INTRODUCTION TO THE OLD RELIGION

LESSON 1

I. GODDESS RELIGIONS IN THE OLD WORLD

A. Gravettian-Aurignacian Cultures (25000 BC-15000 BC)

1. The Upper-Paleolithic period, though most of its sites have been
found in Europe, is the conjectural foundation of the religion of
the Goddess as it emerged in the later Neolithic Age of the Near
East.

a. There have been numerous studies of Paleolithic cultures,
explorations of sites occupied by these people, and the apparent
rites connected with the disposal of their dead.

b. In these Upper-Paleolithic societies, the concept of the
creator of all human life may have been formulated by the clan's
image of women, who were their most ancient primal ancestors.

(1) It is believed that the mother was regarded as the sole
parent of children in this culture.

(2) Ancestor worship appears to have been the basis of sacred
rituals and ancestry is believed to have been reckoned through
the matriline.

(a) The beginnings of Roman religion were based on survivals
of the Etruscan culture and ancestor worship was the earliest
form of religion in Rome.

(b) Even today, the Jewish people determine who is and is not
a Jew through the matriline.

2. The most tangible evidence supporting the theory that these
cultures worshipped a Goddess is the numerous sculptures of women
found throughout most of Europe and the Near East. Some of these
sculptures date as far back as 25,000 BC.

a. These small female figurines, made of stone, bone, and clay,
most of which are seemingly pregnant, have been found throughout
the widespread Gravettian-Aurignacian sites in areas as far apart
as Spain, France, Germany, Austria, and Russia.

(1) These sites and figurines appear to span a period of at
least 10,000 years.

3. Johannes Maringer, in his book 'The Gods of Prehistoric Man'
says- "It appears highly probable then that the female figurines
were idols of a Great Mother cult, practiced by the non-nomadic
Aurignacian mammoth hunters who inhabited the immense Eurasian
territories that extended from Southern France to Lake Baikal in
Siberia."

a. It was from this Lake Baikal area in Siberia that tribes are
believed to have migrated across a great land bridge to North
America about this time period, and formed the nucleus of what
was to become the race of American Indians.

(1) This tends to support the observation that European
witchcraft and American Indian shamanism have similar roots.

B. The Roots of Western Civilization

1. Western Civilization began in Mesopotamia and the Nile Valley,
where it traveled into Palestine and Greece.

a. From Greece civilization traveled to Rome,and as the Roman
Empire grew it spread to Spain, France, Germany and England.

2. Mesopotamia ( 3500 BC - 539 BC )

a. Mesopotamia ("the land between the rivers") is the name used to
describe the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the
southern area of which is mostly lowlying swampland and marshes.

(1) The fertile lands of Mesopotamia lie between the desert and
the mountains. The northern part has regular rainfall while the
southern part, stretching down to the Arabian Gulf, suffers dry
scorching summers from May to October.

(a) In what is now the southern part of Iraq, Sumer existed
as one of the world's first civilizations.

b. Between 2800 and 2400 BC the city-states of Sumer were at their
strongest and wealthiest.

(1) The Goddess was worshipped under various names which were
epithets, or characterizing phrases, such as 'Queen of Heaven'
and 'Lady of the High Places'. The name of the city or town that
She was the patroness for, was often attached to Her title
making Her name even more specific.

(a) An example of this is the temple erected about 3000 BC in
the city-state of Uruk which was dedicated to the Queen of
Heaven of Erech.

(b) This city was made a major power and rival to its sister
city Ur by Gilgamesh's son.

c. About 2350 BC an ambitious king, named Sargon, attacked
Sumer, and made it part of his huge Empire. His capitol of Agade
gave us the name by which Sargons empire is known- the Akkadian
Empire.

(1) The Akkadian Empire was the first successful attempt to
unite a huge area under the rule of one man. It eventually
gained supremacy in about 1900 BC and gradually superseded the
Summerians as the cultural and political leaders of the
region.

(a) The Akkadian language of the Babylonians became the
international language of the Near East, just as French
would become the language of diplomacy thousands of years
later.

(b) The new Babylonian culture incorporated the Sumerian
religion, and the Sumerian language was adopted as the
language of the liturgy much as Latin is used as the
language of liturgy for Roman Catholics.

(c) The sumerian Goddess, under the names Inanna, Eriskegan
and Irnini, evolved into the great Babylonian Goddess
Ishtar.

d. Approximately 1600 BC Babylon was sacked by an Indo-European
people known as the Hittites who came from Anatolia, off to the
northwest.

(1) During the confusion that ensued, the Kassites seized the
throne of Babylon and ruled peacefully for 400 years.

(a) Ishtar's power waned as the Babylonians were influenced
by the warlike Hittites and Her temples were taken over by
a male-dominated priesthood, which called the Goddess
Tiamat and wrote stories of how their god Marduk had killed
Her in the struggle for control of the region.

e. In the centuries following 1103 BC the Assyrians rose to
power and expanded into most of Mesopotamia from their homeland
which lay between the cities of Asher and Nineveh on the Tigrus
River.

(1) In the eighth century, the Assyrians conquered most of
Syria, Palestine, Phoenicia and had invaded Egypt as far as
Thebes (Luxor) before the Egyptians drove them back.

(a) Looking to legitimize their new empire, they 'married'
their god Asher to Ishtar, whose followers had secretly
kept Her worship alive.

(b) The joining of Ashur with Ishtar produced a son named
Ninurta, and this is the first formally recorded triad of
Goddess, Consort, and Divine Child in the Near East.

(2) From 631 to 539 BC much inter-city warfare occurred as
the Assyrian empire fell apart.

(a) In 539 BC Nabonius, the last king of Babylonia,
surrendered to Cyrus II of Persia who was busy building
the greatest empire ever attempted.

3. Anatolia

a. Anatolia, which is also called Asia Minor, is a broad peninsula
jutting westward from the Asian continent itself. To the north
lies the Black Sea, to the south the easternmost part of the
Mediterranean. At the entrance to the Black Sea are the
Dardanelles and it is here that Asia comes closest to the
continent of Europe. Not surprisingly, Anatolia has always been
the main link between the Orient and the Occident.

b. In Neolithic Anatolia (present day Turkey) the Great Goddess
was worshiped in the shrines of Catal Huyuk around 6500 BC.

c. Anatolia was invaded sometime before 2000 BC by the Indo-
Europeans and a group of them settled in a part of Anatolia known
as Hatti. The invaders and local people came to be known
collectively as the Hittites.

(1) These are the same Hittites who sacked Babylonia in 1600 BC
and suppressed the worship of Ishtar in favor of their god
Marduk.

d. Most of the references to the Goddess in the literature and
texts of Anatolia alluded to the older Hattian deities despite the
fact that the only records allowed to survive were written after
the conquest of Anatolia by the Indo-Europeans.

(1) One of the most important female deities to survive was the
Sun Goddess Arinna. After the conquest she was assigned a husband
who was symbolized as a storm god.

(a) At the time of the Hittite invasions of other lands, many
of the people who were Goddess-worshippers may have fled to
the west. The renowned temple of the Goddess in the city of
Ephesus was the target of the apostle Paul's zealous
missionary efforts (Acts 19:27). This temple remained active
until 380 AD.

4. Crete

a. The Aegean Sea is an area of the Mediterranean, lying between
the mainland of Greece and the western coast of Anatolia. The
Aegean Sea is dotted with a great number of mountainous islands
and the largest of these is Crete, which is just about 60 miles
southeast of Greece.

(1) Crete was the society that is most repeatedly thought to
have been matrilineal and possibly matriarchal from Neolithic
times to the Dorian invasion.

(a) Reverance of the double headed ax as a symbol of the
Mother Goddess and a reverence for the sexual vitality of
bulls were two notable aspects of Crete's early culture.

(b) Bull leaping is thought to have been the origin of
Spain's bullfighting, although in Crete the bull was never
harmed.

(2) After viewing the artifacts and murals at Knossos, the
Archaeological Museum at Iraklion and other museums in Crete,
there is little doubt that the principal sacred being on Crete
for several millenia was the Goddess and that women acted as Her
clergy.

5. Egypt (3100 to 30 BC)

a. Egypt is a hot, desert land divided by the fertile valley of
the Nile river. Hardly any rain falls there and the summers are
scorching hot. Even today, most of Egypt is arid desert.

(1) The Cultivation, a strip of land on each side of the Nile
river, is one of the most fertile stretches of land in the world.

(a) Although the Cultivation is only 12 1/2 miles wide, it
runs for about 620 miles from Aswan in the south to the broad
farmlands of the delta where the Nile empties into the
Mediterranean.

b. In prehistoric Egypt, the Goddess held sway in Upper Egypt (the
south) as Nekhebt and She was depicted in the form of a vulture.

(1) The people of Lower Egypt, including the northern delta
region, worshipped the Goddess as Ua Zit (Great Serpent) and
depictions of Her show Her as a cobra.

c. From about 3000 BC onward the Goddess was said to have existed
when nothing else had been created.

(1) She was known as Nut, Net, or Nit which was probably derived
from Nekhebt.

(a) According to Egyptian mythology, it was the Goddess who
first put Ra, the sun god, in the sky.

(b) Other texts of Egypt tell of the Goddess as Hathor in
this role as creatrix of existence, explaining that She took
form as a serpent at the time.

d. In Egypt the concept of the Goddess always remained vital.
Eventually the Goddess evolved into a more composite Goddess known
as Isis.

(1) Isis (Au Set) incorporated the aspects of both Ua Zit and
Hathor. Isis was also closely associated with the Goddess as
Nut, who was mythologically recorded as Her Mother; in paintings
Isis wears the wings of Nekhebt.

(a) Isis was also associated with another triad which
included Her husband, Osiris, and their son Horus.

(b) Isis' cult was introduced into Rome and the last temple
of Isis was closed in 394 AD by Theodosios.

6. Canaan (8000 - 63 BC)

a. The biblical land of Canaan, the 'land of milk and honey' was
an area about 90 miles wide running north and south along the
eastern coast of the Mediterranean.

(1) In modern times the region includes the states of Israel,
Jordan, Lebanon, and part of Syria. The area made up of Jordan
and Israel used to be known as Palestine.

b. Images of the Goddess, some dating back as far as 7000 BC,
offer silent testimony to the most ancient worship of the Queen of
Heaven in the land that is most often remembered today as the
homeland of Judaism and Christianity.

(1) In exploring the influence and importance of the worship of
the Goddess in Canaan in biblical times, we find that as
Ashtoreth, Asherah, Astarte, Attoret, Anath, or simply as Elat
or Baalat, she was the principal deity of such great Canaanite
cities as Tyre, Sidon, Ascalon, Beth Anath, Aphaca, Byblos, and
Ashtoreth Karnaim.

c. In Egypt, the Hebrews had known the worship of the Goddess as
Isis or Hathor. For four generations they had been living in a
land where women held a very high status and the matrilineal
descent system continued to function at most periods.

(1) Judging from the number of Hebrews who emerged from Egypt in
the Exodus, as compared with the family of the the twelve sons
who supposedly entered it four generations earlier, it seems
likely that a great number of those Hebrews known as Israelites
may actually have been Egyptians, Canaanites, Semitic nomads and
other Goddess-worshipping peoples who had joined together in
Egypt.

d. Archaeological records and artifacts reveal that the religion
of the Goddess still flourished in many of the cities of Canaan
even after the Hebrews invaded it and claimed it as their own on
the authority that their god had given it to them.

(1) And just to the east, all most at their doorstep was
Babylon, where the temples of Ishtar were still going strong.

7. Persia (3000 - 331 BC)

a. Throughout its early history Iran was often invaded by nomadic
peoples.

(1) Some came through the Elbruz mountains east of the Caspian
Sea.

(a) Others, like the Medes and Persians, entered Iran through
the Caucasus mountains in the Northwest.

b. By the 9th century BC the most powerful group in Iran was the
Medes, who kept the Persians as their servants.

(1) In 612 BC the Medes, together with the Babylonians, captured
Nineveh, Ashur, and Kalhu, which were in the heart of the
Assyrian empire.

(a) The Assyrian empire collapsed and its vast territories
were divided between the Medes and the Babylonians.

c. About 550 BC the king of the Persians led a revolt against the
Medes and from that point on the Persians, led by their King Cyrus
the Great, ruled over Iran.

(1) Cyrus captured Babylon and gained control of the whole
former Babylonian empire.

(a) Virtually all of western Asia was now under Persian rule.

(2) The nest two kings extended Persian rule to Egypt in the
south and to the borders of India in the east.

(a) Egypt revolted later and won its independence for a short
time, but was forced back into the empire just in time to be
part of the prize won by Alexander the Great of Macedonia
when he conquered the Persian empire in 331 BC.

II. PEOMAGOGIC HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSAL GODDESS RELIGION

A. Definition of Poemagogic

1. Term coined by Anton Ehrenzweig

a. The special function of inducing and symbolizing the ego's
creativity.

(1) It has a dreamlike 'slippery' quality.

(a) One aspect slips into another just like a dream.

B. Legend of the Universal Goddess

1. The craft is a religion which has an unbroken tradition that
dates back to Paleolithic times (approximately 35,000 years).

a. As the last ice age retreated the tribe of nomadic hunters
worshipped the Goddess of the Wild Things and Fertility and the
God of the Hunt.

(1) Semi-permanent homes were set up in caves carved out by the
glaciers.

(a) Shamans and Shamanka conducted rites within hard to
reach portions of the caves, which were painted with scenes
of the hunt, magical symbols and the tribes totem animals.

2. The transition from Hunter-Gatherers to agriculturists was
reflected in the change of the 'Lady of the Wild Things and
Fertility' to the 'Barley Mother' and the 'God of the Hunt' to the
'Lord of the Grain'.

a. The importance of the phases of the moon and the sun was
reflected in the rituals that evolved around sowing, reaping, and
letting out to pasture.

3. Villages grew into towns and cities and society changed from
tribal to communal to urban.

a. Paintings on the plastered walls of shrines depicted the
Goddess giving birth to the Divine Child - Her son, consort and
seed.

(1) The Divine Child was expected to take a special interest in
the city dwellers, just as His Mother and Father had taken an
interest in the people who lived away from the cities.

b. Mathematics, astronomy, poetry, music, medicine, and the
understanding of the workings of the human mind, developed side
by side with the lore of the deeper mysteries.

4. Far to the east, nomadic tribes devoted themselves to the arts
of war and conquest.

a. Wave after wave of invasion swept over Europe from the Bronze
Age onward.

(1) Warrior gods drove the Goddess' people out from the fertile
lowlands and the fine temples, into the hills and high
mountains, where they became known as the Sidhe, the Picts or
Pixies, and the Fair Folk or the Fairies.

b. The mythological cycle of Goddess and Consort, Mother and
Child, which had held sway for 30,000 years was changed to
conform to the values of the conquering patriarchies.

(1) In Canaan, Yahweh fought a bloody battle to ensure that his
followers had "no other gods before me."

(a) The Goddess was given a masculine name and assigned the
role of a false god.

(b) Along with the suppression of the Goddess, women lost
most of the rights they had previously enjoyed.

(2) In Greece, the Goddess in Her many aspects, was "married"
to the new gods resulting in the Olympic Pantheon.

(a) The Titans, who the Olympians displaced were more in
touch with the primal aspects of the Goddess.

(3) The victorious Celts in Gaul and the British Isles, adopted
many features of the Old Religion and incorporated them into
the Druidic Mysteries.

(a) The Faerie, breeding cattle in the stony hills and
living in turf-covered round huts preserved the Craft.

(b) They celebrated the eight feasts of the Wheel of the
Year with wild processions on horseback, singing and
chanting along the way and lighting ritual bonfires on the
mountaintops.

(c) It was said that the invaders often joined in the revels
and many rural families, along with some royalty, could
claim to have Faerie blood.

(d) The College of the Druids and the Poetic Colleges of
Ireland and Wales were said to have preserved many of the
old mysteries.

5. In the late 1400's the Catholic Church attempted to obliterate
its competitors, and the followers of the Old Religion were forced
to 'go underground.'

a. They broke up into small groups called Covens and, isolated
from each other, formed what would later be known as the Family
Traditions.

(1) Inevitably, parts of the Craft were forgotten or lost and
what survives today is fragmentary.

6. After nearly five centuries of persecution and terror, came the
Age of Disbelief.

a. Memory of the True Craft had faded as non-members who could
remember how they once had met openly died and those who came
after never knew of them.

(1) All that was left were the hideous stereotypes which were
ludicrous, laughable or just plain tragic.

7. With the repeal of the last Witchcraft Act in England in 1954,
the Craft started to re-emerge as an alternative to a world that
viewed the planet as a resource to be exploited.

III THE ARCHETYPE OF THE GODDESS

A. The Craft has always been a religion of poetry, not theology.

1. The myths, legends, and teachings are recognized as metaphors for
'That which cannot be told'; the absolute reality our minds can
never completely express because of the limitations placed on it
through biology.

a. The mysteries of the absolute can never be explained - only
felt or intuited.

b. Symbols and ritual acts are used to trigger unusual states of
awareness in which insights that go beyond words are revealed.

(1) When the phrase 'secrets that cannot be told' is used, it is
not a matter of oaths taken or the threat of penalties that
might be imposed.

(a) The true meaning is that the inner knowledge literally
cannot be expressed in words.

(b) It can only be conveyed by experience and no one can
legislate what insight another person may draw from any given
experience.

(c) This is why the Craft is not a spectator religion, where
you can refuse to put any effort in and gain anything
meaningful for your own development.

(d) This is also why entrenched priesthoods foster the belief
that non-priests must go through a hierarchy of priests,
heads of churches, and eventually through chosen prophets and
sons of the deity in order to receive special attention by
the deity.

B. The primary symbol for 'that which cannot be told' in the Craft is
the Mother Goddess. She has an infinite number of aspects and
thousands of names because She is the reality behind many metaphors
for the creation of the universe.

1. Unlike patriarchal systems, the Craft sees the Goddess as giving
birth to the world rather than creating it out of nothing.

a. The fertile Lands were made from Her Flesh, the Waters from Her
own bodily Fluids, the Mountains from Her Bones, and the Winds
from Her own Breath.

(1) The Goddess does not rule the world, She IS the world and
since She gave birth to us all, we have the potential to
reconnect with the spirit of Her in all Her magnificent
diversity.

(2) Religion for us, then is a matter of relinking with the
divine within and with Her outer manifestations in all the human
and natural world.

(a) One of the basic beliefs that the Craft is founded upon
is what Stewart Farrar call the 'Theory of Levels', which
recognizes that reality exists and operates on many planes.

(b) A simplified but generally accepted list would be -
physical, etherical, astral, mental and spiritual.

(c) It is recognized that each of these levels has its own
laws and that these laws, while special to their own levels,
are compatible with each other and their mutual resonance
governs the interaction between the levels.

(d) The point of this excursion into the esoterica of how the
universe works, is to point out that we do not separate our
physical existence from our spiritual existence. In the
Craft, spirit and flesh are joined together and physical
aspects of being human such as sex are not considered 'dirty
' or 'sinful'.

C. The importance of the Craft for women, is a direct outgrowth in the
decline of Goddess religions and the rise of God dominated religions.

1. Male images of divinity are characterized in both western and
eastern religions today, and women are thus deprived of religious
models and spiritual systems that can speak to female needs and
experience.

a. In the extremes of male dominated religions, women are not
encouraged to explore their own strengths and realizations.

(1) They are taught to submit to male authority, to identify
masculine perceptions as their spiritual ideals, to deny their
bodies and sexuality, and to fit their insights into a male
mold, no matter how ludicrus that may seem.

2. The image of the Goddess inspires women to see themselves in a
very different light.

a. As Daughters of the Goddess, they are divine, their bodies are
sacred, and the changing phases of their lives are holy.

(1) Their aggression is healthy, and their anger can be
purifying.

(a) Their power to create and nurture as well as their
ability to limit and to destroy, when necessary, is seen as
the very force that sustains all life.

(2) Through the Goddess, women can discover their strengths,
enlighten their minds, own their bodies and celebrate their
emotions.

(a) They can move beyond narrow constricting roles and
become whole people.

3. For women, the Goddess is the symbol of the inmost self and the
beneficent, nurturing, liberating power within all women.

a. The cosmos is modelled on the female body, which is sacred.

(1) All phases of life are sacred and age is a blessing, not a
curse.

(a) The Goddess does not limit women to their bodies. She
awakens their minds and spirits and emotions.

(b) Through Her, they can know the power of anger and
aggression, as well as the power of love.

D. The Image of the Goddess has a great deal to offer men as well as
women.

1. Men are also oppressed in a God ruled, patriarchal society.

a. Men are encouraged to identify with a model that no human being
can possibly live up to.

(1) Men are expected to be mini-rulers of their own very narrow
universes.

(a) Men are internally split between a spiritual self, that
is supposed to conquer their baser animal instincts, and
their emotional selves.

(b) They are at war with themselves. In the west, they are
expected to overcome the tendency to sin, while in the east
they must suppress the desires of the ego.

(c) Needless to say, no man comes away from this type of
struggle undamaged.

2. Every male who is raised by a mother, will from birth carry
within him a strong feminine imprint.

a. This is so, because women give birth to males, nurture them at
their breast, and in our culture, are primarily responsible for
their care until they reach adolescence.

(1) The symbol of the Goddess allows men to experience and
integrate the feminine side of their nature without danger of
losing those feelings which are the touchstone of their
masculinity.

(a) The Goddess becomes: the mother who will never abandon
her child: refuse to nurture him when he is feeling his most
vulnerable: tempers her justice with compassion and
understanding, all these in ways not always possible in human
women and other men.

3. For a man, the Goddess is his own hidden Female self, as well as
being the Universal Life force.

a. She embodies all the qualities society teaches him not to
recognize in himself.

(1) His first experience with Her may therefore be somewhat
stereotypical, in that She appears as the cosmic lover, the
gentle nurturer, the eternally desired Other, or the Muse. All
that he is not.

(a) As he becomes more whole and becomes aware of his own
'female' qualities, She seems to change, to show him a new
face. Always holding up a mirror, She shows what may seem
ungraspable to him.

(b) He may chase Her forever and She will elude him, but
through the attempt, he will grow until he too learns to find
Her within.

IV THE ARCHETYPE OF THE HORNED GOD

A. The Horned God is born of a Virgin Mother

1. He is a model of male power that is free from father-son rivalry
or 'Oedipal' conflicts.

a. He has no father, because He is his own father.

(1) As He grows and passes through the changes on the Wheel, He
remains in relationship with the prime nurturing force of the
Goddess.

(a) His power is drawn directly from the Goddess and He
participates in life through Her.

2. The Horned God represents powerful, positive male qualities that
derive from deeper sources than the stereotypical violence and
emotional crippling of men present in our society.

a. When a man strives to emulate the God, he is free to be wild
without being cruel, angry without being violent, sexual without
being coercive, spiritual without being unsexed, and able to truly
love.

3. For men the God is the image of inner power, and of a potency
that is more than merely sexual.

a. He is the undivided Self, in which mind is not split from the
body, nor spirit from flesh.

(1) United, both can function at the peak of creative and
emotional power.

b. Men are not subservient or relegated to second class spiritual
citizenship on the Craft.

(1) But neither are they automatically elevated to a higher
status than women, as they are in other religions.

(a) Men in the Craft must interact with strong, empowered
women who do not pretend to be anything less than what they
are.

(b) Many men find this prospect disconcerting at first.

4. For women raised in our present culture, the God begins as a
symbol of all those qualities that have been identified as male, and
that they, as women, have not been allowed or encouraged to own.

a. The symbol of the God, like that of the Goddess, is both
internal and external.

(1) Through meditation and ritual a woman invokes the God and
creates his image within herself.

(a) In this way she connects with those qualities that she
may lack.

(2) As her understanding moves beyond culturally imposed
limitations her image of the God changes and deepens.

(a) He becomes the Creation, which is not simply a replica of
oneself, but something different and of a different order.

(b) True Creation implies separation as the very act of birth
is a relinquishment or letting go.

(c) Through the God, women know this power within themselves,
and so, like the Goddess, the God can empower women.

5. In the Craft, the cosmos is no longer modeled on external male
control.

a. The hierarchy is dissolved and the heavenly chain of command is
broken.

(1) The "divinely revealed" texts are seen as poetry not the
"word of God."

(a) Instead, a man must connect with the Goddess who is
immanent in the world, in nature, in women, and in his own
feelings.

(b) She is immanent in everything that childhood religions
taught needed to be overcome, transcended, and conquered, in
order to be loved by 'God'.

b. The very aspects of the Craft that seem threatening also hold
out to men a new and vibrant spiritual possibility: that of
wholeness, connection, and freedom.

(1) Men of courage find relationships with strong powerful women
exhilarating and they welcome the chance to know the Female
within the self.

(a) They enjoy the chance to grow beyond their culturally
imposed limitations and become whole.

c. Within Covens, women and men can experience group support and
the affection of other women and men.

(1) They can interact in situations that are not competitive or
antagonistic.

(a) Men in Covens can become true friends with other men,
without giving up any part of themselves, or subjecting
themselves to derision or ridicule.

V. ETHICS AND VALUES SHARED BY MOST MEMBERS OF THE CRAFT

A. The ethics of the Craft are more positive than negative.

1. Rather than being exhorted with a plethora of "thou shall nots"
the Craft is guided by principles more along the lines of "blessed
be they who...."

a. The Craft is a joyous creed; it is also a socially and
ecologically responsible one. Witches delight in the world and
their involvement in it on all levels.

(1) They enjoy their minds, their psyches, their bodies, their
senses and sensitivities; and they delight in relating, on all
these planes, with their fellow creatures and the Earth Herself.

2. Wiccans believe in a joyful balance of all human functions.

a. This outlook is perfectly expressed in the Charge of the
Goddess, which is an integral part of most of the rituals of all
witches.

(1) "Let My worship be within the heart that rejoices; for
behold, all acts of love and pleasure are My rituals, and
therefore let there be beauty and strength, power and
compassion, honor and humility, mirth and reverence within you."

(a) This provides a model of a balanced ethic which presents
eight qualities that are positive and not restrictive.

(b) Compassion means empathy, not condescension; humility
means a realistic appraisal of your own stage of development;
reverence means a sense of wonder.

(c) The Wiccan is always conscious that compassion must be
partnered with power, humility with honor, and reverence with
mirth.

3. Love of life in all its forms, is the basic ethic of the Craft.

a. We are bound to honor and respect all living things and to
serve the Life Force.

(1) It has been said that we all serve the Goddess, even if only
as compost.

4. Witchcraft recognizes that life feeds on life.

a. We must kill in order to survive, but life is never taken
needlessly, never squandered or wasted.

(1) To ensure the survival of the species, females are not
hunted as game, for they share the sacred bond of motherhood
with the Goddess.

(a) Serving the Life Force also means working to preserve the
diversity of natural life, preventing the poisoning of the
environment and the destruction of species.

5. The World is seen as the manifestation of the Goddess

a. What happens in the World is important because the Goddess is
directly affected.

(1) While the seasons of the year renew the Goddess, She needs
the participation of Her creations to keep the cycle going.

(a) This is the real function of the Sabbats. They reinforce
the ties between humankind and the Planet that gives us life.

(b) Unlike other gods, that allow humanity to exist at their
sufferance, the Goddess needs us just as much as we need Her,
and we are partners in the pageant of Life.

6. Justice is seen as an inner sense that each act brings about
consequences that must be faced responsibly.

a. This is based on the belief that all things are interdependent
and interrelated.

(1) Therefore, we are all mutually responsible because an act
that harms anyone harms us all.

(a) This is summed up in the form of a law known as Karma,
which dictates that all actions bring about changes.

(2) There is a saying in the Craft that illustrates the effects
of Karma known as the 'Threefold Law of Return'

(a) 'Whatever is sent out is returned three times over.'

(b) It is a sort of amplified 'Golden Rule'

7. Honor is a guiding principle of the Craft.

a. It is an inner sense of pride and self respect

(1) Refusing to do anything which would make you ashamed of
yourself strengthens your magical will and leads to the self
respect that comes from setting your own course, guided by your
own inner sense of right or wrong.

(a) This makes you rightfully proud of past accomplishments
and encourages you to stay the course.

b. The Goddess is honored in oneself and in others.

(1) Women are respected and valued for all their human
qualities.

(a) The Self, one's individuality and unique way of being, is
highly valued.

(2) Like Nature, the Goddess loves diversity.

(a) Oneness is attained not through losing the Self, but
through realizing the Self's potential.

8. Self development and the full realizatin of one's unique yet many
aspected potential is a moral duty for a witch.

a. Life is seen as a gift from the Goddess and it is up to us to
push the evolution to mankin


(1) If suffering exists, it is not our task to reconcile
ourselves to it.

(a) We must work for change in all ways at hand.

b. That which helps this evolution to come about is seen as good
and desirable while actions that thwart it are to be avoided
because each of us is a factor in the cosmic evolutionary process.

END OF LESSON 1
---
þ Synchronet þ Rick's BBS telnet://ricksbbs.synchro.net:23

INTRODUCTION TO THE OLD RELIGION
LESSON 3A


D. Prominent features of a Mystery Religion

1. A Mystery Religion was a religion of symbolism

a. Through the use of myth and allegory, iconic representations,
blazing lights and dense darkness, liturgies and sacramental acts, as
well as suggestion, the intuitions of the heart of the initiate were
quickened until s/he was provoked into a mystical experience.

(1) This experience led to a feeling of regeneration, which
was the object of every initiation.

2. A Mystery Religion was a religion of Redemption.

a. It professed to remove the estrangement between man and God,
to procure forgiveness of sins, and to furnish mediation.

(1) Means of purification and the formulae of access to the
God, and acclamations of confidence and victory were part of the
apparatus of every Mystery.

3. The Mystery Religions were systems of Gnosis.

a. The Mysteries brought men into contact with that God "who
wishes to be known and is known to his own."

(1) They offered an esoteric equipment by which the initiate
might ward off the attacks of demons, thwart the menace of Fate, and
after death reach the abodes of the blessed mysteries.

(a) There was something, whether doctrine, symbol, or
divine drama, which could not be imparted except by initiation to
those duly qualified to receive it, a supernatural revelation which
gave the recipient a new outlook on life, the world and the deity, and
security that was denied to the uninitiated.

(b) The 'mystery' consisted of an objective presentation of
the history of the cult Deity, in his or her struggles, sorrows, and
triumphs, repeated subjectively by the initiate in sacramental acts,
together with prayers and liturgic formulae.

4. A Mystery Religion was a Sacramental Drama.

a. The Sacramental Drama appealing primarily to the emotions,
aimed at producing psychic and mystic effects. Thus the neophyte
experienced the exaltation of a new life.

5. The mysteries were eschatological religions, having to do with
the interests and issues of life and death.

a. For the multitudes, it was the mysteries which illuminated
the hereafter.

6. A mystery religion was a personal religion, to which membership
was open, not by accident of birth into any particular class, but by a religious rebirth.

7. A mystery religion, as a personal religion, presents another
side, which is the necessary compliment of an individualistic
religion; that is, it takes on the character of a cosmic religion.

a. The ancients lived in a world in which the primitive
association of man's life with the earth and plant and animal life was axiomatic, in which the Universe itself was a rational living being,
in which man by his good deeds might be elevated on the path of the
divine.

II. A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE MAJOR MYSTERY RELIGIONS

A. Fundamental Force Behind Development

1. Once, there was no purely 'native' or 'hermetic' tradition;
only a universal response by the Firstborn to the Earth-lore and the
Star-magic of their shamanic priests.

a. Later, as the single religious impulse of the Foretime split
into separate cults, these two approaches, which we may think of as
earthly (or chthonic) and stellar, grew further apart, until the
beginnings of the Hermetic traditions were seeded in Egypt and the
Hellenic world, while in Europe the Native traditions remained more or
less grounded in the magic of the earth.

(1) This is not to say that Greece and Egypt did not have
their own native traditions, or that development of religion and magic
in the Celtic West was so primitive and slow that it required cross- fertilization with other sources to pull it into subtle realms of
experience.

B. The Major Mystery Religions.

1. It has often been said the the Egyptian mysteries are the true foundation upon which the Western Hermetic systems are built.

a. This is due in part to the early identification of the
Egyptian God Thoth, scribe and guardian of mysteries, with Hermes
Trimegistos, the supposed founder of Western occult practice.

(1) Egypt had many mysteries, none more important that those
of Isis.

(a) Her name is said to mean 'throne', 'wisdom', or
'savior', though she possessed many other titles which testify to the universality of her cult.

(2) The deepest mysteries of Isis, and her consort- brother
Osiris, the God of the Sun, revolve around his death at the hands of
his brother Set, who cut Osiris' body into 14 parts and scattered them
through the world.

(a) Isis undertook a terrible journey, suffering great
hardship, seeking out the broken body of her lord and reassembling the
parts.

[1] She found and reassembled all but one part, the
phallus, which was thrown into the Nile and consumed by a fish.

b. Despite this, such was the creative power of Isis that she
was able to conceive by means of an artificial phallus, and bore the
child Horus who avenged his father by killing Set.

(1) This is an archetypical mystery-telling, introducing
themes found later in the teachings of the Hellenistic schools and in
the work of modern esoteric orders.

(a) It prefigures the death and rising of many gods and
show forth the power of the Creative Principle.

(b) It also establishes Isis as Queen of Heaven, more
powerful in the eyes of many than even the great god Ra himself, whose representative upon earth was the Pharaoh.

3. In Mithraism, which descended from the Persian Mysteries,
Mithra stands as a mediator between light and dark, a position adopted
by his followers.

a. In humanity, the battle for the soul is fought out in the
territory of the flesh. Mithra, entering there, keeps all in balance.

(1) Mithraism was the Freemasonry of the Roman world.

(a) Like the other cults of Oriental origin, it moved with
the vast commerce in human beings that was such a notable feature of
the ancient world.

(b) The cult of Mithra is one that traveled well, from
Syria to Scotland.

(c) The Mithraic community was all men: women gravitated
to the parallel cult of Cybele or the exclusively female one of Bona
Dea.

(d) The congregations were small; no surviving Mithraeum
could house more than a hundred, but of course bigger lodges may have
formed, and dissolved, at army camps, because Mithraism was extremely
popular among the Roman Legions.

(e) There were no social barriers, so that slaves and
privates could become high initiates. The ceremonies were solemnly
enacted and the initiations were quite awe-inspiring.

b. Mithra was born on the 25th of December, called the "Birthday
of the Unconquered Sun."

(1) This date was not taken over by the Christians for the
birth of their Savior until the 4th century BCE.

c. Some said that Mithra sprang from the union of sun god and
his own mother.

(1) Some claimed his mother to be a mortal virgin.

(a) Others said Mithra had no mother, but was miraculously
born of a female Rock, the petra genetrix, fertilized by the Heavenly
Father's phallic lightning.

2. In the many histories of the ancient world, only one figure is
described as being of greater importance than Hermes. This is the
Persian mage Zoroaster, who may actually have lived around 1000 BCE.,
or even earlier, but who clearly did not predate the foundation of the
Egyptian mysteries from which he drew heavily for his own system.

a. It is from the Persian mysteries that we derive the dualistic
spectre which has haunted esoteric philosophy and teaching ever since.

(1) In the Zoroastrian pantheon these opposing forces are
Ormuzd and Ahriman, who derive ultimately from Ahura Mazda, the divine principle.

(a) Known as the Holy Immortals, or Amesha Spentas, they
correspond to the levels of creation, clearly foreshadowing the
teaching of later mystery schools such as those of Orpheus and Mithra.

(b) Against the Spentas are arrayed the Devas, the
companions of the Evil One, who are seen as ruling over the earth.

[1] The position of Persian dualism is confused by a
Zoroastrian heresy called Zurvanism, which is often mistaken for
mainstream Zoroastrianism.

[a] In Zoroastrianism proper, Ahura Mazda is supremely
god: his Spentas are not on the same footing.

[b] In Zurvanism, however, Ahura Mazda is made into a
lesser creator or demiurge, hence the cosmic struggle of good against
evil which takes place in the world of matter.

(2) In Zoroastrian teaching, a savior or saoshyant was to be
born, who would combat evil and bring the struggle to an end once and
for all, thus betokening the Frasokereti, the making perfect at the
end of time.

(a) In this we see an echo of the Egyptian mysteries, and a prefiguring of the gnostic position, as well as the appearance of a
third figure which becomes a requirement of all dualistic thinking
sooner or later. This third figure who will balance out the struggle
is a Messiah.

(b) Mithra's birth was witnessed by shepherd and Magi, who
brought gifts to his sacred birth-cave of the Rock.

d. Mithra performed the usual assortment of miracles - raising
the dead, healing the sick, making the blind to see and the lame to
walk, casting out devils.

(1) As a 'Peter', son of petra, he carried the keys of the
kingdom of heaven.

e. His triumph and ascension to heaven were celebrated at the
spring equinox, when the sun rises toward its apogee.

(1) Before returning to heaven, Mithra celebrated a Last
Supper with his 12 disciples, who represented the signs of the zodiac.

(a) In memory of this, his worshippers partook of a
sacramental bread marked with a cross.

[1] This was one of the seven Mithraic sacraments. It
was called mizd, in latin-missa, in english- mass.

(2) Mithra's image was buried in a rock tomb, the same sacred
cave that represented his Mothers' womb.

(a) His image was later withdrawn from the cave and was
said to live again.

f. What began in water would end in fire, according to Mithraic
beliefs.

(1) The great battle between the forces of light and darkness
in the Last Days would destroy the earth with its upheavals and
burnings.

(a) Virtuous ones who followed the teachings of the
Mithraic priesthood would join the spirits of light and be saved.

(b) Sinful ones who followed other teachings would be cast
into hell with Ahriman and the fallen angels.

g. Mithra's cave-temple on the Vatican Hill was seized by the
Christians in 376 CE.

(1) Christian Bishops of Rome pre-empted the Mithraic high
priest's title of Pater Patrum, which became Papa, or Pope.

4. While the Mithraic mysteries succeeded those of Zoroaster, they
followed those of Dionysus, through which the core of Hellenic mystery
teaching found its way into the Western Mystery Tradition.

a. Two streams of consciousness are discerable within the
Classical mysteries, which might be called Dionysian and Apollonian.

(1) The Apollonian mysteries related to reason, to the heavens
and to order; this is in contradistinction to the chaotic mysteries of Dionysus.

(a) The priests of Apollo were more interested in wresting
the political power away from the earlier Goddess worshipping peoples
who held sway as the Oracle at Delphi, and so their mysteries were not
so widely spread because they were tied to a specific location and
shrine.

(2) The Mysteries of Dionysus were those of the sacrificial
king: they pertain to the underworld side of things, the chthonic and
ecstatic cult of maenads and bacchantes.

(a) Of all the mystery Gods, it is Dionysus whose character
has become most firmly fixed in the collective imagination. His
worship spells orgies and drunkenness; he personifies the irrational
and uncontrolable urges of mankind and beasts; he drives to frenzy
the maenads and the poets.

[1] The myth of Dionysus' origins tells that he was
first born from the union of Zeus with Persephone.

[a] Zeus designated this 'Zagreus' as his heir, but
the jealous Titans lured him away while he was yet a child, killed,
dismembered him and devoured all the pieces except for the heart,
which Athena rescued and preserved.

[b] Zeus, in anger, reduced the Titans to ashes, from
which the new race of humanity was fashioned. Thus each person
contains a fragment of Dionysus within their 'Titanic' earthly body.

[c] From the heart of the god was brewed a love-
potion, which was given to Semele, a mortal, who then forced her
lover -Zeus again- into revealing himself to her in his primal form.
This unveiling was so overwhelming as to annihilate her, but the child
she was carrying was saved by Zeus enclosing it in his loins until
the time came for its birth as the second Dionysus.

[2] The young god grew up in Thrace, suckled by goats and
raised by satyrs and sileni. When he reached maturity, he descended
through the Alcyonian Lake to rescue the shade of his mother Semele
from Hades and then raised her to Olympus.

[a] Afterward, accompanied by a motley train of semi-
human beings, maenads and panthers, he set off on wanderings
throughout the world, from Libya to Arabia to India and thus back to
his homeland.

[3] Everywhere he went he brought humanity knowledge of agriculture, arts and crafts, and most especially the cultivation of
the vine and wine-making.

[a] On the Isle of Naxos he discovered the Cretan
Princess Ariadne, abandoned there by Theseus, and joined with her as
her husband. Together they ascended to the heavens, whence he offers a
similar blissful reward to his devotees, temporarily in this life and permanently after death.

5. There had been an initiatic institution in Greece at Eleusis at
least since the 8th century BCE, with both Greater and Lesser
Mysteries.

a. The function of all lesser mysteries, and equally of the
lower grades of initiation was to impart information on the nature of
higher worlds.

(1) The Eleusinian symbolism of corn, pomegranites and poppies
refers to the unseen forces which affect humanity via the vegetable
kingdom, building the body and informing the mind.

(a) The intuitive grasp of this relationship, in all its
wonder and complexity, was summarized in the famous climax od the
Mystery, so disappointing to non-initiates, the displaying of an ear
of wheat.

(2) Certain information was also given at Eleusis by word of
mouth, including the 'password to the Paradise of Demeter' to be used
after death.

(a) In the Lesser Mysteries of other gods, it is suggested
that the fact of heliocentricity was revealed.

[1] Jewish esotericism includes the teaching of
reincarnation.

[a] So Lesser Mysteries give the initiates theoretical knowledge which changes their whole view of humanity and the cosmos,
and stands them in better stead when they have to leave this world for
the unknown.

b. The Mysteries of Demeter were celebrated every five years at
Eleusis.

(1) The candidate of the Lesser Mysteries underwent a symbolic
journey in which the quest of Demeter for her lost daughter Persephone
in Hades was reenacted with the would-be candidate in the role of
Demeter.

(a) The journey within was that of the darkened soul: the
candidate passed through a door into total darkness: if they survived
the experiences met within they passed through a second door into
brilliant light - symbolizing rebirth into the heavenly sphere. Here
they actually meet the gods, experiencing Demeter's journey as their
own recovery of lost enlightenment.

c. The function of the Greater Mysteries of Eleusis was to bring
about direct contact with the beings who inhabit the higher worlds.

(1) The higher grades of initiation were conducted
individually rather than collectively as in the Lesser Mysteries.

(a) The Initiation of Isis were given to those selected by
the Goddess through having had significant dreams, whether they were
laity, priests or priestesses.

(b) In the inner truth of the Eleusinian mysteries, the
birth of the soul into matter is seen as death; only through
participation in the mysteries can the initiate rise to a timeless
reality where he is utterly free and alive.

[1] The soul sleeps in the body for most of the time,
awakening only when it has been transformed by ritual and the use of
an initiatory drink.

[a] To die without this experience is to sleep
forever or to wander houseless in the caverns of Hades.

(2) The primary objective in these initiations was to take
the candidate through the gates of death.

(a) As in shamanic, Masonic, and other later initiations,
the candidate was placed in a trance, the consciousness taken out of
the body, and in this state to experience higher states of being and
meet some of the denizens of the invisible worlds.

[1] Through direct experience the candidates would
learn that they could live freely without their physical bodies, and
that the gods they worshipped were perfectly real.

[a] Then they would return to earth fully convinced
of their own immortality and prepared to meet death fearlessly,
knowing it is the gate to freedom and the soul's true home.

6. As a descendant of Dionysus, Orpheus is the intellectual image
of a demi-god, raised to deity by his sufferings in the underworld: a
perfect symbol for all who follow the paths of the mysteries.

a. The movement from the cult of Dionysus and Apollo to Orphism,
marks a change from a more primitive religious response towards an ethically-based philosophy and mysticism which included belief in the transmigration of souls, reincarnation and the final assumption into
godhead.

(1) Orpheus has the lyre and the gift of music from Apollo,
yet ends like Dionysus, torn apart by Thracian bacchantes.

(a) The shamanic practices of the Native Tradition
overlapping the priestly function of the mystery school.

[1] The suffering of Orpheus, who loses Euridice
(through fear, the first pitfall of all mystery knowledge) and is then dismembered by the Maenads, is a paradigm of the suffering and rebirth
of the sleeping soul.

b. The Orphic mysteries are complex in the extreme.

(1) The most important aspect of the Orphic Mysteries was that
humanity and the gods are related.

(a) At a most subtle and sensitive level a blurring of the
edges occurs, an overlapping of human consciousness and divine
awareness.

[1] "Everything that lives is Holy" becomes a reality in
the interaction of the divine and the mundane.

(2) The hierarchy of spiritual creation is supremely complex,
but the gods are like a ladder, a system of related possibilities, the potentiality of which is seeded within the whole of creation.

(a) We are all related, not just in a familial sense but
also to everything else: earth and water, sky and stone; not only
because all of creation is made up of different combinations of
molecules, but because we are all a part of the divine hierarchy.

[1] This is the true meaning of the mystery teaching
concerning the divine spark; the god like potential of humanity is far
better expressed by this means.

[a] The divine fragment is that part of us which is
always seeking reunion, a reassembly of separated parts into the whole
from which they were created; a return to the paradisial state.

c. The Orphic school was, above all, syncretic.

(1) Orpheus is credited with the dissemination of the
mysteries, with passing on rather than inventing much that became the
basis of subsequent Greco-Roman theosophy.

(a) Pythagoras followed many of the Orphic teachings and
made Orpheus the central deity of his own esoteric system,
establishing a canon of Orphic Hyms.

(2) Between the Orphic mysteries and their partial revival in
the Rennaisance, there is a long gap not only in time but in
understanding.

III CHRISTIANITY VIEWED AS A MYSTERY RELIGION

A. The Foundation of Christianity

1. Most people think of Christianity as if it were a single
specific thing, a coherent, homogeneous, and unified entity.

a. Christianity is nothing of the sort.

(1) There are numerous forms of Christianity

(a) Roman Catholic

(b) Russian Orthodox

(c) Greek Orthodox

(d) Church of England (Anglican), formed by King Henry the VIII

(e) Various other forms of Protestantism

[1] From the original Lutheranism and Calvinism of the
16th century to such relatively recent developments as Unitarianism.

(f) There are multitudinous "fringe" or "evangelical"
congregations.

[1] Such as the Seventh Day Adventists, the Jehovah's
Witnesses and the Assembly of God.

(g) And there are assorted contemporary sects and cults.

[1] Like the Children of God and the Unification Church
of Reverend Moon.

b. If one surveys this bewildering spectrum of beliefs - from
the rigidly dogmatic and conservative to the radical and ecstatic- it
is difficult to determine what exactly constitutes Christianity.

2. If there is a single factor that does permit one to speak of Christianity, a single factor that does link the otherwise diverse and divergent Christian creeds, it is the New Testament and more
particularly the unique status ascribed by the New Testament to Jesus,
his Crucifixion and Resurrection.

a. Even if one does not subscribe to the literal or historical
truth of those events, acceptance of their symbolic significance
generally suffices for one to be considered a christian.

3. If there is any unity then, in the diffuse phenomenon called Christianity, it resides in the New Testament - and more specifically,
in the accounts of Jesus known as the four Gospels.

a. These accounts are popularly regarded as the most
authoritative on record.

(1) And for many Christians they are assumed to be both
coherent and unimpeachable.

b. From childhood one is led to believe that the story of Jesus,
as it is preserved in the Four Gospels, is if not God-inspired, at
least definitive.

(1) The Four Evangelists, supposed authors of the Gospels, are
deemed to be unimpeachable witnesses who consistantly reinforce and
confirm each other's testimony.

c. Of the people who today call themselves Christians,
relatively few are aware of the fact that the four Gospels not only
contradict each other in more than one way, but at times they
violently disagree.

B. The Origin and Birth of Jesus

1. So far as popular tradition is concerned, the origin and birth
of Jesus are well enough known.

a. In reality, the Gospels, on which that tradition is based,
are considerably more vague on the matter.

(1) Only two of the Gospels - Matthew and Luke - say anything
at all about Jesus' origins and birth; and they are flagrantly at odds
with each other.

(a) According to Matthew, Jesus was an aristocrat, if not a
rightful and legitimate king - descended from David via Solomon.

(b) According to Luke, on the other hand, Jesus' family,
though descended from the house of David, was of somewhat less exalted
stock.

(c) And it is on the basis of Mark's account that the
legend of the "poor carpenter" came into being.

(2) In short, the two genealogies are so strikingly discordant
that they might well be referring to quite different individuals.

2. The discrepencies between the Gospels are not confined to the
question of Jesus' ancestry and genealogy.

a. According to Luke, Jesus, on his birth, was visited by
shepherds.

(1) But according to Matthew, he was visited by kings, the
Magi.

b. According to Luke, Jesus' family lived in Nazareth.

(1) From here they are said to have journeyed, for a census
(that history suggests never in fact occurred) to Bethlehem, where
Jesus was born in the poverty of a manger.

c. But according to Matthew, his family had been fairly well to
do residents of Bethlehem all along, and Jesus himself was born in a
house.

(1) In Matthew's version Herod's persecution of the innocents
prompts the family to flee into Egypt, and only on their return do
they make their home in Nazareth.

3. The information in each of these accounts is quite specific and
- assuming the census did occur - perfectly plausible.

a. And yet, the information itself simply does not agree. The contradiction cannot be rationalized.

(1) There is no possible means whereby the two conflicting
narratives can both be correct, and there is no means whereby they can
be reconciled.

(a) Whether one cares to admit it or not, the fact must be recognized that one or both of the Gospels are wrong.

[1] In the face of so glaring and inevitable a
conclusion, the Gospels cannot be regarded as unimpunable.

[a] How can they be unimpunable- when they are
inconsistent with each other?

4. The more one studies the Gospels, the more the contradictions
between them become apparent.

a. They can not even agree on which day the Crucifixion took
place.

(1) According to John, the Crucifixion occurred on the day
before the Passover.

(a) Whereas, Mark, Luke, and Matthew insist that it
occurred on the day after.

b. Nor are the Gospels in accord on the personality and
character of Jesus.

(1) Each depicts a figure who is patently at odds with the
figure depicted by the others.

(a) A meek, lamblike Savior in Luke.

(b) A powerful and majestic sovereign in Matthew who comes
"not to bring peace but a sword."

c. There is further disagreement about Jesus' last words on the
cross.

(1) In Matthew and Mark the words are, "My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me?"

(2) In Luke, the words are-"Father, into they hands I commend
my spirit."


(3) And in John they are simply "It is finished."

5. With these discrepancies, they can only be accepted as highly questionable, and certainly not as definitive.

a. They do not represent the perfect word of ANY God; or if they
do, God's words have been VERY liberally edited, censored, revised,
glossed and rewritten by human hands.

C. Jesus and the Essenes

1. As we have seen, the Judaic religion was still a tribal
religion offering little chance for individual salvation during a time
when people were looking for some assurance that they mattered beyond
which tribe, or city or province they came from.

a. Mystery religions were well established in the east and
making inroads into Rome herself.

(1) In addition to the Pharisees and Sadducees who were vying
for control of Jerusalem at the time of Jesus' life, there was a sect
of ascetics known as the Essenes.

(a) It has been said that the Essenes were the founders of
a Mystery religion based along the lines of the sun worshipping
Persian anchorites, who in turn evolved their system from Jain yogis
professing to work miracles by living apart from the world and
practicing extreme self denial.

[1] From historians and chroniclers writing at the time,
it is known that the Essenes maintained communities throughout the
Holy Land.

[a] A large colony of Essenes occupied the Qumran
community from 110 BCE to the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE, with a
significant period of vacancy during the reign of Herod, 31 BCE - 4
CE.

2. Jesus, John the Baptist, and Simon Magus are said to have been
trained in Essenic communities.

a. Jesus' parents, Joseph and Mary, are also said to belong to
the Essenic movement and Jesus may have received his rabbinical
training in their schools.

(1) John the Baptist is thought by some to have been an
'advance man' to prepare the way for Jesus to fulfill the old
prophecies of being the Messiah.

(a) But there is abundant evidence that Jesus not only knew
what the prophecies were concerning the Messiah, but went to great
lengths to plan for and carry out the prophecies.

3. The Essenic hierarchy included a chief priest called the
Christos (Annointed One), "head of the entire Congre- gation of
Israel."

a. There were ordinary priests called the "sons of Aaron", and
another functionary known as the Messiah of Israel.

(1) The Messiah of Israel was also called Teacher of
Righteousness.

(a) He suffered physical abuse in atonement for the sins of
the entire community, enduring "vindictive sentences of scourging and
the terrors of painful sicknesses, and vengeance on his fleshly body."


D. A Radical View

1. The following is a scenario of what the historical Jesus might
have been all about based on looking at the Gospels without the
trappings added after Christianity was transported to Rome and changed
to bring it into alignment with competing religions.

EDITORS NOTE: THESE ARE CONJECTURE BY THE AUTHOR, NOT A
STATEMENT OF KNOWN FACT BUT BASED ON THE FACTS KNOWN AND THE HISTORY
OF THE TIMES AND OTHER RELIGIONS.

a. Included in this scenario, but of little importance to our
discussion, is that Jesus may have been married and have living
descendants to this day. Remember that Rabbis had always been allowed
to marry.

(1) Jesus was a priest-king, an aristocrat and legitimate
claimant to the throne of Palestine, who embarked on an attempt to
regain his rightful heritage.

(a) He was believed to be a native of Galilee, which was a traditional hotbed of opposition to the Romans.

(2) He had numerous noble, rich and influential supporters
throughout Palestine, including the capital city of Jerusalem.

(a) One of these supporters, a powerful member of the
Sanhedrin, may also have been his kin.

(3) In the Jerusalem suburb of Bethany was possibly the home
of either his wife or his wife's family; and here on the eve of his
triumphal entry into the capital, the aspiring priest-king resided.

(a) Here he established the center for his mystery cult.

(b) Here he augmented his following by performing ritual initiations, including that of his brother-in-law.

[1] A mystery initiation being the meaning behind the
'miracle' of raising Lazarus from the dead.

(4) Such an aspiring priest-king would have generated powerful opposition in certain quarters.

(a) Amongst the Roman administration,

(b) And perhaps amongst the entrenched Judaic interests
represented by the Sadducees.

[1] One or both of these interests apparently contrived
to thwart his bid for the throne.

[a] But in their attempt to exterminate him they were
not as successful as they had hoped to be.

(5) The priest-king had friends in high places.

(a) These friends, working in collusion with a corrupt,
easily bribed Roman procurator, appear to have engineered a mock
crucifixion, on private grounds, and thus inaccessible to all but a
select few.

[1] With the general populace kept at a convenient
distance, an execution was then staged.

[a] In which a substitute took the priest-king's
place on the cross or in which the priest-king did not actually die.

[2] Toward dusk, further impeded visibility, the 'body'
was removed to an opportunely adjacent tomb.

[a] From which, a day or two later, it 'miraculously' disappeared.

2. If Jesus was a legitimate claimant to the throne, it is
probable that he was supported, at least initially, by a relatively
small percentage of the populace.

a. His immediate family from Galilee, certain members of his own aristocratic social class, and a few strategically placed
representatives in Judaea and the capital city of Jerusalem.

(1) Such a following, albeit distinguished, would hardly have
been sufficient to ensure the realization of his objectives or the
success of his bid for the throne.

(a) In consequence, he would have to recruit a more
substantial following from other classes.

[1] Jesus promulgated a message that attempted to do
just that.

[a] A message to offer hope to the downtrodden, the
afflicted, the disenfranchised, the oppressed.

[b] It was a message with a promise.

[2] There is no evidence that he promulgated this
message with cynicism, for he truly acted as though he took his role
as priest to the people of Israel as seriously as he did his role as heir-apparent.

[3] His message was ethical and political.

[a] It was directed toward a particular segment of
the population in accordance with political considerations.

b. Jesus' message, as it appears in the Gospels, is neither new
nor wholly unique.

(1) But if the message, as such, was not entirely original,
the means of transmitting it probably was.

(a) Jesus himself was undoubtedly an immensely charismatic individual.

[1] He may well have had an aptitude for healing and
other such 'miracles.'

[a] He most certainly possessed a gift for
communicating his ideas by means of evocative and vivid parables.

[b] Which did not require any sophisticated training
for his audience, and made them accessible, in some sense, to the
populace at large.

c. Moreover, unlike his Essene teachers, Jesus was not obliged
to confine himself to forecasting the advent of a Messiah.

(1) He could claim to be that Messiah.

(a) And this, quite naturally, imparted greater authority
and credibility to his words.

3. It is clear that by the time of his triumphal entry into
Jerusalem, Jesus had recruited a following.

a. But this following seems to have been composed of two quite
distinct elements; whose interests were not precisely the same.

(1) On the one hand, there seemed to be a small nucleus of
"initiates" - immediate family, other members of the nobility, wealthy
and influential supporters.

(a) Whose primary objective was to see their candidate
installed on the throne.

(2) On the other hand, there seems to have been a much larger
entourage of 'common people' - the rank and file.

(a) Whose primary objective was to see this message, and
the promise it contained, fulfilled.

b. It is important to recognize the distinction between these
two factions.

(1) Their political objective - to establish Jesus on the
throne - would have been the same.

(a) But their motivations were very different.

E. Christianity after Jesus

1. When the bid to put Jesus on the throne of Palestine failed,
the uneasy alliance between the two factions fell apart.

a. The strength of the message that Jesus had used to gain his
following had captured the hearts and minds of the followers who were
not "insiders" and they fought to keep the hope alive.

(1) Little is said of the followers who backed Jesus in the
hopes of garnering power from having helped their friend to the throne
but it may well be imagined that they continued to fight for
independence from Rome and many may well have perished at Masada.

(a) The first major crisis for the early christians was
whether they could afford to be associated with the Jewish peoples,
who were becoming increasingly rebellious toward Rome.

[1] It was clear that Rome would have to take action
against the rebels.

[a] Against this backdrop the early christians needed
to decide whether it was necessary to first be a Jew before becoming a christian.

<1> Saint Paul, always adept at reading the
writing on the wall, decided it was not. It was also Paul who decided
that the best place to take the new religion was the heart of the
empire where there were many oppressed and downtrodden gentiles who,
very possibly would be receptive to the message of hope.

2. The new religion was oriented primarily toward a Roman or
Romanized audience.

a. Thus the role of Rome in Jesus' death was of course
whitewashed, and guilt was transferred to the Jews.

(1) But this was not the only liberty taken with events to
render them palatable to the Roman world.

(a) For the Roman world was accustomed to deifying its
rulers, and Caesar had already been officially instated as a god.

[1] In order to compete, Jesus, whom nobody had
previously deemed divine, had to be deified as well.

[a] In Paul's hands, he was.

3. Before the message could be successfully disseminated from
Palestine to Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, Egypt, Rome and western
Europe, the new religion had to be made acceptable to the people of
those regions.

a. And it had to be capable of holding its own against already established creeds.

b. The new god needed to be comparable in power, majesty, and in
his repertoire of miracles, to those he was intending to displace.

(1) If Jesus were to gain a foothold in the Romanized world of
his time, he had to become a full-fledged god.

(a) Not a Messiah in the old sense of the term, not a
priest-king, but God Incarnate.

[1] Who, like his Syrian, Phoenician, Egyptian, and
classical counterparts, passed through the underworld and the
harrowing of Hell, and emerged rejuvenated, with the spring.

[a] It was at this point that the idea of the
Resurrection first assumed such critical importance, and for a fairly
obvious reason, to place Jesus on a par with Tammuz, Adonis, Attis,
Osiris, and all the other dying and resurrected gods who populated
both the world and the consciousness of their time.

(b) For precisely this reason the doctrine of the virgin
birth was promulgated.

(c) And the Easter festival, the festival of death and
resurrection, was made to coincide with the spring rites of other
contemporary cults and mystery schools.

4. Given the need to disseminate a god myth, the actual corporeal
family of the 'god' and the political and dynastic elements in his
history would become superfluous.

a. Fettered as they were to a specific time and place, they
would have detracted from his claim to universality.

(1) Thus, to further the claim of universality all political
and dynastic elements were rigorously excised from Jesus' biography.

(a) Also all references to Zealots, for example, and
Essenes, were also discreetly removed.

b. Such references would have been embarrassing.

(1) It would not have appeared seemly for a god to be involved
in a political and dynastic conspiracy. Especially one that failed.

5. In the end nothing was left but what was contained in the
Gospels.

a. An account of mythic simplicity, occurring only incidentally
in the Roman occupied Palestine of the first century, and primarily in
the eternal present of all myth.


END OF LESSON 3



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