat). In the Old Testament, the kingdom of the Hurrians is referred to as Mitanni. The Bible refers to the Hurrians as Hovites or Hivites. The Hurrians are officially considered an Indo-Aryan people, which means that they are considered racially Caucasian. They were probably related to the Sumerians, Amorites, Hittites, and Kassites of Old Babylon. One of the great Hurrian kings was Barattarna or Paratarna. This name indicates that he was of British ancestry. The name British derives from the goddess Bharat, and from the Barats or Parats, and ancient “Aryan” race that once existed throughout Europe. (For more information on the Barats, refer to the works of Professor L. A. Waddell)


See below for links on the Hurrians

Hurrian Origins of Eve
Yahweh's triumph over the dragon of the sea, which, as we saw, is alluded to in Isaiah and a number of the Psalms, clearly mirrors the Canaanite and Babylonian combat myths, it is equally clear that Yahweh was originally Israel's national variant of Marduk, Baal and Teshub. Hebat is represented as standing on a lion. Thus her iconography fits that of both the Babylonian Ishtar and the West Semitic Ashtart-Anath, who was often shown naked, standing on a lion. Both Hebat and Ishtar are clothed, but the identity of Ishtar with Ashtart is firm. So the iconography of all three goddesses is essentially the Same…once Baal worship was expunged from Israel, Yahweh seems to have also acquired Ashtart-Anath, the "queen of heaven," who eventually seems to have been merged with Asherah. That Hebat's iconography and position so match those of Ashtart, and that her name is related to that of Hawah, indicates that Hawah, "the mother of all living," was originally a title of the mother goddess/consort identified with either Ashtart or Asherah.

Eve as Co-Creator of Man
...the gods make primordial humans, the lullu, by mixing the blood of a rebellious deity (Wa'ila in Atrahasis and Kineu in Enuma elish ) with clay, out of which the lullu are made. In both cases the mother goddess (either Nin-tu or Aruru) molds diem under the supervision of a male deity (either Enki or Marduk). In Atrahasis when Nin-tu has made the first humans she says, "I have created, my hands have made it." Eve says, upon bearing Cain (Gen 4:lb), "I have gotten a man with the help of Yahweh." The word translated as "gotten" is qanah, which, as previously noted, can also be translated as "created." That Eve says she has created Cain with Yahweh's help hearkens back to the Mesopotamian stories where the mother goddess makes the lullu with the help of a god (Enki, Ea or Marduk). In an article in the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia (vol. 4, p. 198) Simon Cohen says of this passage: The utterance of Eve at the birth of Cain is somewhat obscure; the text may be corrupt, and a possible rendering is "I, as well as God have created a man."…Yahweh originally had a consort, and in the original rendering of the myth Hawah as the "mother of all living" and a goddess, was probably taking credit as co-creator of the human race. Another way Eve might be taking credit for creating Cain is that qanah means 'gotten" as in ^gotten. And, given the ambiguities of the verse, it can be translated as, "I have gotten a man by Yahweh." That is, Eve might be claiming Yahweh as Cain's father and that she is the wife of Yahweh.

Yahweh and Hawwah co-create the human race. She initiates ha-adam as its representative into the mysteries, making him wise, civilized and self-conscious of death. Yahweh points out that man's knowledge will lead him to threaten their position by becoming immortal and drives him from the tree of life. Or perhaps the divine pair have created human servants to whom a saraph gives a forbidden secret by which they might become as the gods. For this act Yahweh demotes him, plucking off his wings…Perhaps it is at this point that, armed with his new wisdom, ha-adam recognizes just who Hawwah is and hails her worshipfully as the mother of all living. Having become this wise the human is now a threat, and Yahweh expels him from the garden lest he taste of the tree of life and become fully divine. It is interesting to note in this regard that the Bible does not say that Adam and Eve were driven out of the garden, only that the manor rather ha-adam (humanity) was driven out, a possible indication that Hawwah, as Yahweh's consort, remained behind. Regardless of whether any of these myths ever existed it is plain from the fact that before the Exile the Yahwist reformers were not able to rid the Temple of the images of Asherah on a permanent basis, that Yahweh originally had a consort. It is also plain that Eve has far too many divine antecedents, such as Hebat and Ninti, to have originally been anything other than a goddess.

Woman as Initiator
That woman was considered the initiator into adult life can be seen in the initiation of Enkidu into civilized society by a woman in the epic of Gilgamesh. In that story Enkidu is fashioned of clay by the goddess Arum (maker of the lullu in Enuma dish) to defeat Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, whom the gods see as overweening. It is clear that Enkidu is alullu, one of the original, unlimited human beings. Set down in the wilderness outside of Uruk, he lives in harmony with the animals, grazing on grass and drinking from the water hole with them. When the sight of him terrifies local herdsmen and their report is brought to Gilgamesh, he decides to send out a temple prostitute named Shamhat to seduce the wild man into civilized ways. Once he has lain with her—an act that would have sacred significance since temple prostitutes were priestesses through whom worshippers experienced sexual union with the deity— Enkidu finds fhat the animals regard him with fear. His sexual initiation, making him fully human through intimate association with divinity, has estranged him from the natural world since he is no longer just another unselfconscious animal. Psychologically, he sees himself as a separate entity and has lost the childlike identification with the world that he had previously known.

Eve and the Serpent
Another indication of Eve's association with the serpent lies in a possible alternate meaning of her name. Hawwah might well be related to hewya, an Aramaic word meaning serpent. This fits the fact that the Phoenicians worshiped a serpent goddess written as HWT or HVT, a name that would be cognate with that of the Hurrian goddess Hebat (HBT)…Hawwah might at one and the same time be related to HWH, "life giving" and a word for serpent.

The Sumerian Eve
In a Sumerian myth the god Enki violates a taboo by eating forbidden herbs created by Ninhursag, who then curses him with death. Later she relents and revives Enki by creating deities to heal each part of his body. The goddess Nin-ti is created to heal the rib. Nin-ti means literally "lady of the rib." The name is related to Nin-tu, "lady of life," simply one of Ninhursag's titles. In some variants of the story Nin-ti is actually created from Enki's rib. This story, which was already over a thousand years old by the time the J document was written is clearly a precursor of not only the creation of Eve, but as well the Fall of Man and his loss of immortality resulting from eating forbidden fruit.


Note: This legend finds its origin in Ireland in the myth of Airmed and Miach.

Atrahasis Legend
The story of Atrahasis begins before the creation of human beings, when the lower gods, the Igigi, tired of laboring to keep the high gods, the Anunaki, in luxury, revolt and refuse to do any further work. Since this upsets the divine order, two of the Anunaki, Ea (called Enki by the Sumerians) and the goddess Nin-tu (Ninhursag), kill Wa'ila, leader of the Igigi, mix his blood with clay and mold from the mix seven pairs of "savage" human beings called lullu. These take the place of the Igigi as laborers, allowing all of the gods to rest. However, the din of the new servants disturbs the rest of the gods. Disturbing the rest is a metaphor for rebellion and challenge in the Mesopotamian myths, rest or freedom from labor being the prerogative of gods and kings. After a number of attempts to limit the power of the lullu by plagues, the gods finally decide to destroy humanity in a flood. However, Ea, wisest of the gods, warns the king of Eridu, Atrahasis ("exceedingly wise"), of the coming flood and tells him to build an ark for his household and to fill it with foodstuffs and necessary animals. When Atrahasis survives the flood, the other gods are angry with Ea until they smell the sweet savor of the hero's burnt offering. They realize that they need humans as servants, reconcile themselves to the fact that humans, having the blood of Wa'ila as part of their make up, will always have a rebellious streak, and decide not to try to destroy human beings again. However, they also act to mute the spark of the divine imparted to humans by a god's blood. The new humans, the nisu, are less powerful than the lullu and do not disturb the repose of the gods. The world is now settled, stable and orderly.

…the Akkadian story Atrahasis is replaced by the Babylonian Enuma elish. Yet both stories served as precursors for Genesis, Atrahasis for the J document and Enuma elishfor P. We also see that we must often look beneath the surface of a biblical tale to see material that has been buried for religious and political reasons. The combat myth that was an integral part of Enuma elish, though edited out of Genesis 1, survived in fragments scattered among the Psalms and in Isaiah, as well as other books of the Bible.

Related Creation Myths
…we should briefly consider the Genesis 2 creation account and the idea that people were created from the soil. This, of course, is very similar to the creation of the lullu in both Atrahasis and Enuma dish. There is also an Egyptian creation myth in which Ptah creates humans on a potter's wheel. In the Mesopotamian creation myths the blood of a divine being is mixed with the clay to animate it. In Genesis 2 God breathes into the man's nostrils; i.e. he puts his spirit into the clay to animate it. This is similar to Hesiod’sTheogony (800 BCE), which was probably being written down at about the same time as the J document. In this myth Prometheus molds people out of clay under the supervision of Athena, who then breathes life into them. Both the breath and blood were seen by the ancients as carriers of the life force. Hence either the deity's breath or blood was required to animate the inert clay.

Before the Fall
Formerly humans were able to change shape and, taking on an animal form, to communicate directly with the animals. They were also able in the twilight world to communicate directly with the gods. Now they are unable to have either form of direct communion unless it is done through a special ritual. In other words self-consciousness severs humans from their original preconscious identification with the cosmos.

The Deluge Legend
…of the material between the Fall and Noah's flood is from the J document. It consists of three major divisions: the Cain and Abel story, the genealogies of the descendants of Cain and Seth, and the Nephilim. While this material has been ordered in such a way as to demonstrate increasing wickedness in the world, it is quite evident that these stories were originally three separate narratives having nothing much to do with either the original creation story or the flood.

Envy of Cain
The story as told in Genesis 4 is that Cain is a farmer, Abel is a shepherd, and they both bring offerings to God. Cain brings his first fruits, Abel his first lambs. God rejects Cain's offering with the implication that Cain did not do well (Gen. 4:6-7). But in the spare biblical narrative we are not told just what was wrong with Cain's offering. Out of jealousy Cain kills Abel. Out of jealousy Cain kills Abel. He tries to hide the deed from God by feigning ignorance, saying when God asks Abel's whereabouts, "I do not know; am I my brother's keeper? (Gen. 4:9b). But God says that Abel's blood cries out from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive it from Cain's hand.

Note: This motif is found in earlier Irish legends.

Who Was Cain?
...Qayin means a metalworker, and the nomadic Qeni are considered to be a clan, guild or fraternity of itinerant smiths who bore a mark, possibly on their foreheads, as a sign that their lives were sacrosanct. This would fit Cain's unusual position of being at the same time an outcast and yet protected. But how do we account for the position of theQen? Why were they outcasts and why were their lives sacrosanct? Smiths were often regarded as sorcerers in ancient times. No doubt guilds or fraternities of smiths closely guarded the secrets of metallurgy, which built up a mystique concerning such metals as bronze, an artificial alloy not found in nature, and iron, which in its reduced form is only found naturally in meteorites. Thus, until ironworking was a commonly held skill, whoever could smelt iron could make something otherwise only made by the gods. This, plus the status of the god of the forge as a creator, made smiths a force to be reckoned with. Such people, while enjoying special rank and privilege, are not likely to be welcome as permanent residents lest their dread magic leak out and cause things to go awry. Furthermore, a group separated out by holy marks and special taboos would not be allowed either by their code or that of the Hebrews to marry into the host peoples in most situations. It is notable that Moses, related by marriage to the Kenites, was, as a Levite, a member of another group segregated from the Israelites in general as a tribe of priests, a tribe mat did not have its own territory but was scattered among the others. There were probably two basic ways to deal with smiths in ancient times. One was to do something to weaken them and thus bring them under one's power. This would particularly be the case if one wanted to keep the smith from selling his services as a weapon maker to another city. In Greek myth Hephaestos is lame. In the Norse myth of Volund the smith, King Nithoth captures the famed metalworker then lames him to keep him from escaping. As protection from that kind of treatment the Qayin may well have worn a mark (a tattoo?) on his forehead that was a sign of divine prohibition against harming him. Thus the Qeni were probably dealt with in the second way. They would, in most cases, be excluded from the tribal membership and not allowed private ownership of land. This would make them dependent on the hospitality of the people who came to diem to buy or repair metal goods. Their itinerant way of life was balanced against their sacrosanct status in a way that both limited and protected them.

Tubal Cain
Cain's descendant Tubal-cain, according to Gen. 4:22, was the first metalworker. Tubal is listed in the table of nations in Gen. 10:2 as a son of Japheth and stands for the kingdom of Tabal in eastern Asia Minor. By substitution of consonants the name Tubal (T-B-L) becomes Tibar (T-B-R). The Tibarenians, some of whom might have filtered into Canaan at the time of the Hittites, were among the earliest peoples to smelt and work iron. Thus, Tubal-cain, or Tibar-qayin, becomes an ironsmith. In Gen. 4:22 his actual description is "forger of all instruments of bronze and iron."

The Leviathan Myth
In Hebrew the words that are translated as "without form" and "void" are tohu andbohu, which, literally translated, are "chaos" and "emptiness." The deep, tehom, is related to tohu, and its intensive form (also its plural), tehomot, is cognate with Ti'amat, the Mesopotamian chaos dragon. Bohu is likewise related to a primeval chaos beast, as can be seen from its related forms, hehom and behomot or Behemoth. In Job 40:15-24 Behemoth is described as a powerful land beast with some characteristics of a hippopotamus, and Job 41 describes the sea dragon Leviathan, or in Hebrew Levyatan. If we consider that the v can be as easily be represented by a w and that the w and the yare both semivowels, then the consonant skeleton would be L_T_N, the same as Lotan, the Canaanite sea dragon killed by Baal.

Original Serpent Gods of Olympus
...according to some Greek myths, a goddess named Eurynome and her husband Ophion ("serpent") ruled on Olympus before being overthrown by Kronos and Rhea (who were in turn displaced by Zeus and Hera).

The West
The far west was regarded by the ancients as either the land of the dead or a divine realm, a paradise.

Ladon
This oracular serpent has one hundred heads and speaks all of man's languages.

St. George a Caucasian God
The principal deity for all practical purposes is the patron saint of the Caucasian region, St. George of Cappadocia, from whom the land of Georgia is popularly supposed to have received its name...He not only causes the herds to multiply, but he heals animals and men and protects his worshippers in times of peril. He is, furthermore, a storm god and solar deity, with his throne on a lofty mountain, whence he sends upon the fields of the wicked the hail that his servants, the divs (Av. daeva."demon"), bring from the sea at his bidding.

Gospel of Mark
Thus, though biblical scholars generally date the Gospel of Mark from a little after 70 CE, the earliest copy we have of it dates from the third century CE and it was, like all such copies, subject to such vagaries as deliberate alteration to fit political and religious views of the copyists, as well as innocent scribal errors.

Interchangeable Consonants
The substitution of related consonants, in this case an m for a p, is typical of the way names change over time. Both m and p are part of a family of consonants called bilabials. The first member of this group in our Roman alphabet is b. We make the bsound by putting our lips together, then forcing them apart with our breath. The psound is made the same way, the difference being that we add our voices to b, but only our breath to p. The m sound is made by putting our lips together, the way we do withb and p, and letting our voices vibrate against the closed lips and resonate through the nasal cavity. Thus, b, p, and m are all related.

Ancient Languages
Not only is transliteration important and potentially tricky, so too is simple translation. Many languages have far fewer words than English. Thus these words have multiple meanings.

The Name “Adam”
Concerning Yahweh's creation of man from the soil, the name Adam, used by us to specify the proper name of a male human being, should be considered more as it was in Hebrew, where ha-adam merely means "the human." The Hebrew word for man as male is ish, while ishah means woman. Ha-adam is closely related to ha-adama "thesoil." Thus, we should probably think of ha-adam as "the earthling"…ha-adam merely meant human and was not originally a discrete person of male gender, since the word could be taken as standing for the human race, male and female as the first people were molded in Mesopotamian and Greek myth; what then do we make of Eve?

Etymology
Pan - means "all."
Eurynome - similar to Irish goddess Eri.
Arum - similar to Irish Eri. In the legend of Gilgamesh, Enkidu is, like Adam, fashioned from clay by the goddess Arum.
Europa - word is derived from Erebeh, meaning "westerner."
Eden - derives from a Hebrew root dn meaning "abundance" or "luxury."
Hurrian - the name is most probably a variant of Aryan or Arya, since the letter "H" was often a prefix signifying "the." It selection of vowels was most likely a duplicitous attempt on the part of historians to disguise the fact that the Hurrians were most probably members of the Arya.


Links on Hurrians
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitanni
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barattarna
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Hittites
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khabur_River
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagar,_Syria
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ne%C5%A1a
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuzi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halaf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_von_Oppenheim




◊ ◊ ◊



From
Aryan Sun Myths
by Charles Morris





The Arya
Almost all that we have of legend comes to us from our Aryan forefathers.

Branches of the Aryan race migrated to the east and to the west. One of the offshoots, at the west, founded the Persian kingdom; another built Athens and Lacedasmon, and became the Greek nation; a third went on to Italy, and reared the city on the seven hills, which grew into imperial Rome. A distant colony of the same race excavated the silver mines of prehistoric Spain ; and the first glimpse at ancient England reveals Aryan descendants fishing in willow canoes. Germany also was peopled by the Aryans. Meanwhile other bands of Aryans had gone forth, from the primitive home in Central Asia, to the seacoast. Powerful bands found their way through the passes of the Himalayas into the Punjab, and spread themselves, chiefly as Brahmans and Rajputs, over India.

The Nordic “David and Goliath”
They had a legend corresponding to the Hebrew story of David and Goliath, in which their hero Thor (the Sun) throws a hammer at Hungnir, striking him in the forehead.

Baldur, the Slain God
Baldur was slain by the sharp thorn of winter, descended into Hell, and rose again to life and immortality.

The Nordic Trinity
The Scandinavians worshipped a triune God, and consecrated one day in the week to him, the day being called to the present time Odin's, or Woden's, day, which is our Wednesday.

The Nordic Hell
In ancient times Hell, or Hades, was a place neither of reward nor punishment, but was simply the home of the dead, good and bad alike, the word primarily signifying nothing more than the hollow grave, hole, pit, cavern, or other receptacle which receives the dead. By the Aryans, Hades was supposed to be in the far west, which to them was always the region of darkness and death, as the east was of light and life.

Pre-Christian Christianity
The opinion that the Pagan religions were corruptions of the religion of the Old Testament, once supported by men of high authority and great learning, is now," in the words of Professor Muller, "as completely surrendered, as the attempts of explaining Greek and Latin as the corruptions of Hebrew," the Egyptians; they worshipped the sun, moon, stars, and all the hosts of heaven; they worshipped fire, and kept it burning on an altar, as did the Persians and other nations; they worshipped stones, revered an oak-tree, and bowed down to images; they worshipped a virgin mother and Child

Justin Martyr, in his dialogue with Trypho, says that there exist not a people, civilized or semi-civilized, who have not offered up prayers in the name of a crucified Saviour to the Father and Creator of all things.

Eusebius says that the names of Jesus and Christ were both known and honored by the ancients.

Saint Augustine says: "That in our times is the CHRISTIAN RELIGION, which to know and follow is the most sure and certain health, called according to that name, but not according to the thing itself, of which it is the name; for the thing itself which is now called the CHRISTIAN RELIGION really was known to the ancients (See Opera Augustini, Vol.1)

Christians as Sun Worshipers
The early Christians were charged with being a sect of sun-worshippers. The Emperor Hadrian could see no difference between them and the followers of the ancient Egyptian god Serapis, who was the Sun. In a letter to the Consul Servianus, the Emperor says:


There are there [in Egypt] Christians who worship Serapis and devoted to Serapis are those who call themselves ‘Bishops of Christ.'

Sign of Aries (The Savior)
Yearly the sun-god, as the zodiacal horse (Aries), was supposed by the Vedic Aryans to die to save all flesh. Hence the practice of sacrificing horses. The "guardian spirits" of the Prince Sakya Buddha sing the following hymn:


Once, when thou wast the white horse,
In pity for the sufferings of man,
Thou didst fly across heaven to the region of the evil demons,
To serve the happiness of mankind.
Persecutions without end,
Revilings and many prisons,
Death and murder,
These hast thou suffered with love and patience,
Forgiving thine executioners.

The Christian Cross
Not until the pontificate of Agathon (AD 608) was Christ represented as a man on a cross. During the reign of Constantine Pogonatus, by the Sixth Synod of Constantinople (Canon 82) it was ordained that instead of the ancient symbol, which had been the lamb, the figure of a man nailed to a cross should be represented. All this was confirmed by Pope Adrian I.

Tertullian, a Christian Father of the second and third centuries, in writing to the Pagans, says: The origin of your gods is derived from figures moulded on a cross. All those rows of images on your standards are the appendages of crosses; those hangings on your standards and banners are the robes of crosses.

It would appear that the crucifixion was not commonly believed in among early Christians. It is contradicted three times in the Acts of the Apostles. "Whom ye slew and hanged on a tree" (Acts 5:30), says Peter of Jesus. He states again (10:39) “Whom they slew and hanged on a tree;" and repeats (13:29), "They took him down from the tree and laid him in a sepulchre." There is no crucifixion, as commonly understood, in these statements.

Saint Irenaeus (AD 192), one of the most celebrated, most respected, and most quoted of the Christian Fathers, tells us on the authority of his master, Polycarp, who had it from Saint John himself, and from others, that Jesus was not crucified at the time stated in the Gospels, but that he lived to be nearly fifty years old.

In the London University a cross upon a Calvary is to be seen upon the breast of one of the Egyptian mummies. Many of the Egyptian images hold a cross in their hand. There is one now extant of the Egyptian Saviour, Horus, holding a cross in his hand, and he is represented as an infant on his mother's knee, with a cross on the back of the seat they occupy. (See R. P. Knight’s Ancient Art and Mythology.)

The Brahmins
The symbols held as sacred by the Brahmans the cross, serpent, dove, mitre, crosier, triangle, tripod, trefoil, key, fish, and sacred heart, are now venerated by Christians, while the teachings of Brahmanism are very similar to the familiar teachings of the New Testament.

Jamalgiri Monastery Scenes
In the Jamalgiri remains and other sculptures brought to light by General Cunningham, near Peshawur, it is stated that a complete set of illustrations of the New Testament might be made, such as Mary laying her child in a manger, near which stands a mare with its foal ; the young Christ disputing with the doctors in the Temple ; the Saviour healing the man with a withered limb ; the woman taken in adultery kneeling before Christ, whilst in the background men hold up stones menacingly. Mr. Fergusson fixes the date of the Jamalgiri monastery as somewhere between the fifth and seventh centuries, AD 4. In the cave of Elephanta, over the head of the figure represented as destroying the infants, may be seen the mitre, the crosier, and the cross.

Babylonian Fall of Man
The Babylonians had a myth of the Creation and Fall of Man, which is almost identical with the account contained in Genesis. As they had this account fifteen hundred years or more before the Hebrews heard of it, the account in Genesis was unquestionably taken from the Babylonians. Cuneiform inscriptions, discovered by Mr. George Smith, of the British Museum, show conclusively that the Babylonians had this myth two thousand years before the time assigned as the birth of Christ. The myth appears to be a combination of the phases of sun-worship which denoted the generating power of the Sun.

The Phoenician Cross
On an ancient medal of the Phoenicians, brought by Dr. Clark from Citium (and described in his "Travels," Vol. II), this " Lamb of God " is described with the cross and rosary.

The Hindu Tree of Life
Among the most ancient traditions of the Hindoos is that of the Tree of Life, called Sbma, in Sanskrit, the juice of which imparted immortality. This tree was guarded by spirits. They had a legend of Paradise which reads as follows:


In the sacred mountain Meru, which is perpetually clothed in the golden rays of the Sun, and whose lofty summit reaches into heaven, no sinful man can exist. It is guarded by a dreadful dragon. It is adorned with many celestial plants and trees, and is watered by four rivers, which thence separate and flow to the four chief directions.

Christ and Krishna
Crishna had a beloved disciple, Arjuna, before whom he was transfigured, and to whom he said:


Whate'er thou dost perform, whate'er thou eatest, whate'er thou givest to the poor, whate'er thou offerest in sacrifice, whate'er thou doest as an act of holy presence, do all as if to me, O Arjuna. I am the great Sage, without beginning; I am the Ruler and the All-sustainer.

Again he said:


Then be not sorrowful; from all thy sins I will deliver thee. Think thou on me, have faith in me, adore and worship me, and join thyself in meditation to me; thus shalt thou come to me, O Arjuna; thus shalt thou rise to my supreme abode, where neither sun nor moon hath need to shine, for know that all the lustre they possess is mine.

I am the cause of the whole universe; through me it is created and dissolved ; on me all things within it hang and suspend, like pearls upon a string.

I am the light in the sun and moon, far, far beyond the darkness. I am the brilliancy in flame, the radiance in all that's radiant, and the light of Kghts." "I am the sustainer of the world, its friend and Lord; I am its way and refuge."

I am the Goodness of the good; I am Beginning, Middle, End, Eternal Time, the Birth, the Death of All."

Crishna was crucified, and is represented with arms extended, hanging on a cross, the nail-prints being visible in hands and feet, and with the spear wound in his side. One account speaks of him as having been shot in the foot with an arrow, by a hunter, who afterwards says to him:


Have pity upon me, who am consumed by my crime, for thou art able to consume me.

Crishna replies:


Fear not thou in the least. Go, hunter, through my favor, to heaven, the abode of the gods.

Crishna descended into Hell. In three days he rose from the dead and ascended bodily into heaven. All men saw him, and exclaimed," Lo! Crishna's soul ascends his native skies. At his death there came calamities and omens of every kind. A black circle surrounded the moon, the sun was darkened at noonday; the sky rained fire and ashes; flames burned dusky and livid; demons committed depredations on earth; at sunrise and sunset thousands of figures were seen skirmishing in the sky, and spirits were observed on all sides. Crishna was the second person in the Hindoo Trinity, "the very supreme Brahma; though it be a mystery how the Supreme should assume the form of man."

The Egyptian Tree of Life
The ancient Egyptians had the legend of the Tree of Life, the fruit of which enabled those who ate of it to become as gods…The cross was said to be the Tree of Nutriment, or Tree of Life.

Horus and Christ
Horus, another Egyptian name for the Sun, was said to have been born of the immaculate virgin Isis (the Moon), on the twenty-fifth of December. On this day the effigy of the infant Horus, lying in a manger, was exhibited amid great rejoicings. Being of royal descent, his life was sought by Typhon (darkness or night), and in consequence he was brought up secretly on the isle of Buto. Like other sun-gods, he was tempted, but was not vanquished. He is represented, in Egyptian art, as overcoming the Evil Serpent, and standing triumphantly upon him. It was said that he performed many miracles, among them the raising of the dead. He was finally slain, and descended into Hell. In three days he rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven. His death and resurrection were celebrated with great pomp. He was called the Royal Good Shepherd, Lord of Life, Only-Begotten, Saviour, the Anointed, or the Christ; and when represented as Horus Sneb, the Redeemer. He is generally represented as an infant in the arms of his mother Isis, or sitting on her knee ; and in many of these representations both the mother and child are black.

Isis
Isis was worshipped in Europe as well as Egypt, for centuries before and after the Christian era. She was worshipped as the Virgin Mother, and styled Our Lady, Queen of Heaven, Star of the Sea, Governess, Mother of God, Intercessor.

Isis was represented as standing on the crescent moon, with twelve stars surrounding her head ; precisely as the Virgin Mary is now represented in almost every Roman Catholic Church on the continent of Europe. She was also represented with the infant Horus in her arms, enclosed in a framework of the flowers of the Egyptian bean, the sacred lotus; as the Virgin Mary was afterwards represented in medieval art.

Tammuz
Tammuz was born on the twenty-fifth of December, and, like other sun-gods, suffered and was slain. The accounts of his death are conflicting. One, however, states that he was crucified. He descended into Hell ; he rose from the dead on the third day, and ascended into Heaven. His worshippers celebrated annually, in early spring, a feast in commemoration of his death and resurrection, with the utmost display. An image, intended as the representation of their Lord, was laid on a bier and bewailed in mournful ditties ; precisely as the Roman Catholics, at the present day, lament the death of Jesus, in their Good Friday mass. During the ceremony the priest murmured: "Trust ye in your Lord, for the pains which he endured our salvation have procured." This image was carried with great solemnity to a tomb. The large wound in the side was shown, just as, centuries later, the wound was displayed which Christ received from the spear-thrust.

Woman and Serpent
In the annals of the Mexicans, the first woman, whose name was translated by the old Spanish writers "the woman of our flesh," is always represented as accompanied by a great male serpent, who seems to be talking to her.

Adonis (Adonai) and the Rose Cross
The Rossi, or Rosicrucians, idea concerning this emblematic red cross says Hargrave Jennings, in his History of the Rosicrucians, "probably came from the fable of Adonis being changed into a red rose by Venus."

Hercules and Izdubar
The story of Hercules was known in the island of Thasos, by the Phoenician colony settled there, five centuries before the Greeks knew of it ; yet its antiquity among the Babylonians antedates that. He is identical with Izdubar, the Babylonian lion killer.

Like Moses, Bacchus was represented as horned. He was called the Law Giver, his laws being written on two tables of stone…Bacchus was called the Slain One, the Sin-Bearer, the Only-Begotten Son, the Saviour, and the Redeemer. His death, resurrection, and ascension were commemorated in early spring by festivals similar in character to those held by the Persians, Egyptians, Chaldeans, and others.

Ostara
The ancient Germans worshipped a virgin mother and child. The virgin's name was Ostara.

The Israelites (Hyksos)
We find, in Egyptian history, that at one time the land of Egypt was infected with disease ; and, through the advice of the sacred scribe Phritiphantes, the king caused the infected people to be driven out of the country. The infected people were the brick-making slaves, known as the Children of Israel, who were infected with leprosy. "The most noble of them went under Cadmus and Danaus to Greece, but the greater number followed Moses, a wise and valiant leader, to Palestine."

Sacerdotal Cities
The Mexican temples, teocallis, or Houses of God, were very numerous, there being several hundreds in each of the principal cities of the kingdom. There were long processions of priests, and numerous festivals of unusual sacredness, as well as appropriate monthly and daily celebrations of worship. The great cities were divided into districts, each of which was placed under the charge of a sort of parochial clergy, who regulated every act of religion within their precincts.





◊ ◊ ◊





From
The Ghebers of Hebron

by Samuel F. Dunlop









The Term Gheber


The Kabiri were worshipped at Hebron, the city of the Anâkîm, or anakas (kings, princes). They are the highest Planetary Spirits, the “greatest Gods” and “the powerful.” Varro, following Orpheus, calls these Gods...“divine Powers.” The word Kabirim when applied to men, and the words Heber, Gheber...Nevertheless, the good Fathers have made of Kabir the synonym of devil and of daimôn (spirit) a demon - Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (Collected Writings, Vol. 14)

The name Ghebers can also be translated as Khebars or Kabiri. It can also be renderedHeber, meaning "fire," or "bright," giving us the term Hebrew.

Astro-Theology
Astronomy, astrotheology and geometry were commonly taught in Egypt.

The Egyptians held that the legends about Osiris and Isis and all their other mythological fables refer either to the stars, their appearances and occultations and the periods of their risings, or to the increase and decrease of the moon, or to the cycles of the sun, or the diurnal and nocturnal hemispheres, or to the River. Those Egyptian priests, says Lepsius, were versed in astronomy, but mysterious and far from communicative; it was only after the lapse of time, and by polite attentions, that they allowed themselves to be induced to communicate some of their doctrines : but still the most part was kept concealed.

That this was the Jewish God we are told by Juvenal when he says that the Jews adore nothing but the clouds and heaven's divinity. They adore nothing but the clouds and heaven*s divinity - (Juvenal 14:97)

Precession
Before the period when Aries and Libra became the signs of the vernal and autumn equinoxes Taurus and Scorpio were contemporaneous with the equinoxes. The Bull then began the year with Isis-Vena. The two opposites were constantly rising above or descending below the horizon like the scales attached to the extremities of a balance. Typhon, the Adversary, represented the winter season (in Persian and Egyptian theory), the season of the decrease of light. He is that Old Serpent that was primitively located in Scorpio.

Biblical Concealment
As in certain amusements persons were expected to guess a word or a story from slight indications half concealed in the conversation the Semitic author of Genesis has left scarcely any traces by which to connect his narrative with the Mysteries; and yet this method has been selected to introduce the readers of scripture to the history of the 'Chosen People.'

Alterations to the Bible
The variations of the Greek and Hebrew text reveal to us a time when the functions of copyist and editor shaded into one another by imperceptible degrees. They not only prove that Old Testament books were subjected to such processes of successive editing as critics maintain, but that the work of redaction went on to so late a date that editorial changes are found in the present Hebrew text which did not exist in the manuscripts of the Greek translators."

Resurrection
The ancients seem to have founded their hopes of the resurrection of the soul and body entirely upon the notion that the Sun ~ returns from the region of Darkness and death under the earth's surface.

Meaning of “Jew”
The name of the Jews, Iaudi, is found in E. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften unci das Alte Testament...comes from Aud, the name of the Arabian God with blood-stained altars. The country where he was worshipped was called Audah. The I in Iaudi is a prefix, such as we find in Eremias (Ieremiah), Shemal (Ishmael), Essaioi (Iessaioi).

Disciples of Horus
The Horshesu can be translated "Servants of Horus" or "Successors of Horus." Sesu-Hor, in the singular, is cited in the inscription of Tonibos (under Totmes I.) as the most remote type of human antiquity…The Sesu-Hor had in the eyes of the Egyptians a character entirely analogous to that of the first Biblical patriarchs; justified by Osiris, they inhabit the regions of the blest destined for the virtuous souls, and the Rituel funeraire shows them to us gathering the abundant harvests produced by the celestial fields of Aaru. This information proves that the Sesu-Hor are merely human, and we are induced to think that under the name of dynasty of the Manes the Greek lists have transmitted to us merely a souvenir of the first Egyptians.

Egyptian Monotheism
G. Massey asserts that "the language of monotheism reaches its climax in the hymns and addresses to Amen-Ra, the one god, one in all his works and ways."

Black and White Shrines
The Arabians had two sacred idols at Mecca, one white, the other black. The white was worshipped when the sun entered the Lamb. The Ammonites brought incense to it. The black one was adored when the sun entered Libra (one of the six inferior signs).

Epopts or Eye-Witnesses
The epopts were admitted to the third, the highest grade of initiation in the Mysteries. It is seeing, Visionary, actual observation!

Book of the Dead
In a notice of the Egyptian Book of the Dead 14 it is stated that a majority of the chapters are of Heliopolitan 15 origin, the next largest number being due to Hermopolis. One chapter only—the 171st—can with certainty be attributed to Thebes ; and this chapter is found but in two documents, namely, the Brocklehurst papyrus No. 2, and the twenty-first Boulak papyrus. This is the only chapter in the whole Book of the Dead which mentions the name of either Thebes or Amen, whence M. Naville concludes that it is a Theban interpolation and consequently of more recent date than the rest. If the God of Thebes and his temples are passed over in silence it is, therefore, undoubtedly because the composition of the book dated back to an epoch anterior to the worship of Amen.

The Pyramid & the Decans
The pyramid bears evidence, in Lauth's opinion, of a knowledge of the 36 decans presiding over thirty-six weeks of ten days each. The 36th layer in size and height is distinguished from the rest, and something in the color of its casing outside may have marked it. Lauth counted 216 layers (to each side, probably) ; for he multiplies 36 x 6 = 216, giving six times 360 days to each side, and to the four sides 24 3^ears of 360 days each — which is, he says, just the duration of the reign of Sanefru, according to the Turin papyrus. The black summit suggests the night-heaven, which renders visible the distinguishing stars of the decans.

Androgyny


God has created the Adam of two faces, afterwards cut him apart and therefrom formed the Eua - (Talmud, Tr. Beracoth, fol. 61 coL 1. see Bodenschatz, Kirch. Verf. d. Judcn, part III. p. 231)

God has made the Adam so great that he reaches from the earth up to the firmament of heaven, or even from one end of the earth as far as the other - (Talmud Tr. Chagiga, fol. 12. col. 1)

The Orphic hymn: “Almighty Zeus is male, Almighty Zeus is female!”...Neith, the Goddess of Sais, was also represented as a female Kneph with ram's head. Knotel…quotes Champollion…Kneph…is the Supreme First Cause (See de Iside et Osiride).

The Egyptian regarded the beetle as double -gendered and self-producing. On a coin of Magnesia occurs the type of a Hermaphrodite. The idea of an original self-complete nature in which the distinction of sex has not yet been developed was characteristic of the cultus of Cybele, and is known to have been an Asiatic, not a Greek thought. The divine being has both principles, the masculine and the feminine, united in itself, like the source of light it divides and unites them again to create, or God can bring forth something with his own procreative power. Bhavani is the feminine principle separated into a Goddess, Maia, the Love that from eternity dwells with God. She is spouse of the creative Light-principle, becomes Mother of the three Gods and, again, their common wife, so that the great world-principle continues one and the same throughout the succession of formations. Those three Gods and their feminine parts, Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, become again with their Lady one form; they are hermaphrodite and receive the names of Bhavani as surname.

The Vedas (and Upanishads)
The Sanskrit ueda (the veda) is then the same root as the Greek oida and the Hebrew ida, meaning gnosis, vidh, uideo, video, uissen, wist, uisdom ttisxim, (visum). The Hebrews were Gnostics, for Gnosis is older than Christianity as a separated tendency of Judaism.


To the God who is in the fire, who is in the water, who entered the universe, who is in the annual herbs and who is in the regents of the forests, to this God be reverence, to him be reverence - (The Swetaswatara Upanishad)

He whose head is the fire, whose eyes are the moon and the sun, whose ears the quarters, whose revealed word the Vedas, whose vital air the mind, whose heart the universe, from whose feet the earth, is the inner Soul of all beings - (Mundaka Upanishad, mund. II)

God as Fire


We have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire - (Deuteronomy 5:24)

El
The God El l was the primal God of the Semite race known to the Hebrews as Hael (Hel), the Greek Aelios and Helios...Bel was regarded as the "Lord of the world who dost dwell in the temple of the Sun." (See Professor Sayce‘s Hibbert Lectures)

Abel of the Old Testament = Bel, the ancient Phoenician deity.

Horus
Horus is connected with Leo, is the Power of the sun, and has the Lion's head; he is called the cross, redeemer, freer, and he who transports from one place to another.

Isis and Nephthys
Let Isis (Ase, Asat), my good Mother, cry for me, and Neb-ta (Nephthys, Proserpine), my sister, (that) Salvation remain on my south and on my north - (Papyrus Magique).

Dionysus and Moloch
The oldest Dionysus was the fire-god Moloch.

The Horned Dionysus
Dionysus was represented with horns.

Mithras
The priests of Mithra were called ' leones,'…as the 'leones' were an order in the Persian Mysteries...The high places of Israel belonged to the Mithra worship and the Osiris worship.

Orpheus
Oreb means the West, the dwellers in the West, the Hesperides. The nii? Ereb, Erebus, is the Tamas of Hades, where Orpheus, the Bephaim, and Erebenna Night dwelt. Orpheus is the Chthonian Bacchus Liber, and Libera is the Euru-Dikc. Kiriath Arba is a city of the Western Palestine, the ancient Chebron or Hebron. Take the b in Orb, pronounce it a v, and we have Orva, Orfa, Orfe, Orfeus, the Dionysus orphneus.

Adon (Adonai, Adonis)
Adon as a mere name was called in Egypt Aten, and Atunis in Italy.

Orphic Hymn to Adonis


I invoke the First born, hermaphrodite, great, aether wandering
Egg-born, decorated with Golden-wings
Bull-faced, the procreator of the Blessed Gods and mortal men
Renowned Seed, many-orgied Erikapaeus
Not named, occult

The Goddess Rhea
Rhea (from “to pour out water“) having first received the powers of all things in her ineffable bosom pours forth perpetual generation upon everything. She is the lunar Dios Rhea, Alma Mater. See Eua or Eve, as the Nurse of the entire worlds (See Dunlap, Sod. II. 125)

Athena
Athena is from Atten, and is the name of the Persian Goddess Anaitis.

Demeter the Black
Demeter rises black from Hades, holding torches, with the Child Iacchos also holding a torch.

Ashera, the Tree of Life
The oldest symbols of Ashera were a tree, tree-trunk, unworked wood, a living- tree, since in its green growth an instance of physical life was apparent.

Venus and Persephone
Venus was jealous of Proserpina or Persephone, in respect of Adonis.

Jacob’s Period of Wooing
The number 7 of the years of Jacob's wooing (a fourth of a lunation) and the Egyptian Mourning are all that we have given us to connect the Lover with Adonis, Osiris, Cybele and Luna.

Scythians
The unfounded opinion that the Hyksos Shepherds were the Scythians has long- been refuted (Lepsius, Letters, 47(i, 478, 479 ; see the Academy, March 24, 1888, p. 211). A Hyksos king would not have given Ioseph an Egyptian name to do him honor, because the Hyksos were Arabian or Philistine Semites.

The Phoenicians
The Phoenician cities ran from the Mediterranean at Tyre across Galilee to the region of Jordan in late times.

In the inscription on the rock tablet of the twenty-second year of king Aahmes, the Fenekh (Phoenicians) are mentioned as a foreign people.

According to Strabo…the Egyptians derived their geometry, reckoning, and arithmetic from the Phoenicians by means of the trade and business.

The priestly order in the Delta was in close sympathy with if not derived from the temples of Philistia, Syria and the Negeb. The Philistians or Phoenicians may have erected the pyramids,1 and the Arabs have come in later as Horsemen or Hyksos.

Diodorus gives Khufu's second successor the name Khabrues (Herodotus gives Chephren) which can as well be referred to the Phoenician-Hebrew roots cdbar, gheber or chaber, cabir, as to the Egyptian root kheper or khopri.

It was the common idea of the Gods in Egypt, Phoenicia and Babylonia, that they wandered about there during their earthly life, taught men useful inventions and arts, where cities and monuments built by them and even the places of their birth and death were everywhere shown.2

The pyramid age precedes the 11th and 12th dynasties and seems to represent the Philistians or Phoenicians in Egypt.

The obelisks that were oldest in Egypt were nothing else but the Two Pillars that the Phoenicians were accustomed to set before their temples, and only later worked with Egyptian art, according to the custom of the country, until they appeared as an entirely peculiar Egyptian structure.

Another Phoenician God is Khrusor who is the Phoenician Vulkan, the Egyptian Patah or Ptah.

Chares is the Phoenician-Hebrew sun's name; it is the name of Choreb and the Charu (Syrians).

…Deuteronomy 2:23 mentions that the Phoenicians (the Keft or Kaphtorim) issued from Kaphtor (in Egypt, according to A. H. Sayce).

Iao of the Phoencians
The Chaldaeans had the mysterious Name Iao, the Jews had the unspeakable word Ihoh (the tetragramaton….and the Phoenicians had the mysterious Name Iao, the Ia of the Chaldaeans…the Iao of the Phoenicians.)

Hercules of the Phoenicians
This is the Phoenician Archaleus (Har-akal, the fire that eats), the Lion-god Ariel.

Egyptian-Phoenician Names
Compare such Egyptian names as Mena, Atot, Tot, Teta, Khufu, Ata, Khaphra, Aten, Aseth, Seti, Setes, Soris, Suphis, Chebron, Asaneth (Asaneta) with the Syrian names Manes, Atad, Ateta, Taut, Tat, Akub, Iakoub, lakoubos, Akbos, Akouph,6 Attai, Autaias, Atten, Kebrene (see Chephren), Set, Seth, Asara, Sur, Asebia, Asaph, Asipha, Iosiph (see Osar-siph), Hebron, Asana, Hassan: they are all Phoenician or Syrian names.

Askalaon
…the district east of Askalon and Akaron (Ekron) was the country of the Philistine Karu, watered by the Sorek and Besor, which, when the entire country was wooded and the trees on the mountains' had not yet been cut down, were larger streams than now.

Josephus, the Deceiver
Josephus said that the Jews were a sect of the Brahmans.

Josephus on the Hyksos-Israelites
Josephus claims the Hyksos as Hebrews, and says: It is clear from the years mentioned, reckoning the time, that the so-called Shepherds, our forefathers, inhabited this province 393 years before Danaos went to Argos.

Josephus (Ant. II. 5). Anyone can see that this speech of Josephus is a pure piece of Rhetoric, and that he was entirely ignorant of the status of the Hebrews (Abars, or Hebronites) in Egypt at a very early period, if they ever got there. In the "Life" of Josephus it is declared that the Jews are a sect of the Hindu philosophers, the Kallanoi. Kalanus was a gymnosophist who returned with Alexander from India and burned himself alive. Josephus maintains the Jewish statement which amalgamated the Exodus of the Beni Israel 1 with the expulsion of the Shepherds. The Jews did not like the description given of them by Manetho ; and, according to Prof. Lauth, they did not gain much by the exchange, " for the Hyksos were to the Egyptians the pestilence."

The Hyksos Conquered
The long contest between the Egyptians and Hyksos mentioned by Manetho occurred during the 17th dynasty from Amosis to Tuthmosis III. The former completely broke the foreign dominion and drove back the Hyksos to the northern part of the Delta ; but it was Tuthmosis who first succeeded in sending them out of their last stronghold of refuge, Abaris. From this arose the confusion that has so generally prevailed concerning these two kings.4 Amosis the first king of the 17th dynasty drove away the Hyksos, and in Josephus contra Apion, I. 15, the name Tethmosis is inserted in place of Amosis, while Syncellus 3 has the phrase " Amosis who is also Tethmosis." Amosis is placed by Manetho at the head of the dynasty that immediately follows the Hyksos dynasties: hence the inference was that he drove them out. Amosis as much as Tuthmosis might be regarded as the conqueror of the Hyksos.

Jewish Inscription
There were such under the Pharaohs. Egyptian land-surveyors are mentioned in an inscription on the tomb of Seti. " And they began the calumnies against us to be sure in Egypt. And some wishing to favor them undertook to pervert the truth, not admitting the coming of our progenitors into Egypt as it really happened, nor speaking truth about the Exodus. And they took up many causes of enmity and ill-will. The first thing was that our ancestors grew powerful in their country and, removing therefrom into their own, were again successful"

These words reveal a great deal. They admit that the Jewish story of the Hebrew entrance into Egypt and their Exodus from Egypt was already denied in the first century. Strabo, however, had heard, at Jerusalem or elsewhere, that the Moses was one of the Egyptian priests, that the Ioudaioi (Iaudi, from And, Ad) were descended from the Egyptians/' that Judaea (Adah, Adaia) was inhabited by mixed races of Arabs, Phoenicians and Egyptians, and that (as Juvenal said) they had no image. As this was about B.C. 50, it was high time for Strabo to have heard of it. He holds that the Jewish idea of the Deity is " this one (unity) which surrounds us all and earth and sea, which we call heaven and kosmos and the essence (phiisis) of the intelligible entities." A most intelligible description of Judaism! Theism at the root of the Intelligible Entities! Rather Platonic.

Osiris (Asari)
It is enough to find Asar, Asari, names of Osiris at Gizeh. The same name Movers finds in Phoenicia.

Osiris is Asar among the Ghebers of Phoenicia, the Kefa, Goub and Israel.

Osiris is the Nile, the Dark Water of Hades, but his name was originally Asar, Asari, and in the Seal of Iar it appears as Ousir (Oushir).

Osiris the Savior
Osiris was regarded as a Saviour in Egypt, and Turn, like Adonis, was considered the Greatest of Gods. Turn was styled ' the maker of men,' ' the Universal Lord,' ' the Creator God,' and ' the great Lord of created beings,' ' the producer of the gods.'

Black Osiris
Osiris is black because he has entered into and emerged out of Hades, the Underworld, the realm of the dead.

Israel and Osiris (Asar)
To explain the name Israel, take the name of Eleasar of Masada, the Jewish patriot, and it has been translated the Warrior God, from Asar, or Azar, Mars. Movers, Phonizier, p. 341, mentions the Phoenician Asar. Mars-Herakles was saluted in the rising- sun by the Syrians, the Salii, and even by a Roman legion, in the month of March. He was called Aclar, Azar, and Asar.

Osiris and Orion
Orion is the coffin of Osiris - the coffin of Mithra, born December 25th.

But the coffin of Osiris was Orion, at considerable distance from Bootes and the Great Bear. After finding Osiris, Isis gives hint burial…In the innermost recess where the uninitiated cannot approach they kept the idol of Osiris buried; this they annually mourn with laments, they shave their heads, in order to deplore the pitiable misfortune of the King- with the deformity of their disfigured heads, beat the breasts, lacerate the arms, cut again the scars of former wounds, in order that by annual mournings the grief of the fatal and pitiable murder be reborn in their minds. And when they have done these things on the appointed days they then feign that they find the remains of his torn body, and when they have found Osiris, as if their grief had ended they rejoice!

Saturn (The Hidden One)
Saturn is Kebo, the Sun descending to Hades. Servius, on the iEneid, remarks that Bel, by a certain calculation of the sacred rites or priests, was both Saturn and Sol. Saturn is the concealed Kab or Keb (chaba means to hide, to conceal, to do anythingsecretly, and to be concealed). Chabah means to hide one's self.

Saturn and the Underworld
Iliad, (14.:270 and 272) mentions 'all the Gods beneath, around Saturn…that dwell under Tartarus.'

The Underworld
The astronomers laid down the Styx in the 8th degree of Libra.

Set
Hence it is clear that Set was anciently considered to be the flame of the fiery sun…

Set was, prior to the King Apepi, the Clod of the north-eastern Delta and Syria.—Meyer, 55-58. He was God of the so-called Hyksos.

Set is the burning, destructive, Solar force, the red Typhon Set is written Sit, in Egyptian occasionally

Seth arranged the year, and means pillar.

…and Mr. Brugsch's " Khar " or " Chari " are as likely to mean the Achari-Phoenicians as any body, because Baal-Zebub was Seth (Sada, flaming fire) and was the Seth that the Egyptians hated in Akaron,4 as they did the Typhon!

According to Wiedemann Set was adored in Egypt.1 The word Setim (Sheto) is the same as Sethim…and the Jews are Sethites. The Sabians derived their religion from Seth.

Set (Seth) was worshipped in the land of the Sethim and all the way from the Nile to the Lebanon, by Hyksos, Jews, Philistans, and transjordans.

The followers of Seth set up pillars in the Siriau land (Siriadis) and were called in Egypt Shetha or Sheto.

…Seth, identified with Bal and probably with Taut or Tot, the God of the Hyksos and Kananites, is found at Memphis and Lake Mceris. His symbol is found immediately after the sparrow-hawk of Horus in the local cults, and he is located in Abaris and Tanis. In Lower Egypt the Seth-cultus belonged more particularly to Memphis and the north-eastern Delta. No evidence that it existed in Upper Egypt.

The story that Suphis (Khufu) was disdainful…towards the Gods (confirmed by Herodotus and Diodorus) is of a piece with the account of the Hyksos, that they were cruel to the people and hostile to the temples of the Gods. The Wahabee Arabs…were in Suphah…and that region (the desert east of the Amorite border) is proximate to the Aimim, the Zuzim and the Amanites (Chammanim). Apepi, the Hyksos leader, selected the Canaanite Set, as being his own God, to be worshipped, and ordered Easkenen (Ea-Sekenen the Theban sub-king) to do the same.

Set was the Sun. Sada meant fire, flame. El Sadi, "the mighty" fire god. Sat-Uranos, Saturn (Karanos, Kronos); while Asat (Ashat) is fire goddess Asata, Hestia, Uesata, Vesta! Consequently, Sat-t, the daughter (?) of Saneferu and wife of Khufu, has the name of Satis the fire goddess of Syria; for Esat, in Ethiopic, and isatu, in Assyrian, mean " fire." The accompanying deities of this period of the Fourth Dynasty are Saad, Set, Taut or Tat, Khein, Seb (Sev, or Seph), Saf, an ancient Goddess of books and, perhaps, chronology.

Ptah
Patach in Hebrew means door (Janua, Eanus, Ptah) and is the Hebrew Janus (Patah) that begins the year opening and ending the period of time.

Hollow Earth


Who descends beneath the hollow earth Knows the God-given beginnings of life - Pindar (Threnoi, 8)

My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth - (Psalm 139:15)

Additional Etymology

Judah - From Audah - which in Hebrew means “I will praise.”

“I will praise (Audah); therefore he called his name Iaudali.” (See Gen. 29:35)

Jack - From Iach or Iauchi meaning "he lives " or “life,” or “vital fire.”

Ach - meant fire, and, in Egyptian, it meant light. Akhu meant light.

Achah - (or Iach) means 'to burn.' Ach means “heater” or “fire pot.”

Pharaoh - Compare the name Afrah (Judges, 6:11), Apharow, Pharah (the name pharaoh), Aphara; and Apharah (1 Sam. 13:17)

Ar / Ra - are solar names.

Mer - means "loved " in Egyptian.

Iran - more correctly rendered Eiren

Ar = fire

Ari = lion

Orpheus - means “dark.”

Abraham - Abaram (from Bara, create) seems ton have been father to many of the Goiim (Gen. 17: 2, 4). Abar, means to be strong. Abir (Aber) means ' Mighty.'

Pharez - from Phar, to make to shine; the sun at daybreak. (See “fair“)

Amu - Egyptian Amu or Hebrew Amim, from am, meaning “people.”

Aa - in Egyptian meant 'mighty,' like Cabar in Semitic. Compare the Egyptian names, Aa-kheper-ka, Aakhepru-ra, Set-aapeh-ti, Ra-aakheper-ka-senebu, Aakheper-kara, Aakheper-en-ra.

Set - (like Sed or Shedim) - means demon.

Asat - the Hebrew Asat "woman" we can compare the Assyrian Assatu "wife"

Ab - was the month nearly corresponding to July, Tammuz (Adonis) is the preceding month; when Adonis dies. Abimelech is King of Ab (Leo is the Zodiacal sign) who carries Proserpina (the Moon-goddess) off at about this time, just as Proserpina carried away to Aidoneus (Hades) the Sun-god Adonis-Tamus in June. Sahra is the Moon ; and St. Jerome tells us to read an n an a : we thus get Sarah Luna.

Nasa = Hebrew, “elevated.”

Sarah - Of early Arabia we know but little except its worship of Saturn, Kronos, Dionysus and Aphrodite Ourania, and in the sketches of ancient Judea we are introduced to Adon (Iachoh) the Lebanon Life-god and to Ashera (the Syrian Venus), Sarah.

Asaria - similar to the place name Syria. Similar to Asari (Osiris).

Sair - a name of the Dogstar Sirius.

Azar - Assyrian name for the god Mars

Assyria - “Place of the Gods”

Asan - (Asa = Gods): A place in the Middle East (between Libnah and Asdod)

The Letter “T” - Khufu marries Sat-t (Sat, with a feminine termination t)

The Letter “H” - The name Api (Hapi) was already given to the Sacred Symbol of Water when the oldest pyramids were erected near Memphis.

K and G - often interchangeable

T and D - The Egyptian, “t” has to do the work of “d.”

Place Names - Places were supposed to be named after the supposed founders. Askalos founded Ascalon. Irad, Jared founded Eridu.

Masen (the city of Zaru) - may too have had its mythic founder (Mase, Masses, Moses), since it was near Abaris and Pelusium, the supposed line of some Exodus out of Egypt.

Daath - Hebrew, meaning “science” or “gnosis.“

Manasseh - Manasah is derived from nasa and means the "elevated."

“Para” - the Greek preposition "para" (whose first meaning is "alongside of") near…Para, with verbs of motion, means to go beyond, to pass beyond.

Chacham - Hebrew "wise man"

Eraz - Hebrew "earth."

Sid - (Shid) - meaning "Sun" and "Lord."

Pharaoh/Erra - "The tent of the Erra (Pha-Ra)...is beheld in the midst of the Egyptian camp, and near it is the movable shrine of the Great Gods of Egypt."

I and R - In Egyptian, anciently, I and R were apparently expressed by the same letter.